White Clouds and Black Skies

"Aeyup, three of 'em." Steel Wing said to the room, as he dropped to all four hooves from the binocular stand. Three Steel Rangers were approaching on the road, heading north. They weren't uncommon, and also weren't known for their kindness or generosity. As usual Steel Wing planned to hunker down until they passed; no need for them to come in here and decide that he didn't need his technology anymore.He trotted to the back of the room casting a glance at the bed for a moment before laying down in front of the custom built floor terminal.

As he began typing he heard, "... And that's the news. This has been DJ PON-3, bringing you the truth, no matter how bad it hurts! I'll be back in a few, for now I'll leave you with the sweet sounds of Sweetie Belle."

He grumbled in protest as he rose back up and went to the ground level to turn off the radio. It wouldn't have done any good staying quiet when the "master of the airwaves" was blasting music right below him.

The first floor of the house was in worse condition than the upper area, mainly because of the various pieces of scrapped equipment coupled with the dirt and grease from repairs and maintenance.

Steelwing squeezed his head between his fore-hooves trying to focus on the situation; all it did was bring temporary relief to his headache. He could now hear the heavy hoof falls of the Steel Rangers, he could tell they weren't more than thirty yards away he just shrugged and went to his amazingly durable fridge and recovered a sparkle-cola. He held it between his hooves, and watched it for a moment; cool not cold, but close enough. He stretched his left wing out and put the cap between the gaps in his flight feathers. Wincing a bit as it extended fully before pulling back slightly. With a familiar *pop* the cap fell to the floor leaving him with the refreshing carroty flavor that flowed, refreshingly, down his throat.

He could now see the Steel Ranger trio as they passed by the front of his home. He trotted up to a switch by the door and pressed it three times, each making a light clicking sound. He turned his head and read quietly, "Three-oh-three, fantastic." With a sigh he started back up to the loft as the rangers hoof steps faded away from his hearing.

He went back to the binocular stand and scanned the nearby plains. Plains is a very generous term, seeing as it was nothing but dry shrubs and the occasional dust storm. Barren like the rest of Equestria, but full of often more intelligent raiders. Some of the smarter survivors of the Balefire Apocalypse, who didn't get into a stable in time, started heading south towards water. Having the magic to purge salt and toxins from the sea water made them very important to those outside. When the first of the stables opened in the south they were greeted by several well established communities who had functioning water lines all the way from the coast to the furthest town. The smarter ponies realized the opportunity for power over these naive stable-ponies. Inviting them into their communities in exchange for access to their stables resources. It was good for a time until one of the non-stable ponies became overmare of one of the stables. At that point things started changing rapidly. The used-to-be stable ponies became little more than resources or slaves; being forced to secure territories against outside attacks.

In two centuries the only thing that changed is the dramatic decline in the intelligence of the stable ponies descendants into the more common raiders throughout the Equestrian Wasteland. The founders descendants remained in charge and became the leaders of one of the largest organized forces in Equestria to date. Supposedly falling behind Red Eye's Army somewhere out by Manehatten, There may have been others of greater size but not as well publicized by Dj-Pon3. The whole thing made the area a deathtrap for unwary travelers.

Speaking of unwary travelers there was seemingly one coming down the road. The hint of purposeful movment to his left was more than enough to snap him out of his daze. He swiveled the binoculars and spotted a mare with a dark green coat and blue mane coming down the road. She was headed south likely towards Mexicolt City.

Steel Wing did a mental checklist of what qualified her as an unwary traveler: Alone: Check Unarmed: Check Unarmored: Also Check. She was wearing some light padded barding and had two rigged looking saddlebags; both with magnetic locks. A courier, even better!, he thought to himself, Absolutely no way of being targeted walking around like that. He sighed and shook his head. As soon as she was out of his sight she wasn't his problem. But of course movement from the west directly across from his position caught his attention.

He counted, "... three, four, and five. Five raiders, and naturally they spotted her. Damn just damn." Most of the raiders had well sharpened spears or smaller melee weapons. There was one with a fire arm and from the looks of it, it would fall apart in a few shots. He grumbled as he climbed the ladder to the roof.

"HEY!" he shouted to the mare who stopped and looked towards where he was standing. Got her attention, step one complete. He grinned a little which caused the mare to take a few steps backwards. "No no I'm not here to hurt you. He raised a hoof towards the west the mare followed to where a cloud of dust headed by galloping ponies was headed right towards her.

They were now into a full sprint as they neared. The mare panicked and fled towards the mostly intact house the shouting pegasus stood upon. When she was within the shadow of the house she looked back up and stood in awe of the sight. The pegasus spread his metal clad wings and reared as hole appeared in the cloud cover at exactly the dramatically appropriate moment; causing a brilliant shine that made the stampeding raiders slow their charge to peer at this new thing.

The pegasus grunted in pain flexing his wings before leaping of the top of the house going into a rapidly descending dive propelled by the weight of his body. He did not flap his wings he merely glided directly towards the group of awe struck raiders. Before one of them shouted to the others, "Fucking kill him!"

This was enough to snap the others back into the real world just as the speeding pegasus reached the first of them. He slammed into the first raider with all the momentum that carried him from the roof, one of his hooves punching a hole in his chest a breaking more than a few vital pony components. His momentum made him keep going his hoof stuck in the raiders chest causing the two of them to go tumbling into the others. Steel Wing recovered quickly enough to recover his hoof flinging him towards his next target using his wings to slow him just enough that his hindlegs connected with the raiders head forcing his entire front body into the ground and his rear into the air. Steel Wing put his forelegs onto the raiders back and kept his position as the raider's head was ground to a pulp, finally bringing Steel Wing's momentum to an end. He however was far from through.

He heard the feral scream of another raider charging him from behind, Steel Wing turned slightly to see his opponent and bucked behind him hard causing the raiders face to flatten as he slid to a halt. "Two more to go I think." he stated as he turned to face the last two. A unicorn spear pony and the earth pony with the horribly maintained rifle he had seen before.

The two turned to each other then the rifle pony nodded towards their opponent the unicorn dropped into a fighting stance and warily approached the pegasus assassin. The rifle pony meanwhile got out his gun and took aim. As the spear pony cautiously crept towards the pegasus spear levitating in it's magic. The pegasus didn't move, a smarter pony would have worried; this raider unfortunately was strung out on dash and wouldn't have had the brain to sense a problem sober. Now they were no more than a yard apart, at long last the pegasus moved slightly, then stared into the eyes of his opponent. The raider suddenly thrust the spear towards his enemy rearing up as it flew placing a hoof on the blunt end and driving it faster.

Steel Wing saw this and moved as a sudden adrenaline spiked through his body. He was admittedly a little impressed that the raider hadn't forgotten it was a unicorn. Even more so that he saw the raiders muscles tense readying himself for his next strike even before his first was finished. He dodged the first blow easily as he watched the raiders eye's looking down towards his foreleg's. He dodged his next strike; this continued telegraphed attack after telegraphed attack.

Meanwhile the raider with the gun was trying to aim into the melee, with all the movement he had a hard time lining up a shot that wouldn't hit his friend. He scowled at the though of him being a friend. He was a son of a mule and didn't deserve anything more than a bullet to the head. A wicked grin spread across the raiders muzzle as his rationale suddenly made shooting much easier. He began firing at the brawling pair; losing his accuracy after losing the ability to care who he hit, he simply stopped aiming.

Gun fire rang out and caused Steel Wing to take "cover" trying to keep his dueling partner between him and the direction the sounds came from. Bullets started pinging off the ground near the two most dangerously close to hitting the raider.

"You know," Steel Wing said, "you aren't bad at all you must have practiced your quick assault tactics many times to keep this up."

"Yeah so what?" The raider still hadn't noticed the bullets landing near him.

"So, you practiced your assault. I'm guessing you never practiced any defensive drills." Steel Wing stopped dodging and waited for the next spear thrust; deflecting it hard causing the unicorn to temporarily lose it's grip on the spear. More than enough for Steel Wing. He caught the spear in his mouth grimacing at the taste before thrusting it to the right of the raider while moving his whole body left. The effect was the raider dodging to the left stopping suddenly when he saw that the pegasus had dashed and come to a stop at his right. The pegasus spat the shaft of the spear out and watched the raider as realizations started coming to him: there were gunshots they had stopped; the spear hadn't dropped to the ground yet, it was taking an awful long time; the raider finally took note of the pain in his chest. He looked down and saw that two-fifths of the spear had disappeared inside his body. The raider sat down on his haunches and looked back towards his last living companion, blooding starting to drip from his muzzle. The impaled raider collapsed in a coughing sputtering fit as blood pooled around him.

Once the raider had fallen Steel Wing had moved on spitting the taste of muck out of his mouth as he walked the last raider, who tried to run but stumbled and fell over. The rifle had jammed and lie discarded Silver Wing nudged it with a hoof as he passed.

The raider started pleading with the pegasus, "P-please, don't kill me I-I-- What do you want I can get it for you. Please I don't want to die." Fear and shattered pride were clear in the raiders voice having been reduced to begging and bargaining for his life.

Steel Wing stopped in front of the raider pity replacing his usual impassive mask. He looked deep into the raider bucks eye's he could see himself. He could see that his expression was giving this miserable creature hope for survival. Steel Wing scowled for a moment before returning to his impassive stare. Walking around the now confused raider.

"W-w-wait! You're letting me go?" The pegasus was just past the raiders left when he asked the question. His wings flexed for a moment and he shook himself.

"Forgive me, but I can't have you run off and give away the location of my home."

The raider's eyes widened as he scrambled to get back on his hooves. Steel Wing turned in place as the raider rose and trotted towards him and turned violently to the left leaving the raider standing there fear frozen on his face forever. His head departed from his body as Steel Wing moved his wing to let the gore slide off the plated appendage.

He trotted back to where an dumbstruck and terrified mare sat in the shadow of his home. He stopped and sat in front of her as he carefully closed his wings gritting his teeth as the joints moved into their resting position.

"Steel Wing." He said casually offering a hoof.

"Autumn Heart." the mare replied distantly, still looking out at the bodies of five dead raiders taken down in the span of three minutes.

"Would you like to come inside for a while?" Steel Wing asked, hoping in a small way she'd say she had somewhere important to be. She simply nodded and followed while he reluctantly led her inside.

Footnote: Level Up!
Steel Wing- Level 6
New Perk- Redemption Awaits: You may not realize it but the way you are living is wrong. Some part of you knows this and is readying itself to act with or without your cooperation.
New Perk- Shock and Awe (Rank 2): You're getting better at your entrances. Ponies you catch off guard have a reduced chance to hit you with weapons; while unarmed ponies will more than likely just flee. Surprised animals will never flee.

Autumn Heart - Level 4
New Perk- Long Haul: You're carrying capacity is increased by 50 lbs. In addition you can still run even while over encumbered; even a gallop isn't out of the question but you will exhaust yourself very quickly.
New Perk - Healing Hooves (Rank 1): While tending to critically injured creatures your touch soothes their worries and allows them to ignore pain from injuries keep going without magical healing. Any healing you administer magical or otherwise gives an increase to the patients DT and Health Equal to 4 additional points of Endurance. This bonus lasts for 24 hours after treatment.

Thanks go to Kkat for providing a very inspirational world that I will do my best not to screw up.
Another thanks to all those who have come before with their own Fallout Equestria side stories. If it weren't for the hours I spent reading I would never have tried to write to any kind of audience.

Chapter 2: Taking Flight on Leaden Wings

Heroism and Villainy are just two sides of the same coin.

Autumn Heart sat still somewhat shocked by the events outside. Not so much that she couldn't recognize the condition of the room she was in. The floor was covered in a layer of dust to the point that hoof prints were easily visible and spread throughout the room. It smelled thickly of grease and rust. As well as a horribly conflicting light sweet scent.

At length Autumn Heart found her voice and approached the bottom of the ladder that her rescuer had climbed up. She called up "Thank you for protecting me!" She waited for a response as she heard steps coming towards the top of the ladder.

The pegasus, Steel Wing, looked down at her scrutinizing her very existence for a short moment before saying, "It's what I'm here to do, now are you alright?"

Fatigue was evident on his face now exhaustion from battle but days without proper sleep. "I- ah yes! I am fine thank you," She looked down and muttered "again."

He let out a long sigh and shouted, "Look out below!" Her eyes shot up in time to see him falling right towards her she leaped across the room and heard a loud thud as his weight hit the floor. Steel Wing was grinning ear to ear he looked towards the startled mare, "Sorry it isn't often I'm above somepony that I can jump towards without leathal force. I should know better than to do that to a delivery mare." There was a hint of criticism in his voice while he began forming questions about how ill equiped she was.

Autumn Heart waved a hoof dismissively "It's alright, I probably had it coming for not seeing those raiders sooner."

Steel Wing took in a breath as his grin slowly faded, replaced with a polite smile. Having a honest to goodness house guest for the first time in over a year would be enough to put anypony in a good mood. Steel Wing was no exception. She returned his smile cautiously as he finally dropped his "iron pony" mask

He looked around the workshop room more purposefully than before. His eyes settled back on the near pristine mare sitting amid the mess. Steel Wing suddenly felt a little embarrassed at the condition of this room.

"Sorry," he said taking a few steps back, which caused Autumn to flinch as she recalled the end of the last raider. His eyes went wide as he realized what she was thinking, "Nonono that isn't what I mean!" He smiled trying to assure her of her safety. "I meant sorry for-" He lost himself for a moment and came right back "mess yeah It's bad down here." He motioned towards the ladder, "It's nice up there."

He rubbed his mane and watched as she cautiously walked half way to the ladder. When he didn't not move she let out breath that had been intended for her dying scream. She trotted over to the ladder and began to climb.

Steel Wing waited at the bottom for her to get up. He looked up and got a clear view of her hindquarters. He quickly averted his gaze, staring instead at a single piece of dust eyes wide in shock. Did I really just get embarrassed by looking at a mares flank? Celestia strike me with the sun has it been that long? He chanced another glance upwards and saw her tail disappear to the floor above. He grumbled to himself as he started up after her.

Autumn Heart scanned the room, it was a vast improvement over the first floor. It was also his general living area, consequently it smelled of stallion. Still it was relatively clean and the window allowed a nice breeze into the room.

She turned around and lept back in alarm. A sleek black carapace armored mannequin sat in the corner. A suit of Enclave power armor stinger raised as if preparing to strike. She relaxed when it didn't move and noticed it was missing several sections; namely the plates for the forelegs. Shaking off the surprise she set her saddle bags down in a corner.

A few moments later Steel Wing poked his head up and found Autumn looking out the window. It wasn't until he started walking towards her that she became aware of his presence. He joined her in watching the evening light casting the world into shadows, taking in a deep breath and letting it out as he relaxed.

At length she broke the silence asking, "So this is where you live?"

He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Realizing the binocular stand was between them he leaned out the window to make sure she could see him. "Yes, that is a correct statement."

"What I mean is you patrol these roads of your own free will?" Leaning out the window to look at him.

He shrugged, "No, I sit here and watch this section part of the road." There was no enthusiasm in his voice.

"You sit and wait for ponies to be attacked?" She said anger quickly rising in her tone.

"This is intersection is as good a place as any," he said as he made a sweeping motion along the highway. "See that?" he said pointing to what was once a town road. "That road goes north and south. In both directions are some of the largest raider strongholds in the Wasteland. The organized ones that is."

She nodded quietly waiting for him to continue, "Raiders just follow that road down: wait for weak targets to come strolling along, I kill the raiders, ponies go on living."

She leaned out the window and fixed him with a cold stare, "You sit here and use ponies as bait so you can kill raiders; What happens when you can't be troubled to look a little farther down the road? What about the raiders that are out of sight."

"When some unlucky son of a mule is unlucky enough to be targeted by raiders, and just lucky enough to be where I can see him, great for him then." He said in an even tone.

"So you just pretend that their aren't ponies dying everywhere else you aren't watching? You don't actually care about ponies you care about your own bloodlust!" She was visibly shaking.

He simply smirked at her but his eyes suddenly went wide. He quickly turned his head away from her, I- I'm not that am I? I help ponies don't I? No I am that, I've stopped caring...

Now it was her turn to watch him start shivering, she stepped back as she watched his wings start to unfold.

He suddenly turned on her, teethe bared tears streaming down his face. His wings quickly flared out causing him to howl with pain. Unleashing a feral scream he charged, past her tackling the armored mannequin. Once he was on top of it he reared up and brought his hooves down on it with all his considerable weight. Coming down on it repeatedly causing dents all over. Picking it up and throwing it across the room he chased it and continued his assault over and over. The whole thing lasted less than a minute, but in that time he could have fought most of a war with the speed he had.

When it was over he stood in the center of his damaged and battered room, casting his still furious gaze around the room he spotted the horrified Autumn Heart. She was completely untouched, even in his rage his was as focused as ever.

The horror in her eyes made the anger his body was radiating begin to ebb away.

"Sorry." he said looking down as his body grew cold.

Autumn doing her best not to let her voice crack said, "No no I'm alright." Raising a hoof shaking it dismissively as if she weren't afraid for her life, "If you want me to leave I can head to a town not far from here." Shakily she stood up to get her bags realizing to late that she hadn't put her hoof back down. She fell flat on her face.

Steel Wing looked at her as a wide grin crossed his muzzle. He started giggling, which quickly escalating into a laugh, eventually throwing his head back and releasing something akin to a mad cackle.

Coming back down he apologized, "Sorry, I'd forgotten what really laughing was like." There was sorrow still etched on his face, but Autumn from her point of view could tell he had calmed down.

He slowly trotted over to his bed and flopped down in exhaustion.

Instead of leaving Autumn began cleaning up the damaged room as best she could. Anything that was shattered or otherwise damaged beyond repair was all put into a pile.

He watched her in amazement before picking himself up and joining her.

The two worked in silence for a long while avoiding looking at each other until Autumn Heart couldn't help but ask, "What made you do that?"

Steel Wing continued to work in silence pretending to not have heard her. She waited a while and was about to resume clean up until he spoke, "You-" He stopped and looked at her. "What you said, it made me realize that I'd lost something. I was scared that the wasteland had consumed me without me ever knowing I had lost."

He looked up at her with a pained expression. She could see part of him wanted her to say she had been wrong but it was too late for that. "I don't know when I stopped caring, I do know that I can't continue like this. It just isn't right."

At this point they had finished cleaning; Steel Wing found his way back to the window and was watching beams of moonlight dance through the clouds.

"You used to care, but you stopped." She asked not wanting the conversation to end where he'd left it.

"Yes." He didn't look at her, but saw her leaning out the window quietly pleading with him to continue.

With a sigh he obliged, "After I came down here and got situated, I began to look around and I saw ponies killing ponies. I was in a state of disbelief at the hatred that some ponies had for each other."

"Why do I feel like you aren't talking about raiders necessarily?" She asked as if she were interviewing him.

"Perceptive of you. No I'm not talking about the raiders." His voice near growling with disdain. "I can't call raiders ponies at all. They gave up any part of what makes a pony a pony long long ago. I'm talking about anypony who has it better than the rest; instead of helping everypony they can they instead take as much advantage of them as possible."

Steel Wing leaned out to look at her to see that she wasn't yet satisfied with the conversation. "They turn anypony without enough money into little more than slaves. Making them lie down so that their families can stay under the hoof of their masters from here to eternity."

Steel Wing could now feel the tears beginning to well up in his eyes; this time it was a welcome feeling, it told him he was starting to be able to care again. "I tried every which way I could to help them all get along, without killing them of course. My goal always stayed the same to get ponies to stop killing other ponies, the wasteland is full of enough things that do that already."

He checked again to make sure she was still with him, she gently nodded for him to continue. "It didn't take long to realize that the only way to stop it all was a bullet to the heads of several ponies. I couldn't, so I left heading north up this highway."

Tears began to flow freely as he traveled down that road in his mind. Steel Wing made no attempt to hide it as he pushed through, "I remember the day of the wasteland's first victory over me: Two Steel Rangers were holding a colt of no more than 10 at gun-point because he had a PipBuck. It had come from several generations of father to son in his family and he refused to be taken in to have it removed..." Steel Wing took in several deep breaths interrupted by silent sobs. "So- so they held him down and I watched. I just watched in horror as they removed the foreleg to take the PipBuck with them. That was when I knew that there were in fact ponies that needed to die, there were ponies that had it in mind to make the wasteland a worse place."

He kept breathing deliberately as he felt a weight being lifted from his chest. It felt nice, that and it made him feel exponentially better.

Autumn Heart didn't notice he was watching her as her attention was divided between listening to him and trying to determine exactly what his cutie mark was in the shadows. Now that he had stopped talking her attention shifted fully to his cutie mark as well as his whole body. There was something intimidating about him even at rest, but she never had identified it between their conversations. He was enormous, compared to most ponies that is. In fact looking at him reminded her of the worn depictions of the Godesses standing among a crowd of average ponies. He was significantly more than half their size, but his wings were at least as big and looked to be slightly disproportional to the rest of his body.

Her attention eventually shifted back to his cutie mark which was three light grey streaks with red lines across them. Set against a sea of white dots.

The cutie mark shifted from view for a moment and she craned her neck to see it again. Her face reddened when she realized he had seen her and was staring directly at her.

"Can't tell what it is can you?" He said with a smirk.

She shook away her embarrassment and replied, "No not really."

Steel Wing sighed as he got up and walked over to a remarkably intact lamp by the bed. Flicking it on he turned so his flank was illuminated.

What she saw disturbed her some, and confused her deeply. The grey streaks were metallic feathers splashed with blood surrounded by dozens of stars.

"A cutie mark is supposed to be related to a pony's special talent, right?" she nearly pleaded, "What could that possibly mean."

He knew the question was coming as soon as she started up the ladder he just hadn't wanted to answer it.

He began with a sigh, "I was a blankflank up into my military career, very very sad I know. I never thought of myself as special and never really tried at it after I was ten." He looked at her to see that she was yet again his captive as he continued. "How it happened was: On an assignment to some outlying farms that had reported being attacked by very hostile griffons. So the night I was patrolling the area I saw them in the shadows of a crescent moon. I hadn't been given any instructions on what to do if confrontation was necessary. The nearest assistance was thirty minutes away, if they were a team from shadow bolt tower." He added with a bitter tone.

He checked to see she hadn't fallen asleep one more time, "They hadn't seen me and I knew they wouldn't thanks to my armor. So when I had the opportunity I dropped down on one knocking it below the clouds. I won't get into the details of the fight; it came down to a standoff between me and the last griffon. The beam weapons of my armor were all damaged the stinger of my armor had been removed. I did the only thing I could think of I flew off into the night sky leaving the griffon to tend to her wounds. I still remember the last words to leave her beak before my wing tore a jagged gash through her body. She said something like 'Some big damn mutant pegasus.' At that I radioed for assistance and promptly passed out."

He paused for a moment trying to find the words to express the next part."When I woke up in medical, just there it was. During my recovery rumors got tossed around and a number of ponies started trying to decide on a nickname for me. The top on the list were: Blood Bath, Red Wing, and Ultra Mega Badass the Griffon Slayer." He chuckled and shook his head, "At the time I went with Red Wing not bothering to ask why I couldn't just use my real name."

"So you got your cutie mark because you ended a griffon with your torn up wing? That doesn't exactly add up." She said not bothering to hide the skepticism in her voice.

"You know how when you got your cutie mark, it seemed so obvious that you were good at doing eh... whatever it is you're good at doing." He shrugged as she rolled her eyes. "Well that night it became so obvious to me my wings were as much a part of me as my hooves; if I could use my hooves to beat someponies face in then I could use my wings for more than flying. Since then my wings have been just as valuable in combat as any beam weapon I've ever used." With that he raised his wings proudly. His face for once not betraying the pain he felt as pride swelled in his chest; shoving out a heavy weight that he had been holding for such a long time.

Autumn took a minute to process all she had learned of this statuesque pony. He carried a great sorrow with him it was clear in his gait, his voice, his eyes even; in his eyes though there was something there like a single campfire obscured by the mists of the Everfree Forest. A spark of something that had before been extinguished there for a long while.

"Hungry?" Steel Wing asked, since she seemed intent on setting him on fire with her gaze. He was just a little worried she could too. "I've got some food in the fridge."

"YOU HAVE A WORKING FRIDGE!?" she shouted suddenly jumping up excitedly.

Steel Wing instinctively dropped into a combat stance correcting himself quickly before the now mare sized filly realized he had almost attacked her.

Clearing his throat loudly he said, "Yeah! It keeps stuff cool isn't that awesome!?" The thick sarcasm quickly achieved its desired effect as she remembered she was older than three and stopped bouncing.

"Hungry or no?" he asked again.

"Hungry." she said shaking off the embarrassment. "I was excited because I had some things I needed to cool in my packs."

He looked at the packs in the corner. "Those are enchanted aren't they?" he asked flatly, "Let me guess: Stable-Tec built in inventory sorter?"

"Yes and," she replied in a snarky tone, "It also has a thermal regulation talisman." Walking over to the corner she picked up one of the packs in her mouth and took it to the top of the ladder, looking down with some concern.

Steel Wing walked over and offered his back. She smiled and nodded gratefully, placing the alarmingly heavy pack on his shoulders. His knees almost buckled under the unexpected weight.

"Celestia's glorious gold piss! What are you moving? Lead bricks." He steadied himself and got back to standing properly. He looked down at the lower floor with a bit of worry; what once was as easy as jumping and landing on the first floor now also offered a chance for unneeded pain.

"Interesting." she said in a plaintive tone hiding the laughter in her head, "I never actually pictured the Princess Celestia urinating liquid gold."

She looked him over in mild confusion, "Can't you just fly down, out the window and through the door?"

The normally lithe pegasus body turned to stone, his muscles tensed as he became a statue of himself preparing for war. Then his entire self, sagged, that dim spark in his eyes yet again swallowed by the dark despair that dominated his soul. He almost appeared to deflate as whatever life had been breathed into him was suddenly forced out.

He walked forward and dropped down to the first floor with a loud thud and a grunt. Dropping the pack by the fridge he picked up some Enclave: Neighpalm in a Can, stopped by the door pressing counter-button six times and headed out to incinerate the bodies.

Autumn Heart watched from the window as he unceremoniously stripped the raiders of their equipment and piled them together. He opened the can and through it on the pile of bodies. An inferno burst into life as most of the raiders body were consumed, quickly burning down to a small fire. The metal clad pegasus curled up by the pony corpse fire and fell without complaint into his nightmares.

"It was something I said." Autumn confessed to the room removing herself from the window. She walked over to his bed and started pulling away it's blanket. As she turned she saw something that caught her attention. There were three pictures on the bed.

She looked at them inspecting the first: A much younger Steel Wing kissing a filly of about the same age. She was blushing heavily and giggling. As she looked more closely she noticed both ponies looked fairly similar. Her mane however stood out in stark contrast to his pure snow white with a green stripe. They each wore a half-pendant that completed the other. She turned to photo over and read the back 'The beginning of better days.'

The second made Autumn blush almost as badly as the filly in it: The same filly from before was laying legs splayed, tongue hanging out, and eyes rolled up. Clearly in the throes of sexual ecstasy. She turned it over quickly and read the note on the back. It was in different hoofwriting and said, "I am giving you this one, but I'm keeping the rest."

She put the second aside and moved onto the third that had an instant sobering affect: The picture taken in the hall of a hospital. An older Steel Wing and the same filly. The both were wrapped in the embrace of an older mare, all three with tears in their eyes. He was in a military uniform and the filly was in a blood stained surgeons coat. She slowly turned it over and read the back in the same hoofwriting as the second 'Dad may be gone but you still have your sister and mother here for you. You know where I am if you need me.'

Autumn sat there for a moment as pieces fell into place. Brother and sister? Autumn suddenly backpedaled away from the bed. She had just stepped way over any line of privacy, behind her host's back no less. Nopony was meant to see these and she was no exception.

She quickly gathered the photos and hid them tucked them under a pillow. She took the blanket trying to shake off the heat she felt from her face. Autumn took the blanket out to the sleeping mass of despair that was her very gracious and trusting host and covered him.

Trotting back slowly she placed a few things into the fridge stopping momentarily to inhale the armor of baked apples.

Back up in the loft she opted to gather a pile of rags to sleep on instead of ever approaching that bed again. With or without him there it was clear it wasn't a place she belonged.

Footnote: New Perk Added!

Steel Wing: LvL 7

New Perk- Breaking Emotional Dams: Things in you are changing for the better. Every time you meet a friendly or caring pony your faith in the worth of ponies is slightly restored, giving you the strength to keep fighting for them. For every pony that you meet your DT increases by 1 point. This bonus cannot exceed 5 points in any given week.

Obligatory Praise to Kkat.
Thanks to those with well established fics who inspired me to actually write to an audience.
If you haven't read the original Fallout Equestria, you have made a grevious error in judgment coming here.

Chapter 3: No Words

Steel Wing looked at the remains of charred pony skeletons through half lidded eyes. He let out a hacking cough as he snorted to clear his noes of dust. His stomach turned when he detected a hint of something charcoal flavored on his tongue. As he attempted to stand up he found that he was bound. He readied himself for a fight and unfolded his wings tearing through his bonds. Jumping to his hooves quickly trying to fix his fierce gaze on the first of his foes. He looked around and found only tattered bits of cloth. The remains of a once nice blanket hung in shreds off his body.

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Staring at the door of his house Steel Wing found himself reluctant to enter not wanting to clean up whatever remained of the mess he had made. His foreleg rose to open the door when he stopped. Sniffing at the air he smelled burning, he snorted again to make sure he wasn't smelling the fire from last night. When he was sure it wasn't his imagination he put his ear to the door and what sounded like muffled sobs coming from the other side.

Oh sweet Goddesses she's still here? Of course she was, she probably wanted an apology after last night. Somehow that made sense to him; he may not have hurt her but he had certainly scared her. He lowered his hoof and tried to make sense of why she would stay after being scared like that.

Closing his eyes hard he pushed the door open and started in to his home, making it half way before planting his rump firmly on the floor. He stared around the room wide eyed and slack jawed. The first floor was clean, at the very least cleaner than it had been in months. Most of the grime had been swept away and all the parts that weren't rusted were organized in piles on various work benches. A barrel stood in the middle of the room burning whatever wood had been smashed to pieces last night. A grate had been set over it and had food cooking on top.

The "sobs" he gathered were actually Autumn slowly humming as she went about her work. She looked up as he entered a smile spread across her face. Steel Wing was no less suspicious of her motives.

She trotted up to him with the warmest of smiles, but before she could get too close Steel Wing stopped her with a hoof on her chest.

As he opened his mouth to speak she interrupted "There were enough 'sorry's' last night. I'm not mad and I hope you've already forgiven yourself. Breakfast." She said pointing at the grate that had a number of grilled vegetables getting slightly crispy.

She lowered her hoof indicating she was finished, he mimicked this removing his from her chest. She went back to her work while he set the pieces of a sentence together between many confused thoughts.

"Why did you do this?" Steel Wing said settling on the one question that came to mind more than others.

"Someone needed to and you were in too much of a slump to do it yourself?" She said around a mouthful of duster.

"Thank you." He replied trotting over and retrieving several pieces of grilled vegetable. He sat down next to a mostly cleared bench and began eating. She came over to join him soon after with her own helping.

He chewed thoughtfully looking at her before he realized he had no idea where these had come from. He had never stored vegetables in his fridge and these tasted very fresh.

He swallowed slowly with a 'there's something wrong here' look in his eye.

"Whur?" she asked with a mouthful of carrots. Raising a hoof to cover her mouth she said, "Somfin' wrong?"

"Where'd you get these?" He asked without missing a beat.

Autumn swallowed what she had in her mouth before replying. "It's my allowance from the delivery I'm making. I'd planned on eating it this morning anyways, just didn't know I'd be eating it here."

"So you were making a high-value delivery of fresh foods along a highway unarmed?" Steel Wing responded with a raised eyebrow

Autumn Heart already had another mouthful of food could only give a nod and an "Mmmhm."

"Well thanks for sharing." He said with a half hearted smile.

"It's not like I'm not cautious of raiders." She protested, "I was just told that there were decent number of patrols along this highway."

He gave a nod of understanding, "You don't start seeing real patrols until you're within a day of Mexicolt City." Pausing for a moment he followed up with, "Where are you headed anyways?"

"A bit east of Mexicolt City."

"Eh heh..." Steel Wing was trying to remember what could be east of Mexicolt City besides small villages. Nothing came to mind so he let it go.

They finished their breakfast in silence and Autumn Heart finished her job downstairs. Meanwhile Steel Wing had resumed his duties by his window fixated on the scorched earth were blackened bone still remained.

Wheels turned over and over in his head while he watched clouds of dust run along the dry fields before dispersing. It was clear that he couldn’t stay here; this wasn’t protecting ponies, this was baiting raiders. A sigh escaped his lips. A sigh of relief instead of grudging distress, he noted, with a light chuckle.

“Are you alright up there?” Came a call from the ladder.

Steel Wing had already busied himself with packing all the medical supplies and pieces of equipment he wanted to travel with. He responded with a grunt loud enough that she could hear, without him having to walk to the ladder.

Autumn Heart for her part had finished cleaning and was now curious what Steel Wing had himself occupied with. By the time she made it to the top she found him frantically searching the area around the bed.

Pulling herself up the rest of the way she squeaked, “Check under the pillows.” Steel Wing cast a suspicious glance in the Mare’s direction before moving the pillows aside.

Autumn Heart could tell the space between them had become a whole new type of awkward as he looked at her with a confused expression. Feeling she was as she was in as deep as she would get on this subject she decided to ask, “Who was she?”

While he was screaming five hundred different curses at the snoopy mare in his head he replied calmly with, “Who?”

“The filly, the one in the pictures.” Autumn Heart felt the heat from her checks and her ears folded back as she offered a sheepish smile.

Steel Wing tapped the floor a few times with a hoof before answering, “My sister Snow. You saw all of them then?”

“Yes, I did.” Every second that passed dropped Autumn into a new level of low she didn’t think possible.

“You have questions you want to ask right?” He said in an oddly cheery tone.

Autumn Heart met his gaze and saw forgiveness in his eyes. “I do. Do you want me to ask though?”

“No, but it’ll come up at some point so it may as well be now.” He said flatly.

“You two were-well… right?” Something prevented her from saying it outright but Steel Wing got the idea.

“Yes we did even into my military career. She joked at some point that she would end up being my cutie mark.” He looked back towards the pictures on the bed as he recalled every night they spent together. He smiled softly, “There wasn’t any filly I could have loved more than her. We grew up knowing each other so well. At some point we realized there was more to learn about one another so we…” Now it was his turn to fail at finding sufficient way of avoiding directly saying what they both knew.

“What happened to her then, shouldn’t she have come with you?” At this his expression deadened instantly reverted as his thoughts came back to the current conversation.

“Nothing has happened to her since I’ve kept my promise and a certain pegasus damn well better have kept his.”

Changing the subject with the grace of an elephant doing a backflip he said, “I’m coming with you, at least to Mexicolt City. I need to get back to actually helping ponies; now that I have less hang ups on having to kill a few ponies here and there, if it means I can really help others I’ll do what I can.”

Autumn Heart had a worried expression at the way he said that, but she was fairly sure he meant well.

“Wait you’re coming with me?” She asked his words having just sunk in.

“You are horribly ill prepared to make this trip by yourself. That and Mexicolt City is as good a place as any to start.”

She simply nodded and retrieved her last saddlebag from the corner. Again coming to a halt at the top of the ladder; Autumn heart felt her stomach tie itself into a knot, with the memories of last night still fresh in her mind.

“Can I try asking again?” She asked he throat having suddenly gone dry.

“The same as last night?” When she nodded he took a deep breath, “As long as I don’t fly I can sleep knowing my sister is safe.” He said as cryptically as possible.

With that he picked up her saddlebag and dropped down; with a heavy thud and a grunt followed by chuckling, he set it down by the door.

“So,” He called up to her while picking through lockers of refurbished weapons, “I’ve answered all of your questions, but I know next to nothing about you. How dark and full of despair has your life been?”

“It’s been alright.” She said nonchalantly

He stopped for a moment expecting more to come when it didn’t he picked up the pace. “Alright then, what are you delivering? I feel like I should know what I’m going to be protecting.”

Autumn’s eye twitched and she kicked herself realizing she should have seen it coming. “Lots of foods: vegetables, baked goods, beverages, what have you…”

He hadn’t expected her to give any real answer to the question. “What kind of baked goods.” He pushed as he crept over to one of the bags.

“Pies, mostly, fresh bread too I suppose, maybe even a cake somewhere in there.”

He knew better than to actually plan on eating any of the aforementioned treats, but the temptation of even smelling a real pie for the first time ever, was too good to pass up. He carefully unlatched one of the bags and tipped it open just enough to stick his nose in.

It didn’t take Autumn Heart long to notice the sudden silence from below and moved to investigate. She nearly had a heart attack when she saw him opening one of the bags, his eyes suddenly going wide.

“STEEL WING!” she shouted getting his attention. He had a slightly crazed look in his eyes and had to manually close his mouth to prevent any more drool from escaping.

“It’s ummm-“ he paused in embarrassment “Yeah it’s exactly what it looks like.” He retrieved a cloth and began wiping his drool off the bag.

Steel Wing was visibly annoyed with himself at the realization that all his training and discipline meant nothing when it came to a fresh cherry pie.

“You didn’t eat any did you?” She asked inspecting all of the bags.

“No, but how I wanted to. So you carry around vegetables and pies, and are forced to not eat the pies?”

“I get one of my choice once the delivery arrives.”

“How do you not just eat them now?” Steel Wing asked in amazement. It was clear he wouldn’t have made it a day without at least tasting some of everything in the bags.

She gave a shrug, “I just don’t think about it too much, and at the end of the day I reward myself with a good whiff from one of the bags.”

“More than I could manage.” He grumbled as he continued to pack, now under the watchful eye of Autumn Heart.

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An hour later they were heading out after having taken everything from Steel Wing’s house that hadn’t been a permanent fixture, or the bed.

All of the weapons and armor Steel Wing had salvaged over the years was stowed in the wagon he was harnessed to.

He looked over at the mare who had managed to impress him not once, twice, but three times that morning. First being her ability to not have eaten everything she was transporting. The second: When he tried to find her a suitable weapon she told him she preferred grenades to anything else. He had given her his best skeptical look as he fished out a box of grenades. He watched in astonishment when she displayed her skill and accuracy with the metal apples, scaring him once when she pulled the pin and stared at it like she was hypnotized. After what seemed like an agonizingly slow second and a half she tossed the grenade at a standing target. Instead of landing and exploding it took off the top section of the target leaving several SparkleCola bottles unscathed. Lastly when Steel Wing had suggested she put those hundred-pound saddle bags on the cart she chose to carry them. The only reason, for this, that Steel Wing could come up with is that: The green mare before him was a masochist.

Masochist or not she seemed not to even notice the bags were there. She plodded along next to him humming some obscure tune, prancing around and occasionally opening an eye to avoid tripping. All in all the first day of their trip went by smoothly. Much more importantly it was pleasant; they filled the time by sharing jokes, trying to top each other with horror stories from their childhood’s, and even attempting a few rounds of I-Spy. They got two turns each at I-Spy before they realized there truly wasn’t anything worth spying in the area.

By the time they stopped for the night, Steel Wing was exhausted. Leaving at two o’clock in the afternoon and covering forty miles was great, but doing it while dragging an armory along was taxing.

Autumn Heart even managed to emasculate him when she helped him out of his harness without even bothering to set her saddle bags down. Going as far as to walk around their temporary campsite with a board expression yawning. She noticed the ‘knock it off’ look Steel Wing was giving her and asked cutely “What?”

Steel Wing simply shook his head and laid out a sleeping bag for her and a bedroll for himself. “We’ll have to take turns watching.” He said plainly, Autumn Heart nodded in response. “I’ll take first watch so try to get some sleep. Hungry?”

She shook her head and let out another yawn. “Then we’ll get an early breakfast and start out at sun up.” She shrugged and crawled into her sleeping bag.

The dry, cool night air was a wondrous contrast to the days heat, and Autumn Heart was soon fast asleep. Leaving Steel Wing to a can of beans and some SparkleCola. He clambered up on top of the wagon and began a vigilant watch of everything visible, changing position on one minute intervals with great discipline and focus. While doing this he began to go down the checklist for the coming week in his head.

Get Through today: Check

Make it to Sky Fall and unload all these supplies by tomorrow: Pending

Survive from Sky Fall to Mexicolt City: Waiting

Continue brooding over being forced under Cloud Curtain: In Progress

He chuckled at that last thought, that was a good thing he suspected.

His watch was uneventful, except for the occasional wasteland critter that scurried around in the distance the night was still. They had opted to not start a campfire so the night would less likely be interrupted by wandering scavengers. At most their camp sight looked like an abandoned wagon on the side of the road, nothing new to the wasteland.

At what he decided the end of his watch was he went to wake Autumn Heart. He saw that she had cuddled up to a faded-pink stuffed rabbit it was missing an eye. He poked her a few times which produced a complaint from the sleeping mare.

He knew what had to be done and he knew it was going to make him laugh. “LOOK OUT!” he shouted right above her head.

The mare was suddenly wide awake fighting to stand up inside her sleeping bag. She struggled for a long while before staring up at the grinning pegasus.

“That was the farthest thing from funny.” She complained wiggling out of the sleeping bag. “What if I had broken a leg? Would you still be smiling.”

He pondered the question a moment, “Yes, I could re align your leg and get you a healing potion.” He thought a moment more, “That would hurt though wouldn’t it?”

His smile faded and she nodded, “That’s what I thought.”

“It’s your turn to watch.” He said settling down on his bedroll. “Just make sure nothing big is moving around and we should be good.” He felt every ache of every muscle in his body as he finally got to lie down.

“See you in the morning.” Came Autumn Heart’s voice somewhere out of sight.

Until now he hadn’t considered just how well she could hide herself in the dark because of her coat. An advantage in some cases to be sure. Nightmares here I come, he thought as he drifted to sleep. He was already into his first dream and saw what looked like a wing of Enclave armored pegasai fly overhead. And as usual in his dreams there at the back of the squad was their medical officer, her snow white mane standing out in the dark of night.

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Steel Wing could feel the clouds beneath his hooves. He noted that he had been blindfolded his helmet having been removed. There was a metallic ‘clank’ as something was clapped around his legs. His belongings were thrown onto his back.

Finally a key was placed in his mouth. His ear twitched as he felt hot breath blow over it, “Remember what we talked about: No more flying and we can all be happy. I trust you’re skilled enough to undo the weights before you hit the ground even if you can’t, it’s been nice knowing you.”

With that there was a sudden force on his forelegs causing him to be sucked down, through the clouds away from the warm sun. He dropped through the air clenching the key in his teeth he managed to steady himself with his wings. With a vigorous shake of his head the blindfold flew off into the wasteland. Next came the chains, or the ground. Three sixty pound waits were locked onto chains wrapped around his forelegs. Each being on a separate lock and without the use of his hooves to aid him, there was one thing going through his head, This is the end of Steel Wing isn’t it?

“NO!” He bellowed with newfound vigor. He organized his thoughts and remembered he had been taught techniques to survive freefalling. Getting rid of at least two of the weights would be sufficient using the rest as anchors once he was close to the ground.

The ground was coming closer with every passing moment he did nothing. Through struggling he managed to get a weight off each leg. A few hundred feet to go and he hesitated, “… No more flying.” This was gliding and he had some faith in his knowledge of the son of a mule who did this. He’d say gliding isn’t flying.

One hundred feet now, his wings unfolded and pain shot through them as they tried to slow so much extra weight. It wasn’t enough he started to pull out of the dive and…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steel Wing woke up the first thing he noticed was he tasted blood. A tooth had evidently gone rogue and was now sitting in his cheek. The second was his warm back, there was a fire behind him. Then cruel laughter somewhere behind him. He turned to look and then the fourth thing showed itself he was bound by multiple ropes, wings tight to his body.

From somewhere behind him he heard, “Damn this bitch is tight. Won’t even let me in.” This was followed by more cruel laughter.

“Well you could always cut your way in.” Suggested a mare in a cold sadistic tone.

Steel Wing panicked realizing that, they were raiders and were talking about Autumn Heart. He struggled to roll over on his side.

He began taking in the situation as best he could. Autumn Heart was trussed up, her head on the ground and her flank sticking up. Her rear was kept up by a shotgun set under her belly. A stallion was over her trying and failing to gain entrance.

“You know what I think she may be a virgin.” There was a collective ‘Ooooo…’ from the other raiders, some of which were not in Steel Wing’s line of sight.

Without thinking Steel Wing shouted, “Hey! You with the tiny dick!” This drew the attention of the entire camp to the newest member of corpse corp.

“Sleeping Beauty finally wakes up and those are the first words out of his mouth?” The stallion ceased trying to violate Autumn Heart.

Steel Wing let out a sigh somewhere between relief and extreme annoyance now that all eyes were on him. The raider stallion stalked towards him with his receding member. Steel Wing winced as his plan started shaping in his head. Too late for Steel Wing to have struck when the raider was far enough away to avoid getting covered in blood. He fake struggled against his bonds to distract from his very metal very sharp wings which would easily cut through their bonds. He used the distraction to prep his wing.

The tan raider stallion stopped a few feet from Steel Wing and bent down in close opening his mouth to speak when a muffled cry made his head shoot up and turn. “Stink Eye if you touch her you get gelded!” he bellowed and the piss yellow stallion who had been aggressively nipping at various sensitive spots on Autumn Heart. Once the wide eyed Stink Eye had retreated a good ten feet, the raider leader turned back to Steel Wing.

“Now what did you say meat?”

Steel Wing faked a dry throat and attempted to say something which came out as choked squeaks.

“Say again meat.” The raider said planting a hoof firmly in Steel Wing’s abdomen.

Once Steel Wing had finished coughing he moved his head inviting the raider to lean in closer. The soon to be dead raider obliged with a smirk. Again before he could deliver his one liner he was interrupted by a subdued cry from Autumn Heart.

The raider turned and roared, "STINK EYE! When I'm finished with this piece of waste you're next. You got a forty second head start." All was quiet save for the quick hoofbeats away from the camp sight.

The last cry from Autumn Heart was enough to remind Steel Wing that a pony's physical and mental well being were on the line. Before the stallion standing over him could turn back to face him, he had brought his wing straight up cutting through the rope as easily as he had expected. The pain of the sudden wing extension was forgotten immediately with a sudden surge of adrenaline running through Steel Wing's Body.

Using his other wing to prop himself up Steel Wing rose to tower over the stallion who was just now turning back to him. Bringing his face down to look at Steel Wing in the face he saw two hooves. His wicked grin faded with every inch his head had to rise to meet the standing pegasus. The raider simply tried to work his mouth as words failed him.

A deafening silence had descended around the camp sight; a silence that was broken by a loud scream and the crackle of a disturbed fire. Steel Wing had surged forward throwing the raider onto the fire landing on top of him with the sound of ribs breaking underhoof.

Steel Wing could now take in the whole camp sight. The three remaining raiders were all simply stunned by the display. An auburn mare stood next to Autumn Heart's upthrust rear. To his right a pair of raiders had stopped mid coitous both only half aware that a fight had started. The mare of the couple was a unicorn who recovered from the shock just as the smell of seared flesh reached Steel Wing's nostrils. Some instinct told him to strike before the became a threat, a more decent part of his mind drowned those thoughts. He turned to the dark red coated mare all alone instantly regretting wasting precious time on morals. Out of the corner of his eye the unicorn mare quickly but clumsily levitated a plasma rifle at him.

Steel Wing felt a familiar rush as his pupils dilated, the same sensation of his fall coming back to him. Feelings he had come to be familiar with in that dream were surging to him in the waking world. Suddenly the world stood still his adrenaline levels spiked as a feeling similar to SATS brought his world into perfect clarity allowing him to take in everything at once. He saw the trigger was half way to being pulled, he saw the stallion was just now dismounting the unicorn, and in this state of near frozen time he saw a very disconcerting look of confidence on the unicorn's face.

Time reasserted itself around them and in an instant a pink beam of energy vaporized the chard body of the raider turning it instantly to pink ash. That was more than enough time for Steel Wing to close the distance to the floating gun allowing him to bring his full weight down on it before it could be fired again.

The raider stallion dropped back to all fours as Steel Wing reared up to strike the unicorn. As soon as the stallion was off of her her confident grin widened to a sick smile. In a flash she was gone he heard a pop somewhere behind him. The stallion that remained found himself unarmed facing a stallion that towered over him. Steel Wing had moved him to the bottom of the priority list as he was farthest from Autumn Heart. He dispatched the raider with a quick spin planting both hindhooves square into the slow ponies face. He now faced the unicorn who had gotten good distance between them. She stood with that smile still on her face. While he sized her up a glow enveloped her horn levitating a rock next to her feet up to her eye level. She tossed it lazily at him. He brought his wing in front of him and it bounced harmlessly landing a couple feet away. He looked at her questioningly as his ears picked up what sounded like a pin, dropping in a silent room.

"Magic," he recalled, "Magic is what you have to watch out for. Earth ponies are handy and can think quick in a fix. Unicorns are down right underhanded in a fight. You can never just take things as are when facing a unicorn."

Enclave propaganda about surface dwellers. As he leapt back Steel Wing had plenty of time to appreciate how few unicorns he had actually had to face. Two out of the last ten raiders had been typical, clumsy earth ponies. The two unicorns he had faced had clearly been exceptionally well trained. In moments an explosion sent waves through Steel Wing's body moments before shrapnel pierced his hide.

Ringing flooded all his senses as he tried to reassure himself that he was staring up at the sky. A once familiar coppery metallic taste seeped into his mouth. A horned figure appeared over him light pouring from its forehead, revealing the unicorn mare her grin replaced with an expression of pitying contemplation.

She put her mouth right next to Steel Wing's ear. "I've just been told not to kill you. Just know that you don't get a freebie again, and it gets a lot worse than me." With that she trotted off retrieved her plasma rifle with her mouth and went to the last remaining mare. Steel Wing watched nervously as she raised a hoof to tell the other raider to start marching. The unicorn stopped by Autumn Heart, looking between her and Steel Wing before settling on him. Her horn began to glow and a familiar smile spread around the gun; with a flash she was gone leaving Autumn Heart to pose a while longer.

Despite the pain in his chest he forced himself to move understanding that he had been trained to endure, she was probably far past traumatized. Her eyes momentarily went wide at his approach until he was in view. He carefully removed the waded up cloth that served as a gag. Once it was out she began to cry out loud;; her tears already in progress could now be accompanied by the wails of the distressed mare.

Steel Wing went to move the gun from under her and froze. His heart beat increased causing his wounds to bleed more quickly. He leaned in closer to make sure it wasn't his imagination: The raiders had not just propped her hind end up with the gun, they had rigged it to fire the second she was free enough to move forward more than a foot. He shuddered as he was hit by the realization of how dire the situation was. Even more so now that it would take time and care. Time was not something afforded to the disciplined pegasus, every moment she was in that position was years of a potential mental problems.

"I need you to start talking to me." he said as softly as he could. Autumn Heart barely registered his words between her sobs. "Please," he pushed "This is going to take time and I need you to think about something else, tell me something about you."

A flash of hate that Autumn Heart tried to direct at Steel Wing failed as she couldn't turn to see him. "What the hell for?" she demanded.

Accepting that the distraught mare was far from okay he let slide her sudden anger at him, she had no one else to direct it towards. Nonetheless he needed her cooperation so he went with shock to get it, "If I let you up this gun will tear a hole through your midsection." He said truthfully hoping the green mass of mixed emotions would understand.

Her body sagged as much as her bonds allowed in defeat. "Tell me about your childhood maybe?"

So she did choosing to begin with the first time her father let her help with demolition work.

He set to work disassembling the gun while keeping the firing mechanism from operating. He heard some of what she said while focused on his work. Most of the time he was lost in his own thoughts. "... and he was so good that if he told you, you could sit in the building when he detonated it, it WAS true..." While she was getting more and more into her story, he continued farther into his own thoughts. Two combat competent unicorns: More uncommon than it should be. Raiders with the know how to build complicated traps: Not unheard of. A unicorn with some clandestine ulterior motive: Troubling.

Things were wrong and knew it but he came out of himself as he finished disassembling the bottom half of the gun, the inner workings of the gun falling out in pieces. A few cuts later and Autumn Heart was free. She was either reminiscing about her past or otherwise hadn't noticed she was no longer tied down, but she held that position for some time.

"Autumn?" Steel Wing said in a barely audible voice. She fell on her side and curled up on the ground. She balled herself up so tightly it looked like she was trying to collapse on herself and leave existence. He tried to cover her with a blanket and she flailed her legs at him.

He let her be and instead went to heat some water over the fire they now had. Looking over what bodies were left he was thoroughly disappointed by the lack of equipment they had. Just a unicorn with a plasma rifle and one less grenade.

He put a cloth in the heating water and started trying to pick the bits of shrapnel he could get at, which wasn't many. "Bet griffon's don't have to deal with this." He said voicing his thoughts triggering a small movement from Autumn Heart. After he had done his best to pick the metal from his chest he took the cloth from the water and walked to stand a few feet from where Autumn Heart lay. He put the cloth on his hoof and extended it towards her, she eyed it for a moment before taking it in her teeth slowly she started bringing the cloth back and forth across her face.

Weakly she did her best to scrub the places where she had been touched; drained as she was she eventually had to give up.

Steel Wing, watched her grimly still lost in his thoughts. So it came as no surprise when Steel Wing jumped at Autumn Heart's touch, she had given up on herself and started looking at his wounds. A total of thirteen bits of metal were stuck in his hide, five of which he had managed to remove. For a non unicorn it was clearly difficult, but he'd be damned if he was going to let a unicorn near him with medical equipment.

Twenty minutes later Autumn Heart decided it was as good as it was going to get with all but two pieces removed. Superficial to be sure but likely to cause some discomfort. She wrapped his torso up and went back to lie down on her sleeping bag.

The fire had burned down to embers and the first hint of sunlight was just peaking over the horizon.

The silence was nearly painful for both of them Steel Wing was the first to speak and instantly regretted his path of questioning. "Are you really eh- you know, a virgin?"

There eyes simultaneously went as wide as dinner plates. "Um...?" she intoned.

"Sorry, I was just curious." Steel Wing said looking away, "I don't know why andyoudon'thavetoanswer, if you don't want to." His voice was slowly dying down to a whisper when he looked back up.

Autumn Heart turned her attention to the remaining embers and stared silently for a long moment. "Yeah, I am."

She picked herself up to look at him her expression turned dark, the light was peaking up over the horizon casting shadows around them. Steel Wing panicked for a moment because if she had moved he couldn't tell. "Why didn't you wake up?" Her voice was full of something barely less than absolute fury. "I yelled and yelled, you just lay there. I thought you had died in your sleep, or-" She took a breath to try and calm herself, "Or maybe you were just waiting for them to be too distracted by me, so you could get away."

She shifted slightly relieving Steel Wing of the unfounded suspicion that she had planned to assassinate him. "No, I didn't-"

"No?" She said tears running down her face again.

"No, please-"

"No?!" She interrupted again more frantically this time.

"No." He retorted annoyance growing in his voice. He felt terrible, he knew he wanted to bring a hoof across her face to make her calm down. He was just thankful that he had the self restraint not to.

"NO?!" She screamed at him stomping her hooves.

Now he was getting worried watching her seething form in the light of dawn.

Enough was enough he decided once she began to scream incoherently, "NO!" He was on her in a moment answering her question as he went. He put his hooves around her and pulled her into him, further wrapping his wings around her. Most of her recognized that she needed someone to hold her, enough of her wanted to hit something. So hit she did, weakly pounding a hoof into the chest of her source of comfort.

Once her cries had turned to quiet sobs he chuckled lightly, his chest moving her ever so slightly, "This isn't 'traveling together' thing isn't going to work if this happens every night."

He looked down into her confused and pained expression. He watched as a brightness returned to her eyes, and something resembling a smile weakly spread across her muzzle. "I'm so-"

Steel Wing put a hoof to her mouth, "We had enough sorry's last night remember?" He said pointedly.

Her smile broadened, "No, I don't." She hiccuped "You're thinking of two nights ago." The terror of the night still hung in her mind, but being held here by a-. Her frown returned as she contemplated what he really was to her. "Are you a sympathetic body guard, or a friend?" She asked in a confused tone.

His worry of her returning frown dissipated, "I'd like to think that we're a couple of friends. Dysfunctional friends but friends nonetheless."

Autumn Heart breathed a sigh of relief into the coat of her friend. No sarcastic remark about how sympathetic wasn't a good way to put it, or jokes about how they could be more than friends. He understood what she needed right now, and she was glad he was there for her.

The quiet was of course too good to be true, as Steel Wing released her he became very aware that guns had been cocked somewhere behind him. "How many?" He whispered shifting a wing slightly to let her see.

Autumn Heart tapped her hoof on the ground three times, but the look she gave him made him stop warming himself up to go to war again.

"Alright let's see some empty hooves and we don't need to start firing."

"Who's making this request?" Steel Wing asked with all the mock indignity he could muster.

"Sky Fall, security force. The shouting out here was keeping the whole town awake." Came the voice of somepony else.

"Never heard of an alicorn stallion before." Said a third extremely innequine voice.

Steel Wing folded in a wing and turned keeping his other between Autumn Heart and the three security guards. An earth pony, unicorn, and oddly enough a griffon all but the last had weapons trained on Steel Wing. Seeing the unicorn made him wince slightly, but as the other two weren't raiders he decided it wasn't so much of a threat. The griffon had two heavy energy pistols of some kind drawn, but not even held as if expecting a fight. The other two were visibly shaken by the sheer size of what they thought was going to be an enemy.

"S-so step away from the mare until we get this all figured out." The unicorn mare managed to say looking to the griffon who with a dramatic sigh leveled her two weapons at Steel Wing.

"I don't want to get into a fight this early but I'm moody cuz you woke me up so think about how quickly I can probably fire these before you think about how quickly you can get to me." She looked at him like she could read every twitch his muscles made. His every thought of engaging the three clear as a finely cut lens.

He stepped away from Autumn Heart awaiting the moment when the opened fire on her, expecting that the wasteland hadn't decided to be merciful this day.

"See," the griffon said smirking at her two companions, "Not a raider."

-----------------------------

Foot Note (Level Up!)

Steel Wing: LvL 7
Quest Perk- Warned: Unicorn assassins are after you. You will never be caught off guard by a unicorn as long as you can at least perceive their location.

Autumn Heart: LvL 5

Chapter 4: The Wrong Kind of Party

The morning hadn't been as terrible as Steel Wing had expected. Once he was far enough away from Autumn Heart the security ponies had approached her with questions. Some of which she was very reluctant to share with strangers. Once it was established that Steel Wing had been defending her, and that she had just gotten a bit hysterical the security ponies were more at ease. They still kept their distance from the massive pegasus.

The griffon watched her two companions with mild amusement, although admittedly she was impressed with his stance and size. He was clearly not ecstatic with their presence so she decided to strike up conversation. "Shouldn't you be more happy your marefriend is safe?" She asked ignorant their situation.

He glared at her before realizing she didn't know what she'd said. "We're not like that." He stated too tired to be interested in conversation.

Whether she had no empathy or was just trying to be friendly she pushed on, "You seemed pretty ready to take a bullet for her. She paying you? Body guard or something right?"

"No she's not paying me, we're friends." He said with heavy resignation. "What about you? Those two look like they could barely handle a radscorpion between the both of them. You look like you could dance in Maripony just to get hellhounds to attack."

"I owe the ponies in Sky Fall my life. I wasn't their problem and they could have let me bleed out. They didn't though." She drew one of her pistols and started fiddling with it. "Names Corona, people in town call me Griff. I tried to get them to stop, but since I'd already agreed to help them they didn't. Asses."

She stretched dramatically, wings out resembling a scene from a dramatic movie with the character shouting 'Why!!' She was a magnificent specimen of a griffon, he noted. Well built, a confident and not cocky stance. All the way down to her well maintained talons, which he was sure were used to rend flesh frequently. Her armor he saw was black with three tears through it. On closer inspection it was just part of the design. He was about to ask about it when he finally realized it was his turn for an introduction.

"Steel Wing." He replied extending a hoof.

Griff took it and said, "Been meaning to ask about that." Steel Wing raised an eyebrow, "That's a take on specialized griffon armor if I'm not mistaken. Don't suppose those are mechanical are they?"

"Nope, feather, skin and bone underneath." He replied eliciting a critical look from the griffon.

"Don't they weigh you down when you're trying to fly then?" Again she couldn't have known what she'd just asked.

"No they don't get in the way of flying. All the do is hurt whenever I extend my wings. That and dismember enemies."

---------------------------------------------

The sun had risen above the cloud cover by the time they had all come to a friendly understanding. Evidently they had stopped for the night twenty minutes from Sky Fall. Corona informed them that: The locals who weren't asleep and had heard the screams from when the raiders first arrived had started a commotion waking up a good portion of the town and gone to the guards about it. When the grenade went off and there was silence people began to go back to bed. When the screaming started up again, several ponies insisted guards be sent to investigate. Naturally the relatively inexperienced guards were very reluctant to go, so they asked their griffon who had been made Captain of the Guard to go take a look. Corona had informed them of all this with a wry smile.

The morning had only had one other hitch since the shouting exchange between Steel Wing and Autumn Heart. She was too unsteady on her feet, still recovering from shock and having not eaten. Too weak to even climb in the back of the cart, and when Steel Wing had attempted to help her up she panicked from his aggressive touch and kicked at him. She had calmed down the instant she was in the wagon apologizing for 'freaking out' again.

Steel Wing wasn't doing much better as far as rest was concerned, Lack of sleep coupled with exertion with a pinch of blood loss left him feeling dead on his hooves. Unfortunately he still needed to pull the cart; the two guard ponies could pull the wagon, but at a drastically reduced speed. The harness not being fitted for a griffon left Steel Wing to push on the last few miles to town.

The guard ponies took up the rear making conversation with Autumn Heart. Corona was up front walking alongside Steel Wing. "Sorry to bring this up again but it's bothering me. Friends make sacrifices for friends and even take bullets for each other. You seemed ready to take on all the worlds plasma canons for that mare."

"I suppose I owe her my life too." Raising his head to look at her, "She saved me from a dark hole that I'd fallen into. I may use the excuse that I'm just helping her complete her delivery, but I'm going to make sure she gets to wherever home is safely before I leave her."

"Good for you, I guess." Taking the conversation in a completely different direction she asked, "Can I see your wing?"

"Not that I don't think you have handled sharp objects before, but they are extremely sharp." He said trying to dissuade her desire to touch them.

"Eh." She intoned retrieving thick leather gloves from a bag. "I'll survive."

Steel Wing shrugged and fulfilled her request slowly extending a wing. Even though his body was numb from the nights events, he still by reflex winced at the ghost pain.

Corona took the wing in her covered talons walking on her hind legs. She tested their flexibility and tapped on them a few times. "Is the metal cut to fit over every feather or something?" She asked as she slowly wiggled the feather plates separately.

"Not exactly, it's hard to explain. All I can think of to say is that it took minor surgery and unicorn magic to affix them to my wings."

"Uh huh." She said moving to test the edge. Steel Wing turned his attention to the road ahead seeing the town now in view. He came to an abrupt halt when he heard "OW FUCK!" from his right. At first glance he thought she had just lost a talon. He quickly folded his wing back to his body. "Well damn." She said holding her hand up and watching her trigger talon dangle limply.

The wing blade had gone through the glove and cut into the flesh, without the glove she'd have lost it entirely. "Got healing supplies in the wagon." He offered as he watched her blood collect and drop off his wing leaving it clean as ever.

She simply nodded and quickly took off landing on top of the cart and crawling in, drawing a surprised yelp out of Autumn Heart. A few minutes later she landed next to him with healing bandages holding the injured talon in place while it mended.

"So, those are sharp." She murmured.

"Yeah they have to go through muscle and bone fluidly." He said suppressing one of his usual dark chuckles at the misfortune of others.

Even while doing his best Corona picked up on the implied 'I told you so.' of his tone and changed the subject to something less pride wounding. "So how does a buck like you not have half of the wasteland's fillies after you?" And for a third time the excusably oblivious griffon managed to strike upon a very painful topic, for the already emotionally battered pegasus.

He couldn't hide the pain the question had stirred up in his reply, "The only filly I can ever really love is above the clouds. I won't see her until we're both dead in the ever after."

His grave tone made the griffon tone down her approach. "So you can't get close to a filly physically or emotionally on the surface, because the one you want is somewhere far far away? Does she feel the same way?"

"I can only hope she'll always have some love in her heart for me; I also hope she has found someone to give her what she needs to be happy."

"But you can't allow yourself some happiness since you're away from her?" Steel Wing's face told her that he hadn't received the question well. "I mean how long has it been since you last saw her?"

"I see her every night, when I dream. I have nightmares, but when she appears for a little while it's all okay. No pain or fear. contentment."

"As sad and romantic as that is, and don't get me wrong I mean waiting for someone you love can be important." She rambled on like this for a a little while trying to defuse tension before coming back to her point. "But you didn't really answer my question, which may be due to the fact that I didn't ask it flat out." She was now slightly nervous about pissing off the moody death machine next to her. "When's the last time you got laid?" Finally got that out, good going girl!

"..."

Corona waited for a long time. While he continued to move step by step closer to the town. The last few minutes to the town passed in silence.

Once the one wagon caravan was within sight of the morning watch Corona took off to head off any questioning of intent the guards would ask of the moody pegasus.

He slowed as he arrived the entrance to the town, Corona was busy moving ponies out of his way hurriedly so he could continue. As he passed by she smiled apologetically, "Three years." He said hoarsely moving the wagon inside the city wall. Wow she thought beak hanging open slightly.

Once the wagon was well inside the city walls he undid his harness started walking towards the inn, taking two steps before collapsing in an unconscious heap.

Corona padded up to Steel Wing. "Yep."

--------------------------------------

"What's that smell?" Steel Wing grumbled finally coming back into the waking world. He could feel the bed under him: soft, clean, big.

Against his brain's will he forced himself to open his eyes. Instantly grinning when he discovered the source of the smell. It was 'clean' that he was smelling. Aside from a thin layer of dust in places the room was spotless well kept and dimly lit from light filtered through thick scarlet curtains.

As Steel Wing tried to sit up his muscles seized up causing him to lay back limply. He'd felt this before, passing out from total exhaustion. A training run did as much to him and his squad at one point. The lesson was you can go as long as you want without proper sleep coupled with physical tasks; once you went to sleep you were done for the next few days, or more if you tried to go weeks. They had gone seven days and twelve hours until they were allowed to rest Steel Wing had been the first out of bed in only two days. As his trip had only been a day or so he was confident he could get out of bed in a few hours.

He attempted again in vain to sit up. Ten minutes later he tried again to no avail. Another ten minutes was spent breathing deeply as eh prepared for what he decided would be the final try. Tensing all of his muscles he threw himself forward grunting loudly as he fought to keep himself up right. With great amounts of effort plus cursing he managed to sit up panting from the huge exertion he had subjected himself to.

The door was promptly thrown open, a mare wearing doctor fatigues with a determined scowl on her face charged into the room placing both forehooves firmly on Steel Wing's chest forcing him to lay down. It was almost comical to see this doctor bravely pushing a pegasus easily twice her size around like he was her colt.

Too comical in fact for some ponies to stifle a giggle, Autumn Heart was one such pony. She had been right on the doctor's tail through the door and had the great fortune to witness the whole scene.

The doctor however found nothing humorous anywhere in the room. "What pony in their right mind would mutilate themselves so horribly!?!" She was inches from his face bearing down on him with a generous amount of force.

"What?" was all Steel Wing could manage to say, causing the enraged doctor to react by rearing up and come back down on her non helpless victim.

"Your wings damn you!" What did you do to yourself!?" She was nearly foaming at the mouth. Autumn Heart carefully dragged her away from the bed by the tail.

"I put armor on them." His tone suggesting 'isn't it obvious?'

Autumn Heart was about to release the doctor but at his answer wisely chose not to; holding back the doctor as she attempted to storm the bed a second time. Steel Wing inadvertently flinched.

"No shit you idiot, do you know how badly damaged your wings probably are?"

"I-" Instead of telling the doctor to mind her own damn business Steel Wing gave Autumn Heart the chance to get tail out of her mouth. "No, I don't."

The doctor seemed satisfied at the chance to tell him just how wrong what he had done, was.

Autumn Heart let go of the doctor, who immediately planted her rear on the floor bringing her hooves up to squeeze the sides of her head.

"Steel Wing?" Steel Wing offered trying to lessen the doctor's fury

"Don't remind me." She snapped, followed by a long silence. "Do they hurt?" she asked, her tone much more even.

"Yeah, when I first unfold them."

"Stitches!" The doctor suddenly yelled towards the open door, prompting Autumn Heart to step clear of the doorway.

Steel Wing's entire body shuddered involuntarily when he saw the horn poke around the corner. He had to actively suppress a gasp as the horn was followed by a ghoul pony.

The ghoul, Stitches, walked in magically pulling a cart and clipboard in behind him. "Yes doctor?" He said in that wonderfully dry throaty tone one would expect from a ghoul.

"Could you take down notes about this exchange please." The ghoul nodded and levitated the clipboard with a pencil in front of him.

"So when you first work your wings, correct?"

Steel Wing nodded followed by the quickly scribbling of pencil on chalkboard.

"And not when you're flying?" Steel Wing donned the iron pony mask for a moment before simply shrugging.

"So you already know you can't fly?"

He shook his had and shrugged.

"You don't know if you can fly?"

He nodded curtly.

"Why haven't you tried?" The doctor was now pushing buttons she couldn't even see.

"I can't." Steel Wing said with a heavy sigh.

The doctor leaned over to Stitches and whispered something, not realizing that Steel Wing could still here. "We should probably do a PTSD screening." Stitches nodded and continued writing.

"Did you have a bad experience the last time you flew."

"Yep!" He responded with mock enthusiasm.

"What happened?" The doctor pushed hopefully, believing the fake progress. Autumn Heart had actually spent enough time with Steel Wing to know when he was being uncooperative.

"I fell." He said with a grin, crushing the doctor's belief that they had gotten somewhere.

"He's worried that if he flies his sister will be killed." Autumn Heart spoke up, causing three pairs of startled eyes to fall on her. Steel Wing and the doctor had clearly forgotten Autumn Heart was even in the room.

"Is this true?" The doctor asked hesitantly.

Steel Wing shot Autumn Heart a glare before responding. "Yes, and it isn't some unfounded paranoia. Her life would in fact be in danger if I ever use my wings to fly again." Steel Wing had given up on dancing around the doctor's questions.

The doctor took a moment hoof rubbing chin as she thought. "So, since you can't use them to fly you decided to mutilate them?" She asked pointedly.

"When I had it done I made sure I found the best there was to do it." He countered glowering at the doctor.

"I'm not scared of your silent threats, I gave you muscle relaxers so you couldn't leave before I got the chance to scold you." The doctor said with a smirk. "Granted, I was impressed you managed to sit up at all."

So it wasn't total exhaustion like he had thought, Drug induced paralysis, much better. As he lost himself to his thoughts temporarily a frown took over his muzzle.

"How long have you had them?" The doctor asked trying to bring him back to the room.

"Two years and some odd months." He replied thoughtfully.

The doctor's eyes widened in horror. "If those plates don't come off you're liable to lose your wings all together!" The doctor said growing concern in her voice.

Steel Wing passed a critical eye over the earth pony, "What the hell makes you such an expert on pegasai anatomy?"

"Oh, Hi!-" the doctor said taking on her own sarcastic tone, "I'm Snips and one of the best surgeons in the whole damn wasteland. Sorry if you haven't heard of me, really that's my bad." She got up and started pacing around the room. Autumn Heart readied herself to go for the tail the instant she started sprinting at the bed again.

"Some great surgeon, can't even handle a pencil. Besides they don't just come off, they've been worked around the joints in my shoulders." He said trying to dispel the doctor's dream of removing the metal plates.

"DO YOU EVEN WANT WINGS!" she said flying across the room at the bed. Only to be stopped mid air caught in the Stitches' levitation field.

The idea of actually losing his wing finally wiggled it's way into Steel Wing's head where it quickly grew into a wildfire of fear and understanding. "Yes, Yes. I. Do."

"Then will you listen to what I'm saying?" Snips near pleaded still dangling in the air.

"I will listen, but that doesn't mean I can just let you take them off. I've grown attached to them not just physically, but mentally and emotionally too. These plates are as much a part of me as the appendages they cover." The thought of parting with them almost brought a tear to Steel Wing's eye.

Snips for her part began to better understand the pegasus in front of her wasn't simply a soldier pony, but a thinking feeling pony as well. "I imagine with them you wouldn't have lived long enough for this problem to even come up then?" She asked Stitches finally convinced the doctor had calmed down.

"Something like that." Steel Wing said suppressing a chuckle.

"They have to come off. I can't surrender that point; but if you keep them off for a week or so, and with proper care during that week, we'll- I'll find a way to replace them." Snips trotted calmly over to the be extending a hoof, "Deal?" she added trying to get somewhere with all this drama.

Steel Wing limply moved a foreleg, smiling when it flopped off the side of the bed. Snips took his hoof and shook it for the both of them. "Deal." he said quietly.

"And SCENE!" they all heard from the door. Corona was standing the doorway mock clapping.

"Oh, Miss Griff I-"

"Call me Corona." The griffon interrupted, with a still friendly tone. She may not be able to get the whole town to cooperate, one on one she commanded enough fear with her presence to get a pony to use her real name.

"Yes of course miss Corona, did you need something?"

"Yeah, I want to have chat with the grey one." She said casually. Stitches looked down causing Corona to take note that his leathery hide was also grey. She face-palmed, "Ugh, the big grey one. Alone."

The room was silent a moment before Snips spoke up, "As you wish miss Gri-," The doctor stopped herself with a well performed hiccup, "Of course miss Corona." Briskly trotting past the griffon followed by stitches, followed by a magically pulled cart.

Autumn Heart was the last out stopping in front of the griffon who eyed her curiously, "Hurt him and I'll find a way to ensure you can never lay an egg again." Autumn Heart growled her voice barely a whisper. With that she left.

Steel Wing saw the griffon's shocked expression and was about to ask when Corona asked accusingly, "What's up with that bipolar bitch anyways?"

"Uh, don't really know what you're talking about. She laughs and cries sometimes. The wasteland gets to her, gets to all of us sometimes." Steel Wing said as if he were explaining a fact of life, which he was.

"Yeah whatever, anyways." She said pulling up a chair next to the bed. "For some reason I can't let this go without some kind of resolution." She began to explain, "This filly you love so much, is a pegasus right?" Steel Wing cleared his throat loudly before nodding. "And she's probably above the cloud curtain right?" Rolling his eyes he nodded again. "Cool two for two." The griffon paused thoughtfully, "Now this is the part that's blowing my mind. If I had a way for you two to communicate would you want to do it?"

Steel Wing's body tried to jerk upright so he could look the griffon in the eye, since he only managed a quick muscle spasm. "I'm not sure why but a guy like you not getting laid for three years is driving me nuts."

"Yeah I'd like that but there's no way you could reach her." Steel Wing said trying to avoid getting his own hopes up too high. "She's more than likely under heavy surveillance all day."

"Fine, but if I could, would you be okay with me doing it?" She asked still confused about why she even cared.

"Yeah, but why?"

Corona recognized it as a fair question but merely shrugged, "Your guess is as good as mine. So what's her name? Her appearance, line of work?" Corona listed off the things that would give her any chance of pulling this off.

"Most ponies call her Snow Wing, looks a lot like me, a bit smaller with a snow white mane. And she's an Enclave military doctor."

"Wow snowing funny." Corona said feigning laughter, going as far as to hold her sides. For Steel Wing it was just nice that someone finally got the joke about his sisters name on the surface. He hadn't encountered anypony with even the slightest clue that precipitation came in frozen, flaky form. "And what about- What?" Corona interrupted herself narrowing her eyes at Steel Wing.

"What, what?" Steel Wing said raising an eyebrow.

"What was that about her looking like you."

Steel Wing went rigid not having realized he let that slip. "Uh..." He tried to come up with a response but couldn't.

"Is this 'Snow Wing'," she started using talon-quotes, "A cousin or something?"

"Sister." Steel Wing said in defeat.

Corona let at a low wonderfully pitched whistle, taking in what she'd just been told. "Can't say I expected that." She leaned back in her chair looking up to the ceiling. "So, um- How long had you two been. Er, together?"

"From age ten to twenty."

The griffon fell back in her chair, recovering quickly clearing her throat. She set her chair back up trying to pretend she hadn't reacted that way to what he said. "Well how old was she when it started?" She asked not sure why she wanted to know.

"Ten." He said matter-of-factly.

"So then you are-"

"Twins, correct." He finished for her.

"Wow, so you've been separated from your family as well as your first and only lover who is also your sister? That's beyond tragic-," She silenced her self, "What a sec, you said little bit smaller than you, snow white mane and a medical officer?"

Steel Wing nodded suspiciously.

"Wow, um not to get your hopes up or anything but I may have seen her before."

Steel Wing miraculously sat up without having to think about it. "What happened?" He spoke slowly, "This doesn't have to do with how you were nearly killed does it?"

Corona could see where his thoughts had gone. "No absolutely not. It was a couple days ago that I may have seen her. The whole getting shot all to shit happened a couple months ago." She instantly went back to the current issue. "The white maned pegasus in question was flying with a small wing of Enclave soldiers the other day. I didn't think much of it since they avoided the air space around Sky Fall."

Dread took hold of Steel Wing as he remembered what he thought had been a dream just last night. "You're sure you saw a wing of Enclave military pegasai with larger than average snow-white maned medical officer?" His voice shook with anticipation.

"Yeah, I know I saw it but that doesn't mean it was Snow Wing or anything. It was just a possibility." She said not knowing he had already come to the conclusion that they had seen the same thing.

"I think I saw the same wing of pegasai as you. I thought I was seeing her in a dream, but if you saw it too then it was her, I'd recognize her anywhere."

"You really think it was?" Corona asked quietly.

Steel Wing nodded slowly before settling back into the bed looking silently towards the window.

"Want to see outside?" She asked more quietly than before. Again he only offered her a nod she went and fulfilled her offer before padding to the door.

The moment she opened the door Corona was greeted by a pair of questioning amber eyes. The eyes looked past her to where Steel Wing lay almost motionless.

Autumn Heart took a few steps back, before charging the startled griffon with surging strength. "What did you do to him." She spat looking straight into the eyes of the pinned griffon. Recovering from her shock the combat hardened griffon nearly tore the angry mare's throat out.

"Autumn!" Steel Wing shouted distracting the two from each other. "I'm fine, now get off before somebody gets blood everywhere." He commanded, giving way to the minor odds of the bloodletter being Autumn Heart and not the well trained griffon.

Autumn Heart stepped back carefully apologizing loud enough for all in the room to hear. Corona accepted the apology and exited the room. Steel Wing fell back when the furry tail disappeared around the corner.

"Autumn, you don't need to protect me. I may be vulnerable, but this town doesn't mean us any harm." He said looking to the ashamed mare, "I get that you may not be ready to trust everyone just yet since last night, but take my word for it these ponies aren't trying to hurt us."

"Yeah you're probably right." Autumn Heart admitted.

"Can you get that doctor in here so she can get me moving again? Please?" He begged suddenly tired of the very well kept room.

"Yeah, sure." She said slowly trotting out of the room.

Because I'm the only one she thinks she can trust? Please don't let her be falling for me. "Please!" he groaned to Celestia, or Luna, hell he'd even take Discord if he was listening. Oh my Snow, what are you doing down here? He let out a long drawn sigh.

Steel Wing's blood turned to ice as he turned his gaze back to the street. He saw a unicorn out in the street. No, she was just turned this way she wasn't looking at me. He tried to assure himself. He silently screamed at himself for being wrong when the unicorn turned to stare directly at him with a slight smirk. She trotted towards the window horn glowing faintly. Just as she was about to hit the wall, she kept going. Steel Wing was slightly dazed from the thrashing he'd given his brain for being wrong. But the time he was completely focused the unicorn was at the side of his bed with a slight scowl.

"You're really bad at not getting yourself killed by any unicorn who happens to spot you. You were already warned weren't you?" Disappointment evident in her voice.

He sighed as he began to come to terms with the way he was about to die. A doctor literally chained me to my deathbed. Very well done karma. You've won yet again.

"You're lucky I'm not here to kill you." She said brightening slightly.

Oh brain it's so wonderful when you're wrong. He thought giving the unicorn a fearful smile. "So then, what are you here for?"

The face of wicked intention vanished from the unicorn filly. Putting her forelegs on the bed she hovered over Steel Wing,

"I've been sent to make sure you are what we want." The look in her eyes told Steel Wing that she was at odds with herself.

After several seconds of silence the unicorn pouted her lips and leaned in to the prone buck. Steel Wing had already quickly decided how best to handle this particular situation. Slowly and gently he pushed her back away from him. Her coat was wonderfully soft; the way her body yielded to her touch gave her the characteristics of being a plushie doll. She had given up on the kiss and now watched Steel Wing as he slowly and carefully moved her off the bed. Just as her forehooves left the edge of the bed to dangle in the air, Steel Wing no longer felt the plush unicorn and watched in horror as his hoof plunged straight into her chest. The unicorn simply dropped back down to all fours falling through his foreleg.

"That will do for now." The unicorn now began to dissipate, "Oh and about your wing problems talk to the crazy zebra." She concluded, just in time for her muzzle to vanish completely. Leaving Steel Wing to his confusion about what her words meant.

"Yes, good! Keep your shadowy prestige unicorn cult."

"Who are you talking to?" Came Snips voice from his right causing Steel Wing to jump a little.

"Phase shifting unicorns." He looked her in the eyes, "Not joking."

"Right, so I've come to help you out of bed." She climbed half way onto the bed reaching into her lab coat. When she brought her hoof up to his face there was nothing there. Knocking him on the head she said, "You can walk the drug has worn off by now." With that she trotted out of the room leaving Steel Wing to rub his head.

--------------------------------------

After squeezing through the small ground floor of the inn he had been resting in, Steel Wing was again out in the town proper. He shook himself of the residual paralysis from his extended nap. It was sometime late in the afternoon; since they had arrived in the early morning, Steel Wing found himself grinning with pride over beating his exhaustion so quickly.

"Good to see you're okay." Came the nervous voice of a filly. Steel Wing looked over to see the unicorn guard that had accompanied Corona.

Turning towards her, he gave her his kindest smile. She relaxed visibly with some concern still in her eyes. Steel Wing recognized it as the 'bad news' face.

He waited patiently for her to start. Taking a deep breath she said, "When you first arrived you left your wagon near the gate, so a bunch of us guards tried to move it farther into town by the guard's quarters so we could watch it until you could get up." She talked quickly and had managed that in one breath taking in another great breath she delivered the bad news. "The wagon was old and it took a lot of us to move it and half way to the guard's quarters a back wheel fell off, and that caused the front wheel on that side to break from the sudden weight. and NOW we can't move it at all."

By the time she finished unicorn guard was nearly hyperventilating. "Don't worry too much about it I was planning to go to take most of it to Plunders' Pilfered Prizes anyways."

"I thought you were planning to outfit an army." She said jokingly, putting a hoof to her mouth shocked by her own words own words.

Whatever she had expected his reaction to be it was not laughter. Wiping a tear from his eyes he gave her his best reassuring tone. "And at one point I thought you did in fact need an army to go to war. Then I learned you only need someone with the will to fight for a cause." His expression darkened. "For the longest time I never thought I'd be the one to start fighting."

A short silence silence grew around them as they both contemplated those words. Brightening up suddenly Steel Wing asked, "Where's this cart at. All that stuff isn't going to sell itself."

The guard happy to have an excuse to look elsewhere turned and trotted off, motioning for Steel Wing to follow. On their way Steel Wing received many looks; most of extreme curiosity, some of fear, and for others confusion.

The guard mare dropped back to his side and explained, "Most of these ponies ain't seen a pegasus up close before. The're probably askin' themselves if ya'll are the same size or something. Name's Sweet Spot by the way."

"Steel Wing."

"Yep so I've heard."

Taking a shot in the dark Steel Wing asked, "Name makes you a sharp shooter then?"

"Bingo."

Their short trip ended in silence while Sweet Spot brought him to the broken down cart.

There were a few guards watching the cart to make sure it didn't get robbed. A couple of the guards were talking with a young colt the third seemed very uninterested and was simply scanning the street. Steel Wing face hoofed when he recognized the blatant distraction tactic and spotted a pure black foal creeping right under the guards.

"He's come to claim his stuff!" Sweet Spot called out getting the attention of all five. Steel Wing spotted the foal peek it's head out completely invisible to all others.

The colt looked to his partner in crime nervously then back to Steel Wing who had started strolling casually over, acting as though nothing was amiss.

"Oh would you look at that!" He cried leaning his head into the cart. "A few things spilled out." Leaning his head down by the foal he whispered, "Now, I should tell them you were stealing from me." The foal's eyes were wide with fear. "But I don't want to. I suspect the punishment on a foal for attempted robbery wouldn't be much; but, and this is the big part I've been your age and I never liked getting in trouble. Do you?" The foal shook her head vigorously. "So what lie should I tell them for why you're in here?"

"Isn't lying bad too?" She said straining her voice even though it came out as a whisper.

"Fair point." Pretending to mull it over a moment he said, "Well guess not then." As he pulled his head away. The foal leaped up desperately wrapping herself on his muzzle in an attempt to pull him back down. He complied.

"I was a slave you were transporting?" She said hopefully.

Steel Wing balked, contempt on his face. Contempt not directed at the filly but the very idea of being a slaver, also that the filly would think of something like that.

"No?" She asked dejectedly.

"Autumn Heart and I found you in a cage the raider's had brought along. What's your name?"

"Lilly."

"Alright Lily, my name is Steel Wing. You fell asleep after last night and you don't know the colt outside."

She nodded.

"Oh my Lily I can't believe I forgot about you!" Steel Wing suddenly shouted.

He looked back to see that he had gained the attention of all the guards. The colt who had been distracting the guards looked like his insides were knotting themselves up.

Sweet Spot was the first to ask, "Who?"

Steel Wing dove back in quickly motioning for the foal to climb aboard his head. She clenched her eyes shut before opening them with her best wide eyed and confused look. Lilly then scrambled up his face and slid down onto his back.

Turning with a slight smile he said, "Lily."

The colt was about ready to have a heart attack thinking they'd been caught.

"And this is your-?"

"Rescuee. The other night, from the raiders."

Lily clung to his neck peeking over his head nervously at the guards.

"She'll be okay with me for a while I think. For now I need to go find Loot and get to selling this stuff, I'll bring her here to do the trading."

He started walking off before any present could protest.

When they had turned a corner heading towards the town's general store Lily hopped off her ride. Steel Wing quickly caught her by the scruff of her mane and tossed her back on.

"Hey!" She complained.

"If the guards see you walking around by yourself they'll bring you back to me and I've told enough lies for one day." He counter-complained.

"Hmph." She kicked around a moment before settling on his back.

--------------------------------------

Steel Wing stopped in front of the last place he had truly laughed before falling into his darkness two years back. He nearly skipped through the door as he reminisced. Coming to a stop in front of the counter. When he began to pay attention he found that the store was unguarded.

"Wooohoooo!" Rang through the store originating from above Steel Wing.

An orange blur landed on the far end of the counter and sped quickly towards Steel Wing; who almost decapitated the pegasus filly who slid down the counter on her hindlegs.

"Hey welcome to-" She started but stopped when she realized she hadn't stopped sliding.

From Steel Wing's perspective he only heard the 'Hey' before the orange bullet was on its way down the bar.

The filly gave out a scream before falling on her back and continuing down, her entire body jumping the gap between the end of the bar - and the wall.

With an echoing WHACK the filly flopped onto the floor in an orange pile of pain.

A brief silence followed by an escalating yet foal like laughter as an equally orange earth filly came out from behind the counter. Collapsing in a giggling fit by the still pegasus.

"The look on your face was so perfect!" She wailed. "Oh wow," she said coming down. "you were going fast huh?" The orange earth pony shook her hoof of the blood that was pooling around what Steel Wing prayed was an unconscious pegasus.

Ducking quickly behind the counter the still ambulatory filly retrieved a healing potion and carefully poured it down the still one's throat;

"I bet her she couldn't do a cool stunt when the next customer walked in." The earth pony proudly explained. "The deal was she had to do it like 'us earth ponies'." She finished using hoof quotes.

"Is she alright?" Steel Wing asked recovering from having nearly ended the filly himself.

"She's taken worse. Took a good bit of buckshot once when someone tried to rob mom." She replied stroking the pegasus' mane until she stirred.

" Wow- umm, is Loot here?"

The orange filly deflated, which Steel Wing instantly recognized having done it himself just this morning. Something had happened to the owner of the store.

"Mom?" The pegasus mumbled coming to.

"No, not mom." The earth pony corrected still gently stroking the pegasus' mane.

"What happened to Loot?" Steel Wing pushed.

"Slavers took her while she was trading with a caravan outside the city. They came quick and left more quickly. We were here watching the store when it happened."

Steel Wing worked his mouth trying to say something as he watched tears well up in the filly's eyes. A weight slid off his back as Lilly made her way over doing her best to wrap the larger crying filly in a hug.

When Steel Wing's feelings returned the first he felt was a righteous anger building inside of him. "How long ago." He demanded.

The orange pony was taken aback by the sudden aggressiveness but answered, "A week and a half ago. They went away east, someone said they went to Armory."

Steel Wing felt his raging blood freeze over. "What do slavers from Armory want with your mom?"

"She refused to help them with something so the removed her so she couldn't warn people." The pegasus filly said finally coming to. Trying to rub the semi dried blood out of her mane she continued. "We already told everypony around town but nobody wants to mess with Armory so we just lost a mom." Her voice far too bitter for a pony her age.

"What about Griff?"

"Captain Griff? She's the only one who even wants to help, but she's not dumb enough and we understand well enough that she can't just assault Armory by herself. Especially not just to save one pony."

"What did she say when you told her about the deal the slavers were trying to work out with your mom?"

"Griff promised she'd keep a look out for slavers creeping around town. I believe her too, girl has great eyes."

"Young colts and foals have been disappearing around town though." Squeaked Lilly having finished comforting the orange earth pony.

"I'm sure there parents have just been keeping them indoors more or something." Steel Wing said with a dismissing hoof, while worrying about the statement himself.

Lilly shook her head sadly. "Being less than a day away from such a big slave camp makes Sky Fall a very frequent place to receive the children of escaped slaves." She said instantly convincing Steel Wing that there was a problem that needed to be dealt with.

"Right, I need to talk with the store owner about some large trading, then I'm going to Armory."

The orange pair went behind the counter. The earth pony stood on a stool while the pegasus hopped up on the bar with a clip board in her mouth. Her eyes went wide as she tried to gain stability on the slick surface.

The earth pony couldn't hold back a giggle as she was reminded, "I greased the counter after I dared you to do the stunt." Turning back to Steel Wing she proudly announced, "My name is Hidden Gem, friends call me Gemmi. That foalish featherbrain is Bits, she has a pretty bad 'bite'!"

"I remember you two, Loot's twins right?" Steel Wing said sadly.

"Mmhm, now what was this big trade deal you were talking about?" Bits said nudging the clipboard across the bar at Steel Wing.

"Well can you go get your father, he's managing the place right."

"You're lucky one of us can function while being reminded of our missing parents, ass." Bits said patting her teary eyed sister. She lifted her sister into the air and down behind the counter where Lilly was quick to envelop her in another hug.

"Yeah I should have known better. Hell it's happened to me three times today. I guess I understand how easy it is to do it to someone else. I'm sorry."

"Yeah yeah, and I'm Celestia now what did you want." She said folding her forelegs and setting where her sister had been.

"I have a wagon full of: weapons, armor, ammo, and replacement parts for various things."

This elicited a raising of the eyebrow from Bits. "Show me."

--------------------------------------

A little while latter the four of them were gather by the cart. Steel Wing watched as Bits darted around inside the wagon eyeing the impressive stockpile.

"So where did you get all this again?" Bits asked skeptically.

"A raider here and there. Traded some stuff with a few merchants."

"So a dozen raiders had enough to buy all of this from traveling merchants."

"Well a couple hundred raiders but yeah pretty much."

If Bits had been on the ground her jaw would have touched dirt. "Woah." she said finally landing back outside. She scuffed at the ground in contemplation. "Celestia please help me here." She pleaded suddenly. "You don't want to sell all of this for just caps right?"

"No, I need extra medical supplies, grenades, different ammo, and probably some proper armor. For me and a friend I guess." He said remembering Autumn Heart who he hadn't seen since waking up early on.

She immediately rushed to hug his foreleg wrapping herself around it pseudolovingly. "Great because I think Corona has a rule against hoarding guns and ammo like that. I'll go grab a list of our inventory." With that Bits took off flying rather well for such a young filly.

"Could you teach her how to fly?" Gemmi spoke up since her last crying spell.

"Me?" Steel Wing asked putting a hoof to his chest.

"Duh you, the only pegasus for miles around."

"I don't exactly fly." He confessed.

"Because of the metal?"

"Yeah because of that. Sorry."

"Nah it's alright she woulda asked you herself but she's sort of embarrassed."

"Doesn't seem like it to me." He said remembering how she had tried to stare him down in the store.

"She's got a good head for conducting business, but not really for bartering; that's my job. She talks and I price things." Gemmi grimaced realizing she had just literally given away a trade secret.

"I promise I won't tell anyone else your sister's weakness." Steel Wing assured her, "I'm a friend of the family after all."

"Okar ret's oo is" Bits tried to say around a mouthful of papers, executing a rough landing on Steel Wing's head leaning over and placing the papers on his muzzle. They promptly fell all over the ground many falling on the resting Lilly.

"A hundred and thirteen pages! Are you out of your mind!" Gemmi cried in exasperation.

"Eh with all the crap in there we're going to have to redo our inventory list anyways." Bits said dismissively, "Let's get down to business!" She declared, and so they did.

--------------------------------------

An hour and a half later as twilight arrived Steel Wing and Gemmi were finalizing their deal back in the store while Bits flew back and forth unloading everything from the cart and organizing it in the store. Steel Wing noted with some surprise that the orange speed ball would have easily passed the Enclave endurance test.

Lilly tried to sneak away twice during the exchange, almost escaping the second time. Steel Wing still wanted to keep her around for the eventual discussion with the guard captain Griff. Something he prayed wouldn't be a mistake.

"So you managed to clean us out of all our: explosives, grenade or otherwise. Armor piercing rounds for anti armor guns. Which by the way I think was a totally redundant invention." Gemmi began to get off track, "Although if you had to go up against a tank and still get a shot out the other side that might work out. It could have enough power to go through concrete and strike through a heavily armored target. Hmmmmm..."

Steel Wing cleared his throat and picked up where she had left off, "Almost all of your super strength healing potions as well as all of your healing bandages.Two sets of reinforced combat armor, modified with shock absorbing padding and multiple pockets. As well as 2,000 caps and a small amount of canned foods. Did I miss anything?"

"Nope." She cheered brightly.

"Good doing business with you then, and I'll do my best to bring your mom back I swear." Steel Wing said using the most serious tone he possessed.

Gemmi nodded in understanding fighting back more tears.

"Look out, I'm comin' in." Bits shouted from the balcony.

She flew down landing on the counter intending to slide to a stop. She had unfortunately forgotten about it's greased surface. "Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!" she cried trying to take off again before getting to the edge. Instead she got air just in time to hit the wall again, slightly softer and leaving her only dazed.

"Hah! you can't even do it right as a pegasus." Geemi declared with pride once more.

"Whatever I'm done placing all our stuff. What about all the stuff of the stuff you're getting?" She asked hovering next to Steel Wing.

"Have it all gathered I'll pick it up tomorrow morning. Then I go." Steel Wing noticed how heavily the orange pegasus was sweating, he saw her visibly holding herself back from panting with exhaustion. "You're great, keep at it kid." He said encouragingly.

Bits looked confused but felt pride swelling in her chest from the honest to goodness praise from what she believed was the mackdaddy of all pegasai.

He was already at the door tossing a frustrated Lilly onto his back.

--------------------------------------

A few minutes later Steel Wing and Lilly sat in the lobby of the guard's headquarters waiting to be shown in to see Miss Griff. It was 9 o'clock by the time they had arrived, and most everyone not on duty was already in bed. When the front desk pony said she was going to be busy with paperwork all night Steel Wing simply strolled into the hallway to find Griff for himself.

Eventually he found a door who's handle had been intentionally replaced with a knob likely to keep ponies from easily intruding into the office. Steel Wing being determined to deliver his very important news in the form of a statement from Lilly was not deterred. With a great deal of effort and several failed attempts the knob finally turned and the door swung open. Steel Wing simply strolled in with Lilly in tow.

The room was decorated with a big game motif with several of the wasteland's more lethal creatures mounted up on walls. The body of a tainted parasprite sat preserved in a glass case on the wall opposite Griff's desk. A desk which Griff herself had fallen asleep at. Several stacks of various papers lay scattered around the desk some even spilling onto the floor. Steel Wing, knowing full well that her probable reaction to surprise would be with sharp talons, caused him to refrain from his usual method of waking sleeping targets.

He lifted a hoof slowly tapping on the desk until she began to stir. "Just put them with the others." she muttered barely half awake.

"Actually this is important unlike," Steel Wing began staring down at what he learned were the numerous submitted complaints scattered across the floor. "uh-- the scratching sound someone is hearing at night."

Groggily the griffon lifted her head, blinking her eyes a few times. When she was absolutely positive there was a giant pegasus standing in front of her desk she sat up straight.

"Look if you have a formal complaint you wish to give in person you'll be next after a hundred and ten other townsponies."

"This is about a major problem concerning the entirety of the population. Quite literally and figuratively."

"Heard it before. Don't get me wrong I like you but you will have to wait your turn."

Steel Wing waited for her to finish with an impassive look on his face when she had finished trying to shoo him away he stated flatly, "The younger and significantly large population of orphans is being taken to Armory, the slaver stronghold."

Corona simply stared at him for a long while, "You have some proof?"

"Word of mouth from a foal who ought to know." he said placing Lilly on the desk for the griffon to see.

"I know her, she's always being brought in for petty theft." She scratched her head trying to remember, "The worst of liars I have ever known. So what does she actually have to say?"

Steel Wing nudged the shivering foal encouragingly. "I- I..."

The poor foal looked like she was about to wet herself on the desk. Griff gently patted her head, and tried to stroke her mane. She got as far as the patting before Lilly flinched away from the talons. The gesture was well received and the foal put on a brave face.

"Three of my friends disappeared a couple weeks ago; a foal, a filly who was four years older than me, and a colt. None of them said they were leaving and all us other orphans have tried to find them but we can't."

Once she spoke she started trying to find a way off the desk and out of Corona's sight. Steel Wing was too busy watching the trembling griffon on the other side of the desk to help.

A talon started carving grooves into the desk, "Why haven't you orphans come to me before about this." Her voice trembling with barely contained rage with a hint of suspicion.

"Every time we do one of us gets taken. It isn't always the one who comes but we stopped trying."

Corona had begun to polish one of her guns while she listened, "Have you ever tried to come in to get help?" She asked toying with the trigger.

"Griff are you alright?" Steel Wing asked pulling Lilly off the desk.

"Yeah I did once, never again." Lilly said from Steel Wing's back.

"Who-" Corona had to take a few shaky breaths before continuing, trying to restrain herself in front of a foal was clearly physically taxing. "Who did you talk to?"

"An amber buck, Tracker I think."

"If you'll excuse me for a moment I need to go wake up the guards."

With that the griffon rose still trembling talons balled up into a fist, trying to prevent herself from drawing a weapon. "I'll be right back just stay here." The door closed slowly and clicked shut behind her.

Once her soft steps died away Steel Wing felt a tap on his neck, "Am I in trouble?" Lilly asked in concern.

"You're probably more safe than you've ever been." Steel Wing assured.

A few minutes of silence later the two heard the sound of many ponies galloping out through the reception area. Followed by the near shrieks of Corona as she ordered them to move "...faster than equinely possible..."

The galloping began to die down as they heard the sound of padded feet charging towards the door, stopping for a fraction of a second just outside to turn the knob. The griffon literally flew back into the room face contorted with rage.

"That fucker, why didn't I see it myself!?" Her voice shrill.

"Griff is everything alr-"

"Call me Griff again and I'll gouge your damned eyes out with a rusty spoon!" She shouted, "Now you, if you refuse to use those wings get out there and start rounding up all the orphans who might still be out. I'm going to find out where he is if it's the last thing I do." She started going through a stack of already opened letters some of them unintentionally shredded by the manic griffon.

"Was it him, er Tracker?"

"Yes, and these are all from Armory. Meeting times and-" She came to a very new looking envelope, new for the wasteland was simply that it wasn't crumpled up or covered in smudges. Quickly scanning through the letter her face turned from rage to maniacal glee. "Oh he's out already, and I know where this is happening. I'm going to enjoy coating my talons in his blood."

Steel Wing felt a chill run down his spine upon seeing the bloodlust awaken in the normally taciturn yet friendly griffon. "I'm glad you found the pony responsible for this but you aren't planning to go to a meeting with slavers all alone are you?"

"No, I'm not you're right." She agreed regaining some composure. She merely needed to look Steel Wing in the eyes to gain a nod of silent agreement from him.

"Come with me then I can't take a bunch of guards since there's children involved." Steel Wing was relieved to hear that she was thinking tactically again. She landed next to Steel Wing and picked Lilly, causing her to scream a moment before she was pressed to the crying griffons breast. "They took my foals and colts, my children. I'm supposed to protect you and I didn't. I'm so sorry."

She held the dazed foal out in front of her looking at her as if her forgiveness would make it all better. That dream quickly died in her eyes as she carefully placed Lilly back on the floor.

"Right meet me outside, and armor up at least three little ponies will be using us as shields. A shield without magic or metal is a blanket after all."

"What about Lilly?"

She looked back down and thought a moment. "You tired little one?" Her voice unrecognizable from her previous tone. Lilly tried to shake her head instead letting out a big yawn. "A terrible liar like I said." Corona scooped the foal back up and put her back down on a bed in the corner of the room. "Sleep here you'll be safe, if you aren't then I don't deserve to alive either now do I."

Lilly heard nothing else already drifting away to sleep on the softest bed she'd had in ever.

"Outside ten minutes." Corona ordered.

Recognizing her authority inside of her own town he snapped off a real salute and quickly darted out the door.

--------------------------------------

Back at the inn Steel Wing darted through the table filled area scooting them out of his way only pausing briefly to ask where Autumn Heart was. The bar tender informed him of a second bed in the room he had awoken in. He was off before the bar pony finished telling him that Autumn Heart had asked for some privacy.

Steel Wing barged into the room and caught Autumn Heart in the act of clopping, a sight that stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Nnngh... Oh? Ahhhhh!!" Autumn Heart's voice rose several octaves to a scream as she flipped off the bed. Steel Wing backpedaled into the hall angry that this was costing him time. "What's so damn important?" Autumn Heart shouted getting up on wobbly legs.

"Foals and colts are being sold to slavers right now and we need to get moving." He said trotting back into the room.

Autumn Heart's flushed face and angry glare vanished when he came in without any hint of a joke in his eyes. "Goddesses, what are you going to do?" She asked her arousal quickly fading.

"I'm going to give you this combat armor, grenade launcher, and shit ton of grenades. Then get into my own armor and leave you to decide whether or not you're coming." He spat tossing the aforementioned gear at her.

"Uh, yeah I'm coming." She muttered starting to get into her armor.

"Don't say just do!" He barked trying to focus on his own armor.

Steel Wing was suited far more quickly than Autumn Heart and with three minutes left he roughly helped her get into her own. "Whatever grenades you're taking take and lets go." He was already out the door.

--------------------------------------

Corona was waiting for the two of them outside the guards quarters annoyed at having to wait the entire ten minutes she had allotted them. An equally annoyed Steel Wing followed by a flustered Autumn Heart finally arrived. "A few guards are after us because we refused to stop for questions." Steel Wing said trying to catch his breath.

And on cue several guard ponies caught up with the three, stopping when they saw their captain talking with the two suspects. "Get back to your patrols!" She shrieked at them. Two of the guards hardly needed to be told once already flipping around when they caught her gaze. The last one flailed over himself before galloping away.

"You two you're with me." She said without dropping her authoritative voice.

Autumn Heart was a bit reluctant to keep running, Steel Wing on the other hoof felt like he'd just finished his warm up exercises. The two ponies were off after the lead griffon flying ten or so feet above them.

--------------------------------------

Five minutes outside the gate later Steel Wing called Corona down closer to the ground remembering to use her real name. "I have a plan." He informed both of his companions.

"I'm listening." They said in unison.

--------------------------------------

Twenty minutes later Steel Wing and Autumn Heart had slowed to a brisk trot, the land mark Corona had read about in the letter was just a hundred yards off. She informed her companions of this then flew off to enact her part of the plan.

"For the record I don't ever want to talk to you ever again if this doesn't work." Autumn Heart couldn't hold back her complaint.

"Trust me you won't be able to talk if you're dead, for now quit talking they can probably hear us." He bit back silencing her.

"...and it's getting down to less than half. I can't keep up with this demand for much longer or people will start to notice. Besides which I-"

"Luna damn you, you left in such a hurry we had to run to catch up with you!" Steel Wing called no more than twenty feet from an amber coated traitor, six armed body guards, and a suave looking stallion who watched their approach with a scowl.

"These friends of yours Tracker?" He asked thrusting a hoof in their general direction.

"Why I, uh-" Tracker was visibly shaken by the pissy tone of the slaver.

"We're a couple guards who wanted in on this whole thing, figured Tracker'd need help since things are getting a little tighter."

The slaver raised an skeptical eyebrow at Tracker.

"Hey um you two, can I talk to you for a sec?" Track waved the armored intruder ponies over.

"What's up boss?" Steel Wing asked in a hushed tone.

"Who in the Goddess forsaken wasteland are you two? Are you trying to get me killed." He hissed.

"Yes." Autumn Heart snapped back much to Steel Wing's surprise. That wasn't in the script my dear.

"What do you mean yes who are you?"

"Friends of the good captain." Steel Wing admitted grin growing wider.

"She knows?" Steel Wing nodded. "Well then- then what happens to me?" Tracker asked with growing alarm.

"Everything alright?" The slaver pony cut in.

"Yep debating something right quick." Tracker responded his voice nearly cracking.

"Well what happens to you depends on how much you're willing to help retrieve all the children you've sold away."

"I can't do anything and three of us can't do anything either. Taking these guys on is suicide."

"For you maybe." Autumn Heart retorted, "If you get lucky enough and actually help us out here you might get off a little bit easier."

"Did you think we'd come unprepared for this?" Steel Wing asked.

"I- I don't know." Tracker had clearly given up on this night going the way he'd wanted.

"Good now keep going with your deal until we give the signal for shit to hit the fan, then run for cover. And if you give any hint whatsoever about what's going down you don't get a warning."

"What's the signal?"

Steel Wing broke away from the huddle ignoring the question, Autumn Heart followed suit.

"Right all done with that then."

A piercing screech shot through the night above their heads.

"The hell was that!" One of the guards shouted mouth sitting around his battle saddle trigger.

"Sounded like a griffon, probably talon merc." Steel Wing said waving a hoof, "This ain't there business so they ain't our problem." Giving Tracker a swift kick and a wink he turned his head towards Autumn Heart. "Now we were just talking and we decided that we'd give you an extra foal we picked up on the way out here. Actually managed to put up a fight." He quickly struck a pose, "Hard to imagine I know but-"

"Alright enough. Where is the little cunt?" The slaver interrupted.

"All nice and passed out in a bag." Steel Wing said poking his head into one of Autumn Hearts bags. He carefully wrapped his tongue around the master pin for the bag of grenades, lifting his head out slowly he said, "Cath!" Tossing the bag to a body guard who was so very luckily in between the slaver and the rest of the guards.

Just as the guard caught it Steel Wing spat the master pin out onto the ground.

"This is the running part!" Steel Wing announced executing a perfect about face and running. Followed by Autumn Heart then Tracker. All three followed by what could easily have been the loudest ever since the last recorded sonic rainboom. Everything within fifteen feet of the bag was annihilated everything inside of thirty feet was just sent through the air. The three running ponies were in the latter category.

Steel Wing could tell he wasn't unconscious yet all he could do was stare up at the clouds until his ears finally began to ring. "Much better." He said, being that the ringing dominated all else he wasn't sure if it was loud enough to be appreciated by anyone else.

Autumn Heart was soon standing over him trying to say something and pointing a hoof at her ear. He smiled and shrugged. With a look of annoyance she plucked out an ear plug continuing to motion at, going into a tirade that Steel Wing was glad he couldn't hear.

While watching her go on and on about something, an object struck his hoof, another his head then a few more. They weren't heavy but there were a lot of them and a lot more coming. Autumn Heart was interrupted by this light shower of bits and pieces; of bits and caps he soon discovered as a rather warm cap landed in his eye. It was raining caps, Praise Luna. Blow up slavers get money rain. Duly Noted. It became apparent that he was laughing rather loudly as Autumn Heart looked at him in concern. Before long his laughter caused her to crack a smile and she too began to laugh.

Not long after the shower ended Steel Wing had regained most of his hearing; whereupon a much more content and relaxed Corona landed next to him. In fact she looked a little light headed the way she stumbled on her landing. Grinning from cheek to cheek she helped Steel Wing back up onto his hooves.

"Thank you, I needed that." She gave him a quick hug. He giggled as her soft feathers tickled his face.

Pulling back he asked, "Needed what, help?"

She simply laughed as she took off, "I'll see you back in town." And she was off.

"Hey Autumn Heart where'd you run off to?" Steel Wing called looked around he found her sitting mouth agape staring off at something. He trotted up next to her and she did not react he poked her in the rib, "Hey you ready to head back?"

He decided to take a look at what she saw. A tree, dead of course, thirty yards or so out had been decorated with streamers of some kind. "Not that pretty." He said trotting out to get a better look. His mood quickly darkened, his smile faded and his pace slowed to a complete stop ten feet away. Strung around the tree were the intestines of a pony, a pony Steel Wing noted was once named Tracker. His body hung as the centerpiece of the decor, swinging back and forth with his intestines keeping him aloft.

Steel Wing swallowed the lump in his throat, and shuddered to fight back a rising tide of his lunch that day. He failed to a second time when the strung up pony groaned an inequine wail escaping his mouth. Steel Wing emptied his stomach twice over.

Why do I never carry a gun why?! "Oh buck me!" He shouted. With a determined grimace on his face he charged the tree turned and bucked the tree for all he was worth. The tree shook but did little else. "Just fall damn it!" He pleaded with the barely living pony. Again and again he tried. Finally on the thirteenth strike the body swung down still attached by one end of his digestive tract. With all the speed he had Steel Wing ran to the body and crushed the skull attempting to grant the living corpse.

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Steel Wing and Autumn Heart walked back to the town in silence, walked and nothing else. The half hour trip out took them till dawn in their state.

When the guards had called out to them the only thing that had gotten them in was Sweet Spot recognizing Steel Wing through the sight of her scope. She tried to ask them about what had happened, the simply pushed past her.

To the inn, up the stairs, both to their own beds. Steel Wing tried to find something funny to say about what had happened when he'd charged in. All his thoughts were simply drowned out by the memory of Tracker's last statement of absolute torment and pain.

As much as he didn't want to his body needed rest. Reluctantly he closed his eyes planning for the nightmares that would now include trees decorated for Heart's Warming. Naturally all the decorations were ponies.

Footnote: Level Up!

Steel Wing - Level 8

New Perk Added
Shrapnel Proof - All shrapnel and scatter fire based damage against you is reduced by 20%

Autumn Heart - Level 6

Chapter 5: A Magical Solution

Waking up in the morning feeling like you just got done living a nightmare before you were ever in a bed is a difficult way to wake up. Steel Wing could guess how Autumn Heart had felt the day after she had almost been raped. She had bounced back from it quite well, considering what he had walked in on last night. Finally something funny to think about, since that tree. "Fuck, right back to it." He murmured.

There was something he knew he had to do, and that was confront the psychotic griffon that was protecting this town. Autumn Heart stirred as his hooves hit the floor.

"Breakfast?" She asked sleepily.

"Corona, then breakfast." He replied softly.

"Don't get killed, sharp talons trees." Steel Wing could tell she was already falling back to sleep.

"Yeah I'll try not to." He was at the door before remembering that not having a gun was a large issue last night. He took a simple beam pistol and put it in holster on his left foreleg. A holster that had taken him some time to strap on. He realized he'd have to invest on time efficient gear or probably just roll over and die.

Pushing through the bar slowly again, the barpony eyed him warily after his stampede last night. "I'll pay you for any damages." He promised. The barpony nodded with mild satisfaction.

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Sitting once again in the empty lobby of the guard's station, Steel Wing simply watched the receptionist unicorn as she leafed through papers. One of very few, he noted, that he had spotted that was a resident of the town. "What am I waiting on this time?" Steel Wing was actually starting to be unnerved by the anticipation.

"Hmmm? Oh you can go back. I assumed you would go back whenever you pleased." The unicorn replied in a mocking tone. Clearly a pony who was a firm believer in organized processes. He trotted back without comment; an organized enemy, no matter how weak is still a threat.

Steel Wing stopped in front of the door to Corona's office. On the one hoof he didn't want to fiddle with the door between his hooves. On the other, using his mouth to try to open it would mean putting something in his mouth that he was sure was covered in the blood of a recently disemboweled pony. Taking the third, and by him least practical, option he tapped the door forcefully four times with his hoof.

"Just a minute~" Corona sang from the other side. When the door opened Steel Wing noted straight off that she was still wearing the same smile from last night. Even more she seemed to be basking in the afterglow of some rather intimate activity. "Oh how's my new favorite metal clad assistant doing?" She cheered, pulling him into the room.

Now that she stood in the light he saw that her darker feathers had a matted down and even darker patch. His face had touched there when she'd hugged him. He broke from her grasp and dashed to a mirror, and sure enough the entire right half of his face was covered in blood. Now he knew why Sweet Spot had given up on her questions so quickly.

"We need to talk now." Steel Wing could hardly look at the beaming griffon. "Why is it so cold in here?" Averting his gaze he spotted a shivering pile of cloth in the corner.

Eye's wide in horror he turned back to her, "You didn't come in here to complain about my AC unit did you?" She said without losing her smile.

"You let Lilly out when you got back didn't you?" Steel Wing said as evenly as he could.

"Uhhh... oh the foal? Yeah I think she got out." She giggled wrapping her arms around herself.

Steel Wing quickly moved over to the shivering mound. Unwrapping it he found the foal eyes full of fear, upon seeing Steel Wing she grabbed onto his muzzle for dear life still shaking.

"No she's here and she's terrified what did you do?" Steel Wing turned back to her bouncing the little foal as he spoke. Lilly clambered over his head and curling up in the ample warmth of his long mane.

"I didn't do anything to her." She replied with complete honesty.

"Well, What have you been doing? And why in the hell is it so cold in here?" Lilly had since ceased shivering so violently since she began to share heat with Steel Wing.

"I can get both of those in one: I was trying to cool off from last night, I was feeling so good I knocked out all those written complaints; I've had fifty ponies through here this morning. I usually have enough patience for two. I needed that so badly you have no idea." She had lifted off the ground in her joy.

"Needed what!?" Steel Wing questioned for the second time.

"Blood~" She said dreamily.

"Get in my saddle bag." He whispered, Lilly complied, sliding down into the mostly empty pack. She resumed shaking in the bag, more from nervousness than from the cold.

"Oh you're a not an evil raider pony, so you think I'm terrible or something right." Corona asked finally catching up with the rest of the world.

Steel Wing nodded as his wings began to unfold.

"Well give me a sec to explain myself." She said moving over to open a window. Her usual practical minded voice had returned, but occasionally Steel Wing saw her body unintentionally shudder after taking a few steps. Opening the window she stuck her head out and inhaled the outside air greedily. Turning off the very effective AC unit she opened up, "There was absolutely no way I was going to let that bastard live."

Steel Wing let his wings open fully and had them hang to his sides still at the ready.

"We never met back when I was free to do as I wished so I don't expect you to appreciate what you saw."

"So when you weren't a guard captain you strung ponies up by their innards and left them to die slowly?" Steel Wing heard a scared whimper from his pack.

"No, almost never; granted I may have gotten carried away, but being the guard captain means I have to deal with papers and bullshit. Come on though you know the feeling of a fight, that great rush from battle don't you?"

Steel Wing nodded with some understanding. "So imagine that feeling only fifty times stronger. It's like sex except the feeling can last for days."

Clearing his throat he reminded Corona, "Foal present."

"Now imagine you don't get that feeling for months. It was driving me up a wall and making me depressed at the same time. You'd be a little out of it too if you were going through withdrawl like that."

"So you have an addiction to combat, and you don't wash the blood off, choosing to instead wear it like some kind of macabre trophy?" Steel Wing summarized hesitantly.

"Yeah that sounds about right, so yes I got carried away; but that need for, er blood, coupled with how pissed I was at one single pony, anybody who knew me would see that coming.I mean I can still feel it. "

"Urf mrf urv." Lilly

"Kid I can't hear a word you're saying." She had gone to stretching out on her bed, "Will you let her out of there? That's starting to annoy me."

Steel Wing obliged, the black foal popped out of the bag gasping for air. "Blech! It smells like black powder in there!" Looking around nervously she said, "So everything is okay?"

"Yeah we're cool, and sorry if I scared you."

"I've seen worse; I live on the street after all." The foal said preaching the facts of life.

"I hope you aren't saying that the streets of my town are dangerous." Corona said sitting back up.

"Mmhm, hell our biggest source of food is all the radroaches running around. Lucky for us somepony snagged a huge crate full of rad-away; half a bag each will get any one of us through a whole week of eating irradiated garbage." She preached again to the both of them.

"But we had the radroach problem basically taken care of last week, our patrols haven't seen any since."

"Yep you're welcome." She grinned having the upper hoof on the grownups.

"Any other problems you young ones are having?" The griffon pressed, feeling her motherly instincts taking over her normally rational mind.

"Yep!" Lilly confirmed without realizing how much it was worrying the griffon whose job was to fix problems.

"Leave her with me, I think there are some issues that I've overlooked, ones I'll be addressing as quickly as I learn about them." With that she flew over and sat behind her desk indicating a spot where the filly should be placed.

"You're not going to get weird again are you?" Lilly asked as she settled down on the desk.

"If I do that will probably be the least of your worries." Corona reached out to pat Lilly again and this time there was no flinching. It gave the griffon a warm smile she could wear for the rest of the day.

Steel Wing quietly left them to their discussion.

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Back at the inn, Steel Wing paid off his debt to the owner and double checked that his roommate hadn't requested privacy again. The barpony informed him that Autumn Heart had left and wanted him to wait for her return. Against his better judgment he started ordering drinks, something he hadn't indulged in in a very long time.

A bottle and a half of some obscure brand of rum later, part of which Steel Wing convinced the barpony to drink, Steel Wing was in good spirits. The barpony whose name was Tips and who's cutie mark was a jar of bits and caps, had even managed to make a joke about the blood on the pegasus warrior's face.

Two hours after they had decided to stop, Steel Wing was beginning to feel the effects. It was at this time that Steel Wing felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see a unicorn mare pointing at a seat next to him.

"Is this taken?" She asked already knowing the answer and climbing up. Steel Wing felt a chill spread through his body, his alcohol fogged mind didn't immediately identify why though. Giving him her best flirty look she said, "What business does a big buck like you have sitting in a bar all on his own?"

It took Steel Wing a few moments to process the question and a few more to figure out she was attempting to flirt with him, "I- am waiting for a friend to get back."

"How long is he going to be out?" she fished leaning in closer.

"She," Steel Wing corrected, "is, I don't really know."

"It doesn't seem right for her to leave you to drink alone like this does it." The unicorn pouted leaning even closer.

"Autumn Heart is her own mare." Steel Wing absentmindedly moved the half bottle of rum closer to the unicorn, he'd paid for it why let it go to waste? "I'm done with it you can have the rest."

"Very generous of you." Smiling she levitated the bottle to her lips and took a large gulp making a disapproving yet cute face. Subtly, she levitated her stool closer to Steel Wing and was now physically touching him using his body to support her. "How close are you and this, Autumn Heart." She asked waving a hoof in the air.

"We're good friends." He shifted to make her weight on his body more comfortable, not questioning why it was there in the first place.

"Just friends?" She asked a grin spreading across her muzzle.

"Yes." he confirmed, "Just friends. Why?"

Tips simply shook his head at the scene and went on cleaning dishes and serving drinks. Hope he's not this clueless when he's sober. He shook his head again and trotted to the other end of the bar.

"Well I was just wondering if maybe you had some time for a mare like me." Steel Wing looked down at her confusedly. She winked back.

His brain processed the implication properly but chose the opposite of a proper response, "I don't think my sister would be to happy with me doin' what you're askin' me to do." In his mind it was the truth and it made sense to tell the truth. To the unicorn it was confusing and begged to be further divulged.

"Why would your sister have an opinion of what mares you took to the bedroom?" Attempting to keep her cutesy tone.

"Well..." He began, "For one thing, she used to get kinda antsy whenever I was playing with other mares as a kid. She did grow out of it though. I guess she had even offered to find another pony to join us, I told her she was all I needed."

"All you needed for...?"

"Oh!" He was struck by the revelation of what she was asking. "She was all I needed for se-uuuuurrgh." The second revelation that hit him was that he had almost admitted to having a physical relationship with his sister. Tips had even begun to listen and wasn't trying to hide it at this point.

Steel Wing glared at the bottle of rum sitting on the bar. "You almost got me." Pointing a hoof at the bottle and laughing.

"Steel Wing, you alright?" Autumn Heart asked from his left.

"Oh hey!" He cheered hopping down causing the unicorn to fall off her stool. "I've been waiting for you and meeting new people. The barpony, his name is Tips. Her name is- errr..." Looking over apologetically at the unicorn mare. "I never asked your name, mine is Steel Wing by the way."

"Polaris." The non alcohol consuming mare was already unsteady on her hooves after her swig of rum. "What was that you were saying about your sister." She attempted in vain.

Before Steel Wing could potentially expose the history of his love life Autumn Heart cut in, "Probably something about missing her." She said as she was corraling him towards the hall to their room.

"Nice meeting you Polaris, I think my roommate and I are going to have a talk now." He waved his hoof at her in addition to walking forward while looking back at the tipsy unicorn, subsequently he faceplanted into the stairs. He picked himself up and kept walking like nothing had happened taking much more care with his steps.

"Filly can't get any love in this town." Polaris levitated the bottle of rum off the bar and exited the bar, with a face full of glee. "He'll do nicely." Outside the gate she waved to a hill a half mile off, the guards watched her carefully while she stood silently, a sudden flare from her horn and she was gone.

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Back in the room Steel Wing was getting a talking to about drinking so recklessly. "What if she had been a thief? You'd be out of equipment. Hell the state you're in she could have removed your wings, nevermind the plates the whole damn wing."

"Don't ever joke about that." Steel Wing leveled his gaze at her, not trace or even hint of a smile.

"Right, sorry. Now last night Corona told me you had talked about assaulting some town called Armory, right?"

"Yep, but I've been thinking about your delivery, and as much as I want to help save those slaves I did make a promise to you first. Once you're delivery is complete I'll still have plenty of time to shut down that whole operation."

"Yeah and I wanted to talk to you about my delivery. As long as the bags with food in them remained closed, the food should be fine which you probably new in some small part. This is something I still can't quite get my head around and it's why I want to help you help those slaves." Steel Wing cocked his head in interest. "There is no due date for this delivery. There's a bonus for a speedy delivery, but the note pretty much said as long as it gets there it's fine."

"A really patient really rich ghoul?" Steel Wing suggested.

"We had a bet going back home. That was one of the choices actually, also where most of the money went."

"So you're saying that you don't mind if I go out of your way to help ponies?"

"I'm saying I'd be upset with myself if I didn't let you do what was right just to make my life better."

"Thanks, I appreciate this, a lot." Steel Wing then attempted to giver her a hug but couldn't quite judge the distance between them. With a sigh Autumn Heart moved closer so he could hug her. "What's your cuite mark by the way?" Changing the subject as he crawled into his bed.

"You haven't seen it?" She wiggled her rump at him.

"Nope, haven't." He made a motion with his hoof to get her to present her broad side to him.

The cutie mark was of a bullseye target with a letter pinned to the center mark by a throwing knife. "Deadly with a letter opener?" Steel Wing guessed to the best of his intoxicated ability.

"As a foal I was always helping other ponies by taking letters, messages or whatever packages they needed taken around town. I inherited my father's determination. In short I can get anything to exactly where it needs to be."

"Neat."

"You really don't even let yourself look at flanks?" The subject of his repressed urges was a concern that Autumn Heart now shared with the somewhat twisted griffon.

"Should I be?" He asked still remembering his reaction to seeing her go up the ladder. "Would you like it if I followed behind you all the time staring at your plot?"

Autumn Heart's face reddened a bit. "Well no I'm not saying you should do it. I just always assumed it was something a colt did secretly." She shook away the blush. "I'm just wondering what you think about during your free time maybe."

"Oh, if that's all then you could have just asked." Settling onto his pillows he thought about what he thought about. "When I'm in a town like this, not a lot. Unless something big happened I guess, like Corona's display last night."

"You talked with her didn't you?" She shuddered at the memory.

"Yeah, I'm not okay with it and you don't have to be either. But I do understand it, one 'warrior' to another."

"Why'd she do it then?"

"It's difficult to explain to somepony who hasn't had to fight every day for the last year or so of their life."

"I'd feel better if I could at least hear her reasoning."

Steel Wing relented and began explaining combat addicted griffon's excuse for her actions. As he went on Autumn Heart's expression softened similar to how Steel Wing had when he'd heard it. It wasn't a dismissal of such disturbing actions but one of grim understanding.

"So I'm going to sleep off this booze, this evening I'm going to go pick up all of what I traded over at the Triple P."

"Plunders' Pilfered Prizes?" Steel Wing confirmed. "Say hello to those two when you do go there."

"After that I need to go talk to Corona about storming Armory. I don't expect that she can help us physically but if she has info on the defenses and layout it'd be helpful." He concluded.

Autumn Heart yawned, "Isn't it nice to get a break from fighting raiders and running around the wasteland?" Steel Wing's eyes shot open. Here he was sleeping while Slaves were being beaten, bought and sold. He was out of the room in a heartbeat, slowing so as not to piss off Tips again. When he reached the door he was off like a bullet again, nearly knocking over a couple heading into the bar.

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Steel Wing had picked up all of his supplies in under ten minutes, remembering to say hi to the twins from Autumn Heart. He was now strolling down the hall to Corona's office.

He knocked twice and was about to knock a third time when Corona swung the door open and put a talon to her beak, "Shhhhhh. Lilly is asleep." Steel Wing gave her a quizzical look. "What she was tired after we got done talking so I let her go back to sleep on my bed." She indicated a small bundle of blanket resting on a pillow that was rising and falling steadily.

"Right well I've been drinking a while and it hit me that I have a slave camp to charge. I came here to ask if you can give me any advice on not running headlong into unexpected walls."

"You need info on the layout of the compound?" She asked flatly.

"Don't know what to tell you fliers get shot down if they get within fivehundered yards of Armory air space. They have several operational AA guns."

Steel Wing closed his eye's in frustration. "So you're telling me that I'm going to have to go in blind and bring out several dozen slaves. Don't get me wrong I still want to help and I'm going to do what I can. Still I think I'm pretty well bu-"

"Hang on a minute, I didn't say I couldn't help you." She flew back into the room over to a large metal locker. It opened revealing its contents. Her black and red energy pistols were hung with care on either side. On the back wall of the locker was a suit of prototype griffon power armor. The pegasus, who's wings could cut a pony's head clean off and then take a bullet like a shield, was in silent awe of the display. Grenades of all kinds, all sorts of near pristine energy weapons, mulitple custom parts for all sorts of near pristine energy weapons, boxes of gem cartridges. A bit of drool escaped Steel Wing's mouth Corona simply stared with loving pride at her collection of multicolored beam firing scorch causing death tools.

Snapping himself out of his fantasy of showing this off to a whole room of Steel Rangers he turned to her, "Why are you showing me this?" If the initial disappointment of her lack of information had been sobering the sight of her equipment had an extremely opposite effect. His brain was once again in a state of slow processing.

"I'm coming with you, and I said be quiet." She pointed again to the sleeping foal.

"But what about your town?" He whispered.

"I have a second in command and a back up for her too. The guards know their duties and know how to watch for approaching invaders. I can leave for a little while and be fine."

"Who's your second?" Steel Wing asked skeptically.

"Sweet Spot, our sharp shooter." Steel Wing nodded in approval.

"What about Lilly?" He continued down the list of her priorities so she could dismiss them in order of already taken care of.

"What about Lilly?" She repeated.

"Look I'm still a little drunk from earlier but even I can tell that you care for that foal quite a lot. More than you do about the other orphans and I know how you get about protecting the other orphans." His words seemed to strike home. She was caught beyond the point of denying it, and by a drunk no less.

"Yeah okay, so a foal has a special place in my heart so what; are you just amazed that I have a heart or some stupid crap like that?" She asked defensively

"No that isn't it. I was asking because I imagine you two bonded after yesterday."

"Sort of yeah." She confessed.

"What if something happens to you at Armory? That will probably be the loss of yet a third person she cares about, not even counting whoever has already been taken by slavers."

"Don't you dare try to put guilt on me." She hissed talons gouging the door of the locker.

"I'm not trying to guilt you in or out of doing anything I'm just making sure you're sure you've thought of everything. I can find somepony- uh sombody else to help me. I'll probably have to even if you do come but I'm not trying to make you feel any which way at all."

"No, no you're not and I knew that, I'm sorry. Just, I don't know when I think of Lilly I want her to be happy. I don't think anything so young should have such a jaded view of life. Even for the wasteland she thinks dark." Corona proceeded to tell Steel Wing some of the things she and Lilly had talked about. At some points the idea that these things were brought up by a foal were enough to make Steel Wing feel sick to his stomach. He in return told her about the lie she came up with when he had saved her from getting in trouble.

"You know though, these orphans are damn smart at getting by. You were here when they talked about their food supply. Well it turns out with a huge collection of manuals, some spell charts and some rather talented young unicorns; they have a safely functioning water talisman of their own. It isn't perfect and might not last forever but it's also not going to poison them or explode."

Steel Wing would have been impressed had he not gotten hung up on a smaller detail, "You have young unicorns here?"

"Yeah a few, they get adopted fairly frequently near whatever is the average age of getting a cutie mark."

"Who adopts them?" He dreaded her answer already expecting she would tell him it was a mysterious unicorn assassin training camp.

"Some mare who says she's from an academy for young unicorns. I went to check it out when she first showed up. Almost took her head off when I saw her leading a line of unicorns to the front gate. I've been there and it's not a bad place. Some of the unicorns I saw were only a couple years older than the ones she wanted to bring from my town; they were teleporting all over the place. Now I never went to a pony school as a cub but I don't remember any unicorn that could brag about how easy teleporting was for them. Why?"

"Don't take this the wrong way but I think those unicorn orphans are being trained to fight in a serious way. I've met three unicorn assassins since leaving my place, probably not even a day up the road. They all are connected by some damn cult and I'm thinking you're supplying someone who has a serious grudge against me with more assassins. Not saying it's your fault but I'm scared by the thought of how many you've let be adopted."

"Unicorn assassins? Really?" Hard as it was to believe, she could tell when this pegasus was being serious. "Look there may be a cult but I don't think it's coming from that school specifically. Sure they may be training unicorns to fight up there but if you'll recall this is the wasteland full of things that can eat you... an average sized pony in a couple bites. It would be irresponsible not to teach them to defend themselves. Now maybe there are some bad ponies that get booted out for going too far, I can imagine them forming a group of fairly threatening assassins. An entire school dedicated to training unicorns to hunt just seems a bit too far for me to believe."

"Alright I'm sure it will probably come up before you stop helping me but for now I need to make sure I'm ready for this whole army of three assault on a fortress."

"Yeah and now I need a foalsitter. We leaving tonight?"

"One A.M. at the latest." Steel Wing was already out the door.

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Back in the room Autumn Heart had come up with a prank of her own to try on Steel Wing. After yesterday's incident when he walked in on her, she knew he wasn't very used to knocking before entering a room. The plan was simple: let it happen again but with him being the only one embarrassed. All she needed was a couple risque thoughts to get a blush going and then all she'd need to do was listen for his hoof falls. She had convinced herself to go through with this reasoning that it would teach him to knock more often, a lesson in manners is a good thing to do.

Fortyfive minutes after he left she started imagining things she knew would make her blush, expecting him to be back soon, since he was in such a hurry. Ten minutes latter now she couldn't get those thoughts out of her head and they were working a little bit too well. Celestia please don't put me through this, he has it coming and you know it. Her prayer's were instantly answered as she heard the unmistakable thud of Steel Wing coming down the hall. Sticking her rump up in the air she put her face in the pillow and waited for the door to open.

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Steel Wing even though he had come to terms with what Corona did last night still felt like he'd lost an entire nights sleep. Now with the potential threat of an entire academy of well trained magical assassins plus the upcoming assault on Armory was seriously fatiguing him. He sent a prayer to whoever would hear it that he could get some sleep before all this could fall on his head.

Slowly wearily Steel Wing made it to his room. He was half way through climbing into bead when he heard something truly disturbing. "Oh Steel Wing harder! I want more please!" His wide eyes traveled over to Autumn Heart's bed where he saw her with her rear presented very clearly to him moaning his name into her pillow.

All at once her hind legs came together as a tremor ran through her body, she fell to her side panting. She threw a glance around the room, her expression changed from exhausted and pleased to absolute terror. She scrambled to wrap herself in the blanket to hide from him.

"Oh goddesses what the fuck?!" He cried diving down to avoid looking at her.

"Out of everypony in the wasteland I get stuck with the one who can't knock!" She shouted angrily at him.

"I errr, why can't you find someplace that I don't also have access to, to clop? Why here!?"

"I have nowhere else to go all I want is a little privacy once in a while jeeze."

"Well tell me sometime and I'll leave you in peace for an entire day; I am really getting tired of seeing your plot every time we share less than thirty feet of space with each other."

There was no response to this no noise at all. He poked his head over the bed and saw her, head in a pillow taking in shuddering breaths. For a filly who almost got raped she gets pretty upset when somepony doesn't want to be intimate with her.

"Autumn Heart don't cry please, I'm just a little upset but I didn't mean to yell at you." He slowly moved next to her bed. Instead of hearing the stifled sobs of a distraught mare he heard barely covered giggles. "You're laughing?"

She threw the pillow at him and no longer tried to hide how hard she was laughing. Hindlegs kicking wildly in the air she rolled around until she fell off the bed continuing to laugh.

"Why are you laughing?" He ran around the bed to be face to face with her.

"Because, the look on your face!" Autumn Heart couldn't stop laughing to talk and her abdomen was beginning to hurt.

"You planned that." Steel Wing concluded sitting down hard hoof on face.

"Yes, that is exactly what I did." She said sitting up wiping tears from her eyes. "Payback." She stated.

"Payback for wha- oh, yeah you got me." Steel Wing bowed low in recognition of her victory. "Even?" He asked hopefully extending a hoof.

"Even." She agreed tapping his hoof with her own.

"Good because I really do need some sleep. Also Corona is going with us to Armory." He was already under the covers holding a pillow between his forelegs like it was trying to escape the other cushioned his head like a cloud. By the time Autumn Heart had decided to voice an opinion of Corona accompanying them he was miles away, dreaming of lazing on clouds with the sun's glow warming him. The look of contentment on Steel Wing's face dissuaded Autumn Heart from disturbing him instead she left the room as quietly as possible.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The clouds were as soft as Steel Wing could remember, because he knew it as a dream he did his absolute best to remember. The sun was off and he could tell. Not even in dreams could you truly capture the glory of the sun, a sad truth since this was as close as he'd get to the real thing for a very long time.

Eventually he noticed his mind was shifting control from his hooves to the dark void where his nightmares lived. He became aware of a large black pony shaped thing standing on the clouds a ways away from him. He sat up to face his nightmare and sure enough it was menacing.

It was a suit of power armor, not one he had ever seen before. It appeared to be a suit of uniquely built Enclave armor. It's normally flat looking segmented plates each came out to a wickedly sharp looking point. In fact the whole suit looked lethally sharp. It was missing it's stinger it did not appear to have a replacement of any kind other than a section for a pony's tail to be safe in. The suit was hollow, at least Steel Wing couldn't see anything through the open eye sockets. It stood completely still. Now that he was a little closer, Steel Wing began to doubt it was power armor at all; no energy weapons on it's sides, the open eye ports told him there probably wasn't a normal targeting spell matrix if it had one at all. There was also the fact that it looked like each piece could be separated from the rest quite easily.

It began to remind him of the old design of armor built for knights long before the war two-hundred years ago started. Sturdy, reliable, but because it was only used in times of war it's use was lost. The thousand years of peace saw to it that this relic of conflict survival disappeared. Up until the war even began, the Canterlot guards were the only ones who had any reason to wear armor, it was for the sake of tradition; at that time they were barely trained in the use of swords. Being picked for their physical traits hoof to hoof suppression tactics were more than enough.

For something that existed more than twelvehundred years ago it was amazing that ponies today knew about it at all. Steel Wing could remember when he'd first heard of them; a book of ancient Equestrian history had been found in a box of junk his several times great grandfather had brought up just before the balefire apocalypse and the clouds were closed. Both container and several of its contents survived the two-hundred and some years before its rediscovery. Among the various war relics was the book very clearly magically and luckily preserved, it had been marked to be sent to the Canterlot Ministry of Image hub on the Ministry Walk. It had never made the trip.

In it were collections of stories handed down through generations of pony families. The eventual founding of Equestria and the first Heart's Warming holiday. He had first seen the armor in a depiction of a massive and tragic battle. Two of the largest pre-Equestria earth pony tribes were in a conflict over a large area of land where both sides were willing to sacrifice so much. The side that won had been for a very long time the leader in the production of weapons and armor and therefore had the advantage at the start of the war.

The pony wearing the armor was rearing up in victory spears broken off between the plates of his armor covered from head to hoof in blood, and the broken bodies of his enemies laying all around him. He was young at the time and had been torn between being uncomfortable with the idea of so much death, and imagining how amazing he was for single-hoofedly defeated so many opponents.

This suit of armor was jetblack and even empty it was intimidating. He could just imagine some poor raider exploding from total fear upon seeing him in this.

Steel Wing moved in closer still to inspect when a black mist began to seep out of the eyes of the armor. It was seemingly alive as it snaked towards him. Before it ever got close to him however it moved into the clouds which began to turn black. He noticed now that the clouds around the hooves of the armor were already blackened and spreading very quickly.

Steel Wing assumed this to be the end of his pleasant dreams. As soon as he accepted this the whole world turned black. The clouds were still there and somehow he knew the armor was there it had moved but it was right in front of him. Then ever so slowly a beam of light illuminated the head of the armor then the neck. Steel Wing's blood turned to ice water when he saw the armor had gained an occupant. A great horn and malevolent eyes were the first he could see of this creature. The beam of light continued to grow wider revealing the rest of the creature. It was an alicorn, an alicorn fully dressed for war. As far as nightmares went this was new.

He stared in awe of the creature is it continued its hateful stare right back. When the beam of light ceased growing Steel Wing realized it was coming from a full moon; it was unnaturally close and silhouetted the alicorn perfectly. Leaving only the eyes and horn truly present. Before Steel Wing realized what was happening he began to walk into the light, he tried stopping himself in a panic before he remembered that nightmares don't work that way.

"DOES ANOTHER THINK TO CHALLENGE ME?" Bellowed the magnificent creature before him. All his life people had told him he was almost as big as the two rulers of Equestria had been. Standing before this alicorn he felt woefully insignificant.

It was waiting for a reply that Steel Wing didn't think he could give he eventually forced himself to speak, "What?" His voice was weak as if he had been drinking nothing but desert air for a week.

"WHAT, WHAT YOU ASK? DO YOU DESIRE THAT I BREAK YOU AND SEND YOUR SOUL TO THE ABYSS?"

"Where am I?" he peeped.

"YOU DO NOT KNOW WHO YOU STAND BEFORE?" It roared indignantly.

"No I'm sorry." Steel Wing was beginning to think this was more than just a dream. He had always thought visions like this were reserved for unicorns looking into memory orbs. To him everything felt foreign and strange, but at the same time very very real.

"WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND, YOU CAME TO US." The alicorn's fury was tempered slightly by his obvious honesty and confusion.

"I should be dreaming." Steel Wing pleaded hoping his mind was still paying attention.

"DREAMING?! WE- you?" The creature was struck silent by some realization Steel Wing would never fully understand. "You came here in a dream?" The voice was serene, it had a very calming effect on Steel Wing. A decidedly female voice that came from all around echoed through the empty sea of clouds rendered invisible by the darkness beyond the moonlight.

"Yes I-" Steel Wing's body began to shudder violently as all the air was finally gone from his lungs the moment he collapsed the alicorn was over him with its horn glowing, channeling some sort of life giving magic into him. It disturbed him slightly to see that the magical aura was just a stream of the black mist that had created the darkness.

"We think you should have died out in the darkness if you have not planned to be here. Yet you have made it here to us soul ravaged but still intact. Who are you?" The black mist swirled around him lifting him back to his hooves, now that he wasn't locked in place his bottom chose to stick itself to the clouds and not move ever again.

"My name is Steel Wing." His voice was now fairly normal, he could have sworn its echo sounded from behind him.

"That- is not what we meant."

"I guess I don't understand your question, forgive me." He honestly meant his apology not wanting to piss off a powerful entity while still inside its domain.

"Be still." It commanded touching its horn to Steel Wing's head.

A tingle shot through Steel Wing's body from head to hoof, then out again but going somewhere he couldn't physically locate. It traveled deeper into this unknown territory for several eternities before finally coming back in an instant to the alicorn's horn.

"You are it." The alicorn's wings suddenly flared and it reared angrily, "THIS CANNOT BE!" In a single powerful motion it was off faster than anything Steel Wing had ever seen before. In seconds it was out of sight.

It had left him alone inside its realm. The moonlight did not fade but the darkness outside still remained. If this was not his own mind then he was trapped elsewhere while ponies in Armory needed his help. The thought of leaving ponies in need fortified Steel Wing's resolved and empowered his courage or perhaps stupidity to charge into the darkness to go back to where he had been laying, back in his dreams.

Charging through the darkness he felt waves of fatigue washing over him slowing his pace drastically. No more than thirty feet away he could see light from a candle perhaps but it was still light. A short gallop, a quick trot, a few more steps, and finally just as the heaviness and fatigue he felt took away all but the last of his energy, the light was just a hop skip and a jump away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Everything blurred as his tried to focus on that small point of light. It didn't get brighter but it wasn't fading away. He reached out to it desperately with a hoof it wobbled for a second before falling away.

"Hey you could have just asked me to blow it out." Came an annoyed mare's voice.

"Autumn Heart?" He had almost become accustomed to the foreign body and voice. This body and voice were very recognizably his but were now made strange by the dream.

"Yeah that's me, and you," a hoof poked his side "are an incredibly heavy sleeper. Corona came in here poking and prodding you with her talons. If it weren't for me she would have left scars, as it was healing bandages was all it took to repair the damage."

Now that he could see her vague shape he had something to focus on to bring himself out of this blurry daze. At length Autumn Heart's concerned face gained clarity as well as the rest of the room.

"Everything alright?"

"Pretty sure I had an actual magical vision. "Yeah just a strange dream."

"Right now the second thing I didn't want to bring up but it'll just be worse if I say nothing." Steel Wing cocked an eyebrow and tried to sit up she pushed him back down. "Ummmm- you know how sometimes a colt can, you were up before you were awake." She gave herself a nod of approval and walked out of the room.

Nothing all that erotic about that. Steel Wing sat up and looked at his little soldier standing at attention. "Well maybe I missed something but I was afraid for my life." It then came to him that his heartbeat was far above a resting tempo and he had broken out in a cool sweat in his sleep. All in all it felt as though he had flown hard for several miles, it felt amazing.

At length his soldier stood down and he got up. Judging by the small amount of ponies still out and about it was probably a little while before midnight. It took him twenty minutes to motivate himself out the door and down the stairs. When he got downstairs he found Corona chatting up Tips and ordering a few drinks. Autumn Heart was at a table organizing the multitude of grenades he'd purchased into efficient and useful combinations. Sparkpulse combined with a fragmentation grenade; anyone using robots as cover would be taken care of fairly quickly. Most of the time it was just bouquets of fragmentation grenades bundled up they way they'd done to take care of the slaver and his thugs. Being an earth pony meant planning ahead, something she did very well when she knew she had to.

He slowly cantered over to where Corona stood. "So I heard you like cutting ponies in their sleep?"

She grinned at him, "I just wanted to see if your tolerance for pain kept you from waking up, it does."

"Same thing happened an hour so before you found Autumn Heart and I. Raiders hit me in the mouth and tied me up I didn't come out of my dream until some time later." He looked over to where Autumn Heart sat and was suddenly fairly sure she could hear them. "I just hope it doesn't get somepony killed next time."

"So you're ready to go?" She inquired putting the assorted bottles of alcohol in a bag.

"Yeah, but weren't you going to wear that power armor?" They moved towards Autumn Heart's table as they spoke.

"Oh did you want me to." She asked sarcastically prompting Steel Wing to raise an eyebrow. "See the armor was a prototype most of the major ease of mobility spell matrices bugs were worked out. Most of them, that left quite a bit of room for experimentation. They looked into what could make them even slightly harder to hit. What could be better than not knowing your opponent was wearing armor." She tapped a wrist with a talon then offered it to Steel Wing. He tried to touch her wrist and was in fact stopped an inch and a half away by the wrist guards of invisible power armor.

"Surely that isn't permanent aren't you wasting valuable power?" He didn't really believe she could be that careless, but it worried him nonetheless.

"Prototype. Armor." She waited to see if he understood; all he gained from it was he didn't really need to worry, not the why. "Experimental spell matrix designed to recharge any depleted spell matrix while itself having a very slowly self-renewing core."

Steel Wing understood and appreciated what he had just been told, Autumn Heart was completely lost hearing the tail end of a conversation about a topic she didn't understand.

"So we are ready to get then right?" Autumn Heart chose to ignore their previous discussion.

They both nodded. She packed up her big bag of bombs and caught up with them as they left.

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They were on their way the town of Sky Fall slowly shrinking away from them.

Steel Wing addressed his two companions in a more authoritative tone than he meant as he laid out his plan, "We keep up a good pace until noon and we should be a couple hours away from Armory assuming no interruptions. I'm well aware this is the Equestrian Wasteland so the chances of a smooth journey are slim to none. Still we have the capability to deal with most problems pretty quickly. Barring a wing of alicorns being ridden by invisible hellhounds in power armor we should be fine. Once noon rolls around we need to decide on the best method of entry. Any questions?"

"Yeah how should we adress you now oh glorious leader." Crona asked voice dripping with disdain.

"Haha. Alright sorry, after three years I'm still not over leading troops into combat situations. It doesn't help that, and I'm not bragging here, I was damn good at it."

"Sure whatever so how fast is a good pace?" She asked looking between the two grounded ponies knowing it wasn't going to be very fast at all.

Without answering Steel Wing took one look at Autumn Heart then broke into a gallop. To his amazement the non warrior earth pony was the first to react to his sudden burst of speed. She matched his pace as excitement and adrenaline began to work its way into her system. Last to react but with the ability to fly Corona was right with them in a few moments. And so they began their daylong journey in a sprint that would carry them as far as they needed to go before exhausting them.

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A little past noon they were considerably farther than Steel Wing had anticipated. According to the navigator built into her suit Corona informed them that they could stop for the day, and at a brisk pace be at Armory by noon tomorrow.Though she had done remarkably well in keeping up it was clear that Autumn Heart had pushed herself much farther than she was used to. Steel Wing at least agreed to stop to rest for her sake.

Off in the distance was the somewhat intact remains of a house it would provide some shelter for the night at least.

As they drew nearer to the house Autumn Heart paused, "Do you hear something?" Corona landed and listened with Steel Wing.

There was in fact a faint noise a whine perhaps, "Maybe it's the wind?" Corona suggested. Another short silence followed during which Corona silently withdrew her input with a shrug of her shoulders.

"It's actually coming from the house." Autumn Heart deduced, she slowly started approaching the house. Steel Wing of course didn't like this considering his paranoia of unicorn assassins waiting behind every air molecule. As they drew nearer it became clear the whining sound was actually a low pain filled moaning.

"I really really don't like this." Steel Wing whispered, Corona nodded in agreement.

The three of them had approached the house from a side missing most of it's wall, when they were close enough it was clear what was making the noises. A familiar looking unicorn lay just inside the house, her normally bright orange coat was stained brown from the blood pooled around her. The source of bleeding was instantly visible, all but one of her hindlegs had been cut cleanly off.

Autumn Heart was already digging through her bags for healing supplies. Corona took to the air because she knew, Steel Wing started running towards Autumn Heart because he felt it, and Autumn Heart was too distracted by locating healing supplies to notice the unicorn pleading with her to run.

Steel Wing lunged using his wings to get to Autumn Heart, the first clawed hand missing his hind leg by less than a second. As soon as he was next to Autumn Heart, Steel Wing put himself under her and reared up sending her into the air; he could only pray that the airborne griffon had anticipated his plan and was ready to react. As Autumn Heart broke contact with Steel Wing's back the second clawed hand came out of the ground piercing through the armor of Steel Wing's right wing near it's base tearing outward shredding his wing into bleeding metal strands.

The first of the hellhounds to emerge was several yards behind Steel Wing and was prepared to pounce on him when an energy beam scorched the ground next to his paw. Corona drew its attention away from Steel Wing who was very quickly flanked by two more of the savage beasts.

The one who'd torn into Steel Wing's wing, had propelled himself out of the earth with his strike. Another simply dug its way up to Steel Wing's left taking a swipe at his legs. Steel Wing's conscious mind was still on the tattered remains of his wing, he simply hopped over the beats claws as they raked through the air where his legs had been reacting simply to the motion.

Violent thoughts suddenly erupted inside Steel Wing's head. He had come to terms with never being able to fly again he was accepting of that. His wings were still his sword and shield and some savage beast of the wasteland had just taken away a part of him. The pain was numbed by fury as he bucked the still half buried hell hound square in the face causing it to retreat. The one who had damaged his wing was now the only shape he could make out around the increasingly violent shades of red that filled the air around it. With a feral roar Steel Wing lunged at the creature that was now a beacon of everything he hated in that moment. The hellhound raised tried to raise its claws to catch Steel Wing's charge but the pegasus was very well trained in hoof to hoof combat, a skill many enemies in the past had underestimated of their winged opponent. Steel Wing plowed straight into the hellhounds chest and rolled over him.

The two were now intertwined; Steel Wing wouldn't be able to use his good wing offensively while their faces were only a couple feet from each other. He continually kept any attacks from his right side in check with his hoof shoving the hellhound's palm away while carefully deflecting attacks from his left with his working plated wing. Whenever the beast tried to snap at Steel Wing's throat he checked it in the jaw with his free left hoof.

Even in his rage, perhaps the most intense of his life, he still kept his mind on the battle as much as he could. The only progress he was making in the brawl was a fractured jaw which would certainly not be lethal. His fury had peaked and was finally leaving him, not however the gravity of his situation. He was able to take in the entirety of the fight now as well as feel all of the pain from his now limp wing. The pain surged through his body giving the hellhound a momentary opening which it took advantage of making several nonsuperficial cuts along Steel Wing's chest with it's temporarily freed hand. Time suddenly slowed to a halt, the once familiar feeling of SATS fell over Steel Wing as he watched the first drops of blood leave his new wounds. He took note of Corona's situation; she had in fact anticipated his plan to save Autumn Heart and currently had the earth pony mare tucked under an arm while raining lasers beams down on the two hellhounds below her. Unfortunately for the experienced griffon not having a place to put Autumn Heart down put her at a great disadvantage in terms of accuracy and maneuverability. Autumn Heart was trying her best to help occasionally scattering grenades down towards the hellhounds, which was the only reason they hadn't been able to place a couple well aimed shots at their avian assailant.

They needed a plan, each of them had exerted themselves during the journey to this point. Both Steel Wing and Corona were moving only because of adrenaline at this point. It suddenly hit him, there were three and only three. The only plan he had would either work or it was simply over for them.

Pinning the hellhound beneath him as thoroughly as possible and shouted, "STOP!" His voice was unnaturally loud, and he could have sworn the world physically froze around him for a moment. Needless to say every living thing within about a mile stopped what they were doing to look towards the source of the sound.

The hellhound let out a pained howl under Steel Wing, his voice had caused the beasts sensitive ears a good deal of pain.

"Pony loud, too much bad sounds." The hellhound snarled at Steel Wing.

"Alright listen." Steel Wing put more weight on the hellhound's palms drew himself up and turned towards its two companions. "You'd better hear me out if you want to live."

"Pony think he scary?" One of the mobile hellhounds mocked.

Steel Wing fixed the "funny" hellhound with a stare that nearly turned its blood to ice. Putting his good wing next to his pinned opponents head he enacted his plan, "There are three of you yes?"

The third hellhound who had not yet spoken looked at Steel Wing appraisingly while at the same time failing to hide its concern at the point the confident pony was trying to make. "So what?" It retorted.

"So you're probably an awful long way from the larger part of whatever pack you're from." Steel Wing was now fishing for the leverage he needed which the more diplomatic of the three hellhounds seemed willing to supply unintentionally.

"We have us we don't need whole pack." It said proudly.

Steel Wing breathed a sigh of relief, "Well consider this," He started, "I have in my hooves all three of your lives."

The hellhound under him growled the "funny" one snorted and the most reasonable of the three was growing more concerned. "Pony prove it, you're blood almost all gone how you kill?"

"All you need is the three of you." He stated simply the hellhound nodded. "If you try to kill my friends or me I kill this one." He motioned towards his hostage with the blade of his wing bouncing harmlessly off its toughened hide.

"Then pony dies too." It hadn't quite gotten the point of Steel Wing's position.

"If I kill him, you no longer have three of you. You have two." Steel Wing saw the understanding flash through the hellhound's eyes. "So even if I die you'd die before long, three is better than two, and when there are two of you left it'll be that much easier to kill another of you. So when there's one of you left you'll be easier to kill."

The diplomatic hellhound glared at his adversary's logic. "So how pony no kill us and we no kill pony?"

"We make a deal, how about-"

"Hah! pony always make promises, never keep." The hellhound snapped back.

"Why do all hellhounds insist on blaming the ponies alive for the actions of ponies two hundred years dead?" Steel Wing asked in exasperation. He also wobbled slightly now that they were in the bargaining phase his adrenaline was wearing off and his blood loss was making him lightheaded. "No, we will make a deal, and I'm asking you to try to trust me."

"We have honor we see pony honor today, pony make pony deal, I listen."

"If you will promise not to kill me my friends or that almost dead unicorn I will let your friend go and we can all be on our way without any death here today."

"We can't promise no death, other horned pony already die." The hellhound confessed.

"There was another unicorn?" Steel Wing was slowly approaching the point where he would need to push the deal through, he'd simply bleed out where he stood and the hellhounds would not be honor bound to leave his friends in peace.

"Other horned pony use horn magic and appear next to hurt pony. Hellhound trap work, but we not expect pony use magic to spring trap. So we kill before dead horned pony can use more horn magic."

"Alright, without any more death here today?" He asked hopefully, now on his last legs.

"We agree to pony deal, pony let friend go we let pony and pony friend go."

The joy he felt nearly brought tears to his eyes as he folded his wing back and stepped off to release his hostage. The freed hellhound immediately sprung up and charged at Steel Wing. He was too lightheaded to register his imminent death which was staved off by an angry hell hound diplomat giving his aggressive friend a swift powerful smack upside the head.

"We make deal with pony we honor deal with pony, pony honor pony deal too."

"Thank you." Steel Wing said desperately the events of twenty seconds ago finally coming to him.

"Metal wing pony not so bad pony. Maybe not all pony so bad, still many bad pony." It extended its clawed hand towards Steel Wing

"Steel Wing." He said placing his hoof in the hand of a creature that could give lethal nicks. Speaking of lethal cuts much worse than nicks, Steel Wing fell to his side as soon as his hoof left the ground.

The hellhound laughed at the honorable fallen pony. "Steel Wing pony last much longer than other pony with same wound. I am Trapmaw." The hellhound vigorously shook Steel Wing's hoof.

"Glad to make your acquaintance Trapmaw." Steel Wing gave a weak smile.

"Steel Wing pony friends come help Steel Wing?" Trapmaw called out.

Autumn Heart was there in an instant startling both Trapmaw and his more aggressive companion who nearly jumped again but chose not to after a stern look from his friend.

"You're an idiot you could have gotten yourself killed." Autumn Heart was applying healing bandages and forcing healing potions into Steel Wing's mouth.

"Well if it hadn't worked we all would have died together." Steel Wing forced himself to retch the slowly working healing potions.

"What are you doing?" Autumn Heart cried in alarm.

"If my wing is ever going to be one piece I need a doctor a surgeon preferably." He laughed sadly, "If I had let that crazy doctor back in Sky Fall work on my wings this would have fucked all that up quite nicely."

"If Steel Wing pony die now not hellhound fault?" Trapmaw asked worriedly.

"No, and I won't die. Thank you for your trust Trapmaw."

"We go now, thank you for honor of deal."

With that the hellhound trio dropped into one of their predug holes and left.

"I've seen some crazy shit and some stupid shit in my life, but damn that was the best of both right there." Corona almost nudged Steel Wing in the side but caught herself before she sent waves of pain through his body.

"Stand me up." He said looking to Corona standing over him. Autumn Heart immediately began to protest but Steel Wing gave Corona silent permission to ignore the fussy mare. After she had propped him up Steel Wing began to stagger towards where the fallen unicorn lay.

"Polaris right?" Steel Wing swayed back and forth trying to stay upright. She nodded solemnly. Steel Wing looked around the room and spotted the dismembered body of another unicorn mare discarded in a corner. "You're one of those highly trained assassin unicorns that're after me right."

She shook her head grinding her ear against the dirt. "Not an assassin." There was clear pain in her voice. The pain from his wing had died down to a dull throbbing because he had been trained to deal with pain, the unicorn laying before him had no such advantage. The pathetic display she made of trying to move towards him with her one leg did make him cry, whatever anger he had towards mysterious cults of unicorn mares was forgotten as he saw a pony suffering so greatly before him.

"Maybe your not, but I do know that you came from a school that produces very very gifted unicorns. Where is it?"

Polaris could shed no more tears for anything after having been left for several hours. Between dry sobs she said, "I can't tell."

"Yes you can, and you will." Steel Wing leaned closer to the weeping mare. "Because of you my wing will probably never work right again, but-" He felt the warm river of his bleeding heart running through his body. "I want to help you, whether you are an assassin or not you need my help and I need the help of whatever healing magic the unicorns at your school know. So please where is it."

Polaris let out one last pathetic moan before conceding, "Southwest right behind the big hill."

"Good that wasn't too hard." He fished around for a couple syringes of med-x, injecting Polaris with one and putting the other in her mouth. "Corona can you come here and put her in my saddlebag, carefully."

Corona complied without producing a 'glorious leader' joke. Autumn Heart came up and gently poured a healing potion down Polaris' mouth.

"Are you sure you're alright to walk?" Autumn Heart asked after tending to Polaris as best she could. "With as much blood as you've lost the odds of you simply keeling over are pretty high."

Steel Wing's response was to pull out and down a bottle of water followed by quickly devouring a box of Sugar Apple Bombs. After that he started walking southwest. It wasn't for the sake of being rude that he said nothing Steel Wing was convinced if he used any energy to formulate and give responses he was going to die. It was a very foreign feeling to him being so close to death. His fall to the wasteland was something he had accepted at the time as his last moments alive but now having something to fight for made the thought of death unacceptable.

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An hour of walking later, Polaris had fallen asleep occasionally whimpering. Steel Wing very much empathized with the still pathetic creature in his saddlebag, but continued to focus all his energy on putting one hoof in front of the other. In the time they had been traveling, Autumn Heart continued to voice her dislike of Steel Wing pushing himself. Ten or so minutes into agreeing with and trying to calm Autumn Heart, Corona simply tuned her out. Once the stand in doctor pony realized nobody was listening to her she shut up and continued on sullenly.

Steel Wing began to notice the various pieces of prewar junk jutting out of the ground had developed an increasingly pronounced fuzzy glow. By the time an hour had passed the air began to acquire the same quality causing him to try to focus his vision more. The whole world seemed to tilt, physically Steel Wing was walking perfectly upright but the world was beginning to spin.

His body went momentarily numb but the sensation quickly passed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steel Wing stepped into the contrasted circle of illumination. A familiar and imposing armored alicorn stood silently in its center. He still wasn't quite with it until the alicorn noticed his approach.

"Do you think your cowardice in seeking us out at the suns peak will help you?" Her voice thundered around him seeming to filly a much smaller space than what was there.

"I don't want to fight you." Steel Wing mumbled.

"Oh, it is you. Your ability to come here continues to astound us, what is it you want." Her voice then assumed its much more gentle tone.

"Honestly since when I was here last night I was asleep, I have no clue why I'm here now." Steel Wing began moving around the small circle of light until he realized he could see somewhere near forever outside their circle. The space that had been moonlight before was now in the shade of the moon.

"So you once again come here not of your own will, but now while you are still awake and when the sun is at it's peak over Equestria? This confuses us deeply."

"I don't know what to tell you." He replied shrugging, Steel Wing saw the moment he spoke the alicorn's head turned to him. He had stopped moving but now he was curious so he continued.

"Then we ask again, tell us what it is you want." Her head was still turned towards the spot he had been standing.

"I want to get to the unicorn school so I can have them fix my wing." Again she turned her head towards his voice, but he was still moving.

"You're wing? What has happened to your wing." She asked more out of curiosity than concern.

"Can't you see?" He grinned, "Don't bother answering I know you can't."

Her eyes began to glow an angry red, "You dare insult us? You tread upon our domain and think you have any right to talk down to us?" The furious alicorn could not summon her strong voice to emphasize her rage.

"No that is not what I mean to do. I'm sorry." He started to come closer to her.

"What has happened to your wing. We wish to know." The fire in her eyes had quickly died out.

"A hellhound tore through it like paper."

"How dare those cretinous mutts harm our- my... you." Steel Wing was now very aware that the alicorn in fact wanted something from him.

"What is it you want from me?" He asked coming to a stop a few feet from her. She quickly tensed realizing he had closed the distance between them.

As she relaxed she muttered, "We want nothing from you but to stop intruding on our domain." She sounded very unconvinced of it herself.

"The fact that I can come here at all doesn't annoy you it intrigues you doesn't it." He sat and waited for her response.

"We must confess we have some interest in your... potential yes, potential."

"Potential what? If you're hoping to have me deliver things across the wasteland you should know that I'd still be grounded even if my wing wasn't a tattered mess."

"We believe you are connected to us, somehow." The proud alicorn was clearly at a loss for words.

"Somehow, as in we're related or something?"

"Of course not we- I have never had a mate, OFFSRPING we have no offspring." The alicorn's mind was reeling, not from the embarrassing words that had escaped her mouth but because she allowed herself to show it was embarrassing.

"You must go please we must have time to ourselves return when the moon is dominant we will answer your questions then."

"Right well the last time you just left me here and I ran out into the darkness I'm pretty sure it almost killed me. So is the light safe then?"

"No it is not you would be incinerated in moments. Do you not posses enough magic to return?"

"Pegasus, not unicorn. Accident, no idea how to get here in the first place." His tone was more condescending than he meant it to be. The majestic alicorn reacted by folding her ears back and cringing.

"Yes I had forgotten. Come let me place my horn upon you."

He closed the last few feet between him and leaned his head forward. When she did not react he cleared his throat loudly causing her to jump a bit but helped her to properly judge the distance to his head. As she lowered her horn to him it began to glow. When it touched him the world around him suddenly and violently retreated.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This time when Steel Wing returned to the Equestrian Wasteland it wasn't slow or a struggle, he was back in his body in an instant. His eyes focused very quickly and before him stood a very large and very intact castle partially built into one of the only mounds of dirt and rock that could be considered a hill that existed in the Mexicolt territory. Soon everything took on that same fuzzy glow and he realized he was being yelled at from above in front and behind.

"Will you please talk to her before I have to start shooting!" Corona shrieked.

He looked up at her, "What."

"Not the pissed of griffon the pissed off unicorn up there." She pointed towards the wall were a unicorn stood levitating several rocket launchers. Steel Wing could only pray that she didn't have the ability to fire all of them accurately at the same time.

"Could you repeat the question please?" He requested sheepishly.

"What did you do to Polaris?!" The unicorn demanded.

"I didn't do anything aside from save her." Steel Wing was slightly offended by being accused of hurting an innocent pony, the mare on top of the wall had no way of knowing better of course.

"She hardly looks saved to me she looks tortured."

"Better than bled out if you ask me." She aimed two of the rocket launchers at him and narrowed her eyes to let him know he was inching his hooves into his grave.

"What happened to her?" She said coldly.

"She got caught somehow by hellhounds and they used her cries as a trap for other ponies, haven't my friends told you this?"

"Yeah you're carrying her mostly dead friend so she wanted to hear it from you." Corona said landing next to him. "You know you had a parasprite almost take a chunk out of your wing."

"Say again." Steel Wing made sure to look her in the eye.

"Yeah you were doing your stoic walk thing and one rushed you from somewhere, Autumn Heart was yelling at you as usual so I could expect that you'd tune her out," Autumn Heart turned her head and trotted towards the opening gate indignantly. "You're lucky it didn't know your wings were so damn sharp, it was flying at you so fast it cut itself in half."

"Well lucky for me I guess." He followed Autumn Heart through the gate. Steel Wing felt Polaris stir at his side. He lifted his wing to look down and felt tears well up in his eyes, once again the sight of her broken form was too pathetic for him to bear impassively.

The suspicious gaze of the guardponies turned to looks of horror upon seeing the limp and torn shreds of wing hanging off the body of the over sized pegasus.

A significantly older red coated mare than those around warily approached his lifted wing to get a closer look at Polaris in his bag. As she moved closer Steel Wing looked up sorrowfully trying to blink the tears from his eyes.

"I've been informed hellhounds did this?" She asked her voice unsteady. Steel Wing nodded. "Your wing was injured saving her?" He nodded again. "My condolences for your pain while rescuing one of our own. As well you have my profound gratitude for returning her to us, regardless of how you learned the location of our school."

"Don't you remember me Astra?" Corona complained coming closer.

"The griffon from the orphan town, yes I do and I suppose you would remember this place." She turned back to Steel Wing,

"We we will show you to our doctor and hopefully she can do something for your wing. And please don't mind the looks you get from the students, rumors have already spread that you brought back one of their own a bloody mess. That will be the next thing I'll address so your stay here can be somewhat pleasant."

--------------------------------------

A few minutes of stumbling through the halls later, Steel Wing had been levitated by two nurses onto an operating table. Surgeon: Check. Unicorn: Check. So far so good. He thought while he waited. They had given Polaris an anesthetic before removing her from Steel Wing's bag. He had requested they be sure to try and get her legs back before trying to mend his wing. As far as he knew self levitation was more or less impossible, doing it to get anywhere would be even more impossible. If there was anything they could do for her he wanted them to do it as soon as possible. He could make due learning to use a broken plated wing as metal plated whips as soon as he had new plates refitted for their new form. He could see that the specially shaped plates were beginning to fall off in places, the individualized flight feather guards were gone completely by now.

Two and a half eternities later and Steel Wing couldn't fall asleep. Luckily he had Corona there to constantly reminded him the doctor told him to stay laying down.

"Wow you look depressed can you at least close your eyes so I don't have to think about how sad you are?" Corona complained from where she lay on her back in a corner.

"Get fucked." Steel Wing said dismissively.

"I was about to say the same thing to you." She got up and moved next to him. Her talons making a click clack sound on the floor made him notice she was on all four legs for once.

"Not into griffons sorry." He thought for a moment, "I gather that isn't what you were getting at?"

"Well you seemed pretty out of it on the way here buuuuuuuuuuut," She leaned closer into him without lowering her voice much, "I saw at most two bucks walking around here."

Steel Wing rolled his eyes, "Are you still on that?"

"Yes, I'm just saying there are probably a lot of mares here that haven't even had a first time, eh?" She gave him a wink and a nudge. "At least think about it. If not for you then for at least one of the desperately horny mares I saw eyeing you."

Steel Wing facehoofed knowing something Corona didn't, "You know you're supposed to talk about them behind their backs, not while they're behind yours right?"

Corona turned her head to look at the two clearly designated medical ponies, one with a teal coat and slightly darker mane who was considerably older than the other. The younger with a who's deep purple coat looked very much like Steel Wing's mane, appeared to be barely old enough to not be called a filly. When Corona moved away from Steel Wing the young mare and he made eye contact for a brief moment, she quickly broke it and looked away trying to conceal her light blush. Steel Wing saw Corona grinning upon seeing her point being fairly well proven.

"Will you please ask your friend to leave ze room, so I can begin?" The older mare spoke with a mostly conquered accent Steel Wing had never heard before. It was clear she didn't appreciate Corona's previous remarks.

"Yeah I'm going to go have a talk with, someone else around here. Good luck." She ended her sentence without actually looking at anypony in particular.

The door magically closed behind Corona almost catching her tail. "Now what is it we are looking at?" The doctor asked trotting up to Steel Wing.

"Before you start prodding me with sharp objects I'd like to apologize for my friend's comment about the mares at this school." Steel Wing said genuinely worried about having an angry surgeon trying to fix his wing.

"She is not your problem. Her observation may also not be entirely inaccurate. I am however curious why she would, from what you said, be insistent on such a personal subject." She had begun to unpack a bag of surgical tools as well as a couple well preserved tomes that Steel Wing guessed contained notes on healing spells.

"She seems to think that I've gone too long without having a," Steel Wing cleared his throat awkwardly, "bed partner."

"If I may, how long does she consider too long to be?" She prodded with a quizzical look.

Steel Wing was beginning to worry just how right Corona had been about the mares here, "In the realm of three years, give or take a couple months."

The professional pony doctor suppressed her bodies desire to raise her eyebrow any further. "Yes, well again your friend my not be completely wrong on the subject but it is none of my business now is it? So what am I looking at?" She in an effort to remain professional changed the subject back to the matter at hoof.

"Uh," Steel Wing raised his shredded right wing with mild confusion, "I thought it'd be a bit obvious."

"Well ze way the metal was formed around them I had assumed you did it to compliment your other wing."

"Oh well, the metal plates were enchanted to remain sharp and thin. It must have formed around the separate sections as best it could to keep as compact as possible."

"Enchanted you say?" She beckoned her assistant to come closer. As the assistant unicorn's horn glowed, etchings and patterns were illuminated along his left wing. They meant little to Steel Wing as he had seen them once long ago when he first had them affixed to his wings.

"My it must have cost you something to have so many enchantments placed on each of ze plates, no?"

"Yes in a way. The method of payment was a number of jobs done in exchange for the services of an enslaved surgeon and unicorn. They worked together to do the job, and I tried to free them afterwards. Instead of letting his "property" get away their owner killed them both. I lost myself for a long while after that."

"So what exactly is it you want me to do? I can't replace your broken enchantments or missing plates I'm afraid."

"Were you able to help Polaris?" Steel Wing asked shifting slightly to look at her.

"She is none of your concern you- oh you are actually concerned for her?" The doctor pony seemed shocked by the idea. "I suppose we did treat her first at your request. Forgive me, even after the headmare informed me I hadn't quite forgotten the first thing I'd heard about you." She collected herself, "Your concern for her his very admirable, and she will walk again. After we finish regenerating her lost limbs and she's had enough time to recover we will try to rehabilitate her. Then we will watch her for any signs of mental scarring, which I suspect there will be plenty of."

"So you can regrow damaged appendages, then you could do that for my wing maybe?" Steel Wing was roused by hope now his eyes lighting up.

"It is possible, but it will be a slow process and ze remaining plates will have to come off." She watched Steel Wing closely for his reaction to the news. He seemed to accept it grudgingly at first.

"So you can fix the damaged wing if you remove the the protection that probably saved them from being removed completely? I guess eventually I can find somepony somewhere to do a replacement procedure at some point." Settling back down on the operating table he said, "Do what you have to doc, I suspect wings are harder to come by anyways."

"Just so you know this procedure will not be free." She moved to his right side and began examining the plates more closely.

"Yes, yes it will." Came the voice of a familiar and substantially older tan coated mare.

"Miss Astra, I did not expect you to see you at all today!" The doctor pony almost dropped her professional demeanor moving very quickly to properly greet the pony Steel Wing gathered was the headmare.

"Yes I came down here to make sure the savior of one of our own would be getting the absolute best treatment possible. I am already hopeful seeing it is you, but I cannot allow him to be charged for injuries he sustained rescuing Polaris. She was almost dead herself and he still risked his own life to help her." With a small step and a flash she was standing next to Steel Wing, "Captain Corona has informed me you have had less than friendly run ins with ponies you think came from this school. What makes you think they all came from here?"

"Oh fantastic I didn't even consider you'd be the pony to talk to about that." Steel Wing sat up again, "I should start off by saying that I rarely see unicorns just walking about around here, unless they're coming from way up north. Several days ago I met a unicorn for the first time in a long time, with a group of raiders."

"While it is true that most of the area's unicorns are at this school, the choices of unicorns from elsewhere cannot be blamed on our students."

"Please you'll want me to finish." He pondered the best way to show why he was concerned at all, "This unicorn was, in comparison to the other raiders, extremely well trained in combat. Nevermind that she was a unicorn and already had an advantage over the earth ponies she was running with, but had she been fighting anypony eles with less combat experience she would have won easily."

"And what makes you think a unicorn raider came from this school?" It was evident he had not gotten her on his side yet.

"If it was an isolated incident then I would have no reason to think so."

"There were others?"

"Reasonably just two others." He paused again. "The second was only a couple nights later, and this one intentionally spared my life."

"Intentionally?" Astra Questioned.

"Yes because she told me so herself. Again she was, oh and another thing all of them have been mares. Where was I, right; Again she was running with raiders who were so very ill prepared for anything besides unarmed travelers, but this unicorn leveled a plasma rifle at me and was teleporting everywhere without breaking a sweat. Something like you just did."

She paused thoughtfully, "Please understand that I can't have the name of my school sullied by somepony's tale about fighting unicorns." Steel Wing was about to protest but she raised a hoof to silence him, "If you would allow me to look through your memories I could confirm that you have indeed encountered any of my students."

"You wouldn't be looking through my whole life would you?" He didn't need some old mare judging him for his relationship with his sister in addition to anypony else who may have caught on."

"Only with your permission, otherwise I can look back to the last couple of days or so."

"I can consent to that but if you wouldn't mind horribly I'd like them to have my wing taken care of first."

"That is agreeable. I would like to put this trouble to rest before it damages our reputation. Is there anything you need before I go?"

"All I need is to know if my friends have a place to stay tonight. Other than that I'm okay."

She seemed almost offended, "Of course they do, and you do as well. I would hope you didn't think my gratitude would end as soon as you were well enough to walk out. Please know that you will always have a safe place to lay your head when and if you ever need it."

"Thank you, it's a significant rarity to meet good ponies out here."

She smiled kindly, "Think nothing of it." With another effortless motion she was back by the door and addressed the doctor, "Please Mercy take care good care of him." And with a slightly brighter flash she was gone from the room.

"So can all of you teleport like that? I thought that was something even Twilight Sparkle had to try at."

"It is much easier here inside the school. So even the least capable of us can get around more easily." She moved back to his right side. "Are you ready for removal of the plates?"

"They're very sharp I hope you have some thick protection." Mercy started her horn glowing in response, "Of course if you're a unicorn you don't have much to worry about." He settled down and waited for her to proceed.

She gave him an injection of med-x before carefully lifting one strip of his wing, The combination of time and med-x made the pain of moving his wing nothing. As she very carefully removed the first plate however barely dulled pain rocketed through his body. Steel Wing completely unprepared for the pain let out a his second inequine roar that day which echoed through the halls.

"Are you alright?" The assistant was standing in front of him levitating three more syringes of med-x ready to apply them all at his request.

Steel Wing could only grunt as the flood of pain signals to his brain slowly died away. "How can that hurt so much?" He near demanded of the startled doctor.

"It's possible that the individualized plates fused with your wing if they were designed to patch holes by themselves. It came away rather well though." Steel Wing glared at her as she inspected the exposed section of wing. "Are your wings supposed to be so much darker than your coat?" She asked concern evident in her voice.

"What?" Steel Wing turned his head to see what she was talking about. The feathers that had been revealed were black, utterly and completely black. "No they never have been." He said solemnly.

"This may be a much more in depth surgery compared to the magic it would take to mend the flesh and bone. How long have you had these plates?"

"About two years." Steel Wing was thinking back to a doctor who had been foaming at the mouth about this exact subject. "How bad is it?"

"Well the fact that your wings haven't been causing you pain makes me think it isn't so bad but the other wing should probably be deplated as well."

"Well you are the second doctor to say so, do it I guess. Will you be able to replace the good one later?" He supposed the answer was no.

"It will be much more possible than this one." she said nudging his limp wing. No would have been easier to say.

"Alright put me under or I won't be sane by the end of this." He thought for a moment, "Please and thank you."

Mercy's horn had already begun to glow before he'd finished. At the same time her assistant gave him an injection of something much stronger than med-x. The sensation of the waves of fatigue literally crashing down upon him told Steel Wing he would be out for sometime. He wondered if medically and magically induced comas would allow him to dream and visit his alicorn friend.

Nope.

Foot Note Level Up!

Steel Wing - Level 9

Quest Perk Added:

Strong Back, Stronger Heart: Because of previous training with helping wounded allies you do not suffer any movement penalties while moving ponies. When helping those in need your carrying capacity is doubled.

New Perk Added:

Much More Than a Flesh Wound - After the massive amount of pain you've experienced from a single injury, pain hardly slows you down at all. Wounds when you receive limb damage it doesn't affect your ability to perform actions with that limb; Pushing yourself to do extremely strenuous activities with a crippled limb will damage your endurance until you have both healed the limb and rested. This does not increase your DT.

Autumn Heart - Level 7

New Perk Added:

Explosives Mastery (Earth Pony) - Now that you have an ample supply of grenades your upbringing can really shine. Explosives Skill: 100

Corona (Griff) - Level 12

New Perk(s) Added:

Don't Trust the Ground (Power Armor) - Anytime you are walking and an enemy attempts to take you by surprise you can chose to slip into SATS. In addition you gain an extra 30 AP.

Foal At Heart - This is a very alien feeling for you as you are a griffon. Having formed an emotional attachment to a foal has allowed you to better understand your inner child. You may have special dialogue options when dealing with children as well as adults. After all you have a lot of your own childhood to make up for.

Quick Draw - You draw your weapon before you even think about it. You can draw and holster all weapons more quickly, in addition to retrieving and loading fresh clips of ammo.

Speed not Armor - In most cases as long as you keep moving enemies have an additional 10% chance to miss you in combat.

Quest Perk Added:

Prototype Power Armor - The armor you're wearing has a number of features not found in other types of power armor. These extra features come with the chance for the armor to fail from over use. Of course you already knew the risks.

Chapter 6: Undeserved Kindness & Unwarranted Cruelty

Waking up feeling better would be a blessing considering the past few days. Steel Wing could tell however that this was not better. Still the fact that he didn’t feel worse was nothing short of a miracle. He was in a bed, somepony had moved him from the operating room. It was dark save for a faintly glowing orb floating in the middle of the room.

Miraculously when Steel Wing tried to sit up he did so with very little effort. He tensed and relaxed his muscles as he stretched. When he wrapped his wings around to his front to inspect them he noticed that they were still numb. It slowly came to him that if they were numbed by a drug they shouldn’t be able to move so easily. This little detail was forgotten when he realized that both of his wings were almost black in comparison to his coat. They were actually a deep midnight purple and like his mane the underside of his wings had a glossy sheen. This discoloration cut off sharply where the wing joint met his hide. He could see the scars where the plate’s main anchors were removed.

Well damn. He was thankful that the pain was gone but now his mind was back to why he couldn’t feel them. When he tapped them with a hoof he felt the pressure. He tried carefully clamping one between his teeth and gradually biting harder. At the point where he knew his eyes should be watering he stopped.

One last test. Steel Wing convinced himself while he felt his stomach working itself into a guilty knot. He got out of bed and extended his wings looking all around the room. Feeling safe that there were no windows in here; he crouched leapt up and tried to make his wings flap powerfully once. Instead he hopped up and landed again. He glared at his wings and the way their underside reflected the dim light, he could almost swear they were staring at him expectantly. He tested them again bringing in his left wing so he could adjust a few perfectly in place feathers. He tried to move it back to his side and it twitched a little.

“Oh I get it,” he said continuing to glare at his wing, “You don’t take orders from me now either. Suggestions only right?”

Without thinking of it too much he placed his wing by his side again finally catching on. He crouched down again and his wings stuck out in preparation for flight. As he jumped his wings pumped so hard he could have been halfway to the moon. Being that he was out of practice he instead rocketed into the wall next to the door. He hit it so hard he blacked out momentarily, falling down like a rock smashing a small table.

In an instant Mercy’s assistant nurse was in the room panicking as Steel Wing came to and stared picking would splinters out of his hide. Her horn began glowing and the remaining splinters were telekinetically pulled from his chest; at the same time the bleeding holes magically closed.

“What happened?” She asked trying to help up the significantly larger Pegasus.

Steel Wing smiled softly, not a smile she could see, but he let her believe that she was doing most of the work as he rose from the floor.

“Just a training accident.” He said giving her a friendly grin now that he was back on all four hooves.

“Training, in here?” She cast her gaze around the room.

“Yes.” He confirmed. He chuckled at her round confused eyes. “I suppose we haven’t actually met.” using hoof quotes to qualify just what meeting somepony entailed. “I’m Steel Wing.” Giving his usual well-meaning introduction caused her to shift uncomfortably

Right she was checking me out. Bet she did during the operation too.

As if reading his mind her cheeks turned red. Talking into the floor she said, “I’m nurse Frostshot, you can call me Frost or Frosty if you like.” Her voice was unusually high even for a filly her size. Steel Wing suspected it wasn’t from nervousness that her voice nearly cracked, much more likely it was her normal speaking voice.

Steel Wing found it fairly adorable the way she squirmed under his gaze; until it hit him that it probably appeared to her that he was checking her out.

It was his turn to be embarrassed, “Well ummm- thanks for helping me. I’ll just go back to bed probably, thanks.”

“My mom said to make sure you were all stable and stuff.” She hopped in front of him, blocking his path to the bed. Her red cheeks were now in full view, but Steel Wing saw a somewhat out of place determination in her eyes.

Oh, this is going to be a problem.

“Um, how are you feeling?” Her determination was wavering but it was quickly backed up by elevated hormones. “Other than your wing you had several bruised ribs and three gashes in your chest. You’ve lost a lot of blood over the last couple days and when you used healing potions you had several foreign objects still in your body.”

Steel Wing would have been relaxed by the professional quality with which she delivered her report if it weren't for the way she was staring at him. She ordered him onto his side on the bed, he complied not wanting to cause a fuss. She began prodding at his ribs, as she went along she asked if it hurt. At a certain point it became more like a massage, and against his better judgment he began to enjoy it. He knew what she was after and before long he'd have to get her to stop, for now her hooves were incredibly gentle with a great amount of force behind them.

She stopped abruptly, "I need to do the same thing on your other side." Again, against the protesting voice that was now taking him on a guilt trip for leading the filly on he stood up, before he could lay back down however she ducked under him rubbing herself against his belly her tail snapped against him as she got to his other side.

Now, as much as he wanted her to finish the massage on his other side. She was getting too aggressive now, if he let it go on much longer she'd be trying to jam her tongue down his throat. Instead of lying down for her to continue he sat and put up a forbidding hoof.

"As much as I appreciate what you're doing with your hooves, you should know that I'm the pony for you to come to for- well what you're after."

She tried to feign confusion, but being said no to brought frustration into her expression. "But-" she began.

"So I wasn't misinterpreting the massage, that's good." Steel Wing breathed a sigh of relief mixed with a new grief that he had been right. "You're a very cute mare, I'm not saying no because I think your ugly or anything like that. Just try to understand that it can't be me."

"Why not?" She pleaded putting on a sad face. "Am I making you uncomfortable?"

"If your asking whether or not I liked the massage you were giving me then, no I loved it. The fact that you're my surgeon's daughter and coming on to me is making me a bit nervous though." He shifted back on the bed.

The inexperienced filly had, at this point, already worked herself up while performing the massage and now had a furious itching [in her lower regions.

Steel Wing sniffed at the air. "Oh goddesses you're in heat aren't you?" Steel Wing felt the world flip upside down and right itself almost immediately causing him to sway.

She nodded apologetically. "And then you showed up, and what that griffon said and- and... Please?" She pleaded again inching closer.

"Well what if..." What if what? What if I find a lovely stallion in Mexicolt City to come up here and mount her? Steel Wing was quickly running out of options that didn't come down to him picking her up by the mane and moving her to someplace outside of the room.

"What time is it even?" He asked trying to change the subject so he could think.

"Two." He raised an eyebrow, "In the morning."

"So everypony else is asleep. Mercy didn't even ask you to come down here did she?" Realizing long after the fact that she'd successfully lied to him at a time when he should have suspected every word that rolled over her tongue. Scratch that she might be able to talk telepathically, so any words she'd thought of making at that point in time. He nodded to himself as she did the same confirming what he'd asked.

"So while everypony was asleep you thought you'd: come down here, seduce me, get sex out of me, and tomorrow walk around with a huge smile plastered on your face without anypony asking what was making you so happy?"

"Yeah but I-" She was cut off again.

"I'd also be willing to bet a good deal of however many friends you have know that you're in heat. So tomorrow when you're trotting around all smiles without the look that says 'Someone mount me.' They won't in turn suspect the only new stallion around her that was under your care?"

All of this had played out in Steel Wing's mind around a dozen times by the time he'd finished saying it all. She simply looked up with him rubbing her throat with a hoof while tears started forming in her eyes. Now on top of everything he was feeling upset was added to the list. Not upset because he thought she was playing the sad filly card, those were genuine tears; but because he knew it would come to this and there hadn't been a damn thing he could've done to stop it.

Frost Simply collapsed into a shuddering pile on the bed, using the sheets to muffle her already quiet sobs.

Steel Wing began to consider what his sister would actually say about turning down some desperate filly who'd gone to great lengths to get to him and then leave with nothing but embarrassment and shame. He loved the fact that he and his sister had become so close that sex was one of the least important things they shared. It was a nice thing to have and was never bad but she'd even expressed interest in bringing somepony else into the bedroom on occasion. They'd never done it but he understood that she knew Steel Wing's heart would always belong to her. So he concluded, She would not in fact be upset with him for doing something like this. At least to the best of his reasoning he had no reason to turn this filly down.

“Hey Frost, “ Steel Wing gave the crying filly a gentle nudge to get her attention. She looked up tears still streaming down her face. With a long drawn out sigh he gave her the news she wanted to hear. “I can do this for you.” Her face lit up instantly, “BUT,” He continued holding up a hoof. “Nopony else, in this school in particular, can ever know about this. Alright?”

She nodded quickly, “I won’t tell anypony else Pinkie Pie promise.” In her excitement, at the end of the salute she forgot to close her eye very nearly punching her eyeball. New tears instantly welled up in the tender, now blood shot, eye.

Steel Wing brought her in close for a hug, “Alright relax a little. I know you’re probably really anxious and excited and whatever else about this, but we have time and we’re going to use it.” Steel Wing was talking to himself as much as the filly pressed into his chest. He overcame his nervousness much more quickly than she ever could have. Having more experience gave him much more control over the situation; having control meant it would move forward at a safe pace, rather than what she probably thought was okay for a first time.

“So what do we, er I- you?” So very inexperienced, Steel Wing suppressed a facehoof. “What happens now?” I remember a filly saying almost exactly that years ago. Steel Wing frowned. Not the time for that.

Coming back to the conversation he said, “Well if you wouldn’t mind, you had said you were going to do my other side?” Steel Wing lay down and presented his unmassaged side. If he was going to do this he could at least let her finished what she’d started.

The purple coated filly quickly went back to work. Her entire body was quivering with the anticipation taking away some of the pressure her hooves had applied earlier. Steel Wing sleepily reminded her to just relax, slowly drifting off with the gentle motions of her hooves guiding the way back into unconsciousness.

A quick jab to his ribs from both her hooves brought him back to the waking world. “I may be a virgin but I do know for a fact it doesn’t work if you fall asleep.” Something warm poked her knee eliciting a squeak and causing her to jump back a bit.

“Well see if you’d just kept going then it could have worked out. That being said it won’t go that way and I had that coming.” He rubbed his chin as he pondered how best to approach this.

Steel Wing rose up and looked her over noting that he was substantially more than twice her size. This was going to have to go very, very slowly.

--------------------------------------

When Steel Wing woke up some hours later he was surprised to find that a window had appeared letting brilliant, filtered sunlight into the room. The little orb had disappeared completely.

Steel Wing lazily mulled over his encounter with Frost. All in all it hadn’t gone horribly; with a grimace he remembered the two major hitches in the early morning’s activities. The most prominent being she was still snuggled up against his side.

When they had started, Steel Wing started out slowly; the foreplay went well but didn’t last very long since she had been very ready to go for an hour or so. He took it equally slowly when he first entered her. The only problem there was when he’d asked if she wanted more, she didn’t know when it was a good time to call it enough; a not so small oversight by Steel Wing. So an hour or so after what Steel Wing would have called enough for the beginner, she finally asked him to stop. This meant that when they stopped and she’d tried to leave, she was exhausted beyond the point of forming very many coherant thoughts. It also meant, and this was the greatest part of the problem, her entire hind end was numb and she couldn’t walk. This was the reason she was still right next to him.

He’d wanted her first time to be memorable and it was. Due to his size and experience however, he had stamina for days. Something she didn’t have. By the time she’d called it quits he wasn’t half way done. He’d planned for this, but when she caught on the offer to help him finish came up. Once again against his better judgment, which by that point was sitting alone in a corner knowing it would never be acknowledged, he let her. Which brought about the second slightly less prominent problem; even though he’d given her ample warning, her lack of experience caused her to freeze up without any idea what to do. Without going into much more detail her coat was a mess despite Steel Wing’s best effort to clean her off.

Still the morning’s events had helped Steel Wing relieve a lot of tension that a simple hug couldn’t have gotten rid of. He still had no idea how he was going to pull off getting her out of here and into a bath without anypony noticing. He really just hoped she’d be with it enough to teleport out of here before somepony came in.

As if the Lord of Chaos had a particular spot in his heart for causing Steel Wing grief, the door swung open. Mercy magically pushed a cart with breakfast, as well as several syringes filled with liquid that wasn’t readily identifiable. One in particular that worried him was some sort of goopy looking rainbow, stuff; he was fairly sure he’d seen it before, and it didn’t do anything good to ponies.

At her entry Steel Wing made a low groan with his throat. Frostshot being half awake mistook it for a wordless and playful grunt, she returned with a much more relaxed happy moan; snuggling in even closer she was completely ignorant of the imminent doom of the winged pony next to her.

Mercy simply stared at Steel Wing, unnerving him with her impossible to read facial expression.

“Were you respectful to her?” She said at length doing nothing to ease the tension brought on by the previous awkward silence.

Steel Wing nodded, confusion taking over in place of panic. It didn’t take long for the great and earth shattering reality to hit him: Mercy had known about this the whole time.

“Good.” She said primly waving a horn over the the wheeled cart to dispel the illusion over the syringes. They had been carrots and she had used his fear of her potential wrath to actually turn the atmosphere into that of an interrogation room. Something he thought he’d been trained to resist. This unicorn just didn’t mess around.

“So you aren’t mad at me?” He asked hesitantly.

“As long as you didn’t hurt her, no I cannot be mad at you.” She moved the cart of food up next to the bed. “Could you wake her please...” She trailed off looking over at the purple filly, “What happened to her coat?”

“Training accident.” He responded automatically, not wanting to actually talk about what happend with the mother of the filly next to him. “She’ll need a bath.” He confessed looking down at her. He gently shook her until she stirred uncurling her body and looking up at him.

“Thank you.” Frostshot said sleepily, smiling with half closed eyes. She shifted her hindlegs a few times, smiling contently when it didn’t start up that furious itching.

“I don’t quite know how else to put this. Your mother is here.” She bolted up wide eyed. Steel Wing winced while suppressing a very inappropriate laugh; the pillow her head had been resting on was in a sense glued to her head. Every part of his brain, accept of course his better judgment, wanted to find this hilarious at least chuckle. Miraculously his better judgment won out this time.

“Yes a bath is a wise idea.” Mercy agreed with an unamused expression. “Nurse Frostshot we will talk later. Get to the wash room quickly, stay unseen. Our patient will need most of the morning to recuperate from last evenings surgery.” There was no hint of resentment or quiet contemplation of different ways to cause Steel Wing harm in that nearly ominous statement, so he relaxed helping the messy coated filly off the bed.

She was a bit wobbly, but she managed to focus her magic and disappeared. Listening very carefully he managed to hear her hoofsteps slowly dying away.

“Now that that awkwardness is out of the way,” Steel Wing broke the silence and stretched his wings out fully, “What happened to my wings?”

“Yes about your wings, they may end up being an issue.” Steel Wing stared at the wall opposite him, wishing he could even pretend that bad news was not on the way. Mercy went on, “Due to the length of time those plates were attached to your wing, the magic sort of rubbed off on them. Since the plates were enchanted to close holes themselves, the magic affected your wings in a similar fashion allowing the physical wounds to close themselves along with the armor.” He could feel the bad news coming on and sure enough, “Now that the plates are gone your wings no longer heal naturally.”

“Meaning what exactly besides needing to carry around a few more healing potions?” He had expected something far worse.

“Yes healing potions are a start. In your old age assuming you get there, you will need to take in some sort of magical healing or your wings will simply rot and fall off. Your feathers will not replace themselves without the aid of magic, and it is not advisable that you have new plates fitted to your wings.”

“Why?” He said said almost angrily. He stopped himself before he yelled at a doctor, that was a mistake nopony made twice. “I mean about the last thing.” He sat back in his bed.

“There’s a good chance that if you put new magic plates on, your wings may simply become unresponsive to healing magic of any kind.”

“And that,” He began moving quickly off the bed, “Is the end of the legacy known as Steel Wing.” The world around him turned to shades of grey as the hunger he had felt upon seeing the food vanished.

Walking back towards the main room of the medical ward Corona was there to greet him all smiles.

“The stud of day rises!” She went to pat him and her hand was deflected by his wing. Much more forcefully than he may have intended but it got the point across. He moved past her into the hall.

--------------------------------------

After an hour or so of wandering the halls Steel Wing had accepted that he was lost. After running into some of the more timid of his admireres, he felt a twinge of guilt at having brushed past them with his soon to be immortalized scowl. The only relief he found in the morning was that nopony seemed to have found out what he had done for Frostshot. His mood was sour, at least the rest of the week was ruined and there was nothing anypony could do to change that. All the healing in the world doesn’t make you forget how bad a low blow hurt in the first place. This hurt deep.

The guilt he felt for being rude to well meaning fillies didn’t stop him from continuing to push past them without acknowledging them. This continued until anything and everything in the school had figured out he wanted to be left alone. So finally when learning had started and the halls were cleared, the almost broken pegasus sat with his head against the wall staring at it as if he would eventually see whatever was on the other side.

He held this position for a long time until a click-clack sound intermingled with the soft sounds of padded feet stopped close to him.

“Mercy told me.” The griffon waited for a response which didn’t come. “I don’t know what you’re feeling right now, but judging by the way your sitting I’d guess you feel a lot worse than you look.” Again no response, “At least you have your wings back.”

“Yes, and now they have no purpose.”

“What do you mean you can still fl-...” What followed was a very long silence during which Corona she had just stepped on yet another social landmine. Not one of those proximity mines. No this was the kind that you had to step off of before it would detonate. The kind where survival was near zero and you had as much time as you needed to make peace with your life.

The silence was drawn out, Steel Wing shifted to look at the miserably guilt ridden face of the normally proud griffon.

He wanted to feel sorry for sompony, somebody in the Equestrian Wasteland, but he could feel nothing apart from his head touching the wall.

At long last he chose to relieve the weight of guilty silence from Corona’s shoulders, “You know when I was still part of the Enclave I gained so much more than anypony else ever could’ve dreamed of having. The love of a perfect filly, friends too many to count, then a revalation that changed my name and life; at the time I thought that would last forever. But in three short years, I have none of that left. The only way to get any of it back would be death of ponies. Even if some of them deserve it there are enough innocent ponies that would die as a result. Not even wonderful vengeance would be worth that.” He through his head back and let out a deep, pained chuckle.

He was about to say something else, but the laughter continued. It was more maniacal than before and with a cruel edge. Steel Wing felt this laughter coming from that infintsimaly deep place that he couldn’t in a thousand years find.

Corona was at odds about what to do. SHe decided he was either close to crying and was trying to hide it; otherwise he had just snapped in which case he was probably dangerous. Without armor or weapons the combat savvy griffon knew she could take him, not without injry to herself. She also had no desire to fight a good and strong ally.

The laughter continued as his wings rose to display themselves proudly. Now Corona was more worried than anything else, she knew what that meant. At least, she thought she did. Now she was worrying he might try to mount her. The confusion was quickly replaced as the fear returned upon seeing the hysterical pegasus’ wings develop holes and begin to decay before her eyes.

By this time students and instructors alike were filling the halls, drawn by the strange and haunting noise being produced by an actual living pony. Dozens of pairs of eyes n looked on at the horror show before them. Corona was shaken but managed to snap out of it and was streaking through the halls yelling for Mercy.

Meanwhile Steel Wing continued his insane laughing seemingly unaware that his wings were deteriorating. He could now feel that strange sensation coming from somewhere far from him crawling up his throat. There was a sharp gasp from the crowd as the laughing was cut off abruptly. A black mist began pouring from Steel Wing’s mouth and began to wrap around his face and down his back, there it paused. This he could see, but it didn’t bother him as much as he thought it should have.

Corona was barely a blur as she returned carrying Mercy, who had accepted that there wa a damn good reason she had been subjected to such indignity. She saw the reason instantly upon arriving. As the last of Steel Wing’s wings disappeared Corona set the doctor down behind him.

Mercy drew back as the mist began to pour from his open maw. The instructor ponies were smart enough to identify this as some kind of dangerous magic. They quickly ushered the fillies out of the halls away from the scene.

Mercy’s horn bgan to glow as she magically probed Steel Wing trying to find the source of the black mist as well as the deterioration which she suspected were the same thing. As her magic wrapped around him the black mist arced into the air highlight multiple invisible pathways of magic back to their source, Mercy’s horn.

As soon as Mercy saw the black tendrils snaking towards her she ended her spell. The black mist was only slowed as it continued to advance on the frightened medical pony. She backpedaled down the hall with the black tendrils in pursuit.

Before long she had backed into a corner not daring to manifest teleporting spells for fear of trailing it around the school. When she had gotten to the end the tendrils’ advance had slowed to a crawl. It still reached the top of her head, beginning to swirl around her horn. She could feel dark foreign magics around her horn, but not touching it. The strange magic had evidentlly reached its limit and began to retreat. Down the hall back towards the panting Steel Wing.

The unrestrained magic had left its host and was dissipating, completely vanishing before it every returned.

The thudding in Mercy’s chest began to die away and she slowly started walking back towards where Steel Wing sat, craning his neck to look at his withers where two ridges of black mist still clung to him.

Before Mercy could speak there was a brilliant flash of light and Astra now stood among them a small amount of alarm in her eyes.

“Forgive me for my tardiness, I was away.” She quickly started looking over Steel Wing; since, the last time she saw him, he had two intact wings.

The doctor pony seemed just a little behind after her ordeal, because before she could warn her the headmare had begun to reach out to Steel Wing with her magic. Luckily for all of them Corona had seen it coming; she let out a screech and charge up next to Astra starting her considerably and breaking her concentration.

That was enough to bring Mercy all the way into the present. “Miss Astra you mustn’t touch him with your magic. What this is it’s outwardly hostile towards unicorn magic.

The message was clearly received. Corona went back by Steel Wing who was finally getting his breathing under control.

“Any idea what that was about.” She opted not to touch him because of the mist that still remained. Corona watched with a half smile as Steel Wing began to work his mouth silently, clearly going into a length description of the pain he just felt. He saw her grin and went back ten seconds to realize he wasn’t making any sound. Steel Wing gave her a bemmused look and tried to get the attention of the two unicorn mares deep in discussion.

Corona couldn’t help laughing as Steel Wing failed to produce audible words again. He made a move to try to get her to flinch, she didn’t until the black cloud on his shoulder flared out. Corona reacted by launching up to the ceiling. Steel Wing gave a satisfied nod before looking back with concern at the lingering mist.

The academy’s instructors had begun to venture back into the halls to try and assist however they could. Mercy simply told them to keep their distance.

“Hey!” Corona shouted from above, “I think he’s trying to say something, which he can’t.” She failed to suppress another snicker, Steel Wing simply ignored it now that he had their attention.

He began making motions by bringing his hooves up pursing his lips and then bending down making small movements with his lips. He did this twice and looked at the two with pleading eyes.

“Pencil and paper?” Astra asked. Already knowing the answer she conjured up a pencil and a stack of papers. Steel Wing clopped his hooves together in praise of his savior.

While he began composing messages, Autumn Heart who had only recently been notified that something was wrong with Steel Wing arrived.

“Celestia have mercy, what happened to you?” The green mare wailed upon seeing his missing wings. With an annoyed look Steel Wing tossed the first two completed pages. Autumn Heart was running up to inspect him closer. Steel Wing reared up when she got too close, in the interest of her safety Steel Wing put both hooves on her chest and pushed her away. At the end of his reach she started coming back, while complaining that this was something she couldn’t let go. Before Steel Wing dropped back to all fours the black mist on his back shot out forming into great black wings. In a single powerful motion the came together creating a great gust of wind that moved Autumn Heart very far down the hallway. Steel Wing was horrified at first but saw that she was more or less slid down the hallway instead of being toppled head over hooves. The action was enough to startle the mare and she sat where the force put her.

Steel Wing’s forehooves finally made contact with the ground again. The black mist was now completely gone. The sensation that had been slowly flooding his body quickly retreated to just outside the entrance to whatever eternity inside his body.

“Goddesses it was like being strangled without being able to pass out, my head hurts SO badly.” The first words out of Steel Wing’s mouth since this began. He reflected on this fact and found that statement to be appropriate given it was all that was on his mind at the moment.

Astra approached catiously, “Care to explain what just happened to you.”

“I have a good idea of what happened but I need to get to Armory.” Steel Wing was already moving down the hall towards where he thought the entrance was. Astra teleported in front of him.

“I would like an explanation, please.”

“Ummm,” Steel Wing didn’t know what exactly she wanted out of him. “I think I know the source of that but I can’t produce evidence that it actually exists. I guess aside from the fact that all that just happened.”

“What is this suspect source?” She was beginning to lose patience, “I need to know if my school is in danger of being damaged by untame magic. Please tell me.”

Steel Wing’s ears folded back at the implication that he may not be welcome here. “If I said ‘I think I’ve been visiting Nightmare Moon in my dreams.’ What would you do?”

Astra simply studied Steel Wing for some trace of attempted humor in his question. Her eyes widened when she found none. “Will you please come with me to my chambers.” From her tone it was clearly not an invitation it was a command. Being inside her academy Steel Wing didn’t want to start anything else, so he nodded.

Without warning Astra’s horn flared and the world was ripped away from the two of them. It was quickly replaced by the soft touch of grass. Steel Wing assumed he was dreaming again, because grass stopped existing two-hundred something years ago. To confirm that this was something close to reality, Astra was at a cabinet built into a stone wall covered in creeper vines.

She came back levitating a bottle of something Steel Wing suspected had a strong taste in addition to being alcoholic. She brought over a single glass and a pinkish potion. With one small flare of her horn the glass became frosted with ice and the bottle opened up and poured itself into the glass. The potion in the same instant was magically unstoppered and brought up to the lips of the tired looking mare.

Evidence against this being real presented itself as before his eyes Astra’s pale mottled coat turned light blue and her skin became more youthful. Her eyes changed to a cloudy pink from their usual orange-red. Her mane and tail both became a soft green. She now looked no older than Autumn Heart and was staring at him intently.

Steel Wing felt dread in the back of his mind that Astra might be after the same treatment Frostshot had received last night. The only comforts he had were that this very well could just be a dream, and the look in her eyes was not one of lust and determination, but one of serious concern and contemplation.

“I gotta ask, why?”

“Imagine if the general of an army was a colt.” Steel Wing confirmed where his imagination was with a nod. “Nobody who knew that a twelve year old was leading an army would have any confidence in a victory.”

“So what you’re twelve?” Steel Wing had gotten the point but hadn’t heard his question answered.

“No, I’m twenty seven, but some of the instructors are older than that so I use magic to make the students and teachers think that I’m the original headmare. Relics of the past can be a powerful tool. It was always rumored that my grandmother had a spell for perfect immortality.”

“Well, in general I think you do a great job running your school. So congratulations on fooling a bunch of unicorns with an illusion. And if your grandma was an immortal I’d like to meet her sometime. But really I do need to be going so if we can please get through this I’d apreaciate it.”

“Very well, and try not to tell anypony. I want young unicorns to feel like this is truly a safe and structured place.”

“Can do.” Steel Wing still felt a little worried about exactly why she had showed him her real appearance. Something about this being another misguided attempt at seduction sat in the back of his thoughts.

“No, that isn’t what I brought you here for. I’ll also be having a chat with Miss Mercy.” She started taking a sip from her very chilled beverage.

Well shit you are in my head?

“Not exactly, I’m just able to hear the surface thoughts of anypony who I bring here I’m not going through your memories at this moment in time.”

“Oh right that.” Steel Wing said aloud. He had forgotten about proving the unicorn assassins existed.

“Before we get on with the issue that potentially concerns my students, I’d like to have a look at these dreams that you think have brought you to Nightmare Moon.”

“I don’t suppose I could really say ‘no’ even if I wanted to.” Steel Wing got comfortable on the grass, a sensation that was becoming more addictive by the second. The heady smell flooding his nostrils was too good to be true. “Since grass doesn’t really grow out here where did all of this-” He sat back up and motioned all around him with his hooves, “Life come from.”

“Very slowly and with a good deal of magic.” She took another sip.

“Alright, so why don’t you do this to the rest of the wasteland, slow as it would be that’d still be progress.” Steel Wing felt his point was valid, a nod confirmed that she was in fact still able to hear his thoughts.

“To do it outside of here would take nothing short of a megaspell comparable in magnitude to the all of the megaspells used in the Balefire Holocaust.”

“So then this isn’t real then?: Steel Wing narrowed his eyes.

“Not in the sense that it’s a part of the Equestrian Wasteland, it is very much a place that exists.”

“Not following.” Steel Wing could tell his was about to feel dumb.

“First of all, there were and always have been other nations besides Equestria. Second, do you think that the stars above don’t exist because they aren’t here for you to touch?” And there was that facehoof worthy feeling.

“Point made. Now about this Nightmare Moon thing.” Steel Wing wanted to move on as quickly as possible.

“Yes, with your permission I’d like to look at your memories. Normally this would take some time, but by expending extra magic I should be able to view them more rapidly.” Steel Wing got comfortable again. “Please hold the memory of the dream in your thoughts for a while.”

“Uh, which?”

“It has happened more than once?” She asked with increasing concern.

“Three times.” He said with a plaintive smile.

“What was the most recent then?”

“That would be sometime between departing the hellhound encounter arriving to the gates of your academy. I don’t remember the trip in between because I was talking with her. Or it? Does Nightmare Moon have a gender if it’s some sort of evil spirit?”

“A somewhat perceptive question.” Astra couldn’t hide her mild shock from his words. “It is hard to say, it’s also not what we’re here for.” She promptly redirected the conversation back to the more pressing issue. “If you would please try to recall the most recent encounter you had with her I think we can be done here quickly.”

Steel Wing closed his eyes and held in his mind the image of the blinded alicorn sitting in the shade of the moon. He tried to remember the conversation they had as Astra’s horn was enveloped by five different shades of a magical glow. Steel Wing could feel his head numbing as an eletric jolt went through his entire body. In an instant the feeling left him, he felt light headed but otherwise alright.

When Steel Wing opened his eyes he saw Astra laying on the ground pointing with a hoof. He followed to where the downed unicorn was pointing with his eyes and noticed a road had appeared. It was fifty feet in length and at the end was a door that had also appeared out of thin air. Astra’s eyes were rolling into the back of her head as she passed out, so Steel Wing took the hint and left through the door.

With a bright flash Steel Wing was plunged into total darkness. As soon as he felt his hooves contact something solid there was a series of thuds and crashes as multiple metal objects bounced off rock. Steel Wing was pelted by the objects as they bounced around him. They felt like baseballs being launched from pitching machines, and left welts like it too. From the darkness darkness he could see a small beam of light just in front of his hooves and dove for it as the flying metal objects poured down in waves behind him.

Steel Wing’s lunge brought him out into the light sliding on his belly aided by large amounts of various milky white, brown, and red pastes that he was covered in. When he was outside he dared raise his head to look around. He was laying on the floor of a kitchen, his cheeks turned a light shade of red from embarrassment as he looked back to see that he had just exploded a pantry full of canned goods. Several cans of sauce had burst, the most promient of which was a tomato sauce which he was covered currently covered in. Several cooks had gathered to see what the noise was. Steel Wing smiled sheepishly at them as he rose to his hooves and walked away, covered in sauces and having no idea where he was going.

One of the kitchen staff caught up with him. “Did miss Astra-”

“Yes, yes she did.” Steel Wing was a little upset with the currently incapacitated mare who got to lie in a field while he got covered in bruises and sauce. “Does she normally come out of there?”

“No, but it can happen if she sends somepony out by themselves.””

Steel Wing grunted in response and kept moving, now more confident that he was going the right way. The cook fell back and returned to the kitchen.

--------------------------------------

Some time later Steel Wing found his way back to the hall where he’d had his episode. Steel Wing encountered several of the fillies who he’d personally and ruthlessly ignored that morning. As they passed now they simply looked to the floor and stuck to the far side of the hall. That guilt was coming back in force now that he could actually feel again.

While contemplating how he was going to apologize to twenty different fillies in some way that didn’t involve sexual favors he bumped into somepony. He was relieved to see Autumn Heart a few feet away knocked in her butt and rubbing her nose. Steel Wing had in a sense won a low speed joust, aside from a small pain in his chin he was fine.

“Brick wall. That’s what that was.” Autumn Heart got back up and looked over the pegasus a long while. “Are you feeling better?”

“I’ve gotten over losing my wings. Whatever the hell happened before is still bothering me. There will be time to think about that on the way to Armory though; we’re way off our original path aren’t we?”

“Oh I have good news about that.” The green mare jumped in place several times. “The unicorns here have offered to get us somewhere twenty minutes away from Armory.”

“Oh well that’s significantly more than good news, that’s fantastic news!” Steel Wing’s entire mood was way up from hearing that.

Autumn Heart leaned closer and took a few sniffs, she drew back and arched an eyebrow, “Great, so now do you want to tell me why you look and smell like you were just thrown at some kind of cooking competition table?”

“Teleporting accident.” He pushed past her, then stopped and thought for a moment. Turning towards her Steel Wing lifted a saucy foreleg up to his muzzle, let his tongue fall out of his mouth and dragged it all the way down to the hoof, “I am delicious.” He then continued on his way contemplating just how good he would taste to a hellhound like this.

With a recommendation from Autumn Heart and some directions Steel Wing went to wash off. During their stay Autumn Heart had evidently done nothing but: shower, talk, explore, and sleep. This excursion had become a mini vacation for the green mare.

So, Steel Wing sat under the hot running water. Still anxious about liberating the slaves but finding himself unable to get away from the warm wet sensation. Steel Wing hadn’t had a proper shower in a very long time; so he watched with mild amusement as sauce mixed with layers of dirt running off of him into the drain. Having time to himself he finally let the realization that he was an earth pony sink in. He did manage to thank the stars above for his military training with energy weapons or he would have been completely screwed. Living would be more of a challenge now but he quickly came to terms with that.

Then Steel Wing heard a sound that made him cringe. The voices of two fillies entering the communal washrooms. Bathing wasn’t usually considered a personal thing, and in a school full of fillies and mares it was even less so. He hadn’t taken into account that for him being in here was the equivalent of hanging out in the ‘Little Fillies Room’.

Quickly and desperately tried to scrub the remaining gunk off of him trying to get out before they spotted him. What he didn’t need right now was two hard up unicorns cornering him in a shower. His efforts were in vain as a tangerine filly with a light yellow mane rounded the corner.

The tangerine filly simply stood staring at him and developing a slight blush. Please, no. Her friend came up behind her to get an answer to the question her companion apparently hadn’t heard, and assumed a similar expression. The other with a grey coat and black mane and tail recognized him immediately, her expression turned to one of shame. There was no way of knowing how this would play out but Steel Wing immediately assumed the worst. He felt a twinge of guilt mixed with relief as the second filly to arrive took a few steps back and looked away. One of the fillies he had refused to greet in the hallway.

The tangerine filly shook away her blush and said, “Uh, h-hi I we didn’t know anyone was in here.”

“Yeah I’m almost done.” Steel Wing said furiously rubbing his mane to get it the cleanest he possibly could.

The tangerine filly turned to see what her friend was doing, watching her shame with some confusion. It was a welcome distraction that Steel Wing used to get at his tail by putting his back against the wall. He did his best to wring it out before either of the two could see his exposed underside. When that was finished he called it good enough and turned off the wonderfully hot water. Before walking past them he shook his body violently to get the excess water out of his coat.

“It’s all yours.” He said with a half hearted and guilty smile. With that he left the increasingly awkward situation.

--------------------------------------

Between the washroom and the front gate, Steel Wing managed to encounter, by his count, twenty seven more awkward passings. Some from fillies he had spurned, others who had been frightened by his display earlier in the day.

The last awkward situation he saw before he was forced to address it was, Corona and a certain purple coated filly from the early morning hours having a very excited conversation. Steel Wing snuck closer to make sure they weren’t talking about the morning’s events. He was quickly dissapointed.

“... and it was just amazing. I couldn’t have in a thousand years guessed just what it felt like.” //// was almost dancing.

“Well kid, I’m glad you’re first time was good. That grey bastard is a good pony, even if he has magic, killer mist inside his body. Just a heads up, don’t expect every other stallion you let inside you to be like him he’s-” Steel Wing had ceased trying to hide his presence and Corona had noticed him instantly.

“Hey.” Steel Wing intoned with a look of utter disapproval.

“Hey!” The bubbly filly said happy at the chance to see her favorite stallion. Her enthusiasm faded when the look he gave her said she was in trouble.

“Hey.” Corona put in, coming to the rescue of the apparently guilty filly. “You said ‘Nopony else can hear about this.’” Pointing to herself with both thumbs she said, “Not a pony.”

Despite his annoyance he recognized that if she kept to the literal wording of the promise then any: griffons, or hellhounds or whatever other inequine thing in the wasteland, probably wouldn’t spread it around this or any filly dominated academy.

“Sure, fine. Where’s my stuff.” Steel Wing started looking around the yard.

“By the circles.” Corona pointed to a large pile of their gear. His and Corona’s armaments were laid out carefully.

The wingless pegasus sauntered over, looking sadly at the barding made to accommodate a winged form. Still he slipped into it and strapped on the leg holster for his energy pistol. He was going to need a battle saddle he realized with a grimace. Less and less free by the day. He thought to himself. Tonight, he decided, he was going to give that alicorn a good ass kicking.

Corona came up next to Steel Wing and started slippinginto her armor. “So how did that thing with the unicorn assassin’s go?” The tone in her voice said she was dancing around a potential social landmine. This time she was stepping carefully.

“Unresolved.” Steel Wing muttered.

“About your wings-“ she began.

“Don’t.” Steel Wing interrupted faking interest in a rock that resembled a heart on the ground.

“No, you need to hear me out.” Corona waited for any more denial of her right to speak her mind all the same. “I know you aren’t alright.” She continued. “I’ve had nightmares about losing my wings; I literally wet the bed once just last year because of a really bad dream involving that. You lost both your wings and are wearing this ‘I’m just a little upset.’ mask and nobody around here is buying it.”

“So what if I’m a little pissed?” Steel Wing growled.

“Good, then say so. Don’t hold shit like this in. Say you want to find a way to get them back, just don’t keep it in like it’s all that’s keeping you alive. I mean- I don’t know say you want a hug or something.” She finished with a frustrated sigh.

Steel Wing’s body wanted to shut down just then. Wanted to go and burn and break and stop moving. He let himself feel the hurt like Corona said, but it didn’t crush his desire to help the ponies trapped in Armory.

“Alright, I can feel feelings are you happy?” Tears began to run down his face. “Yeah I want my wings back, but I don’t need them to help somepony, and right now there’s lots of ‘someponies’ that need helping.” He found his determination again and wiped his tears away.

“Damn straight now get that saddle bag on and help me into this armor!” Corona barked as if addressing a peon.

Steel Wing gave her a very confused look.

“What? This shit is hard to get on by myself.” Steel Wing shrugged and began helping her. During this time Autumn Heart arrived along with six unicorn mares. Several were instructors as far as Steel Wing could tell.

“So we’re teleporting the three of you?” One of the unicorns asked.

Autumn Heart answered with a simple, “Yes.”

“If you will stand inside the center rings then we can begin.” With that she and the other five unicorns took places at points inside the outermost circle.

The three of them complied and waited. A few more tears managed to escape Steel Wing’s eyes but before Autumn Heart could ask the world turned bright yellow.

The next instant there was the resounding rumble like a low roll of thunder echoing off the walls of a cavern. The second thing Steel Wing noticed was several weapons aimed at him. As well as many, many pairs of fearful eyes looking at him.

The unicorns were shaking off their daze from casting the spell. Corona had already drawn her weapon but decided against threatening when she saw several plasma rifles aimed at her. A couple were close enough to poke her in the chest. Steel Wing began taking stock of their surroundings while the silent standoff persisted. He knew something was off when he saw two colts with horribly degraded pistols that were just under half their size, trying to protect a group of terrified fillies and mares. Looking around he saw that many of the ponies in the tightly packed cavern were in very bad shape; infected wounds, unshorn fetlocks, and emaciated figures were present in great amounts.

“Corona put your weapon down, we don’t want to hurt them.” Steel Wing said quietly. Corona gave him the ‘are you sure?’ look. Steel Wing nodded and the uneasy feeling griffon did as he had said. “We aren’t here to hurt anypony here. The unicorns from the academy didn’t think this place was occupied.” At hearing themselves being referred to, said unicorns came to and noticed the firearms pointed in their general direction. They were all visibly scared as well.

“W-what do you want then?” A young tan unicorn stallion with orange and red striped mane took a few shaky steps forward. He was by far the best off of the group, probably due to some sort of healing magic. “Wait,” something had just registered with him. “You came from the unicorn academy? So you aren’t with those raiders?”

“No, what raiders?” Steel Wing felt the atmosphere gradually begin to relax.

“The one’s out by the entrance.” Steel Wing shook his head slowly. “Oh, thank Celestia. They chased us in deeper in and we had to hole up in here. Now they’re out there waiting for us to starve to death or surrender.”

“Wait farther in? I thought this stable wasn’t even half finished.” Steel Wing looked to the unicorns for confirmation.

“They weren’t, but that didn’t stop them from digging. It’s always been a lot deeper than anypony thought. Just completely unfurnished.”

“Well I guess we’d planned to leave through the front anyways. We can clear out those raiders before we head to Armory can’t we?” Looking now to Corona and Autumn Heart. “Oh I’m Steel Wing and this is-“ The atmosphere had gone up several new levels at the mention of the slaver compound.

“Oh goddesses no. Are you slavers?” There was whimpering all around them.

The mere thought made Steel Wing’s stomach turn. The realization of what the ponies he was talking to really were almost made his heart stop. “You’re all escaped slaves.” Steel Wing’s eyes darted around the room. He guessed there were over a hundred ponies in here. “How did so many of you escape?”

Crying came from several foals now, since he had failed to deny that he was in fact a slaver. “Please just leave us alone, we don’t want to go back.” The stallion in charge was nearing tears himself as he pleaded for their continued freedom.

Now Steel Wing had to actually try to keep the rising bile from escaping his mouth. “No, goddesses no I’m not a slaver. I was- we were on our way to liberate the slaves from Armory. Somehow at least.”

Despite believing those words the crying continued and the unicorn stallion was still shaking. “Too late for that, a bunch of armored pegasai came and tore the place up. They freed all the slaves and told us never to return. They did give us some weapons and supplies but wouldn’t let us into the actual armory.”

Steel Wing’s brain shut down as one thought was being reprocessed through his mind, “The Enclave helped surface ponies?”

Corona knocked on his head to bring him back. “I think we should still head there yeah? The Enclave can’t have taken everything.”

“I don’t think they took anything at all.” The tan stallion offered. Receiving disparaging looks from the pair with a great deal of knowledge involving fighting in general. “No really, once the last of us was outside they just left, all they took was the focusing gems from the magical AA guns that hadn’t been completely destroyed.”

“You’re serious?” Corona asked incredulously.

Steel Wing’s expression darkened because he knew that wasn’t a good thing.

“Alright,” Steel Wing spoke up forgetting he was addressing a full of terrified ex slaves. “Any of you with the capability to fire a gun get one from among the ones you have.” Looking back at the two colts with rusted out guns. “Fillies and children are not to have weapons by the time we’re ready to go.” Instead of the response he shouldn’t have ever expected from non soldier ponies. Instead he saw a foal near the front of the crowd wet herself and begin to wail in response to his tone.

“You. Outside. Now.” Autumn Heart commanded. Steel Wing recognized the, ‘Replace the meanie with someone nice, gain control’ tactic and played the part of the meanie going out into a small tunnel head hung in defeat.

Corona came out and joined him. “You really need to work on that. That whole ‘Jump when I say jump.’ thing doesn’t work on things that don’t know how to jump.” Steel Wing nodded with understanding. “If you do it to me I may give you shit about it, but I get it because I know a little about where you come from. Autumn Heart might never say anything about it but it does bother her, I can tell. She is a friend, so anything else you treat like that in the wasteland is liable to treat you pretty badly too.”

“That may be the wisest thing to ever come out of your beak. At least according to me.”

“Heh, yeah you may be right about that one.” The prophetic griffon began taping the stone floor with a talon. “So, how do you feel about interspiecies sex?”

Steel Wing shut his eyes tight, opened them and looked at the griffon with his best ‘the fuck are you talking about?’ look. “You wanna follow that one up with anything in particular?”

“Would you have sex with a griffon?”

“Not better.”

“It’s a hypothetical I’m not coming on to you.”

“Better. I don’t know if that would even work. Would it?” He cursed the fact that he was actually curious about the subject now.

“Well physically, yeah probably.” The griffon assumed a philosophical face, talon taping beak. “Oral is, as a rule, out of the question. Unless the partner is really into pain for pleasure I suppose.” She made a face at the thought. “Probably still wouldn’t really work. It is however pretty amazing all the things you can do with thumbs.” She grinned wickedly as she flexed her talons in Steel Wing’s face.

The thought of all the horrible things that could be done to his sensitive parts with those hand knives filled him with pure dread.

“Alright so speaking to the hypothetical end of things, yes I would. Realistically unless a griffon turned out to be my soul mate hell no.” He shuddered once more at the thought of the talons. “Can we talk about something else please. I don’t want this to come up again if we end up drinking.”

Corona was happy that he’d thought of it and quickly agreed to talk about something else.

An half hour later Autumn Heart came out to join them catching the end of a conversation about aerial combat. She was happy to see Steel Wing regaling Corona with his favorite fights in the sky despite the pain from having lost his wings, which was evident in his eyes.

“Alright so you have seven able bodied ponies in there, not including the us three or the unicorns. They Enclave gave them a couple plasma rifles as well as anything Armor’s guards were carrying at the time. The raiders are in the entry way they’ve had all of five hours to set up. Even though they are normally well organized it’s very doubtful they’ve had time to set up a barricade. So with some tactics we can draw them out and eliminate them without losses. Hardly anypony is related to anypony else, but bear in mind that most consider the others family. The seven going with you therefore have family, so make sure they come back.” The last of her words were very much an order. Steel Wing looked at the mare with utter shock.

“Since when did you have a grasp on battle tactics? That was some sort of amazing.” The ex pegasus captain couldn’t hid his astonishment.

She blushed lightly, “I don’t it just sort of makes sense to me I guess.”

Steel Wing simply nodded not quite registering what she said. He was still on the part where she had already formulated most of a battle plan.

“So can he order these ponies around? I think he needs it.” Corona said mockingly.

“I did inform them that you’ve lead troops into combat before. It was all I could do to keep them from shaking while they lined up.” Steel Wing could tell by her tone what she meant was ‘They aren’t soldiers and shouldn’t be treated like they are.’

“Alright bring em out here.” Autumn Heart raised an eyebrow. Right “Please and thank you.” he was careful not to use a reluctant or mocking tone.

“Can do.” She smiled and turned to retrieve the fighter ponies.

“Oh and see if any of the unicorns are willing to supply protection or healing magic to this. Pretty please.” He let a little bit of bite into the last request.

Autumn Heart nodded understandingly and went in.

She returned with ten volunteers. Two of the academy’s unicorns as well as the tan stallion. Three earth pony and one pegasus stallion. An earth pony and unicorn mare, as well as one of the colts who had intended to die for the fillies they were protecting. The last he saw and made a face.

“Autumn Heart, I would have hoped you wouldn’t try to bring children into this.”

“I don’t- what are you talking about.” Steel Wing pointed aggressively at the colt with a hoof. “Oh Snap, I told you already you are not going with us.” She herded the disgruntled red coated colt back into the common room. “Sorry I didn’t see him, and you were right to think that.” She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment.

Steel Wing brought a hoof to his face. He’d done it again. “Alright,” He looked Autumn Heart in the eyes. “I’m sorry. I’ll get better with that I promise.” Turning back to the volunteers he softened his tone. “I’m grateful and pleased to know that you’re willing to risk your lives for fellow your fellow ponies. As hard as it’s going to be from both sides; I need you to do as I say, and I’ll do my best be nice about.”

Curiously he glanced at the other pegasus’ flank. The ugly brand where his cutie mark should be told him that he was from the Enclave. The pegasus saw this and said, “See something you like?” At first Steel Wing thought reasonably that the pegasus stallion was sore about the loss of his cutie mark. He however detected a flirtatious tone added to the end.

“Er- no I was just wondering where you’d been born. Your cutie mark.” He explained sadly.

“Oh yeah okay.” The pegasus deflated visibly. Losses all around today.

The two ex-slave mares, both with yellow coats and manes, one slightly darker than the other, were looking questioningly at the weapons they’d been given. Steel Wing saw the bruises and scars on their flanks their manes had been incredibly well maintained, and made them look quite attractive. Two sex slaves who probably don’t like taking orders from a male. Good. The earth ponies he noted were all fairly confident with their firearms. He was slightly worried about their ability to see through their overgrown manes.

When he addressed the two academy unicorns the lit up immediately. “What kind of magic are you bringing into the fight?”

“I’m Peaches,” Said the first, “I can do shields, lots of shields so my friends call me Guardian Angel, or Angel for short.” Good, send the young ones. She had a sapphire blue coat with white mane. He also saw a strand of pink on her horn that went all the way to the tip.

The other was slow too slow to respond for her energetic friend. “This is Flash Fire. She likes to play with fire. Oh she has this one spell that will turn a pony to ashes from the inside out.” Flash Fire had a pure black coat, and had a dark red mane that grew over half of her face. There was a small gap in the covered half so both of her eyes were visible. She had a blue right eye and amber left eye.

“You two are perhaps the strangest pair of friends in the wasteland since I saw a hellhound riding a sprite bot.” The looks of disbelief he got from the group was exactly what Steel Wing had wanted. “It was a joke, but I like that you thought I was serious.” He gave a wide grin. It managed to get a few awkward chuckles from all but Flash Fire. She was clearly the downer of their team.

“So do we have any idea what these raiders are armed with?”

The dark coated unicorn spoke before any of the others could say no, “Standard firearms, pistols a high powered rifle, and some assault rifles. One of them somehow managed to get their hooves on some Steel Ranger power armor, has a mounted gatling gun and rocket launcher. In total there are thirteen of them and three are unicorns.” Her right eye turned black when she finished.

“Uh, How did you know that exactly?” All eyes were on her and Steel Wing couldn’t help but question how she had gained such information.

“Oh that’s an easy one! She knows a far seeing spell, it makes part of her brain shut down for a while so she won’t be talking anymore. That’s no biggie though Flash Fire is always good in a fire fight.” She laughed at her own joke and nudged her partner, before remembering that she wouldn’t laugh with her.

“Something new every second.” Steel Wing muttered under his breath. “Okay well I’m Steel Wing, this is Corona, and our whiny green one is our doctor and explosives expert Autumn Heart.”

“Why is your name Steel Wing?” The previously dejected pegasus asked.

“Because I’m a pegasus.” Steel Wing said plainly. He received many blank stares in return. “An alicorn disintegrated my wings and I haven’t changed my name yet.” More looks of disbelief but that he could deal with. Corona also gave him a questioning look. He shrugged.

“Alright let’s get moving then shall we?” Part of the group actively agreed the rest were all implied yeses. “Glad to hear it now which way are we going exactly?” Since he hadn’t actually come through here he didn’t know his way around.

Flash Fire walked past him and kept going. “Lead the way then?”

He followed behind her Corona next to him on his right. She’d gone back to walking on her hind legs and had an anti machine rifle out. He watched her grinning while loading in armor piercing rounds.

The almost giddy griffon said, “Steel Ranger armor? Sucks to be you.”

“You’re getting that look about you. You aren’t going to freak out and start shooting everypony are you?” Steel Wing asked with concern.

“Naw, Just the ones who are shooting at me.” She was distracted by the upcoming fight.

“Not what I meant. Just please don’t hurt our allies.”

“Pshhhh, That’s what the EFS is for. Hate that name by the way, but ponies made it ponies get to name it I guess.” With that she was gone lost in her fantasy.

“Hey I got a question for you.” The ex-slave pegasus took a spot at Steel Wing’s other side.

“Go for it.”

“Are you really a wingless pegasus?”

“Oh,” Steel Wing didn’t think the subject would come up again with this group. “Yeah I really am, if it helps you believe me, my special talent turned out to be weaponizing my wings.”

The pegasus’ cheeks redened as he looked back at Steel Wing’s flank, his face gained an incredulous expression as he looked back at Steel Wing. “How does a starry night sky have anything to do with your wings?”

“Well it’s more about the feathers than the sky behind them.” Steel Wing offered rolling his eyes.

“Uh, what feathers?”

At the last question Steel Wing felt his stomach lurch. He sat down and looked at his cutie mark. The three metal feathers had vanished leaving only the stars in the night sky. The world was starting to be drowned out by the sound of Steel Wing’s heart beat in his ears. A phantasmal sound of metal grinding on metal seemed to echo through the small tunnel.

He felt something tight wrap around his body. Autumn Heart was holding on to him saying something he couldn’t hear her eyes begging him to do something.

Wings: Gone. Cutie Mark: Desecrated. Disregard for the Lives of Raiders: 100 %

Steel Wing simply started moving forward, forcing the pleading green mare to let go or be tread upon. His ears folded back his expression darkened and the casing of his energy pistol cracked from the pressure in his mouth.

“Hey, Steel Wing, buddy? If we’re going with the no plan just kill the raiders thing I’m all for it. Most unplanned fights require a bit more protection in the head area though. Are you-” When he dissapeared around the corner whatever she was going to say was lost. “Is he going to be alright?”

Autumn Heart looked at the ground, “I don’t really know. The last time he was like this he just sort of laid down and stopped moving for a while. I think he may do horrible things to the raiders.”

“What makes you think that?”

Autumn Heart pointed with a shaky hoof, “He discarded his gun.”

--------------------------------------

Being incomplete meant that the farther back somepony went the less ways there were to get lost. So as it turned out, Steel Wing didn’t even need guidance back to the raider controlled area of the stable.

Without an EFS and the loud thudding of his own heart in his ears all he could do was listen for the slight off beats of another pony’s hoofsteps.

The first two he met a puny earth pony stallion and unicorn mare. She was turned away from him so Steel Wing simply crushed her partner under hoof, their difference in size took away all chance for the raider’s survival. By the time the unicorn mare heard the desperate scream and crushing of bones Steel Wing had already put his forelegs around her throat and easily crushed her windpipe. The reactionary glow of her horn lit and died in less than a second.

He discarded the corpse and walked over the crushed stallion.

A lone patrol, an earth pony mare, sent to investigate the noise. There was no response when she commanded the massive stallion coming down the hall to stop. By the time she remembered she had a gun Steel Wing was a foreleg’s length away. She quickly drew her pistol and fired just as the massive stallion put a hoof up and jammed the gun into her mouth. Steel Wing felt the bullet impact his hoof, it sunk in deep and painfully. He simply wrapped his teeth around it and pulled it out. Downing a healing potion.

By now he could hear the irrythimic sounds of raiders scrambling to get their meager defenses together. Ten Left. Steel Wing picked up the still breathing mare by her mane and dragged her with him.

At the door to a room he knew had raiders in it he tossed the body in, automatic small arms were fired. He ran in right after they started tracking the mare’s body and targeted the pony closest to the door. He slammed into the unsuspecting raider pony with enough force to drive him against a wall. Internal bleeding would have been his fate had Steel Wing not used his body to shield himself from the raiders allies; who had figured out there was something else in here after them. The meat shield wasn’t perfect Steel Wing felt several grazing shots pass by his legs one left a moderate gash in his neck. Rearing up he discarded his meatshield with enough force to knock another raider off his hooves.

That left the third a unicorn stallion who was trying to load an anti machine rifle, a shotgun discarded at his hooves. This raider clearly had no business with such a fine pieces of weaponry, as he couldn’t actually figure out how to load in the ammo. Steel Wing calmly approached him until he heard more off beats from the hall outside.

It was too late to dodge the automatic fire from the gatling gun. It was also too late for Steel Wing’s newest meatshield to scream before being shredded by the metal storm coming at him. The raider wearing Steel Ranger armor had come to put an end to this once and for all.

Before long his shield was gone; most of the bullets that hadn’t hit his shield was softened greatly by passing through, and so most of it had immbeded itself harmlessly in his armored barding. That wasn’t the case for all of the bullets, Steel Wing had put most of the body infront of his face, his lower half had multiple holes that were bleeding profusely. He could feel the woozieness from the blood loss settling in.

Still have one, two, three- Steel Wing nearly fell over as he tried to figure out how many raiders he had left. His attention was brought instantly back to the fight as a close burst of shotgun fire punched a hole through his chest.

He looked down upon the second most pathetic stallion he’d seen that day, with a wrathful gaze that would make the sun turn away. He was losing blood quickly, and before he could go for a healing potion the stallion pulled the trigger again fear in his eyes. It jammed. Steel Wing felt pity somewhere in the back of his mind towards the stallion since he knew what he was about to do. But he didn’t know, he should have known but he couldn’t think of what he was about to do. He only knew it was going to happen. The world faded into a cold darkness as he felt the mane of somepony being used to whip its owner around as a bludgeon.

When next he awoke, Steel Wing was laying on his stomach on the floor of the Stable’s entry way. He had to spit out some sort of soft piping in order to breath right. His body ached, three discarded healing potions sat around him. Something heavy stopped him from moving his right foreleg. As he tried to shake it free he saw that it was a pony stuck on his hoof. His entire body was covered in blood. Lots of it he guessed was his but he knew better than to think it all was. He looked to see what he had spit out. Somepony who was wearing hoofspikes had been forced to donate his foreleg as Steel Wing’s melee weapon. The spikes had blood and bits of flesh stuck to it. Steel Wing vomited and cried, and tried to breath in between the two. He found it very difficult to breath while crying and heaving the contents of his stomach out through his throat.

Padded feet and talons landed next to him just outside the pool of blood now expanding with vomit added.

“They had a colt with them.” Corona said without looking down at Steel Wing.

Steel Wing responded by curling up and shaking not wanting anything more to come out of his body. Or let any more news about the atrocity he’d committed in.

“The colt is okay, physically at least. He wasn’t old enough to have a cutie mark so you must’ve passed him over.” The hardened griffon tried to maintain a neutral tone. The disgust she felt for what she’d witnessed on the way here and the smell were making it very difficult not wretch between her words.

Steel Wing whimpered glad that he hadn’t turned to killing children in his fury.

“Speak up, I didn’t hear you. Oh I shouldn’t freak out and start killing everything that moves. Well What. The. Fuck. was that? Huh?” Corona finally let her anger out.

Steel Wing whimpered again. Something which the enraged griffon had had quite enough of.

“NO, we are done feeling sorry for you. What about the ponies who you just murdered.”

“They were raiders.” He said weakly.

Her talons dug into his coat as she turned him to look into his eyes. “Yeah, and you and I both know that they have families. They aren’t like the monsters out of Manehattan or Hoofington.” She released her grip slightly when she saw blood running down his neck. “After you killed that one in the power armor they surrendered. The shouted it at you and you just kept going. You chased them all down and brutalized them. All the ponies in this place could hear it. Their begging and screaming. All of them except you I guess.” She let him go and he rolled to his side.

“My wings... cutie mark.” He grumbled.

“Fuck you.” Corona punched him in the stomach. “You an alicorn or some shit like that did that to you. Not these fucking raiders who just wanted to go home to their families. They aren’t that much better than slavers with what they do, but they don’t deserve to be slaughtered while they beg for their lives.” She leaned in close beak touching snout. “Pull some shit like this again, and I’ll be stringing you along the face of a cliff by your intestines. The last thing you’ll feel is cold wind blowing against your insides.” She drew herself away from his stench. “Do I make myself clear?”

Steel Wing looked down in defeat.

“Do I MAKE. MYSELF. CLEAR!?” She punctuated each word by stomping the prone stallion repeatedly.

“Yes.” Steel Wing hissed through gritted teeth.

“Good then clean yourself up and wait outside. You’re done helping these ponies.” With that she left, quickly. Grateful to be away from the smell.

She was coming down off of rage. Most of it was from seeing what Steel Wing had done; she had also prepared herself for a fight, and some selfish part of her wouldn’t let it go that she was denied one. Any of the latter thoughts were erased when she passed Autumn Heart trying to comfort a recently orphaned colt.

“Well girl, this is what you get when you start caring about the lives of ponies.” She went back to tell the unicorns there was some cleaning to do. She’d be damned before she exposed all those other children to this horror.

--------------------------------------

Steel Wing lay there the soreness refused to leave his body and he was glad for that, he deserved it. He got up eventually and tried to wipe blood and puke out of his mane. It was a lost cause so he slowly walked up the tunnel to the Vault’s entrance.

It was late evening; the stars, though not visible through the cloud cover were out. Steel Wing was deep in thought about how best he was going to murder the alicorn who had taken not only his wings but a part of his cutie mark.

“Nightmare” as she liked to be called must have known she was on somepony’s mind as a momentary break in the cloud cover allowed a half moon to shine down on Steel Wing.

“Some things in this world I can’t bring myself to do. Wherever the hell you are isn’t this world. Wait for me tonight because there will be pain.” He said it under his breath but somehow he knew she’d gotten the message when the moon once again hid itself behind the clouds.

After pouring a bottle of water down his back and trying to wash the gunk from his mane out, Steel Wing discarded his new breathable metal shirt and turned his saddlebags into a pillow.

With a dark smile he drifted off into his dreams.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Somewhere far away from this moonlit place Steel Wing could hear a voice trying to bring him to its source. His mind was too focused on the alicorn in front of him to care who or what it was.

“We have been waiting for you to return for some time.” The Nightmare flexed her wings and folded them back. Steel Wing’s eye twitched.

“I have a few things I want to say to you.” A wicked grin spread across Steel Wing’s muzzle as he stepped closer. His rage fueled mind completely ignored the fact that he was about to challenge an immensely powerful alicorn, if the stories of Nightmare Moon were to be believed.

“There are some things I wish to say to you as well.” The alicorn was only now becoming aware of the air of hostility Steel Wing had brought with him.

“What have I done to you?” Steel Wing asked in an even tone.

“You ahve done nothing to Us.” The alicorn was now a little worried. She could see the barely contained rage sending tremors through his body. Her tone became unsure and hesitant, “Your soul has been twisted, distorted since last We saw you. What has happened?” The alicorn shifted uncomfortably. She was visibly unnerved by his building rage, but Steel Wing was too far gone to the voice in his head screaming for her body to be broken.

During this time Steel Wing had been taking stock of the Nightmare’s armor. He had barely registered that it had spikes on it when his leg muscles decided then was the time to charge.

The alicorn spread her wings out, but shock from the sudden aggression caused her to simply surrender ground to the charging pony. Less than a hoofspan away the Nightmare reared up trying to fend off the attack with her forehooves. Steel Wing simply took the hits and plowed into the alicorn knocking her on her back. Standing over her Steel Wing had murder in his eyes.

“Why do you wish us harm?” The voice that echoed through the space around them was a frantic pleading whisper. As the alicorn struggled under him as he pinned her down. Shifting farther up her body Steel Wing put his hind hooves on her splayed wings and stood up.

“You took my wings.” He brought his hooves down on her armored throat. The alicorn let out a choked yelp as he stood back up. “You defaced my cutie mark.” He came back down trying to crush her wind pipe. The magic armor had undone the dent he’d made. Again he planted both forehooves direckly on her throat. She tried to cry out for mercy, but didn’t have enough air to speak. “I will end you!” Steel Wing let loose his fury and brought his hooves down on her head instead.

The choir of voices ceased when all of the alicorns magic was directed towards not dying. “Please we can help.”

Steel Wing’s burning desire for the once majestic creature under him died away as he registered that he was beating an alicorn in hoof to hoof combat.

Once the armor had repaired itself again the alicorn sucked in air in short gasps.

“You will help me. First you will answer my questions.” The Nightmare understood it as a command and nodded sullenly.

“We wish you to know-” Steel Wing cut her off.

“Refer to yourself as ‘We’ one more time and I’ll snap your neck.” Steel Wing’s anger hadn’t died away completely, but the threat was intended to test whether he still held some power here. When she nodded again Steel Wing didn’t feel empowered so much as bewildered at the powerful creatures fear of him.

“We- I want you to know that I never meant to cause you harm.”

“Glad to hear it.” Steel Wing took a deep breath and steadied himself. “Why haven’t you torn me apart with your magic yet?”

“You are valuable to us.” Her eyes went wide. “To I- we- me! You are valuable to me.”

“I’m still valuable even though I was about to kill you?”

“You were going to kill me?” The alicorn was truly surprised.

“What did you think I was trying to do? I even said ‘I will end you.’”

“You seemed frustrated.” Steel Wing shook his head trying to find some reason to her words. He removed himself from on top of her and saw a little trickle of blood run down the plates of her armor. During his assault he had come down hard on a three inch spike on her underside.

“So because I was angry, you let yourself be my personal punching bag?”

“If it meant you would hear u- me out then yes.”

“You must be in dire need of company if you’d take a beating just to have a conversation with somepony.” With his anger drained away guilt began filling his mind with that familiar knot growing tighter in his stomach.

“Will you listen now?” The alicorn asked hopefully standing up shakily.

“No, I still want some answers.” The guilt increased as he spoke. “What did you do to my wings?”

“We- I thought that you could hear me or you would have resisted-” Steel Wing interrupted her again.

“I don’t have any magical abilities. I’m a pegasus. There was no way for me to fight that.”

“But you allowed me into your body.” The alicorn seemed to believe she was being accused of something like entering a house one would share with a roommate.

“Are you talking about that abyss the black mist came out of? I don’t even know what that is.”

“It is a door in your soul through which I may contact you.” She stated matter of factly.

“And you were going to tell me this when?”

“I was telling you at the time, I thought you could hear me.”

“All I could hear was the sound of my own laughter as my wings apparently disappeared. And then somepony who was trying to help me was chased down by that black mist. Care to explain what that was about?”

“I apologize for any trouble I have caused you. Perhaps if you would allow me to explain why you would cease being angry with me.”

Steel Wing nodded, “I guess you might be the first I should ask why you did what you did, instead of assuming you were trying to harm me.” He sat as the weight of the guilt was becoming too much for his body to support. “I’m sorry. I needed somepony to blame for what I’d just done to those raiders. Since I knew you’d already taken my wings I came after you.”

“We, have forgiven you.” She tried to retract the phrase with a hoof to her mouth but it was too late.

“I’m not going to hurt you. I’ve done enough hurting to others today.” The majestic alicorn who’d been reduced to an object of somepony’s abuse had mixed feelings about his words.

“These, raiders? You did something to them, not long ago. Yes?” Steel Wing nodded. “We heard it, something from your soul a horrible roar. One that We have heard with more frequency in recent times. If you are its source then we truly are in need of each other.”

“That last ‘we’ was a you and I we wasn’t it. So I guess this is where I ask again: What am I to you?”

“We know and have now accepted that you are to be our herald. You will allow us to make our return to your Equestria.”

“No. I’m not going to help you bring eternal night to Equestria or help you rule over ponykind. I’m trying to help ponies not enslave them.”

“Our desires are more similar than you think.”

Steel Wing gave the Nightmare his best ‘prove it’ look.

“You wish to stop the raiders who hunt and mutilate ponies. You wish to liberate ponies that are forced to serve masters that are no better than thugs and rapists, yes?” Steel Wing narrowed his eyes, but nodded for her to continue. “We want this as well, to a point.” Saw that coming. “As long as these things are allowed to exist there will be forces other than Us our subjects shall fear. We wish our subjects to fear and honor Us alone.”

“Okay so for a while our goals overlap. After that I couldn’t help you take over Equestria. All the stomping around you’ve been doing in my soul I would think you’d know me better.” Steel Wing had adopted a somewhat condescending tone.

“Yours is the only soul that can receive me in many centuries.”

“Princess Luna was the one before me then?”

“Yes.” She could tell Steel Wing wanted more of an explanation. “Our meeting was chance. It was by pure luck that the circumstances of her arrival bred anger enough to twist her soul into compliance. It took half a century to convince her of the need to retaliate. We taught her to bide her time as We could see the time fast approaching for her return to Equestria. She had accepted that we would come as well.”

“Right but the Elements of Harmony and such.” Steel Wing had been satisfied after the mention of another twisted soul. “I want my wings back and my cutie mark restored. Beyond that I’m not promising you anything.”

“Would you take us away from here?”

“Like I said I can’t help you take over-” She raised a hoof.

“If We were to lend our power to your will, would you help us leave this place?”

Oh. “Fix whatever it is you’ve done to me then give me some time to think. I still don’t know as I trust you.”

“We accept this and understand.” She bowed graciously.

“Now if you’ll excuse me I have a lot of apologizing and washing to do.”

“When you wake We can help you clean your coat, if you desire our help.” She said stepping closer ready to send him back to the wasteland.

“Yeah, but if you could do it less painfully and without threatening anypony else that would be nice.” Steel Wing looked at his hooves. “And truly, I am sorry for my outburst. I wasn’t thinking anything at all and my anger was misguided, I hope you can forgive me.” The guilt weighing him down was likely enough to pull him back to the wasteland by itself.

Realizing that Steel Wing needed for her to be upset about it the alicorn adopted a stern tone. “Just be grateful it wasn’t somepony you could have harmed.” Her voice was still isolated to just what came out of her mouth. Her words were more than enough to make him cringe.

It could have been Autumn Heart, or Lilly. Celestia, Luna, anypony I need help. Steel Wing had gotten so lost in his self loathing he forgot about the powerful magical creature just a few feet from where he stood.

“If you would like we can begin to help you. At a later time perhaps.” Steel Wing looked at her and tried to smile.

“I’d appreciate that, if you think you can stop it from happening again.”

“We, do not know what we will be able to stop you from doing. Your will is your own and our guidance will only take you so far. Still if it is important to you then it is important to us, and We will try.”

“Thank you. If you could please send me back I need to make some apologies right away.” The alicorn did so without another world, a quick flash of magic and Steel Wing was back in the wasteland.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another momentary break in the clouds allowed the moon to see Steel Wing, and vise versa. He laid their a while before he noticed Autumn Heart had lain down a few yards away.

Steel Wing stood up, a bit too quickly and stumbled. The sudden movement grabbed the still awake mare’s full attention she too got up and looked to make sure she wasn’t under attack.

Autumn Heart saw the pain in Steel Wing’s eyes. She could also see something that was likely the cause of the pain, she saw his fear. There was no question that he was scared. Even the hardened combat veteran knew, and he also knew there was nothing he could do to hide it.

Steel Wing still kept his tears in check when he spoke. “I think I need to find somepony else to help you finish your delivery.”

“What?” Autumn Heart took a few steps closer to get within a better hearing range. Her mind didn’t quite believe what the ears had heard. “Why would you dump me on somepony else’s hooves? You’re more than capable and I already know you.”

“I don’t want to burst your bubble there but I am not a good pony. I’ve tried to be, I’ve tried to do better since I met you but I just can’t. Whatever broke in me two years ago is never going to fix itself, I’d be better off back home where I only hurt ponies who deserved it.” Autumn Heart saw him going on the downward slope towards depression. She wasn’t going to let it happen.

“No.” He looked at her. “No you are not going back there, EVER. I’ll burn the whole thing down if I have to but you will not go back to that. You’re far more able to help everypony in Mexicolt, much more than anypony else I’ve ever known. You are NOT going to waste that sitting alone pretending to protect ponies who happen to pass by your range of sight. You can do too much good for me to just let you do that.”

“But I don’t want to hurt you. I could have today and I wouldn’t have even remembered it.” Steel Wing made a feeble attempt at dissuading her from keeping him around.

“Do you think that something like that is going to go away because you sit alone all day?” Steel Wing opened his mouth to respond but she continued. “Absolutely not, what you need is the support from somepony who cares. If it has to be me so be it.” She came even closer to him and managed to tower over the pony almost twice her size. “I am not going to be your mother. This is going to be Tough. Love. ” She stepped away from him quickly as the putrid smell that clung to his coat violated her senses.

Steel Wing felt something shift in his chest. The strange sensation from that portal in his soul was the tell tale sign of the Nightmare’s magic coming.

“Now is not the time- oh who am I kidding just get it over with.” Steel Wing had temporarily gone from self loathing to exasperation as the black mist began to work its way through his body. “You may want to stand back.” He said nodding to Autumn Heart.

The black ridges on that had shown up at the end of his previous episode came into being again. This time he could feel them touching his coat. It felt like thousands of tiny grains of sand being poured onto him, slowly gaining weight as it collected on his back. At the same time it began to come out of his mouth, also slowly carefully he could still breath and was very aware of what was going on. He suppressed a giggle as it tickled his muzzle and tongue.

Once the dark vapor had fully coalesced it formed a cloud around Steel Wing’s body. A new sensation hit him as the black particles clung to the dried bits of bodily fluid that covered Steel Wing from head to hoof. He felt as the filth was pulled from his body falling to the ground before disappearing in a wisp of black dust. When his coat had been cleaned the cloud went to join the ridges that had continued to steadily gain mass. His entire back went numb as the he felt the weight on is back nearly triple, then it was gone. Steel Wing took in a few unsteady breaths as he looked to see what had been done to him.

There reflecting moonlight into his eyes were a new pair of brilliant midnight purple wings. A sheen similar to his mane and tail. The feeling of wings was very familiar, yet these felt different somehow. Steel Wing felt his heart begin to pound away in his chest as he searched for an upright surface. He could no longer hide his excitement as he ran part way into the tunneled vault entrance. He extended his wings to their full length and broke into a gallop down the tunnel. Sparks flew as his glorious, new, strong, metallic yet skin and bone wings cut along the tunnel walls.

Joyous laughter filled the unfinished vault making all of its inhabitants look up with concern. The laughter was infectious and the looks of concern where replaced with small smiles. Now they had a reason to smile and to be happy. They were finally allowed to feel that they were safe and truly free.

Foot Note Level Up!

Steel Wing - Level 10

New Perk Added:

Blessed Wings of the Goddess - Your wings were taken and given back by the Nightmare herself. While retaining the feel of normal feathered appendages, these new wings act as though armored by enchanted plates, allowing them to cut with masterful precision. They can also be used to reduce damage from attacks made against you. You are now a whole and healthy pegasus.

Magic of the Nightmare - At night you may ask the alicorn known as Nightmare for assistance. Depending on the phase of the moon this assistance may be great or little. Beseeching the Nightmare repeatedly will be costly and may result in the destruction of your soul.

Autumn Heart - Level 8

Chapter 7 Part 1: Storm Clouds Fast Approaching

After regaining his wings and his initial jubilation, Steel Wing had been forced to face the grizzly scene he had created the previous night.

To the best of his non magical ability Steel Wing had helped clean up; clearing away the bodies while the unicorns cleaned the gore.

On the outside this task gave Steel Wing a grim face. The situation did little however to suppress the joy he felt from being a whole and complete pony once again. Even if he still couldn’t use them for flight his wings had always been a part of his life. They had also saved his life on numerous occasions.

After the cleanup Steel Wing had gone to apologize to the multitude of ponies he had scared with the sounds of his rampage. With Corona’s permission he offered them all Sky Fall as a safe haven; which it had been for the orphans of runaway slaves previously.

Before the return trip to Sky Fall could happen, Steel Wing was deadset on inspecting Armory and hopefully getting into the armory proper. The fact that the Enclave had supposedly left the weapon stockpile untouched filled his mind with an irritating worry.

It had taken only the mention of the mounds of unlooted weapons and other armaments to convince Corona to go. Autumn Heart had come only because she wasn’t yet convinced Steel Wing didn’t intend to enact his plan of leaving her in somepony else’s less capable hooves.

So the trio had set off to Armory in the early morning. They had left the six unicorns and a good deal of their own weapons with the ex-slaves. Even if they couldn’t get into the actual armory the expected there to be plenty of loot. That and the fact that there wasn’t anything that could stop the veteran griffon pegasus duo short of another hellhound attack.

On the topic of hellhounds, Corona who had taken to the air to be their lookout spotted a number of holes in their path to Armory.

Steel Wing cautiously approached the nearest hole, taking time in between each step to check for the telltale signs of a surprise attack. None came when he had reached the edge of one of the pits.

Tentatively he called, “Trapmaw? It’s me Steel Wing, and friends.” He added not wanting to leave them out of the non-enemy category. “If it still matters to you, I’d like us to continue not being enemies.” The first reply he received was a beastial growl followed by barking and moving earth. Steel Wing shifted nervously, but the sound was replaced by a somewhat more structured growling.

The new growling was quickly growing closer, but clarified into recognizable voice, “Steel Wing pony?” The voice had a tone of earnest curiosity and lacking in hostility. Steel Wing breathed a sigh of relief as Trapmaw’s head popped up from the hole before him.

“Trapmaw! You aren’t going to kill me.” He smiled intending it as a joke the hellhound was almost offended.

“Steel Wing pony make good promise. We not want to kill Steel Wing pony.”

“Right, of course I knew that. It was supposed to be a joke.”

“Pony humor never make sense.” Trapmaw shook his head and crawled all the way out of his hole. “Pony and bird friend come to say hi too?” He pointed a razor claw at his companions a ways off.

He motioned for them to come closer. Autumn Heart hesitated but Steel Wing’s approval was all Corona needed to land near the conversation.

Trapmaw smiled widely at the griffon’s arrival, “Bird lady has good aim for carrying pony and flying.” He extended his arm to show them a scorch mark that Corona had apparently made during their last encounter. It was right on the back of his hand and had likely made his aim very poor the rest of the fight.

“Name’s Corona.” She extended her hand in greeting and he his. They paused awkwardly seeing the potential danger of claws meeting talons in such a gesture. Eventually they resolved to shake very carefully.

He nodded respectfully once their hands parted. “Steel Wing pony’s wings not steel?”

“They fell off.” Steel Wing had gotten over the trauma of losing them just after he had tried to stomp a god to death.

“No. Pony still have wings.” Trapmaw countered logically.

“An alicorn regrew them for me.” Steel Wing amended.

Trapmaw snarled, “Alicorn are bad kind of pony. Alicorn like old time ponies, always trying to move us out of home.”

“This isn’t an alicorn from out around Manehattan. The one I know is- eh, from the moon.”

Trapmaw stiffened for a moment peering at Steel Wing through confused eyes. “Old princess pony nightmare sister?”

“Um sort of?” Steel Wing suspected he was referring to Nightmare Moon’s return with Princess Luna.

“Isn’t that even badder alicorn pony?” The hellhound’s offered no clues as to why Steel Wing was so calm about something worse than the alicorns he knew.

“Well she likes me, so she does what I say.” Steel Wing felt a stirring in his chest and quickly added. “Sort of.” The stirring ceased.

“So good pony Steel Wing is in charge of bad nightmare pony?” Steel Wing agreed not wanting to compromise the positive if slightly illogical train of thought. “So Steel Wing pony make nightmare pony do good?”

“Yeah, that sounds about right.” Steel Wing was glad that the hellhound had come to the conclusion on his own.

The hellhound let lose a throaty “Hmmm...” and rubbed his chin in thought.

Autumn Heart had come up silently about the time Corona and Trapmaw had finished shaking hands. She saw the scorch mark on the hellhound’s hand but waited to say anything until they had finished talking.

Before the conversation had a chance to pick back up Autumn Heart asked, “Do you need healing supplies?”

Trapmaw regarded the green mare with absolute disbelief. “Steel Wing pony not our enemy, not friend either. Why you help us not your friend?”

“Well friends are a hard thing to come by out here. If we aren’t enemies shouldn’t we be friends?” Steel Wing once again silently praised Autumn Heart for her ability to make a neutral situation into an advantageous one.

The hellhound instantly recognized the logic in her words choosing to ignore what was potentially an attempt at harmless manipulation. “Green pony make sense.” Trapmaw put his head in the hole behind him and started barking. His two companions quickly emerged.

“These three are friends.” He explained to the other two. “Honest ponies and bird lady,” He looked back at the griffon a moment and corrected, “Corona. They can help and we can help.”

He smiled when they both nodded silently. Even the most vicious of the three was pacified by his leader’s proclamation.

Turning back to his new friends Trapmaw took on a grave tone. “Good pony stay good pony. Not betray hellhound trust please.”

“As long as I am sane I promise I won’t betray you.” Steel Wing kneeled on his forelegs. His wings unfolded gracefully in a proper bow of respect.

Trapmaw raised an eyebrow, “Steel Wing pony know pony can’t dig right?”

Steel Wing stood up and looked at the hellhound until the slightly sobering realization came to him, “You don’t know how somepony shows respect to someone else do you? That probably never happened to any of your ancestors.”

“Oh, pony show of respect? Hellhound respect probably cause pony pain.” Steel Wing shrugged.

-----

After the warning and new promise, whatever medical supplies weren’t left with the refugees were offered to the hellhounds. They didn’t take much but were grateful all the same.

When Steel Wing had advised that a few unicorns might be following and asked the hellhounds not to kill them, he received a ‘probably not.’ The ferocious looking beast had said it with a wide grin. It took Steel Wing some time to realize that the hellhound was grinning at the joke he just made. He was forced to congratulate Trapmaw.

With a guarantee that the unicorns would pass safely, they all parted ways.

--------------------------------------

Steel Wing was the first to lay a hoof inside the former slaver stronghold. Corona landed as Steel Wing entered still wary of any active AA turrets.

Looking around Steel Wing mentally confirmed that the damage done looked like an incredibly well coordinated Enclave attack. He had forgotten to ask if the Enclave had suffered any casualties, as far as the bodies of slaver ponies were concerned there hadn’t been.

“So try to find a map of the compound I guess?” Steel Wing did his best not to make it an order. When he was rewarded with a happy nod he felt a little proud of himself.

Autumn Heart started going through the buildings close to the gate.

Corona went off to find out where the monitor room for all of the cameras was hidden. She suspected such a room would also have the status of local turrets in it somewhere.

Steel Wing merely walked through the streets when he passed by a corpse that looked untouched he would look through its belongings taking whatever he deemed valuable enough to take. He was deep in thought and hardly noticed when he fished a golden banded key card out of somepony’s pocket and placed it in his bag. It was gold shiny and might be worth something, was the thought process that caused him to do so.

Steel Wing was stuck on a single issue: Why would the Enclave leave this place unscavanged? They always needed scrap metal to repair military equipment, but here were destroyed turrets that had literally been reduced to nothing but scrap metal and they hadn’t been disturbed.

So deep was he in thought that when he opened a random door and scanned the room he didn’t notice the two pairs of horrified eyes looking at him. Or the riot shotgun aimed at him. The eyes he did notice just after he felt the bite of lead spray hit his torso. He jumped back through the door uttering several kinds of profanity.

The gun in question was clearly in poor condition given that his unarmored hide had only been pierced in a few places. It still hurt.

“Who shot me!” He demanded just outside the open door.

“We don’t want any trouble please just walk away.” Came the desperate voice of a mare.

“I- are you slavers that survived or something?” He rubbed his chest trying to get the stinging to go away.

“What? No of course we’re not.” The mare was clearly offended by the accusation.

“Then, then you’re slaves. Ex-slaves?”

“Slaves. Yeah we are. The master told us not to leave here no matter what we heard.”

“Well I’m not a slaver or a raider or an Enclave soldier, anymore at least. I was on my way here to help the slaves until I heard about the Enclave attack.”

“The Enclave attacked?” The mare asked flatly. “Bullshit.”

“Milly! The foal.” A second mare said.

“She’s asleep and she watched some drunken ass rape her mother. There’s nothing I can do that will make her any worse off.”

“Milly I’m surprised at you.” The second mare chided. “I know you’re a better pony than this. Dear you need to sleep, I can see it’s killing you.”

A little peep came from the room and Steel Wing had had enough of being ignored. “How many of you are there?”

“There’s only thr-” The second mare was interrupted with a small yelp.

“Don’t tell him anything, he just wants to know how many of us he has to deal with.”

Corona landed outside the door across from Steel Wing. “Paranoid sleep deprived mare with a shot gun. At least another mare and a foal.”

“Slavers?”

“Ex-slaves.”

Corona paused briefly, “You know all of the slavers are dead right?”

“Well- I can’t take the risk that you’re lying. If my master finds out that I left without his permission he’d beat me, or the foal. Or kill us both.”

“Sounds like a real ass.” Corona offered trying to get on better terms with the crazed mare.

“He- yeah he is, but he still owns me and I’m not going to disobey him just because you say he’s dead.”

Corona grinned, “What does he look like?”

“He’s big, and orange, and- Wait why are you asking?”

“Look we can keep on with the questions which I’m sure are pissing you off as much as they are me so just answer me please.” Corona wasn’t at all unsympathetic to their situation but she’d done this before and knew when to seem impatient.

“He wears a red suit, and has a red hat with golden trim.”

“Okay you wait right there.” Corona took flight staying below the height of the tallest building.

After a few moments of searching she dove down into another street and quickly came back into view carrying an orange and red pony shaped mass with her.

When she landed she heaved the dead slaver through the door and shouted, “Is this him?” She started laughing as the body went through the air. A scream and a gunshot cut off her laughter.

“Y-yeah that is him.” Milly said. Corona resumed her laughter.

“Oh that was too good. You don’t have any idea how hilarious that sound you made was.” Steel Wing rolled his eyes.

Corona was laying on laying on the ground laughing. She didn’t notice the double barreled shotgun being levitated inches from her face. A pink unicorn mare stepped out. She had a disheveled light pink mane and dark bruises covering her body.

Steel Wing could tell by looking that the mare, likely Milly, wasn’t very experienced with firearms in the least. Since it was a double barreled shotgun, meaning only two shots, Steel Wing was ninety-nine percent sure Milly had forgotten to reload.

Corona opened her eyes and gulped audibly when the gun tapped her beak. Both triggers clicked on spent shells causing Corona to flinch violently.

Now Steel Wing burst out laughing, which startled the pink mare. Clearly she had forgotten that there had been two voices outside the door.

She panicked and opened the breach. The extreme exhaustion present in her every move was causing her to continuously drop some very unique looking slugs on the ground. While at the same time trying to magically eject the two spent shells. Several times she almost dropped the gun itself. After dropping eleven slugs she simply gave up and broke down. The pink mare collapsed on to the prone griffon’s armored body and wept. She was attempting to cry into Corona’s breast in vain.

A teal coated mare with a green and teal mane rushed out and scooped up crying friend. She was followed by a sleepy looking magenta filly who yawned widely. Taking in the scene of the hysterical Molly being held tight by her other friend, gun and ammo scattered on the ground, a power armored griffon and an enormous pegasus, with bizarrely colored wings painted a picture of a serious problem.

The filly quickly and without any wasted movement ejected the spent shells and loaded two new slugs in. Steel Wing wanted to appreciate the deftness earth ponies seemed to develop so easily. The itching in his chest reminded him that these slugs were a special type of ammunition. Before the fast filly could snap the breach shut Steel Wing swatted it out of her grasp and away.

“Look, we-” He began but stopped when the filly was already at the discarded gun ten feet away.

Now she snapped the breach shut and leveled it at him. If it weren’t for the fact that the mouth grip was slightly larger than she could comfortably fit in her mouth she could have gotten a shot off. Steel Wing quickly and carefully removed the gun from determined filly and put her under one foreleg trying to put the shotgun in a saddlebag with his other. The agile filly easily wiggled free and snatched the shotgun away.

“Quit trying to shoot me I’m on your side!” Steel Wing yelled in frustration. Being outplayed by something less than half his size was working on Steel Wing’s nerves.

“Quickie stop please.” The teal coated mare commanded causing Steel Wing to take his eyes off the filly. She had gotten Milly to stop crying and now she had gotten the filly to stop her relentless attack. Hooray for mothers? Steel Wing thought to himself.

When Steel Wing relocated the magenta blur he found her behind him. A phantom pain shot through his left hind leg when he saw the shotgun pressed against it. He now owed the teal mare for saving him from several worlds full of pain.

After the longest seven seconds Steel Wing had ever gone through Quickie lowered the gun and spat it out. She quickly moved by her friends. Milly had been pacified by suckling on her teal friend’s foreleg it didn’t take long for her to pass out.

“I’m sorry about that.” The yet unnamed mare apologized. “After everything we’ve been through, yesterday with all the fighting outside; she hadn’t slept for days before anyways. Quickie and I tried to tell her we could leave but she had a gun and she was too out of it to realize everypony else was either dead or gone.” She watched her friend sleep with a motherly gaze. “Did anypony survive?”

“The Enclave came and killed all the slavers then they freed the slaves. A few hundred made it out to a half complete stable where we met them. We’ll be taking the group to Sky Fall and you’re welcome to come along.” Steel Wing was careful to keep his voice low lest he wake the unconscious mare.

The teal mare fought back tears of her own at hearing the offer. She leaned in close to Milly and whispered. “We have a real home to go to!” Even as quiet as she said it the excitement was clear in her voice.

Corona still had a leg stuck under Milly’s sleeping form. She glared with annoyance at how careful she had to be in freeing her leg. “So,” The griffon chimed up trying to distract herself from her rising irritation. “What kind of name is Quickie for a filly. I get that she’s fast but still, unless you’re a pegasus with weaponized wings I thought your names were supposed to be something about a flower.” It seemed nearly impossible to Steel Wing that something with wings could trigger so many landmines. He knew she was smarter than to not pick up on this trio’s role in the slave camp, clearly she hadn’t thought about it at all.

“Because my special talent is “being quick.” She used hoof quotes and grimaced as she was forced to contemplate the meaning of her own name.

“Yeah I get that but,” The griffon grew quiet as the meaning of a quickie she had always known revealed itself to her. “Oh... I fucking hate slavers.”

“Ditto.” Quickie said staring menacingly at the orange and red corpse of her former master. Corona and Steel Wing both could see her imagination going through all the horrible things the filly wished she could have done to him.

“Thanks for getting us out of there I guess.” The filly said at length. “We owe you now or something?” She asked her voice thick with reluctant acceptance. Steel Wing knew exactly what she was talking about and felt a scowl suddenly dominate his face.

I really really hate slavers. “No I’m helping you because I should help you. Just try to forget your old- Uh, habits if you can. You don’t have to do that kind of thing any longer.”

She fixed him with a serious ‘you’re full of shit’ look, “Please, I may have been born here but I know plenty about the wasteland. It’s only a matter of time before I’m caught by somepony else and raped. Or if Celestia deigns to grant me mercy, they might just kill me.”

Steel Wing felt sick, Corona clearly did too remembering a certain foal with a similar world view.

They all sat in awkward silence for a while until Steel Wing remembered the other reason they’d come here. “Find anything like a monitor station?” He turned to Corona.

“Yeah sorta, I actually found a turret management panel, but eh,”

“Eh?” Steel Wing mimicked.

“I don’t know anything about hacking.” The griffon confessed.

“I can probably take a look at it.” Steel Wing said. A hoof came to his chin as he was struck by brilliance. “Do any of you know where the weapon storage is? The actual armory I mean.”

The two conscious ex-slaves both shook their heads, Milly mumbled in her sleep.

Steel Wing thought carefully, he was not to be deterred by one negative response. “Did the slavers ever tell you about a building you were never supposed to go into?”

“Yeah, some big shed they said we weren’t allowed in. Almost nopony ever went in there though. Cept the slave master. The overpony so to speak.”

“Show me-” Steel Wing stopped himself cleared his throat and began again, “Could you please show me where this shed is?”

Corona nodded slightly at Steel Wing for his effort. Quickie looked over at her still yet to be named teal coated friend. She was still cradling Milly in her forelegs. With a sigh she motioned for Steel Wing and Corona to follow and started trotting off.

Not two minutes later both pegasus and griffon realized they were minus a green mare.

“Uh, where is Autumn Heart?” Corona asked.

“Last I knew she’d gone into that house, then I wondered off and found Quickie and friends.”

“Somepony missing?” Quickie looked back at them.

“Yeah a green mare with a bulls eye and letter cutie mark don’t suppose you saw her or anything?” Steel Wing already knew the answer and was preparing to turn and gallop back to the town’s front gate.

“No I haven’t, but we’re almost there.” She pointed a hoof to a small structure that looked out of place among the scorched mark buildings and cratered ground around it. It was mostly untouched save for some obvious shrapnel damage.

“Great I know where it is.” Steel Wing had turned tail and was half way back up the road. “Thank you!” He shouted over his shoulder.

As he sped back towards the last house he’d seen her in Steel Wing was already preparing for the worst. He was already anticipating some sort of horrible standoff with a slaver holding the trigger for a bomb collar while smiling like a maniac. The house was in sight now and Steel Wing increased his speed planning to hit the door and be half way into the building to take full advantage of the element of surprise it would afford him.

The door was slightly ajar so Steel Wing has hardly hindered entering the house. A dining table and chairs drew suddenly closer as he sped right into the middle of the room. By reflex he drew his wings in front of his body ducking his head down. When his wings connected with the edge of the table he spread his wings wide to his sides flinging table and chairs through the room. He quickly scanned the room planning to use his momentum on the first of his combatants. Instead he found Autumn Heart surrounded by a dozen spark batteries kneeling next to a suit of Enclave Power armor.

Having nowhere to place his momentum Steel Wing tumbled head over hooves into a wall which almost yielded to his mass. Instead it formed cracks and stopped his motion. Steel Wing felt the pain from the impact and just lie on the floor waiting for his head to stop spinning.

“Oh thank goodness you’re here.” Autumn Heart cried quickly trotting over to his still form. “Steel Wing?” He grunted in response. “You have to help, there’s a pegasus trapped in his armor!”

The urgency in her voice motivated Steel Wing to shrug off the pain and move. He followed behind her over to the immobilized pegasus.

“Can he speak?” He asked looking at the pile of spark batteries.

“Yes I can.” Came the muffled response of a trapped buck.

“Rank, squad and operation.” It was clearly an order one that Steel Wing was relieved to be able to give. Autumn Heart still gave him a disapproving look but she’d asked for his help so it was time to do things his way.

The buck was silent a long while. “Stand in front of me?” The authority with which Steel Wing had addressed him made him think that there might actually be an Enclave technician present. Steel Wing did so without complaint. The somewhat desperate Enclave soldier readily believed that this was one of their own technicians.

“Well?” Steel Wing said tapping a hoof impatiently.

“Second Lieutenant Crossfield, I am part of Operation- er. Sorry sir that part is classified.”

“Right fair enough.” Steel Wing redirected the conversation, “Second Lieutenant under who?”

“Commander Brightcloud, sir.”

Steel Wing was very sure his heart stopped beating for a few moments, as a wave of dizziness washed over him. Autumn Heart saw him wobble for a moment, when he recovered he continued to stare into space.

“Chief-” Steel Wing’s voice was unsteady and nearly gone as the taste of desert air dominated his mouth, “Chief medical officer?” He began to tremble as the words left his mouth.

“Um, Doctor Snow I believe. I think somepony called her Snow Wing, when he went in for a bullet removal he ended up paralyzed in an unfortunate accident of some kind. Word is she hates that name.”

Steel Wing fainted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The eyes those beautiful burnt-orange eyes. Her pure white mane and magnificent light grey coat. Everything that was a part of the only mare Steel Wing had ever loved.

And those eyes! The last time he saw them outside of his dreams. They had begged and pleaded for him to stay, the mare behind them was scared of being without her stallion. “Stay!” They pleaded, “Stay here and we can be together forever peacefully.”

The buck, the scrawny blue coated coward who forced them apart. Pointing a gun not at him but at his beloved and precious Snow. The pain in her eyes was mirrored in his heart, eating away at his very soul. For her sake he refused her plea, she would find somepony else to make her happy. A chance at happiness was the last thing he could give to his love, and he was willing to suffer to see that she got it.

The blindfold, the weights, the final cruel and mocking goodbye. The falling away when he could still feel those sorrowful eyes upon him as his form sank away from them.

The struggle, the rage -- the feeling of defeat, the acceptance of death. All of these before the will to fight against it, the hope of a new beginning and a potential future.

The ground rising to meet him quicker by the second. Wings finally outstretched the last five feet, the thundering BOOM the bright colors, the crash and agony, finally darkness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A mare’s voice came to him softly gently calling his name, “Steel Wing. Steel Wing. Wake up, please?” A gentle hoof was placed on his shoulder, slowly prodding him.

“Snow?” Steel Wing’s present position and the pounding in his head reminded him where he was. Slowly the deep green mare’s face swam into his vision. A tear came to his eye when there wasn’t a white maned pegasus there.

“Are you alright?” He continued to stare sadly at her for a while before nodding in confirmation.

“How is Crossfield holding up?” He asked remembering what he was doing last.

“About as well as when I found him, now he thinks you’re a narcoleptic.”

“Fantastic.” Steel Wing got back up on his hooves and walked back over to the unmoved soldier.

“Right Second Lieutenant Crossfield, how’d you end up like this?”

“I was flying over the compound, as part of a maneuver I detached from my squad and began herding the enemy with an explosive shower. There was a bright blue flash in front of me and my armor shut down. I landed here through the roof.”

“Uh huh, and you were airborne when you were hit by the pulse weapon.”

“Yes sir.” A slight shifting sound from the helmet showed that the buck had also tried to nod.

“Sounds like a damn lucky toss of a magical energy grenade to me.” Steel Wing summarized walking around to the armor’s exterior access panel. The spark pulse batteries are a risky option, I could use them to jumpstart your armor but really all that’s going to do is let you move. Without an external StableTec interface none of the ‘combat systems will come back online.”

“On the other hoof, if anypony around here was wearing a Pip-Buck we might be able to use one.” He tried to remember if he’d seen one before the image of a colt missing a foreleg laying in the road crying. “Well,” he said dourly “Spark batteries it is. Or...” He facehoofed. A certain avian friend of his was wearing a suit of prototype power armor. As long as it was designed by StableTec it would work for this.

“Or, sir?”

“I know someone with their own power armor. I shall return.”

Steel Wing was quickly back outside calling the griffon’s name. Until she came from over a roof top and swooped down to land by him.

“What’s up?” She asked casually.

“I need to use your power armor to jumpstart somepony else’s.”

“Whose?” She inquired reasonably.

“Some Enclave soldier.”

“Hold up a second featherbrain.” She put herself in front of him. “You do recall that the Enclave kicked you out right?”

“No one son of a mule did, I can’t blame the whole Enclave for his actions.”

“Uh yes you can and you should. If they let scum like him be a ranking officer it is their fault.”

“Well a pony is still a pony and they did help the slaves here. I’m returning the favor.”

“Alright fair enough, but when he finds out you’re down here and not a dashite he’s going to start asking questions. I mean look at you there’s no way he’s going to believe you were born down here. You’re an army buck and you know it.”

“You think too far ahead sometimes you know that?” Steel Wing was nudging her through the door. Over to Autumn Heart.

“I do no- Wow where’d you find all these spark batteries?”

“Around.” Autumn Heart said sheepishly.

“Well nice going.” Corona complimented, “So how does this work exactly is there a chord or wire or something?”

“Yeah,” Steel Wing said, “Just sit down and keep your right flank near his access panel.” Corona shrugged and promptly sat down on the suit of power armor containing a now annoyed pegasus.

“Hey I’m doing you a favor right now.” The smarmy griffon tapped the visor with a talon.

“A griffon!” The Enclave pegasus yelled in alarm.

“Nope, hellhound.” Corona corrected.

“Yes she’s a griffon.” Steel Wing admitted. “Not that it should matter just be thankful this one is willing to help you. Now if you could both keep it down, please and thank you.”

“Sorry sir.”

“Yeah fine.”

Steel Wing was now at his first hitch in this plan. Corona had activated armor which meant her panel could be opened with a blink of an eye. The pegasus power armor was powered down and locked up, he’d have to find a way to force open the panel.

He started out poking it with a hoof, hoping against hope that it was that simple. Next bit down on the latch and tried to wrench it open with his teeth. This caused his gums to bleed. He swished the blood around thoughtfully in his mouth.

Hoof rubbing against his head deep in thought, if I found something sharp enough to cut it open. He had to double facehoof at this point. Two of the sharpest things know to ponykind, at least since he’d last checked, were on his back. They no longer had enchanted plates, but if they were regrown as strong as the plates had been they should be able to cut through the armor fairly smoothly.

Slowly and carefully he stretched his wing in front of him and guided it with his hooves to the downed pegasus’ armored flank. Gently he pushed the tip of his wing under the latch, and then pushed harder. There was some resistance but the feathers stayed resilient and sharp as they slid through the armor.

“Uh, let me know if you feel a slight stabbing pain.” Steel Wing warned.

“Ow fuck me with the sun!” Was an almost immediate reply from Crossfield.

Steel Wing withdrew his wing slightly and began to cut around the panel. Without the repair talisman active this only took a few moments before he had cut completely around it. The panel hung on by a single but of metal as it was bent backwards allowing Steel Wing access to the interface port underneath.

“Okay, Corona could you please open yours now.” The griffon didn’t respond. “Corona?”

“Huh, what?” The griffon shook her head to clear her thoughts. “Did you say something?”

“You fell asleep?”

“Yeah I’m pretty damn tired, I’ve been up since yesterday and after the shit you pulled you bet your ass I fell asleep.” She pointed, “Look at Autumn Heart she’s been passed out since we got in here.”

The green mare was in fact sleeping peacefully, unaware that she was being talked about.

“Aren’t you tired?”

No he wasn’t, Steel Wing hadn’t realized how long he’d gone without proper sleep. Going after the Nightmare had taken all of an hour. He hadn’t slept and he wasn’t tired. He should have been concerned about it, instead he shrugged at her question.

“Well yeah I guess we could probably go for some sleep after this. For now could you open your interface port?”

“Yeah sure.” After a few moments a panel on the griffon’s power armor opened up. Steel Wing took the chords and connected them.

“Holy hell!” Corona said as a dozen prompts appeared on her visor. “Right so it’s me from here on out?”

“Yeah, just follow do the yeses and noes until it asks

----

Some frustrated sighs from the griffon later there was a beep and a whirring sound. The pegasus’ power armor was back online.

The once again mobile soldier struggled under the griffon who had turned him into a chair.

“Easy.” Corona said as he began to kick around. She got off and the pegasus was up instantly, looking over his saviors.

Mild panic mixed with amazement passed over him as he realized just how massive the other pegasus buck was.

“Dayum. Nice to uh- finally meet you sir.” He remembered who he thought this pegasus was and went to attention saluting Steel Wing. “Ahem. Sorry sir. Second Lieutenant Crossfield awaiting further orders until such time as I am reunited with my own squad.” He was once again a professional soldier pony.

“At ease.” Steel Wing smiled, it was nice to be able to say it again even if he lacked any real authority to do so.

“Thank you sir.” As per the ‘orders’ given the Enclave pegasus visibly relaxed. “May I speak freely sir?” Crossfield requested.

“Shoot.”

“What are you doing with a griffon and a muck dweller?”

“The proper term is earth pony lieutenant.” Steel Wing corrected.

“Uh, right sorry sir? May I still ask why sir?”

“Couldn’t do much harm I suppose.” Steel Wing sat down with mild amusement. He was about to burst this poor pony’s bubble. “Well let’s start about three years back...”

Steel Wing told the Enclave soldier about everything he’d experienced in the last three years. Leaving out the names of his sister and a certain pony who had actually forced him down into the wasteland in the first place. When he was finished with his story the pony inside the power armor was silent. If it weren’t for the slow audible breathing, it could very well have been empty.

“Is all that true sir? Somepony made you leave the Enclave just to protect their position?”

“Yes, it is. I’d still be up there helping if it weren’t for ‘somepony’.” Steel Wing said bitterly that somepony’s name at the front of his thoughts.

“Who sir?” The Enclave soldier was honestly interested.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you and it’s best you don’t know. Lest you be found guilty of treason and banished from the Enclave yourself.”

Steel Wing grinned wickedly as the Enclave solider pushed on, “But sir anypony who would do that doesn’t deserve to be a part of the Enclave at all.”

“Oh if I told you, it’d be you me and maybe one other pony against Brightcloud. Scrawny bastard.” Steel Wing shook away his grin after intentionally letting it slip that the traitor pony in question was none other than this soldier’s commanding officer.

The black armor fell silent again this time the breathing was almost nonexistent. “You’re saying Storm Commander Brightcloud forced you out of the Enclave to secure his position?”

“Yes I am- Storm Commander what!?” Steel Wing bolted up and moved closer to the startled buck.

“Yes sir- I mean uh, what do you mean sir?”

“What operation are you a part of?” Steel Wing said angrily, Corona and the now awake Autumn Heart were at a loss for the sudden urgency in Steel Wing’s voice.

“I- it’s classified sir.”

Steel Wing gouged the floor next to him with a quick motion of his wing. “I don’t want to hurt you but if you give me that classified bullshit one more time things are going to start falling off of you.” He drew himself up to his full height so he could look down upon the pegasus.

Because it was clear to all that it wasn’t a bluff the Enclave soldier couldn’t bring himself to even target Steel Wing with his weapons. “Operation: Black Thunder. Sir.” The soldier pony reluctantly divulged.

Steel Wing sat back on his haunches the anger giving way to extreme puzzlement. “What would the Enclave be doing running a storm operation of any kind way out on the backside of Equestria?” The sheer impracticality of it showed on his face, making Corona all the more interested in what it was.

“What’s a storm operation?” The griffon interrupted the fear based interrogation.

Steel Wing looked over at Corona even more confused about the fact that she wasn’t as confused as he was. When he processed the question in his head the extra confusion went away.

“It’s like a, well a storm. When it builds it builds quietly. I suppose something like the attack here could be called the clouds gathering. This kind of operation is incredibly small scale and incredibly relentless. Once it’s started it is either completed or if the commanding officer mismanages the limited resources given to him it fails. The ‘cloudburst’ could literally be the calling in of the raptor Cloudburst .” Steel Wing looked at his temporary captive. “This operation hasn’t been given a raptor has it?”

Crossfield nodded reluctantly.

“Well what the hell are you doing with so much force in the middle of nowhere?” Steel Wing’s frustration was growing.

“We, are...” A long sigh came from the suit of power armor. “I’m sorry but I can’t, I don’t think you have any reason to lie to me about Brightcloud. I have my own family to think about.”

“I, very much understand the role of family in all of this. Just a yes or no please. Is Mexicolt City a target?”

“Yes.”

Steel Wing nodded grimly.

“How long?”

“A month.”

“Thank you, Ste- I’m sorry, what did you say your name was?”

“Steel Wing, why?”

“As in the late Captain Steel Wing. I know you!” He grinned sheepishly at his uncharacteristically fanfilly like behavior. “I mean I know of you. You died, by a griffon strike team caught you. You were posthumously promoted to Colonel with honors.”

Steel Wing let loose with riotous laugh. “So after he tries to save his position by getting rid of me I suddenly outranked him!?” The irony in his words was a tangible force of smiles and giggles. Even though Autumn Heart hadn’t the faintest how rankings worked in the Enclave she still understood the hilarity of the situation.

“And that means your sister is our medical officer Snow, right?” Steel Wing instantly came down from his good mood.

“Yes, and I can’t get near that bastard or he’ll kill her. Like I said I know how family plays into this sort of thing.” He sighed sadly.

“What if I told her where you were?” Steel Wing’s ears shot up at the proposal. “With the two of you together you could go back to the Council and bring Brightcloud to justice.”

“No.” Steel Wing said with absolute finality. “I’m sure Brightcloud brought her along to keep an eye on her. If he left her at home there would be little stopping her from going to the Council herself. I’m sure he’s watching her like a hawk at this very moment. Thanks for the offer though.”

“I wish there was some way I can help.” Behind the visor Steel Wing imagined the look in the soldier’s eyes said I’d even help you move your stuff if you needed me to.

Steel Wing’s eye twitched as he was struck by an idea. “You can help me.” A devilish grin spread across his muzzle. “I know Brightcloud is an effective leader but he’s an ass and I’m sure he has enemies. He’s watching my sister but he can’t possibly watch everypony else. Inform the troops under his command that something is amiss. Don’t go around like a lunatic saying ‘Colonel Steel Wing is alive!’ but get them ready for something to change. Then maybe, just maybe it will change.”

“That uh- that’s a bold plan sir.”

“You’re right, and if you don’t want to risk it I understand. Unfortunately I can’t be a direct part of this because of Brightcloud. If you’re willing to try I’d thank you.”

“I’ll, think about it sir.”

“Fair enough.” Looking out at midafternoon light coming through the clouds he shook is head of all his rebellious schemes. “You should probably get back before they think you caught some horrible ‘surface disease.’ I know how they like to spook the pegasai who don’t know better.”

“There aren’t any surface diseases?” Crossfield asked suddenly remembering the warning’s his squad had received.

“I’m alive aren’t I?”

“Just tell them some Steel Ranger techie came by and accidentally repowered your armor trying to get it off of you. That ought to get you a medal or something.” Steel Wing meant it as a joke but it very well could happen.

“I might do that sir. Again I’m sorry I can’t do more for you.” The Enclave soldier walked to the door working his stiff wings. Before he took off he turned back to the ‘deceased’ colonel and gave him a strong Enclave salute.

Steel Wing returned the gesture and with that he was off.

“Wow you Enclave featherbrains really know how to make something overly complicated, evil. And something unnecessary a big deal.” Corona said jokingly.

“Are you saying the lengths I go to, to ensure the safety of somepony I haven’t seen in three years whom I still love more than life itself, is unnecessary?” Steel Wing retorted, wanting this discussion to be over.

“I don’t- No that’s not what I meant, sorry.”

“It’s fine I just- I think I do need to take a nap.”

“Thunderbeak’s hammer, thank you!” The exhausted griffon said in exasperation.

“Thunderbeak, hammer?” Steel Wing said curiously.

“Nope, sleep time. Story sometime after never.” Corona ascended the stairs looking for a bed.

Turning to Autumn Heart who was staring around the room sleepily Steel Wing said, “I’m going to go find the filly and mare’s Corona and I met earlier and bring them here.” She gave him a blank stare in return. “You’re mostly asleep already aren’t you?” The green mare nodded with a wide yawn. “Go find a bed I guess, I’ll see you when you wake up.”

Autumn Heart began climbing the stairs after Corona. Quite literally climbing; Steel Wing face hoofed instead of laughing out loud watching her extreme exhaustion turn a flight of stairs into a mountain. Before long the green mare gave up and began sliding back down. Hands wrapped delicately around her forelegs and Corona pulled her up the stairs.

“A day and a half of resting didn’t make up for that running we did before the hellhounds. You go find those other three this mare is going to be unconscious for at least three days.” Corona gave a weak yawn of her own as she carried Autumn Heart into a bedroom she’d found.

Steel Wing nodded to where Corona had been standing and left through the doorframe.

--------------------------------------

It didn’t take long to find the ex-slave trio as Milly was still being cradled by her friend in the middle of the street. The sleeping mare had ceased suckling on her friend’s foreleg. Leaving it chaffed and wet.

Quickie was there too sitting beside a very extensive pile of loot. They were only organized by category: weapons, armor, ammo, and medical supplies including any chems and drugs the filly had come across. When Steel Wing arrived, Quickie was poking a pile of grenades with extreme lack of enthusiasm. An entire day of having no ‘duties’ to perform left the filly extremely lacking in activities.

“Did you find the weapons vault?” Steel Wing asked quietly.

“Maybe.” Quickie replied. It wasn’t an ‘I know something you don’t,’ answer she was genuinely unsure.

“What did you find?”

“Well this stuff was in the shed so I took it.” Steel Wing whimpered a little bit at the severe lack of a great armory. “But!” She looked at him sternly, “Let me finish alright?” Steel Wing nodded for her to continue. “But I found this door in the floor. It led down some stairs and there’s this other heavy door that says ‘EERFMSD: 2’ but I couldn’t open it. It needs a card or something.”

Steel Wing pondered the meaning of the acronym. He immediately assumed the ‘E’ stood for Equestria, as most things around the time of the war did.

“Eh.” He intoned with a shrug. It was a start at least and he’d look at it tomorrow. Steel Wing invited the three to come stay closer to him and his friends for the night, just in case.

Moving them there he was charged with the duty of carrying the still asleep Milly. Both Quickie and the teal mare were amazed at how gently such a large pony could move, while watching Steel Wing carefully climb the stairs up to the sleeping area. He found an unoccupied bed and slid Milly onto it while her friends watched quietly from the door.

As he passed them going through the door he whispered, “Have a nice sleep.” He meant it and at that moment neither of the two had any reason to do otherwise.

“Well?” Came a tired yet enthusiastic voice behind Steel Wing.

“Well, what?” He asked turning to face Corona. “I thought you were sleeping.”

“I was, and then I started talking to that green psycho in there.” She pointed a thumb into the room she’d come from.

“What did she say?”

“Uh, she’d be upset if I told you I’m pretty sure.” She closed the door to her room. “I’m not worried about her trying to kill me or anything. Just, what she said made me think about some stuff. I’ll manage to get back to sleep I’m sure.”

“Right, anyways Quickie found some sort of secured door that was an original part of the base. If the weapons storage is anywhere it’s probably behind the door.”

“Well like I said I’m no good with hacking so unless you’re feeling lucky we’re pretty much screwed.”

“Quickie seemed to think it needed some sort of key card. I’ll probably go look at it in a second.” So much for tomorrow.

“Are you seriously not tired?” She complained feeling her own sleep deprivation returning.

No he wasn’t, in fact he was feeling more awake than when he’d been talking with the Enclave soldier.

“Can’t say that I am. Weird, huh?”

“Away from average, I don’t like to count anything I see in the Equestria Wasteland weird anymore. That notion went away a while ago. Having a friendly chat with some hellhounds today, hunted that notion down to the far ends of the world and killed it.” She smiled at her own use of imagery.

“Fair enough, good night.”

“It’s six in the afternoon.” She retorted

“It sure is.” Steel Wing called already at the bottom of the stairs. His body was energetic, and his legs were almost leaving him behind as he started off towards the weapons shed.

-----

Getting to the shed Steel Wing had been humming some tune that he shouldn’t rightly have known. He smiled about it nonetheless.

The inside of the shed had racks and stands for weapons and armor. Large crates tipped over to allow a certain filly access to its contents. There were several locked boxes around which bobypins lay broken in submission to the superiorly crafted lock; or rather, the filly using them hadn’t had much experience with locks and had probably missed the part about needing a screwdriver.

Steel Wing simply smashed the lock off one of the boxes to assert is dominance over the rest, and opened it to find: More ammunition. The other locked boxes quickly lost their appeal, they could be opened later.

Steel Wing searched for a while and found the trap door Quickie had spoken of. It was heavy and Steel Wing was surprised the agile but delicate little filly could have opened it. Descending the stairs Steel Wing saw that the pony made tunnel had been completely untouched by time and the slavers for the most part. The place was immaculate if a little musty smelling.

Down at the other end Steel Wing could see the sealed door Quickie had found, it looked a lot like a Stable door across it was written: EERFMSD: 2. Steel Wing still hadn’t a clue what it stood for, but approached it nonetheless in hopes that this was the weapons storage facility.

When he was next to the door he noticed a panel on the wall next to it. It was just a small installation for a key card to be swiped through. The pessimistic pegasus tapped the door with a hoof. A dampened [i thud was all it produced. It was as thick as a Stable door too.

Damn

Foot Note Quest Perk Added:

Steel Wing -

Nightmare’s Influence - Receiving the blessing of the Nightmare has affected your body in several ways. You Gain the following Perks: Night Pony, Tireless Night Hunter.

Night Pony - You are simply better when the moon is over the Equestrian Wasteland. You gain an additional 2 points to Perception and Intelligence.

Tireless Night Hunter - Because of the Nightmare’s influence you no longer need to sleep or eat so long as you change location at least once during the night. In addition your Endurance is increased by 1 point during your night travels.

Autumn Heart -

Intense Training (2) - Your recent over exertion has pushed you beyond and stretched your physical limitations. Both Strength and Endurance are increased by 1. (Unique)

Corona (Griff) -

I’ve Got an Idea - You are good at making bad plans that will have good results. Special dialogue options may appear when you are planning with your allies.

Chapter 7 Part 2: Storm Clouds Fast Approaching

Steel Wing had little to no experience with complex manipulations of the electronic variety; the best he’d ever done was rebuilding a radio and getting a fridge to function. Still anything was worth a try, and he did know when to stop before it was too late. Searching through his bag for anything to remove the panel from the wall Steel Wing found the golden banded key card he’d picked up without realizing.

“It can’t be that simple.” Steel Wing complained aloud to the universe in general. He was almost reluctant to try it, for fear of it really being so easy. He quickly swiped the card and waited. There was silence for a while and there was a click and hissing sound shortly after. The sound of machinery forcing metal against metal dominated the small corridor. Then the horrible grinding screech of a Stable door being pulled open caused Steel Wing to lie down with his hooves over his ears.

This time Steel Wing decided to be angry at Discord. The futility of trying to get the spirit of chaos feel bad for him made Steel Wing laugh in his head while he cowered from the sound of the sliding door.

When the noise finally ended and the echoes died away, Steel Wing stood up and shook away the ringing in his head. The corridor on the other side of the door looked quite a bit like a Stable. Compared to Mexicolt’s other Stables this one looked intact and fairly clean; save for the dust that had settled on everything the slavers hadn’t touched, so there was a lot of dust.

The dust on the floor did make it easy to navigate the halls by following the concentration of hoof prints. Steel Wing was surprised to find a number of testing labs that had been abandoned mid experiment. When he stopped by one room designated Megaspell Testing Chamber Steel Wing sent a silent prayer to Celestia and Luna hoping that whichever pony had worked in that room hadn’t left a half finished Balefire bomb sitting in an abandoned lab. He prayed to the Princesses instead of Discord knowing full well he would find it hilarious to have some random megaspell sitting in said room.

He also stopped by a door labeled ‘Stable-Tec Offices” Weapons aside Steel Wing knew better than to think Stable-Tec hadn’t designed anything worth having two hundred years in the future. The active hall lighting made him slightly more hopeful the doors in here still worked.

He tried to open the door which produced a buzzing when he did. He was about to damn the door for getting his hopes up when a panel next to the door started flashing. The flashing guided his attention to another keycard slot. Taking back his yet to be vocalized curses Steel Wing swiped the gold banded card in and was rewarded with a beep as the door slid open with a pneumatic hiss.

Inside where six desks two of which had lamps turned on. Steel Wing supposed the light bulbs were some super secret Stable-Tec project to create a permanent sun inside since the dust told him nopony had touched this room in two hundred years. Steel Wing went around and poked through the desks for anything interesting. The first few desks had nothing of use except maybe the pencils. The fifth desk however held a sealed yellow envelope that had been stamped: High Priority - Confidential. Somepony hadn’t read his mail. Steel Wing carefully unsealed the secret the envelope to take a peek at the secrets inside. What he found inside was a letter addressed to a Sergeant Major Staples. There was nothing too fascinating in the letter but the other contents made Steel Wing’s eyes go wide. The plans for a new model of Stable-Tec Pip-buck had been sent to an underground research facility before the end of the war. They had sat unseen by anypony’s eyes for two-hundred years. Worth millions of bits all those years ago these schematics were now priceless. Steel Wing could for a moment empathize with the Steel Ranger desire to protect old world technology. That feeling quickly faded when he remembered what they did to anypony who had something their elder wanted. He carefully put the schematics back in their container, which Steel Wing surmised was woefully inadequate for its contents.

Stable-Tec designed all sorts of magical storage devices in conjunction with MWT and MAS it was ridiculous to think they would actually send mail in anything else. So Steel Wing set about hunting for one of those amazing containers while also searching for any other Stable-Tec treasures. The door marked “Equipment Storage” seemed a probable place to store such items. Steel Wing slid his card into the wall slot with a smile as the door slid aside at his discretion. He imagined this was what it felt like to be a unicorn at any other task.

Janitorial supplies and utility barding was most of the contents of this room. On the far wall hung: A Pip-buck, armored barding, and what Steel Wing hoped was a storage device, if not it was a very oddly shaped bomb. The whole assortment made Steel Wing think somepony was planning for a career in front line package delivery. He laughed as he took down the box and opened it. There was a nine millimeter gun and several clips of ammo, more or less confirming Steel Wing’s suspicion of the future goals of their owner.

He dumped out the contents and placed the yellow envelope carefully inside. When he snapped it shut a magical humming told Steel Wing it was active. Putting the magic case in his saddlebag he turned back to the Pip-buck. During his military career he’d never really relied much on his Power Armors targeting spells since he was confident enough in his combat prowess. It also annoyed him slightly when it told him what his chances of hitting were, he always reminded himself that those were a spells chance of hitting with his weapons. A Pip-buck might not serve the purpose of armor but it had a thousand and one other uses. One he had been thinking about since the megaspell chamber was the Geiger Counter. If the area around that door was badly irradiated he wouldn’t know until his brain tumor burst his skull. He’d also heard stories of certain models of Pip-bucks malfunctioning and displaying all its warnings while pony’s slept making them lose a lot of sleep. He had to imagine that somewhere in here was the equipment for removing a Pip-buck, which in itself was another almost invaluable asset.

Giving in to his worries Steel Wing took the Pip-buck down from its wall hook and snapped it around his left foreleg. It instantly came to life and a dozen different start up programs started running through his field of vision. In his armor this had all been external being limited to the visor of the helmet. This was grade-A headache inducing stuff. He looked away and closed his eyes trying to escape the messages. The followed his vision and danced across the inside of his eyelids. The scrolling lines of text disappeared one after the other until only a few initial diagnostics messages appeared. Once the high speed letters and numbers had gone away Steel Wing opened eyes that had been closed in vain. He looked down at the display screen as the last of the messages left his vision. It made the headaches worse when at the last second, Steel Wing unconsciously focused through the floating text to the physical screen. He managed to do it but his vision split in two directions momentarily.

Steel Wing’s mind forced his body to the floor to give time to correct his eyes.

When his face was back in order Steel Wing chanced another glance at the lit Pip-buck display. He raised an eyebrow when he read the messages:

> Species: Unknown - Please connect Stable-Tec device to a Stable-Tec information access terminal to update this device’s Species Database

> Gender: Male

> Vitals: Above Average

> Overall Wellness: Good

> Please review the Stable-Tec Terms of Use before operating this device. From Stable-Tec to you have a nice life.

Steel Wing rolled his eyes and pressed yes, still wondering why it didn’t know he was a pegasus and quite frankly not caring. As soon as the “working” screen of the Pip-buck came up a few red warnings came up causing Steel Wing to try and run away. He gave up quickly and read them since they were much less active than the loading sequences. Apparently he had foreign objects lodged in his chest. He rubbed his chest and was reminded of the itch the shotgun had given him. True he hadn’t bothered to clean up the wounds before drinking a healing potion, but the shot had punctured his coat in so few places and hadn’t even hurt all that much he didn’t think much of it.

Flechette rounds probably. Those were the only things Steel Wing could think of that would produce so many pieces from so few penetrations. The other two messages had to do with the foreign objects in question fusing with such and such.

Having some experience with Stable-Tec medical technology Steel Wing turned off the medical diagnostics spell.

“I can’t imagine how much it would have sucked if Stable-Tec hadn’t put in a way to shut stuff like that off. Woulda driven ponies crazy.” Steel Wing chuckled as he exited the janitor’s closet.

His ears shot up when he heard or could have sworn he’d heard a voice coming through speakers. It continued for a while and stopped, and picked back up and stopped again. He didn’t think the sound had been there before but maybe he was just now noticing it. There could have been a radio left on in some room in here, it wouldn’t surprise him based on how well designed most products were built back then. Eventually it stopped all together. Steel Wing shrugged and moved on to find the Pip-buck removal tools. He was very pleased to find in a locked drawer somepony had conveniently labeled a case just for him: “Pip-buck Master Key.”

On it was a note that read,

To Bartholomule

Alright jackass if you lose this one I’ll skin your ugly brown hide and put it in front of my fire place. Got it? Damn well better.

From the desk of,

Chief Supervisor Trail Mix

The picture on the desk, Steel Wing noted, was of a donkey with his wife and child. The jackass in question was in fact an ass. Like the story of the wingless griffon, Steel Wing was pretty sure that this letter wouldn’t actually fly back then.

After he had searched through the rest of the desk and picked up a few bits Steel Wing was back out in the hall and continued down along the trail of hoofprints. As he went along a small arrow appeared at the top of his field of vision. Ah yes, the mystical and impossible to comprehend navigation and guidance spell. You flew me into the face of a mountain if I recall. Steel Wing glared at the reminder of high altitude pain before deciding that it wouldn’t hurt to bump into a wall while walking. He left it on.

Again came the sound of an amplified voice, completely unintelligible through the halls and farther away this time.

Steel Wing happened to notice the time floating in the top right of his eyes. 0300 MST

Holy hell have I really been down here that long? With no why of confirming by sunlight or lack thereof what time it really was. As Steel Wing thought back he realized just how long the walk the entrance to the Stable-Tec offices had been. It wasn’t just a couple labs here and there now that he thought of it he had passed dozens of them and they weren’t close together.

Damn

To top off the revelations for the night as he continued, Steel Wing also realized he still didn’t feel like sleeping. He was a little hungry. He stopped in his tracks. He hadn’t eaten since the unicorn academy and he still didn’t need to. After the events of the last couple days he could accept that happy thoughts and adrenaline had kept him going this long. He expected the crash to come any day, but not eating was another matter all together. Soldiers didn’t always need sleep, but every soldier should need nourishment. A familiar tingling in his chest told him he’d need to go to the moon to address this issue. He sighed sadly for the loss of his appetite and continued on.

As he walked through the halls, yet a third problem presented itself. If he couldn’t sleep he couldn’t dream, so he couldn’t complain to the Nightmare about how he didn’t eat or sleep.

If it weren’t for the arrow running through his vision he would have missed the door where the trail of hoof prints ended.

He snapped back to the present when the green arrow raced past his eyes. The door before him was slightly larger than the others. On the door written in big white letters was:

Military Equipment Storage

Oh yes, Steel Wing rubbed his hooves together deviously This is how it should be.

----

It took Steel Wing a few minutes to stop marveling at the door before him.

When he pulled himself back together he quickly hunted down the card slot. There wasn’t one. Steel Wing’s excitement came crashing down around him.

Of all the terrible things that could have happened down here, according to Steel Wing at least, this was The. Worst. Possible. Thing.

The distraught pegasus turned into a grossly over-sized colt as he threw himself at the door in a manner very close to a tantrum.

“Please don’t do this to me!” He pleaded banging his hooves on the door. While he was flailing against it Steel Wing hit a switch on the door that looked very much like it was just lighting built into the door. Steel Wing opened his eyes in alarm as the world began to part before him.

He facehoofed when he realized the door’s top and bottom half were separating.

Wait Steel Wing did a double take when he realized the door was opening. There is something to that whining thing fillies do. He thought with a grin.

The switch was much more pronounced as the inner workings of the door became exposed. The switch was at the very center of where the doors upper and lower half met and activated a latch that held the door closed. It wasn’t even locked. Fuck you universe.

Steel Wing confidently marched through the open door and the universe promptly offered its own ‘fuck you’ in return.

The massive, talking, automated minitanks known as Securitron MK II was a good guard robot. Sturdy in construction, built with the best of what the MWT and MAS could come up with together; put into one of the most advanced robots built before the apocalypse.

Now one of these monstrosities with minigun, rocket launcher and chest-mounted plasma canon would considered by most, more than enough to guard a warehouse. If somepony were to take into account the potential collateral damage caused by one of these performing it’s “duties” having more than one in a closed space would be irresponsible. It would make sense then that a room with nothing somepony could use as cover would only need turrets. No matter how big the room was.

The universe, as Steel Wing learned, is a vengeful thing that must always one up any insults it perceives.

Four Securitrons sat in each corner of the room. Each of these sat under a high yield energy turret. In the middle of the room was something that could only be described as: Like above, but bigger.

Steel Wing was unfortunately just far enough in the room that he couldn’t turn and run, before the room turned him into blood and glowing goo.

Instead of opening fire the Securitron behemoth rolled forward slowly. In a voice that reminded him of the giant speakers in Mexicolt City’s nightclubs it said, PLEASE REMAIN STILL WHILE I SCAN FOR VALID IDENTIFICATION.

Steel Wing’s ears folded back, more from the volume than the fact that he didn’t know as he had a valid ID. Uttering a short prayer to anything that would hear him Steel Wing slowly retrieved the gold banded card from his bag and presented it to the massive war machine. A green light passed over his body, and when it passed over the card held in his teeth it gave him a slight shock. He didn’t know if that was good or bad and his muscles tightened in anticipation of whatever was going to happen next.

IDENTIFICATION RECOGNIZED. the sound of multiple energy weapons powering down filled the large room and Steel Wing’s body almost sagged as the tension he felt melted away. GOOD DAY MR. STAPLES. YOUR LAST VISIT WAS TWENTYSEVEN DAYS AGO. DO YOU HAVE GUESTS?

Steel Wing stood back up and looked carefully around the room worrying that he could somehow get this wrong and be killed for it. Clearing his throat he said, “No, I do not have any guests.”

SCANNING FOR ADDITIONAL LIVING ENTITIES. SCANNING FOR ZEBRA STEALTH SPELLS. The Securitron behemoth was silent a moment making Steel Wing worry that it was actually having to decide if something it detected was somewhere it shouldn’t be. When his EFS told him that everything was still non-hostile he tried to reign in his rapid breathing. NO INTRUDERS DETECTED. HAVE A GOOD DAY SIR. With that the Securitron rolled back to the center of the room and resumed watching the door.

Out of sheer paranoia Steel Wing kept the golden savior card facing the Securitron until he was well on the other side of the room.

On the other side of the room opposite the only entrance was a simple metal door. Steel Wing opened it without trouble. Reasonably speaking anything that entered that room wouldn’t make it through without its own robot army so having an unsecured door wasn’t such a big deal.

Hours after entering Steel Wing expected more unnecessary walking, which is why he was surprised to find a room with three doors for counting the one he had entered through. One straight ahead and two to the left and right. Above the door on his left was a green bar casting its sickly lighting on the room with a pink squiggly line running across it. The door ahead of him was a dull grey and had a targeting reticle adorning it. The third and final door had a tan bar with tracks that belonged on a tank on it. Steel Wing shrugged and chose to keep moving forward.

Opening the reticle door Steel Wing was greeted by a wall of darkness. As soon as he opened the door a hum started up from somewhere deep inside the room. In the next instant lights began coming on row by row revealing something that made Steel Wing glad he’d come alone. He was a little embarrassed when he felt his stallionhood peeking out of its sheath and he had to fight to keep his wings down. He quickly regained composure and let his jaw hang open instead.

Rows of shelves of racked weapons filled the room for about fifty yards in each direction. The first few rows had been emptied; by the slavers Steel Wing guessed. That still left a number of full rows Steel Wing didn’t bother to count as he walked past them.

The smile on face developed rapidly into a deep victorious laugh, “Oh yes, I WIN!” He shouted dancing on his hind legs. He still didn’t know exactly what ‘EERFMSD: 2’ meant and he couldn’t care less.

His thoughts were racing, he couldn’t decide what he was going to do with all of this. The slavers had used some and sold others but even they hadn’t found a way to use all of these. He didn’t even question how he was going to move all of this, as that was something belonging in reality. Steel Wing was far from reality as he danced through the aisles. He had no fondness for firearms in general, but this was still a beautiful thing. He would find a way to make sure they were put to a good use. At the back of the room were lockers filled with cases of grenades. The last row of weapons had been high caliber rifles. Steel Wing also found several walk-in vaults on the back wall. With his master card that could take him anywhere Steel Wing entered the first. This is where, quite literally the tons of ammunition for all the weapons were stored. They were organized by the type of weapon they were for, and each section had all the different kinds of ammo. From high impact slugs to explosive rounds, armor piercing bullets to incendiary shells. It was all here.

Steel Wing could no longer contain his excitement and decided to run it off. He couldn’t decide where he should run to so he ran in circles for a while before remembering he had friends that needed to see this as well. With his now boundless energy he raced out of the weapons locker stopping briefly to stare at the other two doors. He quickly decided that he couldn’t handle any more surprises right now and they’d be best saved for later. He took off in a gallop again before he saw the Securitron that dominated the middle of the room. His wings fluttered in frustration at the interruption to his speed.

He slowly sauntered past the robot and as he was half way to the exit it said, HAVE A NICE DAY SIR.

If ever there were instructions Steel Wing hadn’t needed to hear twice it was that. “Goodbye. I shall return.” He said with a smile that went unappreciated by the emotionless robot.

As soon as he was out the door his was back into a gallop racing back the way he’d come wanting to make better time than the hours this trip had taken.

--------------------------------------

“Twenty-five minutes.” Steel Wing panted as he climbed back up the stairs to the surface. He’d managed to turn a three hour power-walk into a twenty-five minute sprint. He’d never felt more alive in his life. Except the first time he and his sister had- Nope, now isn’t the time.

Late morning light poured through the open door ahead of him. As Steel Wing felt the dry outside air hit his lungs he sat down and breathed a sigh of relief. Remembering he still had friends to inform of his still living status he headed off back towards the town entrance, to the house he’d left them in.

He saw the open doorway he’d made yesterday and he could hear conversation coming from inside.

“Hey! You’ll never guess what I found!” He cried as he ran through the doorway and slid to a stop. His nose bumped into the barrel of a gun that was attached to the power armor of a Steel Ranger. “Just go around ruining everypony’s fun.” He said through gritted teeth his bounding joy turning into silent fury.

The passionate hatred Steel Wing had for the Steel Rangers was washed away when he started looking around the room for his friends. “Where the fuck are they?” He demanded of the suit of power armor in front of him. There were seven other Steel Rangers in the room and they had all trained their weapons on him the moment he’d entered the building. It mattered little to Steel Wing as he asserted his dominance over the one pony in front of him.

“Uh- they, I mmmmmm...” The Steel Ranger shrunk away from the large infuriated pegasus. The sight would have appeared to anypony watching quite funny. Despite his size, he was unarmed and was wearing shredded barding that had at one point served as armor. Yet a pony sized weapon was cowering away from its opponent.

It didn’t take long for somepony with more assertiveness to step in between Steel Wing and his would-be victim of interrogation. “You, will not speak unless spoken to pegasus. As for your friends, they are unharmed and will remain that way so long as you cooperate.”

Steel Wing knew he’d just been introduced to the pony in charge, a buck by the sound of its voice. With his friends safety on the line Steel Wing decided now wasn’t the time to say something funny. Instead he said, “Deal.”

----

Some questioning and threatening later, the Steel Ranger Paladin Fairbreeze had gotten little to nothing out of the pegasus.

In some way the paladin did appreciate Steel Wing’s sense of humor when he took some time to answer the question exactly how it was asked and nothing more. Steel Wing saw this too and even as he was being interrogated over his discoveries the two more or less enjoyed the conversation.

With a sigh of mock frustration Fairbreeze asked, “So when you found the Stable-Tec offices what did you do?”

“Looked around.” Steel Wing nodded in agreement with himself.

“And what did you find?”

“Pencils, pictures, some mail, and a janitor’s closet.” The mail he had referred two was the oh so precious schematics he’d put hidden in the Stable-Tec magical storage device. Knowing the Steel Rangers it would be one of the first things they found, but if they didn’t Steel Wing wasn’t about to tell them it was there.

“Right, and so after that where did you go?”

“Back into the hallway.”

“And where did you go from there.” Paladin Fairbreeze pretended to be getting impatient.

“To the door I was looking for.” Steel Wing relented, rewarding the Steel Ranger for his patience thus far.

“Did you open it?”

“Yes.”

“And what was inside?”

“A room with a robot and a turret.” And four other robots and three other turrets. Steel Wing mused to himself.

“Anything else?”

“There was a door.”

“And you opened that?”

“Yes.”

“On the other side you found-” Fairbreeze let him finish his sentence.

“Three more doors.”

The paladin was silent a moment searching for some hint that he was about to go into an infinite door loop. Steel Wing gave him a straight and serious look. “Did you open any of those three doors?”

“Yes, one.”

“And what was on the other side of that door?”

“Guns.”

“Guns? How many guns?”

“More than one hundred.”

“What kind.”

“Pistols, rifles, shotguns.”

“So standard firearms. No energy weapons?”

“Not a one.”

At last Paladin Fairbreeze was out of questions. His initial remark forgotten by both he stepped back and sighed. “Show us.”

“Show me my friends and we can go from there.” Steel Wing was now at the negotiating phase from his point of view. Running around in the halls he’d gotten lost a few times in his haste. Trails now went off in all sorts of directions, and he knew they could be down there an entire day if they didn’t have his guidance.

“Very well, come with me.”

The Steel Ranger’s were all at ease around Steel Wing. Since he was unarmed they had assumed he preferred hoof to hoof combat. This was true, but it didn’t stop the fact that he had magically augmented wings. Fairbreeze had assumed ‘Steel Wing’ was the pegasus’ birth name and nothing else.

Steel Wing followed the paladin across the street flanked on either side by two other Steel Rangers, and the one he had been about to bring his wrath down upon brought up the rear. Even if they didn’t think of him as a threat, they still considered him a valuable asset; for the time being at least.

Fairbreeze stepped to one side of the door and let Steel Wing go in ahead. In the room surrounded by several emptied bottles of alcohol and wrappers from packaged rations sat Corona, Milly, and Quickie. There were playing poker gambling over the last of their food. Quickie was ahead by a mile and had taken to using some of her food as a booster so she could actually sit above the table.

Corona who was facing the door was the first to react to his entrance. “Hey! You shon of a mule we all thought you died.” She giggled when she realized she was intoxicated. She tried to stealthily pass a box of Sugar Applebombs over to Quickie failing miserably. Quickie took them with a triumphant grin on her face.

“So,” Quickie spoke up next, with a small hiccup. “Did you find something to mount down there?” She was joined by Corona in stifled snickering.

“Uh Corona, you gave alcohol to a filly.”

A Steel Ranger that Steel Wing had been oblivious to standing on one side of the door informed him, “She lost a bet to the kid. Instead of a buck to the crotch the griffon fetched her some top-shelf stuff.”

Steel Wing responded with, “Holy crap where’d you come from?” Remembering that he was focused on what Corona had done he didn’t wait for an answer to the question. “Corona where’s Autumn Heart and- uh, The teal one.”

“Back room. Bedroom. Both asleep. Not having sex.” Milly replied before Corona could formulate a response.

The once manic mare was now much more sedated, maybe even a little depressed. She was by far the most sober of the three.

“So you’re all okay?”

“Well, yeah I guess.” Corona said, “Took a few bullets from some initiate or another, bad aim and low powered weapons didn’t make for a good enough impact. Speaking of we need to get you into some armor.

“Right, well I found the weapons.”

“You did!” She sat up from the table, cards and food spilled everywhere. “How many, what kind?”

“Over a hundred, and ‘guns’ guns not energy weapons.”

“Oh, sweet. What are you going to do with them?”

She had apparently forgotten that the Steel Rangers didn’t like to share, “Probably hand them over to the Steel Rangers so they don’t off all of us.”

“They wouldn’t do that.” She said coming up and punching him in the shoulder. She stopped smiling a moment, “Oh yeah, they would do that.” Remembering her anger at being held captive she shot the guard pony in the room a dirty look. The Steel Ranger shifted a little, uncomfortably.

Turning back to Steel Wing she continued, “Did you know they were shouting into the tunnels for you to come out?”

“They were?” Steel Wing rubbed his chin and remembered the voice he couldn’t actually locate. “That makes sense.” He admitted.

“Yeah, after my second bottle that- thing over there,” She pointed towards Quickie, “Actually had me convinced you’d found some ghoul down there that’d been in heat for two centuries and you were just wearing her out for seven hours.”

“Alrighty then, ew.” He intoned, “I don’t think I’d ever put anything attached to my body into a ghoul. And another thing-” He was interrupted.

“Awwww, ghouls need love too.” Throwing her arms around him the inebriated griffon hung from his neck, “So do griffons.” She winked seductively at him.

“Yeah remember when we were talking and I said I wanted to stop in case we ever got drunk together.”

“Yeah?” She giggled.

“Well, this confirms that we didn’t stop talking about it soon enough, the other problem is that I haven’t been drinking.”

“I get it, too many eyes and ears. We can wait till we’re back in Sky Fall. My room is soundproof.” The bubbly griffon let go of him and flew haphazardly back to the table.

“She’s a scary drunk.” Fairbreeze muttered behind Steel Wing. “Are you satisfied then?”

“Yeah I guess. How long have they been drinking?” Steel Wing asked exiting the building.

“About an hour after we moved them in there, and the two mares went to sleep in the back room.”

“When had the filly started drinking?”

“That, I don’t know.”

----

Steel Wing was led back to the entrance of the armory, only after complaining about not having eaten since yesterday. It was a bit past noon when they returned.

“Alright,” Fairbreeze addressed the other Steel Rangers present. “Nopony goes in or out until I get back, understood?”

“Sir!” They all shouted in unison.

“Good. Rookie?”

“Yes sir?” The filly Steel Wing had stared into submission earlier responded energetically.

“You’re with me, you need as much experience as you can get.”

“Yes sir.” Her excitement dropped a little at being told she wasn’t that great. It wasn’t a direct statement but she got the message anyways.

“Lead the way pegasus.” The paladin commanded.

“By your orders sir!” He snapped off the most mocking salute he possibly could and descended the stairs. Two Steel Rangers in tow.

“So,” Steel Wing attempted to start up a conversation. “What’s the rookie’s name?” silence Steel Wing looked back and saw that the rookie was silently asking permission to answer the question.

Fairbreeze nodded, “Talking can’t hurt rookie.” Steel Wing really liked this particular Steel Ranger.

“I am Initiate Red Berry.”

“Steel Wing, nice to meet you.” Steel Wing turned around to shake her hoof. It was unnecessary and perhaps a bad idea but he wanted to test just how badly his glare still affected her. When he did her mounted energy rifle suddenly warmed up and Steel Wing could tell she was more than ready to fire.

Very slowly under the gaze of a well maintained energy weapon he grabbed her foreleg with both of his and shook it gently, “This is what we in the Equestrian Wasteland Call a greeting.” His tone was mocking, and Steel Wing was fairly sure there were embarrassed eyes behind that visor as her weapon powered down.

Fairbreeze simply chuckled and they continued on.

As they went through the dusty halls Steel Wing pointed out things he thought were interesting. Naming off labs he had bothered to read on his first trip. A thought crossed his mind as he saw the megaspell chamber coming up.

He stopped and turned to them and in his best tour guide voice said, “And this is where the glowing shell of a half finished Balefire Bomb is being kept. Don’t stand too close to the door filly and gentlecolt it’s radioactive.”

Red Berry was speechless, Fairbreeze was not, “There’s a what in there?!?” He shouted backing away from the door.

“I have no idea.” Steel Wing said with a laugh. “I never bothered going in there. Eh, good times.”

Steel Wing walked closer to the door and checked his Pip-buck. The Geiger counter was mercifully silent. “You know there probably isn’t anything in there.” He looked at the two moving sets of armor. “Mind if I take a peek?” He asked already moving towards the door.

“Probably could hurt, but if there is something dangerous in there it should be taken care of first and foremost.” That was Fairbreeze’s way of saying ‘Do it and I’ll watch.’

Steel Wing tried the door and spotted the card slot. He wasn’t about to give up the existence his gold banded treasure to techno hoarders. “Can you turn around for a second I need to open this.”

Steel Wing imagined a envisioned a raised eyebrow on the helmet. “You’re joking right?”

“Hey you have my friends at gunpoint I’m not going to do anything stupid. I just don’t like it when ponies watch me work, it makes me nervous.” Fairbreeze bought it and motioned for Red Berry to turn around. He did the same. Steel Wing began humming as he retrieved the card from his bag making sounds like he was retrieving multiple other items. He inserted the card pulled it out and quickly replaced it in his bag just as the door beeped and opened.

“Done.” He chimed looking back at the Steel Ranger pair. He smiled mischievously at them, stopping when he noticed they were looking very far past him into the room.

Sitting at the bottom of a terraced ritual chamber were five stubby barrel shaped objects sitting in a row. They were glowing with pulsating green gold light. Steel Wing nearly shat on the spot.

“Balefire bombs?” He asked his throat suddenly dry.

After a few intense moments of silence Fairbreeze said simply, “Yeah.”

The fact that his Pip-buck still wasn’t clicking meant that these were complete and not leaking. All three of them took little comfort in the fact that the room wasn’t horribly irradiated. Steel Wing stepped back and closed the door.

The wasteland hardened pegasus now felt very alone, since the helmets of their power armor prevented Steel Wing from knowing if his two companions were as shaken as he was.

“Five Balefire bombs?” He asked again seeking numerical confirmation.

“Yeah.” Fairbreeze confirmed.

“Do you Steel Rangers have a way to disarm them?”

After a moment’s hesitation Fairbreeze responded, “We will move them to a secure storage facility where-” Steel Wing stopped him with a raised hoof.

“No!” The pegasus asserted.

“No?” Fairbreeze echoed in astonishment. “Look, friend, I don’t hate you but you are in no position to give me any new orders. I already have my own orders and I will follow them.”

“I’m sorry,” Steel Wing retorted, “But I’m not going to give a bunch of metal clad, technology hoarding, murderers, five Balefire bombs in the off chance your next fifty elder will all not become megalomaniacs. Just- No!”

“The Steel Rangers are not murderers,” Fairbreeze challenged, “We are charged with the duty of preserving technology from the past. Don’t try to-” Steel Wing cut him off again.

“I’ve heard that shit before.” Both Steel Rangers saw a tremor pass through the large pegasus’ body. “What about a colt who lost his foreleg because he didn’t’ want a Steel Ranger to have a family heirloom? What about him!?”

Steel Wing was furiously shaking now, to the point that little Red Berry was using her superior as a bulwark against the wave of rage.

Fairbreeze was silent, allowing the enraged pegasus to calm down some. When Steel Wing’s breathing returned to normal the paladin spoke in a voice that said he was unsure of his own words, “I cannot speak for the actions of all Steel Rangers, but we are not murderers.”

“I know you, somepony I do like, can’t speak for all of your order. That is exactly why I can’t let any of you take those bombs.” Steel Wing had ceased shaking and now maintained an even gaze. He coughed lightly to clear is throat.

Fairbreeze, with sincere reluctance, trained all of his weapons on Steel Wing. “Move along, you have a job to do and so do I.” The sorrow in his voice was clear.

Steel Wing was rendered speechless, His mouth opened and produced a choked squeak in protest, before he turned and continued walking.

Steel Wing couldn’t bring himself to hate Fairbreeze, but he’d be impaled on Celestia’s horn and taken to the sun before he’d let the Steel Ranger’s get their hooves on those bombs.

Minutes after the standoff the dumbfounded pegasus found his voice again. He asked, “What are you Steel Ranger’s doing here anyways?”

“We’re here to ensure nopony else takes these weapons and uses them to start a war. Gangs of raiders from Mexicolt City all the way up to Manehattan are on their way here for a chance to loot the armory. We can’t let that happen.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” Steel Wing said curtly.

----

Ten feet from the door to the Securitron room Steel Wing hatched a brilliant plan.

Before going in he said, “Wait a second.” He dashed into the room without waiting for a response. He quickly retrieved the gold master card from his bag and said, “Alright come in.” He would have smiled if he hadn’t been terrified of the consequences of dropping the card.

The Steel Rangers had started chasing him in as soon as he’d bolted. The caught up with him quickly as the Securitron behemoth rolled to a stop a yard and a half in front of Steel Wing.

A breathless whimper came from Red Berry’s helmet as the robot spoke.

b] PLEASE REMAIN STILL WHILE I SCAN FOR VALID IDENTIFICATION. The green scanning laser passed over the three of them. IDENTIFICATION RECOGNIZED.

GOOD DAY MR. STAPLES. YOUR LAST VISIT WAS APPROXIMATELY NINE HOURS AGO. The robot made a sound it hadn’t previously. Its weapons did not power down. TWO LIVING ENTITIES DETECTED. DO YOU HAVE GUESTS?

“Please wait a moment.” Steel Wing said, hoping the talking tank took requests.

WAITING.

Steel Wing smiled as he turned back around. “So Fairbreeze, what do you think of this one security robot? Impressive wouldn’t you say?”

“One. In addition to four others.” He nodded, “Fair enough. I hope you don’t plan on having me killed, my men are under strict orders not to let anypony else but me in or out.”

“Exactly.” Steel Wing’s smile shifted to a devilish grin. “You are going to go back and release my friends. Then you are going to pack up and leave. If you touch the door to the megaspell chamber I’ll personally end you and your soldiers.” He then shrugged his expression changed completely, to relaxed and casual. “Or you can come back and try to force your way in here, your choice.”

“Very well then we will be leaving.” Fairbeeze nudged his subordinate to get her moving. Steel Wing stopped them.

“She stays, as collateral.” In the interest of preserving his grim demeanor in the eyes of Initiate Red Berry, Steel Wing licked his lips maliciously and start at her.

“W-what are you going to do to me?” She whimpered.

“Whatever I damn well ple-”

“Nothing if he wants his friends to remain unharmed.” Paladin Fairbreeze asserted.

“I had no intention of harming her.” Steel Wing assured.

“Between you and I, never did I want it to come to this.” Fairbreeze said with a heavy sigh.

“But somewhere deep down, you knew it would. Right?”

“Yeah.” Fairbreeze finished turning and trotting out of the room.

“Sir please don’t.” The terrified initiate begged.

“Quiet, this is an experience, same as any other. You’ll be fine, so stay put until this is resolved.”

“Yes, sir.” She said sullenly. Red Berry looked towards Steel Wing.

Steel Wing decided to give her some peace of mind for the time being. Dropping his malicious mask he said, “You’ll be fine.” The reassuring tone almost felt like magic on the filly’s panicked mind.

“O-okay.” She said sitting down.

Turning back to the waiting Securitron Steel Wing said, “I have one guest.”

ONE GUEST RECOGNIZED. SCANNING FOR ADDITIONAL LIVING ENTITIES. SCANNING FOR ZEBRA STEALTH SPELLS. Followed by a few moments of silence, NO INTRUDERS DETECTED. HAVE A GOOD DAY SIR.

Finishing its task it wheeled back to the center of the room and was silent.

The silence of the room was heavy and uncomfortable, but it did give Steel Wing some time to think about the situation closing in around him.

On the one hoof, letting raiders or some other group of slavers take anything from this place would be horribly irresponsible; on the other he didn’t trust the Steel Rangers to do anything at all with these weapons, much less anything positive. The bombs were a whole other issue. He hardly trusted himself to know what to do with five active barrels of genocide so how could he expect anypony else to?

Steel Wing was hit by a strange sudden burst of energy that shot through his body and mind. His wings fluttered some catching the attention of the Steel Ranger.

Steel Wing’s mind was skipping far over the present as he thought again what the Enclave’s strategy actually was.

“Destroying a powerful faction that actually threatened airships.” He started aloud. “With rumors they knew would spread throughout the wasteland like wild fire that promised enough weaponry to supply an army, they could...” Steel Wing was wide eyed and hyperventilating from the excess energy electrifying his body and from the realization of what the Enclave planned, something he didn’t want to think much less say out loud.

A small voice brought the disturbed pegasus out of his dream state.

“Are you okay?” Red Berry’s voice was barely a whisper.

“I - No I’m not,” He began, “I know why the Enclave left this place unlooted."

“Why?” She pushed her fear of this particular pegasus being replaced by horror of an entire army of pegasai coming from above.

“They,” Steel Wing pointed up for emphasis, “The Enclave pegasai, who are a part of Operation: Black Thunder, want everypony down here to kill each other. They want us to destroy ourselves so all they would have to do is clean up whatever remains. Giving us the weapons to blow ourselves up means getting rid of many things that could offer resistance when they actually come down and attack.” He shuddered as he finally said it out loud.

“That’s what we are trying to prevent.” Red Berry said, evidently ignorant of how wars worked.

“What part of everypony don’t you get? All the Steel Rangers did was get here first, but you’re going to be fighting off bands of raiders, slavers, and the more bold scavengers. There will be loss from all involved including you.”

Silent understanding passed between them.

“So we’re doing exactly what the Enclave knew we would do? And we just did it faster than everypony else?” She summarized.

“Yes, that is exactly what you’re doing. And I’ll admit I’m not doing much to help I just wanted to get these out of here if they did exist. Of course I was completely ignorant of just how much I was trying to move.”

There was silence for a moment before Red Berry spoke again.

“Are we murderers?” She asked tentatively.

“Take off your helmet and ask me again.” Steel Wing responded, his tone leaving no room to question if he was joking. He wasn’t.

Slowly Red Berry unlocked her helmet and pulled it off.

She was a light purple with an untamed dark red mane that had been partially braided, her eyes were a deep amber. The braids hung off to one side and had been tied to her chin by a hair band. The rest of her mane was a messy curly fro.

With a slight blush she said, “It was really early when we moved out. I didn’t have time to finish.”

Steel Wing looked kindly upon her, letting her appearance have no impact on their conversation. She saw this and her blush faded.

Red Berry looked nervously down at her hooves, “Are we-”

“In the eyes please.” Steel Wing said with authority still managing a delicate tone.

With a small whimper she raised her head to meet his eyes. Amber orbs were locked in his blue gaze.

“Are we murders?” She asked in fear of the answer.

Now that he could see her innocent unbroken eyes he could decide for himself what the answer to the question was.

“You are,” He began slowly, “A good plan tainted by bad ideas.” He wasn’t finished but waited for his response to sink in. Red Berry nodded in acceptance so he continued, “With so many great ideas it seems impossible that a few bad thoughts could mean anything, but they do and they stand out.”

“Oh, so what should we do?” The inexperienced Steel Ranger had just switched leaders in her head.

“Not for me to say I’m afraid.” Steel Wing looked over her sadly. “I wish I could do something. Even if Fairbreeze is by far the most reasonable Steel Ranger I have ever met, I can’t ask him to betray his oath. If he did, that would be asking a dozen or so under his command to do the same. Just like me he couldn’t ask them to do that.” He fell silent for a moment, “And that is the main reason we’ve ended up in a hostage situation.”

The reminder of her current status as “hostage” didn’t do much to next words. Perking up she asked, “We have a common enemy right?”

“Well I’d hope the Steel Rangers weren’t on the side of raiders and slavers.” Steel Wing said flatly.

“No.” She returned, mimicking his tone. “The enclave. They want us all to die to make their job easier right? That’s why they left the weapons here . What if we worked with you to move these weapons someplace else before the raiders and slavers get here and start doing what the Enclave wants?”

Steel Wing rubbed his chin. He had been thinking along those lines but hadn’t thought of a way to get the Steel Rangers to cooperate. “Fairbreeze might go for that. If you’d be willing to talk to him and inform him of the Enclave’s intentions it could work, for now.”

“Why can’t you tell him?” Red Berry asked skeptically.

“Well, I probably pissed him off by taking you hostage. I don’t think he wants to listen to me all that much.” The “funny” pegasus feigned a thoughtful look, hoof on chin.

“He does like you, you know that right?”

Steel Wing pretended to be surprised. He smiled at himself and said, “Yeah but you can still be pretty pissed with somepony you like.”

“Well, I’ll try.” The pink filly returned a smile of her own. Her teeth, Steel Wing noticed, were incredibly clean; at least they were compared to any other set of teeth he’d seen since being kicked out of the Enclave.

He decided to let that slip by for a later conversation. Staying on topic Steel Wing asked, “So how exactly did you Steel Rangers plan on moving all the equipment down here?”

“We brought four or five wagons to haul it all.” Red Berry replied dismissively, she was completely ignorant of the actual size of “all.”

Steel Wing coughed awkwardly to bring her attention to how little she knew of the situation at hoof.

“You should probably come see.” He said motioning for her to follow.

Steel Wing took the now extremely curious filly to the four door room and with an outstretched hoof invited her to open the crosshair door.

Steel Wing watched smugly when she opened the door and immediately went slack-jawed. His smile faded when he remembered how his body had reacted. He wondered if the armored filly was feeling something similar. His thoughts wondered a moment while he stared at her metal covered flank. The pegasus stallion was instantly glad he hadn’t been wearing such confining armor when he first saw the room.

“We need more wagons.” She said at length, breathlessly. Taking a sharp inhale Red Berry began to cough, having actually forgotten to breathe after opening the door.

Without missing a beat Steel Wing said, “Takes your breath away doesn’t it?” He grinned widely. She shot him a dirty look in response before a smile crept onto her face.

“Alright so we need to think of something more than a few wagons. What’s in that laser room?” She pointed a hoof at the green sign.

Steel Wing shrugged, “Iunno.” He intoned, “High intensity lasers?”

“Or, or-” She said in an equally sarcastic tone, “It’s energy weapons and you’re being a smartass.”

Steel Wing chuckled at her rebuttal. At least she’d gotten over being a hostage fairly well.

“Let’s find out then shall we?” Steel Wing moved over to the door. He didn’t know what to expect. The distinct lack of energy weapons in the first room gave him the impression this is where they’d be.

Steel Wing pushed the handle on the door, he did it slowly to hide his own excitement. As the door swung open Red Berry took a spot next to Steel Wing. The inexperienced filly’s jaw hit the floor quite literally, as did the rest of her body. Her legs had given out upon seeing the contents of the room.

Steel Wing would have joined her on the floor in order to hide his mild erection, in the far back of his mind he was very disappointed in himself. Any dissenting thoughts were ignored while his brain went dancing down the center aisle.

They both realized in unison that the little squiggle above the door did absolutely no justice to what the room actually contained.

At the front of the room sitting uniformly in preservation units, across from each other down the aisle were fifteen Steel Ranger and fifteen pegasus’ suits of power armor. Each suit had two standard issue beam rifles, all of them were in pristine factory new condition.

Farther back, in addition to the armor at the front, were the rows upon rows weapons like the first room. The main difference being these were energy weapons.

A startled yelp form below brought Steel Wing out of his reverie this time. He looked down and saw a pink filly with violent red cheeks, covering her eyes with one leg and holding in some sort of vocalization in with the other.

The heat from his groin told him all he needed to know. Steel Wing quickly turned his back to her. He coughed and said, “Really sorry you had to see that.”

He heard her standing up behind him. “That was your- uh... Thingy right?”

“Never seen one before?” The conversation was helping the excited stallion contain himself.

“Well no, I have before.” Her tone made it clear where her thoughts were going. “I just- You’re bigger than most I’ve-” Her eyes went wide and she flailed her forelegs in an attempt to distract Steel Wing from what she’d almost said. The effect was lost on the pegasus’ turned back. “You are a larger pony than most. Stallions and mares both!”

The conversation had stopped being so helpful at the point where she’d let him fill in the blanks of her compliment. It was causing a very unhelpful swelling of his pride, as well as other places.

“Could you not talk for a few moments?” Steel Wing said pressing his forehead against the wall.

“Sorry.” She said before going silent.

Steel Wing started thinking of things that would turn him off.

Killing raiders? He started small, Justified and give me a chance to fight. Too small. Damn. Sex with Corona? He pictured being on top of her lithe athletic form.

“Oh come on!” He shouted down at “himself.” “She’s the wrong species!”

“Are you alright?” Red Berry tried to move next to him. She was slid back by one hoof. The startled filly let out a small squeak.

That was kind of cute.

“Please be quiet.” He begged starting to bang his head against the wall

Corona! No. Those talons! YES! Steel Wing’s body shuddered involuntarily.

He glared down at “himself” as he imagined what they could do to his exposed soft-spot. Steel Wing sighed in relief as he felt himself calming down.

He cleared his throat again and said, “Alright you can talk again.”

“I could have help.” She offered quietly.

Before fully considering the statement Steel Wing simply said, “Nope.”

“But I could have.” She asserted.

“Physically capable, yes. Nope.” She shrugged and Steel Wing smiled. He was happy they were back on the same page.

“So what’s in the third room?” Red Berry had said exactly what Steel Wing was thinking.

He looked at the picture of the tracks thoughtfully. “Tanks and more tanks?” He was being semi-serious.but the young filly took it as another joke.

“Sure sky tanks too right?” With a roll of her eyes she went over and opened the final door. As the lights came on inside she fell silent for a long moment. Then suddenly with a voice Steel Wing didn’t know she had. “Is that a fucking sky tank?!”

Talons. Steel Wing thought before walking next to the loud filly.

Red Berry had snapped her helmet back on and was muttering to herself.

Damn that is a sky tank. Steel Wing mentally confirmed at about the same time Red Berry did.

“That’s a sky tank.” She said flatly. The squat turtle-shaped hunk of metal that didn’t look like it had any right to fly was right there in front of them, as well as several other military vehicles.

This last room was an oversized garage with a sky and ground tank and a couple magically powered carts. It also had several commercial sized armored passenger sky wagons. They had been outfitted with mounted turrets.

This room also managed to answer a question Steel Wing hadn’t even thought to ask.

The answer was, “The huge lift to the surface.” The question was “How would somepony go about moving all of this in a timely manner.

“I think we may have found a way to move ‘all’ of the weapons.” Steel Wing said with a Talons. He coughed and began to inspect the vehicles.

Sitting for two hundred years hadn’t done any favors for the exterior of the vehicles. The internal components surrounding and connected to their power sources were in good shape, but the moving parts of most of them needed cleaning and grease as well as somepony to pull them. Thankfully they were in a garage so Steel Wing, having nothing better to do, got to work on one of the armored wagons.

“We aren’t enemies right?” Red Berry asked hopefully.

“No we’re two groups with a common enemy and nothing more.”

“Oh.” She sounded disappointed.

“You want me to be friends with the Steel Rangers?”

“Yeah sort of.” She sat down next to his lower half, the rest of which was under the wagon.

“I like you, I like Paladin Fairbreeze.” She perked up, “I can’t know all of the Mexicolt Steel Rangers, and so until they, as a group, show that they can be a positive part of the nightmarish hellscape that is our world I can’t..” He slid out to look at her, “It’s one of the few things in my life that I consider black and white. I don’t blame you. I don’t blame you I blame your leadership. The Steel Rangers would be a great ally to have, but not until they decide to be better ponies.”

Her eyes were sad but understanding.

She watched him work in silence and occasionally fetched him tools. The silence between them was now a much more comfortable and much less awkward one. The notion of being a hostage was completely lost to Red Berry’s mind.

----

Steel Wing’s maintenance on the first vehicle was done after an half-hour.

“It should move now.” Steel Wing stated proudly. “Want to try it?” He offered jokingly looking to Red Berry.

“I guess, can you do it by yourself?” She said walking around and climbing into the back.

“I was asking if you wanted to try pulling it.” Steel Wing gave her a quizzical look.

“Oh, that’s not what I thought you meant.” The armored filly looked a little let-down.

“What did you think I meant.”

“I, uh- Thought you were going to give me a wagon ride.” Steel Wing only responded with a blank stare. “That was a silly assumption wasn’t it?”

Steel Wing was far far away in a lush field that a stallion was blazing through hauling a wagon with a filly shrieking at the top of her lungs demanding more speed.

“No,” Steel Wing said absentmindedly. “It’s so beautiful.” He felt a warm fuzzy feeling spread through his body as he continued watching that father and his foal.

Before long he began to take notice of exactly where that feeling was coming from, that deep hole that connected him to the Nightmare was overflowing with a warm joyous feeling. Steel Wing was visibly surprised when he realized that something other than a cold emptiness could come from the moon. His shocked expression confused poor Red Berry to no end. Given his last dreamy statement and his facial expression made her think he’d simply lost his mind.

Carefully she moved next to him and reached out with an armored hoof to tap him on the head. Steel Wing reacted by trying to focus on her, his reaction proved to Red Berry that he wasn’t broken.

“What’s beautiful?” She asked trying to bring him all the way back.

“Some time two hundred years ago when a father could pull his foal on a wagon, without worrying if something was going to murder the both of them.”

He smiled sadly at her as the room reasserted itself around him until he was once again back in the Equestrian Wasteland.

“My father did that for me a few times.” Steel Wing’s eyes expressed his jealousy. “He only did it a few times until Elder Snap Bark caught us. He almost got into a lot of trouble but he promised the elder that I would be trained as a Steel Ranger so he didn’t get punished.”

“Your father promised you would be trained as a Steel Ranger? I thought you were born into being a Steel Ranger.” Steel Wing was surprised to learn anything new about the Steel Rangers. Not that he’d ever cared to know much more so it wasn’t exactly fair for him to think he knew everything about them.

“Well my mother wasn’t a Steel Ranger, but the elder allowed her to stay with my father in our stronghold. Our ranks were beginning to thin so the elder thought that letting my mother stay would convince my dad to make me become one. When things didn’t work out that way he started looking for any way to force him to. The day he caught us he found one.” The sad tale was overpowered by the happy memories of the time spent with her father. Red Berry’s smile did not fade.

“Sounds like your father wanted to give you the best life he could out here. I’d like to meet him some time.” As the words left his mouth the smile on the pink filly’s face foretold that he would soon be made an ass of.

“You already have.”

Steel Wing facehoofed. “So I foal napped his daughter in front of him and now I want to try negotiating with him? Perfect!”

She giggled as his revelation took hold.

Before long Steel Wing began to notice the warm fuzzy feeling from the Nightmare was going into the uncomfortably hot zone. Voices began to pour from every corner of his consciousness as well flashes of couples engaging in sexual acts beneath the night sky. Steel Wing began running around the room trying to find anything to cool himself off with. He felt heat bearing down on him like the sun was coming after him with a vengeance.

Doing the only other thing he could think of he stopped mid gallop and braced himself mentally and physically.

At the top of his lungs he shouted, “NIGHTMARE!”

At the same time NIGHTMARE thundered through what little remained of his own thoughts.

Red Berry could only look on fearfully as she watched the scene play out.

Relief came flooding into his body in the form of all of the heat being placed with a familiar cold.

The nightmare’s voice was in his head in an instant. Forgive me please. I was-

Steel Wing smiled with a grim satisfaction when he found he could turn off her voice in his mind.

“What the hell was that?” He panted. Red Berry was about to answer his question but he raised a hoof to silence her.

I was dreaming. No, that isn’t the right word. Thinking perhaps, remembering the past. Yes I was looking back on all I have witnessed and I lost my ability to keep my magic from pouring into your soul. Please forgive me.

Again the simple fact that one of the most powerful things that he knew of was begging him for anything made him pause for thought. Steel Wing remembered exactly what was at stake for her based upon his will.

With a drawn out sigh he said, “You need to work on keeping that in check. The next time it happens you are going to owe me.”

We find this to be just. The Nightmare regained the composure in her voice only, if they had been face to face she would have still looked quite rattled.

“Right, now that that’s settled.” Steel Wing stood up straight trying to act like nothing had happened.

Red Berry wasn’t about to ignore what she’d just witnessed and gave Steel Wing a stern look through her helmet. He got the message.

“I’m possessed, what about it?” He tried to sound defensive.

“You’re possessed by nightmares?” She raised an eyebrow which Steel Wing missed due to the helmet.

“Well one Nightmare, technically.” He corrected.

“What?”

“Nightmare Moon.” Steel Wing finally surrendered to her curiosity.

The suit of power armor was silent for a long time. “You mean the evil spirit that was banished by the Elements of Harmony over two hundred years ago? The one that possessed Princess Luna and allowed her to come back after her thousand year imprisonment? That Nightmare Moon?” Her tone of voice suggested complete and total disbelief.

“Well Princess Luna let Nightmare Moon escape, but otherwise, yeah pretty much.” Steel Wing managed to act as nonchalant as possible.

“So you are knowingly letting her possess you?”

“Not really no. She can contact me and I somehow can contact her. At this point in time I haven’t let her into my body.”

“You don’t find that troubling at all?”

“Well not really since she actually wants my cooperation. She’s been willing to beg for it.”

“I don’t know, that just doesn’t sound right to me.” Red Berry shook her head slowly.

“Fair enough but I don’t know how to get rid of it, so I might as well accept it.” Steel Wing had wanted that to be the final word on the issue but a thought made him continue, “I’ve explained more to you about this than I have to my friends. I should fix that.”

“Do they know at all?”

“They know I have some sort of magical issues and that’s about it.”

Red Berry gave Steel Wing a “needs work” look. Steel Wing just nodded.

The booming voice of the Securitron behemoth ended the conversation. Somepony was standing in a room full of overkill without proper identification.

Steel Wing bolted out of the garage and galloped for the Securitron room.

As soon as Steel Wing made it into the room he wanted to stop and stare, the direness of the situation made him act. Fairbreeze had returned with Corona. As the Securitron began counting down the seconds they had left to leave the area Fairbreeze had begun to back away from Corona. The somewhat unbalanced griffon had decided to accept the massive robot’s challenge. At twenty seconds left she was checking her weapons and limbering up for the fight. Steel Wing very desperately wanted to watch her try to survive versus five Securitrons and five energy turrets with an unknown amount of firepower. Steel Wing guessed it was a lot since he hadn’t seen them fire yet.

He quickly retrieved the gold card and shouted, “Stand down!”

The Securitron behemoth’s top half swiveled around and it scanned over Steel Wing.

VALID IDENTIFICATION RECOGNIZED. STANDING DOWN. Steel Wing breathed a sigh of relief feeling very glad somepony had a mind to program these robots to accept commands.

“Wow, you have your own high end security robots? You own Tenpony Tower too?” Corona snarked.

“Yeah, you’re welcome.” Steel Wing bit back.

Once the Securitron had gone back to its place Fairbreeze came back in.

“So how does this work, we just walk out of here together and go our separate ways?” Fairbreeze said gruffly.

“Where are Autumn Heart and the slaves- er... Ex-slaves?”

“They’re safe.” Corona assured.

“Alright then I guess-” Steel Wing wasn’t sure what he was about to say but the timid voice of Red Berry came from behind him and cut him off.

“Um, Paladin Fairbreeze?” She said walking up behind Steel Wing.

“Yes?” He responded inviting her to continue.

“I- Steel Wing needs our help and it would be in our best interest as well as that of all of Mexicolt if we were to lend him a hoof.”

“Is that so?” Fairbreeze turned his head to stare at Steel Wing.

“That about covers it yes.” Steel Wing confirmed, “You have several large wagons and I have found a few serviceable transports. We’ll need yours and mine to get all of this armory moved before the raiders, slavers and whatever else make it here and trap us into defending this place. Despite the issues between us, neither one of us wants to lose any of our friends or allies.”

“What about the Enclave’s plans?” Red Berry inquired putting Steel Wing on the spot.

Steel Wing was not to be cornered and said, “Details! Albeit important details but we should stay focused on the here and now. The here and now is getting all of this equipment moved before we get stuck fighting over it.” With a sigh he looked back to Fairbreeze who was being rather quiet. “Deal?” Steel Wing extended a hoof towards the contemplative Steel Ranger.

All eyes in the room were focused on the expectant hoof. After what felt like an eternity Paladin Fairbreeze raised his hoof slowly. He brought it up to Steel Wing’s own waiting hoof, and batted it out of the air.

“Steel Rangers don’t make deals with civilians.” Even behind the helmet Red Berry’s shock was clear. Corona was surprised, and Steel Wing was hurt. It wasn’t a physical pain but the feeling provoked from Fairbreeze’s action was a very real kind of hurt.

“We are allowed to use our best judgment when giving or receiving aid. It is a part of our charter for when we are dealing with anyone who isn’t a Steel Ranger.”

Fairbreeze quickly removed his helmet revealing a wide grin that dominated his face. “I hope you’ve learned something about being a smart ass around me.”

Steel Wing was speechless. He simply stared in awe of how well the pure white stallion with a buzzed blue mane had pulled off a joke at his expense. He hung his head recognizing that he had it coming.

“Yes sir, yes I have.” Steel Wing said and suppressed the urge to snap off a fake salute.

“Glad to hear it. We will have to talk about this Enclave thing soon but for now you are correct, we do need to move this soon. How much are we moving?” Fairbreeze replaced his helmet and walked around Steel Wing.

Red Berry turned to follow him and said, “It’s a lot sir.”

“I detect quite a bit of understatement initiate.” Fairbreeze growled. Red Berry didn’t understand that Fairbreeze was attempting a joke and thought she’d already managed to annoy her superior.

“I’m sorry sir. In weight there is easily over a ton of equipment.” Red Berry looked at the ground in shame.

Steel Wing looked at the Securitron behemoth for a moment. “I have three guests.”

THREE GUESTS RECOGNIZED... it went through its usual routine of scanning for other entities. All living creatures were already moving past it into the three door hallway.

Corona landed on the other side of Fairbreeze and whispered, “You do know your initiate thinks she already bugged you after being held hostage for two hours right?” Fairbreeze looked back at the sulking form of his metal clad companion.

“Red Berry.” He said in his superior tone.

The named pony stood up straight despite herself, “Yes sir?”

“Cheer up. That’s an order.”

“Uh- Yes sir!” She managed to feign enthusiasm while she worked through her confusion at his orders.

Steel Wing ushered them into the small room and invited Fairbreeze and Corona to take a look at the Crosshair room the same way he had for Red Berry.

Fairbreeze stepped into the door way as he was about to say something. What he saw caused him to choke on his words and cough loudly.

Corona reached out and grabbed at the air inside the room feeling satisfied having her hands anywhere near such an awesome sight.

“And that’s not even all of it.” Steel Wing said with a smile.

Fairbreeze looked back at him, “There’s more? How much more.”

“That in magical energy weapons, plus power armor.”

Corona began to giggle, “So much gun!”

“You said there were more transports down here right?” Fairbreeze asked after summarizing that “a lot” was both an understatement and right on at the same time.

“Yeah a few armored wagons, ground and sky wagons. A couple tanks too.”

“How do you propose we move all of this out of here in anything less than a week?” He turned to challenge Steel Wing’s plan.

Steel Wing just smiled back at him. “Vehicle lift to the surface.” Fairbreeze started as he choked on his comeback.

“Are you alright sir?” Red Berry was at his side very quickly.

“Uh, yes I just- Something flew down my throat.” The mighty paladin’s brain had evidently thrown out the skill of lying while trying to handle just how easy this was turning out to be. Steel Wing laughed at Fairbreeze’s weak attempt at lying. As the pegasus’ laughter filled his head Fairbreeze realized his mistake and facehoofed hard. His visor cracked but was instantly repaired.

“Did you get it out sir.” Red Berry was doing her best to hide a giggle, her best wasn’t nearly enough.

“Let’s get to work.” He said forcing the topic to drop. “Where is the lift and where does it go?” He asked walk up to Steel Wing.

Steel Wing pointed to the tank tracks door and said, “Don’t know where it goes, but it is a surface access lift so it can only be helpful.”

Fairbreeze walked into the garage without another word. He was out of sight but Steel Wing and Red Berry could here yet another surprised coughing fit.

“So he coughs like that when he’s caught off guard?” Red Berry asked.

“Looks that way.” Steel Wing agreed.

“This explains so much.” She said with a distant voice.

A half crazed laugh caught their attention. It mainly brought to Steel Wing’s attention that Corona was no longer with them.

Red Berry pointed to the arcanotech room, “That one.”

Steel Wing ran into the room and saw Corona flying about the top shelves of the weapons racks cradling the largest beam rifle Steel Wing didn’t think existed. It was easily as tall as she was when standing on her hind feet. It was a dull blue metal with a removable mount stand. It was meant to be used with power armor, but if somepony wanted to they could use it with their mouth. The entire barrel was the longest and most amazing part of it. The entire length of the barrel was a solid piece of ruby with arcane symbols carefully and uniformly etched into it all the way to the tip.

She landed next to Steel Wing and was positively beaming, “Someone was working on this and left it in a preservation unit when they left it. It was being customized and now it’s mine!” It was the same look she’d had after she decorated a tree with the entrails of a living pony. It was unnerving the way she held it like a baby. “Wanna touch it?” She held it out tantalizingly.

Steel Wing reached up to touch it and she pulled it away quickly. “I somehow knew you would do that.” He said flatly. “Tell you what since this is by far your favorite room you can start finding boxes to put these in so we can move them.”

“Deal.” She flew to the other end of the room and had a silent dilemma; to perform her task she would have to put down her massive new treasure. She disappeared into some part of the room and Steel Wing just assumed she would figure things out for herself.

The whole show made him smile as he left the room with Red Berry in toe. “Crazy bird.”

“She kind of is isn’t she.” Red Berry agreed. “That is one of your friends right?”

“Yes that is Corona. She’s the guard captain for Sky Fall.” Steel Wing was heading for the garage.

“She seems nice enough.”

“Well as long as the Steel Rangers decide to play nice, you will be able to hold on to that fantasy. I for one alright know how bad she can get.” Steel Wing verbally patted her on the head for being so innocent.

“Oh.” Red Berry could feel the verbal head pat.

Entering the garage they spotted Fairbreeze pulling a wagon onto the lift. If it weren’t for the power armor there would be absolutely no way he could have pulled the hunk of metal on wheels.

When he saw them enter he sighed, “Let's go see where this lets out, yes?”

“Sounds good to me.” Steel Wing said harnessing himself up and helping Fairbreeze pull the wagon the rest of the way.

“Initiate Red Berry, please activate the lift and wait for my return.” He looked over to where the ready and willing filly sat.

“Yes sir!” She said and moved as fast as equinely possible to start the lift.

It began to ascend and Steel Wing waved a goodbye to her. “Hey go help Corona with the packing, we need to get this done asap.” He called before they were plunged into the dim lighting of the surface lift’s shaft.

Steel Wing and Fairbreeze shared their first awkward silence.

“So your daughter is an odd filly.” Perfect Steel Wing thought to himself.

“She told you?” Fairbreeze said wearily.

“Not directly no. I picked up on it when she was talking about you let’s say.”

“Right, well, yes I suppose she is but I still-” He turned slowly towards Steel Wing. “What did you do to her?” His tone was not that of a friend or even a close acquaintance.

“I didn’t- What do you mean?” Steel Wing said defensively.

“Did you touch her?”

“Oh no of course not.” Steel Wing said honestly. When he thought of the little incident he had regarding his self control it caused his tone to reveal to Fairbreeze that he hadn’t asked the right question. Now he was angry.

“What. Did. You. Do. To. Her?” He moved closer to Steel Wing with a righteous anger building.

“Okay I did nothing to her I swear.” He was backed into a corner by the advancing and feral father.

“I believe you, now explain.” Fairbreeze demanded.

“You know how when you haven’t “gotten any” in a while and sometimes the weirdest things turn you on?”

“Not doing you any favors.” Fairbreeze warned. He had, to Steel Wing’s relief backed off some.

“Well the first door I opened on my first trip down here, I got an erection. Simple as that.” Steel Wing confessed.

“That has to do with my daughter how?”

“Well I only opened the one door. When Red Berry was with me we opened a second door and it happened again. She saw it, and I had to get myself back down with her present. It was awkward but nothing happened I promise. When it was all over she said something about how she could have helped me.”

Fairbreeze fell silent making Steel Wing nervous again. “Fillies. They don’t know how to walk away from a bucks private issues do they?” This was followed by a full bodied laughter coming from the metal suit.

“So, you and I are okay then?”

“I believe you and I trust you to use good judgment. You’re somepony who knows right from wrong so I won’t threaten you with the consequences of harming my daughter in any way.” He stepped back even more, “If she tries to come on to you or something, which let’s be honest is something that could easily happen, just ask her what her father would think. She hates disappointing me because she thinks she did something as a foal to make my life more difficult. She didn’t and I’ve tried to tell her that, but it motivates her to do better and I think she needs motivation.”

“Good parenting?”

“Something like that.” Fairbreeze said with a chuckle.

That’s my chuckle. Steel Wing thought but let it slide fairly easily.

A pneumatic hiss drew their attention up. Two metal plates were diverging just feet from their position. Heavily filtered moonlight came through the widening gap.

“Let’s hope it’s not too far away from the town.” Steel Wing said cryptically.

Dirt cascaded down on them as the two plates came to a halt. Fairbreeze was much better off in his armor than Steel Wing was.

As Steel Wing shook the dirt from his body he heard Fairbreeze nearly whine, “Really?”

“Really what? We’re really at Tenpony Tower?” Steel Wing said rubbing his eyes, which only helped to grind more dirt into it. The irritation didn’t stop him from taking a quick look around. They were still very much inside of the town of Armory. Not in a part Steel Wing recognized but a small blinking in his field of vision reminded him of his newly acquired Pip-buck. It placed a marker of a ways that looked like it was near the front gate.

“That way!” Steel Wing declared and got back into his harness.

----

Minutes of pulling later they began to recognize the area. Steel Wing no longer needed his Pip-buck as he led them to the front gate.

Three Steel Rangers trained their weapons on the approaching wagon but when they saw Fairbreeze they all stood down.

“Did everything go well sir?” A Steel Ranger approached attempting to glare at Steel Wing.

“Everything between Steel Wing and company and the Steel Rangers is resolved. Now we’re going to work together.”

“Sir?”

“Did I stutter?” Fairbreeze asked slipping out of his harness.

“No sir you didn’t. Can I ask why.”

“We face a crisis that a handful of Steel Rangers can’t take care of on their own. Steel Wing has chosen to cooperate with us as our goals coincide.” The finality of his tone made his subordinate stop his questioning. He went back to join the others.

Steel Wing was about to search for his companions when he felt a small tremor moving underneath him. Oh no.

A clawed hand jutted up from the ground under a Steel Ranger piercing his armor and driving through his hide into his belly. In the same instant a huge gout of flames flared up in the middle of the street revealing a slightly singed Flash Fire.

Panic took over Steel Wing’s head and before anything else could go wrong he charged into the unicorn filly and knocked her off her hooves.

“ STOP ‘ Steel Wing bellowed with a volume that a pony should not naturally be able to produce. All was “stopped” he had gained the attention of any and all things with the capacity to hear for at least a mile around. A second clawed hand dug a whole near the impaled Steel Ranger and Trapmaw’s head appeared.

“Steel Wing pony want to fight his own battles?” He offered as the Steel Ranger he was under whimpered and shuddered.

“No no I don’t there is no fighting here.” Steel Wing said moving over to Trapmaw’s exposed head.

“Steel Wing pony said he not like Steel Ranger ponies too. Steel Wing pony lied?” Trapmaw was already questioning Steel Wing’s integrity.

“No, I didn’t lie. I just today met some Steel Rangers that are not bad ponies.” Steel Wing wasn’t about to let this hellhound think he’d been lied to. “Also what is Flash Fire doing here?”

“It hurts.” The nearly gutted Steel Ranger moaned.

“Oh wow, um-” Steel Wing was at a loss for words. “You need to get your claws out of him without tearing him up.” Trapmaw looked at his occupied hand thoughtfully. “I really hope you have med-x running through that thing.” He said to the whimpering Steel Ranger.

“I do now.” He said weakly.

It was at this moment that Steel Wing realized all of the other Steel Rangers had weapons pointed in his direction. “You are friends with that beast?” Fairbreeze asked critically.

“Please don’t do this. He’s not that bad he was just looking out for me because he thought I was being held at gunpoint.”

“You were.” Trapmaw said as his claws slid out of the Steel Ranger’s belly. When the claws had come all the way out Trapmaw put his hand against the holes and checked several times to make sure entrails weren’t hanging out. When the armor repaired itself he gave stopped checking.

“I was. How long have you been here?” Steel Wing asked as the freed Steel Ranger collapsed from the pain.

“Magic fire pony and friend come for you. We let them pass like you say. Then Trapmaw remember you say pass safely so Trapmaw stop them and say that hellhounds make sure they make it. They both scream and hurt ears, but then we say again that we make sure they make it and they believe us. So me and friends follow underground and then big group of ponies charge horned ponies, so we kill large group like you ask us to make sure they pass safely. More are coming.”

Steel Wing took all this in and processed it much better than he usually did when he undertook the task of communicating with hellhounds.

“So a large band of hostile ponies attacked Flash Fire and Peaches so you killed them, but there are more coming. So you beat the other group of ponies here and saw that I was captured by Steel Rangers so you Flash Fire and-” He looked around and counted only one unicorn. “Where’s Peaches?”

Trapmaw smacked his face with his hand causing a few small cuts on his face. “She in tunnels still.”

“Oh no don’t worry about me I didn’t get hit by a charging boulder.” Flash Fire said recovering from Steel Wing’s tackle. All four legs were pointed heavenward as she watched the scene play out upside down.

“Sorry, I just didn’t need you cooking Steel Rangers inside their armor. We’re trying to help each other here. So you came here to tell me something?”

“Ahem.” Fairbreeze intoned.

“What?” Steel Wing said defensively.

“You allied yourself with hellhounds.” He stated instead of asking.

“I- Yes, yes I did. Does that bother you that I have succeeded in making friends with something the Steel Rangers have failed to do?”

“No, it’s not that. It’s just- Are they safe to be around?”

“If you have my hoof of approval they shouldn’t maul you or anything.” Steel Wing looked at the recovering Steel Ranger. “Well not again at least.”

A few of the other Steel Rangers had moved their fallen comrade away from the deadly predator. The rest still had weapons pointed at the only parts of Trapmaw that were visible.

Fairbreeze looked from Steel Wing to Trapmaw to the wounded soldier. “I still trust you. I trust your judgment but this is as far as I can extend my trust. If you’re wrong then there will be no more of this alliance.” Steel Wing nodded in understanding.

“I get Peachy pony.” Trapmaw went back underground.

Flash Fire got back up and stared at Steel Wing. The aforementioned pegasus was threatened by the very real possibility that she could set him on fire.

“Sorry about that.” He said inching out of her field of vision.

“It’s okay. It isn’t every day I have a stallion plowing into me like that.” As much as Steel Wing didn’t want her to even act like she was flirting with him he still laughed at the joke.

Foot Note Level Up!

Steel Wing - Level 11

Pip-buck Acquired - You are now the proud own of a Stable-Tec Pip-buck, use it well.

Quest Perk Added:

Lucky Buck - Someone or something is really watching out for you. You gain a permanent +1 bonus to your Luck.

Autumn Heart - Level 9

Corona (Griff) - Level 13

New Perk Added:

I Want That One (Prerequisite- Foal at Heart) - Your attention to things you may went leads you to some very interesting and very valuable discoveries. Your skill in barter is increased by 25 and when searching a room you have a higher chance of finding something rare.

Chapter 8: Incomplete Blackout

In the early morning hours when everyone had been loading up crates to put weapons in, Steel Wing had thought to himself Gee it seems like it’s been too long since I’ve been shot at. Steel Wing now hated himself for having the capacity to form thoughts.

----

A group of no less than thirty raiders from around Manehattan. This was the group Trapmaw had warned about but Steel Wing had failed to ask how far away they were the five hours before Trapmaw had told him. He may have been intelligent for his species but he was still a hellhound, and therefore not the type to think on a temporal level. That meant that the raider camp ten minutes from Armory was just a raider camp and nothing else.

At the break of dawn the raiders had attacked. Luckily for Steel Wing and the Steel Rangers, the cart loaded with crates had been taken back down much earlier. Everypony had gone underground and had been helping load weapons into crates; of course that was after each of the metal clad newbies finished gawking at the enormity of the rooms filled with weapons. Since they were all underground they hadn’t had any losses. The downside of not being taken by surprise out in the open was the raiders quickly took over the city topside.

Steel Wing and Corona had opted out of using a lift the single purpose of which was moving vehicles and large amounts of equipment up and down, and had raced each other back topside through the hallways. When they got up they were greeted by three day old corpses being used in the traditional Mexicolt pinata style. The raiders then used the “prizes” as whips, bludgeons, and balls on each other.

At that time Steel Wing was reminded of another thing he had to be grateful for. Being stationed over Mexicolt meant that he only had to put up with Mexicolt raiders regularly, and not raiders from anywhere else. At least the raiders of Mexicolt were civilized if in general unclean.

At present Steel Wing, Corona, and two Steel Ranger volunteers were trying to clear out the invaders so they could move the armory inventory before some other group could show up and pen them in again. Initially they had had four volunteers but one of the raiders had brought an anti-machine rifle along. Steel Wing couldn’t believe that someone back two-hundred years ago thought it would be a good idea to make the best kind of protection for soldiers and simultaneously produce something that could punch through that protection.

Fucking war profiteers. Steel Wing had thought as he watched the downed Steel Ranger being dragged away. From what he could tell the pony inside the armor was still alive, he had been fortunate enough that the raider with the anti-machine rifle didn’t have a very strong neck or any aptitude with larger weapons. The shot didn’t hit anything vital, but it was enough to put him down for a while. He would be in Autumn Heart’s hooves which would be more than enough to make sure he survived.

Back to the matter at hoof, Steel Wing was watching the streets as Corona took a peek over a rooftop. After a few moments of scanning the other rooftops she flew up and landed on top of the building. Checking the alleys around the building she waved her companions over. She repeated this process hoping from building to building and guiding them down safe paths. When she knew she could go no further, Corona landed gently next to the three grounded ponies.

In an attempt to minimize noise since she knew there were raiders around the corner, Corona made a series of hand gestures to inform the other three of raiders’ presence.

Steel Wing watched the griffon’s hand gestures with a questioning eyebrow. When she’d finished he said, “What?”

Corona silenced him with a hand Over his muzzle. She then facepalmed when the source of his question hit her, quite literally in the face.

“You don’t know hand signals do you?” Steel Wing shook his head. “Of course you wouldn’t, why would a pony have to learn hand signals? Why can’t you have hands?” When she finished Corona relinquished her grip around his muzzle not actually expecting an answer.

“I bet somewhere out there some pony cyborg does have hands, or at least fingers.” Steel Wing was obviously not trying to be helpful.

“Shut it.” Corona hissed. “There’s at least three raiders around the corner, I can get two using SATS. I’ll need a second shooter to get the third. I say shooter because trying to sneak up and break there necks in broad daylight wouldn’t end well.”

“Alright fair enough.”

Steel Wing looked at the two Steel Rangers with them. Grenade machine gun and minigun. No. Two side mounted assault rifles and a back mounted sniper rifle. Also no.

“How quiet is that thing?” Steel Wing motioned towards the sniper rifle.

“This sir?” The addressed Steel Ranger activated the sniper rifle. “Quietest there is!” His voice was full of pride.

“He’s being serious sir.” The other Steel Ranger said, seeing Steel Wing’s skeptical look. “We call it the Quiet Cannon.”

“Well there’s your second shooter then.” Steel Wing said in slight disbelief.

Corona peeked around the corner and then leapt up with a single flap of her wings so she could look over the top of the corner, while giving the Steel Ranger a spot from which he could aim as well.

In moments they found their targets and each signaled the other they were ready. Two discrete zaps from an energy pistol and the quick hiss as a large amount of pressure escaped from the large rifle. Three more raiders were dead.

Steel Wing nodded in approval of the Quiet Cannon. “How many raiders is that then?” He looked at Corona.

“Was I supposed to be keeping track of that?” She puffed out her chest. “I have been keeping you all from walking into hazards, and you expect me to keep a kill count as well? That is unfair on many levels.” Corona then deflated and feigned exhaustion.

“Well somebody here should be keeping track I-“ He stopped when a small message appeared in his vision.

Manehatten raiders slain: 5/30

“Why the hell does it know how many there are?” Steel Wing grumbled.

“What does what?” Corona asked.

“I guess my Pip-buck has been keeping a kill count.” He said peeking around the corner. Seeing that it was clear he ventured out into the open to check the three dead raiders. He was about to start going through their things but the smell that hit him was so unbearable he couldn’t bring his nose any closer.

“Sweet fucking Celestia! They smell like rotting parasprite carcass wrapped in hellhound shit!” Steel Wing backed away quickly.

“Jeeze will you keep it down we’re trying to be stealthy.” Corona came up next to Steel Wing and immediately turned away from the stench. “What the hell were they rolling in!” She cried equally as loud as Steel Wing had.

“Sir? Ma’am? There’s enemies on the EFS, and you’re being kind of loud. Also your hellhound friend has something to talk to you about.”

Whatever had kept them from simply walking away from the horrid reek they would never know, but now they had an excuse to be anywhere else.

Steel Wing walked back into the alley after gagging a few more times. “Trapmaw?”

The hellhound waved at his approach. “Me and friends found more than ten raider ponies close together. They playing kickball game with pony head. Come Trapmaw show you.”

He began walking in a seemingly random direction. Steel Wing stopped him.

“Couldn’t you set up a trap for them or something? You are really good at that.”

“Sure we can. It work better if Steel Wing pony show up and help.”

“Alright we’ll be there. Go ahead and prepare your trap the four of us will make sure there aren’t any raiders still running around town. Sound good?”

“Works for me.” Trapmaw shambled back to his hole and dropped in.

“Sir aren’t you afraid of them; what if they turn on you?” The Steel Ranger carrying Quiet Canon asked.

“Then I broke my promise.” Steel Wing replied grimly. “Let’s get moving.” Soon they were back to their original routine, Corona on rooftops guiding them further through the city while avoiding potential ambushes.

Trying to sneak up on and around raiders wasn't easy with two giant metal suits following you. It was a strain on the Steel Rangers to be as quiet as possible, coupled with the fact that they had been up since midday yesterday, they needed rest. When the two rangers voiced their desire for rest Steel Wing and Corona agreed to stop for a while. It was at this point that Steel Wing realized just how tired he felt. For the past few days he had gone without eating or sleeping and had assumed it was the effects of the Nightmare. Now it felt like he was coming down off of a seventy two hour adrenaline rush, and it was ruining him. Taking in all of these new feelings Steel Wing noticed that he still wasn't all that hungry. His appetite was instead coming back very slowly, while his exhaustion simply crashed down on him.

Steel Wing had fallen to the back of the group lost in his thoughts. He followed as they went into an empty building and got comfy for a half-hour rest with a blank stare.

"I think I need to find some food, fast." Steel Wing said, once his mind returned to the present.

"Well I thought you always had food and water in your bag." Corona said, sitting up from her couch.

"I always have, but I haven't needed to eat, sleep or drink in days so I stopped." There was a hint of mild annoyance in his voice.

"Nothing in here it looks like." Everyone present scanned the one room building for anything that looked like food. "Need help finding some?" Corona shifted getting ready to go, with great reluctance of course.

"No, I'll be fine." At the word "fine" Steel Wing's body shuddered violently, and his stomach growled audibly. "That being said I'm not going to stay that way forever. I'll be back." In an instant a purple tail disappeared out the front door.

Steel Wing's hunger drove him to move quickly, his discipline forced him to be as quiet as possible. The result was a very awkward but silent gait that made the giant pegasus look like he was crippled. Just a few buildings down Steel Wing heard the clatter of empty bottles and someone snacking on something. As he moved towards the sound, Steel Wing saw to yellow bars appear in his vision. His EFS told him there were two non-hostiles and one friendly in the building he was moving towards.

He was just outside the door when he heard a mare grunting and snarling, "I'll fucking kill you!"

A stallion replied, "Aw poor little Flare. You lost fair and square so just take it." A bottle fell to the floor and there was a little shuffling as well as a wet squishing sound. "Don't try and act like you don't like being tied up anywaysh~"

Presumably the stallion, let out a loud belch that helped Steel Wing guess that whoever he was he had been drinking. If it was one of the yellow bars then the other yellow bar, probably the mare, had also been drinking. Steel Wing had heard someone eating inside and that was the only other thing he registered about the situation, forgetting completely that the city had been overrun by raiders.

When Steel Wing peeked into the room he immediately lost his appetite, and regained his grasp of the current situation. Two gore stained raiders, a stallion and mare were surrounded by broken, blunt objects and empty bottles. The mare had been hogtied using the intestines of one of their victims. The stallion was gloating over whatever victory he'd achieved, and was preparing to "claim" his prize. Because Steel Wing hadn't eaten in days, he could not throw up, gag yes but he could expel nothing. A very strange mindset overtook Steel Wing as he watched the scene. He watched as the stallion slowly descended upon his companion. All he did was look on until a hand around his throat and mouth yanked him away from the door.

He was still moving back for sometime, his hind legs skimming over the dirt. A few seconds later and his rear was placed on the ground. The grip on his throat was released, but the hand around his muzzle tightened as a very cross looking Corona hovered into view.

"What. The. Fuck?" She looked at him impatiently.

"Mmm..." Steel Wing intoned. He was in a daze, as several days of sleep loss caught up with him.

"Do you have any fucking idea how messed up that was?" Steel Wing shook his head and stared at her. "Clearly you need to get laid. That shit could have gotten you killed!" Her anger was not lost in the quiet voice she used to not be heard by anything else.

"Sorry." Steel Wing was making a conscious effort to focus on why he was in trouble.

"Sorry? Fuck you and your sorry." She brought a hand across his face leaving several red lines where they touched.

A stinging warmth spread over Steel Wing's cheek and was enough to at least make him aware of what he'd been doing to deserve being hit.

"Ow." He intoned rubbing his cheek. "I can't believe I was actually watching them."

"Yeah me neither." Corona put her hands behind her head and took a deep breath. "When we get back to Sky Fall, I am going to lift your ass into the air, fly you down to Mexicolt City, and find twenty prostitutes for you to wear out for few days. This whole sex strike thing is a very obvious distraction for you. I thought I had let this go, but after that you and I both know that what I'm saying is true. You need to find something that can keep sex off your mind in the middle of a fight."

"Fighting does keep my mind off of sex." Steel Wing protested weakly.

"If I know you like I think I do, then this city is a combat zone to you. That means you are fighting as long as you’re inside the city. If two blood covered raiders doesn't stop you from thinking about sex then I don't think anything else can."

Steel Wing hung his head in defeat. "Maybe you're right. Maybe it is time to let go, of this whole nopony but you thing. I have with my sister."

They were both silent a long moment.

"Yeah maybe I am." Corona agreed with finality.

Steel Wing's eyes suddenly lit up with a new resistance. "No!" He said a bit louder than he should have. "Snow is somewhere under the cloud cover. If ever there was a time to not give up hope it would be now!" Steel Wing caught himself using such a loud voice. Much quiet he finished, "Now, when she's so close."

Corona watched the hope in his eyes, and had to voice a concern she thought Steel Wing had overlooked. "What if she's found someone else?"

It wasn't an issue Steel Wing had ever overlooked, in the past he had accepted that she would be able to find another to make her happy. That realization now helped to keep his hopes in check.

"Then I guess I'm happy for her." The grey pegasus looked down at his hooves, watching the dirt as it did absolutely nothing to change the situation.

Corona gently brushed the blood off of Steel Wing's cheek with a wing, and then wrapped her arms around him. "I think I'd probably hate being you. I wouldn't really know, because I hardly know who you are." She drew back and looked him in the eyes. Her expression was a rare one of sincere sympathy. "I want to help you, but I'm bad at this sort of thing."

Steel Wing responded with a weak smile.

"Help me help you?" She finished hoping that phrase applied to this situation.

"We'll see." Steel Wing rested his head on the downy chest before him for a moment before standing up on all four hooves; and promptly falling over as exhaustion and hunger hit him with increased magnitude.

"You alright?" Corona began to put him back upright.

"I go for days without eating or sleeping, and I think it's caught up with me. I honestly don't know what was keeping me going so long, but this is ridiculous." Steel Wing's body slowly fell back to the ground as his strength drained away. “No, I’m really not alright.”

"Well maybe once you got where you were going you stopped needing to well- Go, see what I'm saying." Corona was more or less at a loss for any helpful words, but still tried. Steel Wing would probably never know how close to right she actually was.

"Maybe." Steel Wing's vocabulary was deteriorating single word phrases as he began to fall asleep. As his head drifted back towards the building occupied by the raiders, Steel Wing spotted the green bar still inside.

"There's someone friendly trapped in there with those raiders." The strain of saying all of that was clear in the exhausted pegasus' voice.

"Can you keep going?" Corona already knew the answer given he was laying down already.

"Nu-uh" Steel Wing intoned.

"Right then. Stash you, save friendly, run back quick for reinforcements and finish the raiders." Corona checked her own EFS to confirm the existence of a friendly entity inside the building. "I really wish I could just chuck a grenade in there." She sighed and began dragging the passed out pegasus that might as well have been a snoring boulder.

Once she had hauled Steel Wing back to the building where the two Steel Rangers were waiting, and had informed them of his condition, Corona started taking care of her current checklist bit by bit. Now that she was paying attention, the many functions of her Stable-Tec designed power armor were proving quite useful. Being a griffon she couldn’t begin to understanding how the magic used to power most of its functions worked, but was very able to appreciate each one as it presented itself.

At the moment it had her at, Hide Sleeping Pegasus.

“Sweet dreams.” Corona whispered as the door to the utility closest slowly shut.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steel Wing stared at the ceiling over his bed. He took a moment to glare glared at the deffective radio blaring music that Dj-Pon3 left playing through to the late morning. It was unfortunately still the middle of the night. He looked back at the radio through sleepy eyes when a song came on that he didn’t recognize. It was upbeat and intense. The mare singing had a voice that commanded all who could hear to listen to her words.

The weary pegasus lie still slowly being energized by the song. When it was over, he felt odd. Sitting up he noticed that the off feeling only increased. Something in the room seemed strange or even different. The door to the roof was still closed. His power armor was on the mannequin, as it should be, and the binoculars hadn’t been moved since he’d last touched them. When his gaze fell on the window, Steel Wing instantly saw what was bothering him. Pure, unfiltered light was coming through the window illuminating the room in a way it never had been before.

Steel Wing became a grey and purple blur as he shot across the room to the window.

All he could do was stare at the world outside with narrowed eyes, while he tried to make sense of what he was saw.

The land immediately before him, and forever on, was flat dirt and shrubs. The world stretched on to eternity, but off in the infinite distance a definite black curtain cut off the world’s seemingly endless progress. What concerned Steel Wing the most was the fact that he could see so far; not only was there no apparent source of the light, but all the dust and debris seemed to have been cleared from the air. He could see forever until the world ended at the black curtain, where an absolute nothing seemed to exist.

As Steel Wing contemplated the possibility of a place that exists containing nothing, an imposing but familiar jet black figure appeared on the road in front of the house.

It was a suit of black steel battle armor.

“Oh! It’s just the Nightmare.” Steel Wing breathed an awkward sigh of relief. He sincerely doubted anyone in the history of the world had ever said that phrase.

The armor didn’t move, so Steel Wing jumped out the window intending to land next to the Nightmare; after all the only place he could allow himself to fly was in his dreams, which he was now aware this was.

To the confident pegasus surprise, this was an occurrence where the phrase ‘Not even in your dreams.’ could be applied. No longer a pegasus, SteelWing found he had been downgraded to giant, airborne earth pony.

By instinct he was very afraid of a two story free fall. When the ground did not charge to meet him, he looked around and saw a black mist that signified the Nightmare’s magic aura. He was gently placed on the ground, and the black mist quickly dissipated.

“Thanks.” Steel Wing said, trotting up to the armor.

At this distance, it was obvious why the Nightmare was playing the silent game, she wasn’t in the armor. There were the two slots for wings on either side and a hole in the helmet where a horn could poke through. It was certainly the same black spiked suit of armor that the Nightmare had first appeared in, but the armor was very empty. Last time there had at least been black mist pouring from the armor’s holes, now there was nothing.

Despite its apparent lack of an occupant, and no force, magical or otherwise animating it, the armor’s hoof was raised, and pointed south down the road.

Steel Wing followed the hoof south with his gaze. It wasn’t until he was completely turned that he noticed the giant wall of Mexicolt City right next to him. How he missed it was far beyond the baffled pegasus.

“Right, so you want me to go into the city?” Steel Wing turned to find that both the black armor and his house were far far away. He could still see his house clearly, the armor seemed to have left for now. “Correct.” He confirmed for his own sake.

But what if I just walk away?

An invisible force swatted the back of his head.

I’m going to assume that was my subconscious and not the NIghtmare.

Steel Wing trotted into the city, down the main street.

The light shifted to night, it was light from a full moon; there was still no apparent source of the light. The shift in lighting and lack of its source were beneath Steel Wing’s notice as he moved through the almost familiar streets. He saw a broken second story window, which reminded him of his last fight ever in Mexicolt City.

The open air market where any and all of the city’s honest dealings took place. That wasn’t saying much at all. Steel Wing went down this memory lane with a scowl.

It wasn’t until he was on a street with a bar to brothel ratio of two-to-one, that he realized by now the city’s nightlife should be up and out. The streets of Mexicolt City were empty, save for Steel Wing and his sister. Again the dream shifted without Steel Wing catching on.

Steel Wing raised a wing inviting his sister to walk side by side with him. She happily accepted the invitation, and bounded up next to him; their flanks bumped while she matched his pace. Once they were walking comfortable next to each other Steel WIng closed his wing around her, bringing her in closer.

Steel Wing had intended to trap her next to him. Instead, she used the lack of distance to nip at his ear.

The first was ignored, the second noticed, and third acknowledged. By the fourth nip at his hear, Steel Wing was jerking his head away while still keeping her under his wing.

After playing for a pleasantly log time Steel Wing had his chin over his sister’s head. He shot her ear shell a devious look and adjusted his head to allow his warm breath to tickle it.

The grey mare’s body shuddered in response to his display of power over her. It reminded her of the difference in size between them; she had always told Steel Wing that, the dominance he was able to exercise over her, was something she loved.

The dream began to drift away from the intimate scene between the sole inhabitants of Mexicolt City.

Steel Wing had never cared to notice the actual differences between his sister and himself. During their early years they had been very nearly the same size. When looks started to mean anything during their school years, Steel Wing was praised for his exceptional size; his twin sister was teased for her unfillylike stature. They ignored the opinions of their classmates entirely; by the time they were ten, they only needed each other.

Through their teen years, Steel Wing kept growing, eventually becoming the oversized pegasus everyone knew. His sister grew only enough to fill out the lithe, delicate form that most pegasai did. He had been in love with his sister for years, she was equally in love with him. The love they had for the other was for much more than just physical appearance. Steel Wing had found so many other things to love about his sister that he failed to notice that he towered over her when he stopped growing.

Steel Wing quietly watched the two lovers from above. He sat on one of the city’s larger buildings, and watched the imaginary scene play out.

It was nicer down there. He thought sadly.

“Wow this dream has stopped making sense!” Steel Wing had become aware of just how far off track everything seemed to be. Not that he hadn’t been enjoying his dream thus far, but there was something he’d been doing and now couldn’t remember it at all.

He shrugged and turned around. The main road continued on a ways over the tops of the buildings. Steel Wing caught on to this and looked down to find that he was once again at street level.

Now that he was walking again, he tried to remember why he was in Mexicolt City at all. He was supposed to meet someone, or already had.

Light pouring out of a bar caught his attention. According to the rest of the city’s streets, this was the only open bar to be found.

As he approached the doorway he heard, “... from Dj-Pon3 to you, sleep tight and don’t let the hellhounds bite. Good night my little ponies.” Static followed Dj-Pon3’s closing statements.

Steel Wing stepped in through the doorway and felt a huge weight wash over him as he did. The world went quiet, and the light turned to darkness. He felt his entire body seize up violently causing him to fall over. Then there was nothing but quiet, and the occasional bump.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Steel Wing returned to the waking world he found it had become rather, bumpy. He was laying on his back with his wings splayed uncomfortably. He was, at the very least, on a soft mat.

It was dark wherever he was. Mild panic rose when he was reminded of his dream. This faded when he heard light breathing somewhere nearby. He wasn’t entirely alone. After relaxing and tucking in his wings a deep and ugly coughing fit came from somewhere next to him. The coughing stopped and was followed up by a pathetic sounding whimper. Steel Wing recognized that as the cough of someone who was slowly recovering from a severe chest wound.

Steel Wing turned towards the source of the coughing, and felt something icy pierce his heart. The Steel Ranger initiate Red Berry was curled up on a cot wrapped in bloody healing bandages. Her whimpering continued as she feebly searched for the blanket that she’d accidentally thrown off.

The soldier pony was extremely angry with himself that he felt no pain and was laying around while an innocent filly was suffering a few feet away. Steel Wing got to his hooves as quickly as he could and felt instantly lightheaded. Fighting through the disorienting sensation he managed to get to Red Berry’s mat and cover her up gently.

When Red Berry was adequately wrapped up Steel Wing took some time to sit and recover from the dizziness he felt. He then noticed he was sharing space with several other rising and falling piles of cloth. Other injured Steel Rangers lay all around him, and his mind was racing to find some sort of reason for their condition. Last he could clearly remember, they were getting ready to leave with the crated up weapons. Now there were Steel Rangers who had clearly been in a hell of a fight; a fight that Steel Wing knew he wasn’t a part of, and that began to eat at his conscience. He’d never wanted to involve anyone else in moving the weapons, he’d hoped to convince the Steel Rangers to leave so he could deal with it himself. There was no reason for them to be hurt.

The world jolted forward for a moment. The sudden movement moved Red Berry, and she let out a weak cry as she curled up even tighter than before.

Voices were coming closer now, and following a series of latch clicks, light poured in from an opening about five feet from where Steel Wing sat.

The first voice Steel Wing recognized was that of Autumn Heart. The other sounded like Corona, but something was wrong with it.

“You could have rested in here.” Autumn Heart said clearly concerned.

“I could fly, see straight, and shoot. There was no reason for me to be laying down.” Corona’s sounded nearly breathless, and the way she coughed made it sound like she’d taken a large blunt force to her torso. Another injured.

Now that there was a significant source of light, Steel Wing could see this was the back of one of the passenger wagons. It also meant that there was more the horrified pegasus hadn’t seen before.

Including himself there were nine occupants in the compartment. It sickened Steel Wing to no end that Red Berry seemed to be the worst off of any other pony present.

Autumn Heart stepped into the compartment, and saw the large pale pegasus looking around as if someone had just shot him.

“You’re awake?” Autumn Heart said with a half hearted smile.

“Who is?” Corona pushed her way into the compartment.

Steel Wing could now see what was wrong. Corona had healing bandages wrapped around her throat, which had done little to hide the scar that ran from her shoulder up to the top of her head. Her left arm was in a sling, and she had a bandolier of med-x. Although she normally walked on her hind legs, it was abundantly clear that she could hardly do anything else.

“Ahu?” Steel Wing intoned as words got caught in his throat.

“I think he’s broken.” Corona said with a grin. An attempt to laugh ended with another coughing fit.

Autumn Heart came closer. “Are you alright?”

“No.” Steel Wing looked at the shivering form of Red Berry.

Autumn Heart misinterpreted his pained expression and went for her medical bag in the corner of the wagon.

Steel Wing caught her mid stride, and pulled her close to his face. “No.” He looked straight into her eyes, then turned her head towards Red Berry. “What happened, and why didn’t anyone wake me?” His hooves were tightening around Autumn Heart.

She tried to push his hooves away, but he was far too strong for her to escape without his conscent.

“There was a fight. Mexicolt raiders came. They were organized, and they came from all over Mexicolt.” She was now struggling to get away from his slowly fading self restraint.

“Hey!” Corona shouted, grabbing Steel Wing’s attention and letting Autumn Heart escape.

Red Berry opened an eye, and looked up at Steel Wing with large weary eyes. Steel Wing’s eyes were equally weary, but for obviously different reasons. His large form sunk lower and lower, until he was laying down level with the wounded filly.

“I’m sorry.” He said softly.

She smiled but said nothing.

“What happened to her?” He looked back to Autumn Heart with eyes that told he was near the breaking point.

“It was a one in a million fluke.” She began quietly, “A defective fragmentation mine armed itself after colliding with her armor. She stepped over it thinking it was just a piece of metal. Most of the shrapnel went into her belly, but the armor stopped a lot of the shrapnel. The armor coupled with the healing potion injectors saved her from bleeding out in a few seconds, but that’s really all.”

“Oh.” Steel Wing brushed a hoof through her hair to better see her face. “It shouldn’t have been you, it shouldn’t have been any of you.” He got up and looked around at the other injured Steel Rangers.

“Hey don’t blame yourself for this, I’ve seen what you get like when you start taking the blame for shit that isn’t your fault.” Corona moved closer to the breaking pegasus.

“Well what if it is my fault?” He asked, his gaze falling back on Red Berry.

“It isn’t.” Corona asserted settling down next to him. Her wings flared out to stop from losing her balance, she was clearly still getting used to having three working limbs.

“Will she be okay?” Steel Wing ignored the griffon and looked to Autumn Heart.

The deep green mare turned slightly pale when she looked at Red Berry. Red Berry for her part was trying to work each of her legs; every slight twitch of a limb caused her to wince.

“She was one of the last to get injured, and I’d had to use a lot of medical supplies on the other wounded. I did what I could, but she’s going to need surgery and magic to properly heal. After all the internal and external damage is repaired she’ll need rehabilitation.” Autumn Heart knew better than to try to sugar coat the severity of the filly’s wounds at this point, it would only lead to more questions.

“Why couldn’t it have been me?” Steel Wing buried his face in his hooves.

“Didn’t I say not to do this to yourself?” Corona poked him. She fully understood this wasn’t a time for jokes, but she wasn’t about to let him fall into some dark hole. If pestering is what it would take, then pester is what she was committed to doing.

“Shut it!” Steel Wing roared, suddenly sitting up to face her.

Corona lashed out with her good hand, and wiped it across Steel Wing’s face. He instantly recoiled from the surprise strike. Corona acted as quickly as her three good limbs would allow, and put her arm around the quickly recovering pegasus’ neck.

“You clearly need some fresh air!” Corona said angrily rolling Steel Wing and herself to doorway. With a loud grunt from the considerable effort involved, Corona threw Steel Wing out onto the ground. “Take a walk, get your shit together, and come back. Or don’t I’m not going to put up with you tearing yourself down like this. Come back with a better attitude or I’ll eat you, literally eat you.”

The statement was shocking enough to silence any retort from Steel Wing. He simply did as she commanded, and started walking.

-----

The night was dark. There weren’t any breaks in the cloud cover this night; each and every campfire was its own beacon in the darkness of the desert. Perhaps it was the lack of moonlight, but Steel Wing felt that his connection to the Nightmare was weakened. Nothing was going or coming from the window in his soul.

The lack of the Nightmare’s touch roused another strange feeling in him, he didn’t know whether or not he was glad to be rid of the Nightmare for however long it would last. Thankfully, these feelings came from him and him alone; this was something Steel Wing could live with.

-----

It wasn’t a long walk, mostly due to the fact that Steel Wing didn’t know the area and didn’t want to get lost. Being away from the miserable sight of Red Berry allowed his head to clear enough that he could actually be helpful.

A recent loose end needed tied up before he could move on however. He needed to either apologize to, and thank Corona for getting him outside; or give her a swift kick to the beak for the newest cuts she’d given him. Her talons left cuts that bled for a while; as Steel Wing made it to where the wagons had been parked, his cheek still burned from cuts that may as well have been fresh.

Several Steel Rangers were watching the Mexicolt landscape for anything that tried to approach their camp. It didn’t take long to spot his large shape, as it seemed to spill out from the edge of the darkness. To the tired eyes of the Steel Ranger who spotted him first, there was a huge problem.

“Alicorn!” The Steel Ranger shouted, his voice was amplified by his armor.

The camp was roused in an instant by the call. Some Steel Rangers moved faster than others; one in particular was next to the shouting ranger just as he finished speaking.

“Or it’s a big pegasus.” Fairbreeze bellowed to calm the camp. “You, go sleep.” He said to his discredited subordinate. “You’ll need it before spritebots start talking to you.”

“Sorry about that.” Steel Wing said, moving closer to Paladin Fairbreeze.

“Instead of apologizing, take his place on the watch.” Fairbreeze wasn’t in the mood to disguise his current disdain for the guilt ridden pegasus.

“I’m sorry.” Steel Wing’s head hung low as he turned to watch the desert. As the sound of armored hooves died away, the sound of padded feet grew closer stopping just short of Steel Wing’s tail.

“That doesn’t look like how I said you should come back. That still looks like shame and defeat to me.” Corona’s tone had softened since she’d last spoken to Steel WIng. There was still no humor in her voice.

“I know there was nothing I could have done to prevent friends from being injured. Is it too much to ask for me to be able to to wish I could have helped?”

“Yes.” Corona stated simply. “If dwelling in the past is going to prevent you from acting in the present, then of course it’s too much to ask.”

“I want to help everyone now, but everything is already wrong. There isn’t anything I can do.” Steel Wing was beginning to vent his frustrations, something the usually socially inept griffon had been aiming for.

“I think you hate the feeling of being helpless. The only problem you’ve never been able to solve is getting back at Brightcloud, right?” Corona’s tone was becoming softer and gentler with every word.

“I’m not helpless, I just don’t know what to do. Right?”

Steel Wing couldn’t deny that the source of his frustration was fairly alien to him.

“No you’re not. You just don’t have a direction at this very moment in time.” Corona moved up next to Steel Wing, and pulled him closer with a wing. “Tell me something. Were you considering just leaving while you were taking that walk?”

“Yeah.” Steel Wing felt ashamed of that truth.

“What made you come back?”

“I didn’t know where else to go. All I knew was that you and Autumn Heart were still here. As well as the some dozen Steel Rangers, I still wanted to help.”

Corona flicked his ear right on the tip with a mean precision.

“I was afraid you’d forgotten the wagons full of weapons those ponies were injured just to protect.” She then proceeded to gently rub his burning ear between two talons. Her touch on his ear was much softer and more comfortable than the razor-sharp talons seemed capable of.

“Wouldn’t I be less of a pony if I was more worried about weapons than the lives of others?” Steel Wing, in all honesty, couldn’t answer that question for himself.

“Of course you would. No one could ever ask you to stop caring about the lives of others. Your world just seems to stop whenever somebody is hurting more than you are; you lose sight of the world around you until you can find a way to share some of their burden. What if you had just left, huh? The Steel Rangers would have some thousand new munitions, one of the reasons you wanted to move them someplace else. What about the escaped slaves back at the cave? You’d just forsake them and go wander for the rest of your life? Oh! and what about-”

“Alright! I get it. Something new I need to add to the list of things for me to work on.”

“From what Autumn Heart told me of how you two met, the only thing you need to work on is a balance between two extreme ends. You went from only caring about ponies who came within a half-mile of your sight, to wanting to take a bullet for anything and everything you thought couldn’t take a hit itself. Now that you care, you should find a way to work with the worry you feel for others; dropping to the ground and waiting for something heavy to fall on you isn’t going to help anyone. See what I mean?”

“I guess, you might be right.” Steel Wing smiled weakly, “You being right about something is a strange thought, scary almost. Heh.”

Corona responded by giving the ear she hadn’t let go of a light pinch. “Scary indeed. I know you aren’t stupid, sometimes we just need help seeing the obvious.”

After a brief silence, during which it was understood by both that the topic was closed for now, Steel Wing asked a question that had been nagging at him. “What exactly happened to you? I’ve seen some nasty crash landings in my time, but this seems a bit excessive.”

“What, all this?” Corona acted as if she just now noticed her cast and bandages. “Well something punched straight through my armor and my wing while I was airborne. The healing potion injector and auto repair spell took care of it; just not quickly enough for me to recover before plowing into a building.”

“So crashing through a wall, while wearing heavy protection, gave you a huge scar, broken arm, and a collapsed lung?”

“How’d you know about the lung?” Corona asked.

“Umm... Your voice?” Steel Wing said with a raised eyebrow.

“There’s something up with my voice?” She nearly croaked the last few words.

“You’re jerking with me aren’t you?” Steel Wing poked her in the side. She shot him a hostile glare for the pain he’d just sent through her body.

“No.” On top of everything else, she now sounded offended. “If there’s something wrong with my voice I’d like to know.”

“You really don’t know do you?” Steel Wing was a astounded to say the least.

“Maybe we should just go back to your question before I decide to hit you.” Corona had to visually recognize her balled fist before it could relax and fall back to the ground.

“Seems like a good idea to me.” He scooted away a little, but was pulled back by her wing.

“For the record it was a concrete building, and if I hadn’t been wearing armor it would have just broken all of my bones. All that I would have done to the building was leave a nice red splash on the side.”

“Even still, I’m sure you’ve had free fall training. Couldn’t you have just maneuvered around the building until you could fly right again?”

“Having a passenger makes it a bit more difficult.” Corona retorted.

“Oh well, in that case, a very well done emergency landing if I do say- Wait, who were you carrying.”

Oh no. Corona pulled her wing back to her side, and shifted away from Steel Wing.

She turned to face him and said, “I had Flash Fire on my back. It was her idea, and I was feeling pretty cocky about my flying. It went well, her magic was something else; and her ability to track a target while moving at high speeds was even more impressive. But then my wing.” Corona looked away for a moment, and gathered the courage to look him in the eyes again. “I pulled her off my back and wrapped myself around her; she had enough time for a partial shield, it absorbed some of the impact. When I went through the wall I lost my grip around her, I think I went unconscious for a while. She went a lot farther than I did.” Corona stopped to let him ask the question she had no desire to answer.

“She died? Just like that?” Steel Wing felt a part of himself dying at the end of his question.

“No. According to her, death would have been a lot better.”

“She’s been crippled then? Paralyzed?” Steel Wing pressed, wanting an end to the building distress he was feeling.

“Crippled, yeah.” She couldn’t bring herself to say it aloud. In a final effort to end close this topic she moved right up to him, and grabbed one of his wings. “Think about what makes you a pegasus.”

“No.” Steel Wing tried to deny what she was about to imply. His voice was lost to him, and he simply mouthed the word breathlessly.

“Think about what it means to be a unicorn.” She put a talon on his forehead.

No Steel Wing pleaded. His body wouldn’t move, so he tried to take his mind away from reality for enough time to miss the rest of this conversation.

“If you permanently lost that meaning, would you rather be dead?”

Yes.

----

Chapter 9: Blind Faith

Steel Wing and Corona both sat a ways away from where Peaches stood guard over Flash Fire. The normally energetic filly was as unmoving as the laying form of her friend. They both very well could have been dead, or made of stone. Still chests told of shallow breathing, and of the gravity of their situation.

Despite the unending supply of reassuring comments Corona gave Steel Wing, the warm wet flow of tears trickled from his eyes like quiet waterfalls.

Slowly he approached the pair, doing his best to reign in his tears before he got to them; he didn't want to took like the most hurt pony present.

Peaches caught on to Steel Wing's approach well before he arrived. The sapphire coated pony leered at him causing him to stop mid stride.

"Is she-" Steel Wing started, a quick pop of magic and a hoof struck his face.

"I just got her to stop talking about killing herself. Choose your words carefully, or die." Her warning was as intimidating as it was serious.

He turned to Corona. Rubbing his sore cheek he told her, "I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything." Corona tried to comfort him. It had an opposite effect.

"I have to do something, don't I?" He spoke loud enough so that Peaches could hear, which put Corona in an awkward spot.

"Well," She began carefully, glancing at the glaring unicorn, "what can you do? It's not like you have magic to fix it with."

"Nobody does." Peaches said sourly.

Flash Fire flinched. Some part of their conversation had upset her, Peaches knew this; without having any way of taking it back she instead threw her forelegs around the neck of her lover, planting a series of gentle pleading kisses on her. Each soft peck, a way of begging her dear friend to stay.

The mutilated, black coated filly touched the broken stub of bone and winced again. Slowly Flash fire parted her black and red mane, and touched her partner's intact horn. Peaches cooperated when she felt a pressure at the base of her horn, angling her head downwards.

Flash Fire inspected the unbroken length of bone more closely; unconsciously giving it light strokes several times before kissing it.

The stimulation caused her sapphire partner to shudder as a small wave of pleasure ran through her body.

Peaches' blissful expression turned to one of horror when she saw the pained look Flash Fire wore; a pain brought about by her ability to be stimulated in such a way.

Flash Fire pushed herself away from the desperate embrace of her worried friend, sat up and looked out to the darkness. Her hooves came up to part her mane again, this time to let night meet her ruby eyes unfiltered. Slowly she turned her head to look at Corona and Steel Wing, before they settled on Peaches, who immediately sat up.

When he saw her face, not hidden behind her long mane, Steel Wing understood why she refrained from talking. A jagged patch of flesh had torn away from her face, starting where her horn used to be and ending near the tip of her snout. A second smaller strip went from the still bleeding hole to just above her right eye. If she were to open her mouth to speak, only screams of pain would come forth.

Peaches started to weep openly, knowing full well her dear friend’s intentions.

“I’m-“ Steel Wing’s words left him again when she slowly shook her head. Her black and red mane fell back over her face, the motion threw small drops of blood on the ground before her.

Flash Fire stood and began walking to the edge of the camp, breaking into a full gallop just beyond the fire light.

“Where is she going?!” Steel Wing demanded.

“To die.” Peaches and Corona said in unison.

“Why didn’t you stop her?!” Steel Wing demanded, his voice doubling in volume.

“She asked me to let her make her own choice. She said if I loved her that I wouldn’t force her to live like that.” Peaches wailed, feeling the weight of his sudden anger crushing yet more life from her.

“Fine, you go ahead and let the love of your life make bad decisions; I’m going to help somepony who needs it.” Steel Wing charged off into the dark after the equally dark coated filly.

The twisted irony of his outburst began to burn its way into Steel Wing’s thoughts; its effect upon his current desperation fueled mind was little to none. Snow.

Several yards outside of the camp sight, Steel Wing noticed something strange happening to his vision. At first it looked as though his Pip-buck was failing when lights began to appear, seemingly at random, in the distance.

Somewhere in his mind he knew it was shafts of moonlight illuminating distant objects. The how, why and where of this understanding were a mystery to the grey pegasus who had little time to be distracted by such thoughts. He reared angrily when he felt himself slowing; redoubling his speed and charging forward harder, he cursed himself aloud.

It didn’t matter to him, any longer, what Corona said; if Flash Fire died now it would be his fault.

With these thoughts in mind Steel Wing put on more speed. His wings fluttered in instinctual agitation. With his ever increasing speed, it was more and more difficult to keep himself grounded.

The column of light directly ahead brightened, illuminating a single black coated pony. She was far off, but he was catching up.

Several more shafts of light appeared to the right of Flash Fire’s position. As soon as they appeared they darkened, radiating a shadowy light that Steel Wing could still easily spot. There were many of them, and they were closer to Flash Fire than he was.

The fulfillment of her death wish was at most a quarter mile off, and he wasn’t moving fast enough. One final deep breath was all he allowed himself before putting on even more speed, and more, and more, but the dark light shafts were still closing faster than he.

“Fucking move!” Steel Wing demanded of his body.

Let the night carry you. The Nightmare’s voice whispered. Instead of being in his head, it came from all around. A cloud of a very familiar black mist hung around him growing thicker every moment.

Steel Wing’s world faded, only to reassert itself the next second. Something collided with his solid bulk. He easily held his ground, causing Flash Fire to bounce backwards onto her rear.

As soon as she’d recovered, Flash Fire stared in awe of the pegasus before her; now much less of a pegasus than she remembered, at the same time so much more. His wings were merely shadows; his now ethereal mane became a shade of black so dark that it stood out against the moonless night of the wasteland. A non-existent breeze blew through his mane, and caused the shadows representing his wings to break off into little whisps and tendrils that faded into the night surrounding them. Perhaps most shocking of all was the long, fluted length of bone protruding from the crown of his head. Two glowing, red eyes stared down at the already traumatized filly with an intense, absolute indifference. While Steel Wing had many things he wanted to yell at her for, another half of him, as well as his physical body were anticipating the upcoming battle.

The sound of hooves galloping in from ahead and behind made the alicorn, Steel Wing, smile wickedly.

He closed his eyes, and as the two red lights disappeared the large figure melded into the night. The initial presence Flash Fire felt only intensified as a feeling of dread came over her.

The first of the ponies marked by the black moonlight came into view. Manehattan raiders.

When they saw the lone filly, stallion and mare, both started calling out which of her holes they would take first.

Flash Fire began to cry. Any one of the wasteland’s beasts could have given her the quick death she sought. Now she’d run away, been found, and then abandoned to the mercy of raiders. Her resolve shattered as her imminent rape and torture washed away any hope of a merciful end.

The nearest of the raiders leapt at Flash Fire with a gleeful grin, he was very happy to be first.

The raider’s smile never waned as his head slid down the length of Steel Wing’s unseen horn. Blood tricked down over the cloaked alicorn’s head, giving a vague outline of a pony, which made the other charging raiders come to a grinding halt.

The newest corpse to grace the wasteland fell, twitching, to the ground. Two red eyes leered at the band of raiders, followed by a wide smile of innequine razor sharp teeth; at last the large, purple-grey form of an alicorn appeared.

You wretched creatures Steel Wing bellowed Long have we watched your kind corrupt, destroy and defile what little remains of your world. If we are to bring any order to this land, you must first be erased.

The thundering of hundreds of galloping hooves suddenly doubled in volume as if they all stood in the middle of a stampede.

Just before the peak of the cacophony the alicorn spoke, voice full of malice, Know before your demise what it is to be in the presence of TRUE POWER!

Shapes suddenly flooded in from the darkness each a part of a huge charging mass of ponies. Shadowy mimics of the mythical windigo, conjured effortlessly by the Nightmare incarnate, came in hundreds and trampled the insignificant group of raiders. The sound of hundreds of hooves died away long before the shadowy apparitions vanished, allowing the howls and screams of the overrun raiders to be heared by the only two survivors of the encounter.

The scene was haunting to Flash Fire who had long since lost the ability to cry, speak or make noises of any kind. She could only stare as the army of shadows became a thick, shapeless cloud that slowly thinned out along the ground.

The dark form of Steel Wing loomed over her for what felt to the frightened filly like hours.

Steel Wing’s breathing was steady as though nothing had happened, but grew increasingly more staggered as he fought back sobs.

“Is this real?” Flash Fire managed to croak out.

Steel Wing moved closer and hung his head next to a black outstretched, black forehoof. Flash Fire’s hoof brushed against the grey cheek of her very real savior. She ended at the base of his horn, a painful reminder of what she no longer had.

“But I can’t.” She pleaded, “I’m broken, I’m done; I just don’t want to.” She began to cry openly, her resolved shattered previously, and her imminent death averted left nothing but a crushing despair behind.

Steel Wing was truly relieve that she broke down, he was not far behind her in letting the warm wetness of his tears stream down his face. From now until eternity it didn't feel as if there would ever be a reason for either of the two, to stop.

"Tonight," Steel Wing began, his voice a whisper that carried itself through the silent night, "we have killed fifteen to save one. Surely ten more will die far outside my ability to help them. Twenty-five lives will be gone by sunrise, and you still wish death for yourself? Life itself is a greater thing than many in this world have, and you dare to throw it away?!" His voice, still still a whisper, thundered around the now cowering filly, forcing her to stand trial for her actions.

"You will return to your school and seek whatever aid you may find there; you will not abandon the poor creature who has given its heart to you no matter the state of your magical capacity, or lack thereof. Do we make Ourselves clear?"

By this point it was no longer Steel Wing's voice accompanied by a chorus of whispers, but the glorious booming voice of the Nightmare; whose demands dominated the unusually still night.

I can't save the wasteland; I can't save Mexicolt City; I couldn't have saved her without you. Steel Wing's regret ran through his mind, body and soul. Eventually his confession reached the ever near, yet very distant being who was to blame for the continued life of the damaged unicorn.

You should not feel you are lesser because you received help. Never forget that Our strength is your strength, and you may use it as you see fit. Even if you will not be Our host at this very moment, you may still draw from Us what you will. Her tone lost all of its harshness when communicating with Steel Wing.

Twenty-five for one, It'll be hard not to wonder how many deserved to live. Someday nobody will have to die for that one life, I'll see to that." Steel Wing spoke not only to the Nightmare, nor just the physically present, but to the universe. If it cost him a thousand lives he felt sure in his ability to make something good out of his existence.

"I'm sorry I put you through this." Flash Fire said, suppressing her sobs.

"Fuck my problems!" Steel Wing said almost angrily, "I did this because someone had to. Save that for your filly friend; she is going to need it."

"Oh okay." She shrank even further into the ground.

Steel Wing let out a long sigh and calmed himself.

"Can you walk or am I going to carry you by the scruff of your mane?" He asked jokingly.

"My body is so tired. I don't think I can walk."

"Probably the blood loss; why the hell didn't you get that giant scar healed?"

"I wanted to die." Flash Fire reminded him.

"Right." Steel Wing rolled his eyes, and levitated her onto his back.

Taking his first step back to camp, he faltered and nearly smashed his snot into the ground.

"Did I just- Magic?" He checked to make sure Flash Fire had actually been moved onto his back, attempting to rule out hallucinations.

"Yeah, you're an alicorn; didn't you know?"

"I am!?" He said, clarifying for Flash Fire that he did not in fact know.

A mirror, set in an ornate golden frame poofed into existence.

Steel Wing's disbelief was captured perfectly in his reflection. Flash Fire saw this and giggled despite her current state. A long, deep purple spike jutting from his head, was glowing very dimly. It wasn't until he was truly aware of his horn that he felt the unfamiliar tingle of magic being channeled through his skull.

"Wait, where did this mirror come from?" Steel Wing inquired, looking around the empty landscape.

"Uh, you made it?" She said, unsure of what part of being an alicorn Steel Wing wasn't getting.

"I er- Magicked again?"

"Yes you conjured an object into existence. In fact you're using magic to maintain it. How do you not feel that?" There was a hint of resentment in her voice, she felt cheated knowing that a random pegasus could sprout a horn and use magic without any study or knowledge of spells.

"I guess I do feel it. It's kind of strange really." Steel Wing shrugged.

"Lucky." Flash Fire grumped.

"But aren't all alicorns mares?" He asked in with rapidly growing alarm. The mirror zipped underneath Steel Wing and hovered there while he reassured himself of his retained masculinity.

"Wow," Flash Fire said dryly, "that's a different view."

Steel Wing shot her a dirty look, whereupon he noticed his vaporous wings. The slowly unfolded has he willed them to.

At least they're obedient, unlike after the surgery.

"Don't forget your mane." Flash Fire said sarcastically.

"Shouldn't you be sulking or something?" Steel Wing could now appreciate how Fairbreeze and Corona felt having to deal with his snark on a daily basis. He gave her one last look before inspecting his mane. His attempt to see it consisted of him trying to pull it around to his face with a hoof. He managed to move it enough so he could see the wispy end of it before his hoof passed through it.

"Like you did with your wings maybe?" The filly on Steel Wing's back offered helpfully.

With less than a thought the non existent wind shifted, blowing his mane over his face. It was suddenly dark, all around him were little pinpricks of white.

The weren't truly stars; he was sure of that, but not sure why he knew. An unfamiliar smell wafted into his nostrils, coming on an unfelt breeze. The sound of a foal's laughter; a very familiar, but long since dead laughter. The familiar demands for a father to go faster. The same grassy field, where a father pulled his daughter along on a cart. Happiness, memories of the way everything was; the way everything should be.

"What are they?" Steel Wing asked, lost in a dreamy haze.

My memories, the things I've seen in my existence, you may look through them as you please.

"Hold on a minute, I thought you were waiting for my permission!"

We- I am. What have I done wrong? The nightmare sounded genuinely worried.

"Well why am I an alicorn then?" Steel Wing asked, his voice heavy with suspicion.

That happened when you became a shadow. It is simply a little more of our influence than you are accustomed to.

"A shadow?" Steel Wing questioned.

Flash Fire tried to listen for any other speaker but heard none so she said, "Who are you talking to?"

"An ancient and evil power, now mind your own business." Steel Wing said more harshly than he meant

to.

"I believe you." Flash Fire dropped the subject sullenly.

"Sorry," Steel Wing said facehoofing, "I'm just a little bit- Some sort of excuse for my tone. I'm sorry at any rate." He couldn't think of any reason for snapping at the filly who'd gone from relative safety to having her horn broken off in less than two days.

"No it's not a big deal." Flash Fire dismissed the need for an apology, "I'm sure after a long days falling asleep right before a fight you might be a bit grumpy." All of Steel Wing's senses picked up on the bite in her tone. His mane unconsciously snapped back towards her stinging the tip of her nose.

Steel Wing resumed his conversation with the Nightmare, completely oblivious to the fact that his mane had attacked the filly on his back.

"So, is this going to be permanent, because it will seriously get in the way of going near any town."

It will be gone by the first light of morning, if you so desire. Otherwise you will remain this way indefinitely. Or rather, you will retain this form indefinitely; only at night will you be able to channel my power so fully.

"Well then yes, I do want it to end." Steel Wing said with finality.

"Awww..." Flash Fire mocked pity, "You're going to stop being an extremely powerful creature because it might inconvenience you slightly?"

Steel Wing's etheral mane threatened another strike, but refrained from attacking when it's owner completely agreed with the taunt.

"That's not really the issue here." He defended, not wanting to admit that it was in fact exactly the issue. In the back of his mind he also felt slight guilt. He'd demanded that she not throw her life away over the loss of her horn. He'd then gained a horn, and wanted rid of it.

Steel Wing was then, suddenly hit by the large falling rock known as brilliance.

"Can you heal her broken horn?"

"Are you asking an ancient evil for favors?" Flash Fire referenced his previous biting comment.

This time Flash Fire's comment was imply ignored; she understood why when she actually considered Steel Wing's question. A strange silence filled the air around them.

We will have to take time to consider your question in full. Know that what you ask will, without fail, leave behind much less of a pony.

Steel Wing looked back the hopeful filly.

"Definite maybe." Was all he could give her.

She nodded in acceptance, her spirits clearly dampened.

"Let's get back to camp then." Steel Wing said with a sigh, beginning a slow walk back the way he came.

Shall we take you back? The Nightmare offered.

"Might as well." he grumbled, "Hey Flash Fire, hold on to me and don't let go until I say so."

She complied without protest, although she was fairly sluggish in doing so. As soon as her forelegs were wrapped around Steel Wing's neck, both she and Steel Wing began to disintegrate into a black mist. The two pony cloud fell to the ground like a thick black blanked, and became a shadow like all else around it. The night carried them both to the camp in an instant.

----

Corona had several times attempted to Peaches to a more comfortable place to have her break down. After receiving a flailing hoof to the eye, she used her words instead of getting violent, a fact she was proud of. She'd reminded the bawling filly that the hellhounds didn't like loud noises.

It had forced her to calm down, but she remained adamant about laying on the ground. She went as far as erecting several barriers around her, the outermost of which scorched anything that made contact with it.. When Trapmaw commented on the dramatic nature of ponies, Corona firmly, and wholeheartedly agreed.

Only a few minutes after Peaches' barriers went up, a shadow snaked its way into the camp. Going unseen, the purpose driven shadow came to a stop next to a Steel Ranger. Though unseen, it carried with it a horrific, bone chilling presence felt by all; had the Steel Ranger looked at his shadow in the firelight, he would have seen the shadow of a pony nearly twice his size. As it was, a pony twice his size was rising from the ground gaining shape and form from a cloud of black mist.

Just as Steel Wing and Flash Fire solidified, the Steel Ranger Steel Wing was supposed to replace gave up trying to sleep. He moved to resume his post, and saw the unmistakable shape of an alicorn; this time it was directly behind Paladin Fairbreeze.

"Alicorn!" The Steel Ranger's voice boomed, disrupting the sleepy haze that'd fallen over the camp.

"Dammit, I swear I'll have you flogged if you don't knock of the crap." Fairbreeze barked.

"No, sir, behind you. Really this time." The Steel Ranger pleaded.

It took just long enough for Steel Wing's sense to catch up, to allow Fairbreeze to turn and make eye contact with the hulking pony that'd managed to sneak up behind him.

It certainly was an alicorn. Fairbreeze felt bad for both yelling at a subordinate, this time, and about being so close to an alicorn. He felt worse about the second part.

Red bars flooded Steel Wing's vision. He was truly regretting ever putting on the Pip-buck, as a strange nausea came over him.

Oh shit, I'm an alicorn. He mentally confirmed.

Fairbreeze kicked on SATS and paused.

Steel Wing:

Chance to hit: 100%

Threat Level: Extreme

Non-hostile.

Fairbreeze dropped SATS; before he could say "stand down" the pneumatic hiss of Quiet Canon signaled indicated a .50 caliber bullet was flying through the air. The Steel Ranger carrying the silent sniper rifle used SATS to send a bullet through the alicorn's head before his commander could be harmed.

"Hold your fire!" Fairbreeze commanded half a second too late.

Steel Wing wanted to scream, or to be dead. Instead, he stood motionless as outside air touched what was left of his now exposed brain. Everything burned inside of him, his nerves were on fire. An equally unpleasant feeling began just as the bullet hit its mark. It felt as though a dust storm was blowing particles through his split skull.

Instead of blood, the familiar black cloud poured from the ruins of a pony's head. Slowly, bone reformed, torn skin and muscle knit itself back together.

The nauseating pops and cracks of joints refitting themselves made all present cringe. Steel Wing felt all of this and could not react. All he wanted was to scream, throw up, or to do anything to express how much being shot in the head hurt.

Eventually a weak "Ow" escaped his lips.

"Steel Wing?" Autumn Heart approached him slowly, a medical bag in her mouth.

Steel Wing sat down hard in repose, sending an half asleep Flash Fire tumbling off his back. She tried to catch herself; instead pieces of Steel Wing's insubstantial wings wraped the falling filly. Steel Wing was vaguely aware that something "landed" on his wing. He gave the detached section of wing a disinterested glance, and resumed attempting to work through the trauma he'd just experienced.

"Sir I'm so sorry. I thought you were about to attack Paladin Fairbreeze; I took the shot before you raised your shield like I've heard alicorns tend to do. I've been told that's the best way to deal with thim." The Steel Ranger spoke moving closer to his accidental target.

Autumn Heart physically stopped the Steel Ranger before he got any closer.

She'd figured out by now, or days earlier, what Steel Wing's silence meant. Distance.

"Med-x." Steel Wing whispered hoarsely.

Autumn Heart quickly retrieve the painkiller from her bag.

When the called item floated out of Steel Wings saddlebag, thanks to his Pip-buck, Autumn Heart breathed a sigh of relief; she was happy to not be required to get to close to him, despite how much she wanted to help.

The needle slid into Steel Wing's neck; a hoof pressed the plunger down, sending waves of numbing salvation through his body.

"Thank you Fairbreeze. Steel Wing's voice echoed through the heads of all present. It also pierced the otherwise soundproof bubble Peaches trapped herself in.

Peaches spotted her once lost companion slowly moving towards her safety domes.

While Steel Wing's pain and mental trauma was suppressed by the drugs, an unbridled rage erased Peaches' sadness.

Flash Fire walked towards her partner, eyes on the ground. She didn't know what to say to the filly she'd spiritually broken less than an hour ago. She soon found there was little time to come up an apology when an enraged Peaches ploughed into her, Flash Fire was very nearly impaled by her angry lover's horn.

"How dare you!" Peaches bellowed, grabbing the attention of the whole camp.

Peaches wasted no time in beating up the most wonderful pony she'd ever known, who'd selfishly abandoned her to go die by herself.

As furious as Peaches was, it was a fleeting emotion, giving way to happiness that was pushing all the fear and pain of loss out. Of course all those emotions had to go somewhere; the ends of her hooves were the perfect conduit.

Flash Fire was receiving nothing more than slightly heavy taps; Peaches was clearly exhausted from everything up to and including all she'd done to keep her lover form committing suicide; the failure of said task had sapped everything else away from her body.As far as intent went, Flash Fire imagined she was getting as much as she deserved for what she'd done. Had Peaches any energy left, it would have been a truly savage beating.

Desperate tears began rolling down Peaches; face as Steel Wing moved to pull her away, only moments after she'd begun her assault.

"Peaches, I think that's enough." Steel Wing was more of a suggestion in the addressed filly's mind.

Flash Fire expertly ended Peaches' rampage by wrapping her forelegs around the crying filly's neck, and pulling her into an embrace; now she could feel hot tears dropping on her face, her own tears joining them on a journey to the ground.

"Okay.." Steel Wing said, pretending she'd actually heard anything he'd said.

"How are you doing? I've only seen a Canterlot ghoul take a hit like that and keep going." Corona came up next to him.

"If I don't think about it, it doesn't hurt so much." Steel Wing said, his voice wavering as he made the mistake of "thinking about it."

"So then," She continued her voice taking on a slightly more cheery quality, "being an alicorn, how is that going for you?"

"I'm still a stallion, so not bad." Steel Wing shrugged.

"How'd it happen?"

"Nightmare magic." He said shortly.. Shortly thereafter he felt a stab of guilt. "I still owe you an explanation about that don't I?"

"If it's going to make your wings fall off again then don't bother." She teased, looking over his new wings.

"That problem is over and done with, I think." Steel Wing shuddered at the thought that it very well may not be over.

The sound of light snoring drew both of their attentions to the two fillies on the ground next to them. they'd both fallen asleep wrapped in each other's forelegs. It was hard to tell they were actually two separate ponies.

"There will be more crying tomorrow, you know that right?" Corona asked dryly.

"For now, they sleep. That's more than enough." Both Steel Wing and the Nightmare said in unison.

Corona cast her gaze about the campsite, trying to find the source of the voice that'd just whispered in her ear. She looked at Steel Wing suspiciously, he simply shrugged and focused on his next task.

The sleeping fillies were wrapped in a deep purple aura, and gently lifted from the ground. Slowly they were rolled in a similarly colored blanked, while a cloud of black must formed beneath them.

Steel Wing preformed this magical feat with the Nightmare's step by step instructions.

At the end of his brief magic lesson Steel Wing lowered the bundled fillies onto the cloud bed. The touch down was a little harder than he'd meant; Flash Fire grumbled in her sleep to protest the rough treatment.

"Magic with intent is a lot harder than randomly channeling emotions into spells you don't know." Steel Wing complained, wiping beads of sweat from his brow.

"Wait," Corona turned her whole body to face him, "you're an alicorn who doesn't know magic?." She asked with smirk.

"If I'd have even attempted that by myself I likely would have crushed them both and turned the remains to dust." Steel Wing said dismissively.

"Oh, well, I guess- Yeah." Corona dropped the subject, awkwardly pretending to adjust her broken arm.

Corona and Steel Wing moved away from the sleeping couple quietly. Steel Wing decided quickly it was time to share the situation between himself and the Nightmare with Autumn Heart and Corona. That or doge the issue for another night. For reasons far beyond him, he chose the second option.

"So you got to try out that new rifle I bet." He asked in an attempt to get her talking.

Corona lit up instantly, "Oh yes I did! That thing is just- I can't even tell you how it works." She hummed in delight.

"Give it your best shot, I'm all ears." Steel Wing said with an earnest smile.

Once they'd settled next to an armored wagon she began to explain. "It uses a single ammo cartridge; instead of crushed gems though, it's a spell talisman. Flash Fire told me that the primary rune is 'renewal', what you'd find in as part of a waste recycling talisman in a stable, and the second is the energy type. It burns!"

Steel Wing began to regret bringing up the days combat with Corona when she began to radiate a maniacal glee over the memories of the fighting.

"Okay cool, how's your arm?" He asked, changing the subject in the least subtle way possible.

Corona narrowed her eyes at him as an indication she'd noticed, but played along nonetheless. "Hurts a bit, how's your horn?" She flicked the length of bone for emphasis.

Steel Wing's body shivered from the unfamiliar, but pleasant contact, " That's sensitive." He said breathily.

"Oh really?" Corona put on her most mischievous of grins.

Oh damn. Steel Wing was already very positive he didn't like where this was going.

When Steel Wing tried to move his head away from the grinning griffon a warm firm grip wrapped around the middle of his horn.

He couldn't help but wonder, as his legs became weak from the strange sensation, how such a small portion of his skeleton was so sensitive. Unicorns, he decided, had it rough.

His thoughts were quickly disrupted by Corona's hand traveling up the length of his horn.

"Hnggh..." Steel Wing's tongue started hanging out of his mouth, some half formed protest lost to the inconveniently pleasant sensation.

"Hah!" Corona cried out triumphantly, grabbing even more audience members for the unnecessary show.

"I hate you, so much." Steel Wing purred. Corona guessed he was entirely serious, though he was incapable of sounding so.

She continued slowly up and down occasionally tweaking it with a sharp flick. Everything about what was happening felt wonderful to Steel Wing; her talons, he noticed, didn't actually scrape against the bone as he thought they would, instead they seemed to glide over it. He was completely at her mercy.

"Do you want me to stop?: Corona asked, curious to find out how much power she had gained over him by such a simple act.

Steel Wing shook his head, causing more friction and said, "Yes, please."

"Is that a no or a yes?" Corona laughed, "Your mind and body aren't entirely on the same page are they. This is too funny."

She was by now captivated by every little twitch in Steel Wing's body. Most of the camp had caught wind of the bizarre act and had come to watch.

"Corona please-" Steel Wing pleaded.

"Please go faster?"

"No my-"

"Yes?" She teased intensifying her grip on his horn.

"No dammit, I-" Steel Wing could feel it building up, whatever "it" was. All he knew was that when it built up too far, things were going to get embarrassing.

"Is someone close?" Corona teased again.

"Yes for fuck's sake! They're watching." Steel Wing cried desperately.

Corona paused for a moment and looked around; sure enough the whole camp seemed to be in attendance. Steel Wing was shivering violently, close to some unknown peak. It was when she'd looked the crowd over and returned to look at Steel Wing that she decided she may have gone a bit too far.

From the crowd came hushed conversations, and some giggles. It was officially a bad night for Steel Wing. He was nearly over some unfamiliar threshold, at the top of some impossibly high peak from which there seemed to be no return. When Corona relinquished her grasp his staccato of small breaths turned into exaggerated gulps as the ability to breath properly was returned to him.

Problem after problem began to present themselves; the greatest being the entire camp was still staring. Corona took care of this for Steel Wing.

"Alright, get lost, show's over." She stared them all down until the began to leave.

"I hate you." Steel Wing grumbled.

"Do I owe you an apology?" Corona offered.

"Yes."

"I'm sorry I made you feel good." Corona said, unable to suppress laughter as she spoke.

"Fuck you, I can't think straight anymore." Steel Wing tapped his horn twice and sighed happily at the warm sensation it caused.

Corona didn't understand what the problem was and shrugged to show this.

Steel Wing groaned, "Have you ever been really close to- Well you know?" Corona nodded, "And when you're that close you aren't allowed to finish?"

"Yeah, I guess. Just go relax for a while or something." She said before Steel Wing could get to the point.

"I can't, it's not going away." Steel Wing blurted out.

"Hah." Corona laughed instinctively.

"There's a good chance I'm going to break your other arm in your sleep, just so you know."

"Okay, I'm sorry for real. Just go rub it out behind that rock or something." Corona relented, trying her best to help fix the problems she'd caused.

"I don't know what'd happen and I don't want to." Steel Wing he complained, looking over to the mentioned rock.

They both fell silent for a moment.

"Meet you over there?" Corona asked, already sure of the answer.

Steel Wing vanished, leaving behind a quickly settling black cloud; he reappeared near the chosen rock.

Corona followed at her own pace; stopping for some water and a good laugh at Steel Wing's expense. Steel Wing heard her, from a hundred yards off, and knew exactly what she was laughing about.

Steel Wing's glowed a hellish red as Corona finally approached. He fixed her with a look that very easily could have set her on fire.

"I heard that." Steel Wing's voice had the quality of a demonic growl.

"Jeeze, sorry."

"I suppose I can't actually hate you any more than I do right now; if you could just stop for a while though, okay?"

"Fine." Corona said as she settled down next to him. Once she was comfortable leaning with her back against the rock she said, "So about those prostitutes."

"What?" Steel Wing scoffed. He quickly checked to make sure prostitutes hadn't materialized out of nowhere when he wasn't paying attention.

"I threatened to fly you down to Mexicolt City if I had to, but I don't think I'll be able to for a while.

"Why bring it up? I said maybe."

"You could have gotten yourself killed today." Corona took on a lecturing tone.

"What're you talking about?" Since he'd fallen asleep before there was any real need for concern he couldn't recall being in immediate danger.

"Look, if you're so hard up that raiders getting it on gets you going, you need some serious help."

Steel Wing's stomach churned as the memory came back to him. He'd completely forgotten, and for good reason.

"I need Snow." He said, once he was sure he wasn't going to throw up.

"It isn't ever going to snow in- Oh right." Corona remembered the name of Steel Wing's sister was Snow. At least part of it was.

"Yeah. Right."

"If it's meant to be, it's meant to be?" Corona tried, "She is down here somewhere for what it's worth. The odds of you two meeting up are still slim to none."

"She was just so perfect." Steel Wing said dreamily. He didn't appeared to have forgotten he was actually having a conversation with someone else.

"I'm sure she was, but-" Corona tried again.

"Those beautiful orange eyes; they were so easy to get lost in. I almost got caught one time at dinner when we were flirting across the table. Wasn't like I had any control over how slowly she ate her carrots." He had a goofy smile as he spoke, "Not really complaining though."

Steel Wing's mind began to wander to all the nights spent with his beloved sister. His wide, goofy smile became one of genuine happiness while he let his thoughts wander through the past.

"What're you thinking about?" Corona asked, poking the suddenly quiet alicorn in the shoulder.

"The time Snow passed out after I tried to-" Steel Wing came out of his reverie, "Wait, I'm not actually going to tell you that."

"Yeah, stop thinking about it too; you'll just end up making more 'problems' for yourself." Corona then proceeded to elbow him in order to remind him why he was by this rock in the first place.

"You'd just love it if that happened wouldn't you." Steel Wing taunted.

Corona raised an eyebrow.

"This is pretty close to the point in our conversations where you try to 'get at me,' and I tell you 'I'd have to be-"

"Completely drunk, smashed even." Corona finished for him. "Yeah and I took you seriously, just like I did when you said 'maybe' to going to Mexicolt City."

"Oh, well thanks for caring enough to take it seriously." Corona simply shrugged, not knowing a better way to respond to his gratitude.

" I guess that means that I actually have to be careful if I drink around you." Steel Wing said, they both had a laugh.

"Feeling better yet?" Corona asked after a brief lull in their conversation.

"In general, maybe. My horn still feels the same, but I've gotten used to it I guess. I can manage."

Before Steel Wing had a chance to say anything else, Corona put on her sly grin. Steel Wing was instantly set on edge by the change.

"Hey," Corona started, rubbing her hands together to add to Steel Wing's spike of anxiety. "What should we actually call you now that you're an alicorn?"

"You're choosing now to bring this up?" He said, a mixture of relief and annoyance in his voice.

"Well, I was going to ask about a new name for you after your wing surgery at the academy, but then you had that messed up episode where your wings turned to dust." She was lining up names even as she spoke.

"Sure, let's find me a new name!" He said with all the fake enthusiasm he could find.

"Night's Knight?" Corona suggested.

"Just terrible." Steel Wing chuckled and shook his head.

"Night Wing?" She tried again.

He looked at his wings; once grey, once purple, now insubstantial mist. They extended slightly and came down quickly creating a small breeze. Steel Wing cleared his throat as an invitation to continue. The weak breeze was gone before she began again.

"Shadow Wing?"

"Shadowing who?" Steel Wing snarked.

"You can't tell but I'm laughing on the inside right now." Corona said dryly.

"Really?" Steel Wing played along.

"No, not really."

"I didn't figure."

"How about-"

"I have an idea!" Steel Wing suddenly interrupted, so he could have a turn.

"Go for it." She settled back against the rock.

"Silver Storm."

"What?" She sounded genuinely disappointed by what was just a suggestion.

"It's my name." He clarified.

"But you're Steel Wing."

"For many years I have been. Many years before, my parents had children, twins; a foal and a colt. The foal was Snow Storm, the colt Silver Storm."

To Corona, his explanation was as unnecessarily long as it was boring.

"Wow you're parents really liked alliterations didn't they?" She said, acting as though she'd missed the point entirely.

"I guess they did." Steel Wing said, pretending to have realized a great truth.

He was being a smart ass, even though Corona had advised against it. He knew, Corona had noticed, and at this point in time he didn't intend to stop. Corona had no plans to call him on it either.

"I guess we can use your real name now." She said, sinking down slightly. "It's just sort of a boring name is all."

"You want to use another name?" Steel Wing offered, rolling his eyes.

"Steel Wing, Silver Storm, Nightmare incarnate..." Corona scratched her head in thought. Steel Wing was forced to remember just how gentle a touch she could use with razors permanently attached to her hands.

"How about just 'Shadow'?" Steel Wing suggested.

"You like that one." Corona gave him a quizzical look. "It's simple, I guess. Or how about I just keep calling you Steel Wing, that sound good?"

"Sure does." He looked her over and suddenly realized just how tired she was. Ever couple minutes she was sinking farther and farther towards the ground. Before long she would be laying in the dirt.

"Maybe you should go and get some sleep?" He recommended, pointing a hoof back towards the camp sight. He'd crashed just before a fight and had been sleeping all day. Corona managed to get a few short rests in on their trip, but had been on edge the entire time. He'd either been kept awake by magic, or napping over the last few days.

"Nightmare?" Steel Wing said aloud.

Corona raised an brow at him.

Yes? Her voice came clearly in response.

"Is there a way I, you, or we can protect the camp until morning?"

You mean a spell that can guard you all and allow the camp to sleep soundly?

"in as many words, yes."

Then yes, there is.

"Yeah, whatever." Corona said, quickly losing interest in tracking half of a conversation. She took off to find a place to lie down.

Inform those in your care of your intent then.

Steel Wing did as the Nightmare instructed. With nothing to go on as far as the actual spell was concerned, he simply told Fairbreeze that everyone would be safe until morning light.

Fairbreeze wasn't at all convinced so Steel Wing, unbeknownst to anyone else, requested a secondary spell from the Nightmare.

Once Steel Wing walked the entire outer perimeter of the camp he sat in the center next to the fire. The Nightmare assured him that there would be nothing to worry about, and that the pressure in his horn would soon be relieved.

A humming noise, accompanied the dark glow suddenly pouring from the length of bone atop Steel Wing's head. Black tendrils sprouted from the tip, each instantly fell to the ground and began to snake its way towards the perimeter Steel Wing had walked. Several shouts went up as the ethereal snakes wrapped around metal clad legs, only to move on still seeking their destination. One tendril fell to the grey-purple alicorn's side jumping into the fire and devouring it completely; quickly thereafter a deep purple flame came to life creating a soft and warming glow.

The tendrils were soon at rest in a circle surrounding the camp. The farthest most of the Steel Rangers watching the wasteland was still inside the circle. Once it was complete, the humming doubled in volume to the level of an average conversation; a wall grew from the ring rounding into a dome that eventually closed completely. Now all within were subject to the secondary spell, the fire.

The most exhausted were the first to lie down falling asleep as the darklight pyre radiated not fire, but magical soothing currents that gently caressed those who tried to resist with the temptation of rest.

Fairbreeze began stumbling towards Steel Wing to protest whatever tricks he was up to, he hadn't taken four steps when he stopped walking completely, laid down and curled up to sleep. Steel Wing was slightly amused to watch the Steel Ranger paladin fail to walk a distance of a few feet before going to sleep. With sleep closing in on him quickly, Fairbreeze decided that the crazy grey-purple alicorn probably knew what he was doing.

In less than a minute every pony, hellhound, and griffon was out; Steel Wing was left alone in the quiet until dawn. Unknown to Steel Wing, the spell provided by the Nightmare induced a shared ream; something that without direction would bring up a dream from the users past.
----

In the morning all the spells began to fail one after the other in rapid succession. Cloud bedding for two fillies floated to the gently placing them on the ground before dissipating. The barrier retracted letting in the partially filtered light of the early morning sun..

Steel Wing stared at the fire. He'd lost himself in it for the hours he was alone, when the sunlight touched and destroyed it he was broken from his trance. The dying hiss of the magical fire roused the camp from their very awkward sleep, but restful sleep. The camp was silent. During breakfast knowing, looks and gestures were passed around the camp; they'd all seen the same dream. The Steel Rangers agreed that after breakfast, someone needed to tell Steel Wing what they'd all seen.

Fairbreeze would have been the one to yell at Steel Wing but he felt too good to be in a bad mood. All the stress of the past few days seemed to have simply evaporated. Aside from the strange and likely private dream he'd had, he almost felt like thanking the oddity known as Steel Wing. "Almost."

Corona did have a few comments to make, and was certainly bold enough to do so.

Sitting down next to Steel Wing she said, "I don't know if I can actually find enough mares for you."

Steel Wing gave her a bewildered look.

"I figured three maybe four for a stallion like you," She continued to speak through chunk of meat she'd gotten from the hellhouds, "but your sister just keeps going doesn't she?"

Steel Wing choked on a mouthful of imitation brand Sugar-Apple Bites.

He swallowed hard and asked, "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Steel Wing was suddenly aware of how quiet the camp was, it was as if Corona was the voice of everyone else.

"Well I had- We had a dream where at one point you said 'It's tomorrow.' The clock floating around next to you said it was seven A.M.. When she asked how you knew you said 'It was seven when we started.' So yeah." Corona brought up every detail she cared to mention, loudly enough for all to hear.

Steel Wing turned several shades paler; he remembered that. Not just from the dream he'd had a day earlier, but from when it had happened; minus the part about being in an empty Mexicolt City.

Corona saw the look of horror in his face and began to laugh. Loudly.

For the first time in over three years Steel Wing felt truly embarrassed; the kind of embarrassment that was so strong it felt like a near fatal affliction.

"I think I'm going to stand over there for a while." Steel Wing said, before wandering away from the laughing griffon.
----

Some time later Steel Wing wandered back into camp, avoiding all eye contact as he went. He didn't know where he was going, and he didn't particularly care. The entire camp had witnessed one of his most intimate moments; while he didn't care much for the opinion's of Steel Rangers, he still had to work with them for a while.

"Good morning." Autumn Heart said, getting Steel Wing's attention just before he ran into her.

"Hi." Steel Wing said to the ground.

"Something wrong?" Autumn Heart could guess.

"This is by far the worst thing to happen since I came to Mexicolt."

"The dream right?"

"Yeah." Steel Wing sighed, "I don't know why it bothers me so much, I've done well not caring what anyone thinks of me, but now they know about me and my sister and it's driving me crazy."

"They don't know she's your sister yet. It didn't come up in the dream. Her name did several times, or maybe a lot; but she remains the mare you love and nothing else as far as they're concerned."

"That is actually really comforting I guess." Steel Wing perked up visibly.

"The way I see it, you can either talk about it so they have nothing to judge you about except your honesty; or you can ignore it and hope it goes away." Autumn Heart held her hooves up to illustrate weighing the options provided.

"You have sex with your sister?" A red filly asked weakly.

"Red Berry, what are you doing up?" Autumn Heart leapt to the door of the wagon turned recovery room to block her patient from exiting.

Fairbreeze heard the mention of his daughter's name and was around the wagon in an instant ready to be a father as soon as he arrived. He nearly ran over Autumn Heart, coming to a sliding halt just short of hitting her.

"What's wrong?" He demanded.

"Nothing other than she's standing. This is the same patient I had to give painkillers to so she could sleep." Autumn Heart both informed and complained.

"Berr-berr you should know better than to disobey your doctor." Fairbreeze accidentally addressed his daughter as his daughter, instead of his subordinate.

"Dad!" She complained.

"Yes Berr-be- Initiate?" He cleared his throat loudly and resisted the urge to facehoof.

"I feel fine." Red Berry announced once her father corrected himself.

She sat back on her haunches to expose her underside. Healing potions clearly only went so far. Her entire underside was hairless, pink-red flesh with several lines where there scars once were.

"Watch!" The red filly commanded with childlike insistence. She slapped her belly with one hoof, and immediately bit down on her other hoof as her eyes began to tear up.

"You alright?" Steel Wing asked with a smirk. He could feel the death glare from behind Fairbreeze's visor.

After several deep breaths Red Berry nodded and said, "It's still really sore is all."

"But you're okay otherwise?" Autumn Heart asked in disbelief.

"Yeah!" Red Berry said happily, "I couldn't even move a leg without crying. I can walk now. I haven't felt this good since before I started training."

"I don't know what you did Steel Wing," Autumn Heart said with wonderment, "but you sure did it."

Steel Wing smiled sheepishly in response to her praise.

"I think I have some salve for the soreness. In you go; I want to check on my other patients." Autumn Heart ushered her patient in with several forceful nudges.

Once Autumn Heart was back inside Red Berry came back to sit in the doorway. "Was that your sis-"

"Yes she was." Steel Wing interrupted, jerking his head in Fairbreeze's direction.

"Wow." Red Berry said, "She's really lucky."

"You had that dream too?" Fairbreeze said, before turning towards Steel Wing. "I feel great, but next time I say not to use magic on me or my subordinates, you damn well better listen." He growled threateningly, turning and leaving as he spoke.

"That was a 'thank you.'" Red Berry whispered.

"Really? He seemed pretty pissed at me last night."

"He wasn't yelling at you; trust me, he wasn't mad. Last night he may have thought I was still dying. Today he's likely just glad to have a helmet. I'd be willing to bet he was crying."

"I'm happy you're okay too."

"Steel Wing you magnificent stallion; you're a miracle worker!" Autumn Heart cried from inside the wagon.

"What, what I'm awake!" A stallion hollered in response.

After a brief moment of silence the same stallion shouted, "I feel great! It doesn't hurt anymore!"

"Is there anything you can't do?" Red Berry marveled.

"I can't have a good thing that won't eventually blow up in my face." Steel Wing said offhandedly.

"How could this-" The foolish filly began much to Steel Wing's horror.

"No! You do not finish a question that begins with, 'How could it possibly...' or "It can't get any...' You just don't." He was clearly joking, but used a firm tone.

"Really though, in the two days I've known you you've: gained the faith of my father; succeeded in keeping one of the wasteland's greatest weapons stockpiles out of the hooves of those who would misuse them; and being born a pegasus, healed several ponies with near fatal injuries. You, Steel Wing, are a walking miracle; just like Autumn Heart was saying."

"So that's what I am." Steel Wing said, glad to have a word to put to his recent accomplishments.

"Thanks." He summed up his feelings in one word.

They both looked at the ground. Red Berry broke the awkward silence with a forced yawn.

"I should probably find out when we're going to move." Steel Wing said, noticing that the sun was beginning to disappear above the clouds.

Steel Wing went to find Paladin Fairbreeze; and was pleasantly surprised to find that he'd been getting on the rest of the camp about moving out. He approached Fairbreeze slowly, unsure as to whether or not they were on good terms yet.

Between Fairbreeze's shouted commands Steel Wing cleared his throat loudly to grab his attention, "About everything that's happened, I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize, we're about even the way I see it." Fairebreeze said gruffly.

"We are?" Steel Wing didn't remember having come very close to death for any Steel Rangers.

"Just about." Fairebreeze said, there was a hint of sadness in his tone. "I'd call it close enough at least."

"If you say so." Steel Wing had missed the shift in tone, and was happy to be even with one of the few Steel Rangers he'd ever respected.

"Sir, the camp is packed up." A Steel Ranger announced coming to a sliding halt before them.

"Good, start getting the strongest harnessed up we're moving in five minutes." Fairbreeze was relieved for a change of subject.

"I'll pull the lead wagon." Steel Wing volunteered in a manner much similar to a command.

"By yourself?" Fairbreeze said skeptically. "It takes several ponies in strength enhancing power armor to move one, and you think you can get one by yourself without slowing us down."

"I'm feeling especially energetic." Steel Wing retorted, moving towards the wagon he assumed to be the lead.

Steel Wing began to slip into the harness with some difficulty; Corona landed next to him and said, "Need a hand?" Holding up her one usable hand and grinning.

"Maybe a little bit." Steel Wing shrugged, undoing some of his progress.

Corona snicked as she began to help him into the harness.

"You know the entire camp is talking about that dream last night, right?" She asked once the harness was secure.

"I'm trying not to think about it too much." Steel Wing grumbled, having nearly forgotten it all together.

"I heard some of the mares around talking about how lucky the mare of your dreams was. They're all asking if she's real or one of your fantasy fillies."

"She's real, but I don't know why we were in Mexicolt City." Steel Wing pondered pulling gently against his bonds.

"So that was her, your sister?" Corona asked carefully, not wanting to set him off again.

"Yeah, she's something isn't she?" Steel Wing said wistfully. "I suppose in some ways it's a good thing that she hasn't been around, at least for my sake. If she'd been here when Trapmaw tore my wing to shreds, she would have tied me down somewhere and forbade me from ever moving again."

They both smiled at the though.

"Autumn Heart and that surgeon were bad enough as it was." Corona added. "So what was it like being shot in the head?" Corona asked showcasing her amazingly short attention span.

Steel Wing gave her a strange look before answering, accepting that she would ask again if he didn't, "It was the single most painful experience of my life, aside from crashing into the ground from above the cloud curtain. After a while it didn't hurt though, I just thought about how nice it would be to die, and that helped me ignore the large amounts of pain."

"Huh, so I suppose nobody can use the phrase 'splitting headache' around you anymore then?" Corona laughed very loudly at her own joke.

"I hate you." Steel Wing complained, "In the best way possible of course." He added with a smile.

"I hate you too." Corona agreed. "Oh and sorry about getting you excited like that in front of the entire camp."

"No you aren't you think it's hilarious." Steel Wing bit back; slightly annoyed that she'd brought up something else he'd almost managed to forget.

"Just because I'm going to laugh about it doesn't make it alright by me." Corona said defensively, "I really am sorry despite how funny it is or isn't."

"Then I accept your apology; just don't touch me like that again." He warned, pulling slightly harder against the harness.

"Is it just you pulling this?" Corona asked, realizing she'd only harnessed one pony.

"Yeah, so?" Steel Wing took on a "too cool for help" tone flexing his muscles and stretching unnecessarily.

"You know it takes a team of-"

"Ponies in power armor, yeah. Fairbreeze already informed me." Steel Wing interrupted , giving her a look of confidence.

I don't think it is wise to do this alone. The Nightmare cautioned, her voice incredibly distant.

"Hmmm..." Steel Wing intoned, his confidence shaken slightly .

"Hmmm...?" Corona mimicked.

"The Nightmare says it might not work out. Then again, when was the last time she had a physical body?"

It has been some time. The Nightmare admitted her voice fading in and out. It has been said before, that pushing ones body beyond its limit can strengthen it.

"I don't know my limits anymore." Steel Wing said, grinning from ear to ear.

"Show me." Corona said, "Take this wagon to, that rock," She pointed to a rock fifty yards off, "and I won't ever threaten to take you to Mexicolt City to get laid ever again."

"Oh I am so in." Steel Wing said, genuinely excited.

"If you can't, you go to Mexicolt City, no complaints and five at a time."

"Ugh," Steel Wing protested, letting his tongue hang out for emphasis, "Three at a time maximum." He smiled again. Of course he was joking, there wasn't a chance in hell he was losing this.

"Whenever you're ready, stud."

Steel Wing took a step forward without any further prompting. All he managed was to strain against his harness. He pulled and pulled, and eventually had to return to his resting position to do; nothing, nothing at all. He expected to be out of breath, but he wasn't. Sweat ran down his face and he felt hot, but his breathing hadn't grown any more rapid, nor was his heart pounding in his chest.

"I thought so." Corona taunted.

"Oh I'm not done yet." Steel Wing said with a grin. If he wasn't going to get tired, the wagon was going to move.

Again he strained against the harness, pulling with all his considerable strength until he felt the wagon begin to budge. His hoof finally made contact with the ground signifying that he had moved the cart some; he needed momentum so he pulled again until his next hoof came down. The wagon was now inching forward as he repeated the process, slowly gaining speed. Before long he was at a slow walk with Corona gliding next to him. He had his eyes fixed on the rock and nothing else so he missed Corona's look of ultimate satisfaction. Steel Wing heard shouting from the camp behind him, but he was too focused on the rock ahead. He continued gaining speed, his destination growing closer. Finally Steel Wing arrived; he braked with his hooves still managing to over shoot his goal.

As he skidded to a halt Corona burst out laughing, "You loser! I can't believe you fell for that."

"Fell for what?" Steel Wing was certain he'd won this bet.

Fairbreeze galloped up to his side, "You're going the wrong way buckhead."

"What?" Steel Wing said, his ears folding back.

"We're headed that way." Fairbreeze pointed behind Steel Wing slightly to the left.

Steel Wing looked at Corona with hate filled eyes before letting out a yell that would make a dragon jealous. He noticed a small arrow at the top of his vision pointing the same way Fairbreeze had.

Steel Wing held up the foreleg he'd attached the Pip-buck to. "Fuck. You."

"Problem?" Corona asked, grinning.

"I'm not talking to you right now" Steel Wing turned his head away.

Corona shrugged and chose to settle down atop his wagon.

"Having troubles?" Autumn Heart came around to Steel Wing's left side and began to slip into a harness.

"The bird tricked me." Steel Wing said defensively.

"That isn't surprising." Autumn Heart giggled softly. "You want some help now?"

"Yeah." Steel Wing shot Corona another dirty look; he did a double take to let her know he was nowhere near done.

"It's been a fun morning hasn't it?" Corona said out of the blue. "The whole camp got to watch one of your wet dreams, and you fell for an obvious trick."

Steel Wing grumbled an insult, and did nothing else as he waited for Autumn Heart to finish getting hitched up to the wagon; he was done fighting for one morning. Once Autumn Heart was comfortably in her harness, they began to pull the wagon back towards the waiting camp. Steel Wing was surprised by how much easier it was with just one other pony; he'd always assumed Autumn Heart was a strong mare, but wouldn't ever have guessed she could pull so much weight.

As they came back to what was once a camp sight Paladin Fairbreeze approached saying, "Are we done making an ass of ourselves this morning?"

Steel Wing nodded without saying a word.

"Good." Fairbreeze said, trusting that Steel Wing wasn't lying. "Let's move then. At a good pace we should be back to that cave of yours in an hour."

"How do you know where the cave even is?" Steel Wing asked, for the sake of asking.

"Pip-buck navigation, isn't that where yours is set?"

The caravan began to move as they continued their conversation.

"I honestly hate this thing. Stable-Tec stuff and me don't go well together." Steel Wing managed to manipulate the loadout in his vision to find where his navigation tag was set.

'Return to Cave' had been moved to secondary objective in favor of, 'Make contact with Snow Storm'

"Snow?" Steel Wing said breathlessly stopping mid gait. The wagon kept moving and rear ended Steel Wing causing him to lurch forward. Autumn Heart let out a small shout of surprise as she was suddenly straining against the wagon's weight; only in another instant to be hit by it.

"Everything alright?" Autumn Heart mumbled, rubbing her sore hind end.

"Yeah," Steel Wing replied distantly, "I just got dizzy again. Damn this- Snow Storm." He whispered his sister's name.

"I don't think it's ever snowed in Mexicolt,." Corona put in from her perch on the wagon. The sudden halt had nearly sent her over the edge.

"Yeah." Steel Wing said in the same distant tone. He switched the two objectives around, imagining it would allow him to forget that his sister's location was now available to him.

Autumn Heart didn't know whether or not she should be worried by his behavior. It was clear his thoughts were elsewhere, but he was still willing to talk, which she took as a good sign. When he began to pull against the wagon she took the hint and decided to drop her worries for now.
----

They caravan made it to the cave in a little less than an hour. The remainder of the trip was spent in relative silence; save for the giggles coming from the passenger wagon. Peaches and Flash Fire had opted to spend the rest ot the trip cuddling in the wagon. Because of last night's events the passenger wagon was now free of injured Steel Rangers. No one was going to deny them a little extra alone time after what they'd been through. Corona was snickering at every little peep they made; the child like griffon was under the impression she knew exactly what the two fillies were up to. The others present were of the same mind, but chose to pretend they could't hear the sounds coming from the wagon.

Once they arrived at the cave containing an half finished stable the pulling teams stretched out, and began to chat while Autumn Heart went to check on the condition of the ex-slaves.

An audible snap of magic sounded a few minutes after Autumn Heart disappeared into the cave. Two flustered unicorn mares appeared next to the passenger wagon and barged in without any clue as to what was going on inside. Shouts of protest and surprise came from Flash Fire and Peaches. Screams of horror came from the academy mares, when they saw Flash Fire's broken horn. Autumn Heart had told them, and they were going to tell their headmistress. Steel Wing would have even caught on to this if his mind weren't still stuck on the fact that he now had a way to find his sister. For all the trouble the Pip-buck had caused him, it had redeemed itself in an instant with its amazing ability to find anything anywhere; without any explanation to boot.

A message was sent via magic directly to Astra back at the academy. Seconds later a peal of thunder told of the use of a long range teleportation spell. Steel Wing was partially aware of the teleportation, but what brought him back to the present was a low thrumming sound.

"Astra?" Steel Wing asked, not realizing how right he was.

Astra poked an unaware Steel Wing with a magically charged hoof, sending him skidding across the ground.

"You!" The enraged unicorn shouted.

"Me?" Steel Wing was up in an instant ready to do battle. His apparent opponent threw his mind out of sync with his battle ready body. He barely stopped himself from charging. "You!" He shouted defensively, "What was that for?"

"I do you a favor, I let some of my students go with you voluntarily, and you return one of them to me broken!?" The old mare's body was trembling with fury. "You should consider yourself lucky that I've already decided not to kill you."

"I-" Steel Wing intended to say he was sorry, but he had this coming. He decided to let her continue as long as she would, but was surprised to see Flash Fire running out of the wagon to intercede on his behalf.

"Mistress Astra, please don't be angry; also don't hurt him he may be able to help me." She stood just outside of Astra's violent magical aura between her headmistress and the stallion who'd saved her the previous night.

"He- What?" Astra's rage was forgotten for an instant, at the notion that a non magical pony could fix a broken horn.

"Y-yeah," Steel Wing stuttered at first, "The Nightmare said she might-"

"No, absolutely not. No." Astra asserted.

"No?" Steel Wing asked in shock.

"Correct. I'd forgotten that issue, and as much as it pains me to decline help with this problem; I will not allow such magic to touch my students. If there is any sort of magical therapy that can fix this I will find it through research, not by some ancient entity's power."

Astra took several deep breaths to calm herself down, clenching her eyes shut for a moment. When she opened them her expression softened to something akin to a concerned mother's gaze. She inspected the broken horn and jagged scar.

"I let this happen, I shouldn't have let you go." Astra pulled Flash Fire into a hug.

Peaches felt a very slight twinge of protective jealousy upon seeing her lover in the arms of another. She shook the thought from her head as she approached.

"Miss Astra, if I may?" Peaches asked softly.

Astra nodded, and released Flash Fire.

"Last night, Steel Wing saved Flash Fire from being raped and killed by raiders. She wouldn't tell me everything that happened, but she seemed sure that there was something to the idea that the Nightmare could help. I tried to talk her out of it too, but she wants to try anything and everything." Flash Fire came to stand next to Peaches as she continued. "I both have to and want to support her in this decision, even if you won't."

Steel Wing cringed for the both of them, he'd once backed up a fellow soldier during training over what now seemed to him a trivial issue. They'd both been forced to hover for a full twenty-four hours. He made it, but the other pegasus had dropped part way through and his time was reset.

Astra was however, much more understanding than any of his commanding officers ever were. "I do not trust magic from a source I cannot see, but if you are so sure, I will not stop you from trying."

Steel Wing saw Astra's horn flash, but no one else seemed to. Astra moved past Flash Fire and Peaches and walked straight towards Steel Wing.

"Were it not for them I would banish you to a realm where the sound of glass breaking is constant. If you're getting their hopes up just to let them down, know that such a place does in fact exist."

Once she'd finished her horn flashed again and all was right. Save for Steel Wing who's distrust and paranoia of unicorns had resurfaced as soon as Astra had sent him end over end across the ground.

"Very well." Astra said, addressing the two fillies before her. "When all is said and done, you will still have a home at the academy. For now I should go."

"Wait!" Steel Wing said, unsure as to why.

"Yes?" Astra hissed.

"Uh... Never mind." Steel Wing was slightly confused by his small outburst.

Find home for ex-slaves. Came up in his vision.

"Wait!" He shouted again, breaking the now annoyed unicorns concentration.

"What!" Astra shouted, giving up on keeping her calm.

I was wanting to ask-" Steel Wing paused to find the best way to put into words what he wanted, "you for a favor."

Everyone present regretted his choice of words.

That was the absolute wrong thing to say. What were you thinking!? Steel Wing was screaming inside his head.

"I may be able to assist you." Astra said politely. As she did Steel Wing was sure he heard the faint sound of glass breaking.

Again Astra approached him, walking straight past the ponies in front of her.

"How dare you ask me for more favors! What, do you need more of my students for a suicide attack on Tennpony Tower?" Astra was beyond furious, the most unsettling part was she still wore the calm expression of her physical body while she berated Steel Wing.

"No, it's the slaves, er- Ex-slaves. They need a place to call home for a while, and I think Skyfall would be the perfect place for them. We just don't have enough food and water to get them all there on hoof; we'd lose so many during the trip. Can you at least help them, instead of me?" Steel Wing pleaded, hoping she would have more compassion for them than she had animosity towards him.

"H-how many?" Astra stuttered letting go of her anger for a moment.

"At least a couple hundred, maybe more?" He said tentatively, fearing that was far beyond his right to ask.

"Likely over two hundred living entities over a distance that would take such a group days to travel," Astra began to calculate while nearly snout to snout with Steel Wing. "Five capable unicorns and myself should be able to achieve such a thing safely."

As she did her calculations her body began to flicker like a disrupted projection.

"I'm doing this for them, not you." She declared before her second form vanished completely as the world began to move again.

"Doesn't that make you tired?" Steel Wing asked, getting a strange look from everyone.

"Does what make who tired?" Astra hissed as a warning. While all eyes were on Steel Wing she shook her head feverishly.

"Oh! I meant, uh-" Steel Wing thought carefully before finishing his thought this time, "Unless that would be too tiring for you." He finished, remembering the second to last question he'd asked.

"I see," Astra nodded approvingly, "the answer to your question is no. I would have the help of at least five other unicorns doing something like that by myself would likely kill me."

Beads of sweat had in fact, as Steel Wing noticed, collected on Astra's brow once she'd finished her last spell.

"Are you saying you will?" Steel Wing pressed, wanting all to hear her say yes.

"I will see what I can do. While you are still welcome to the academy anytime, know that I am very done giving you favors after this." She let out a sigh of frustration, "I'll return to the academy and see if there any volunteers to take on this task. I will return shortly."

As soon as she finished speaking, a flash accompanied by a poof signaled her magical exit. Steel Wing knew for a fact that she hadn't made it back to the academy in one spell; she was far too tired to do so.

"How the hell." Steel Wing muttered, once again bewildered by his ability to know things he rightfully shouldn't.

Corona was the next thing to move out of the entire group that'd witnessed the standoff and shouting match between Steel Wing and Astra.

"So," She whispered, grabbing Steel Wing's attention very effectively. "last night, while you were chasing Flash Fire; Fairbreeze sent one of his soldiers off somewhere. I've been watching the entire trip and there is another dozen or so Steel Rangers headed here."

"What?" Steel Wing said flatly.

"I think he was pissed at you for an entire day, you know his daughter and all, and so he decided to follow his orders over helping you anymore than he needed to. I'm fairly sure they plan to take all the weapons." Corona concluded, taking a few steps back to let Steel Wing look her in the eyes. It was clear from her expression that this was the farthest thing from a joke.

Steel Wing marveled for a brief moment the amount of thought Corona put into her concerns.

"Like hell." He growled, remembering his loathing of most Steel Rangers.

Corona said they'd have about ten minutes before the new Steel Rangers arrived. He wasted no time in seeking out Paladin Fairbreeze after hearing this; and as much as it pained him to admit it, his new friend was about to be another of his enemies.

"Fairbreeze, we need to talk." He announced to Fairbreeze as well as a handful of Steel Rangers gathered around the addressed pony.

"Something I can help you with?" Fairbreeze said matching Steel Wing's demanding tone, with his own gruff, commanding voice.

"You're short a member of your team I noticed." Steel Wing lied through his teeth. Corona had, he hadn't; Fairbreeze didn't know that.

"How did you-" Fairbreeze started before correcting himself, "What if I am?"

"There weren't any loses last night, so I was just wondering where you'd placed your missing soldier." Steel Wing stopped moving towards Fairbreeze a few yards from where the hardened Steel Ranger stood his ground.

Fairbreeze was not the type to continue a cloak and dagger charade when he'd been caught. "I respect you, Steel Wing, but I had my orders. I sent my fastest scout to a nearby outpost to retrieve more Steel Rangers in order to move this equipment once we'd reached our destination."

Steel Wing was taken aback by the straightforwardness of the answer.

"So- So you'd planned to stab me in the back anyways?" Steel Wing tried to continue being the victim. Fairbreeze quickly put an end to that.

"We had a common goal at Armory, and I was willing to share the burden such a goal entailed up to a point. Once the immediate threat of raiders getting hold of these weapons was gone I was still a Steel Ranger, and you were a commoner.

Above all else Steel Wing hated the names the Steel Rangers had come up with to describe anything they viewed as less than them.

"Say that again." Steel Wing hissed.

"I would recommend you look around you, and think about what you're doing." Fairbreeze didn't immediately take the challenge.

"No just say it again, I don't think I heard you right." Steel Wing had already made up his mind. A rare occurrence given his ample training, and formal lessons on maintaining a level head in hostile situations.

Fairbreeze sighed sorrowfully, cleared his throat and said, "I was still a Steel Ranger and you were a commoner."

"Turns out," Steel Wing said with a chuckle, "I did hear you right."

In one quick stride, Steel Wing was upon Fairbreeze. His wings flew open pushing the gathered Steel Rangers away, singling out Fairbreeze.

Both activated SATS nearly similtaneously. Steel Wing did it simply because he realized Fairbreeze would.

Fairbreeze considered putting armor piercing rounds into Steel Wing's exposed underside. What he realized both shocked and enticed him. SATS, having been activated by both caused all hit calculations to display as question marks. As regrettable as this situation was for both he and Steel Wing, they both realized it was going to be a very enjoyable fight.

Fairbreeze dropped SATS and rammed headfirst into Steel Wing, bowling over the pegasus with ease. Steel Wing took in a quick breath and planted his hind hooves into the armored ponies underside, knocking Fairbreeze off his hooves.

Dents were left, quickly repaired, and both ponies were back on their hooves in seconds. What Fairbreeze lacked in size, compared to his opponent, his armor more than made up for in protection and strength augmentation. They charged each other again both rearing up trying to knock the other back to the ground.

Much to Steel Wing's dismay, the three years he'd spent on the surface hadn't revealed all of the Wastelander's fighting techniques to him. Fairbreeze locked his forelegs around Steel Wing's neck fell back brought his hind legs up and planted them straight into Steel Wing's belly throwing him into the air, only to come crashing down the next second. Fairbreeze wasted no time in recovering while Steel Wing tried to catch his breath.

By the time Steel Wing recovered, Fairbreeze had a hoof firmly on his neck, pressing his considerable weight down on Steel Wing's windpipe.

Steel Wing struggled for a moment, before relaxing. He was pinned, and squirming like a tickled foal wasn't going to change that.

"Give up?" Fairbreeze asked, relieving just enough pressure to allow Steel Wing to admit defeat.

"Good move." Steel Wing grinned, "Mines better."

Before Fairbreeze could react, Steel Wing flex his wing inward gouging a long tear through the paladin's armor. Crimson stained grey steel and brown earth.

Fairbreeze staggered back freeing Steel Wing to get back up.

Steel Wing rubbed his throat as he turned around to face his injured opponent, "You know Fairbreeze I-"

Steel Wing was cut off after being bucked directly in the face, by Fairbreeze. Steel Wing sprawling backwards, coming to rest in a heap a good distance away from where he'd just been.

With enough distance between them, Fairbreeze exposed the place where there'd just been a jagged cut in his armor. "Auto-injection and repair systems. That was a sting, you'll have to do better."

Steel Wing tried to focus on the words coming from his opponent, who was vaguely visible in three places. He rocked back and forth as several waves of nausea hit him. He admired the strength of the hit he'd just taken, and the teeth it had loosened or knocked out.

As soon as the close quarters combat was broken up, all of the Steel Ranger's guns were trained on Steel Wing. They awaited a single command and he would be more or less vaporized.

"Stand down." An unfamiliar, but clearly amplified voice barked.

The cavalry had arrived, not one Steel Wing would have ever wanted to see; one which Fairbreeze was also slightly disappointed to see so early into the fight.

"What's going on here, and why hasn't this wastelander been dealt with yet?" The same, unnamed voice demanded.

"Watch your tone boy, I am Paladin Fairbreeze, and I outrank you." Fairbreeze's voice was even and confident.

The uppity Steel Ranger shrank back into the group of new arrivals.

"Sorry." The outranked Steel Ranger said, having made double sure that his voice amplifier was off.

Fairbreeze just stared at his subordinate a while.

"Sir." Fairbreeze corrected.

"Sorry, sir." The Steel Ranger looked at the ground.

Corona landed next to Steel Wing, causing half of the weapons trained on him to lock on to her instead.

"And I'm fairly sure he outranks you!" Fairbreeze barked at the rest of his still primed team, "He gave you an order didn't he?"

One by one all of the Steel Ranger's weapons systems powered down.

"You know," Corona said quietly, "You could have said something about trying to get yourself killed." Didn't you learn anything from Flash Fire?"

"That was different." Steel Wing said just now coming out of his daze. Now he could feel the sting of a fractured jaw and taste the blood that dripped from his mouth. As well as the swollen, bruised eye.

"Different how?" Corona asked mockingly while fishing around in Steel Wing's pack for a healing potion. Once she found when she pressed it to his lips forcefully, causing him to flinch.

"Ow!" Steel Wing protested.

"Remember that pain the next time you think about doing stupid shit like that." Corona chastised.

"Yeah, I think I will." Steel Wing said sincerely.

Before the healing potion could take full effect, Steel Wing spit several times to make sure no partially loosened teeth would cause him problems when new ones grew in. He counted seven lost teeth in total.

"It was a good hit." He confessed to Corona.

"Yep." Corona agreed, eyeing the waiting Steel Rangers warily.

"I suppose that was probably going to happen sooner or later wasn't it? You being you, you would've taken on all of them just to try and keep them from getting ahold of all those weapons." She laughed at a funny thought before voicing it, "And I would have helped you if my arm was ready to go."

"That does mean something to me, thanks." Steel Wing mumbled, as his jaw was repaired by healing magic.

"They're talking over there aren't they?" Corona said, suddenly aware that their new enemies were discussing something inaudibly from where they sat.

"Probably deciding whether to execute me or just take the wagons and go."

"If I were them I'd just execute you." Corona said matter-of-factly. "If Fairbreeze has you figured out at all he'd know you would just follow them and try to take back what you could."

"Since when did you start mentally evaluating others so thoroughly?" Steel Wing said, partly out of exasperation at seeing this new side of Corona suddenly come out so strong, and partly out of genuine curiosity.

"Dunno," She shrugged, wincing as mild pain shot through her wounded arm. "When I can't actually get into fights I guess I look for reasons why others want to fight. From there I think about fighting and then I start to get a little excited when a fight starts, and then I'm really into it' from there it's sort of like se-" Steel Wing cut her off before she went any farther.

"Okay I think I get the picture, if I don't I'll ask again later." Steel Wing tried to mentally convince himself that the word he'd interrupted was, "self-awareness" which wasn't working in the slightest.

Five pops suddenly echoed in the tense silence, followed by five new arrivals to the scene. Steel Ranger weapons were instantly ready for action again. Most were those of the most recent Steel Rangers to show up, those who hadn't been somewhat expecting unicorns to materialize out of nowhere. A sixth somewhat louder pop, and Astra appeared among the other academy mares.

One of the unicorns poked Astra's shoulder and pointed out the weapons lined up to fire at any second.

"What is the meaning of this!" Astra demanded, grabbing Fairbreeze's attention; instantly redirecting it towards the Steel Rangers who hadn't gotten the message about the fighting being over.

Each of the Steel Rangers whose weapons were primed was acutely aware that someone with authority over them was currently glaring at them.

Fairbreeze cleared his throat loudly, and went back to his discussion. Everyone took the hint and went back to standing and waiting for orders.

"I did ask a question didn't I?" Astra came over to the lonely looking group composed of a griffon and a pegasus. Though she was slightly annoyed by the hostile "welcome back" she was honestly confused as to why no one was talking.

"There was a fight, which Steel Wing lost and now they're coming up with some sort of conditional surrender agreement. It'll probably boil down to, 'We take the wagons, you get to live.'"

"Why would you do a thing like that?" Astra said, addressing Steel Wing.

"I can't let the Steel Rangers take those wagons." Steel Wing gave a very unsatisfactory answer.

"Why don't you want them to have the wagons?" Astra pushed, rolling her eyes impatiently.

"The bombs, the guns, the tank. I don't trust the Steel Rangers with all of that, I never could." Steel Wing pleaded, now approaching an answer Astra wanted.

"I've always tried to ignore the Steel Rangers and their hoarding problem, perhaps you could try letting go?" Astra suggested, trying to console the loser of a battle in a losing war.

"They have bombs, balefire bombs; five of them. I can't just let something like that go. Do you have any idea what could happen if the chapter elder decided Mexicolt City was 'a little too uncivilized' or if they shipped those off to the north where a war has started!?" Steel Wing said loudly enough for most to hear.

"Balefire bombs?" One of the new Steel Rangers questioned.

"Yeah, five of them, and they're active."

"Five balefire bombs?" Astra asked, for more confirmation.

"Yes." Steel Wing said as plainly as he could.

"The rumors about armor were true. It was all there; shelves upon shelves of all sorts of weapons, mundane and magical alike. There was a megaspell testing chamber, and it had five balefire bombs in it. All of that is here and they plan to take it and store it away until they have a strong enough disagreement with someone or some thing." Steel Wing huffed as the gravity of what he was about to be forced to give up weighed upon his mind. His visibly sunk into himself, as he battled with his failure.

An idea suddenly came to him, "Astra, could you take these somewhere safe? Somewhere only you would know maybe?"

"What?" Corona, Paladin Fairbreeze, and Astra said in perfect unison.

"Look, it's one thing to help escaped slaves to a new home, but I hardly think I'd want academy to get mixed up in all of this." Astra said as she weighed the choices in her mind.

She wasn't particularly fond of the Steel Rangers or their policies. While at the same time she'd done some business with him; occasionally manufacturing magical energy weapons for them in exchange for other arcane components they were short on. She could hold that over their heads, but if they decided to take the weapons in spite of such a threat in order to force the academy to manufacture more weapons under threat of a balefire bomb attack. She tried to imagine what the "Astras" before her would have done, her mother in particular.

She set tired eyes on Steel Wing, who looked back at her hopefully.

"I could, I suppose find a safe place for them." She offered, her weariness coming out in her voice.

'You won't." Fairbreeze rebuked.

"Now hold on a second." Steel Wing said, jumping up suddenly. He was grinning from ear to ear, as the dumbest, and most likely to backfire idea came to him in waves.

He had something they didn't know about.

"Astra, could you provide me with a small flame, if it isn't too much trouble." He asked as politely as he could.

"Do you promise this will all be over soon." Astra asked, making no attempt to hide all of the enthusiasm she completely lacked.

Corona snickered, at a very likely immature joke she'd just thought of.

"If Fairbreeze is as smart, long term thinking reasonable pony as I think he is, then yes." Steel Wing said, without losing any of his partially forced excitement. Beneath his seemingly bubbly exterior he was nervous. He had one chance to get these weapons somewhere they couldn't be used and it was at best an half baked idea.

Astra silently cooperated and produced a small flame before Steel Wing.

"Mine were better." Flash Fire grumbled from the sidelines. Peaches softly bit her sour lovers ear to get her quiet.

Peaches as well as many spectators wished for popcorn to go along with this performance. Even some of the ex-slaves came had ventured out to investigate the yelling. All foals and colts were quickly rushed back inside when talk of balefire bombs started.

"Prototype-" Steel Wing began before he had the chance to finish speaking a rolled up piece of parchment floated in front of him.

He took it carefully in both hooves, as though it were a landmine, and held it a safe distance above the fire.

"I have here, in my hooves, the prototype of a Pip-buck recovered from one of the labs below the town of Armory." He announced to the crowd. "I was never good about archanotech compatibility, but if I'm not mistaken this prototype could advance the functionality of all Stable-tec devices it is used in conjunction with."

"What are you thinking, get that away from the fire!" One of the Steel Rangers, now "in attendance" to the "show" cried.

"Quiet!" Fairbreeze commanded. The world as a whole seemed to obey his command.

Astra was facing Steel Wing, away from most of the gathered crowd. Her eyes went wide as the boldness of Steel Wing's plan was revealed.

A small flash and Astra was looking Steel Wing with a panicked expression.

"If this doesn't work they may just shoot you." She pointed out.

"What is it you're doing right now?" Steel Wing asked, having half expected this.

"Astral projection." She said as if it should be obvious. "Right, you're an insane pegasus. I'm temporarily putting everything around me in stasis, then letting my non physical form create a bridge between it and yours so we can communicate without being overheard. It's the same sort of instinctual communication two ponies who've worked side by side for a long time develop, in that case it's non-magical and prone to misinterpretations." Her definition of astral projection was mostly missed by Steel Wing, but he got the gist of it.

"I see, yeah I probably will get shot before the day is over with. Thanks for going along with this." Steel Wing tried to show as much gratitude as he could, hoping that she wouldn't remember her promise not to do him any more favors.

"I said I wasn't doing you anymore favors didn't I?"

Damn. Steel Wing thought to himself.

"Yeah I thought so, I also heard that." Astra said.

She began to flicker again as she had before when the spell was becoming taxing on her.

"Get back to it then." She said before everything resumed its pace around them.

The tension was actually a tangible force, Steel Wing noted, as soon as the spell)s) had ended. It was gone for a moment and was back in full effect.

"So, what?" Fairbreeze began, "You give us that and we just leave?"

"Hey now, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. I give you the plans to that old world tech you so love to preserve. You can use it as a base to upgrade your power armor's functionality; AND-" He put as much emphasis on the word "and" as he could, "You take all those perfectly preserved suits of power armor with three weapons to go along with each."

"Or?" Fairbreeze pushed, secretly ready to agree to these terms if it meant not killing one of the few non Steel Rangers he respected.

"Or." Steel Wing continued Fairbreeze's sentence, "I burn this, you kill me, and we've both lost today."

Fairbreeze smiled beneath his visor, they'd been in a very similar situation to this just yesterday.

"What's it going to be?" Steel Wing pushed.

"I-," Fairbreeze looked the wagons over, "I, on behalf of the Mexicolt Steel Rangers, accept these terms; with the guarantee that these weapons won't fall into the hooves of the wasteland's scum."

"I assume that includes me and those like me?" Steel Wing poked.

"Damn right it does. I will trust Astra to the hiding of the weapons, and no one else." Fairbreeze asserted.

Steel Wing nodded in agreement and withdrew the prototype plans from over the flame.

At the mention of her name, Astra came out of her trance-like state, and saw that things had evidently been settled.

Steel Wing was overjoyed that his plan was successful. His heart still pounded in his chest with the knowledge that things could still go very wrong now.

"Unload the power armor and whatever weapons you are taking I'll leave the prototype plans with Astra; you can retrieve them when you're ready to leave." Steel Wing tried to keep an even tone so as not to let the pressure he was feeling show.

Fairbreeze nodded to the rest of the Steel Rangers, and they went off to unload the equipment. Fairbreeze himself approached Steel Wing slowly and calmly.

"If you haven't caught our chapters eye before, you certainly have now. Had this not happened I could have told my subordinates not to mention you to anyone else. I outrank the newcomers, but I do not command them; they will report to Star Paladin Breaker, and he will give his report to Elder Snaps. I wish this hadn't happened."

They both sighed heavily when Fairbreeze finished speaking.

"Sorry about holding your daughter hostage by the way." Steel Wing said with a grin.

"I'm not, and she isn't either; why are you?" Fairbreeze mocked.

"Why aren't you?" Steel Wing said, giving the armored stallion a sideways look.

"Because, after all this, I still respect you Steel Wing." Faibreeze bowed his head ever-so-slightly. "Next time we meet, I would appreciate it if you would show me enough respect to not hold back like you did today."

"I didn't want to kill you, what good would that have done?" Steel Wing hoped it was a jest of rivalry.

"One," Fairbreeze said, "I could have put enough holes in you to put a bombed out warzone to shame. And two, You wouldn't have to fight me later"

"Yeah." Steel Wing agreed sadly. "I hate wearing armor though."

Faibreeze looked himself over, "Don't we all."

Astra had wandered back to the group of unicorns she'd recently brought; all of which were in a huff over being held at gunpoint over someone else's petty squabbles.

Astra took some time to reassure them that all current disputes had been settled, and reluctantly informed them that they would have to return after transporting the ex-slaves, to move the wagons to the academy. She received weary groans at the mention of an extra task. Astra chastised them, and reminded the five mares that they were mares and not foals.

"Heh." Flash Fire intoned, getting some gratification from watching her teachers being forced to do work.

The area outside the cave was alive with busy ponies preparing for one trip or another.The ex-slaves were emerging from the half finished cave, having been asked very politely by Autumn Heart to do so. A almost complete, very large circle had been drawn in the dirt by magic, a short distance from the back and forth of many busy hooves. Once ponies began to come out of the cave they were directed to stand inside the circle without disrupting it. Aside from the foals and colts who needed to be constantly reminded it was a simple enough task. While some of the ex-slaves were apprehensive about being herded around, the consensus of the group was that they were just being guided that much closer to a real home.

Astra was already deep in a magical trance once the circle began to fill, and one by one the other unicorns joined her around the circle. The fifth unicorn waited patiently while the exodus from cave to circle continued. Her job was to close the circle to complete the spell.

Meanwhile, the Steel Rangers had loaded all the suits of power armor into what was once a injured transport wagon. It hadn't been part of the agreement exactly, but Steel Wing was not about to stop them.

"Alright, we're ready to go." Fairbreeze said, coming to stand once again, before Steel Wing.

"Right, and Astra has the plans." Steel Wing said, while he searched for the "aged" unicorn. "Uh-oh." He said once he spotted her.

"What?" Fairbreeze said threateningly.

"She's doing magic over there, and I don't know if we should actually interrupt her." In the back of Steel Wing's mind, that'd been an understatement. Astra was the unicorn holding most of the spell together; any slight disruption could have cataclysmic repercussions for all the other unicorns maintaining the spell as well as the ponies inside the circle.

It wasn't until he'd completed his thought that he realized he'd just voiced all of that; yet again there was no apparent source of the information.

Steel Wing had said to Fairbreeze much the same way Astra had told Steel Wing the basics of astral projection; very concise and matter-of-factly.

Steel Wing's explanation left no room for further questions as far as Paladin Fairbreeze was concerned, but it did raise some concerns.

"Well, that may, uh- That may be, but-" Fairbreeze had been fairly sure Steel Wing knew next to nothing about magic, and so was trying to wrap his head not around the words, but the fact that it came from a soldier pony like him. He also hadn't believed any creature short of a Canterlot ghoul could survive having most of it's head exploded; Steel Wing had proven him wrong there as well.

"Could you just send someone to pick it up in Skyfall?" Steel Wing suggested.

"I'm afraid that won't actually work." Fairbreeze looked back towards what could have very well been a statue of an old unicorn.

"Why not." Steel Wing laughed, "don't you trust me?"

"I do, but Elder Snaps wouldn't, actually I should say won't, never will." Fairbreeze sounded convinced of his own words, and so Steel Wing went along with it.

"He trusts you, right?" Steel Wing grinned his sly grin of brilliance.

Fairbreeze nodded.

"You trust me?"

A second nod.

"Then he should trust in your trust of me, as a pony. I may not be a Steel Ranger, and I may not like them either, but I do keep my word. If you will trust me, the plans will find there way to a safe place in Skyfall, waiting for a Steel Ranger to come retrieve them."

There was hope in Fairbreeze's eyes, hidden as it was behind his helmet, it was there.

"I will." Fairbreeze relented, "I will inform my elder of this very strange arrangement. He'll either have me flayed alive, or he'll be somewhat understanding. My honor and yours are on the line here, if you fail to hold up your end both our lives will be as well."

"As if they weren't already." Steel Wing joked. It dampened the joke some when the realization that it was entirely true fell on him.

Fairbreeze looked all around to make sure no prying eyes were set on him or Steel Wing. When he was sure they weren't being watched, he extended a hoof towards Steel Wing.

Steel Wing looked at it for a moment before catching on. He returned the gesture by raising his own, and their hooves bumped roughly.

Once the deed was done and the understanding of respect was shared by both Fairbreeze's hoof quickly fell back to the ground. He turned and began to walk back to the waiting Steel Rangers.

"See you around." Steel Wing called.

"Let's hope not." Fairbreeze responded in his usual, gruff voice.

"Right." Steel Wing muttered to himself.

Several crises averted in the span of a few hours left Steel Wing feeling drained. If Fairbreeze felt the same, he didn't show it. Steel Wing suspected that the effort of avoiding bloodshed had taxed them both equally. Everyone else was too busy to be bothered by his exhaustion. Everyone save for the obnoxious griffon, whose job it seemed to be was to not be busy.

"I'm going to miss him." Corona said patting Steel Wing on the back.

"What exactly is keeping your arm from healing properly?" Steel Wing chose the subject of their conversation.

"Yeah, that green psychopony won't say much about it. If healing magic won't do it, it must be pretty jacked up though." Corona shrugged sitting down to Steel Wing's side.

"Can I ask you a favor?" Steel Wing looked at Corona with his tired eyes.

"I don't do sexual favors before five p.m." Corona stated succinctly.

"I just need you to stay here and talk with me for a while. The conversations I've had with you have been very disturbing on most occasions, but they also- Well they're fun." Steel Wing couldn't find a better word to describe his verbal interactions with the immature griffon.

"Fun, eh?" Corona smirked. "It's been so long you can get off by talking now?"

"Something like that." Steel Wing smiled. He decided that maybe changing the subject to avoid her getting too weird in the past, may have been a mistake. The jokes they made together, the threats she made about setting Steel Wing up with four or five mares a night, and the emotion she often made no attempt to hide, all felt strangely therapeutic.

So they talked until ponies stopped coming from the cave, until the circle was complete, until the spell was cast accompanied by an enormous peel of thunder.

The sound didn't scare the pair of friends as it barely managed to grab their attention, as they were so wrapped up in their conversation. It had been interrupted at the main discussion about turning a spritebot into an automated hive for live parasprites. Corona thought it was brilliant, Steel Wing had been laughing both inside and out.

Where the unicorns had been seated outside of the circle, wisps of smoke were rising. What had been the inside of circle was now a perfectly round glass surface. Perfectly round, but not smooth. The glass had been molten just before hundreds of hooves had vanished; as the glass began to cool the hoofmarks were easily visible.

Steel Wing suddenly felt very anxious as the very unwanted knowledge came to him, that he had no way of knowing if all the ponies had arrived safely near Skyfall. As much as he knew he could trust Astra to know what she was doing, there was still a chance of the spell failing in smaller ways than simply death. So the worry built in him while he waited for any word of the spell's success or failure. His understanding of arcane mechanics was working on his nerves, he didn't know why or from where it came, but it deserved to be bucked in the face as far as he was concerned.

He must have worn his worry visibly, because Peaches came over to where he stood rigid, just on the outside of the cooling, glass surface.

"Mistress Astra is the wisest most capable unicorn probably since the ministry mare Twilight Sparkle. Everything will be okay." She tried to comfort him. Now that he had someone who understood magic standing next to him he could voice his concerns and hopefully get a satisfactory answer.

"What if..." He started to list all the possibilities failure of such a large scale spell could entail.

Flash Fire approached her slack jawed companion to find out what had her so shocked. She came in towards the middle of Steel Wing's relentless listing of every possible malfunction of the spell. Flash Fire's jaw fell open as well.

Steel Wing had just finished when five loud pops sounded from behind him. He turned around quickly to see the returning unicorns.

There were four unicorns as Steel Wing counted. A feeling of utter terror had gripped him for reasons his brain was slowly and very unwillingly registering.

There were four, unfamiliar unicorns each focused intently on him. There was also a pegasus with them, dark purple wings proudly displayed. They reminded Steel Wing of his own wings, but where his purple wings met his grey coat, the other pegasus had a solid dark purple coat, with much less of a sheen than his. The pegasus wore a confident and haughty smirk as she looked down on Flash Fire and Peaches, her gaze turned to one of curious hope as she had to raise her head to look Steel Wing in the eyes.

"That's an alicorn." Peaches said her body began to shiver in fright.

This is a problem. A voice said in Steel Wing's head.

"Since when do pegasai have horns?" Steel Wing muttered.

Flash Fire gave him a look of disbelief while trying to hold Peaches still. All she really accomplished was wrapping her forelegs around her partner so they could tremble in fear together.

At long last terror found its grip on both Steel Wing's mind and body.

It's an alicorn. The voice assured him.

"Oh fuck me." He said breathlessly.

"We have witnessed your accomplishments of late, and have seen your true form. You will come with us to meet the Goddess." The alicorn commanded in a magically augmented voice, that bowled over Peaches and Flash Fire

"What?" Steel Wing managed to say.

"We know that you are one of us. The male counterpart that we have sought for many years."

"You think I'm an alicorn, like you?" Steel Wing laughed at how crazy it sounded.

"Yes, this we have seen." The alicorn insisted her voice losing it's magically amplified quality.

"Oh, you mean last night?" Steel Wing understood now that it was simply a misunderstanding.

"Yes, last night. you saved that one from death with the use of your very unique magic. The Goddess demands that you come with us."

"Yeah, that wasn't me exactly." Steel Wing said, awkwardly running his hoof through his mane. It was far too greasy for his liking. "That was actually the Nightmare, she was helping me save Flash Fire. Sorry to disappoint you."

"We do not understand, we demand an explanation!" She was yelling only half as loud she was capable.

"I'm a pegasus, not an alicorn. i have some sort of connection with the Nightmare. Nightmare Moon from the old stories; you know the one I mean right?" He tried to give her the best explanation he could. Steel Wing was hadn't ever been good at letting someone down easily, this was a good example.

"If this is some sort of joke I- We assure you it is in very poor taste."

"I was an alicorn for one night, and hopefully never again like that." Steel Wing knew it would happen again, almost exactly like it had the previous night.

"Please," The alicorn pleaded taking a few unsure steps forward, "We do not find this amusing, you are what we need in order to truly reproduce." Her voice had a strange, frantic edge to it; as if there were others with conflicting emotions speaking in unison with the alicorn.

"I do wish I could be the stallion you all need, but I'm not. I'm taken anyways. I was born a pegasus and hopefully I'll die as one too." Steel Wing decided to close the issue. He was also vaguely aware that Corona, wherever she'd skulked off to, was snickering about something he said.

"This cannot be. We were so sure." The alicorn looked at her still silent unicorn thralls then back to Steel Wing.

"No!" The alicorn brought her hoof down to the ground as she shouted. "You are what we need and you will come with us, whether voluntarily or by force!"

It hadn't actually occurred to him that the only reason he was talking to an aicorn instead of fighting in the first place was because it wanted something from him. Things had just gotten very bad.

The conflict as Steel Wing saw it was: one unicorn, one broken unicorn, a hiding griffon with a broken arm, and himself, versus four likely competent unicorns, and one very unhappy alicorn.

He was wholly outnumbered as he didn't see any of his friends contributing much to his side of a fight, nor did he want them to get involved if he could help it.

"I'm not going anywhere with you " Steel Wing said sharply.

"Very well then." The alicorn looked to either side of her where her followers awaited her commands. "Take him, do not kill him."

The first to act upon the alicorn's orders was an off-white mare with a sadistic smile. Steel Wing scanned over all his opponents and realized they all had the same look of glee at the prospect of taking him right up to the edge of death without letting him go over.

The unicorns horn flashed bright red sending a speeding ball of light directly at Steel Wing. Steel Wing's wings flared up of their own accord just as the spell impacted his chest; instead of it's intending effect the spell simply traveled through his body to his wings. As the spell traveled out to the flight feathers light visibly ran through his wings. They now felt heavier to Steel Wing, as though training weights had been tied to the very tips of either wing.

Steel Wing sunk low and adjusted to the new weight, while the unicorn whose spell had just been absorbed stood with a look of utter shock, a stark contrast to her previous, wicked half-smile.

"I'm not moving from this spot." Steel Wing challenge boldly. Something he knew he'd regret later, for now he was just glad they were paying attention to him and not his friends.

"Don't just stand their, take him!" The alicorn shouted. As she was still convinced that Steel Wing was an alicorn in disguise she gave credit to his ability to absorb lesser spells. She'd chosen to see where his limits were before engaging him directly

She watched each of the unicorns try their luck at beating Steel Wing's challenge; multiple spells were tried from each to no avail. Spells intermittent with falling objects were tried. Steel Wing stood his ground against it all. Several tried to simply levitate fling him from where he stood, but his weight was apparently far more than they could budge. Rocks were thrown and dropped which caused little more than bruises. They weren't allowed to kill him, but didn't know just how much he could endure.

Steel Wing was, between the fourth and fifth spell to hit him, painfully aware that the magical energy he was absorbing would eventually put him in a state of magical paralysis if he didn't find a place to direct it all soon. With all of his new found knowledge regarding magic, he still didn't know the first thing about manipulating it. For all the power he was storing away, there wasn't a single thing he could do with it that wouldn't result in the horrendous decimation of everything around him for a good distance. Given that there were undetonated megaspells and friends within that range he decided against it. Steel Wing kept praying that the unicorns from the academy would return soon; thoughts of their slow return reminded him of the possibilities of the teleportation spell's failure. He needed something.

"You are all weak!" The alicorn scorned after the last spell apparent last attempt by the last unicorn was done. "You do not deserve to be a part of Unity!"

Though his wings were apparently great at storing magic, some of it was beginning to spill over into his body. His skin was now buzzing; though nearly inaudible the fact that he could hear it at all filled him with concern.

The unicorn who had been the second to attempt to move him was moved to action by the alicorn's harsh words. She had a lime green coat with a mane only a few shades lighter. Her cutie mark featured several two inch lightning bolts, with one oversized bolt that laid over the rest.

"If he is an alicorn then he is a fool." The unicorn said grimly taking a few confident steps forward. Her horn began to glow as she approached him.

Even with all the buzzing he felt, Steel Wing was acutely aware that his mane had begun to stand up.

"I know the perfect spell that will get you moving." She looked Steel Wing straight in the eye, "You, or them." She looked to where Peaches and Flash Fire sat.

They'd get a hold of themselves while looking on in amazement at the display of Steel Wing's fortitude.

"Try me." Steel Wing said uncertainly.

A single storm cloud had formed a fair distance over Steel Wing's head, when he saw it the secondary tingle in his mane intensified bringing to the forefront of his mind how much trouble he was in.

The unicorn stopped a few feet from Steel Wing and smirked as he looked back down at her.

"You're out of your mind, you'll blow yourself and me to bits, not to mention everything within a quarter mile.

"Oh I'll be fine." The unicorn said as her a electricity began to play up and down her horn.

They were locked in a game of magical chicken, one where Steel Wing either lost by moving or lost by exploding and taking his friends with him.

The decision was made quickly; Steel Wing bolted in a direction opposite the wagons. his speed wasn't as hampered as he thought it would be given the considerable weight he felt from being laden with magical energy.

"Hah." The unicorn said as Steel Wing took off, living up to her end of the threat she unleashed the stored energy from the storm cloud.

Steel Wing felt static run through his body bringing with it memories of the lightning exercise during training. The object had been to make it through a gauntlet of pony operated storm clouds without getting hit. Each run was unique since the ponies assigned to the clouds were supposed to catch the recruit flying the course off guard. Steel Wing had failed several times. Now in the less than half of a second it would take for the bolt of lightning to reach him, he tried to remember how he'd gotten it right. He may have gotten frustrated and kicked the ass of several of the cloud operating ponies. His commanding officer had a good laugh about it and let Steel Wing's next run count when not a single other of the unbeaten pegasai had dared tried to nail him with lightning. He was still forced to do extra drills to pay for his violent outburst.

These thoughts did little to help him now, save for helping him remember all the ways he'd failed. There was at least one time he could remember that he'd almost succeeded prior to trying his controversial method. You can't outfly or outrun lightning, but you can outsmart the ponies controlling it.

Steel Wing stopped and began to backpedal, the understanding of how such offensive spells actually found their targets came far too late for him to change his mind. It wasn't where he was going to be that the spell was headed, it was simply wherever he decided to be.

Pure arcane energy struck Steel Wing with a resounding crash, followed by a low rumble. The instant the spell hit home Steel Wing was flying through the air; more accurately the pieces of him that hadn't been instantly disintegrated by the massive release of built up magical energy. The spell had sent a bolt made up of pure magic instead of electricity, Steel Wing's capacity to hold magical energy had reached critical levels already; the supercharge magic bolt had been the final straw, so to speak.

The explosion was grand, and terrifying to behold. Steel Wing had run far enough that the wagons and those nearby them hadn't been damaged; it was no where near far enough for the sound to not be deafening.

The alicorn was shouting at the zealous unicorn, what it was saying none could tell; the fact she was yelling at all was unknown to most as the rising column of light pierced the cloud ceiling.

Almost as soon as it started the show came to a crashing halt, the cloud of dust kicked up by the explosion seemed to be sucked back to where it started. The column of light disappeared leaving a fairly large hole in the cloud ceiling. There was no trace of Steel Wing left, he was gone.

The unicorn who struck the final blow was speechless afterwards. She turned to the alicorn she had been following for some time only to find she'd been left behind. She, Peaches and Flash Fire were the only ponies left on the scene.

The shields Peaches had brought up to protect them fell one by one as she looked from where Steel Wing had stopped to the speechless unicorn who'd made him disappear.

"You killed him." Peaches said in absolute horror.

----

Chapter 10: Reunion

Steel Wing remembered flying, he hadn't flown in a while. He remembered disintegrating into nothing, but still managing to fall back to the ground. He didn't remember laying on the ground for hours as his body regenerated from a black glass orb. He didn't remember blood being produced and immediately spilling on to the ground. It wasn't until his coat began to grow back that he began to take notice of his surroundings.

The first thing he noticed consciously was, everything hurt; he could feel things moving around underneath his skin, and muscles twitching and stretching. The second, he was still alive. He'd watched his body dissolve mid air in a matter of seconds, but he'd managed to get a new one some how.

He lay there for some time, trying to make a decision about what to do next; the effort of thinking was slowed considerably by the steady pounding in his head. Eventually he decided that opening his eyes would be the best thing to do; once he remembered how to do it, the amount of effort required was lessened considerably. Remembering how to do the most basic things was a separate task from the actual performance of the action. The moment he could raise his head, he looked himself over; he didn't like what he saw.

His coat was now one solid deep purple pegasus. Just by looking at himself, Steel Wing felt as though he'd taken the body of another; that fact that he couldn't move it only added to the wrongness the situation brought on.

He started to move, doing his best to stand up; he accomplished flailing around before giving up. With all the effort he could give, Steel Wing rolled onto his back in order to look up at the clouds. He confirmed that the clouds were still there; that he was still on the surface, and that he missed seeing the stars at night as always.

Out of the corner of his eye, Steel Wing spotted something almost as grey as the clouds moving above him; more accurately it was moving towards him. There was another something, jet black, following just behind the first. Both were pony shaped as far as Steel Wing could tell. Dread took hold of him as he realized they were from the Enclave.

The jet black pegasus was wearing the standard Enclave power armor. The unarmored one Steel Wing was sure he'd seen not long ago. As they came closer Steel Wing began to take mental notes of the unarmored pegasus. It was a grey coated mare with a long and pristine white mane. As she landed Steel Wing was convinced he was simply dreaming. Her saddlebags bore the generic medical symbol used by the Enclave, a plain red cross.

"Is it really snowing?" Steel Wing said weakly, as the mare drew nearer. Steel Wing smiled at the joke only he ever really got away with, she wasn't smiling at all.

As the other pegasus landed he said, "Good eye ma'am, I didn't see it at all until you pointed it out."

Something was wrong with this dream. Steel Wing couldn't remember ever having a dream involving his sister where they weren't happy to see one another; nor had there ever really been anyone else when he dreampt at all.. To add to it, Steel Wing didn't recognize the voice of the other pegasus. The blood stuck to his coat felt real, the pain spread over every inch of his body felt real, he shuddered at the thought that he might actually be awake.

If he was really awake, Steel Wing decided what bothered him the most was he'd never seen such a look of contempt on his what was unmistakably his sister's face. She probably didn't recognize him at the moment because his appearance had been altered so dramatically, but he couldn't recall her ever having glared at a pony; even when she didn't like them she kept it between herself and her brother. The look she gave him now communicated her dislike of finding him in the first place.

"It's a he. He is alive; barely by the looks of it. He is a pegasus." Snow Storm said. Steel Wing recognized the voice.

"No way, that monster is a pegasus?" The Enclave stallion said coming closer.

"Snow?" Steel Wing said extending a hoof towards his sister.

She batted it away and glared at him. She looked about ready to crush his skull. Instead she blinked a few times, shaking her head in disagreement with some thought she'd had. When she looked back down at him Steel Wing saw a new look in her eyes. Excitement and hope. It was there and gone in a second, but Steel Wing knew she had realized something about him at the very least; he hoped against hope that she may have even recognized him as her brother.

"He certainly is a monster isn't he? I didn't know they made ponies this size, may be a genetic mutation." She looked him over again, this time appraising him for any value he may have.

"Did he just call you by name ma'am?" The armored stallion asked hesitantly.

"I didn't hear anything." She flat out lied. She then gave the stallion a look out of the corner of her eye, daring him to continue the subject.

"Must've misheard, ma'am." He withdrew slightly.

Steel Wing saw the silent threat, the way the stallion backed down instantly; an armored pony was genuinely afraid of his seemingly unarmed sister. Then he remembered what the Enclave solider who'd been disabled in the assault on Armory had told him. She was the primary surgeon, and she'd developed a bad reputation for paying back slights with botched surgeries. The nasty looks were starting to make sense; his sister stood before him a changed and bitter mare, much the same way he'd changed without her.

"You know," Snow nearly purred, "I think I want to take him with us, to study of course. It might be fun to take a peak inside of him." She grinned wickedly.

"I don't think we're allowed to do that ma'am. We aren't exactly on a research assignment." The armored pegasus backed away further.

"Fair point," She sighed in minor frustration, "Brightcloud wouldn't exactly appreciate me bringing back a project would he?" She turned to her somewhat unnerved companion with the sweetest of smiles and said, "We flew over an old farmhouse didn't we?"

"Yes ma'am, not far from here. May I ask why?" He said nervously.

"Well, like you said I can't really bring him back with me, so that means I'll have to do my research in the field."

"Ma'am?" He laughed at what he fervently hoped was a joke.

"You," Snow said with an authoritative tone, "on your hooves." Steel Wing rolled back over onto his side, trying to obey the command. He succeeded in getting stuck where he'd started.

"Keep your sights on him in case he tries to get away."

"Ma'am you can't seriously be considering dissecting a pony! That's wrong!" The Enclave soldier protested, Steel Wing completely agreed.

Any hope that his sister recognized him was quickly draining away, as was the hope that she hadn't gone completely off the deep end.

"Since when did you start caring about these filthy surface dwellers?" She said derisively, "And you, I said stand!"

With a loud groan Steel Wing did as he was told. The speed with which he got up surprised him after all the strain he'd gone through just attempting it before.

Both stallions were now obeying the nasty mare's orders.

She took off from the ground, turned and waited for Steel Wing to follow.

"Come on, up you go." The Enclave soldier primed his dual beam rifles.

"I can't." Steel Wing said flatly.

"Your wings look fine to me." He said, then whispered, "Just go, you don't want to keep this crazy bitch waiting anymore than I do."

"I'm not going to fly." Steel Wing said angrily, turning on the pegaus holding him at gun point. The soldier was reminded just how big their prisoner was.

"Why not?" Snow Storm asked impatiently.

"I made a promise, and I'd rather die than break it." Steel Wing made it as simple as he could.

The grey mare's wings extended for a moment and snapped back to her body as a look of horror came over her. Her cheeks reddened for a moment.

Snow turned away from the two stallions and said, "We walk then."

"Ma'am?" The Enclave solider said.

"You heard me, now move!" She barked starting off towards the old house.

Both stallions followed her in silence.

----

Twenty minutes later, Steel Wing had been ushered into the basement of a surprisingly well preserved farmhouse. Being primarily made of stone had allowed a good deal of the first floor to stay standing over however many years old it was. A table had been moved downstairs and surgical equipment placed upon it.

Steel Wing was alone for the time being, told to sit in a corner and not move. He'd overheard from upstairs several more moral objections to what the crazy mare was about to do. After the fourth attempt to dissuade her, Snow Storm simply cleared her throat, and that was the end of all protests.

The door swung wide and in walked his sister. Her mane was tied back and she had an almost excited look on her face as she trotted to her equipment table.

The soldier pony stood nervously in the doorway.

"Did you need anything else ma'am?" He asked looking anywhere but directly at her.

"Would you like to assist with the dissection?" She asked with a smile.

"Do I have an option?"

"Yes."

"No thank you then." He backed out of the room.

"Get the door on your way out then." She called after him, as if she wasn't about to murder a pony.

Once the door swung shut she turned to Steel Wing and said, "Would you like to be unconscious for the first incision?"

"Do I have an option?" Steel Wing mimicked the Enclave solider.

"Yes." She chuckled.

"Pass." Steel Wing said, waving a hoof dismissively.

"Oh, brave. I like that in a stallion." She said playfully, grabbing what looked more like a butcher's knife than a piece of surgical equipment. By the rust on it, Steel Wing guessed it'd come from somewhere upstairs.

Standing a few feet in front of him she spit the rusted instrument out and caught it with her foreleg. She pretended to look it over.

"You know I could overpower you and leave right?" Steel Wing stated matter-of-factly.

"You could try, but if you didn't kill me quickly I would paralyze you." She said matching his uncaring tone.

"Is that so?" He said, sitting back slightly. He believed it.

"It is. It is. I-" The grey mare began to shake and hyperventilate. When she looked up at him there were tears in her eyes, and a smile on her face.

"Snow?" Steel Wing asked gently.

"I missed you so much." She whispered, her voice cracking.

The knife dropped, and she closed the last few feet between them before Steel Wing could blink. Her forelegs wrapped firmly around his neck, she began to sob quietly into his coat. Steel Wing was speechless. All he could do was pull her farther into him and hold her while she trembled.

Unconsciously Steel Wing buried his snout in his sisters mane and inhaled deeply. She smelled like rainwater, clean rainwater. It was a smell he'd never appreciated in the same way, but after having been without it for so long it was nearly intoxicating.

"I missed you too. I just-" Steel Wing was quickly reaching the same state as his sister. He began to cry into her mane as he wrapped his wings around her body. If they never moved from that spot, it would be too soon.

"Ma'am, is everything okay?"

"Yes!" Snow Storm cried tearing herself from Steel Wing's shoulder to do so.

"You don't sound alright, you sound like you're- Oh, wow." Whatever the pony on the other side of the door had just "realized" it was enough to get him to stop his questioning.

Steel Wing managed to pull himself away from his sister's delightfully scented mane and spotted the table covered in surgical equipment. He grimaced and asked, "If I had been some other wasteland pegasus, would you have actually killed me?"

"I don't know, maybe." She spoke into his shoulder.

He pushed her away to look her in the eyes, "What happened to you?"

"I don't- What do you mean?" She'd been pulled away from him and forced back into reality, she wasn't entirely with the conversation.

"Snow," Steel Wing said forcefully, "This- That isn't you. What do you mean 'maybe'? My sister would never go out of her way to hurt another pony; I've heard about you and your intentionally crippling Enclave soldiers you don't like."

The accusations made her speechless, mostly due to the fact that they were entirely true.

"I don't know!" She wailed, trying to bury her face in his coat again. He held her in place.

"I don't know either, but it isn't okay."

Steel Wing was having a very hard time denying his sister the comfort of his shoulder, but he had to look her in the eye to see if she still was the Snow Storm he'd known years ago.

"I'm sorry, please don't be mad at me."

"I can't, and I couldn't." Steel Wing finally let her fall back into his embrace, "Three years without me must've damaged you about the same as it did me. Until a week ago I was a recluse who couldn't be bothered to help a pony in need unless it was convenient for me."

"Really?" His sister hiccuped.

"Yeah, really." Steel Wing could still see clearly in his mind the window out of which he'd watched the world pass him by. "I did some things I'm not proud of Snow, bad things to good ponies; I justified it by saying I had a debt to pay, but it wasn't right. I can't be mad at you, because I was the same way. I guess I'd just held out hope that you found someone to keep you happy after I was gone. I couldn't believe that you, the perfect mare, would wind up like me."

"How could I find somepony else to replace you?" She sobbed loudly.

"That's how it was for me too-" Steel Wing was going to say more, but the Enclave soldier from upstairs burst through the door after hearing Snow Storm crying.

Weapons primed he shouted, "Back away from her now or-"

"IF YOU POINT A GUN ANYWHERE NEAR HER AGAIN I'LL SMASH YOUR SKULL IN!" Steel Wing bellowed, the house around them seemed to shake from the volume he produced.

Had the beam rifles not immediately powered down Steel Wing would have made good on his promise. The soldier pony went as far as to back away to the opposite corner of the room, where he cowered in fear.

"Steel Wing?" Snow Storm said in disbelief.

The look in her eyes made his heart sink, "I'm sorry, I just don't want anything to take you away again. Ever." His voice was hoarse at first, but by the time he'd finished speaking his tone was adamant and sure.

"Would one of you mind telling me what's happening right now? I'm honestly confused about the fact you're hugging the pony you were going to dissect." The pony on the other side of the room said just loudly enough to be heard.

"Is he one of Brightcloud's soldiers?" Steel Wing said, eyeing the armored pony suspiciously.

"Yeah. But I don't think he knows who you are." She whispered.

"I think I'll tell him then." Steel Wing said with a dark smile.

Steel Wing switched positions with his sister, leaving her in the corner as he began to cross the room. He stalked towards the Enclave soldier with a revolted look on his face.

Now that the V.I.P was out of the way, the soldier was fairly sure he was allowed to aim his weapons again; he both wanted to and was scared to.

"You're supposed to salute someone who outranks you until you are told otherwise. Or has the idea of respecting one's superiors been tossed out too in my absence?" Steel Wing said stopping just a few feet from the cornered pony.

"I- What?" The cornered pony said, unconsciously saluting Steel Wing.

"You don't recognize me do you? That scumbag Brightcloud doesn't inform the pegasai on his payroll very well does he?"

"You can't talk about Commander Brightcloud like that, he could-"

"If you knew me, you'd know I don't give a flying fuck about what 'he could' do to me. He's done as much damage as he possibly can, and left me alive." Steel Wing smiled wickedly, "Remove your helmet."

"What?!" The scared soldier said, still saluting Steel Wing.

"Take it off, or I'll break it off." Steel Wing said, slamming a hoof into the stone floor; it cracked under the impact.

"Right, coming off!"

Once the helmet was off Steel Wing could more effectively look the soldier in the eyes. He was a light brown stallion with a buzzed, darker brown mane.

"I am the late Colonel Silver Storm, or Steel Wing, depending on what name he gave you; if he gave you one at all that is. That filly- Mare is my sister Snow Storm. I'm sure Brightcloud has told you to keep an eye on her hasn't he?"

"Yeah, but that's because she's our chief medical officer. She doesn't have any formal combat training." The stallion whimpered.

"Is that what he told you?" Steel Wing laughed, "You don't even know half of what you're in right now, do you?"

"Sir if you don't mind me asking," Steel Wing shrugged, "if you're a colonel in the Enclave, doesn't that mean you deserted and ran away to the surface?"

"I'll level with you." Steel Wing said, sitting down and relaxing. "You can stop saluting me now, I was actually joking."

The stallion hadn't even been aware that he was saluting; he gave his hoof a confused look before placing it back on the ground.

"Right." Steel Wing took a moment to decide where to begin, "Brightcloud is a backstabbing son of a bitch who held my sister at gunpoint, tied weights to my legs, put a sack on my head and forced me to leave the Enclave. All for the sake of keeping his position. He told me that if I ever flew again he'd kill my sister. I know he's a man of his word, and I didn't know how well he may or may not have been watching me so I haven't flown in three years. You, and any other pegasus he trusts is watching to make sure my sister doesn't fly off and report him to the council. Now that my sister is here I'm not letting her leave my side ever again. Any quest-" Steel Wing was about to open up the conversation to any questions that the Enclave soldier had, but he was suddenly aware that there was something wandering about upstairs.

Confused he looked down at his foreleg to find out why his Pip-buck wasn't showing any bars and a smile crept across his muzzle. It was gone.

"That's two good things that came from being exploded today." He chuckled. "There's something upstairs, and I'm going to find out what. If you move from this spot, my sister is going to yell 'Steel Wing' and I'll come down her and beat you within an inch of your life. We clear?"

"Crystal, sir." The stallion's voice cracked. He backed as far into the corner as he could, and didn't breath until Steel Wing had exited the room.

"Uh, Steel Wing?" His sister called up the stairs. The stallion in the corner cried out in alarm, dropping to the floor and covering his head with his hooves.

Steel Wing came down the stairs and looked to the corner with the stallion. He narrowed his eyes, "Yeah Snow?"

"How do you know something is upstairs, I don't hear anything."

"Neither do I, but I know it's there. I'll explain later." With that he was back up the stairs.

Steel Wing searched for only a moment, before he came snout to metal casing with a spritebot. He yelped slightly and jumped back.

"Wow, a spritebot that isn't playing horrible music, that's nice." Steel Wing said, raising an eyebrow.

"Are you really still alive?" The spritebot screeched, with a tinny distorted voice.

"Holy hell it talks!" Steel Wing jumped back a little more. "Wait what?"

"You blew up earlier today; half the wasteland probably saw it too. You'd been moving so much I hadn't even gotten the chance to talk to you; then you were gone and I was somewhat disappointed. Imagine my surprise when this spritebot was nearby and heard what sounded like you yelling at the top of your lungs. I move it to investigate and you're actually here. How?"

"No, the question here is 'How the hell is a spritebot talking to me?'"

"I can control them remotely, and can communicate through them. Your turn." The spritebot answered smartly.

"Magic." Replied with just as much smartassness.

"I've spotted you doing magic a few times, but how? You're a pegasus."

"I have access to the power of a being composed primarily of pure magic. She's helped me quite a few times." Steel Wing said, and immediately shook his head. "Sorry, I've started knowing things recently. I think it's getting worse, because I can explain them now."

"Are you possessed or something?" The spritebot questioned skeptically.

"Not yet, no; it's starting to look like that may happen though." Steel Wing shrugged.

"I see." The spritebot said, then fell silent.

"So, do you have a name or should I call you spritebot?"

"My name," The tinny voice said, pausing for dramatic effect, "is Watcher."

"Because you watch things?"

"Correct."

"Ponies and things?"

"Yes?"

"That's a little messed up."

"How so."

"You've probably watched me taking a piss, haven't you?"

"I try to look the other way for that sort of thing, but it may have happened once or twice before."

"Soo..." Steel Wing drawled.

"So?"

"Why did you want to talk to me?"

"Because you've been doing a lot of good recently, and I wanted to meet you."

"Then why didn't you just come say 'hi'?"

"There aren't that many spritebots left in Mexicolt, and you don't stop moving for long enough for one to catch up."

"Then why didn't you just use your legs and meet me in person?" Steel Wing asked skeptically.

"I can't actually do that."

"And you can't tell me why, can you?"

"I can't tell- Yeah, that's right." The tinny distorted voice was still able to convey Watcher's surprise.

"How do I know you aren't another unicorn whose plotting to destroy me? I have a lot of those you know."

"I saw that, the alicorn has been gathering stray unicorns to take back to Maripony."

"What's in Maripony?"

"That's where the alicorns are 'manufactured.'"

"Is that so. I may have to go there some time. I bet the Nightmare would like that." Steel Wing mused.

"You're going to take a bad dream to Maripony? I can guarantee that won't work." Watcher advised.

"Oops, guess my secret is out." Steel Wing laughed lightly, "I meant the Nightmare, the one from the stories and stuff."

"What?" Watcher asked flatly.

"She's the one that's been helping me out as far as magic is concerned. I have a spiritual connection to her that is beyond her comprehension and certainly beyond mine. For the time being, I am able to channel her magic during the night. I am the first pony in centuries to be a compatible vessel for her. Should I ever choose to I will become her host so she may have a physical presence in the wasteland."

Watcher was silent a long time.

"I keep doing that! A few days ago I may have been able to give a half-assed explanation that barely covered any of that; now I'm beginning to comprehend the theories of primal magics."

"This isn't possible. The bearers of the elements of harmony defeated Nightmare Moon. How could she be alive?"

"Simply put, Princess Luna asked the Nightmare for help in taking revenge. Since she hadn't had the opportunity to physically interact with anything in some time, she agreed. The Nightmare wasn't foolish enough to believe she'd have a long time to enjoy her freedom in comparison to her time spent on the moon, and had accepted that Princess Luna would ultimately fail to stay in power. In essence she was forcibly separated from Princess Luna, and had to return to the moon." Steel Wing gritted his teeth once he realized what'd happened.

"Again, I couldn't know that. This is driving me up a wall."

"But Nightmare Moon is evil, isn't she?"

"She isn't that bad. I attempted to kill her once, but I stopped half way through when I realized I was actually beating an alicorn in a hooffight. Mainly because she wasn't fighting back."

"Look, will you promise to stay in one place for a while; we need to finish this conversation, but I have to go."

"If I can get back to Skyfall, you'll find me there. Or at the academy maybe."

"Okay great." Watcher said, silence followed shortly after.

"Wait!" Steel Wing shouted, a question had just popped into his head. "What happened to the weapons!?"

The spritebot remained silent. Steel Wing took it in his hooves and began to shake it violently. A burst of static came from the spritebot's speakers and it began to play the familiar march. Steel Wing hadn't ever hated the song as much as he did in that moment. He put his hooves on top of it, and forced the floating metal ball to the ground, crushing it underhoof. The only retaliation was a small zap as the spritebot's power source discharged. Bits of shrapnel also went flying in every direction; they barely stung Steel Wing.

"Is everything alright up there?" Snow Storm shouted from below.

"Yep, it was just a spritebot."

Whoops, he said there weren't many of those, didn't he? Steel Wing shrugged, and headed back downstairs.

Back in the basement Steel Wing was surprised to see that the Enclave soldier hadn't moved, but his sister had. The surgical equipment was presumably packed away, and she'd gone to talk to the very confused soldier pony.

"He believes." Snow Storm said, as her brother approached.

"Believes what?" Steel Wing raised an eyebrow.

"That Brightcloud is a traitorous pile of scum." She hissed.

"Oh great! Now I don't have to bind him and take him with us." Steel Wing smiled.

"You're both scary." The stallion mumbled.

"We are twins." Steel Wing said as though the dictionary definition of the word "twins" mentioned he and his sister as an example.

"Okay, good to know." The armored stallion said nervously, "If you aren't going to tie me up, what is going to happen to me?"

"I'm not sending my sister back so she can pretend everything is business as usual. Brightcloud would probably have you cleaning toilets if you came back and said you'd lost Snow." Steel Wing rubbed his chin in thought. "I guess that means you're with us!" He concluded.

"So you aren't going to tie me up and drag me with you against my will, but I'm stuck following you whether I like it or not?"

"Yes, that sounds right. Snow, doesn't that sound right?" Steel Wing said, grinning from ear to ear.

"It does, doesn't it!" She said, matching his fake enthusiasm.

To hide how uncomfortable he was the armored pegasus put his helmet back on. "When do we leave?"

An idea came to Steel Wing, and his fake enthusiasm turned to devious glee, "Soon, but I need you to do something first."

----

An hour later the three pegasai were leaving the farm, heading towards Skyfall. They had to use the navigation of the Enclave power armor, as it was the only Stable-tec device between the three capable of navigation. Snow Storm had a Pip-buc, but all programs non-medical functions had, upon her request, been disabled.

A distress signal had been sent from the power armor, to get the attention of the Enclave. After which, the suit's location tags had been switched off.

Steel Wing was almost dancing as they left the farm. He'd had the idea to leave a message for whomever arrived first to the power armor's last known location. It read "I have her now Brightcloud, that means you're next. Sincerely COL SS"

He'd borrowed a blood bag from his sister to write it. She'd been too excited about the fact she'd been reunited with her brother to care about the waste of medical supplies.

"Should I lead?" Private Skies, the armored stallion, offered.

"May as well, you're the only one who knows where we're headed." Steel Wing shrugged.

"Sounds good to me." Skies said, before taking off.

"I really hope this isn't a dream." Snow Storm said wearily, before following Private skies into the air.

Steel Wing looked up at them as they hovered in wait for him.

"It's okay to fly now I'm here and safe." Snow Storm said sweetly.

"Idnmo tfly." Steel Wing mumbled.

"What?" His sister came closer.

"Dunnotfly." He said again, ducking his head lower.

"What's wrong." She said flying close enough to touch his shoulder.

"I don't know how." He confessed his shame.

"To fly?" She finished in disbelief.

"I don't know if I can anymore." He sighed heavily.

"Sure you can," She tried to comfort, "It isn't the kind of skill you can lose from under use."

He smiled in appreciation of her encouraging words.

"I think I'm scared." Steel Wing admitted, as his wings unfolded.

"You'll be oka- wuh~?" Snow Storm's eyes widened in amazement, when she saw her brother's wings in their full glory. Their glossy undersides somewhat mesmerizing. "You've grown since the last time I've seen you, how is that even possible?"

The sheen on the underside was enough to show her reflection, albeit fairly distorted.

"Yeah, you have to work to live down here. I'm not that much bigger though, am I?" Steel Wing said while stretching.

"Yeah." Was her response, too captivated by the magnificent sight before her to properly answer his question.

"Are they that impressive?"

"Yeah, you are." She said dreamily.

Steel Wing shrugged and dragged his left wing across the ground, leaving a long cut behind.

"What is that!?" His sister was jostled out of her dreamy state, by the display.

"They're sharp." Steel Wing said smartly.

"I see that, how?!" She demanded, "It's physically impossible for feathers to cut like that. I mean when you were wearing your armor sure I could understand that, but this- Those are real aren't they? You didn't lose your real wings in an accident or something did you?"

Snow Storm continued to ramble until Steel Wing put a hoof to her lips, "Magic."

She nodded slowly to show that she both understood, and had calmed down.

"I'll explain later, let's just get going before we're spotted for now. Okay?" Steel Wing said, taking several steps back.

"Okay." She said, and took off again.

Steel Wing began to do a mental checklist of all the things needed for flying, Wings out. Eyes front. Knees bent. Ponies watching. Heart racing?

He jumped up into the air several feet and with a powerful beat of his wings went shooting up into the air; at the same time doing somersaults as he lost control.

He fell back to the ground with an audible thud. He was hurting. Not from the fall of course, he'd fallen farther before; his pride had been damaged by his failure, in front of his sister no less. He took minor comfort in the fact that he could now say "I told you so." to his sister about his inability to fly.

Steel Wing got up with a heavy sigh, his wings folded back to his sides.

"You're aren't giving up after one try are you?" His sister scolded flying closer.

"I was thinking about it." He mumbled.

"Now that isn't the brother I remember. The Silver Storm I remember didn't stop until something changed, or until he was unconscious. I'd be willing to bet you haven't grown out of that yet. Now get ready and try again." Their separation hadn't caused her to forget what the next step in a trial and error situation was with her brother. If kind words didn't work, orders would.

Steel Wing was ready for another attempt the moment she stopped speaking.

He went back through the mental checklist again, and tried another takeoff. This time he did one somersault before balancing out. It took a couple seconds of falling before he remembered to keep flapping his wings. He couldn't hover, but he could stay in the air.

"I did it!" Steel Wing said, much the same way he had during flight training.

"You did!" His sister rushed up to him and hugged him, planting a kiss on his cheek before letting him go.

Clear Skies watched as the two locked eyes for a moment, before both leaned in and locked lips with each other. It wasn't the sort of soft peck shared by a father and his child; it certainly wasn't the sort of kiss a brother and sister would ever share. This was a kiss of passionate hunger and longing. The only thing that stopped it was the fact that they'd began to quickly lose altitude.

"Did you two just start making out?" Private Skies couldn't help but ask.

Once they were stable in the air, the reminder that they weren't alone caused them both to blush.

"So?" Steel Wing asked as if nothing was wrong.

"Isn't she your sister?"

"Is that a problem?" Snow Storm cut in threateningly.

"Uh..." Private Skies intoned clearing his throat awkwardly.

"The answer is 'No ma'am." Steel Wing whispered loudly.

"No ma'am?" Skies tried.

"That's good to hear." She said with a half smile.

A look passed between them that said there would be time later.

"So where are we going?" Steel Wing said to break the silence.

Instead of saying anymore, the uneasy stallion simply started off in the direction they were headed. Steel Wing and his sister followed; though Steel Wing had a significantly slower start he began to catch up to their speed. Once he'd matched their speed Steel Wing began to pull ahead of his guide; it wasn't any sort of challenge, he simply couldn't maintain a stable flight speed. Now that he knew where he was going he didn't mind as much.

For her part, Snow Storm was just happy to watch her brother enjoying life for the moment. The way he talked made it sound as though it were a very rare occurrence in his life; not that her life had been sunshine and rainbows since their separation, but the past was quickly being forgotten with her brother back in her life. As she continued to watch him pull ahead a smile crept across her muzzle; she couldn't help but laugh when he began to fly circles around her and their armored companion.

Steel Wing was beginning to fly by instinct again. Instead of making them keep up, now that he'd pulled ahead, Steel Wing was doing aerial acrobatics. At one point he did a one-eighty and flew back they way they'd come from; only to speed back past them just to see how quickly he could catch back up. Nothing about flying disoriented him like wearing a Pip-buck had; he silently swore to himself that he'd never put one on his foreleg as long as he lived.

----

They'd flown uninterrupted for a little over an hour. Steel Wing with his boundless energy had managed to set a slightly faster pace than he'd meant to. While power armor helped with flight in Private Skies, Snow Storm had no such advantage.

"Are you-" Steel Wing began circling his sister, when he came back around he said, "Okay?"

"Just a little tired is all." She smiled weakly.

Steel Wing came back around to her left, "What? Sorry I-" He passed behind her again. "Was back there, didn't hear."

"I said 'Just a little tired is all.'" She shouted.

"What?" Steel Wing yelled back.

"I said-" Snow Storm began again until she saw the wide grin plastered on her brother's face. "Hah hah, very funny." She grumbled.

"What? For real-" Steel Wing said continuing to circle. "this time I didn't hear."

"Carry me!" She shouted before he could pass around behind her again.

"Roger!" Steel Wing said before flying off behind her.

Steel Wing put on more speed with several powerful flaps of his wings as he came up behind his sister. Passing over her he wrapped his forelegs around her midsection. Snow Storm screamed in surprise as she was suddenly jerked through the air. She folded her wings in and allowed herself to be taken along.

Steel Wing could feel her staccatoed breathing where he was holding her. She was either laughing or crying; he could understand both at this point. The only thing that was keeping tears away was the fact that he could once again fly, and was having too much fun to be bothered with tears.

With the added weight Steel Wing was going at a more reasonable speed; now he flew side by side with Private Skies.

"Is that the place up there?" Skies asked pointing at what looked like a skywagon scrapyard.

"Sure is! Nice place isn't it?"

"It's called Skyfall because-"

"Because a good number of passenger wagons were simply abandoned there once Cloudsdale was hit, and the pegasai pulling them wanted to get the hell out of dodge. It was something of a countrywide flying transport strike." Steel Wing smiled after speaking, somewhat content that he knew where that information had come from. Corona had explained it during the long walk to Armory.

"See you down there." Steel Wing called before dropping away, beginning a not so gradual decent towards the town.

It was during this fall that he realized he'd unconsciously gathered his sister up into a ball, and was now cradling her in his forelegs. She'd fallen asleep in his embrace, trusting in her loving brother to get her wherever he decided they should go safely. Steel Wing could sense this in a way he hadn't been able to for three years. He no longer had an accurate mental map of his everything that was his sister, but the innate understanding her feelings was already coming back to him.

He forced himself to look away since the ground was quickly approaching. He the spot he wanted to land, right in front the Town Hall, next to Corona's office.

---

Corona sat in her room, holding her adopted foal tight to her chest. She'd sat there for an entire day, having put her second in command in charge of finding the freed slaves places to sleep for the night. She'd been despondent since Steel Wing's demise, and hadn't let Lily go except for meals and a bathroom break.

The stale smell of urine hung in the air; While Corona had been gone she'd had an accident on her mother's bed. The foal had desperately tried to cover it up by pushing out the window, the impracticality of such a task hadn't occurred to the frightened foal until it was too late. The mattress had been sticking half way out the window for the past two days, filling the room with the smell of pee.

Lily was in tears when Corona returned, and pushed her way into the poorly barricaded door. Corona had dropped her power armor by the door and scooped her her crying foal. Lily hadn't been in the mood to question her mother's actions, and was just glad for the instant forgiveness she'd been granted. In truth Corona could barely register the smell, or comprehend the fact that it would never be washed from her mattress. She'd let herself make a friend, he'd been killed, and she was crushed the way she'd always feared; having friends was far too much of a risk in the wasteland. Corona had realized this years ago; Steel Wing was the first anything she'd ever felt close to, and now there was a hole in her life that was painful to leave open. She didn't know where or how she was going to fill that hole, but she'd have to or learn to live with the pain. Everything was terrible.

With a heavy sigh Corona got up to put a sleeping Lily to bed. This was the first time she'd actually seen the state of her mattress. Without a second thought she tore it in half with her talons, and placed her foal on the bottom half. Just as she pushed the top half out of the window something huge with wings dropped from the sky, using it's wings at the very last second to stop from hitting the ground. The thing kicked up a large amount of dust by doing so. Dust flooded in through the open window.

With another sigh Corona retrieved her new beam rifle and tossed it lazily out the window before crawling out herself. Whatever it was looked vaguely like an alicorn, and it was her job to deal with that sort of thing.

As the dust settled Corona propped herself against the building; her arm still being somewhat broken made it hard to aim a rifle well. She waited for the dust to settle so she could get a clean shot.

A stallion from inside the dust cloud said, "Sorry, I didn't even think about it."

He spoke between hacking coughs. Corona was sure she heard a female coughing as well.

Great, purple wings stuck part way out of the dust cloud, and with a powerful flap diffused the cloud.

Corona stared in disbelief as an over sized pegasus stallion, and a grey mare with a stark white mane looked casually around the town. The mare was easily recognizable from the dream she'd appeared in; the stallion was instantly recognizable for his size, and the way he looked over everything with a soft and evaluating concern.

"But you blew up." Corona complained, catching the purple Steel Wing's attention.

"Corona!" Steel Wing said happily. He spotted the half mattress on the ground. "It's good to see you again. Quick question: What happened to your mattress."

"Fuck you, I saw you die!" Corona leveled the rifle at him. Her aim was shaky at best mostly due to the fact that she was somewhere between being curious and crying.

"But I'm not, aren't you happy?"

"That isn't how it works. You don't just leave someone like that and come back pretending nothing happened." She complained slowly losing her grip on the trigger.

"I don't understand." Steel Wing said softly.

"I don't either!" Corona yelled, "I don't know why it hurts, it just does. I don't want it to hurt."

Steel Wing never would have imagined Corona being so sensitive emotionally. He suspected she'd gotten somewhat attached to him, but not to the point that his loss would affect her so.

"Mommy?" A small voice came from Corona's right.

A good deal of the town was out now to see what the cause of the shouting was. Now, all eyes were on the black foal slowly walking towards Corona.

"Is this why you've been so quiet all day?" She asked, leaning herself against Corona's leg.

"Yeah, it is kiddo."

"Corona, I understand how bad it hurts to think you've lost someone you care about. Take it from me, you don't want to spend more than a couple hours of your life remembering that you'll never see them again. You have to remember the good times you shared or you start coming up with ways that you should have been able to prevent it. I spent two years of my life doing just that, and I don't think I'll ever recover from it."

"I could have though!" Corona continued to yell, tears beginning to roll down her face.

"What? No there wasn't anything you could have done, don't say that."

"I had a shot, I could have taken it. I could have distracted them and-"

"And what?" Steel Wing interrupted, "And gotten yourself killed? Where would that have left me, or the ponies you gave a new home to, or Skyfall, or even Lily?" Steel Wing was nearly matching her volume.

"I don't know." Corona said once more, dropping the rifle. "It would have hurt less if I'd died instead of you, I wouldn't have to live with that sort of pain.

"Coward." Steel Wing stated simply

"What?"

"That's called being a coward. I know you aren't a coward, so what's the deal?"

"That's not being a coward." Corona hissed, pushing away from the wall and standing up straight.

"Not wanting to do something or taking the easy way out because it might hurt to go through it. I call that being a coward." Steel Wing said in an even tone.

With a growl, Corona swiped at Steel Wing's face with her talons. Steel Wing didn't budge, and caught the full force of her razor sharp digits.

It stung, but Steel Wing gave no such indication.

"Why didn't you dodge!?" Corona demanded angrily.

"To show you that I am still alive." He nodded towards her hand.

She looked and saw the blood, his very real blood; more of which was pouring down his face.

"You're an ass, what if I'd killed you?"

"I couldn't be held responsible. But my sister probably would have hacked you to pieces with a rusty cleaver." Steel Wing said with a smirk.

"I-Is that her?" Corona said, wanting desperately to change the subject to something that didn't hurt.

"Yeah, that's my Snow." Steel Wing said, standing to the side to reveal his sister.

"You cut my brother." Snow Storm said softly.

"Yeah, sorry." Corona wiped her talons on her leg before scooping up Lily.

Snow Storm was silent a long moment, seemingly contemplating something very deeply. Steel Wing swatted her flank with his wing while looking off in another direction. His sister yelped in surprise and turned a threatening glare at the back of his head.

"Something wrong?" Steel Wing said innocently.

"Doesn't your face hurt?" She said, taking a closer look at the slash along his cheek. Steel Wing could tell she intended to pay him back later.

"No," He lied, "a lot of things don't anymore. I should probably take a sip from a healing potion or something." Steel Wing said plainly.

"I think I have one." Corona offered, trying to put Lily down so she could crawl back through the window. Instead Lily leapt from her mother's arms through the window; she knew where the potions were.

Corona couldn't help but smile when the sounds of rummaging came from the open window. Lily found what she was looking for quickly and put the potion on the windowsill. Climbing while carrying the vial proved too much of a challenge for the little pony.

"Thanks kiddo, now get back to bed." Corona reached into the room to pat Lily on the head.

Lily did as she was told without complaint; her adopted mother was feeling better, and she wasn't in trouble for wetting the bed.

Just before Steel Wing could drink from the potion his sister yelled. "Don't drink that, it could be poisoned!"

Steel Wing almost dropped the bottle in he was holding, "What? No it isn't."

"Did you make it yourself?" She asked skeptically.

"No?"

"Then how can you be sure?"

"Wow." Both Steel Wing and Corona said in unison.

"What?" Snow Storm said defensively, "It happened to a few scouts after clearing out a raider nest. They poisoned all the healing potions they left behind. I'd be willing to bet those potions have been looted from somewhere."

"Yeah, and you could say that about everything else in the wasteland besides maybe the air." Steel Wing said before putting the potion to his lips.

After a few seconds Steel Wing began to cough and sputter violently, falling over dramatically. His sister kicked him in the ribs after she rushed to his side to find him laughing at her expense.

"Don't ever scare me like that!" She cried. Steel Wing realized he'd messed up instantly.

"I'm sorry, I should have known better." Steel Wing bolted upright and pulled his sister in close.

While Steel Wing comforted her, he saw Corona out of the corner of his eye laughing at his mistake.

"Okay folks nothing else to see here. Go do whatever the hell it is you were doing!" Corona shouted to the gathered crowd.

"I wasn't thinking, I promise you I won't do it again." Steel Wing whispered.

Snow Storm calmed down enough to respond, "I know, and I probably should've seen it coming. I'm glad to see that you still make jokes at bad times; it's one of those things I love about you so much. I hate it when it happens, but I love to laugh about it later. I'm just scared is all; of all the times for you to die, it would be right after I have you back."

"I know the feeling." He rubbed her back in slow circles for a while longer. When her breathing returned to normal, Steel Wing let her go.

"I bet you're tired." Steel Wing said after Snow Storm yawned widely.

"Mmhm." She intoned quietly.

"I think I still have a room paid for at the inn." He said, nudging her in the right direction.

"Uh sir, where should I stay?" Private Skies said, bringing Steel Wing's attention to the fact that he'd been standing there for a while.

"Guard's station!" Corona called out of her window loudly. "Sorry Lily, go back to bed."

"Running out of places to stash ponies, are we?" Steel Wing shouted.

"You know it!" Corona said, obviously completely happy with that fact.

"Follow me." A tired looking Sweet Spot said.

"Yes ma'am." Skies said nervously.

"We'll talk in the morning." Steel Wing called after the out of place Enclave soldier.

Steel Wing quickly ushered his tired sister to the town's only inn; stopping for a moment to confirm that he still had the room in the back.

"It isn't much, but it does have it's own bathroom crazily enough." Steel Wing said as the door swung open.

"This room is occupied." A mare groaned from somewhere in the room.

"Wow I feel like an ass." Steel Wing laughed, "Autumn Heart, I'm not dead!"

"What!?" Autumn Heart shouted, followed by several loud thumps as she fell out of bed. She charged the door and tackled a very unprepared Steel Wing back into the hall.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't there to help." The green mare said, pulling back to let Steel Wing breath.

"Yeah there wasn't much you could do anyways." He paused for a moment to rub his chest, she'd bruised something. "No offense or anything, but you have a bit of weight to throw around."

Autumn Heart didn't let the comment about her weight dampen her mood any, "You aren't the first to say that, but really how are you alive?"

"I plan to find out if I ever hear from the Nightmare again." Steel Wing laughed quietly.

Snow Storm cleared her throat.

"Is that her?" Autumn Heart asked, once she noticed the third pony. "Grey coat, white mane, dark orange eyes; it really is her."

"She sure is." Steel Wing said just as proudly as before.

"She's beautiful." Autumn Heart marveled.

"Thank you." Snow Storm blushed lightly.

"By the way Snow, she knows about us. So does Corona while I'm at it."

"About you, what?" Autumn Heart asked slowly.

Steel Wing raised a skeptical eyebrow, she couldn't have forgotten so easily.

"Oh right, about your relationship." Autumn Heart nodded in understanding, "I hold nothing against you for it, just so you know. It may be a little unusual, but I don't think a love like yours would be out of place no matter where it was."

"Thank you." Snow said again, letting out a silent yawn.

"I get that you're happy to see me, and believe me I'm happy to see you too, but she just flew some number of miles, without magical or technological assistance; she needs some sleep." Steel Wing said as politely as he could manage.

"Go ahead." Autumn Heart said, stepping to the side.

"Which bed is ours." Snow Storm said just as soon as she put a hoof through the door.

"Big one, dead ahead." Steel Wing said quickly.

Head hanging towards the floor as she began to nod off, Snow Storm quietly climbed into the bed and promptly passed out from the physical and emotional exhaustion she felt.

"I'm glad to see you again." Autumn Heart whispered after Snow settled down.

"That's more than I could say about Corona. She tried to cut my face off." Steel Wing chuckled at the memory.

"She did?" Autumn Heart gasped, "I knew she was hurting, but I didn't know she was in a violent mood too."

"She rarely needs an excuse to be violent anyways, what would make you think she wouldn't get mean when she's upset?"

"Well I could expect her to be crying, maybe wanting to be alone, I just can't imagine her hurting someone over the pain of loss."

"Yeah well-" Steel Wing had more to say, but his sister's grumbled complaint cut him off. The light coming in from the hall as well as their voices was keeping her up; were she not so exhausted she would feel ashamed to be acting like a foal, the state she was in enabled her to not care at all.

"Talk in the morning?" Steel Wing said quietly.

Autumn Heart nodded and closed the door. Both went to their respective beds.

The moment Steel Wing crawled into his bed his sister jumped, suddenly wide awake. She rolled over and kicked against his chest. She succeeded in pushing herself off the bed her brother's massive bulk being far too much for her to move.

"I said no!" She yelled, sitting up and glaring into the darkness.

"Snow?" Steel Wing whispered worriedly.

"I thought you were-" Snow Storm took several deep breaths.

"Who?"

"Somepony else." She said, before crawling back into bed.

Were he not so worried, Steel Wing would have laughed at her use of "somepony." The Enclave still didn't truly recognize the existence of things other than pegasai ponies. He'd make a comment about it later.

"No really Snow, who?" He persisted, whispering now that she was next to him again.

She rolled over and kissed him tenderly, "I don't want to think about it right now."

"I feel like if I'm laying next to you it's all you're going to think about for the rest of the night; it is what set you off in the first place." Steel Wing foolishly continued.

"You really want to know?" His sister nearly hissed.

"Only because I'm worried about you."

"One of the ponies watching me tried to rape me." She said coldly.

Steel Wing could suddenly see himself, a look of utter disbelief on his face. He watched as his wings unfolded, tearing large holes in the bed. He got out of bed, and left the room.

"Silver?" Snow called through the open door; there was no answer. Steel Wing was already charging out the front door of the inn.

----

Steel Wing had gone as far as the outer wall of town, he'd passed several guards as well as the newest of the town's population who were unable to sleep. To any he passed he said nothing.

"If it isn't the returning hero." Sweet Spot said, coming to join Steel Wing on top of the wall. "What has you looking so pissed and thoughtful?"

"Some stallion tried to rape my sister." He said darkly.

Sweet Spot didn't say anything.

"I'm trying to decide if I shouldn't just go track down Brightcloud right now and kill him."

"I don't know how things work in the Enclave, but I know how they work in Mexicolt; the rest of the wasteland too I suppose." She paused thoughtfully, "You know just as well as I do that, going out by yourself to take some revenge is not going to work out for you at all."

"Thanks, I do sort of need someone to talk me out of this. It's still pretty tempting though."

"Want a drink?" She offered, Steel Wing just shrugged, "You!" Sweet Spot shouted to a passing guard below, "Coffee from the barracks, two cups. One needs an assload of sugar."

The guard did as he was told without a question. One of the most important rule of being a night guard, If the lieutenant wants coffee, she gets coffee.

"You'd have about as much luck holding a gun to your head, and hoping you'll also hit whoever you hate most when you pull the trigger."

"Hmph." Steel Wing grunted, "It could work." He said rubbing his chin in thought.

"Yeah, to be honest I saw a pony do that once. Thing is, he did it once, then the guy he hated the second most got a good laugh and walked away unharmed."

"I think the point you're trying to make is that I should pick my battles; the problem is this battle picked me a long time ago, and I haven't been able to do anything but take it for three years."

"I'm not saying don't go kill the son of a bitch, I'm saying don't do it right now; as in not tonight, or tomorrow probably." She smirked, "I'm not going to sit her and give you a speech about how revenge leaves a permanent stain on your soul, and that you should leave the past in the past; just give it a little more time. Maybe you could spend a couple days with your sister before you get yourself killed, no what I'm saying?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Crap," Sweet Spot said, sniffing at the air, "you could have taken a little longer to get the message; what was the point of me getting coffee if we aren't going to take the time to drink it?"

"What're you talking about?" Steel Wing said, copying her actions, "How can you smell coffee?"

"How can you not?" She retorted, "It even smells like Captain Griff's stash. I hope he didn't actually break into it."

"I hate that name." Corona said, landing between them and holding two cups of coffee.

"Sorry captain." Sweet Spot giggled, accepting the cup from Corona.

"Do you actually want this?" Corona asked, offering the other cup to Steel Wing. "It is really strong stuff; I know how much trouble you have getting to sleep already."

Steel Wing took the cup without comment.

"So what are you doing up and about anyways? I figured you'd be with your sister and- Stuff." Corona began to mumble towards the end realizing Sweet Spot wasn't "in the know" about Steel Wing's relationship with his sister.

"I could ask you the same thing, you seemed pretty out of it an hour ago."

"I don't exactly have a bed, and my room smells like piss; because somebody wasn't watching my kid like I told them to." Corona said turning towards her second in command.

"Well ma'am a couple days after you left, she locked the door and wouldn't open it for anything. I threatened to break it down and she said, she'd set up explosives all around the door. I remembered you having quite a bit of equipment in your room so I thought she might be telling the truth."

"Well she was bluffing." Corona finished the story.

"I couldn't know that for sure, and I didn't want to take the risk of destroying that door; I know how much you like it." Sweet Spot tried to save herself.

"Fair enough, I'll have a talk with her tomorrow." She yawned audibly, "Now what were you about to do?"

"Kill Brightcloud." Steel Wing said, sensing it was his turn to speak.

"Had you come up with any ideas?"

"Not a one."

"Sounds like you alright." Corona teased.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You charged a group of Steel Rangers before even thinking about the consequences. Need I say more?"

"Okay, you got me this time." Steel Wing laughed.

"I'm going to go make a few rounds." A now thoroughly caffeinated Sweet Spot said, bowing out of a conversation she was no longer needed in.

"Did she just chug a cup of coffee?" Steel Wing asked.

"Have at it turbo." Corona said dismissively. "When she gets coffee she goes nuts if she tries to stand still. She can run on one cup for half a day though, it's sort of fun to watch."

"You don't say." Steel Wing said as he watched Sweet Spot trot in place.

"So what made you decide that Brightcloud needed to die tonight?"

"My sister freaked out when I crawled into bed; apparently she thought I was some stallion trying to make a move on her."

"You mean you weren't?" Corona elbowed him suggestively.

"I hadn't even thought of that." Steel Wing admitted.

"Wow, really?" Corona couldn't help but laugh, "You spend three years of your life thinking about how amazing your sister was in bed, and as soon as you get into bed you forget?"

Steel Wing nodded in grudging agreement.

"Sad, on many levels." Corona concluded.

"Yup."

"You know what you need to do then."

"Not even a little." Steel Wing shook is head slowly.

"Get back in there and show her how safe she is with you in the bed." Corona said as if it was the natural thing to do.

"For one thing she's exhausted, the second thing is- Well..." Steel Wing looked up and away awkwardly.

"You don't know if you can still satisfy her?"

"How did you- Wait wait wait, you didn't know at all did you?"

"No clue whatsoever." She grinned.

"Well yeah, that is the second thing at any rate. She probably has these memories of how amazing I was, but I doubt I am anymore; I don't want to let her down like that."

"Please," Corona put an arm around him, "If you can make her smile like you made that filly at the academy, you're more than fine."

"It was her first time, of course she enjoyed it."

"Well jeeze, don't feel better then." Corona withdrew her arm.

"I think I should, I just don't know when or how I should try."

"Sleep on it, or you could try the direct approach and sleep with her." Corona said taking to the air.

"For the record," Steel Wing said warningly, "now that I have my sister back, you aren't safe in the air if you piss me off."

"Oh hell you flew here didn't you?"

Steel Wing grinned in confirmation.

"I'm happy for you, you purple bastard; which by the way, what happened to your coat?"

"Every time I lose a body part it comes back the same color as my mane. I think I lost my whole body so now I'm purple all over."

"Is your thing purple too?" She snickered.

Steel Wing grimaced at the thought, "I don't actually know."

"Wanna find out?" Corona said, hovering closer.

"Nope." Steel Wing said, leaping off the wall and with a powerful flap of his wings taking off into the night.

"Where the hell are you going?" Corona said chasing after him. "Didn't you get talked out of going on a suicide mission?"

"I just feel like flying, so I'm going to fly."

"Mind if I come with, I doubt I'm getting sleep tonight."

Steel Wing responded by turning away from Corona with a smirk that said "Try and keep up."

Steel Wing was slowly learning to control his speed, but didn't bother after challenging the equally competitive griffon to a race. So they spent the night, weaving between buildings and trying to outdo the other's aerial stunts. The stunts portion went mostly to Corona, as Steel Wing was still fairly clumsy. Steel Wing won every race with his powerful wingbeats.

By dawn Corona was trying desperately to catch her breath atop the town hall; Steel Wing felt exhausted for the first time in a long time, his magically enhanced stamina wasn't as limitless as he'd thought.

"No-" Corona said, panting heavily, "Fair, all your legs aren't broken. I have a busted arm."

"You think I woke anyone up when I slammed into that building?" Steel Wing said, ignoring her complaint.

"Probably." Corona smiled weakly.

"Whoops."

"Yeah-" Corona took a deep breath, 'Whoops."

"Where are you going to sleep then?" Steel Wing said, noticing the early morning sun.

"Are you fucking kidding?" Steel Wing gave her a blank look. "Here or the back of Loot's Loot." Corona muttered, "Amazingly enough, they still have a few mattresses left over; even after we set up beds for all the slaves."

"Ex-slaves." Steel Wing corrected.

"Right."

Steel Wing's eyes went wide, "Oh shit, was Loot there!?"

"Where?" Corona tried too raise her head to look at him.

"Loot, the mare that owned the store; I promised her children I'd bring her back." Steel Wing's head was spinning, he'd forgotten.

"Maybe." Corona held up an arm, "If you're going there, take me with you." She turned her head to see that Steel Wing was already gone.

----

Steel Wing landed with a dull thud in front of Skyfall's general store; scaring a passing guard. It was closed, which Steel Wing was grateful for; he couldn't bring himself to walk inside just yet anyways. He'd forgotten a promise; and unless, by some miracle the twin's mother had been with the group of escaped slaves, he wasn't sure he could bring himself to face them in failure. He cursed his cowardice as he turned away and headed back towards the inn.

----

Steel Wing saw the gouge he'd cut in the bed; he was going to have to pay for that. He also saw his the rising and falling of his sister's chest under the blankets. There was a lump in the near the right edge of the bed, which made Steel Wing suspect she was curled up in a little ball. She never took up much space in bed; it was just one of the many things he loved about her.

Carefully he climbed back into the bed, forgoing trying to get under the blankets. Snow Storm awoke the moment he settled down.

"Snow, it's just me." He said carefully.

"I know, I wanted to say I'm sorry." She said from under the blanket.

"For what? I just woke you up."

"For last night, I wasn't thinking straight; I'm probably still fairly well out of it, but I shouldn't have kicked you out of bed like that. I certainly shouldn't have yelled at you."

"You don't ever have to apologize to me; you know I forgave you the next second. I just needed to be someplace else to think."

"I missed you the moment you were gone." She said sourly, "For the first time in years I could have had somepony to hold me while I was scared, and I made him go away."

Steel Wing lifted the covers off his sister and pulled her towards him. "Like this?" He said, nuzzling her cheek lovingly.

"Exactly like this." She murmured, snuggling as close as she possibly could.

Steel Wing waited patiently while his sister drifted off back to sleep. He listened for the once familiar sound of her humming with every exhale. He loved to watch her sleep; he loved that he could once again. Everything about this moment was perfect, and he'd be launch himself into the sun before he let the universe ruin this peace.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steel Wing stood before the Nightmare, who was sitting in a trance-like state staring off into space.

"Ahem." Steel Wing cleared his throat.

"Yes?" She said distantly.

"You wanted me?"

"Steel Wing?"

"Yes, that's me." Steel Wing said flatly.

Her eyes lost their glassed over quality and she looked directly at him.

"I did not call you here." She stated plainly.

"Then why am I here?"

"Perhaps you have something you wish to ask me?"

"Yeah I guess I have a couple questions."

"Please, ask."

"Why am I still alive?"

"Yes, that is a very good question." She paused thoughtfully and smiled, "I created something of a backup for your body, and grew a soul stone in your chest. This was all in case your body was destroyed, which it was."

"Were you ever going to tell me about this?" Steel Wing narrowed his eyes.

"I hadn't planned to, no." She admitted with a guilty look, "Even with my planning ahead, I never would have imagined you would try to contain so much arcane energy; the soul stone nearly shattered from the magical force applied to it. I had to actively hold it together."

"Have you made other plans for any more of my eventual untimely deaths?" Steel Wing asked dryly.

"I may have, yes."

"That's next on my list; second question, why haven't I heard from you recently?"

"I have been busy trying to come up with a way to answer another of your questions."

"Which was?"

"About the broken unicorn."

"Flash Fire." Steel Wing mouthed, having nearly forgotten the filly altogether. "What do you mean, 'come up with a way to answer.' Is there a way, or not?"

The Nightmare bit her lip and looked away. The answer was obviously yes, and Steel Wing could tell she was going to hate saying it as much as he was hearing it.

"It is possible to restore magical talent outright, but with considerable damage on to the one performing the mending. Perhaps it was selfish of me, but I didn't want to tell you for fear of you being determined to go through with it regardless of your safety."

"It was fairly selfish, but I can forgive that; tell me what I have to do."

"It requires the performance of a ritual at night, where one's soul is split in two. Half of the soul must be given to the damaged participant."

"Didn't you do that already?"

"Yes and no, I took a bit of your soul to create a house for the rest of it. Inside this 'soul housing' your soul was able to repair the piece I took off initially."

"That was risky and you know it, shaving away bits of ones soul can cause the rest to wither." Steel Wing scolded.

"Yes-" The Nightmare said slowly, "That is a possibility. How did you know it was a possibility?"

"I don't know!" He accidentally shouted, throwing his hooves up, "I was hoping you did."

"I might. My influence may still be leaking into you. Not on purpose I assure you, after what you said I tried my best to stop it. I suppose after the night you assumed the form of an alicorn, I may have imparted some of my knowledge to you as well."

"Well at least I know now. Actually knowing things is driving me crazy."

"I apologize if it's been bothering you, I of course didn't mean to."

"I was joking, it isn't that big of a deal; especially now that I know where the information is coming from." He sighed heavily, "Now about this ritual."

"Since you have some understanding of the function of souls, you may or may not also know that removing half of one's soul is far beyond 'shaving' some of it away. It would require that the container for the soul be broken before you could even separate it in half; this means that there would be no buffer before the cutting began."

"So half my soul gone that means-" Steel Wing's expression turned dark, "That means that there wouldn't be enough left to safely make a new soul gem, which means I wouldn't ever really recover, which means what's left of my soul would probably wither into nothing."

"It would likely kill you even if done right, yes." The Nightmare said in a subdued voice.

"There is another way though, isn't there?" Steel Wing rubbed his temples.

"There are wandering souls that could be used in substitute of yours."

"That isn't okay." Steel Wing dismissed the idea.

"There is a third option, that may work well for the both of us."

"Oh well, third options are nice too." Steel Wing smiled weakly.

"This ritual could easily coincide with another that would allow me to leave this place and move into your body." The Nightmare said sheepishly.

"You're giving me that look because you know, as much as I might still be against the idea of playing host for you; I want to help Flash Fire badly enough to go through with it. If I didn't know any better I'd say you planned this." He accused jokingly.

"I would never."

"Come on now," Steel Wing chuckled, "You've known me for at least four days, and you still can't tell when I'm joking?"

"Right, jokes. You like to make jokes quite often." The Nightmare reminded herself.

"So with you inhabiting my body, we would merge our souls and have 'excess' which we could use to help Flash Fire, correct?"

"Yes, that is right." The Nightmare said with a somewhat distant smile, "It is refreshing to have someone to talk to about the general function of souls. There was some research done into the function of a pieced apart soul. The bearer of the element of generosity mangled her soul in horrible ways for her friends. That was not however a full study into the potential power of souls, had she been giving more time she very well may have gone farther; once the balefire apocalypse came all her research was halted, along with her death."

"Wow." Steel Wing took a moment to reflect on the Nightmare's words. "This is sort of similar, but much less efficient than what she did."

"It would be more complete than what the element of generosity accomplished. The soul jars she created still exist however. Yours is- Well fractured to put it simply."

Steel Wing rubbed his temples in circles, which he was fairly sure did nothing; he had come to understand that in this place he didn't actually have a physical body, just a spiritual representation.

"How will the ritual work?" Steel Wing asked, aware that there wouldn't be a simple answer.

"It will require a special reagent, that I cannot produce by myself. There is however a significant source of the material in one of the abandoned fallout shelters."

"Stables," Steel Wing said quickly, "now just spit it out."

"It requires what you know as star metal; alchemically liquified star metal at that."

"I'm not much of an alchemist." Steel Wing informed her.

"I know, but there is a mad zebra who is. She is a devout follower of mine, and I've had limited communication with her."

"I think one of those unicorn assassins warned me about a crazy zebra."

"I don't know what to say about that."

"Me neither but I vaguely remember it coming up." Steel Wing shrugged, and dismissed it from his thoughts.

"I must confess, I was very certain you would choose this third option; I was, at the same time, afraid you would hear the first option and stick with it. You have been known to be somewhat stubborn in my defense."

"Why are you 'confessing' this to me?" Steel Wing raised an eyebrow.

"I sent the alchemist to the town you are resting the night you asked for a way to fix the broken unicorn."

"I see." Steel Wing said thoughtfully, "Not a big deal, really. I found my sister by the way!"

"The one that has been a part of your dreams for so many years, the one with which you have an incestuous relationship?"

"Yeah, the one and only." Steel Wing confirmed awkwardly, "It does sound weird when someone says it like that."

"That explains the recent surge in emotion I felt from you. I think this will be a very good thing for you. Above all else, you seem to care what she says." The Nightmare looked around for a moment in thought, "She may even be able to talk you out of some of your worse ideas?"

"Hah, yeah. Good one." Steel Wing laughed to let her know she'd succeeded at humor.

"I think this is where we should end our discussion, you'll find returning very difficult when the sun is at it's peak."

"What is this zebra's name by the way?" Steel Wing snuck in one more question.

"Xenobia."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steel Wing was wide awake the instant he left the Nightmare's domain, which he realized would technically also be his domain before long.

He was also aware that something was pressed against his lips, it was another set of lips; his sister's to be exact. Steel Wing had no reason to complain, but he still drew back in surprise.

"I had to have another taste after last night." Snow Storm giggled that cute giggle Steel Wing so adored.

"Does that mean you're feeling better?" Steel Wing licked his lips, and tasted fresh rainwater.

"Yeah, I do feel better. Being curled up next to you makes my problems go away. I'm sorry I scared you out of the room last night."

"Don't apologize to me, ever." Steel Wing said, going in for another kiss.

"I promise." She said leaning in the rest of the way.

"Nice." Corona said from a partially opened door.

"Fuck!" Steel Wing shouted looking for an object to throw at the door. The only thing available to him was his sister, and she was out of the question.

"Oh if you were going to, I can tell the zebra to wait. She did say you'd be expecting her though."

With a long drawn out sigh Steel Wing got out of bed. He looked back at his sister, who had a slightly forlorn look. He couldn't just walk away from that face.

"Give me an hour." Steel Wing said, climbing back into bed.

"Can do." Corona saluted and walked off.

"You didn't have to do that, if you have something to do I understand."

"When it comes to you, I'd make the whole world wait just to spend some time with you."

"I love you so much." She kissed him again.

"That taste!" Steel Wing grunted, returning her kiss hungrily.

Snow Storm was delighted by her brother's forcefulness, she giggled when his tongue tickled the inside of her mouth. Steel Wing tensed up; he was starting something he wasn't sure he could finish. Nevermind they only had an hour, he still wasn't sure he could give her what he was accidentally offering.

While Steel Wing was busy doubting himself, Snow Storm coaxed him into rolling onto his back. She crawled on top of him and continued to accept her brother's affections.

When Steel Wing started paying attention again, he noticed his sister straddling his chest. He could have done this all day and been happy; he could tell by her increasing aggressiveness she wanted more.

"Snow, wait." Steel Wing broke the kiss.

"Mmmm...?" Snow Storm moaned dreamily.

"I don't think an hour would be enough time for- This." He shifted awkwardly under his sister, hoping she wouldn't be upset.

Snow Storm laid down on her brother's chest and stared into his eyes. "Could I do something to convince you to stay?" She asked suggestively.

Yes. There were a great many things.

"I should go for now. Later today, or maybe this evening?" Steel Wing cringed, fully ready for the look of despair on his sister's face. A look that never came.

"Tonight makes more sense I guess." She seemed a little let down, but not as utterly crushed as Steel Wing had feared. "I could make it a special night; wine candles, music- Maybe music." She began to cheer up as she listed what she was going to need.

Steel Wing breathed a sigh of relief when she dismounted him, it was getting harder and harder for him to want to leave.

"Yeah, so tonight. When were you thinking?" Steel Wing gave her control over the nights events, while wondering just how he was going to make tonight special for her.

"Seven or eight?" She muttered distractedly.

"Sounds good." Steel Wing backed away while he could still get away with not specifying a time.

----

Steel Wing made his way quickly to Corona's office, having been informed by the guard that "some weird zebra" was waiting for him there. He more or less barged into the room without any thought of knocking; he was still thinking about how he was going to make the evening work.

"Things did not go well with your sister?" A strange, exotic voice came from behind Steel Wing.

Steel Wing jumped having just come down the empty hallway.

"How did you- What?" Steel Wing turned to face the sneaky pony.

No, of course it's not a pony; zebras are the weird ones. Steel Wing confirmed once he was face to face with the zebra mare.

"I was using the restroom; also the bird told me." She said walking past him.

"That isn't actually weird; and why is Corona passing out information about my personal life like that?" Steel Wing said mildly surprised and annoyed.

"Not as weird as you were thinking at least. Unfortunately I do not have an answer to your birdfriend's actions." She chuckled, before walking over to a small, one pony couch.

Steel Wing noticed something odd about the way she approached the couch; she still had several feet to go, and stretched a hoof forwards. She pawed at the air for a moment before bringing her hoof lower; when it didn't make contact with anything she took two long, awkward steps forward and repeated the process. The second time she found the cushion and hoped up quickly. Once she was laying comfortably she turned to face Steel Wing, who hadn't moved from the doorway.

"You're-" Steel Wing began, before the zebra interrupted him.

"Yes, since birth."

"Blind?" Steel Wing finished unsurely.

The zebra mare said nothing.

"How did you-" Steel Wing tried again, and again the zebra interrupted.

"I knew you hadn't moved from the door as you made no sound; therefore I expected you'd watched me try to find the couch. It was a near certainty that you would come to realize I could not see."

"Okay," Steel Wing agreed skeptically, "now that that's out of the way; you were sent by the-"

"The Moon Goddess, yes. She has spoken to me, much the same way she has spoken to you. She sent me to find you."

"Right, and-"

"She has told me much of you, and your plans."

"The ritual?" Steel Wing nearly shouted, happy to get a full thought out.

"Yes, I am here to assist you."

"What do-"

"I know what is needed, the Moon Goddess has instructed me. However-"

Steel Wing facehoofed, "However, something excruciatingly complicated is going to need to be done?" He finished for her.

"Yes, it requires star metal; as you may or may not know. An large quantity no less."

"Do you not have any?" Steel Wing rolled his eyes, knowing full well what the answer was.

"Not exactly, but there is an adequate supply not far from here."

"There's a 'large quantity' of star metal anywhere in Mexicolt? Color me surprised." Steel Wing said sarcastically.

"I was told you are purple. A very lovely purple at that."

Corona Steel Wing hissed her name in his mind. This time he wasn't as sure why.

"Yeah, it was humor with an edge I haven't learned to drop yet." Steel Wing admitted.

"I know. In fact I have heard much of you. From both my goddess and the population of Mexicolt."

"You've only been in town a few hours, what population of Mexicolt could you have talked to?"

"I have traveled very far in my days. Very few tales escape my ears. Several days ago, the Moon Goddess told me of your discovery as a potential harbinger of her power. She told me some of your past in Mexicolt City, and so I went to learn more of you."

"Thanks for taking an interest in my history. I think." Steel Wing was a bit uncomfortable knowing he was soon to be reminded of his actions in Mexicolt City.

"You are an unusual and impressive stallion to be sure. You try to help those who are in need, but you do not go out of your way to punish those who deserve it. While repaying your debt to a crime lord, you refused to kill to enforce his policies. According to one rather bitter mare, you said goodbye by kicking her out of a third story window."

"Second story," Steel Wing muttered semi-guiltily, "It had a high ceiling on the first floor."

"On top of all of these things, you are known to be, trusting to a fault, trustworthy and loyal. To those who wrong you, you pay in kind; you then offer a chance for peace, often to be wronged again. You were dedicated to going the rest of your life without finding love because you were forced to leave yours behind."

Steel Wing cringed at the last bit of her story.

"In many or most cultures such incestuous relationships are frowned upon, and in many cases are cause for exile. At the very least it was true of my tribe, as well as the Enclave from what I've heard."

"Who are you to make a judgment of my life." Steel Wing growled defensively. "I wasn't exiled from the Enclave for loving my sister I was forced out by a traitorous bastard."

The zebra mare shifted uncomfortable at his threatening tone, "You misunderstand, I did not mean to judge you. I was making a statement about the sort of love you have. It is a rare thing to have a love as strong as yours. I believe you will need this love as you continue your journeys. You value her opinion over all else, in time it will be your savior."

"Oh." Steel Wing said, taken aback by his overreaction, "I'm sorry; thank you I suppose."

"Think nothing of it."

"Your name was Xenobia, right?"

"Correct."

"Then, Xenobia, back to the subject; where-"

"There is an old stable, one where the inhabitants put up enough of a resistance to drive the old Mexicolt overlords away. When one of their own was sent out, it was discovered that the tunnel to their vault was obstructed by a large rock."

"The rock was actually a huge chunk of star metal?"

"Not exactly a 'chunk' so to speak." She said with a smile, "It was another celestial being. A true alicorn. Dormant, and therefore weakened. Curiosity won out and the stable ponies began to experiment with their discover. The alicorn was roused to defend itself, but found that exterminating an entire population would in no way help it. Instead it subjugated them exercising what remained of its power to instill fear in their hearts. Once dominance was established it ruled over them. For a time it was, for lack of a better word, good; the stable provided all that was needed for survival as it always had. There was however a problem. What was left behind of the alicorn's shell began to poison the local inhabitants, as star metal is known to do. It took years for the full effect to take hold of the entire population, but by then all were weak from the star's influence. The alicorn cared very little at first, but when the toxic source was found out there was a panic to escape. In the rush the mechanism for opening the door of the stable was damaged; trapping all of its inhabitants for the foreseeable future. Thus ended the life of the stable."

"Wow, that is fairly sad." Steel Wing said in disbelief. "Why the strange emphasis on 'life' though?"

"The old inhabitants still roam the stable, now directly bound to the will of their overlord."

"Why didn't they just toss the metal back out?"

"The alicorn would not let them. It had no desire to leave the stable, and it is bound to what it arrived with; much the way any true alicorn is."

"That can't be. I never remember seeing a picture of Princess Celestia or Luna carrying around a large piece of poisonous metal. You'd think that may have caught someone's attention back then." Steel Wing chuckled.

"The royal regalia worn by the princesses was in a very similar fashion to what we ourselves intend to do. The palace itself was constructed using a star metal alloy for the foundation."

"There really is an answer for everything isn't there?" Steel Wing mused.

"The sooner it is retrieved, the better. I will show you the way."

"As in, today?" Steel Wing raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, today, preferably before noon."

"What do I need?"

"What you would normally bring to a fight."

"So a psychotic griffon, a green doctor and some healing potions."

"If you must, know that the very air of that place will eventually begin to kill them. It has been some years, and I have no way of knowing when the irreversible damage will set in."

"Will you be alright?" Steel Wing asked, reconsidering his plans.

"I have received the blessing of the Moon Goddess, I am not immune to the star metal's poisonous influence, but I will be able to with you most of the way."

"I'll see if Corona wants to go, but- No she has a foal to take care of, I think it'll just be you and me."

"Very well." Xenobia rose and walked off the couch. She stood quietly for a moment took a few more steps forward and waited again.

"Something wrong?" Steel Wing asked, clearing his throat.

Xenobia's ears twitched when he spoke, and she walked around him into the hall.

"You could have said something; or asked me to say something, I don't know." Steel Wing called after her, having caught on.

She was out the front door by the time he'd finished speaking.

"She's blind, not really all that 'mad.'" Steel Wing said to the room before following her out.

--------------------------------------

It took almost thirty minutes for Steel Wing to find Corona and Autumn Heart to tell them of his plans. Autumn Heart almost insisted upon going, but Steel Wing had negated all her insistence by simply saying, "You'll die." After that there was no more arguing. Corona would have gone, but her arm still wasn't healed; with Autumn Heart being a part of the conversation, Corona quickly chose to needle her with all sorts of slightly pointed questions. Steel Wing used the opportunity to sneak away, to find his sister.

Snowstorm had been much less receptive to his plans. She'd threatened to tranquilize him if he didn't take her. This was the first disagreement he'd had with his sister in three years; it was also one of very few they'd ever had, aside from sibling squabbles when they were younger. When he'd brought up their plans for tonight, and how she'd volunteered to get things together, she'd relented. Twice she'd called after him to wait, twice he'd been dismissed by her almost against her will.

Once he'd passed by Loot's Loot, the town general store; he walked away, his head hung in shame.

He now walked alongside Xenobia, an hour's walk out of town. When he'd asked how the hell she knew she was even heading the right direction, using much more careful wording, she'd answered cryptically saying, "I know."

Steel Wing had dropped the question after her response. It just wasn't worth the trouble.

Not mad, maddening. Steel Wing grinned at his snarky inner comment.

"I guess I don't exactly understand how this is supposed to work, but why does the ritual require the metal to be melted alchemically? Wouldn't it be simpler to just smelt it?"

"Not only is the melting point of such material nearly unattainable by mortal beings, molten star metal would kill you before the ritual was complete." Xenobia said, continuing to stare straight ahead.

"What is that supposed to mean? It's not like you're pouring star metal on me, right?" Steel Wing said nervously.

"No no no of course not, that would be wasteful. You will be submerged in it."

Steel Wing stopped walking.

Not just maddening, she is mad.

"You really are out of your mind aren't you." Steel Wing shouted, taking a few steps away from Xenobia.

"Well, yes. I do not see what this has to do with the ritual."

"I'm going to drown in poisonous metal!"

"You will be fine." She assured, laughing a little at the silliness of his fear.

"Sure, sure I will. When this is over with, there's a good chance this is going up to the top of the list of incredibly stupid things I've done."

"That is not a short list, I'm sure."

"Yep." Steel Wing said pseudo-proudly.

They both laughed at his expense.

"At least you have a decent sense of humor." Steel Wing said, resuming his pace with Xenobia.

"What do you mean humor?" She asked, actually looking in his direction.

Steel Wing saw her eyes for the first time. It was unsettling how well they focused on him, since he knew she could not see. They were an opaque light purple in color, that Steel Wing knew he would be unable to forget for some time.

Now that she was to be his his partner in battle in the near future, he began to take stock of her. She carried herself well, her steps were sure and steady. He looked over her body, in the most respectful way he could, and saw her black and white stripes; beneath which well toned muscles shifted with every movement she made. Steel Wing found himself hypnotized by the rhythmic shifting of her stripes.He was unable to keep track of what moved first, the stripes or her legs, sometimes it was one, then the other; never did they appear to be in unison, but they were always fluid and constant. He stopped himself before staring at her flank by reflex. He silently questioned the reason for this, but remembered she'd been the last to ask a question.

"Y-You're serious?"

She nodded.

"When someone makes a joke and you laugh, that's humor I guess." Steel Wing struggled to find an accurate definition of humor. That was apparently a piece of knowledge the Nightmare hadn't passed along; he couldn't help but think he'd tried to explain it to her on several occasions.

"I know that, but I made no jokes; there was no humor to my words."

"You laughed though." Steel Wing pointed out.

"Laughter of any sort can be infectious; I said what I meant and you found humor in it, this is what occurred."

"So you were actually just agreeing with me about how many times I've messed up in the past?" Steel Wing asked a little put off.

"You could put it that way, yes."

Steel Wing just put his eyes forward and walked in silence.

Xenobia broke the half hour long silence by saying, "We are near."

"That was quick." Steel Wing said, still a little put out by their earlier exchange.

"I said it was close did I not?"

"You sure did." Steel Wing said, giving her a puzzled look.

They continued on in silence for only a moment longer before Xenobia stopped suddenly. She began to turn and trot in place for a few moments before continuing forward. Once she stopped moving again, she began to scuff at the ground.

"The entrance is very close." She said shortly, starting to dance around in place again.

"What are you trying to do though?"

"It is said the entrance is opened by a peculiar method; I am making my first attempt to open it."

Steel Wing nodded quietly and scanned the area. There were several rocky outcroppings scattered about; in most cases Stable-tec built the Mexicolt stables near significant landmarks as Steel Wing understood. The fact that there wasn't anything over five feet tall told him that they were either in the wrong place or it was an abnormal stable.

"Are you sure we're here?" Steel Wing said as politely as he could. " Regardless of how peculiar it was or wasn't, Stable-tec was known for making the location of the actual entrance obvious."

Another careful study of the area let Steel Wing see a slightly misshapen bubble of space near some rocks, and he moved to investigate.

Tread carefully. The Nightmare cautioned, Magic is at work here.

"Xenobia, I think I found it." Steel Wing called.

The blind zebra quickly made her way to his side, where she stood silently.

"It is already open, isn't it?" She asked flatly.

"Maybe, I can't actually see it. I believe there is a magical barrier here."

"Walk through it." Xenobia suggested rather forcefully.

Instead of protesting, Steel Wing went along with it; truth be told he was almost ready to anyways.

He took three confident steps toward the strangely warped spot and suddenly saw a raised, mechanical ramp, with stairs leading down into a dark tunnel. A unicorn sat near by the open entrance shuddering slightly just as Steel Wing stepped inside the barrier.

"Mistress! But how did you-" She stopped suddenly when she noticed Steel Wing's masculine features and distinct lack of a horn. Despite however many similarities he shared with the alicorn the young mare normally followed this was not her.

"That alicorn is here too!?" Steel Wing said shouted.

The unicorn stiffened up noticeably, she recognized that as the voice of a severely dead pegasus form the day before.

Steel Wing cleared his throat and tried a different tone, "So you remember me don't you?"

The young teal mare nodded slowly.

"So you remember how I died yesterday?"

Again she nodded.

"Good, then you know better than to try and fight me, yes?"

"Yes." She managed to croak.

"Good, now is that alicorn already in the stable?"

"She went in some time ago, I was tasked with maintaining the barrier while she was down there with the others. None of them came back, but one of those things came out." She pointed to what most would consider a "ghoul" were it not for the fact that it's skin was a shade familiar blackish blue and tight to the skeleton, was in pristine condition; showing no signs of radiation poisoning. It was dead, but a light amount of dust was escaping it's mouth.

"It charged out at me howling, and bit me before I had a chance to react. My leg is decaying, and I don't know what to do!"

She turned to show Steel Wing a very infected looking wound. The teeth markings were visible and deep, the skin around it was in the late stages of necrosis and spreading slowly.

"That looks like it's going to need to come off." Steel Wing said evenly.

"What!?" She cried drawing away from the imposing pegasus.

"Star metal poisoning is deadly in the most minute of doses, you're lucky it didn't bite something you need to survive."

"But-"

"He is right." Xenobia said, seemingly appearing out of nowhere to Steel Wing's right. "Or I could give you this pendant, which will stave off any further necrosis until the alicorn within can heal it."

"That'd work I guess, but do you have an extra?" Steel Wing said with a tone that suggested amputation would be far more convenient. The fact that this particular unicorn had actively tried to kill him coupled with the Nightmare's disdain for all things related to the mass produced alicorns belonging to unity, left Steel Wing unable to really care what happened to her.

"No, which would mean you would go alone. You would however be safe from any of the poisons found inside. Perhaps it is best that I do not go, if the stable dweller's bite is now toxic."

"I imagine a bite plus the polluted atmosphere would overwhelm you before you had a chance to escape." Steel Wing said, the Nightmare's knowledge on the issue shining through.

"Alright, she keeps her leg." Steel Wing said with an unnecessary amount of exasperation.

"You're going to help me, after yesterday."

"Would you rather I took your leg off now, because I can."

"I just-" She averted her gaze to the ground. "Thank you."

"That'll do." Steel Wing and the Nightmare both agreed.

With that, Steel Wing descended into the stable of the damned hastily; the thought of his sister waiting for him pushed him forward forcefully.