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.

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