• Published 12th Jul 2012
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Fallout Equestria - The Code of Honor - FireStorm2247



After losing her stable, a surface-born pegasus, Nova, fights alongside her fellow survivors to make a new life in the Equestrian southeast.

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Chapter 23: Breaking Point

Author's Note:

Alrighty, and so comes Chapter Twenty-three, and might I say - damn I'm really good at cliffhangers when I want to be. Anyway, with this chapter comes the three year mark of this story. By Luna I've been at work on this for a long time, longer than I should have been by now maybe. But I'm still enjoying writing it, because it really is fun for me, and I hope any and all who've read up to this point are enjoying the finished product of my labors. So without further adieu, here's the latest installment to COH. Enjoy.

Chapter 23: Breaking Point

“…”

With an unenthusiastic huff, I kicked away the now empty can of preserved watermelon, mine and Blake’s dinner for the night; it made for a meal that was not nearly as filling as it could have been.

After the fight against Bolt and his assassination party, once the initial shock of the conflict had passed, those of us who had escaped uninjured had been ordered to tend to the fallen. Each of them, Joker, Daisy, Mavis, Quinn, Sylvia, Gyro, and Tiny, had been reunited with their weapons. And then had come the physically and emotionally arduous task of laying them to rest. One by one, with magic and hoof and even rifle, graves had been dug for each of them over the course of the night, and each of them had been filled before being blessed by Raemor, who spoke a separate prayer for each of them to honor their names, their strengths, their histories, and their commitment to trying every day to build and refine a life for all those who looked to them for protection and courage, for all those from Stable 181 who yet survived in the wasteland. In the end, they’d all been sent to the everafter with the rites and farewells they deserved, with our best wishes, with our love and our admiration and our tears.

Now, they too were free of this world, of all the struggle and all the pain and uncertainty; they had each earned their rest.

We however, had not.

When we had finished in taking care of our comrades, the night had already given way to the sunrise. Despite this, Captain Saber had ordered us all to try and get a couple of hours sleep before heading back, and we one and all tried to do so. But the success of that particular effort was limited, and everypony who actually managed to sleep only woke up all the more exhausted. But still, we picked ourselves up, leaning on one another for the motivation to do so, and we eventually moved on. After waking, we started the day with finally looting Buckley’s team for supplies. Between each member of Bolt’s crew, we had found enough canned food and fresh fruits and vegetables to last us two days, pending on how the supply was rationed. Water was about half that when the fifteen bottles of purified water had been collected, and coupled with what little we had left of our own stock, we had enough water for two days maximum so long as it was sparsely tapped into. A swallow or two for everypony every couple of hours – it was a tough deal.

After the food and water had been counted up, we took stock of medicine. Using up Archer’s potions, along with our own bottle of pain killer pills, we had been left with nothing of our own. And Bolt’s team had only carried with them four healing potions of their own, and back then, I remembered how Buckley’s clinic had been destroyed during the Talons’ attack on the base. In the end, I had used one of the potions for myself to take care of my shoulder wound after the painfully unpleasant extraction of the bullet with Gunny’s knife, and with Gunny himself cauterizing his own wound, we now had three potions to divvy up among the ten of us that remained.

And finally came weapons and ammo… which was, ironically, the one thing that we actually had a surplus of.

Sticking to Archer’s advice, Saber had ordered every weapon, every bullet, every piece of ordnance to be recovered from Buckley’s ponies and stored away aboard the wagon. As a result of that order, we were now packing some rather serious firepower, including two SMGs, three carbines, two shotguns, five assault rifles, four light machineguns, one new laser rifle, one extra sniper rifle, a flamethrower, two grenade launchers, and two missile launchers, along with five sidearms including a .44 magnum revolver, and even a belt of frag grenades, all of this put atop the small stockpile we’d collected from Stable 181 itself. And all of these had come with a decent supply of ammunition too. Most everypony was able to refill on their own ammo supplies, and was also able to claim some of the Buckley teams’ armoring in order to patch up their own, while storing the rest, along with six battle saddle assemblies, away for later use. Once everything gatherable had been put away, our wagon was well over capacity; some of the less essential gear even had to be laid out on the roof due to lack of cargo space.

Afterwards, Saber got us all in line and moved us out just after sunrise. And from then on we marched, retracing our steps back towards the southeast.

In all the times I’d traveled on hoof, crossing from Hopeville to a new settlement and back again, traversing miles of desert over several hours of nonstop walking, I had come to the conclusion that this was definitely by far the most difficult trip. Due to his eagerness to get us out of the open and back to the rest of Hopeville’s survivors, Saber pushed us to keep a solid, steady pace throughout the course of the day. Breaks were sparse, short, and meals were smaller than anypony would have liked. Blake, being so young, was the only one to get close to a full meal in those rare moments when we’d get a couple minutes to rest our hooves, because I made sure that he did. The rest of us, for the sake of ensuring that we had enough food to last us to the radio station, had to deal with hunger and thirst picking away at us, with grace periods of two hours or so being the only salvation from them. Hungry, thirsty, sore, exhausted, we still miraculously managed to make the progress that Saber had wanted at the end of the day. And after around fifteen hours, all the way to the fading sunset, we had found the familiar ruin of the Southeast Regional Power Plant.

And with a good five to six more hours of walking still between us and the radio station, Saber finally called it quits for the night, only ordering the establishment of a perimeter and a small security detail for first watch before letting us rest and eat dinner.

That was where I was now.

“Are you going to be okay, big sister?” Sticking together, Blake and I decided to set up our bed right under the wagon itself, taking up the front half while Boulter had laid out his things between the rear wheels. With dinner having come and quickly gone, Blake was now rooting through my left saddlebag to pull out our shared blanket, still in good condition. “I tried to leave you enough of that watermelon so you wouldn’t be as hungry on watch…”

“I’ll be fine Blake.” I assured, unable to stifle a yawn as I watched him scoop out the blanket and begin to unroll it. “I had enough tonight to get by until morning.”

Finally pulling the rest of the dirtied blanket from the saddlebag, laying it out flat, he looked away from it long enough to cast me a worried look. “Okay…” he replied uncertainly. “I just feel like I ate too much tonight.”

“No, not at all.” I said back with a firm shake of my head. “You need to keep up your strength. You’ve been working hard these past couple days, walking, keeping watch, so you need to eat, and now you need to try and sleep.”

“Okay…” Blake himself was just as drained as the rest of us. Between having no room in the wagon for him and having fewer ponies altogether, Blake had officially been recruited as a guard for the return trip. With his nine millimeter pistol at his side, he’d kept on his hooves and stayed on watch for the entirety of the day, sticking with me when Sierra was taking watch in the air, and joining up with Raemor when I had to take flight. Since Shore, Gunny, Madeline, and Boulter were confined to pulling the laden wagon for this first half of the trip, having his own eyes on lookout duty helped the rest of us a great deal for monitoring the ground. In the end, Blake had done a good job for the day, more than managing to hold his own even despite his fatigue. I was proud of him for his hard work, and now, I was just glad that he had an opportunity to try and get some proper rest.

We were in the clear now. Only the light breeze made a sound tonight.

“Alright then.” Pulling myself up to all fours, keeping myself crouched to avoid bumping my head on the low ceiling of our shelter, I shuffled over to join my baby brother by our blanket. “Let me tuck you in, and then I have to go on watch for a while.”

Blake was in no mood to object as I reached over and took the front left corner of the blanket in my teeth, then tossing it back to make room for him to lay down on the dirt. “Are you going to want to share the blanket tonight?” came his question.

I stepped off to the side to let Blake pass and situate himself. “Yeah, I think I will.” I responded, coming back beside him as he laid himself down on his belly. “I’ll try not to wake you up when I get done with my shift.” He gave me only a tired nod as I snagged the blanket in my teeth again, then craning his head around to take the opposite corner. And together, we pulled the blanket up and over to rest it over his back, and I made sure that the end rested up to the base of his neck before I let go. With a tired sigh, Blake let his head fall to the dirt, looking ahead as he settled down; already, I could see that sleep was going to take over quickly. “Are you comfy?” I asked.

“Yeah, for the most part.” he answered back, shifting to look back over to me. “I kind of miss those pillows we got back in Hopeville though. Those were nice…”

“Hm.” I nodded my agreement with that. “Yes they were.”

“But that’s okay.” he assured. “I’ll be able to sleep without them.” And he gave a rather mighty yawn to back that claim; I definitely believed him.

“Alright.” And leaning over, I placed a gentle kiss on Blake’s left cheek, nuzzling him afterwards and keeping my muzzle there against him, taking a few extra seconds to savor the embrace. “I love you, baby brother.”

I felt him as he lightly shifted, reaching around to nuzzle against my left cheek in return. “I love you too, Nova.”

“I’ll see you in the morning.” Giving him a final parting bump, I pulled back and away to give him room. “Sleep well.”

And with a single nod, he faced forward and laid his head back down on the dirt, shutting his eyes to do just that.

Now, it was time for me to get to work.

Situating myself on my hooves, I turned away and faced out towards the open ground, sidestepping my way out from under the wagon. Upon stepping back out, I gladly rose up to my full height, taking the opportunity to stretch my legs and wings out individually. Yawning in the process, I had to shake my head and wipe a foreleg over my eyes in an effort to keep myself as close to being fully awake as I could. I had to be for my shift tonight, as I was going to be spending the next four hours staring out into the wasteland beyond our shelter outside the old regional power plant. Captain Saber had ordered two shifts for the night, both divided equally in their length… which would mean that it would make for the second night in a row with less sleep than I would have liked; I prayed that that wouldn’t become a regular occurrence, despite my growing pessimism on the matter.

Focusing on the task at hoof, I gave a once-over of my surroundings. We had parked our wagon and set up our camp right outside what was left of the power plant’s main entrance. By and large, it was intact enough to at least grant us entrance to the main lobby of the building. As such, we had enough room inside for a couple of us to sleep, and for now, Madeline, Sierra, and Ivy claimed it.

Back outside, we used the building itself as part of our perimeter, and gave ourselves a smaller area to patrol. Out of the team on watch, two were assigned to stay at the building’s corners, securing our flanks. The others were charged with watching the south, covering anything that might possibly approach us from the front or sides. For first watch, Shore and Gunny had been assigned guarding our flanks, and had already left to take up their positions. I could see both of my friends as small darkened figures when I looked from one side to the other, moving slowly along their self-made patrol routes.

Then there was Captain Saber who was leading our shift, choosing for himself the front and center position. Even from here at the wagon, I could see where he had set up shop, sitting on his haunches with his back to the rest of us… staring out… as if he were a statue frozen forever at alert attention; I’d seen him like that before, long ago… back when we’d first established ourselves in Hopeville.

Then, there was Raemor, who volunteered first watch as the final member of the team under the explanation that he himself was not feeling as tired as the rest of us. It was difficult, and yes, a little stereotypical, to imagine that the eldest of our group was the least fatigued by the day’s traveling. But he had definitely looked the part when he’d made that claim, and sure enough, he was already outside, about fifty yards out from camp and sitting at his post off to the left of the captain. But I stopped myself at finding him when I spotted a second pony sitting at his side… and even in the dark, I could recognize a pair of wings on Raemor’s visitor. It was Sierra. She had come out of the old plant and joined him, and the two were looking at one another, engaged in conversation. But the sight of the newest member of our party caught me off guard when I found that this time, she had come out wearing… well, nothing. She was free of her armor, no longer encased in that shell, and no longer weighed down by her heavy weaponry; everything I was used to seeing her with was gone, stored away in the plant.

Curiosity guiding me, I trotted away from the wagon towards the two. Together, the both of them looked to the south as I did so, going silent as their conversation momentarily halted. And as I closed in with them, I found my eyes drawn back to Sierra again when I noticed something strange about her. Despite it being night, the colors adorning her slim, feminine, yet strong and athletic body were still quite clear to me. And I saw that there were actually two colors to her coat. Her long black and silver mane concealed quite a bit of her, falling all the way past her shoulder blades. But what it didn’t conceal was a literal canvas of sapphire markings against her steely pale-brown coat, all of them akin to those I had seen on her face when she’d first removed her helmet. Most prominent among them was the solid line that stretched from just above her tail to the base of her neck, following her spine. And at the end on her neck, the line morphed into what looked to be a bladed tip… a spear. It was a spear, perhaps like those of the Old World’s royal guards of Canterlot, and the blade was clear against her coat. And from the shaft extended additional lines at spaced intervals, and after a quick but careful study, I understood that they followed the curve of Sierra’s ribs. That alone was an intricate array of marking, but what was even more so than that was those on her wings. Drawing up to her left on my approach to Raemor, I could see that the wing was ornamented with a line that followed the wing bone itself, and from that line, thin blue tendrils branched out to her feathers and traced over each and every one of them along its edges.

I couldn’t help but remark it silently to myself when I saw how clean and well-kept her wings were… much more so than mine.

From her wings I panned down to find her cutie mark as I begun to slow my stride. Her cutie mark was that of a sapphire sword crossed vertical over a lighter blue cloud. This too had been touched with its own markings in the form of an outline that surrounded it, from which extended a half dozen lines that curved downward along her flanks. All three of these sets of markings were accompanied by a whole array of simpler marks – two rings around both her hind legs like painted bracelets, a single wider circle around her left front foreleg and a pair of arches tracing down the back of her right, a trio of wavy lines along her whole left side perhaps representative of ocean waves or a wind current, a line that began at her right shoulder blade to disappear over the shoulder, a pair of dashes at the top of her right flank.

She was, quite literally, a walking canvas.

“Hey you two.” Having walked up on them undetected, I made myself known with a short, simple greeting.

The both of them craned their heads around to find me, and Raemor was the first to raise a foreleg in his own salutation. “Hello, Nova.” he responded, Sierra giving a dip of her head to silently say the same. “Are you ready for watch?”

“As ready as I can be.” I answered tiredly, looking from him to Sierra. “I didn’t expect to see you out here.” I said to her. “I figured you’d be asleep like the others.”

“I intend to rest shortly.” the pegasus answered me. “I’m afraid that yesterday’s events have served to keep my mind occupied, for reasons similar and different from everypony else’s. So I wanted to speak my thoughts to Raemor before I retired for a while.”

“Oh?”

“I took interest in Elder Raemor when he answered me about his age.” she explained, sparing a glance to the old stallion. “In my tribe, the elderly are revered for the great number of experiences they have gone through, and the wisdom that they gained from those experiences. Naturally, I take after my kin in honoring ponykind’s elders, and seeking them out to speak, to ask questions, share stories. And that is what I’ve done over the past couple of days, coming to him when a question… or a concern, comes to mind.”

“And what’s on your mind now?” I asked, curious.

“She was explaining that to me just now actually.” Raemor then spoke up, facing me. “Having learned of her background among the tribes of The Halo, I became curious of her having come from a tribe myself, and she’s told me some interesting things about her tribe. But now, she was just in the middle of telling me something about her more distant past.”

“From when I was younger.” Sierra elaborated for me, forcing me to tilt my head in question, to which she answered, “I was just telling him about how I recognized that pegasus stallion from the previous night.”

My eyes widened in surprise at her claim. “Archer? You… you know him?”

“I remember his face… from years ago.”

“How do you know him?” I asked, my curiosity peaked. “Were you from the same tribe?”

But to that, she shook her head. “Oh no.” she said. “Not all of my history belonged to The Halo. Years ago, I lived up in the skies, a citizen of a pegasus city in the clouds.”

“Enclave.” Raemor chimed in, nodding as he understood her words.

“You were part of the Pegasi Enclave…”

Sierra gave a nod. “Yes. I was born and raised in their ranks, the sole child to a patriotic family, destined to become a regular soldier.” she explained, with a notably hurried character to her words… as if the subject held a bitter taste to it.

“So how did you come to know Archer?” Raemor asked curiously.

“I never knew him personally… but I remember what he looked like.” she said. “He and I lived in the same cloud city, served in the same division… And I remember having to witness his public branding.”

“Branding??” I repeated with alarm, leaning back wide-eyed

And to that, Sierra nodded. “Yes… it’s actually something that I had forgotten for some time, until I just recently recognized him.”

“Why was he…”

“For treason.” Sierra answered lowly. “For betraying the laws and beliefs of the Enclave, and becoming a traitor to the pegasi nation.”

A traitor… a word I’d heard bestowed upon him more than once, or at least a sentence making a variation of the word… and yet events had moved so quickly that I hadn’t been allowed to question it. I remember hearing it in Buckley, back when Archer had been playing with Buckley’s children in their recess, coming from the lips of a mare who jealously guarded her daughter both from him and from me. “You’re not one of us no matter what you do for us.” That was what she claimed, and yet I was too occupied in blaming myself for the unnecessary lashing that Archer had taken to understand it. It had been dropped after that, forgotten, lost among everything else that had followed it that day and in the days that followed. But then, inevitably, it had returned from that veil of obscurity, and only yesterday… when Bolt had told Archer the same thing when they had faced off, fighting over my fate. “You’re not one of us. You came from the sky, and it was only by Mother Shimmer’s grace that you weren’t executed after you were shot down over the base.” Bolt said, his hidden thoughts coming to life bathed in hateful fire at Archer’s interference with his goals. “You were a traitor once in your life already.” All of Buckley came to know this, Archer’s history, when he was taken in. And thinking back on it now, I could believe that there were no secrets that Archer had hid from Buckley’s ponies, whether he had willingly told them of his past or not. But hearing it from Sierra of all ponies, that was not something that I could have anticipated. Only four days ago had we met face to face. Only four days ago did she finally take off her helmet and meet me with her eyes, so that I could see her face. And in that time, she had only told me of what had to be but a tiny fraction of her tribal history. Of course, as far as I was concerned, she had won a great deal of positive reputation with Hopeville’s survivors, both in aiding my escape from Talon custody and in joining us in our return to Stable 181; but we were just acquaintances.

Yet still, in all my time out here on the surface, I liked to believe that I had a knack for telling from a pony’s tone of voice whether or not he or she was being truthful or not. And here… I couldn’t hear any lie in Sierra’s voice. “We all heard it before.” the pegasus mare added to me, replicating my own internal thoughts into words. “That Bolt pony was right, and I can vouch for him, much as I’d rather not.”

“What happened?” I asked, my own curiosity held back by a wall of worry. “What did he do up there?”

“I was in basic training when it happened.” Sierra responded after a moment of thought. “When he was ordered to be publicly branded, our platoon was ordered to watch. It was a method used on new cadets to solidify their loyalty through fear. I can’t recall what exactly he’d been doing, but I know that he was charged with insubordination, and endangering Enclave personnel and ground operations, and a couple other things too.”

“All for helping ponies on the surface?” I asked in disbelief.

“Understand Nova, that the Enclave was… is… a very secluded faction. And its laws are made to keep the pegasi up there from breaking that seclusion.” the pegasus said. “Its leaders utilize every single measure at their disposal to ensure it. And that’s because they share a common fear, that what’s up there in the clouds would become the very same thing that they see on the surface every day, and that the evacuation of all pegasi to the clouds on the Last Day would be for nothing.”

“They try to maintain the Old World in their own way, by separating themselves from the surface and its troubles.” Raemor remarked, nodding his own understanding.

And to that, Sierra nodded too. “That’s right. They pretend that it can’t affect them so long as there are clouds between them and the surface, even when it’s those very actions they use to protect themselves that have already changed them and have outright made their goal impossible to achieve.” Then, she turned back to me. “And so, when Archer broke protocol and headed his own operations to lend material and military aid to surface settlements in secret, his superiors felt that the Enclave’s way of life was threatened… and they put a stop to it by branding him a traitor and turning everypony against him.”

“Goddesses…”

“Our senior drill instructor forced us to watch when they brought him into the street, same as the rest of my platoon that was in training with me. He wanted us to see what happened to those the Enclave leadership labeled as traitors.” She shook her head as she spoke. “They branded him right in the middle of the street, burned off his cutie mark in one practiced motion. They kept him pinned down in the street as the burns took their toll, the better to make an example of him. And when they were done they hauled him off. I never saw him again after that, because they threw him to the surface. But I know that it was him that I saw that day, and I remember hearing his name as his judge read it off to the assembled crowd.”

“So those marks he has now… those are brands…” I trembled at the dreadful realization as I rallied up memories of that stallion; Sierra only nodded one more time.

“That’s horrible…” I muttered, my ears slowly pinning back as I remembered the times I’d shared with him. And this time… I couldn’t remember the best of those times. No. This time I only remembered seeing what I thought were his cutie marks, that black puffy cloud with the single bolt of lightning jolting out of it in a zigzag… and the blackened ring surrounding it that remained forever written on his coat. And quite suddenly, I felt a fresh wave of guilt as it came crashing into me from those memories… guilt at being so simple-minded, so distracted, that I hadn’t recognized those marks for what they’d really been. That was amplified threefold for hearing from Sierra what those brands really, truly meant, and what Archer had been subjugated to in obtaining them. Undoubtedly, it had been the greatest disgrace in the Enclave… and the fact that Archer, a strong, caring, brave, honorable stallion, had been put through it…… I quickly found myself wishing he was with us, that I could express my sympathies to him… no matter how little they might’ve meant.

But worst of all… with Sierra’s story… I now realized what Archer had meant when he’d told me of a ‘previous life’… and all of a sudden, the patrol cap he’d given me, which was still tucked away in my saddlebags didn’t carry the same value it had before.

“In the end, he really didn’t put anypony in danger.” Sierra spoke up, drawing my focus away from my churning thoughts. “But the military leaders just didn’t care. In their view, they saw his actions as something that would compromise the safety of everypony else. Their judgement was all it took.”

“He didn’t deserve that.” I muttered with a shake of my head.

To which Sierra replied, “I agree. He didn’t deserve it… and all it did for me and my platoon was keep us docile, keep us from asking questions and following in Archer’s path, such was the desired goal.”

“It’s a shame… a real shame.” Raemor voiced in his own agreement. “I can’t begin to imagine how his family must have reacted in a faction so loyal to a set of laws. And losing one’s home in that fashion…” Here, the old stallion gave a sad little shake of his head. “These past couple of days… they’ve only served to remind me of…” And he let out a weary sigh, further raising my alarm at the sudden further darkening of the subject. “Of the darkest moment in my many years… And no matter how I prayed, no matter how long I meditated, no matter what I did… I just couldn’t get it out of my head…. I can’t stop thinking about it.”

“What are you talking about, Raemor?” I asked anxiously.

“Over the past five days… I’ve been reminded of it four times, once through my ears, and thrice with my own eyes.” Raemor responded… maybe more to himself as he stared ahead, making no effort to meet my worried eyes. “First it was Buckley, fighting there… They didn’t lose their home… but they lost a great deal when the Talons attacked.” After a short uncomfortable pause, “Then there was Hopeville… when we found its survivors in the radio station.” He only spared a short glance back at me when he said that name, turning away again a second later. “Then I saw for myself Stable One Eighty-one and its fate…… and finally, I heard Sierra’s story, brief as it was, about what she lost in her younger years.” This time, I heard the mentioned pegasus mare as she let out a little sigh of her own, one coated with sympathy. “It all weighs so heavily on an old stallion’s heart…” Raemor said, clearing his throat to speak clearly; this time, he looked back to me, and did not turn away. “Seeing my friends and acquaintances going through the very same things I went through, things I would not wish on anypony I came to respect… it’s tiring, disheartening… and reliving my past scene by scene… it’s been plaguing my thoughts ever since Buckley.”

Goddesses, I could hear the sadness in his voice, a tone of suffering that I had never before heard in the seasoned stallion. It was actually rather startling to hear in him, especially when he had always shown himself around me and my friends to be very reserved, very calm, meditative. And briefly, I was reminded of a very dreadful question that he’d asked me, back when we were together in Buckley’s church. “Would you believe me if I told you that I was dying?” I was feeling the same alarm I’d felt then, only now, on a much greater level. With that, I was quickly finding that his words here were very effectively carving open a sorrowful pit in my gut. But worst of all… I was rather suddenly feeling… ashamed of myself. Because ever since my capture by the Talons, and my consequent exile from Buckley, I had trapped myself in my own misfortunes, and I had only focused on myself. Aside from Blake, I had not once between then and now given any thought as to how my friends had been doing in the wake of everything that had come and gone. Now, with Raemor opening up to me here, I was finally seeing what he himself had gone through while I was locking myself away… distancing myself, unintentional as it was. He was suffering through a great deal of his own stress… I saw it now… and I felt so horrible for not seeing it sooner, or at the very least, asking about it.

“All four of these terrible misfortunes… each one of them holds a connection to me.” And again, his voice drew me back to the present. “Because each one, in some fashion or another, tells the story of how I lost my home… my Harmony…” Goddesses… Harmony… “The only home I ever had outside Hoofington.”

And still he stared to me as my ears folded back and stayed down. I remembered Harmony, the name he’d first spoken in Buckley’s church. And when we were there… the two of us smiled at his recollection of that place, laughed together at the stories… and I remembered the imagery, what he described – the tall chest-high yellow grass, the wide dirt road and the two rows of houses, the children playing about in a bustling trader’s market, admiring the rain, gazing at the lightning, cheering at the thunder, and splashing in the puddles left in the wake of the storms. But now… now it had been cast in a terrible new light… and he spoke something that, deep down, I felt I should have already known, yet didn’t because of my lack of attention. And now that I knew… I felt all the more worse than I already did.

It had been a long pause that hovered between us after Raemor let himself go quiet, only looking back to me in knowing that he’d answered my question. But with a great deal of effort, I forced myself to ignore that pit in me, and the memories of the past that came with it. “I… I won’t press to know what happened, Raemor.” I finally managed to say. “You shouldn’t have to relive that again by telling it to me, especially when you relive it enough on your own.”

“Hm.” With a light snort, Raemor shifted in his place. “I… really do appreciate that concern, Nova. It moves me that you care like that.” And though he didn’t smile… I knew what he said was true. “But… in all honesty, I’m beginning to feel that with everything I’ve accompanied you through, with all the things we’ve seen and done together ever since you let me into your group that day in Hopeville… I feel that the time for keeping secrets has come and gone.” And despite everything, despite the very depressing atmosphere we found ourselves in, the old stallion actually smiled a faint little smile at me, only the corner of his mouth showing it.

It was a gesture that I didn’t share, touching as his admittance to his trust towards me and the others was. Still… he was opening up to me about it, despite my fears. Perhaps, in this case, listening to him here no matter how much I really didn’t want to put more weight on my already shattered spirit would be wise, the better to be able to help him later in whatever way I could. At least this way, there really would be no more secrets between us. He knew everything about me after going through Stable 181, seeing my history…… I supposed now… it was my turn… and uttering a hesitant sigh, I gave him only the slightest nod before I made my way forward.

In silence both he and Sierra watched me as I made my way around, stopping by Raemor’s left side before slowly sitting down on my haunches next to him. “The last time we talked about Harmony,” Together, Raemor and I faced one another. “you told me that it had been the place where you met your wife.” At his nod, I knew he remembered too. “Maybe you could tell me what she was like first…”

It was both uplifting… and dismaying to see him smile just a little bigger. “Where would I begin in describing my wife?” he asked with prominent reminiscence. “She was… she was beautiful…… but beyond beauty that can be described in words.” he said after some thought. “Her name was Lucilla… a unicorn… coat white as snow, with her hair black as night, and eyes silver, the balance between those two colors. She was a truly unique gift upon the wasteland, not only because of her personality, the way she cared for the residents of Harmony, but also because of her unique talent.”

“And what was that, Elder Raemor?” Sierra asked curiously.

The old stallion kept that smile going when she asked; Goddesses, even if he would eventually return to the subject of his greatest loss… he more than deserved this moment to take his mind off it by remembering these good memories. “The magic she possessed allowed her to take an object, be it metal, glass, plastic, anything at all, and mold it into new forms.” he explained. “She herself was an embodiment of true beauty, in body, mind, and spirit alike. But she could create beauty from the ruin of the Old World itself, bending the very wreckage left behind into new creations.” Goddesses…… “It’s actually how she made me this necklace I wear.” From the top of my vision I caught a gentle flicker of light that illuminated from the tip of Raemor’s horn. At the same time, the same light came to life dimly around his armored chest, and just a second later, his medallion slid out from concealment behind the armored plate, floating in the air for Sierra and I to admire with him. I’d seen the medallion in Buckley’s church, when Raemor had been praying to the shrine of Celestia. Even from a distance, it had looked lovely. But here, I could admire how truly dazzling it actually was. The black circular disk shined even in the darkness, catching the dim light of telekinesis that surrounded it beautifully. And then there was the three gems fused into it, the clear gem set into the left side, the pink stone on the right, and the green stone in the center; it was absolutely lovely… and now I knew where it had come from. “The metal,” I saw as Raemor lifted a hoof, gesturing to his treasure. “Lucilla shaped it from the hull of an old train car, added the black color herself.” he explained. “And the gems – she took them from three pieces of glass that had fallen off a stained glass window from the Manehattan City Hall.”

“Wow…” That was all I could find in me to say.

“When did she give it to you?” Sierra ventured as Raemor tucked the medallion back into its hiding place, the light from his horn winking away.

“Roughly a year after we met.” came his wistful answer. “I had been stationed as a guard in Harmony for just over two weeks when we made our introductions. I had seen her walking by a couple times between then and my arrival, but we had never stopped to talk. The first time we did, and we both found conversation to flow rather easily. She was curious about me and my time outside Harmony’s fences, and I looked to her for answers about Harmony itself. Over time, we talked more and more, begun to share our time with one another… and things just picked up from there.” He stopped long enough to nod, as if checking with himself to make sure he was correct about his remembrance. “Up until we got married about a year later, we kept close, spent a lot of time sharing our duties in harmony, and even explored Manehattan itself. We even shared a couple close calls with animals and raiders local to the area… hm…” A brief but throaty chuckle escaped him. “I remember our first kiss was after a firefight with local raiders… imagine… a first kiss on a battlefield…… But, after about a year, we both felt that we had been through a lot together, enough to birth a greater affection for one another than just mere friendship… With that, I eventually proposed for her hoof in marriage. And shortly after, we decided to have a child.”

He’d had a wife… a wife and a child…

“We named her Angel.” Raemor said; that smile hadn’t lessened an inch. “She had my mane and her mother’s eyes, had a pink coat instead of one of ours.” Until… until he paused here, longer than he had any time before… and he shuddered, making me wince as that pit in my gut made itself known again. “She… she lived to be seven years old…” he said, low… hesitant… “But eight years of peace was far too much for me to claim… and my history caught up to me then.”

Oh no……

“The tribal warfare in Hoofington had done nothing but escalate in all my years away from that city.” Raemor explained, stone-faced as he forced himself through his next words. “Old enemies had grown in my absence, and some had expanded themselves out of the city to find the resources they needed to support their swelling ranks… and the Black Blood Raiders were one of those factions.” The anger at the mere mention of that name was immediately apparent in him… yet something else I had never heard in the stallion before… anger… it made me all the more regretful that I’d given in to his assurances, both to let him do as he wished to do and to sate my own curiosity. “I don’t know how they managed to do it… but they had won a great deal of resources, territory, and numbers in Hoofington.” he continued grimly. “Eventually, we begun spotting patrols out in Manehattan, at first just one every couple of days… but then more and more. Their whole faction had been on the move then, and we didn’t know that they’d come to Manehattan with hundreds in their ranks, all claimed from various conquered gangs and tribes and villages in that region.” But here, Raemor finally shifted from his formerly frozen posture, only giving a little shake of his head. “Or… we didn’t until they set their sights on Harmony…” And with a ragged sigh, his shoulders rising slowly, and then falling heavily, “After two weeks of seeing nothing but their patrols, we were attacked in the night by a force twice the size of the town, and those who knew how to fight made less than half of the settlement’s citizens and merchant contacts. We made our fair share of kills… but there were far too many. They overwhelmed us… and those who they didn’t kill they took away as prisoners, or tortured for their own amusement… like my family.”

Goddesses…

“The force that destroyed my home was led by a unicorn name of Carver.” Raemor explained after a short exhale. “And he recognized me from back in Hoofington… back when I was still part of the Dawn Warrior tribe. Perhaps he had known me from our own clan feuds back in that time, or perhaps he recognized me from my parents… I don’t know what, but he knew me and my tribe of origin… And he took such mock joy in meeting a face from the past that he ordered me kept alive… so that way I could see when he found my wife and my daughter where they had hid. And once he recognized who they were to me… he…”

"Raemor… you don’t have to say…”

But he did.

“He raped them both… even Angel… he did it… one after the next he defiled them before my very eyes… and when he was done, he ordered them both executed… and he just walked away as they were shot in the head……” I couldn’t speak… I couldn’t even move… “Their execution was the last thing I saw before I was knocked out by one of his soldiers… and when I woke again, the fires had died, leaving Harmony as nothing more than a smoldering ruin… another ghost of civilization like Manehattan itself.” When he finally looked back around to me again, he only saw me with a hoof over my mouth, eyes wide with a sorrowful gaze. “I was found by an allied caravan that had been away from Harmony at the time, because I hadn’t left my wife and daughter ever since I’d woken up…” he said, turning away to find a similar reaction from Sierra. “Once I finally found the strength to move again… we saw to our loved ones’ burial… and then we left Harmony behind for good.”

‘I’m so sorry…’ That was what I wanted to say. I really wanted to say it… But the truth was – words would never, ever, be able to mend something like that. Such an atrocity could never even hope to be healed by mere words. But it was the fact that what Raemor had suffered had been even worse than what I’d been through…… Coming back to Stable 181… it was a hard thing to do. And when I’d discovered my father’s real fate, hearing from a witness to his final moments, a witness who had been the one to not only deliver the killing shot, but had also defiled him before she did… I’d only barely kept myself from bolting altogether. To know that my father had been raped before his murder… to realize that my father had been alive for several minutes after the Stable’s evacuation… that he’d been alive while Blake and I had only been weeping, assuming that he’d already been killed… there was a scar left from that, one that would never go away. But for a father to witness the rape and murder of not just his wife but his daughter, his young filly… not even I had ever experienced something so sinister, so repulsive… so cruel…… it was, really, the most evil act I’d ever heard committed…… and it was one of my friends who had suffered it.

“After Harmony… I could never bring myself to remain in one place for long.” Raemor spoke once again. “And because of that, in time, I eventually set my sights on finding Carver. Years of tracking, asking for news, listening in on local gossip… and I could never find him… I never saw him again after he walked away from Harmony…… But as those long years came and went, I begun to hear more and more about this place, the southeast… Challenger, the center of a great deal of hopeful thinking. Between traveling merchants and settlers on the move, I was able to follow up on a great deal of the region’s development, including hearing of when a new conflict was beginning to take shape there. And when I heard the Black Blood were among the factions involved, I made it my mission to come here and continue my search.” And when he looked back to me again, he raised a foreleg, gesturing a hoof to me. “So you see, my real purpose here was one I made for myself after all those years of fruitless wandering. I joined up with Challenger’s caravans to discover what there was to discover, get the lay of the land, find out where the Black Blood were hiding out in the region… When I found you and your friends…and what you built in Hopeville… I saw… so many things that reminded me of the pony I used to be before my family was taken from me… and of all the things that I’d loved. And that was why I asked to join you and your group. Because while my intentions remain the same… what I’ve seen in you and your friends, from when I first arrived in Hopeville and up until now… you’ve given this old stallion a great deal of strength and motivation, something that the years have slowly drained away from me.”

This was…… on top of the past five days… this was almost too much to bear. Learning Raemor’s past… the rest of his story… and his real reason for being here……

One.

One tear came down from my right eye, sliding slowly down my cheek. And I made no effort to hide it from him when it came. No. He saw it, and his mouth curled just slightly down, a small sad frown slowly taking shape when he saw that tear… and then, seeing the pain in that face… I couldn’t keep myself away from him. I raised myself back up to all fours, and with no forewarning to him, I approached and slung a foreleg over and around his neck and pulled him into a hug. I sighed heavily, my voice shaking as I fought only to keep myself from breaking down, and I shut my eyes tight to fight back, resting my head against his as I held him there. And then, just a moment later, I felt as Raemor returned my embrace, setting a hoof on the back of my neck and giving me a gentle pat.

“I’m so sorry…”

Finally, I said those three words. Meaningless as they were… I said them. And I felt as Raemor shifted lightly against me, uttering a small sigh of his own while we stayed locked there. “I won’t say that the pain of that day has left me. No measure of time can heal something like that, but only dull it down.” the old stallion responded, with a rougher rasp in his voice that told me of his own struggle to stay composed. “But I feel you know that already… or if not, you certainly will as you age.” Even though he let me go, I only held him tighter, unable to keep from uttering a sad little sniffle as I nuzzled lightly into his greying mane. “You and I… we share many terrible similarities.” he added, even lower in tone. “We’ve both lost not just one, but two homes… we’ve both had loved ones taken from us, by the same faction, no less… and in varying degrees, we seek revenge for what we’ve lost… justice by bloodshed…… My motivation to follow you was as I said… but when I learned everything there was to learn about how you came to step onto the surface, about what you went through to get here… those motivations broadened. And as I’ve spent more time among you and the others, I’ve been praying that those misfortunes could be used for a greater purpose than just haunting our memories.” And here, I felt as he nodded, as if approving his own words. “Ultimately, it’s my hope that by staying in your company, I will eventually find Carver again, and finally give myself and my beloved Lucilla and Angel the peace we’ve been denied all this time. And perhaps, if I’m lucky, I can help you find the peace that you deserve as well… or at the very least, help you in drawing closer to finding it.”

So… I finally understood Raemor’s story in full. Now, it was as he wished it – there were no more secrets between us.

In his words, we were bound by three terrible tethers from our pasts… He and I had walked similar dark roads, nearly identical in every way… and we had suffered, shockingly, very similar fates. Was it just coincidence? Was it sheer happenstance that we were so alike? Did any of those questions even matter? Because no matter what, even if what we’d gone through was common in the world of today, the pain of loss on as great a scale as this was still just as punishing and unforgettable as it would have been one hundred and seventy-five years ago. For hearts that beat for good virtue and intention, the loss of those they loved the most would always make scars that would last a lifetime. Raemor and I had those scars, the very same scars, just like Gunny, just like Blake.

Now… I felt much closer to my old companion than I had ever felt in our travels before.

When I finally released him, there were no immediate words between us. I looked to him as I dropped back down to all fours, taking a step back to give him a little more space. And when I was still, he looked back to me, Sierra watching on behind him in respectful silence. Meeting Raemor’s eyes then, staring into a part of him that age didn’t look to have touched at all… I found myself wishing the same as he in knowing our likeness. Because in those eyes, there was written his story. There was the pain of his greatest loss in those eyes, just as he said there was. And there was the scars left behind from all his hardships, all his many battles, his defeats. These were the eyes of a weathered, weary soul, who had walked through the ruins of the Old World to find peace in the new. He was tired, slowing… and in his words… dying… But amidst all that haze, all those darkest of times… amidst everything that would’ve stamped out even some of the bravest hearts, there was a spark that shined through, a youthful spark that showed the determination backing what he revealed to me to be his motivations. It was one that survived through absolutely everything, and yet hadn’t aged a day. Because still he fought, still he lived on, propelling himself forward by his own unadulterated will. That strength he had, he now wished to lend to me, both through action and through word… and I was honored. That strength… it was a rarity, a frail thing, yet possessing the greatest power. And now he showed it to me, offered to lend me that strength so that I too could find peace.

It was all there, in his eyes… and it was an inspiring sight… one that, despite everything, gave me just a fraction of assurance, confidence, hope… which for the first time, pushed through that cold barrier created at Buckley, and reinforced through the loss of Hopeville and the return to Stable 181. And for that, I finally found something to say in response to the brave old stallion. “If there’s a chance that we can win the peace we deserve… then I pray that we find that chance… together.” I said… and I felt the corner of my mouth rise just slightly, enough for a tiny little smile that Raemor spotted. “To Celestia, the sun, and to Luna, the moon… I pray this.”

And Raemor… just slightly, he smiled too. “We pray this.”

*** *** ***

“Do you hear that?”

I heard it.

“Captain!” From the other side of the wagon, Raemor’s voice carried out as he called for our leader’s attention; he heard it too.

“What is it?” the captain asked in response, both Blake and I looking over our shoulders as he closed up to the wagon from his place at the rear.

“Are you hearing what we’re hearing?” Ivy asked, also from the other side of the wagon.

As the captain disappeared from mine and Blake’s line of sight, we listened back in to the noise coming from within the wagon itself. “Radio static.”

Yes… there was static coming from within the wagon… from our radio.

“It just turned on all by itself.” Raemor explained, his slightly diminished voice carrying a puzzled tone.

“If the radio picked up something, then maybe our pipbucks did too.” Saber observed in reply. “Madeline! Take a look at your pipbuck and see if anything’s come up! If this static is what I think it is, then a pipbuck should be able to identify it!”

“Already did, captain!” came the sergeant’s reply from her place at the front as a part of the wagon’s pulling team.

“What’d it say about this static?” Saber inquired.

“My pipbuck says it’s definitely a radio station.” Madeline answered him. “Radio Signal Bravo Delta Channel Fifteen Thirty. That’s the designation I have.”

“I’ve got the same.” Saber responded after a moment’s pause.

“Is it ours?” Boulter asked from the front. “We’re close enough to the radio station now that we might pick up our security channel from here.”

“No, definitely not.” the captain answered. “The name itself is enough to show that this is military grade. Stable channels didn’t have those coded names. So unless Challenger’s got some sort of broadcast system of its own, we’re nowhere near any place on the map that might send out a signal.”

Military… I didn’t respond, but I listened with attentive ears as the others speculated the cause of the mysterious new radio signal. I was cautious not to assume, but out of everything I’d seen in the southeast thus far… there was really only one source I could think of, and it wasn’t Challenger. In my time in that city, I’d never heard anything about the city having its own radio system. And I had even held an audience with the city’s General, practically it’s second in command after the president herself. So… if I was correct… then it was both heartening yet shocking to see that a promise had been held, pushing through fear, doubt, and loss. If I was right… then Mother Shimmer was still set in her goals. Because the only other place I could think of that could get a signal out to the whole of the region was Buckley Air Force Base. And as I listened to that static, the gentle buzz coming from within our wagon, I found myself unable to fully believe my own thoughts. Could it really be that Mother Shimmer was still going to go through with her plans to reach out to the southeast? Despite the Talons’ cruise missiles, despite the aftermath? Was Buckley really going to make itself known despite everything it had been through?

“What do you think, Nova?” With a light jolt, I turned to my right, finding Blake’s eyes on mine as he looked for an answer. “Where is that signal coming from?”

“I have a feeling I know where.” I responded after a short pause.

“Where?”

“Buckley.” I answered, taking a moment to look out to the northeast, Buckley’s direction.

“You think so too?” he asked, nodding when I looked back to him; it seemed he was of a similar mind.

“Shimmer must have gotten through to the others.” I commented. “It’s surprising, really. I was sure that what happened would have set back their progress. But I still don’t want to assume. It could be something else for all we know…… but it would be… rather inspiring to see Buckley carry through with its original goals.”

“I’d like to hear some of their songs again.” Blake remarked in response, with a very clear wistfulness in his voice that I more than wholeheartedly shared.

I faced front. “I know how you feel, baby brother.”

“Captain! Sierra’s back.”

At the call from Gunny, my eyes darted skyward. True enough our other flier was coming in from the east, a dark winged figure against the lighter grey of the afternoon, flying low and gliding towards us in preparation to land. Behind her was the radio station, perhaps another five to six hundred yards out now; the three radio towers atop the boxlike building looked to cut into the sky from here, the fallen one also seeable from here, the only monument in the otherwise barren landscape. But when Sierra closed in to just a few yards from the wagon, she pulled up at the last second to settle into a hover instead. And at the front of our caravan, Saber came back into view as he met her. “What’s the word Sierra?” he called up. “How are they doing over there?”

“Captain…… there’s nopony there.”

What??

“Nopony there??” Saber repeated, alarmed as I came to a stop midstride. “The place is empty??”

“Everypony looked to have packed up and left the station.” Sierra answered, looking back over her shoulder towards our now former shelter. “There were no blankets, no saddlepacks, no weapons… everything was just gone.”

“There’s absolutely nothing there?” Gunny asked, perplexed. “It’s just abandoned?”

“There was one thing.” Sierra said back, hovering in lower over the ground to come in closer to us. “There’s a radio signal coming from the station. I didn’t go inside to see its origin, but I did play part of it on my pipbuck, enough of it to understand.”

“And?” Saber asked.

“It’s from your sergeant, Mobley.” she explained. “We should be coming in range soon.”

A message. At least there was something. But as Captain Saber ordered us to pick up the pace, the sooner to arrive at the station and find the answered we needed, I still couldn’t help but be worried. Everypony, just gone. Even with some evidence as to our group’s whereabouts, there was nothing good about a group that was already battered and weary heading out from the only safe shelter we had left. Even with the crew of outlanders and their vehicle, Lil’ Luna, even with The Overmare, the Talons outgunned us in every way. Their vertibucks were sure to be out there, and their own ground patrols too. There was a whole army of enemies out there, and very few allies to fight them… and of course, that didn’t include the Black Blood. With my last encounter with any sizeable force from them having been over three weeks ago, I had not a single clue as to how they had moved about the region in that time, where their own forces had been allocated to. As far as that was concerned, they were virtually ghosts to us after Hopeville. So between their disappearance, and the Talons’ latest move against the region, there was no doubt in my mind that it was far too unsafe for travel anywhere in the southeast. The risk was too great… and for a group like ours, that was struggling to stay on its hooves… we were vulnerable…

“I’ve got a signal, captain.” A signal. Madeline had acquired it first, instantly drawing me in. “Sierra’s right, it’s our security channel.”

“Put it on speaker.” Saber ordered in reply.

Together, Blake and I trotted up to the front of the wagon as the pulling team continued to move it along, and the two of us drew up to them just as Raemor and Ivy did from the other side. And with a brief flash of light from her horn, Madeline cued up the broadcast on her pipbuck as she walked. “get this message, know that we’re okay.” Right away, Mobley’s voice greeted us as we caught it mid-sentence; his first words provided a small measure of comfort to ease my worries… but not much. “I’m recording this broadcast just after sunrise on the day after you left for the Stable.” Two days ago… “Just a little bit ago, we were visited by six ponies that were wearing that green camo we saw on that Challenger scout we have with us. Naturally, we were cautious, but our friend Jocko was the one who assured us they were the real thing. So after we asked em’ some questions just to make sure, one of them introduced himself as Lieutenant Colonel Ajax, one of four battalion commanders in Challenger’s armed forces. He gave us the lowdown on what brought him to us… and it ain’t good, captain. Those missiles that came down on us at Hopeville – turns out they landed everywhere. Proudspire got hit, another settlement called Searchlight got hit. Even Challenger took damage.”

Oh Goddesses…… they really had attacked everywhere…

“Ajax said that because of those missiles, the Talons had free reign to set up outposts and patrol routes all over the region.” Mobley continued. “He assured us that Challenger was still holding its own despite those missiles. But he also said that the city was pulling in everypony who survived the attack, and that he was under orders to evacuate Hopeville’s residents and bring them into the city as a part of that mission. He says we’ll be safe there, or at least a hell of a lot safer than being out here… so… I’ve given the order for everypony to pack up their things, and we’re going to be rolling out here in a few minutes.”

Challenger. They went to Challenger.

“I gave the order believing that it’s something you’d do, Captain Saber.” Mobley spoke after a hesitant pause. “But even if it wasn’t something you’d do, you have to admit that we’re not doing great here. We lost most everything back in Hopeville, and we’ve barely got enough supplies to keep ourselves going for any longer than another couple days at best. Ajax says that in Challenger we’ll be able to resupply, and we’ll be well-protected there… it’ll be nice not to have to sleep with one eye open… just a couple days of that is more than enough for me, and I’m sure that there’s more than a few of us who would agree with me.”

“Good job, Mobley.” Captain Saber remarked softly; out of the corner of my eye, I saw him nod his approval to his subordinate’s move.

“So when you get this message, captain, head to Challenger. That’s where you’ll find us.” Mobley said. “I’ll leave my pipbuck inside the station to play this message, and I’ll set it on a loop so that it’ll be waiting for you when you get back from One Eighty-one. Oh… and I’d appreciate it if I could have my pipbuck back as well. I left it in the station’s control room at the back of the building.” A light sigh came from the sergeant. “We’re looking forward to your return, to seeing all of you again. So you all be careful out there, and we’ll see you back in Challenger… Message repeats.”

And that was that.

As soon as he finished his message, Madeline shut down the broadcast, doing so with noticeable quickness… for a reason I knew why. It was impossible not to be reminded of those of us who didn’t make it from Mobley’s wish. But for me, more than that… I immediately thought back to Mobley’s message, and more specifically to what he said had been told to him by this Lieutenant Colonel Ajax. The Guardian missiles… the Talons had actually sent them everywhere. Hopeville, Buckley, then Proudspire, Searchlight, even Challenger itself. They had made targets of every settlement in the region that wasn’t under their control…… Sure enough, my guilt hadn’t faded even a little… but this just added a whole new weight to it all. Buckley was bad enough, knowing that two hundred and sixty souls had been lost on the base because of those missiles. Hopeville was even worse… because my choice had drove the ponies who I cared about the most from their second home, rendering all the effort each and every one of them had put into building it a complete and total waste. But now… now… it wasn’t just us that had been driven from our home, but others too. Searchlight’s residents, and… and Proudspire… little Kayla, and Ironhoof and Redfield… Rocky and Flare… All those ponies I knew, who I’d become friends with, who I had helped before, just like Buckley. All that progress I’d helped them to make, all that good I’d done for them… dashed away with the push of a button… erased by my hooves…

Goddesses… what if they’d been killed?? What if I killed them??

“Nova!”

But Captain Saber was the one to keep me from going any farther with that train of thought. Despite the chills I felt at nearing a panic attack, I was able to bring my eyes onto him, choking down my anxiety by clearing my throat. “Y-yes? Yes, captain?” But he wasn’t fooled… not in the slightest… and I was sure he wasn’t the only one to notice my reaction to Mobley’s message. Right now, though, Saber had a look of purpose in his eyes. Right now, he wanted us to keep moving. I could see that as I met his gaze; Challenger was where our remaining survivors had gone to, to escape an increasingly hostile landscape, and that was where the captain was going to take us next.

“I’d like for you to fly ahead and scoop up that pipbuck for me, that way we won’t have to stop at the station.” Saber explained to me, nodding over to the radio station. “We’re going to adjust our course for Challenger, so when you get it, come back and find us. We won’t have gone too far by the time you’re done.”

Composing myself best I could, I gave our leader a single nod in response, fanning out my wings in preparation. “Okay.”

“And make sure to hurry back.” he added quickly. “I don’t want anypony to be gone for too long.”

One more nod to show the captain my understanding, and then I faced the station and pumped my wings to lift myself up. This time, unlike the others, Blake didn’t voice any concern as I made to leave. And though I didn’t look back, I had a feeling he was keeping himself closer to the wagon as our group changed its course, protective, alert like a guard should be; ever since he joined the guard for the journey back to the others, he had taken his duty with a very adult seriousness… something that I was proud of him for.

Pushing myself forward, I put on a moderate burst of speed to settle into a smooth pace, keeping low over the ground as I quickly closed up the distance between me and our old shelter. I arrived back at the station with ease, free of distractions in the area. I slowed myself back down upon crossing into what I remembered to be the station’s old perimeter, arcing upward just enough to backwing, settling into a momentary hover before I let myself land smoothly back onto all fours outside the station’s north wall.

Right away, as I tucked in my wings, I felt a sort of ominous atmosphere about the station. Having landed where I did, I could dig into my memory and think back to right before I’d left for Stable 181. I could remember the exact spot where I’d first laid eyes on Lil’ Luna, the Old World military vehicle that had saved our group from wholesale destruction from Guardian’s cruise missiles. I looked over to that spot, recreating the image of that eight-wheeled machine, its midnight blue steel, its lethal mounted rocket turret and grenade machinegun, how the vehicle towered over its crew of ten outlanders. From there, looking right, I could recreate the sight of The Overmare, our confiscated twenty millimeter flak gun, its long barrel pointed out to the east as it kept guard over the rest of us. There would have been a sentry out that way too, perhaps two… maybe even a couple of civilians would have been walking out that way. Maybe, if luck had its way, little Melody would be drawing in the dirt, and Flash and Candice would be with her. Maybe it would have been also that I would’ve seen Juniper and Chase outside escorted by their widowed mothers, or perhaps with some of the younger ponies who joined us from the outlands. There would have definitely been guards on the roof, of course, and as I slowly begun moving myself forward, I spared a look up there. A guard from up there would have waved us in, maybe even Mobley himself would have been the one to greet us from up there. Or perhaps he would have been by the wreckage of the Zebra’s reconnaissance aircraft just north of here.

I could see everything that was here, everything that had been here. But now it was wholly deserted. The only evidence I found of our group’s presence here as I rounded the corner and begun to follow the east wall of the station was a wide, deep set of tire tracks, undoubtedly left behind by Lil’ Luna. Outside that, there was not a single trace left from our group, not even so much as a wrapper or tin can. There really was nothing here… and despite knowing the situation, despite knowing where our remaining survivors were heading off to, the emptiness they’d left behind here still served to heighten my anxiety on the matter. And coming up to the entrance of the station didn’t make it any better. The double doors making the building’s entrance had been left wide open, showing to me that our ponies had packed up and left in a hurry. And even before I stepped hoof inside the building, I could see the bare floor of the entry lobby… just as empty as the outside.

Taking in a deep breath, letting it out slow, I made my way into the station. In this, the first room, there was nothing but the floor. No blankets, no wrappers… nothing. I remembered the three rows of ponies here, arranged that way to fit as many within the lobby as could be settled in. I passed the room by without much delay, heading left and crossing through the open doorframe into the next chamber only to find a similar sight. Where once families and groups of friends had slept was now another abandoned room, similarly emptied of anything and everything. The electrical room straight ahead was the same as well, cleared of everything down to the smallest piece of litter. The next room, the one which had seen the most damage both from the many years of natural weathering and from the firefight that had taken place here at the world’s ending, was no different. The only markings here were those of the decaying sections of the floor space, blackened circles of rot parallel to the holes in the ceiling above.

It was an uncomfortable feeling coming through the station again, seeing it in such a state. The first time I’d stepped hoof into this place, I was distracted by my curiosity, by my wish to discover it. The next, I had been focused on saving Blossom from her Black Blood captives… much as I hated myself for doing so now. And then, the third time, I was too stricken with guilt at seeing the faces of those of my ponies who had survived the Talons’ missiles to feel the way I felt now. Now… this place was… dead… and this was the first time I’d seen it as such. Now, it was foreboding… as if it were a herald of something terrible that was on its way, or perhaps just a reminder of what had already come and gone… My mind was wandering something fierce by being here… and as much as I tried, I couldn’t stop it.

But then, finally, I came upon the control room.

The hum of the fallout shelter terminal was the one thing that gave some small measure of life back to the empty radio station. That computer was still where it had been left, perched on its simple metal table ahead and off to the right against the wall. And there, I saw Sergeant Mobley’s pipbuck. He’d set it next to the terminal, its screen facing me where it lay. It had been left on its radio screen, showing its active status as it broadcast the looping message through Shore’s programmed security channel. And with a breath of relief I trotted up to the table, gratefully reaching for the device and sliding it over to the edge of the table to look it over. A quick review of the buttons, and I shut down the broadcast, my signal to Saber and the others that I had acquired the device, and quickly, I scooped it up, biting down on the foreleg clasp and craning around to open up my right side saddlebag to drop it safely within.

Now to get out… I wanted out of-

“I would’ve thought you to be more alert coming back in here.”

I gasped lightly at a voice, not from behind me, but from further into the control room. I was jolted by its sudden presence, and I snapped my gaze to the left, my eyes zeroing in on the far end of the control room, to the open fallout shelter shutters there… where a black-armored griffin passed over the final step to emerge into the room with me. I nearly panicked when I found the paws and the talons, and the strange tail. Hard staring eyes met mine when the griffin stopped just a couple yards in front of me, memories rushing back in a lightning-fast replay of my nightmares. But it was only a second later, after I has tensed up to fight, half-way to reaching Mother Shimmer’s pistol already… that I noticed something… out of place.

The pearl-white revolver on the chest plate… the scar across the right eye…

Missing.

“After your show in Marefax, I’d have thought it near impossible to sneak up on you, warrior.” I had to take a step back, diverting from his eyes to study over the rest of the griffin before me. This griffin… not Blackhawk. Big, toned, sturdily built like Blackhawk was, sure. But my enemy was far more worn than this griffin was, both physically and mentally. There was age that I could always see when looking upon Blackhawk, a weathering character in him. I could see it in his eyes and in his movements… maybe brought by age… maybe by his loss and his quest for revenge against me. Either way, this griffin was younger, in age and state of mind… and yet… something looked familiar about him. “Then again,” he said, his voice lowered to a surprisingly polite quality. “maybe after Guardian, you’ve got a lot on your mind… Even the mightiest warrior can be hindered by her past.”

Marefax? Guardian? This griffin knew about them…… Goddesses… was it…

“Raptor?”

The griffin gave just one nod to confirm my question, to show me that I really was looking upon the face of the griffin who I’d met in aerial combat over the dead city of Marefax. This really was him, the one who I’d shot down, who plummeted from a sky masked in heavy rain to land on an old street blanketed with debris, to be run through by rebar and bleed out then and there. He was the one I’d bested in the air… but who I’d come back for after seeing how his death would have only come after an underserving period of great suffering. And I’d rescued him, given him a second chance at life, at recovering to fight again, and perhaps, someday, to see his home again just as I had wished to do. This was him… the griffin who I had come to believe would fight me again upon our next meeting. But now, here he was, staring me in the eye… completely unarmed. He wore only his Legion combat armor, black Kevlar plating with the trio of white slashes painted across the chest, and a portable radio clipped into the armor on his left shoulder. He was not ready for a fight… but it was that in itself that raised my suspicion.

“What are you doing here, Raptor?” I asked, recovering from my shock enough to manage the question. “Don’t you think it a bit risky to come out into territory inhabited by your enemies completely unarmed? Even after Guardian, there are some groups out here who can still put up a fight against your faction, believe it or not. And my group is one of them.”

“From what I’ve seen of you, I don’t doubt that.” the griffin retorted, keeping a straight face in the presence of my distrust. “And your right – it is risky. But not as much as it would be for you if you did the same.”

I wasn’t amused by that answer. “How long have you been here?” I pressed instead.

“Long enough.”

“Were you waiting here?”

He nodded again. “Yes. I knew that this would be the most likely place to find you had you not already fled to Challenger.”

“Is that why you’re here?” I asked; unarmed as he was… I wasn’t going to lower my guard around him, even with our history. “Me?”

“I came here to find you.” he responded, staying still as he kept his eyes on mine. “I’ve been tracking you for the past two days.”

The others were easily within earshot of the station; one gunshot, one scream, was all it would take to bring them running to my aid… and I was ready to call them. “Why?” I demanded.

This time, there was not an immediate answer… or at least not in words. Instead, his eyes began to soften, threatening to show a sliver of sympathy… something I thought looked very odd on a griffin. It took me by surprise, seeing that… but that look didn’t go away. And after a light exhale, “There’s… more than one reason why I’m looking for you.” he said, slowly, as if struggling to piece together what he wished to say. “As I’m sure you know, soldiers in the Legion are talking about you. Some I’ve been around, they talk about Guardian… and they thank you for giving Hayward the high ground against Challenger.” Though he looked right into the glare my eyes settled in, he didn’t hesitate to continue, and he added, “Others talk about your actions at Plainwell, when you first made yourself known to the Legion by infiltrating the town’s prison and freeing its captives. They speak with hatred at how you bested an entire outpost on your own, and blame you for the Talon blood spilled there…” Oh good… “And others still see you with neutral eyes, those who talk about your rivalry with Blackhawk. The word is getting out why he came after you… and it’s also becoming known what lengths he has gone to in his quest for revenge, what… and who he has sacrificed.” I made no effort to reply to Raptor’s speech here. No… with the way he was presenting his words, I was actually becoming… curious. And despite how much a little voice in my head screamed at me not to become distracted… I just couldn’t shake it away. “You have a mixed reputation among the Legion, Nova. You’re neither idolized nor vilified.” Raptor said, taking a second to lightly shake out his wings, his larger feathers rustling gently before the limbs were returned to their place against his sides. “Some wish you dead. Some wish you to become an ally, to meet you and say thanks. And some only want you back for future missions, knowing what you are capable of after you opened up the Southeast National Guard Bunkers. But me……”

“You what?”

“My view of you matches none of those.” he answered me collectedly. “Like I said, Nova… I’m here to see you for more reasons than one. I was witness to Guardian’s activation, watched as those silo doors came open. And after, I took part in the invasion of Buckley… and amidst the fighting I could see you and Blackhawk as you dueled each other again. But I am not of his mind… and I believe that you did not deserve the torment my superior officer has put you through despite the role you played in unleashing the monster in him. That is one reason why I came to find you… to tell you that.” Oh, how nice of him… “Another reason is not my own.” he explained, continuing despite my own silent thoughts. “After Buckley was crippled, I was sent as part of a separate detachment of griffins to search the region for you and bring you back into the Legion’s custody. After Guardian served its purpose, it was easy to rule out Hopeville as your place of hiding. And so after searching through a regional map I came upon this place, and I saw your group, your Stable number on the guards’ armor. I saw them just before they left the station under escort from Challengers soldiers. And when they were gone, I took up residence here in their place, knowing that eventually, you’d come back from wherever you had traveled to.”

“So… you sympathize with me.” To my observation, the griffin gave a slight dip of his head to confirm. “But you try to follow your orders to bring me in, too.”

“And I remember Marefax.” he spoke up, finishing my observations for me by startling me to a stop. “Our first meet is why I consider you an enemy… but it’s also why I cannot find it within myself to fight you and bring you back to Blackhawk… My views differ from the others because I see you as both ally and enemy at the same time.”

“I see…” For a moment, just a second, that same voice in my head screamed for me to run… or to fight. There was just something about the way he spoke. I could hear the gratefulness in his voice, and I knew that that came from his memory of Marefax. But the pitch of his voice… that reminded me of where his allegiance really was, and despite his coming to me peacefully, with no initial desire for a fight, the Talon banner still flew behind him… and with it was the chance that he was merely waiting for the right time to spring a trap, to carry out those orders he’d been given. And so… for me, that raised only one question. “What’re you going to do, Raptor?”

The griffin shifted in his place at the top of the fallout shelter stairs, looking briefly over his left shoulder, down into his former hiding place. And when he looked back, after a long, weighty pause, “When we met in the skies over Marefax, I expected to come out as the victor in our duel.” he said. “When you shot me down and I hit the ground, impaling myself on that rebar, I expected to die there… to just bleed out and fade away. And when I was laying there in the pouring rain, I expected you to carry on your fight up there, to leave me to my fate just like my retreating comrades would have done…” Again, Raptor turned away, this time putting his back to me as he descended the first two steps of the staircase leading to the station’s shelter. “But one by one, you shattered those expectations. You followed me to where I crashed, you pulled yourself away from that battle to come to me… and for a reason neither of us knew then, and perhaps still don’t know even now, you saved my life when you would have otherwise claimed it.” He had kept his back to me as he spoke. And after crossing a third step, Raptor bowed his head down, only to raise it back up a moment later… with a leather strap held in his beak. He turned himself around on the stairs, making his way back up to return to his former place at the top of the staircase. Now, a single saddlepack was hovering before him, swaying lightly while he held it by the leather sash until he set it down on the floor at his paws. “You gave me a second chance, Nova.” he said, keeping me away from a chance to break my silence when he cracked a small… yet genuine smile. “You gave me a chance to live, to try and make it through this war so that I can go back home and see the people I love… My parents, my two little sisters, my grandmother… my wife and our newborn son. You gave me a chance to reach my ultimate goal – to see my family again. And in the end… that’s why I’m really here. That’s the reason that presides over all the others as to why I came looking for you.”

Goddesses… a whole family waiting for him back in Hayward… and he was stuck in here too… waiting for this war to reach its end. Hearing that… hearing of an intact family like that, even if it did belong to an enemy, even after my history…… There was a part of me that wanted to show little care for it. After all, he served an enemy’s flag. Why should I care about the family of an enemy if he served a faction that stole part of my family from me?

But…… a gentle wave of relief, of self-appreciation, was what easily overpowered that darker part of me – the knowing that, if I hadn’t done what I’d done in that city, a mother and father would have had to bury their child, two young girls would lose their eldest sibling, who they must have looked up to…… and worst of all, a wife would be widowed, and their child would grow up without a father. I’d saved all of them from that horrible fate, even after I’d suffered the way I had… and that held an impact of its own.

“You gave me the greatest gift of war – another chance.” Raptor explained. “And for that… the least I can do is repay the blood debt I owe you.”

That’s when he bowed his head, looking upon the saddlebag he’d brought here with him. And reaching a paw forward, he slid it along the floor, pushing it toward me. “What is that?” I asked, softer.

“I don’t like having debts, Nova.” Raptor explained, looking back up to me. “It’s my belief that that trait is something that’s universal to griffins, or at least to those native to Hayward. In one form or another, we repay any debt we may come to owe, in as significant and lasting a way as we can. Within this bag is what I hope will settle my debt and make us as even as two soldiers under two banners could be.” He turned his attention back to the saddlebag, placing a paw back over the top of the pack and hooking a claw under the flap. With one single motion, he pulled the flap up and over before pushing the bag over onto its side; even with it faced out like that, I couldn’t see what was in it… and I actually wanted to see what was in it even before he showed me himself. “I have something of yours.” he explained, looking back up to me from the bag briefly. “Two somethings, actually. I managed to find them once I returned to my station after the battle in Buckley. With how unorganized things were between that fight and your escape from Stable One Eighty-four before that, no one was going to notice those two items missing from all the other confiscated equipment that’d been collected with it.” Then he looked back down, setting his paw against the bottom of the pack. “So, like I said, I hope that what I’ve brought you will make us even.”

He turned over the saddlebag. Rolling out smoothly, a circular device emerged and settled onto the floor. I recognized it immediately, because just moments ago I had grabbed the very same object from the nearby table. It was a pipbuck, the screen blank, but the device as a whole undamaged. And below the screen, I could see the emblazoned letters on the metal – Stable 181 Pipbuck. It was one of our pipbucks…… but… more than that… “Isn’t… isn’t that mine?” But that’s when Raptor gently shook the bag, coaxing the second of his promised items the rest of the way out of the pack and onto the floor. With just two heavy clanks against the floor, the item dropped. The glint of polished metal was the first thing to catch my eye, the same sheen covering it from the end of the barrel all the way to the back of the slide. It was a pistol, .45 auto. “What is…” But when I tried to inquire why this was the second item… my words were stopped dead in their tracks, only to be replaced by a gasp when I saw an engraving etched into the pistol’s grip just below the firing bit.

Etched against the black plastic plate armoring the metal underneath… it was the outline of a blue flame… a flame that copied the shape of my very cutie mark.

And shielded within it… a sapphire rose…… my mother’s cutie mark… protected by the mark of my father……

Fire Rose… it was my mother’s pistol…

The name of my mother’s weapon came out a hushed whisper on my lips as my eyes stayed locked on the weapon I had thought lost forever. I couldn’t believe my eyes… I just couldn’t…… but there it was… brought on the wings of an enemy soldier… I couldn’t speak a word… couldn’t utter a breath. But I took a step forward instead, and then another, until I finally settled into a slow but solid walk to close the distance between myself and Raptor. I stopped just inches from the Talon griffin. He made no move against me, didn’t even budge. In my peripheral sight, he only stayed there, leaned back to give me a little more space. I felt his eyes on me, watching as my stunned reaction played out before him. And I let him watch as I reached my right forehoof out, placing it ever-so-gently upon the engraving… the design my mother had requested be engraved into it… showing forever the bond between her and my father.

Here it was… her weapon… passed to me upon her death… now the last heirloom of my family. And Raptor, of all people, was the one to bring it back.

“Oh, and lest I forget,” the griffin suddenly spoke up; I didn’t look back to him when he did. “I managed to save your ammo belt as well.” A soft rattling of objects, light and metal, and I saw at the top of my sight as the promised ammo belt was set on the floor; it was mine too, taken just like Fire Rose when I’d been captured. “There’s seven full clips in total, six on the belt and one already loaded up.

“Goddesses…” A good minute… or maybe even two… must’ve come and gone in my trance. But finally, I managed to speak, recovering enough to blink before I slid Fire Rose closer to me. “I thought… I thought I’d lost this weapon forever.” I took just one step back as I paused again, then slowly looking up to meet Raptor’s eyes where they watched down on me. “I… I don’t know what to say…”

To that, the big griffin shook his head. “You don’t have to say anything.” he responded. “It’s easy to tell that this pistol held sentimental value to you. You don’t find a weapon like that very often.”

I couldn’t stop my eyes from falling back down upon my long-lost treasure… resting underhoof. “This weapon… it belonged to my mother.” I began. “When we were living in our Stable, she had it engraved with her cutie mark and my father’s. She wanted it to represent their love, and I’m sure eventually she would’ve made it a family heirloom.” And as I spoke, I couldn’t help but start tracing the design of the engravings, running my hoof along every curve of father’s flame. “When she died… I took it for myself, not only out of necessity’s sake, but also because it was a part of her. It was something that I could look at and remember her by if ever my memory faltered.”

“I see.” the griffin replied after a short pause; when I met his eyes again, he was nodding. “Then I’m glad I managed to return it to the pony whom it belongs to.”

“This pistol is the last material memory I have of my mother.” I said back, lowly. “When I lost it back at Stable 184… it was like losing a part of me because of what it meant to me. And in all honesty… I just can’t imagine it in the possession of anyone else but either me or my little brother.”

“I understand.” Raptor responded. “Being a husband and father myself, I know what it’s like to have something special that symbolizes the family. And I wouldn’t want to see it taken away from us when it has that kind of value… And hearing your weapon’s story – I hope that returning it to you has made us even.”

And to his hope, I was able to crack just a slight smile to show him my answer. “If there was ever a debt you owed me… this has repaid it.”

That answer – that looked to satisfy him. “Good. I’m glad to hear that.” he said with a nod. “For what you did for me, I thought this the best way to repay you. I’m glad to see you think it so.”

Fire Rose was back. In a moment where two enemies became allies, even if just for a short time, it had been brought back to its rightful owner. Looking into Raptor’s eyes now, I knew we both believed the same thing – that we were, in this moment, allies. Here in this station, because of our shared past, the war outside didn’t reach us. In here, it just didn’t matter. But now, it seemed that our business here was drawing to an end. And that knowing jolted me onto a new thought path, one that promptly raised a single question… one that I was hesitant to place on the table. Because here and now, we were speaking in peace, unguided by the rules of the conflict that was reaching its crescendo outside. But after that…… what would happen to us? That was the question I wanted to ignore. That was the question I didn’t want to have to speak. But in the silence that followed the conclusion of our meeting… it was the only thing that could be said.

And so I asked him.

“What happens now, Raptor?” Lowering my muzzle down to Fire Rose, I carefully retrieved the weapon off the floor, making sure to bite down on the slide and not the firing bit before I backed away a few more steps. “What will you do?” I inquired after setting the pistol back down at my hooves.

The griffin shifted in his place, his claws clacking lightly against the stone. “In the immediate moment,” he responded, slow and thoughtful. “I think it’d be wise for me to stay low here in this station for a little while longer yet. Before you arrived, I tapped in to that broadcast when I found the pipbuck.” When I looked back to him, he cocked his head in a little apologetic shrug. “So I know that you’ve got a group out there with you. And my guess is that they wouldn’t be as welcoming to me as you were.”

I acknowledged that truth with a little sigh. “Yeah… you’re probably right.”

“I’ll give you some time to cover some distance toward Challenger.” he continued, nodding. “Then I need to head back to base… let my superiors know that I didn’t find you along my patrol route before I get a new assignment.”

“Covering my tracks yet again…” I remarked, unable to suppress a little note of laughter.

Raptor, however, did not share that petite level of amusement. “Yeah… well, don’t get used to it, Nova.” he responded, with a much more pessimistic character to his words now; it actually… it actually hit me pretty hard… because in the back of my mind, I knew something like this was going to come up. “Chances are that if we see each other again… it’ll be back to trading gunfire …”

I uttered a little sigh of defeat. “I suppose it’s out of the question for you to join my group, huh?”

“You may have saved my life, Nova. But I don’t consider you worth betraying my home for…… Sorry.”

Ouch.

“Well… still, I pray that it won’t come to that.” I spoke up after a pause. “Especially after this.”

“As do I.” the griffin responded. “I’d rather meet again in a time of peace… or not at all.” And I only looked away… eventually nodding my own agreement to his wish. “Your group is probably wondering where you are.” My silence that time had gone for a lot longer than was comfortable. Having only looked to the floor, shifting my forehooves uncertainly, the griffin took the cue. “You should probably get back to them before they come looking.”

A good idea… despite the emptiness that seemed to be present here… the knowing that this was something that had gone unresolved, and would be as such for a long time yet. It was a terrible feeling, knowing that this was something that I couldn’t bring to a resolution… especially when Raptor had just done what he did for me. Seeing Fire Rose, a weapon I thought I’d never be able to hold again… it brought a measure of comfort to me, something that helped to mend the impact of having seen my parents’ graves again. I had a part of my mother again, a part of both mother and father all in just this one little pistol. A part of our family was back where it belonged now, all thanks to this griffin.

But still… the others were probably beginning to wonder. It didn’t take a few minutes to pick up a pipbuck and return to the group; it was time for me to go. “You’re right, Raptor.” Bowing the rest of the way down, I scooped up Fire Rose, then craning my head around to deposit the weapon into my right-side pack. Then I did the same with my own pipbuck, finally closing the bag back up. “I really look forward to wearing that again.”

“Why don’t you wear it now?” Raptor asked curiously.

To that, my mind thought of an answer that I couldn’t help but crack a smirk at. “I figure I might as well return the favor and cover your tracks.” I answered, showing him that smirk; it was a pleasant sight to see him smile just a little in return. “They’ll eventually know about you either way, of course. But I can at least give it some time so we can put some distance between us.”

And that warranted a chuckle from the griffin, who lightly shook up his large wings as he shifted in his place. “Alright then.” he said, dipping his head. “You take care of yourself, and your crew. And stay alert out there, especially now. The Talon Legion is all over the southeast now.”

“I will.” I promised confidently. “You take care too, Raptor. And thank you… I mean it.”

And with one last nod making his reply, I gave him what I hoped was my most heartfelt smile of gratitude before I turned my back on him, leaving the Talon warrior to the station to return to the others, with all of my treasures now in tow.

*** *** ***

“So that’s why you took so long back at the radio station.”

“That’s some coincidence.” I added atop Captain Saber’s comment, craning my head to the right to see where Nova walked beside me. “Considering that you shot him down back in that old city, I’m actually a little surprised he was there at all, let alone waiting for you to show back up.”

“It’s like I said, Gunny,” my pegasus friend replied. “He said that he didn’t want to have a debt hanging over him. He saw my saving his life as something that had to be repaid… and while I wasn’t expecting nor wanting any kind of repayment, what he did speaks very highly of someone who happens to fight beside our enemy.”

“It most certainly does.” Sergeant Madeline remarked to my left; I agreed silently that it certainly did paint a different picture, especially for a soldier of the Talon Legion. “It shows that we’re not fighting a faction that’s made up of a bunch of savages… even if they do fight like it.”

“At least we know that there are a couple Talons with a solid head on their shoulders out there.” Boulter put in after.

“I just hope that we won’t cross paths again for a while.” Nova replied, facing forward as she did. “Circumstances would see to us trying to kill each other again… it’d be a real honest shame if it came down to a fight to the death, especially after what we’ve done for each other.”

I had every faith that Nova would win in such a fight.

“It was really nice of him to bring back mother’s pistol.” From Nova’s other side came Blake’s own input as he kept up to our pace, forcing the conversation away from becoming something far more unpleasant. “I’m so glad we have it again, because it just isn’t right for it to belong to anypony else.”

And I felt the same way on that subject of Seiyara’s pistol.

As Nova agreed with her younger sibling, I dismissed myself from the conversation to look ahead. Having traded my place at the wagon with Raemor, who volunteered to join Shore, Madeline, and Boulter on the job in order to ‘keep himself busy’, I had been free to move around joining up with the guard detail of our reduced crew. Nova and I, along with Blake, kept by the wagon’s right side, while Saber and Ivy, both of whom had made a good recovery over the past two days, were guarding the left. We had maintained this formation for the majority of the day, Raemor having taken my place on the pulling team just before midday on our first short break. Now it was approaching mid-evening. The sky was growing paler, dimming down as the sun began to set behind the cloud ceiling. But even so, up ahead, I could see our destination on the horizon. I recognized the crane, the salvaged Old World industrial device that towered over the rest of its home city. And I was starting to make out what I felt was the wall that guarded the great settlement behind it, the north face of a full defensive perimeter marked with round guard towers, behind which was the tops of some of the settlement’s taller structures. Against the grey backdrop of the cloud ceiling, I could see the settlement that was the spearhead for all the southeast region’s efforts of growth and development. We were approaching Challenger, finally, after the past four days of travelling, we were finally about to find the rest of our group again, tucked away behind the safety of the capitol city’s great walls. And my eyes were locked on that city.

“Hey, Gunny.”

Until a voice spoke my name to snag my attention.

I turned right once again to find Nova as the source. And to her I cocked an eyebrow in question. “Yeah?”

“Um…” Her eyes darted away briefly to scan over the dirt underhoof, making me all the more curious at her out-of-place pause. “With everything that’s been going on…” she said, speaking slowly, thoughtfully. “I never got to ask you how you’re doing.” She looked back to me then. “Are you doing okay?”

Doing okay? Well… “I’m as okay as I can be I suppose.” It was a question I should’ve expected… yet didn’t. And the thing about it – parts of the answer were obvious, while other parts, not so much. “You’re right.” I added as we stayed side-by-side. “A lot has happened. Too much’s happened all at once, and it weighs on you.” Nova nodded her agreement. “Everypony’s dealing with the same thing. These past few days we’ve all walked the same path, but we each have our own struggles to push through on that road. Hopeville hit us all equally. The Stable was the same, to an extent. But in there we each had our own histories that we relived when we opened that door again.” I glanced back ahead, passing a brief but studious look over the slowly approaching city. “Then there was Bolt and his crew, and we all suffered the same losses because of them. But the deaths of some hit some ponies harder than others.”

“And what about you?” Nova asked, gently.

“Well… memories of the recent past come and go for me.” I answered with a slow nod. “They still throw punches my way. But the more I think about them the more distant I get from them.” Nova gave me a quizzical look as I tried to piece together my explanation. “The Stable was tough, I won’t lie. I kept myself away from the graveyard in order to stave back the worst of my memories about the invasion. I was already reliving it second by second when we were in there. Every step I took pulled me towards an image, or even a sentence, a moment in my life.” She gave a single nod, showing her understanding. “But we’ve been out here long enough that I’m better at prioritizing what’s really important nowadays. The past is the past, and it’s over. But we’ve got a lot facing us down up here on the surface, and that’s what I need to focus on.” And again, Nova nodded. “You can’t afford to stay trapped in the past anymore. Otherwise you lose sight of what really matters. Besides, I’ve cried all the tears I need to cry for the Stable, and for my dad. The Stable’s at peace, dad’s at peace… that’s the best I can ask for.”

“Yeah… I feel the same way.” Nova remarked after a moment. “I think I cried the last of my tears back when I saw my father’s grave next to my mother’s. Plus… Bolt dragged me back to reality the hard way… I still hate thinking about how the others are going to react when they learn about what happened.”

“I don’t like to think about it either.” I replied after a sigh, with sympathy. “Mavis was the brother to Boulter’s wife. And Quinn was the youngest of two sisters… It won’t be easy… and it’s one of the things I’m focused on. I’ll be breaking the news to Quinn’s sister when we find them in Challenger.”

“Oh…”

“That’ll be the last thing I do before I finally start doing something about all of this.”

And that brought her eyes back on me. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that I’m tired of running.” I explained solidly. “I’m tired of feeling like the one being hunted, and I’m tired of always looking behind us for an enemy squad to show up and start shooting, or looking up and seeing a wing of griffins diving in. I want to see my enemies behind my iron sights and do my part to eliminate the threat to our ponies…which is why I intend to see about joining up with Challenger in their fight against the Legion and the Raiders.”

And unsurprisingly, Nova took my claim with no small measure of alarm. “Really?”

“I imagine they’re not going to be shy about recruiting some extra help.” I answered with a nod. “If the opportunity comes up, I’m taking it.”

“That’s…” Her hesitation to support my choice was written on her like a book. “That’s a… bold move, Gunny…”

“Captain Saber, come in!” Suddenly, from the left, from behind, and even straight from Nova’s saddlebags, I heard static as it buzzed sharply to life, thinly coating a female voice that spoke through Shore’s programmed security channel. “Captain Saber, respond, quickly!”

My ears flicked at the voice of Sierra, and how she called for us with a very blatantly urgent tone. That drew in my focus in a blink, and I snapped my eyes to Saber, all four pulling ponies doing the same with me. “Go, Sierra.” Saber called back as he walked. “What’s going on up there?”

“Captain, you and the others either need to ditch the wagon and run or you need to dig into your current position!” Sierra responded quickly. “I have eyes on Talon soldiers that just emerged from active camouflage! There’s at least twenty, and they’re moving on an intercept course from the east! They’ll be on you any second!”

I looked out past Saber and the others even before Sierra completed her warning. But at first glance I couldn’t spot anything along the open fields! “We can’t see them Sierra! Where are you looking?!” the captain demanded; slowly our wagon came to a halt as Madeline, Shore, Raemor, and Boulter drew themselves to a stop, all of them searching frantically along the east.

“I see them!!”

Nova spotted them first, suddenly galloping past me to skid to a halt by the captain to warn him, to show him where.

“Your ten o’clock, captain!” Sierra answered over the coms.

But when Nova raised a foreleg to point, I found them too, just as a whole line of half a dozen muzzle flashes flickered farther down the field.

CLANG!!

I jerked away as a violent eruption of sparks shot out from the front left corner of the wagon, a bullet striking the armor plate there as the ground in front of us erupted in a violent spray from the rounds that hit there. I threw myself down as tracer rounds slashed right by overhead, and over the diminished but raging gunfire, I heard an agonized cry as everypony else hit the dirt in rapid succession. I made to look, only to have to shield my face as the ground just behind us exploded, showering us with soil as a billowing wave of dust rolled over us. We were sighted in by a grenade launcher, and I confirmed my own suspicion when a second grenade detonated, this one blasting open the dirt right in front of us.

“TAKE COVER!!” Saber’s voice was the first one I heard over the fire the Talons were putting down on us. “GET BEHIND THE WAGON!!” Looking back up, I saw immediately where the pulling team was throwing off their harnesses. Boulter was the first to free himself, keeping low as he turned his attention to where Shore struggled to get his own tether removed. But I saw that it was Shore himself who had been the one to cry out; the bleeding hole in his upper left foreleg was a clean exit wound.

“MOVE BLAKE!!” I heard Nova behind me as I adjusted myself to make a run for the wagon. A quick glance back over my shoulder, and I saw as she hurried her alarmed little brother out of the open, almost literally throwing him behind the wagon’s front right wheel as she took cover with him. Ivy and Madeline were the next ones to hurry behind the wagon as I pulled myself along on my belly, keeping myself prone to keep below the whizzing rounds that kept us pinned.

“GUNNY!!” As I put the wagon between myself and the Talon ambush, hurrying up to my hooves in order to move behind the right rear wheel, I turned to find where Saber and Raemor threw themselves behind the safety of the wagon, taking shelter with the others as they prepped their weapons. “GUNNY!!” As Raemor hunkered down with them, the captain made his way to me, shouting to project himself over the barrage of fire that now mercilessly peppered our wagon. “I need that light machinegun on the Talons’ line!!” he ordered. “We need a break in this fire so we can get the heavy weapons out of the wagon!!” I fired up my horn, looking over my shoulder and yanking the All-Equestrian free from its place on my back with a grunt. “Put down some rounds so that Boulter can grab the launchers and their ammo!!”

Seeing the mentioned unicorn as he helped Shore into cover, I drew my weapon close and chambered the first round, flinching as another explosion from the enemy grenade launcher ripped into the chorus of the gunfire; the wagon rocked on its wheels from a near direct hit. “I’m on it!!”

Whirling about, I brought myself back down onto my stomach, setting the All-Equestrian in front of me before quickly crawling out from cover to take up a firing position. “Ivy, cover from Gunny’s position!! Nova, get behind your scope!!” I heard Saber order. “GO! GO! The rest of you stay with me while Boulter gets the launchers!!”

With one final lunge I landed myself right next to the wagon’s back left wheel. Then I pulled the All-Equestrian tight against my shoulder, holding it steady and taking aim at the muzzle flashes flickering wildly about two hundred yards out. Then I pulled the trigger and held it down, firing a long burst as I trailed my iron sights along the line of enemy soldiers. A brief pause to bring my sights back on target and I opened up again. “Right behind you, Gunny!” Then at the second pause, I recognized Ivy’s voice, very close, and just a second later, a new weapon joined me as I fired again. Right next to me on the left, Ivy had thrown herself down on her belly, her heavy SMG, her 12.7mm, spit fire downrange with me in short controlled bursts. And past my iron sights, I could see that we were putting a strong counterattack down against the enemy aggressors. Despite Shore’s injuries, I saw the twin lasers of his saddle’s energy weapons striking out, hearing the reports from Madeline and Saber that accompanied them. And on my right, and above, I heard the familiar crack of sound from Nova’s sniper rifle where she had set up her position atop the wagon itself. Right away I noticed a diminishing in the fire that was coming our way. And as I paused long enough to readjust my aim, I saw an explosion from the enemy’s side of the field… and the pegasus that shot by the rising column of fire and smoke; Sierra was engaging them from the air.

“Coming in behind you, Gunny!” I felt a tap on my back in time with Boulter’s call just before I let loose another long burst of fire. Though I heard him as he climbed aboard the wagon, I kept my focus solely on the distant figures of the Talon soldiers. We were making some progress in keeping them pegged down, especially with Sierra getting up close and personal with her heavy weapons. And now they were spreading out, their response to the sneak attack by our air support, keeping their intervals wide even as a couple of them targeted her to force her to evade out of a second attack run.

I jerked away from my iron sights when another grenade from the enemy launcher detonated right in front of me, the resulting blast blocking my view of the enemy position. With a growl, I forced myself back up to all fours, scooping up the All-Equestrian with me. And in the brief pause I’d been forced to swallow, I took a moment to check over the others nearby. Ivy was in the middle of reloading, having already removed an empty clip to slide a fresh one into the top of the weapon. But past her, I saw with a sharp jolt where Blake had also laid himself prone, firing a shot from his nine millimeter pistol before resetting his aim, slow and careful before he fired into the dust again. I actually almost spoke to warn Nova of her little brother’s bold position, only to see the pegasus where she kept herself hovering in the air just behind the wagon, glued to her sniper rifle’s scope as she waited for the dust to clear; she was too focused for me to distract her.

“Gunny!! Take this!!” The enemy fire had lessened, but the fight still raged as Shore, Saber, and Madeline kept shooting from the wagon’s other side. And from my right, Boulter shouted to get my attention over the noise once again. Looking to the wagon, I saw where he had awkwardly placed himself aboard to clamber across the overstocked cargo hold. And before I could react, his telekinesis literally dropped one of Buckley’s missile launchers for me to catch. I barely intercepted the heavy beast of a weapon, snagging it just as he quickly deposited three missiles one after the next, dropping them atop our two forty millimeter grenade launchers and their respective ammo belts. “I’ll help you out here with the other missile launcher!” Boulter shouted from his place above as he sifted through the assorted salvaged weapons on the right side of the wagon, dropping a fourth and fifth missile into the pile. “We’ve only got eight warheads to share between the both of them! Make ‘em count!”

“Got it!” With a heavy grunt I hoisted the launcher up into the air, keeping both it and the All-Equestrian afloat as I moved in behind Ivy and Blake. And settling down, I dropped my LMG and set the launcher down on its nose to bring over one of the missiles; the dust had nearly cleared now.

“Smoke! Smoke!”

But with a start, my eyes snapped back to where brown was swiftly being replaced by thick grey. It was rising up from four different spots where smoke grenades had been deployed, close together to build up a literal wall of smoke between us and the enemy. But in such an open area, with very limited cover, I quickly found myself believing that that group out there wasn’t the only one around.

“Captain, be advised, I’ve got eyes on an enemy vertibuck coming in from the west! It’s going to try and flank you!”

And no sooner had I gotten the notion than Sierra’s voice barely reached my ears from the combined volume of Saber and Madeline’s pipbuck speakers. Swearing, I focused on my new weapon, pushing the large cocking handle forward to break the tube from the weapon’s console. Then with a quick fluid motion, I dropped one missile into the tube before I closed the weapon back up with a heavy metal click. Ready to fire, I turned around to find the incoming vehicle, easy to spot against the darkening clouds and becoming easier to hear even over the firefight. “I see it!” I called in warning. “Dead ahead, coming in fast and low!”

“Shoot it down, Gunny!!” Saber responded, the only one of his group of three to come about and find the approaching vehicle. “We can’t let it zero us in!!”

Wordless, I brought the missile launcher up to eye-level, peering through the plastic combat sight extending from the side. Remembering back to Buckley itself, when I’d used one of their missile launchers in the Talons’ invasion, I steadied myself and focused my telekinesis to hold the weapon tight. The enemy vertibuck was coming in straight for us, with no angle in its flight path. Even from here, I could see the weapons that bristled out from its stub-wings just behind the cockpit; I saw the rounded six-barreled noses of two miniguns, one on each wing, and I saw the square-faced rocket pods, also with one on each wing. The knowing that this vertibuck was outfitted for heavy assault was motive enough for me, and tracing its path, leading it, I focused on the trigger and pulled. The missile’s engine sparked in response, roaring to life before it flew smoothly out the tube and into the air. It was a dead-on shot, but the vertibuck pilot had definitely been anticipating it. The approaching aircraft dropped its airspeed before making a hard turn to the left, banking away as the missile sailed right by. But just as it tried to put itself back on course from the evasion, a second projectile suddenly streaked by overhead, this one curving in toward its target. But this time, just like in Buckley, the vertibuck dipped farther to the left, this time deploying a whole cluster of flares that exploded to life with dull ringing pops and bangs, which intercepted and destroyed the heat-seeking missile. That’s when it came to face us once again, and this time, it opened fire. Even from my place on the ground, I saw the smoke trails of unguided rockets as they streaked right for us, and I couldn’t even do so much as brace for the impact before six rockets smashed down all around us. Two exploded right in front of me, peppering me with dirt as a third struck the ground just ahead and to my right. Then the fourth passed right over us with a grating hiss of sound, the fifth detonating alarmingly close to our left side before the sixth fell short like the first two.

Suddenly, from above, Sierra came racing back into view, diving right toward the enemy air unit, ditching the ground soldiers to take on the more threatening enemy element. The aircraft spotted the approaching challenger, the pair of miniguns on its stub wings opening up to force Sierra to abandon her head-on charge and take evasive action.

“Here’s another missile!!” My attention was drawn back to the fight when a second missile landed at my hooves. Boulter had joined me, our second missile launcher held in his telekinesis as he loaded it up. I followed his example in response, splitting the break-action and sending the second missile down into the tube before closing it back up.

At this point, I had to put full faith in Ivy and Blake that they would keep our side covered while I tried to clear the skies; both of them were firing again.

I focused back on the vertibuck, hoisting the launcher back up and sighting in. Sierra was flying quick as she tried to circle around the machine, fighting for an angle of attack. But the vertibuck was rotating in place, turning just as fast as its blazing miniguns followed right on her tail. But with it hovering in place, it was the perfect opportunity. I pulled the trigger, the missile roaring to life before racing out the tube and into the air on a straight course for my target. And just after, Boulter launched his own warhead, following right behind mine. But to my frustration, the vertibuck abandoned its pursuit of Sierra to lurch forward and out of the missiles’ flight paths. One after the next they streaked right past the vertibuck’s tail before it hooked hard left to come about.

“They’re trying to move up past the smoke!!” My ears perked up at the sound of Nova’s voice, her shouted warning carrying clearly to all of us.

“Raemor, you and Madeline take the forties!!” captain Saber ordered sharply. “Boulter, I need you back here with me!”

“Roger!” As I scrambled to pull over another missile from the wagon and reload, I saw Boulter as he hurried back over to where the captain was holed up with Madeline, Shore, and Raemor, carrying his own missile launcher with him

“We need to focus all the heavy weaponry on the infantry before they get too close! Gunny, let Sierra handle that vertibuck!”

With a quick shout of confirmation I wheeled back around and closed the tube, a third missile ready to go. Now, presented once again with a clear view of the enemy, I saw that they were indeed making a move to gain ground, and despite what looked to be a couple of casualties on their side, they had already gotten in closer. With the temporary smoke distraction behind them, I could see now some of the finer details of the unit we were up against, and I saw that at least six of the squad was carrying with them the large deployable cover units I’d seen in previous fights. The steel plate barriers were already extended out full, and they had been joined together by their carriers to make one solid wall behind which a couple of others were taking shots at us; two light machineguns in their squad mixed with assault rifles and carbines to put up a constant barrage against our position. A split second after I spotted them, I saw how effective those shields were at repelling conventional ammo and even lasers. Saber and the others weren’t even making dents in those plates. But this time, I was more than ready to meet their old trick.

I brought the launcher back up and leveled it out to take aim at the advancing line, keeping myself steady even when two rounds sparked off the wagon’s plating just off to my right, a third round promptly drilling into the dirt at my hooves. But I kept the launcher’s combat sight on the plate barrier shielding the enemy, and I steadied my aim on it. Then the missile was free when I pulled the trigger, racing out with an eager roar towards the advancing enemy line. And just before I ducked back behind the wagon, I saw as the missile struck the barrier head on. Enemy fire halted all at once when the missile hit, and setting the launcher back on its nose, I kept watch at seeing the enemy line dissolve into a chaotic mess. The barrier had been cracked wide open, the blast from the warhead sending at least a couple of the enemy soldiers flying back. And before they could get a chance to recover, I heard the hollow thumps of our forty millimeters, two grenades launched out. One after the next, they smashed down on the already disoriented enemy position, further scattering them. And then, just after the second grenade detonated, another missile streaked ahead, Boulter’s missile, and it too found home, passing right through the gap my shot had made to strike the ground just beyond it; three more legionnaires went flying from the direct hit.

We were getting the upper hoof now!

“We’ve got them on the run!” Saber shouted for the rest of us to hear. “Keep fire on them and they’ll break soon!”

We’d done enough with the heavy weapons by this point, and with new confidence I set my missile launcher aside and brought the All-Equestrian back to the front. The enemy line was still recovering from the brutal attack we’d sent at them, and now, with their barrier crippled, I had the best chance at actually taking some of those bastards out. Above and to the right, a report from Nova’s sniper rifle sounded just before one of the enemy soldiers toppled backward; even from here I could see the pink mist that sprayed into the air.

Staying upright, I snapped my light machinegun up and tucked the stock tight against my shoulder to take aim, and I quickly let loose another barrage in time with another raging report from Ivy’s heavy SMG. Together with the automatic rifle fire from the other side of the wagon, we kept the enemy barrier down. Now we were on the offensive, not giving the weakened Legion squad even an inch to try and recover themselves or their mobile blockade. We had them-

“INCOMING!!”

Even over the voice of the All-Equestrian, I heard the cry that had been taken up by the captain. And over all that… the familiar mechanical whirring of vertibuck engines took a chillingly sudden dominance over the noise of the firefight. My only instinct was to duck back behind the wagon, to spin back around and take aim at the approaching sound… only to find myself staring straight into the teeth of the enemy aircraft as it launched a second volley of unguided rockets.

Then the whole world exploded as those rockets came crashing down on us.

*** *** ***

Warning.

I’d only heard it before it was too late. I’d been staring down my rifle scope, lining up the last shot of my clip when Saber had taken up the call, when I’d heard the rotors of the vertibuck. And then I was blown away as a high-yield explosive smashed right into our position. I was launched bodily over the wagon from the shockwave, losing the Torch and screaming a cry that I couldn’t even hear over the terrible thunder. I went tumbling head over tail, flipping over myself three total times before I plowed back into the dirt face-first. And after skidding another couple seconds across the ground, I finally came to a halt, vision blurred, ears ringing loudly. In my painful daze, the first thing I felt in the explosive’s aftermath was a fiery stinging along my right flank. Even without looking, I could tell that I’d sustained a long gash there, perhaps shrapnel from the shell… and I could feel the welling blood as it begun to spread. But with that, I also felt a similar stabbing pain in my lower back… and with a panicked jolt, I felt something that was buried in the flesh there, something that had pierced my armor entirely to stab into me.

“Nova!!”

My name came out as a scream, though my ears only perceived it as a dull whisper. Still, I heard my name from behind me, carried on a voice that inspired me to try and get myself back up to a stand. But in the wake of the Talons’ counter, I found myself unable to get up as I tried to recover my senses. My legs trembled under me, and the pain of my new wounds with the shellshock from the blast pressed on me full force to keep me pinned down. I couldn’t focus, couldn’t break through the burn to coordinate myself. But it was in my second dazed attempt to stand when I suddenly found a pony coming up on my left side. Ivy, her SMG in her telekinesis, stopped beside me and kept herself facing the enemy line. She herself looked unsteady, even as she took aim down her iron sights and fired a long burst of ten rounds. I could even see a gash along her right side, where shrapnel had cut through her leather armor. It was already bleeding at a moderate rate, blood already sliding down her side in multiple thin trails. But miraculously, she choked down her own pain as she drew up close to me. “Nova!” she shouted to me, passing me only a brief glance before she stepped back out of my sight. “Come on, get up! We need to get back behind the wagon!” she warned. “The Talons are coming in, and they’ve still got a dozen soldiers left!”

With a labored grunt I pushed myself through the grating in my ears, and tried again to get my hooves under me, Ivy’s warning throwing me into action. I planted my forehooves down in front of me, one after the next. But I promptly found that only my front hooves would cooperate. I could move my hindlegs, but I couldn’t force them through the lingering shock of the injuries I’d taken from the vertibuck’s rockets.

“Hang on, Nova!” But suddenly, I felt as something took hold of me, clamping down on the armor just behind the back of my neck. And with a sharp tug, it begun to drag me back. “Come on, Nova! Crawl!” Ivy gave her order between labored grunts, and I slid along the ground again as she pulled me back.

One more time I focused my strength on getting my hindlegs working. This time, I managed to plant them into the dirt, getting a solid enough hold to push myself in the direction Ivy dragged me in to help us along. I put all my effort into getting out of the open as quick as I could. Already the fight was picking back up, this time, much more one-sided. Hostile fire hammered our position hard as Ivy and I worked back toward the wagon. In desperation, I stopped my own efforts just long enough to reach for Shimmer’s pistol, ripping it free from its holster and sighting in. In that moment I was face-to-face with the Legion’s advancing soldiers. They’d completely reestablished their barrier, their entire formation. Their two light machineguns kept a constant spray on us from behind the wall, their wielders shooting blind to stay in cover. And the shield bearers moved at a slow but steady pace, keeping themselves tucked away behind their deployable cover; even if I were at my position above the wagon, I wouldn’t have been presented with a target to knock one of those shields out.

But nonetheless, I closed one eye as I brought Shimmer’s pistol to bear, firing one powerful shot that rattled my jaws. I saw the round smash into one of the barriers, sparks flashing bright, before I turned my attention to the left end of the enemy wall, catching sight of an enemy just as she peered from cover, an assault rifle floating into view from behind her. I beat her to the trigger pull, but my shot went just short, spraying up dirt into her face that startled her into returning to her place behind cover.

Suddenly, the dirt just to my right kicked up, three rounds punching into the soil one after the next to make me shield myself out of instinct. Quickly, I rolled myself back into position, Ivy giving another tug to pull me along as her SMG roared a burst of five rounds to assist. Then, from above, I heard the sudden chopping of vertibuck rotors, its twin engines. For just a second I feared another barrage like the one that had scattered us. But just as quickly, my fear was quelled when I saw the enemy aircraft pass by right over us. Flying low, it looked to wobble on its flightpath, and much to my relief, I caught the trail of thin but seeable smoke that emitted from its tail, its tail that had been caved in just before the craft’s rear fins. It was retreating from the field, giving us precious breathing room against the real threat of the Talons’ shielded infantry. But I didn’t let it distract me from my target, and as I was yanked back again, I snapped my crosshairs over the opposite end of the barrier when a Talon unicorn stallion aimed his assault rifle over the barrier. He got off a burst of four rounds before I fired, this time a hit that blew his brains out the back of his skull, sending him reeling back and behind the barrier.

Slowly but surely, my hearing had cleared up, at least enough to where I could catch that, thankfully, we were returning to the fight. I heard an assault rifle behind and farther to the right, a larger pistol mixed in with spaced shots. And in my field of view, twin lasers still struck out at the barrier, forcing one daring Talon to duck back down just as one shot sliced over her head. But the enemy was still moving closer, not even a hundred yards out anymore, and they’d be right on top of us soon.

With one final yank, Ivy threw me onto my back, landing me right beside the wagon’s back left wheel just before she stumbled back and away with a yelp; I saw the round hit her armored chest, the leather catching the bullet and preventing a wound. Then, my ears perked when a loud mechanical whirring sounded over the gunfire. I recognized it instantly, and confirmed what I heard when I spotted Sierra as she glided over us, backwinging to slow her descent as her she spooled her personal minigun. And as she drew herself into a hover, the heavy weapon let loose with a mighty roar, belching fire as a solid stream of rounds smashed into the enemy barrier. Sparks erupted from the steel in a solid and constant display of violent light. And as she kept herself steady in the air, banking just to the right to evade a retaliatory line of fire that had gotten past her barrage, the Talon’s revived formation was engulfed within a series of smaller-scale detonations that strafed the line from right to left; the hollow thumps of Raemor’s APW preceded them from the other side of the wagon.

Quick as I could, I rolled back over onto my gut and forced myself up, ducking down with a jolt as three round sparked off one of our wagon’s plates. This time I had much better luck in ignoring my fresh wounds, and I was able to plant my rear hooves down to hoist myself the rest of the way up. Steadying my balance, I hunkered down against the wagon, stowing away Shimmer’s pistol back into its holster. The Torch was out in the open somewhere close to where I’d been thrown, and I knew that I couldn’t go back for it. But right when I bit down on my saddle’s firing bit, readying myself to get back into the fight properly, I came back around to find a shocking new scene.

The whole right side of the Talon line had literally caved in on itself, folding inward to bend their original line. And to the south, approaching fast from Challenger’s direction, was a whole new cluster of ponies easily a dozen strong, putting their own scattered volley down on the now flanked legionnaires. I found the new attackers just in time to see as a missile streaked out from their closed-in formation, and struck the barrier head on, blasting away on of the deployable plates along with its carrier. And right after, a second missile raced down from above, this one from Sierra’s launcher, which also found home against the Talon wall.

Both missiles had blasted them away from us. And now, the remaining soldiers of the enemy line were hastily falling away, keeping themselves facing both of their opposing parties as they begun to draw back northeast. But everypony with me – they only took inspiration from the assistance that we’d been given, a precious moment to regroup and then to keep the Talons on the retreat. Again, I heard four different weapons, an automatic, a pistol, two energy weapons, and Raemor’s grenade rifle. The latter weapon was doing the greatest deal of work. Raemor’s grenades detonated right in front of the enemy’s noses. Even without taking part in the counterattack, I could see how the enemy’s remaining number tried desperately to keep their protective shields up. But between Raemor, Sierra, and the newcomers, they were crumbling; I could see four new kills already.

With the enemy on the retreat, I took the time to back away and take cover behind the wagon again, returning to safety and taking in a short breath, letting it out with a shaky sigh; I’d made it… with Ivy’s help I’d made it.

“Hey, can you get yourselves moving?!” Suddenly came another voice, a male’s that I didn’t recognize that called over the new firefight that had sprung just in front of us. Turning quickly, I discovered a new face among the others. A big stocky stallion, black-coated and silver-maned, had slid into cover with Saber, Shore, Raemor, and Boulter. A unicorn, he carried with him a light machinegun that floated beside him, a larger model than even Gunny’s All-Equestrian, and he was garbed in a full suite of heavy padded armor; a portable radio was clipped to his chest plate. “We need to get you out of the open!!”

His armor was colored in multiple shades of green… green camouflage that was Challenger’s colors…

We’d won a break in the fighting thanks to the new arrivals, whom I had no doubt were other members of Challenger’s forces. But with the fire drawn away from us, and with my faculties more or less pieced back together after returning to safety, I was finally beginning to think more clearly… and because of that, I took my first real full look at the others as soon as my name was called… in a pained and very desperate voice……

And suddenly, my whole world came crashing down around me.

I had seen Saber, Shore, Raemor, and Boulter first. Three of the stallions were unharmed, and Shore had only taken one wound on his upper left foreleg that he was managing to cope with. But nearby them, closer to me, I found Gunny looking at me… and… and the whole left side of his head was burnt and bleeding. Even a part of his mane had been burned, and all along the left side of his Stable security armor, the dark blue padding was torn and blackened. He was barely standing, just like Sergeant Madeline, who was pressing a forehoof to her head just behind him, holding her bleeding left ear as she kept her head bowed, trapped in a painful shellshock spell… But between them, my eyes fell on the pony that was laying there squirming on the dirt… screaming… with a bleeding gash that had been carved into his left side by the metal shard that jutted out from just behind the shoulder.

“No… NO, NO, NO BLAKE!!”

Pain and adrenaline alike vanished in a blink as I scrambled to reach my wounded baby brother, and Gunny limped back a step just before I skidded to a halt before him. I was immediately greeted with a ragged, high-pitched cry before he took in a broken breath, releasing it in a terrible whimper. Right away my hoof went to his foreleg. “I’m here, Blake, I’m here!” I spoke, my panic stuttering my words. He grunted in reply, hitching heavily with a rough gasp. And when he coughed a single wretched note after, I snapped my attention on his wound, and pressed my hooves down on the gash right beside the piece of shrapnel buried in him. Blake rasped out another cry as I pressed down, a feeble effort to put pressure on it and halt the bleeding… “Goddesses…” Breathing hard, fast, my eyes trailed down Blake’s blood-coated belly and to the ground, where red was already beginning to color the dirt. And off to the right, I could see a dim but frightening trail of crimson, showing me where he’d fallen and how long he’d been dragged to get to safety.

Goddesses, there was so much blood!!

“N-Nova!”

My name came out as an agonized whimper as he uttered a staggered sob under my hooves. And with a short gasp I darted my eyes to see his face; he was trying to lift his head to look at me even as he cried, a tear already trailing down his left cheek. “I’m here Blake.” I assured best I could, reaching over and placing a blood-coated forehoof on his neck. “I’m here.”

“I-it hurts… Nova!” He shifted under me, trying to reach a forehoof back to touch his wound. “It hurts, it hurts……”

“I know it hurts, Blake! I know it hurts!” I spoke frantically, trying to soothe him as his words died out to another pained sob. “You’re going to be okay!”

But he only hitched again, uttering another yelp of agony as he shut his eyes tight.

“SOMEPONY HELP ME!!!”

I screamed at the top of my lungs to get somepony’s attention, anypony’s. All at once, Captain Saber, Raemor, Shore, and the Challenger stallion looked my way as Boulter kept fire down on the retreating Legion squad. Both Raemor and Shore, as focused as they’d been on keeping to cover, adopted looks of open shock at seeing me with the wounded Blake. “We need help before we go anywhere.” Captain Saber turned his focus to the Challenger soldier among us, raising a foreleg to point a hoof toward the rest of us. “Please tell me you’ve got potions you can spare.”

The black unicorn, however, promptly shook his head, a gesture that only heightened my desperation threefold. “Not with us, no.” he responded. I nearly screamed at him for it, until he turned to me to say, “But at Challenger’s gate we’ve got a medical team on standby with everything you’ll need. You fly your little one there, they’ll fix him up.”

That was the only answer I needed.

Without reply I turned my focus back to Blake, who grunted again as I took a stepped over him. “Alright, Blake… I need to pick you up, okay?” As soon as I hooked my foreleg around his torso, he cried out again, making me wince with fright. “I know, I know it hurts.” I repeated gently, as soothingly as I could as I forced him to lie on his back to face me. “We’re going to get you some help.” I added, trying to look him in the eyes as he moved his head from side to side, his pain the only thing guiding his near thrashing movements. “But I need you to hang on to me, because I have to fly you over there-”

“Sergeant! Sergeant!!” A sharp female voice drew my eyes back up to the front of the wagon, where I saw a second soldier in Challenger’s green camo just as she ground to a halt beside the black unicorn stallion. An out-of-breath earth pony mare, teal-coated and golden-maned, she wore a battle saddle comprised of two long-barreled semiautomatic rifles, and even as she joined us, the auto-loaders for her weapons were loading in fresh rounds. “Sergeant… our eyes on the wall… spotted three incoming vertibucks!” she explained between gulps of air. “There’s two coming from the northeast… the third from the west. We gotta scoot!”

The sergeant wasted no time in turning to Saber. “Do whatever you have to do to get yourselves moving, but we need to get back to the city before we get swarmed.” he ordered. “Carry your wounded, ditch the wagon. It’s the only way we’ll have even a small chance of getting you lot to safety.”

Immediately, I saw the hesitation in our captain’s eyes as I got Blake ready to move. And the Challenger sergeant and his subordinate saw it too, especially when it was Boulter who spoke up first, saying, “I’ll get Madeline if you or Raemor can get Gunny.”

“I’m fine!” came Gunny’s protest.

“Hey, did you hear me?” the black unicorn asked, meeting Saber eye to eye with a firm glare. “We need to get out of the open! Those vertibucks will be on us in seconds!”

“I heard you.” Saber finally replied, only to stomp his hoof down as he rose to all fours. “But the wagon’s coming with us.” And before either of the Challenger ponies could protest, he added fast, “We’ve lost ponies trying to get this wagon here, and we’re not just going to surrender it to the fucking Legion!” And catching Boulter in the middle of heading for Madeline, he said, “Boulter, hook up with me. Raemor, you get back on the harness too. Shore,” He fired off his orders in rapid succession, finally looking over to where my friend crouched nearby, watching and listening intently. “How’s that wound?”

“I’ll get back on the harness, captain.” Shore answered him, quickly pushing his dirtied reading glasses up to the bridge of his muzzle before limping his way back to the front of the wagon.

“You ponies are insane!” the black unicorn remarked, shaking his head as he trotted out into the open to scan the skies.

With the absence of gunfire now, I could already hear the incoming engines of the enemy vehicles. That ominous sound drove me back to my primary focus, and turning my attention back to Blake, I slid my foreleg all the way under his back and hoisted him up. Once again he uttered a pained shout, weaker as I managed to hug him to my chest. “Blake, I need you to hold onto me, okay?” I snapped out my wings as I adjusted my grip, giving them a quick test flap. “Can you do that for me, baby brother?”

And much to my relief, he actually managed to move his forelegs, and with a little help from me, he got his hooves up and around my neck to close around it; it was a weak embrace, but it was the best I’d get from him, still far more than I anticipated. “Good job, Blake. Good job.” I encouraged. “I’ve got you. Come on.”

With a single powerful beat of my wings, I lifted us both into the air, promptly hooking my other foreleg around his lower back to secure him against me. “Lieutenant Colonel Ajax, this is team three!” And as I rose up, I heard the sergeant, finding him as he spoke into his portable radio. “Be advised, we need the teeth of the big guns on our position for incoming aerial attack! We’re inbound with a heavy wagon, and the Legion is all over this group of survivors! We’re going to need everything the wall can give, over!” And as I leveled out above my group, I saw as each of them prepared for the run for Challenger. Saber, Boulter, Raemor, and Shore were all hooking themselves back up to the wagon. And just behind them, Gunny was scooping up Madeline, and with Ivy’s help, was situating her atop his back; Sierra hovered just over them, overhearing everything from above, now scanning along the north to find the approaching aerial threat.

But they’d be on their own this time. In my hold, I felt Blake trembling. The blood loss was taking its toll on him, and still he continued to bleed from the terrible gash he’d received. I needed to get him help, and fast.

Nothing else mattered. And as Saber continued to get the others ready to move, I forsook all else and drove myself forward towards Challenger, clutching Blake tight against me as I picked up speed and made a run for the city’s wall. “Hold on, Blake.” I said to him again, focusing ahead. “For Goddesses sake, just hold on. The Talons aren’t taking you from me too…”



Footnote: 33% to Level Up.