“Well, so much for a covert entrance,” I stated, stepping up to the large metal door that had ben blasted out into the snow. I carefully peered around the fractured doorframe, but the entryway was clear of anypony investigating the racket. “Why is it that whenever I try to do things the smart way you insist on notifying everyone in a five mile radius of where we are?” Night Strike stepped up beside me, pushing a jagged bit of metal carefully out of the way with her hoof and loosing a small giggle.

“Hey, we did things your way back at that campsite town-thingy, Hornsworth. Sort of. And if I remember correctly it was your idea to overload the tesla cannon back at the slaver camp, you can’t blame that one on me~” I shook my head as Scouring met up with us, his power armor bending the bits of metal under his hooves. Night Strike looked back over her shoulder. “You going to stay up here with Crash Dive, Aerith?” The alicorn nodded, slinging her gun over her back as Crash Dive took a closer look at the artillery gun.

I stepped over the door and into the facility, pulling my goggles down over my eyes to try and spot any zebra ghouls making their way towards us. “See if you can set up those guns for moving while you’re out here, just make sure you keep an eye out for any more zebra ghouls.” Aerith nodded and Crash Dive began to make her way over to the mini-tank to bring it closer to the sub pen. Scouring, Night Strike, and I all walked into the sub pen, my goggles picking up a few ghouls rushing up a nearby stairwell towards us. “Two on the right.” I muttered as Scouring pulled out Sunburst, aiming it towards the office door.

The doors burst open, the ghouls barely having a moment to register the barrel of Scouring and Night Strike’s weapons before they were blasted backwards, one’s leg flying off and smacking into a nearby filling cabinet. Gross. We stepped into the offices, walking around the growing pool of blood from the now dead zebras towards the staircase they had come running up from. A faint beeping could be heard echoing up the stairway from the hallway below, along with the muttering of a few more ghouls. “Sounds like they’ve go' a few turrets.” Scouring mumbled.

He led the way slowly down the steps, keeping Sunburst at the ready. There was a soft clatter as a grenade bounced off the bottom of the steps, Scouring stumbling back in surprise. He bumped into me, sending me off balance as I tried to grab onto a railing to steady myself, only to fall back into Night Strike. Oh shit! The grenade exploded, Scouring’s armor taking the brunt of the force, though a few fragments of shrapnel managed to miss him and embed themselves into my legs. I cried out in pain as my legs buckled beneath me, sending me sprawling out over the floor as Night Strike fell down the stairs after me. Bullets whizzed over our heads as the small group of zebras began to fire, barely missing us as Scouring attempted to retaliate with a barrage of rockets. Unfortunately, his aim was knocked off kilter and the rocket instead flew into the ceiling, knocking a turret off of its supports and sending its metal body crashing down onto the zebra below it.

Night Strike fired off a grenade randomly, which bounced off the wall before detonating, doing nothing but sending the remaining ghouls to duck behind their makeshift cover of office tables. I struggled underneath Night Strike as Scouring shoved me off of him, pulling Sunburst back up and letting loose several rockets towards the hiding zebras. One of the tables shattered in the explosion, sending splinters into a ghouls back and knocking him to the ground as another ghoul popped up, firing off his assault rifle at us. Night Strike squeaked with fright and pain as a few bullets tore through the tip of her wing, tearing off a flurry of feathers.

The ghoul hit by the turret managed to climb back to his hooves, clearly in pain as he took aim at us as we all tried to right ourselves. In a fit of desperation, I reached into my saddlebags, my hoof wrapping around one of my flash bangs. “Shut your eyes!” I cried, hoping none of the zebras knew our language that well. The grenade burst into a flash of bright light, the ghouls crying out as they were suddenly blinded. Even as I shut my eyes, I could still see the bright flash as my goggles magnified the magic, causing my eyes to water as I tried to focus back on the scene. We all stood, slightly beat up as the zebra ghouls twitched on the ground, trying to recover from the blast.

Night Strike coughed, blinking rapidly to try and clear her vision from the bright flash. “Ugh, well, that could’ve gone better.” She flapped her wings tentatively, a few damaged feathers fluttering to the ground, along with a few flecks of blood. “You guys alright?” She asked. I nodded, looking to my legs and brushing them off a bit - thankfully none of the grenade fragments seeming to have embedded themselves too deep in. Scouring nodded as well, his armor looking somewhat damaged and his face bearing a few cuts from the shrapnel as well, though mostly unscathed.

“Yeah. Wish we’d brought along some healing potions, though.” I shifted my weight on my front hooves a little, wincing as a jab of pain shot through my legs, but managing to shrug it off and trot forward. I poked one of the zebras with my umbrella, the ghoul groaning a little, but not moving as he lay dazed on the ground. “Hopefully there aren’t many more of them left.” Scouring and Night Strike followed be down the hallway, my goggles revealing nopony else along our path towards the main docking station.

“How come you didn’t see those guys with your special goggles? You saw the guys running up the steps, didn’t you?” Night Strike asked, a little irritated as she rubbed her wing. “And you do know we’re gonna have to figure out something to do with those zebras too, right? I thought the whole point of coming here was to clear the place out so they wouldn’t be an issue when we’re carrying the bomb up to Shady Shores.” I stopped in my tracks, putting a hoof to my face. Guh, of course. Those flash bangs aren’t going to work forever...

Turning around to look at the heavily dazed zebras, I grimaced a little. “Scouring’s glow was kind of taking up most of my vision, even if I did spot them I wasn’t going to know they had a grenade ready anyway. And… uh… you can do the honors. I only deal in death when there’s no mess left behind.” Night Strike rolled her eyes, slipping the large shock-sword out from under her saddlebag straps, grunting bit from the weight. She carried the sword over to one of the zebras, placing the cool metal over its chest for a moment. She dropped the blade, and the moment it made contact there was a slight crackle, the smell of ozone filling the air as the sword shocked the ghoul, killing him in some rather violent convulsions. I cringed as she repeated the procedure with the other knocked out zebras before wiping the bloodied end off on one, sliding the sword back under her saddlebags. How can she do that so nonchalantly?...

We were soon stepping through the door at the end of the hallway into the main docks. Like the room overrun with angler ponies, opposite of the doorway was a large pool of water, doors shut down over passages that led out into the ocean. Moored at one of the docks was a small submarine, years of disuse having left a layer of rust over much of the surface and several hinges. I walked along the docks towards the submarine, Night Strike and Scouring following suit. “See any more?” Scouring asked, adjusting Sunburst on his back.

I glanced about, but couldn’t see any more zebras around. My gaze moved upwards as I noticed a window into a small control room. “There aren’t any more gouls, but there might be something up there worth looking at.” I pointed up to the window, and Night Strike took the lead towards the metal steps leading up to the office. The stairs creaked under our weight, the metal groaning ominously as Scouring trotted up behind us. Night Strike fiddled with the door for a moment before it opened up, revealing the control room that now had a few mattresses spread out on the floor.

Stepping over the dirty mattresses, I slid into a chair in front of a large control panel and terminal. Fans began to whir to life as I reached around and flipped the switch on the back. Scouring dug through some files absentmindedly as green lines of code filled the screen before disappearing to be replaced by a few simple options. Let’s see… docking procedure, naval rules of engagement, maintenance reports… I selected ‘docking schedule’, a table of times and sub names appearing. “Anything interesting?” Night Strike asked, leaning over my shoulder. I clicked down the list, each sub followed by a short description of their reason for departure. Scouring, scouting, transfer to south base, transporting soldiers, scouting… I paused, reaching a sub listed as SSBN-37-1A. That's different...

Selecting the submarine, The screen scrolled through gibberish for a moment as a short file was brought up. And... well, that's not Equestrian. Scratching a hoof against my head for a moment, Scouring trotted over, looking at the screen with us. "Huh, that's some zebra transcript. You don't think they 'ere actually using this place fer somethin' before the war?" Answering him with a shrug, the power-armored stallion looked at it for a moment, before pulling something from his power armor and sliding it in the side of the console. The screen flickered for a moment, the writing changing to a language I could read, the unicorn wearing a smirk. "Standard translation holotape, all rangers from my unit had 'em. Helps with findin' what's worth taking from zebra tech."

Answering him with a nod as the file was translated through and he ejected the holotape, he went back to lookng through the filing cabinets, myself looking over the file again. Looks like the standard format for all the others, almost... 'SSBN-37-1A to arrive 10-23 at 09:00, cargo aboard for Project Cerberus, to be shipped in inconspicuous 'Sunrise Sarsaparilla' delivery wagons to exchange point. Among crew complement, 100 bars gold, 510 oz, purity rating of 999.9-' My brain froze, trying to register what it had read. A hun... hun... hundred bars of pure gold? 510 ounces of… I…

I fell off of the chair, my brain trying to grind back into gear. Scouring looked up from rummaging through the filing cabinets as he heard me thud to the ground. My mind suddenly clunked back into place and I jumped back to my hooves, leaning over the terminal. Ok, ok, coordinates, where was this thing coming from? Please tell me it didn’t wreck in the middle of the ocean, or that the gold was dropped from it by mistake or something. Come on, Static, gold isn’t that valuable. Well, maybe, but… I shook my head, focusing back on the terminal. Let’s see, any sort of last transmission, or transponder location? Please, just one gold bar, that’s all I'll ask for! Night Strike seemed to have read it as well... which begs the question as to why she doesn't look nearly as excited over it. “...I -really- hope you aren’t serious about searching the entire northern ocean for some possibly wrecked submarine.”

Grumbling and smacking the side of the terminal upon finding nothing, I lifted up my Pip-Buck leg and hooked it up to the computer. “Ech, well, maybe we can make a detour to that shipyard our dads found west of the SCAB to find something that can pick up the gold. Or maybe the KAOS ship has some kind of radar we can use, I don’t know. Didn't Marigold say something about coming from a city powered by a giant ship's reactor?” After downloading the submarines information I stood back up, stepping out of the control room after Night Strike and Scouring.

“Jeez, you’d think after all the caps we’re going to get from selling off the guns outside you’d have enough.” Night Strike said as we started to head back towards the hallway to the entrance. Climbing up the steps, I could faintly hear the sound of metal clanging against metal and chains being lashed together as Crash Dive and Aerith secured the large gun's carriage to the mini-tank. We stepped out into the chilly air, our hooves crunching through the snow.

“I thought you would’ve figured out by now I won’t have enough caps until I can fill a room with them and go swimming in it.” Aerith looked over as Crash Dive finished tying up the large anti-tank cannon to the half-track's hitch, yanking on the chains to test their strength. I clambered up into the driver’s seat as Night Strike hopped on to the seat of the gun behind us, fiddling with the controls a bit. “If you try firing that thing while we’re driving I’m leaving it!” I shouted back to her over the engine as it rumbled to life.

Crash Dive climbed up onto the tank as Scouring settled himself behind the controls of Boomer, the power armored pegasus resting back with the alicorn beside her. “Place cleared out of zebras, then?” Scouring nodded in response, and I carefully twisted the handle of the mini-tank. The tank rolled forward for a moment before the chain snapped tight and the treads dug into the ground as I cranked up the power. For a moment nothing happened, but soon the enormous gun began to roll forward on its base, the tank dragging it up the gradual slope along the coast.

I shivered a little as we travelled along the coast back towards the Lighthouse, the wind whipping around me as I started to pick up speed, the engine complaining as we went up another slope. Ugh, at least it’s mostly downhill between the Lighthouse and Vanhoover. I fiddled with my Pip-Buck, switching over to the radio as I settled into the seat for the long drive, music crackling through the tiny speakers.

“-fell into a burning ring of fire,
I went down, down, down, and the flames went higher.
And it burns, burns, burns, the ring of fire, the ring of fire.”

---

The sky was completely black as we arrived at the lighthouse, only the stars and moon above giving light with a bright haze towards the south - Vanhoover itself, probably. Waves lapped at the treads of the half-track as it rolled towards the lighthouse, the creaking of the massive AA gun's rubber wheels dying down as I came to a stop outside the cottage attached to the lighthouse. We all climbed off of the tank and trotted inside, Night Strike letting off a yawn as we entered. I checked my Pip-Buck, grumbling a little when I saw it was barely seven o’clock. Stupid short winter days. Pushing aside a few bottles of Sparkle-Cola that still sat on the table, I slid into the chair as Crash Dive sat across from me.

My stomach growled, prompting me to flip open my saddlebags and dig around for the MREs Night Strike and I had gathered back at the training camp. I tossed a few packages out onto the table, Aerith taking one and immediately tearing it open with her magic. I tried tugging on the tough plastic with my hooves, eventually resorting to using my teeth to try and get the package open. Guh, stupid unicorns and their stupid magic... After a few minutes of tugging and biting, I managed to rip open the plastic, Scouring and Night Strike already starting to eat from their own meals. “Hey, Crash Dive, did this lighthouse ever actually work, as, yanno, a lighthouse?” Night Strike asked as she twisted off the cap to a bottle of soda.

Crash Dive was stirring up a bag of thick stew and waited until she had a few bites to answer. “It’s never worked since I’ve been here. It’s probably just a busted bulb or a dead battery, I’ve never bothered to check. Was nice, meant people weren't wondering about it and I was left alone.” She took another bite of stew, Scouring slurping on the packaged chocolate shake noisily. I chomped down on the lukewarm shredded hay, reaching for a bottle of Sparkle-Cola for myself. “You could always go up and look at it if you want. I don’t really care if it’s running or not now... kind of have a sizable reputation thanks to you lot as it is.”

I shrugged, taking a sip of soda. “It couldn’t hurt, maybe we can get it running again. Would be nice, at least.” We sat in silence, save for the clink of glasses on the table and the occasional gulp as we ate our food. I leaned back in my chair, letting out a satisfied sigh as I rested a hoof on my stuffed belly. Tilting my head back to finish off the last dregs of soda, I pushed the chair away from the table and stood up. “Well, I guess I’ll go check out the light, if anypony wants to as well.” Aerith pushed back her chair and followed me, the others still making their way through their food. I paused, not sure where to go. “Uh… which way to actually get up to the bulb?”

“Metal door at the end of the hallway, same place I pointed for that old games system. Just keep going up the stairs until you get there.” Crash Dive said. I nodded and trotted over to the long hallway that ran through the house. Following along, we passed an old wooden door that sat slightly ajar, revealing Crash Dive’s room, soon reaching an imposing slab of metal at the far end. I trotted over to the door and turned the handle, the hinges sticking for a moment before the door swung open, a rush of cold air blowing through the hallway.

Aerith followed me through the door, a shiver running up my spine as the door shut behind us, blocking off the heat from the small house attached to the brick tower. Welp, up we go, I guess. Our hoofsteps echoed through the lighthouse as we trotted up the spiral staircase, wind whistling by it. We passed by a few windows on our way, revealing the coast and the sun dipping below the sea, leaving us with nothing to illuminate our path except for a few dusty, dim bulbs placed periodically along the steps. Aerith’s horn began to glow to help light up the staircase as we approached the top of the lighthouse, a door opening to a platform surrounding a glass room that housed the impressive glasswork and lighthouse bulb.

Wind whipped through our manes as we stepped inside to the mechanism where the surprisingly intact bulb sat. 'Well, it looks like an electrical problem, then.' a sign conjured up by Aerith said. 'You’re good with that kind of stuff, right? I mean, if you wired that tesla cannon to explode, have to be... right?' I bent down to look more closely at the wiring, noticing several frayed cords running from the large bulb to an electrical box mounted to the metal framework of the windows around the magnifying panels of glass.

“Uh, a little. I think inaccurate cutie-marks run in the family. I’m still not really sure why Minty’s wasn’t a laser beam or something... Then again, I guess he’d have to change his name to plasma coil or something else energy related if it was. Do you see any sort of insulator around?” I asked as I carefully took some of the wires in my hooves and pulled them together. A few sparks leapt from the connecting metal, bouncing on the floor before fizzling away. Aerith flipped open a rusty toolbox resting by the switch, digging around in it before tossing me a roll of electrical tape. After fiddling for the end for a moment, I was able to wrap a few coils around the exposed wiring, doubling the layer afterwards just to be safe. “Well, let’s hope there wasn’t any significant damage from rain... The glass should’ve stopped most of it, at least. Oh, and don’t look at the light, obviously.”

Aerith placed a hoof on the electrical box switch, both of us turning away before she pulled down, the lever moving reluctantly. The sound of grinding gears and heavy hum of large motors met our ears as the bulb flickered to life behind us, the powerful beam shooting out into the dark sky as the mirror rotated on its pedestal. I could feel the heat of the bulb as the light crossed over my back - oh, on a night like this, that felt nice. Aerith and I stood for a moment, just watching as the beam of the lighthouse circled around, shining off into the distance. I finally yawned, glancing down at my Pip-Buck. Well, it’s at least dark enough to justify going to bed, even if it’s a bit early.

I moved towards to the door leading out to the platform to head back downstairs as Aerith followed me, making sure to latch the glass room door shut before heading into the spiral tower again. We were soon trotting back into the warmth of Crash Dive’s house, the sound of conversation echoing up the kitchen below. “…my dad shot her, it was weird.” Night Strike stopped her story, glancing over to us. “So, you get the lighthouse running again?”

Aerith nodded, slipping into the chair next to Scouring, myself letting off another long yawn. “I’m heading off to bed, though. We’ll want to leave kind of early to get to Vanhoover before dark.” The others bid me goodnight as I trotted into my room, yawning widely as I pulled the curtains shut. I climbed into bed and flopped my head down onto my pillow, sleep quickly washing over me.

---

The sun was hanging low in the sky as we crested one of the hills that made up the bowl of land that Vanhoover was sunken in the middle of. The tank began to roll down the hill towards the main bridge where a few ponies were standing guard on either side, a caravan trotting out of the city and turning in east. One of the guards lifted their rifle up nervously as we approached, the barrel of his gun following me as I slowed down to a halt outside the small blockade at the bridge. “S-state your business.” The guard with the lowered gun demanded, the other one clicking the safety of his rifle off.

“Uh… we’re looking to sell this. We heard you guys needed some extra firepower.” I said, nodding back towards the large gun as Night Strike leaned in her seat to glance at the guards. The guard trotted up the gun, looking it over as the other guard kept his gun pointing towards me. The guard inspecting the gun trotted back up to the front of the tank.

“We can’t allow you to come in showing off a weapon like that. If anypony got a hold of it, could level a block in a few seconds. You’ll have to turn it over to the city watch if you plan on brining it in.” The other guard began to move towards the chains of the tank, his horn flaring up as he began to unhitch the chains. I narrowed my eyes, not liking where this was going.

“I’m not going to conduct business in a city that’s not welcome to humble traders, much less ones named after the very city in question.” I leaned over the side of the mini-tank, looking the guard dead in the eye. He glanced back to the massive gun, then to the other guard who was suddenly a little nervous. “If you’re worried about ponies getting a hold of our equipment, then perhaps we shouldn’t be selling to someplace that can’t keep guns like this in check.” The guard’s ear twitched slightly, his expression going a bit sour. He waved the other guard away from the chains of our tank as he walked over to lift up the barricade.

I slowly drove over the bridge, hearing one of the guards grumbling to the other over the loud creaking. “I told you you’d never get that for free from him. That barrel's as big as your head, ya moron!” The mini-tank trundled in to the town, passing by the docks where ponies were preparing to go out for night fishing. I glanced around, searching for the city hall. Assuming the city hall wasn’t burned up in the megaspells.

Aerith’s horn lit up as she created a sign to speak with. ‘Do you remember where Pressure Cooker lives? She might know somepony we should go to.’ I nodded and turned down the street, heading off towards her house. A few ponies watched as we passed, muttering amongst themselves, looking at the large gun warily. Sheesh, for ponies that were begging for extra armaments, they sure are skeptical whenever somepony actually comes to bring it around. We turned down another street, entering Pressure Cooker’s somewhat crowded neighborhood, each house pressed closely into the one beside it. Not exactly city living... claustrophobic suburb, maybe?

The engine died as I pulled up in front of Pressure Cooker’s house and all of us climbed out. Aerith’s horn flashed as she turned the tank and the large gun invisible - Yeah, we really don’t need a repeat of what happened last time. Night Strike trotted up to the front door, knocking a few times. There was some scuffling before the door opened up, Pressure Cooker greeting us. “Oh, hello! I didn’t think you would be showing up here again.” She stepped backwards, allowing us inside. “What’re you in town for? Everything go well with the new engine?”

“We were just dropping off an anti-aircraft gun. We figured you’d know who we should see about that.” Night Strike asked. Pressure Cooker wandered over to her kitchen where a pot of rice was boiling on the stove. She carefully removed the lid, leaning back to avoid the hot steam before throwing in a few spices and stirring the rice up. "...that, and you're kind of the only person we know around here."

“Ah, well... we don’t exactly have a city hall anymore, so can't send you there. One bad thing about Vanhoover being so big is it’s a bit hard to keep laws in check like they can up in Maple Creek. I can take you to the old police station where the guards are located, that’s probably your best bet.” She turned the dial on the stove off and carefully slid the pot of rice over to the counter to cool. “Come on.” Huh, convenient timing then, I guess.

We stepped outside, Aerith rematerializing the tank, Pressure Cooker stumbling for a moment as she stared up at the gun. “Ah… well, I guess I should’ve expected it to be that big but…” Her voice trailed off as she stared up at the long barrel of the gun, eyes wide. I nudged her and she shook her head, trotting down to hop onto the half-track. “Right, sorry. Just... never seen a tank gun before.” We were soon all set back up in the tank, the engine rumbling to life as I turned around and headed back down to road, following Pressure Cooker’s directions. Night Strike flipped on her radio, music crackling in as we wound our way through the town.

“Ain’t no mountain high, ain’t no valley low
Ain’t no river wide enough, baby
If you need me, call me, no matter where you are, no matter how far
Just call out my name, I’ll be there in a hurry, you don’t have to worry
Cause baby there ain’t no mountain high enough
Ain’t no valley low enough, ain’t no river wide enough
To keep me from getting to you!"

The seat of the eighty-eight millimeter bore gun offered a decently tall - if obstructed to the left - view of the Vanhoover streets, passers-by staring up at us in surprise as we made way through the narrow city roads, heading towards the center. We opened up to a main avenue, several ponies with shops selling stuff on it, and several more walking around, it ending by an official-looking structure labeled as the 'Vanhoover Police Department'. My hooves idly played with the traverse wheels for a moment, watching the gun rise and fall slowly as the police station drew close. A weak chuckle escaped me - why do I get the feeling that sometimes the stuff we do could only happen in a place after the bombs fell and pre-war society went with it?...

Pulling up in front of the large structure, a stallion appeared from the doorway, wearing a long duster and some combat armor beneath it. He quickly trotted over to us, down the long stairway in front of the building, Static turning the engine off as I rested back and gave him a small wave. Sheesh, we've probably made half of Vanhoover make that face at this point... "Captain Spec Ops, LVPD. Glad to see you five finally responded to our calls on Radio KAOS, had tried to send out message couriers but they all couldn't track you down for the life of 'em. Ahm, this... this the gun?" Static responded with a nod as I started to crank the elevation wheel, watching as the barrel quickly rose to point skywards, turning it around on the trailer for looks. Yep, and there are those wide eyes again... "Al... alright, then."

"Sorry we could only get one over here, thing weighs seven and a half tons. We can get some more ammo, but as long as you're reasonably accurate with this, well, trust me, you won't need it." Lowering the gun back down and pointing it ahead, I hopped down from the gunner's seat, landing beside Spec Ops as he looked over the gun, Static following behind. "Couldn't tell you the fire rate, but it can lob a shell fast enough to punch through a tank and shoot proxy-fused AA rounds, will detonate as long as they get near a target. Pretty good for defending Vanhoover against any aerial threat, right?" I let off a small chuckle, leaning against one of the wheels. "I'd say stick it somewhere that you have a clear view of the sky, city limits or something. Easier to see what's coming in from above when you don't have skyscrapers blocking your view. So, who we gotta sell this bad boy to?"

"A-ahm... you're lookin' at him. Also kind of the mayor, sometimes. You said this thing could punch through a tank?..." A wide grin was across my face as Static looked over to me, wearing a smile of his own. Oh, I do so love it when someone's looking over a nice, huge gun I was using... don't read into that. The earth pony looked towards the Captain/Mayor as he trotted back over, still looking at the gun. "Ahm... okay, you said this thing weighs seven tons? Erm, could you maybe haul it to the north gate for us, then? We don't have much that can actually fit down the streets and pull that..."

"Hang on a moment there, we hauled this fine fully functional piece of hardware here to make a sale. We'll discuss setting it up afterwards, and payment for that. For now, I think we should head inside to discuss those matters - prior experience has proven that you generally want to be somewhere you can sit down..." Spec Ops blunk a few times before returning a nod, trotting around to the other side of the large gun's trailer with Static following behind. Looking back towards the mini-tank, Aerith glanced to Scouring and Crash Dive, all three of them giving a nod, while Pressure Cooker hopped off and disappeared into the crowd - yup, stay with the expensive gun, good plan. Turning back, I caught up with Static and Spec Ops, stepping through into the large hall.

"Alright, my office is just this way. I'm really glad you guys did manage to show up finally, but I really wasn't expecting a, well, THAT. Where'd you find that thing, anyways? Tear it out of a tank, like the ones up at Maple Station?" Trotting through the large important-looking hall, we passed by a receptionist's desk, heading up the stairway behind. Doubling back, we were soon passing along the upper walkway, heading for the front end of the building again, Spec Ops opening a doorway at the end. Well, he's not exactly wrong... I think. Which came first, Porschia or the AA guns...

"Picked it off of a submarine pen up the coast, actually. Uses the same 88 by 571-millimeter ammo as one of the Tank Ghouls' tanks, exception being the proximity fused rounds. Dunno if it's exactly the same gun though, Porschia has a funky muzzlebrake." The Mayor gave me an odd look as we stepped inside his office, Static already getting himself comfy in one of the chairs in front of the desk as we trotted over, the door shutting behind me. Don't know how much good the muzzlebrake actually does to help, but damned if not having it makes firing that thing off feel all that much nicer... really get an appreciation for the power in that shell. "Point is, you won't find a more powerful shell anywhere, unless the HMS Cadence has some 8-inch AA shells to fire."

"...right. So, anyways, based on matters including the general lethality of the gun, the excessive weight and difficulty in transport, and actual transport fees, I would think a fair price of one million caps would suffice. Before ammo." Static adjusted himself in his chair as Spec Ops blunk a few times, returning a blank expression. Really just going straight for it this time, eh, Sparky? After a long moment, the earth pony looked to myself, then back to the mayor. "Erm, is something wrong?"

He blunk a few times, giving his head a shake and leaning against his desk. "Oh, no, no, not at all. I just thought I misheard you... you said the gun would cost a million caps? As in, one hundred ten thousand cap bags? Million with an 'M', that... that million?"

"Before ammo, yes. What do you think, Night Strike, a thousand per round? It'd be difficult to get more, but we certainly could. We have around thirty shells with it already, twenty proximity fused." How he can utterly gut ponies like that for a pile of caps so nonchalantly, I'll never know. Spec Ops' expression looked strained as he fell back into his chair, looking between us. After another moment, he wordlessly pulled open one of his desk's drawers, putting out onto it a bottle of Wild Pegasus and three glasses. He opened the bottle, but paused before he poured, instead bringing the neck of it to his lips and quickly draining half as we watched on. And I thought people only did that when they learned that we only have dads...

He gasped for breath, setting the bottle back down onto his desk, panting for a few moments. "S-sorry about that. I... probably should have expected something like that, actually. You guys really are pretty cut-throat when it comes to weapons trading, aren't you?" Static answered with a slight shrug, myself leaning back into the chair. Okay, before we kill this guy with a sudden onset heart attack, maybe we should pursue other payment options... "I-I mean, yeah, we can afford it, right now. Maybe get some money back from offering aerial protection to Seaddle... nnfh, nah, they're too far away. Damn... Ahm, there any way that you could accept payment otherwise? I mean, we do have plenty of caps in the treasury, but... yeah... erm, I know this great pizza place! Lovely owners, just don't mind their pet turtles. And rat. Anything on the house, for the next few... years?"

"Ehm... no, no, that's fine, caps are fine for payment. We'll take twenty-five grand for all the rounds, and the... previously discussed value for the gun." I let off a weak chuckle, Spec Ops letting off a sigh and holding a hoof against the side of his head. We're gonna cause half of this wasteland's authority figures to die of alcohol poisoning and stress at this rate... Static tapped a hoof against his chin for a moment, looking out the window at the last hints of evening.

"Actually, can think of one thing. The shipyards here, they have anything for prolonged underwater survival? Watertight suits, or something like that?" Both myself and Spec Ops looked at him in confusion for a few moments, myself understanding after a second... and placing a hoof against my forehead. Come on, Sparky, I met that gold's all devalued at this point, irradiated or disintegrated or something. Metal can dissolve, right? "We, ahm, we discovered information about a wreck that's full of... anglerponies, ahm, the sea creatures that were in the reservior. Want to see if we can get underwater to destroy it... yeah, that."

"And, building off of that, ah, any C4 or other waterproof explosives you might have in stock would be useful, too. That with the suits might be enough to waive the ammunition fee, just have you pay for the gun." Static shot me a small look as I added on to his - admittedly believable - lie, Spec Ops resting back in his chair. Oh, stuff it, we can always use more explosives and we don't need to completely clear out their bank on our first pass through. The stallion on the other side of the desk sat in silence for a long moment, myself thinking. "Ahm, any other ammo you might have and aren't immediately using would help, too. Mainly just need forty-five ACP, three-o-eight, fifty MG, and forty millimeter grenades on that front."

"Alright, I'll get some calls out, should only take an hour or so to get all of the ammunition and bottlecaps together. Head to the shipyards in the meantime, they'll know you're coming and should have what you're looking for when you get there." I passed on a nod, and both Static and myself slipped out of the chairs, Spec Ops taking another long drink from his bottle of Wild Pegasus. Stepping over to the door, I was stopped as Static put a hoof to my shoulder, the mayor gasping for breath after his second swig. "Ahm, oh, right, as for getting the gun set up..."

"Twenty-five hundred caps for delivery, take it or leave it." Static responded rather bluntly, Spec Ops thinking for a moment before letting off a sigh and giving a shrug in response. The earth pony beside me wore a smug smile, trotting out through the doorway as the mayor started to place those calls - well, progress is progress...

---

The electric lights of the dockyard made our shadows dance on the stone and concrete as we powered through towards it, the headlight illuminating the road ahead of us somewhat as we pressed on through the darkness. Guh, it's only six, how is it this dark already... stupid winter. Least we were able to get the gun through around this way easily enough. Shuffling slightly on the side of the mini-tank, Static pulled us over beside one of the larger docks, some ponies standing nearby a machine purring away near the water's edge, with some lines running out under the water. I thought they said they didn't have portable generators...

Static shut off the mini-tank and climbed out as I hopped off to swoop over to where the dock workers were, landing behind them, the noise of my hooves hitting the ground momentarily drowned out by the sound of the machine. Trotting around it drew a glance from one of them, myself more focused on the device - what kind of generator needs that big of a fuel tank? Why's the fuel tank got pressure guages on the pipes that feed out of it? And why would a generator need an electric motor to power the piston... okay, so maybe it's not a generator. Eh, still is interesting, at least.

Focused in on the machine for the moment, the feeling of a large metal hoof resting on my shoulder caused me to jump slightly, Crash Dive's eyes meeting my own. She let off a small chuckle, nodding over to the building beofre walking towards it, myself following behind. Passing through a doorway on the outside, the drone of the non-generator-thingy was muted enough for us to hear each other again, myself looking around the empty enclosed dock. "Static's gone off to find who to talk to. Honestly kind of want to see what these suits look like for myself, nice knowing I'm not the only one who's made suits for going underwater."

Responding with a small shrug, we soon reached the back of the dock, where we found the blue earth pony similarly trotting behind a large unicorn stallion towards a section near the back. Catching up with him, Static passed us both a small glance, the sounds of heavy clanking and material being shuffled around coming from the room the Unicorn had gone into. After a moment, he reappeared, two bulky-looking suits held in his magic, along with two wide-faced helmets. "Alright, here's two of the atmospheric suits we use for wetdock repairs. Got the okay from the mayor for you to take 'em, each one has its own air recycler systems aboard to give a while to get out if the line gets severed, and filters otherwise so they'll protect against radiation. Onboard air tank's good for a few minutes and gets recharged in about thirty, you'll need a compressor for any really deep work, though. Gonna assume you don't have one."

The unicorn looked aorund for a moment and levitated over the suits, setting them down in front of us as he trotted off again, letting us sit and examine them a little more closely. Well, if it works, it works... Crash Dive took to doing the same, being careful with her power armor's tail. After a moment, she let off a small scoffing noise, drawing our attention. "These things are what you two're gonna be wearing? They look completely ridiculous, wouldn't catch me wearing something like these in a million years. Not just saying that on account of the stuff I am wearing actually protecting against more than water, either."

"Well, it's better than nothing. Hopefully wherever the sub actually is isn't too deep down, I dunno how far these'll actually let us get to without issue. Probably gonna need your help in figuring out how to walk underwater, too..." Letting off a weak chuckle, I looked over the helmet of one of them, peering through the large glass face. Well, least vision won't be too constricted... hopefully we can find some flashlights or something to stick on these things, don't much fancy working in the dark.

The unicorn came back after a while, pulling another one of those machines that was running outside when we first came in behind him, and levitating some smaller rubber things alongside as well. "Forgot to mention, if you're gonna be on a long dive, gonna need these things, too. Helps keep the air fresh and system clear, you especially don't want a build-up of helium inside one of those suits after working for a while. Filters'll clear out most stuff, but that's one of the things that just keeps getting recirculated. Gonna have to put these on before you climb in them, easier to do that, make sure the release valve connects up to the one on the outside of the suit and you'll be good to go. Everything's been paid for by the mayor already, just holler if you need anything else."

Unhitching himself from the compressor and dropping the two rubber things with us, the unicorn turned and left us be, Static already gathering up one of the suits. Crash Dive took to getting the compressor hooked onto her suit, while I turned attention back to the pile of rubber laying atop the suit I was going to wear. Okay, so, how's this thing supposed to keep me from farting inside the suit, anyways? Picking it up, and watching how it unfolded, it did take a moment for me to register just why Static had that wide-eyed look that soon gave way to laughter, Crash Dive even holding back a snicker of her own as she trotted over. Blinking and turning the thing around in my hooves, and noticing how baggy it was around the waist and leg holes... Oh, for the love of Celestia and Luna above, why?

"Like I said, you'd never catch me wearing that in a million years..."

---

The sun was well beyond the horizon as we finally made it back to the lighthouse, the massive anti-aircraft gun replaced by a smaller wagon, stacked with several crates of ammunition and an obscene amount of bottlecaps that Static was stuck grinning stupidly over. Splashing our way over the submerged land bridge, we pulled up onto the island the lighthouse stood upon, the earth pony turning off the engine and happily jumping out of the driver's position, darting over to the back of the cart and grabbing the bags, starting to carry them inside. I gave a roll of my eyes as I hovered over to start bringing the ammo in, Aerith and Scouring doing the same with some of the larger boxes. Crash Dive held the door as we all came inside, moving herself over to the table and sliding over to the window, resting there.

Static had most of the bags of bottlecaps brought inside by his second trip, and from the sounds of things was starting to try and make a bed out of them. Yeah, I'll take a real bed tonight, thanks... Setting the other grenades with the rest in the kitchen, I let off a long yawn, Scouring and Aerith already heading to their own bedrooms for the night. Giving my head a shake, I turned to head down the hallway and beat some sense into Static with one of those bags of bottlecaps, though stopped as I saw Crash Dive, with a smile on her muzzle. Maybe it's the tiredness talking, but that sight's gonna take a bit of getting used to... Shuffling over on the other side of the table, she glanced towards me, looking back out the window. "Pretty night tonight, looks like a full moon."

"Yeah..." Taking one of the bottles of soda that was yet to be moved off of the table and to the base of the lighthouse tower, I cracked it open, taking a few sips from it. Yeah, doesn't taste quite as good when it's warm. The power armored pegasus let off a light sigh across from me, still looking out the window. Hrm... she's not addicted anymore, but, if she didn't take off the power armor while she was staying there... "So... how're you feeling, after so many days sober. Everything alright? And your, um... wings?"

Crash Dive's smile faltered for a moment as she turned to look towards myself, hooves resting on the table. After a moment, she let off a much less contented sigh, though still wore a bit of a smile upon her muzzle. "I think I know what you're wondering. Y-yeah, I still do have them attached, they're still there, underneath the plates. They're just..." She released another sigh, her head lowering. "I just can't feel them anymore. A few hours into the treatment, the pain started back up. The doctors there, had me take off the armor to see what the issue was... they wanted to amputate them when they saw all the damage for themselves. I managed to get them to just cut all the nerve endings there, as a compromise." I blunk a few times, keeping quiet, the quarter-drunk bottle of soda rested on the table with my hoof around it. Well... I suppose that answers that. Mostly a happy ending, at least, all things considered... Crash Dive broke into a small chuckle after a moment, looking out the window. "Guess between that and my armor, my cutie mark really fits me now..."

I chuckled with her for a moment, taking another sip from the bomb-bottle of lukewarm soda. "Heh, no kdding... huh. Yanno, I don't think you've told or shown us what that was yet, actually." She blunk a few times in response, a hoof moving to rest under her chin. She thought for a moment, myself taking another small sip. "I mean, we did ask, way back when, but I think you just asked us about ours and we wound up sidetracked. What is it, anyways?"

The power armored pegasus fell silent for a moment, before a small chuff came from her nose, a smile crossing her muzzle. She leaned against the table, looking out the window again, but this time with her eyes looking downwards, to the sea. "It's an anchor. You know, one like what that battleship over on the island has, a big metal thing for dropping and keeping ships in place. Was nearly laughed out of basic training for it... suppose we can blame that for some of my delightfully pleasant demeanor. You can only take so much shit, after all..."

Okay, not sure what I expected, really, but that wasn't quite it. Thought it would've been something like, I dunno, an air craft? Maybe? But an anchor... huh. Well, all things considered, it's appropriate, at least... "Well... there are worse cutie marks to have. Least it isn't something like a broken bone or bloodied wing, or a Sunrise Sarsaparilla logo, right?" Releasing a light chuckle, Crash Dive joined me, giving a nod and resting her chin back on her armored hoof. I leaned back in the booth, taking another sip of soda. "At least it's only an anchor, kind of doubt many ponies would actually know what that is. How d'you think I'd do in basic training having a cutie mark like mine, an ICBM mid-flight?"

Crash Dive let off a laugh after a moment, shaking her head in response. "You, in basic? Doubt you'd make it through without getting court-martialed for blowing something up, cutie mark or not. Probably'd get a few friends though, lot of the ponies there aren't all that bright and someone with a missile for a cutie mark's bound to be a fun time no matter what. Just hope your barn door swings both ways..." Blinking a few times at that last comment - barn door?... oh, -that- barn door - I was left silent for a moment as Crash Dive kept watching out the window. She seemed to look out of it a little more intensely for a second, before shuffling off of the booth, myself coming to again and watching her start to head for the doorway.

"Uh... what's up? See something out there?" Following behind, the chill night air bit at my wings and face, a breeze blowing off of the northern ocean and whipping around the island. Crash Dive's helmet lamp illuminated the darkness as she headed for the water-covered land bridge, glinting off of the choppy ocean and... something else. I blunk a few times, watching as the water was splashed into a foamy spray by the creature... figure... thing in it, it struggling with a large steel tub. "Uh..."

"Gack... Nobody told me a bucket of water was so damn heavy out of water..." Crash Dive rushed over to help get the large tub up onto the rocky bridge, the figure jumping out of the water and into it, causing some to spill over the side. His flipper tail settled lazily over teh side, the power armored pegasus looking at him for a moment before starting to drag the whole metal tub up onto the snowy shore. Fin tail... sea pony? They actually exist, and aren't hideous malformed things like the Anglerponies? Huh... "Thanks. Ahm, right, sorry about being a bother, but... you're the ones who were snooping around that place up the coast, right? That submarine pen, whatever? Ah... Vanhoover Five? I'm Depth Charge, by the way."

"Erm, yeah, that's us. What're... what d'you need?" Okay, it's late, I'm tired, I'm half-willing to just chalk this whole encounter up to exhaustion. The sea pony splashed a little in his tub, Crash Dive setting it up against the side of the house in the light, before taking a few steps back and looking towards him with me.

"Well, see, I dunno if you handle stuff deep underwater, but I've been listening to your exploits through that old radio station, and I think you guys could help. There's this old sub wreck just outside that place you were, ran aground on a reef or hit a mine or something, and nowadays it's gotten to be home to a whole lot of these nasty things, look like an anglerfish and a pony tried to have a baby." Wrecked sub full of anglerponies... no, couldn't be. Oh, but if it is... "I, um, I dunno if you actually accept payment or do these things for free like the guy on that ship says, but I did get this out of that sub before I was chased off. It's heavy and shiny, hope it's actually worth something to you and I didn't just grab a paperweight to try and pay you with..."

He ducked down in the tub for a moment, splashing some of the frigid water over the sides, before hefting a largeish rhomboid bar out and balancing it on the edge. The sea pony wore a small smile, as I could only stare at it in disbelief. No freakin' way. Crash Dive came to her senses sooner than I did, myself teetering on my hooves slightly as I went for the door. Yeah, I really must be dreaming, because a talking fish pony just asked us to clear out a sunken submarine loaded with anglerponies off the coast and then went and paid us up front with a solid bar of gold. Crash Dive took to handling the rest of the deal as I stepped inside the house, headed down the hallway, and promptly collapsed on the non-made-of-caps bed that was in our room.

I really hope that this was a dream, because if not... damnit Static, why did your lie have to be true?

---

"Right... Suppose we've dealt with weirder stuff. You really think this is a good idea?" The next day came to prove that last night's encounter definitely wasn't a dream, and that Static can squee loud enough to nearly burst ear drums. Or, at least aggravate my tinnitus. Aerith and Static had gone off to Maple Creek to get Ripple and Trout, leaving myself and Scouring to head to the sub pen, led by Crash Dive. Why she was so insistent on leading us there without telling us why, that's a good question I don't think I'll get an answer to... much in the same way I'll never get an answer to why a rubber diaper gas bag was the best that whoever designed these damned diving suits could come up with. "I mean, it is a bar o' gold, but how do we know that sea pony isn't jus' tellin' us to blow up something that's the home of somepony else he don't like?"

"He wouldn't have been able to give a perfect description of the Anglerponies if he hadn't have seen them himself. I trust him." The obliterated steel door of the sub pen enterance met us, all of us squeezing our way through the opening, along with a bit of snow carried on the breeze. We made way back through the facility, eventually reaching the actual docks for the subs, the power armored pegasus heading to the far end of the room and looking over some of the heavy doorways that presumably led to storage areas. I gave Scouring a small glance, which he returned, as Crash Dive finally stopped at one and smashed the lock off with her armored hoof. She looked back towards us both for a moment, still stood in front of the door.

"He also did tell me about something that was in storage here that you two would be the best for helping with, perfect for destroying that thing. I didn't want to spoil the surprise... or have to deal with you being hyperactive in that thing for the whole walk over." I blunk a few times in response, scratching at the back of my head with the rubber boot of the suit. Well, um, okay? Why the annoyed tone there, I thought we already established that short of a megaspell, not a whole lot could top my excitement from the fact that this place now has five more large-caliber high velocity tank guns free for the taking. Unless... the steel door clattered open, allowing both myself and Scouring the sight of five circular tailfin assemblies stacked neatly in a small pyramid base, Crash Dive letting off a small sigh as I blunk a few times. "These are a couple depth bombs, codename Lulu. They're... Megaspell Depth Bombs."

And there goes my brain stopping again for a second. I swear to Celestia, if that info was on the terminal that Static was looking at, and he didn't tell me about it... Scouring trotted over to the locker, Crash Dive taking a step back so he could get a better look inside. The unicorn took to looking them over as I trotted over with a series of squeaks, the baggy suit resting awkwardly over my wings. I'm not looking forwards to the wing cramps... "Right... so, guessin' the plan is to try an' get this thing set up for remote detonation, and just bring it there by hoof, then? Because I'll go on record now sayin' that I don't quite really know how to re-fuse a megaspell..."

"Depth Charge said there's a wiring diagram inside the bomb that should be able to help, and from what he could tell it sounded like it wouldn't be too difficult to rewire it with a receiver from a brick of C4. We take off any weights, remove as much of the casing as we can, and we can move it without fuss afterwards." Crash Dive looked over the weapon for a few moments, myself still fixed upon it in wide-eyed awe, idly poking it with the rubber sole of one of the diving suit's boots. A panel on the side flipped up in front of the power armored pegasus, Scouring coming over to look at it, giving a small nod. "I'll be up top, waiting for Static and Aerith. If something goes wrong, um... well, I guess I'll be third to know. Good luck."

Crash Dive shimmied herself out past Scouring, quickly heading out of the sub pen and up the stairs, almost at full gallop as she reached the doorway. We watched her for a few moments, before turning our eyes back to the bomb, Scouring letting off a breath. "Right... let's see if bein' with B Comp'ny did me any good with handlin' megaspells..."

---

"Going on record sayin' this is the absolute craziest thing I've ever done, and the craziest thing I've ever witnessed, too." Re-arming the Lulu went without much difficulty, aside from Scouring electing to empty a whole bottle of Wild Pegasus after it was set up, Crash Dive coming to let us know about Trout's arrival shortly afterwards. She stayed back at the sub pen to handle getting the megaspell over as I hopped aboard the small fishing boat, Static getting his own diving suit fitted on with Aerith's help, as Ripple pulled us away from shore and to where Static's pip-buck pointed. "But, if you're all serious about there actually bein' gold down there, I'm gonna keep my yap shut. Nice to finally get paid."

"Oh, you have no idea..." The earth pony chuckled as he adjusted himself in the thick rubber of the suit, the brass helmet fitting over his head easily as it was fixed in place. All the hoses had been set up beforehand, myself squirming a little as I sat on the deck, waiting to arrive. Stupid diving suit diaper-thing... Static tugged and adjusted the helmet over his head as Aerith trotted over with my own, wearing a meek smile. The heavy brass and glass device slipped over my head and was fit into place, the sounds of the sea being muffled beyond the slow hiss from the air line at the back of my head. The tinkling of the alicorn's magic met my ears for a moment as she flicked a switch inside, the choppy voice of Static coming through over it. "-how comfortable this stuff kinda is..."

"Aw, is somepony enjoying having a squeaky diaper around his flanks like a little foal?~" The diving suit-clad earth pony jumped in surprise as my voice carried over into his helmet, myself following up with a laugh as he shot me a look. It wasn't too long before Ripple brought Trout to a stop, climbing down from the cabin and hefting an anchor overboard, the cable it was attached to falling over after it before finally coming to a stop. Okay... hopefully our air lines are that long, too. He ducked inside the house portion for a moment, coming out and starting to set up a crane on the deck, with Aerith's help. I trotted over beside Static, peering over into the water with him for the time being. Buh, can't hardly see down there...

"Alright, my understanding this is the place. You bring the basket down and get it loaded with the bars, I'll haul 'em up this way, aye?" Static turned to look at Ripple as he sat by the crane's controls and a small radio, answering him with a nod, as Aerith levitated up the pair of air hoses off the deck, followed by ourselves. We hovered over the water, watching as Ripple gave us both a small salute for a moment, before the alicorn lowered us in. I fumbled around slightly, feeling the water resisting against my movements as we fell, eventually managing to get a hoof around the neck of Static's helmet. Okay, he's there, good, we're doing fine...

The long form of the submarine soon came faintly into view far below, the earth pony beside me fumbling around with something on his suit before letting a cylindrical object fall away down to the sea bed alongside it, and sticking his foreleg up to cover the lower part of my visor. There was a dull thud and bright flash from below - huh, flash-bangs work underwater, who knew? - us both floating for a moment before continuing our descent. Eesh, you'd think we would have fallen faster with this heavy helmet... which is full of extremely bouyant air. Okay, point taken.

The sandy floor was kicked up into a dust cloud as we landed, a couple familiar forms coming in from the east, one's scales glinting against the other's helmet flashlight. I moved to take a step, having to fight against the water to do it, slowly making way over to where they were. Crash Dive's voice came over our radios as she trotted over, looking around. Stupid power armor servos making it so easy to walk in a place like this... "She's all set, we just need to find the right place to stick it. You almost got it cleared out?"

"Ah, no, we just got here, actually. Static's probably looking for where to get the gold out from." I let off a weak chuckle as the earth pony bounced over beside me, slowly, an annoyed look on his face. What, not like it isn't true. Depth Charge wore a smile as he came over to us, reaching a hoof out to Static and grabbing the earth pony, bringing him up and away from where we stood onto the wide back of the sub. I watched them for a moment as they disappeared, Crash Dive turning her head back and looking over the guts of the megaspell.

"Funny how such a big bomb can be squeezed into such a small space. Depth Charge said that most of the buggers were located in the bow, so our best bet would be getting it wedged up there somehow. Supposed to be about a kiloton in size, whatever that is..." Answering her with a nod in the helmet, we both made our way along the sub, looking it over. A kiloton, twice as big as the megaspells on the Valkyrie... ooh, this was going to be so awesome to watch...

---

Getting the warhead set up and all the gold out went fairly uneventfully, as far as I'd like to admit, and the bright noon sun had vanished over the horizon by the time we had unloaded Trout at the lighthouse and Ripple had brought her back to Maple Creek. Leaving the diving suits behind at Crash Dive's place in their entirety, we'd all taken place atop the sub pen, including a metal tub with a sea pony inside of it. I let off a light giggle, sitting down on the heavy blanket laid out in the snow and watching out towards the open water, flicking on my radio. Huh, no music... and that is definitely not Jim. Guess this is why White Noise is the assistant...

"U-um, you're turned to Radio KAOS, and right now, uh, the usual DJ is occupied with setting up a camera... thing. I-if you didn't hear it from him earlier, apparently the Vanhoover Five are going to be taking care of a, uh, crashed submarine, that's kind of become the home to a whole colony of those monsters, er, fish, ah... monster-fish? Ahm, those things that they killed at the Vanhoover dam, and in Clearwater, yanno, those fish-things. Anyways, uh, yeah, Vanhoover Five are taking care of them, and we assumed it probably means a big explosion, so... yeah. I'll, um, I'll keep you updated until the DJ comes back, and if you Five are listening, we are ready here, so if you can blow this thing anytime, that'd... that'd be just great. Please do it soon."

Scouring chuckled beside me as he levitated up the detonator, myself wearing a grin. "Well, you heard White Noise, let's blow this sucker! Oooh, can't wait to see how big this thing is..." Bouncing with excitement, the unicorn turned eyes out towards the ocean along with the rest of us, the detonator beside him letting off a small click noise. There was a short delay, just long enough for me to get worried, before something deep under the surface suddenly flashed a bright white, making my eyes go wide. Oh, yes.

The thump of the shockwave hit the ground we were on quickly, causing the loose snow powder to be kicked up momentarily as the shockwave broke through the surface. The ocean erupted into a massive plume of white spray, Static rather cheekily popping his umbrella open in front of himself only for it to be blown shut as the blast struck us properly. Oh, sweet merciful Celestia and Luna above, that was better than firing off that AA gun... sorry about the sheets, Crash Dive. I flopped backwards as the cloud of steam formed and rose to full height, giggling stupidly, the others around - or, at least Scouring and Depth Charge, far as I could tell - hollering and laughing at the sight. Releasing a long sigh, I rested my head back, staring up at the cloudless sky above - well, I mean, cloudless besides a certain mushroom-shaped one.

"Oh yeah... that was worth it."

I moved through the water after Depth Charge, my breath clouding up the glass of the helmet slightly as I followed the seapony over onto the top of the wrecked submarine. “So, where exactly is this gold being held? We don’t need to break open a safe, do we? I’m not exactly very good at picking locks.” I spoke, but Depth Charge didn’t react, simply leading me further as I walked slowly along the metal surface of the submarine. Oh, yeah, I guess he doesn’t have a radio on him... guh, darn sea ponies. Depth Charge came to a stop at a circular hatch, bending down to flip open the latch on it. I stepped up to the edge, peering down into the dark submarine, as the sea pony gave an ‘after you’ motion with his hoof. Grumbling a little, I took a hold of the ladder and started to lower myself down into the dark submarine, wishing I had a flashlight with me. Why isn’t Crash Dive coming with us, again?

A light flickered on behind me as Depth Charge pulled a lever near the ladder. A bare bulb shone through a small glass box above the lever, illuminating the hallway of the sub somewhat. A series of bulbs switched on, showing a path through the sub towards another large door. “So, the vault where it's all stored is close, right? I mean, I know the anglerpony-things are mostly in the front where Crash Dive and Night Strike are, but…” My voice trailed off as I remembered again that Depth Charge couldn’t hear me. Well, if those things are close, he better be able to hear my hooves banging on metal in a panic, then. I followed the seapony through the corridors, tripping a little as I tried to move through the bulkheads before my hoof had cleared the bottom frame. Guh, all this water really isn’t making moving around easier...

We eventually reached the end of the hallway, a large steel door sitting closed before us. I reached up, wrapping my hooves around the wheel of the door and yanked down. With a loud groan, the wheel spun, locking mechanisms sliding out from latches on the wall. I stumbled as the door swung inwards, the light from the hallway leaking around us into the room, revealing stacks upon stacks of glistening, solid gold bars. My heart practically stopped in my chest, my legs giving out from under me as I collapsed down, staring up at the collection of gold. “S-s-sweet… C-Celestia…”

Depth Charge swam over to one of the stacks on the shelves, as I shakily got back up to my hooves, wandering over to another collection of bars. They were slightly covered in grime from years of neglect, with what looked like a few tangles of sea weed growing around them through breaches in the hull. Wiping away the slime revealed ‘500’ punched into the gold, followed by four nines. I couldn’t contain myself, letting loose several high pitched giggles, thankful Depth Charge didn’t have a radio. “Having fun, Sparky?” I turned around, seeing Night Strike and Crash Dive stepping into the room, Night Strike’s smirk just barely visible in the gloom. Of course now is when they get back into range of the radios.

“Oh, shut up.” I muttered, turning back to the gold. “This is going to take quite a few trips, from the look of things. I guess I didn’t exactly realize just how much a hundred bars of gold is.” I lifted one of the bars off of the shelf, turning it over in my rubber-clad hooves. Night Strike lifted one up, grunting with the effort. Well, good thing these suits have some built in saddlebags. I dropped the bar into mine, taking a couple more and loading myself up with them. “Well, if don’t mind walking slowly we might be able to all get it one trip. 25 apiece?”

“Uh, yeah, I’d rather not break my back.” Night Strike said, already looking tired after having taken only four bars. Oh, come on, you barely have any of it! I slipped a couple more bars into the satchels, my legs protesting from the added weight. Guh, ok, maybe no more than eight at a time. I began to slowly walk back to the hallway as Crash Dive and Depth Charge grabbed a few bars themselves, my movement through the water slowed even further. “Oh, and if we’re coming back for this gold and we find any anglerponies suddenly coming out of this wreck, We're getting the hell out and I’m blowing the bomb. Screw getting the rest.”

I gave a short laugh, reaching the ladder and starting to climb back up. “Over my dead body. I’ll kill those things with my bare hooves if I have to, we’re not leaving a single ounce of gold behind.” I could almost hear Night Strike’s eyes rolling behind me as I lifted myself onto the surface of the submarine, followed by Crash Dive. “Besides, we haven’t seen any yet, right?” We walked slowly along the submarine back to where Trout was anchored. I gave a few tugs on the anchor's chain, and after a moment, a black form appeared from over the side of the ship far above us. A metal crate slowly fell down to us, Night Strike grabbing ahold of the rope it was attached to before it slid away, and we began to load the thing up with the gold. Night Strike tugged on the rope again, and the slack began to be taken up, the crate full of gold rising back up into the water as Ripple worked the winch above.

Well, back again, I suppose. We turned and trotted back, our hoofsteps echoing through the water, myself giving a nervous glance around. The seafloor was only barely visible from atop the sub, and the murky depths prevented me from seeing beyond a couple feet from the submarine. Crash Dive’s light illuminated the deck of the vessel, though it didn’t help from causing shadows to dance across the surface. Come on, just a few more trips and we’ll be out of here… I really wish I could’ve brought my umbrella, or at least a lead pipe or something.

The second and third trips were thankfully uneventful, though that didn’t stop my heart from keeping its elevated rate. I watched as the crate once again was hauled back up to the surface, disappearing into the gloom. We turned and once again began to make our way back, my ear flicking a little and tapping against the inside of the helmet. “H-hold up, you see that?” Night Strike said, pausing and looking off to the right. We all stopped, following her gaze, but nothing could be seen swimming through the water. Night Strike began to slowly continue walking along the sub, still glancing over to the open sea towards the north occasionally. “Let’s just hurry up and get the rest of it out. I -really- don’t like the size of the thing I saw out there.”

We climbed back down into the submarine and headed towards the vault, only a few bars remaining on the shelves. Slipping some into my saddlebags, I heard a low creaking coming from down the submarine. We all stopped, looking down the hallway in silence. Suddenly a loud crash could be heard, along with the tearing of metal as something large climbed onto the top of the submarine. Several clangs and taps along the surface of the metal could be heard as whatever had hoisted itself onto the submarine scuttled along the top. I bent down, backing up into the corner instinctually as the thing passed over us.

Another thud could be heard, along with rushing sand as whatever had passed by landed on the sand on the opposite side of the sub, crawling away into the ocean depths. I realized I had been holding my breath and let it out, a nervous gulp coming in from Night Strike over the radio. “L-let’s get out of here and blow this thing up before whatever that was comes back. Least it didn't notice our air lines, eheh...” She said, gathering up her gold and rushing as much as she could to the door. The rest of us quickly collected the remaining bars and followed her, though none of us were eager to climb out of the relative safety of the submarine.

Crash Dive eventually climbed up the ladder, poking her head out as the beam of light from her helmet cut through the darkness. “Looks clear. We should get back before that thing returns.” She climbed up onto the submarine, the rest of us following and trotting hurriedly back towards Trout. As we did, I noticed several new holes on the hull of the sub, each one at least a foot in diameter. My mind raced with images of disturbing deep sea creatures as I gave a bit of a whimper, reaching the chain of Trout’s anchor. Yanking on the chain, we waited in the darkness for the metal basket to return. After what felt like an eternity, the crate came into view, Depth Charge pulling it down for us to begin loading up. After filling the box, I looked over to Night Strike. “So… uh, is there a faster way of reaching the surface than repeatedly breaststroking?”

“Well, we could always open up that auxiliary tank on your suit, I’m sure that’ll get you up in no time.” Night Strike snickered, prompting me to give a nervous laugh. Yeah, I’d rather not be any bigger a target for whatever that thing was, thanks. “Ahm... just drop some of the weights on your belt into the gold box, you should float right up, I think.” Night Strike was already beginning to slip off some of the heavy black bars affixed to her belt, dropping them in with the gold before starting to rise up through the water. I followed her example after pulling on the rope for the others to haul up the gold. Swimming upwards, my movements weren’t quite as hindered without the extra weight, and Crash Dive and Depth Charge disappeared into the gloom.

The chain beside us began to clink and shake as Crash Dive grabbed onto it, readying herself to be pulled upwards once we reached the surface. Moonlight filtered down through the water, Trout casting a shadow on the surface of the water. Soon our helmeted heads broke above the waves, Night Strike and I bobbing about for a moment in the suits, before swimming over to Trout where Ripple had a ladder ready. “Good to see you’re alright, you’re certainly giving us enough of a workout with all that gold.” The sailor stallion gave a small laugh as Aerith helped me out of my helmet, taking in a deep breath of salty air. Trotting up the steps into the control room, Aerith had set my helmet onto the deck below and was working with Night Strike's, myself slipping out of the rubbery suit and boots, thankful to be out of the water once I tugged my jacket down over me. “Come on, help us get Crash Dive up. I doubt she wants to try walking back to shore this far out.” Ripple called to me, standing next to the anchor winch.

I placed my hooves on the opposite lever, starting to spin the winch as Ripple did the same. It was slow going as the winch clicked along, the chain slowly being dragged up from the bottom. Thankfully, it wasn’t too long before Crash Dive surfaced, her suit dripping as she climbed up onto the deck, Depth Charge bobbing in the water below us. “So, you guys are planning on watching the detonation at that old sub pen, right?” Night Strike nodded, zipping her jacket back up now her own diving gear was off. “See you guys there! And try not to hit the trigger too early, I don’t want to be in the water when this thing blows, alright?” He dove back down, disappearing beneath the waves.

Resting on Trout’s railing, Ripple stepped over to me, eyeing the bars of gold that were being carried out of the crate and placed in the control room with the others. “Now… about that payment you promised me.” Gwuh, I’d hoped he’d forgotten about that…

---

Sitting outside the sub pen now sans diving suits and a whole gold bar lighter, I grumbled to myself, shifting around and getting out of the mini-tank’s seat. Stupid promises and no good way of splitting gold bars into portions... “Oh, quit your whining, you still have enough gold to plate the Valkyrie now. Hell, Dunno if we can even bring it all back home...” Night Strike said, laying out a sheet on the roof of the pen as I climbed up onto it. I sat down on it and crossed my hooves, still muttering to myself a little. Crash Dive sat down on the far side of the tub Depth Charge rested inside, while Aerith settled beside me, Scouring and Night Strike taking their seats as White Noise stumbled on his words over the radio.

“Well, you heard White Noise, let’s blow this sucker!” She giggled as Scouring squeezed the trigger on the small detonator, a moment of silence passing before a bright flash could be seen below the surface of the water. A thunder like rumble began to build, the shockwave suddenly hitting the surface of the water, spraying up a column several hundred feet high as a wall of ocean started to rush to the shore. I opened my umbrella, hoping to keep dry, at least somewhat. As the shockwave hit however, the umbrella was blown from my hoof, turning inside out before flying backwards along the snowy concrete roof behind us. The massive waves crashed hard against the rocky shore, sending foam spraying out in all directions as the water rained back down to us, pattering down to the ground. As the shockwave subsided, I heard Night Strike’s excited giggling. “Oh yeah, that was worth it...”

I shook a little, trying to recover from the blast as I trotted over to grab my umbrella. “Remind me never to let you blow something like that up while I’m around again. I think my heart’s still stopped.” I said, trying to fold the umbrella right side out again. The others climbed back into the trailer, Scouring rolling up the blanket they had laid out on the snow and tossing it in with us. After much struggling, the umbrella popped down to its normal position, allowing me to slip it down by my hooves. “So, uh… what next?”

"Well, um, could I get a lift back to your lighthouse? Kind of think the water out there might be a little too hot for my liking, heh..." Depth Charge rubbed at the back of his head as water splashed over teh side of his tub lazily, Crash Dive following up with a look towards us and a nod of the head. Aerith passed on a smile, picking up the tub in her magic and resting it in the trailer behind, myself letting off a small sigh as we settled back in. "Heh, thanks. I'll probably stick around for a while, least until after that place stops being so irradiated."

Night Strike spoke up shortly after Depth Charge finished, myself almost ready to start off. “We still need to go pick up Pearl from Shady Shores, and cave that place in to keep any more of those anglerponies from getting out. Ooh, I can’t wait to see what one of those megaspells does to that place! I mean, it'll be half the yield of the one we just saw, but it'll be open air, though, no water to lessen the blast!” I shook my head, switching on the engine and turning around to head back towards the lighthouse for the night.

“Didn’t you just hear what I said? Besides, I thought you’d want to save those for a special occasion. Like a, ‘we’re heading back but here’s on last thing to remember us by’ kind of deal.” Night Strike responded with a roll of her eyes, her head still turned and watching the slowly dissipating mushroom cloud. Sheesh, she really is like her dad, isn't she? “Well, fine, but don’t blame me when you run out of them in a week and get half the wasteland angry with us.” The mini-tank trundled along swiftly, bouncing over a few rocks before we reached the road heading south. Night Strike turned up the radio on her Pip-Buck, White Noise’s timid voice coming in over the air.

“Ah-ha-ha, w-w-weeeeell, f-for those of you just joining us and, uh, wondering what that b-big explosion on the coast was, th-that was the Vanhoover Five taking out a submarine and… dear Luna, I think I need a new chair cushion… well, now you know what something like a megaspell looks like, assuming you aren’t a ghoul or something…” He paused, trying to catch his breath. “Ah, uh, anyways, y-yeah, music! We’ve got some…” There was the sound of several tapes falling to the floor and some muffled whining. “Connie… must be a gryphon… uh, coming right up!” There was a pause before a saxophone began to play, filling the air with music.

"Stupid Cupid, you’re a real mean guy
I’d like to clip your wings so you can’t fly
I’m in love and it’s a crying shame
And I know that you’re the one to blame
Hey hey, set me free
Stupid Cupid, stop picking on me!

---

“So, did you actually have a plan for getting one of the bombs out of this thing without setting it off, or was that filed under ‘deal with later’?” Night Strike, Scouring and I were standing outside the Valkyrie the next day, looking at the bomb bay doors. The pegasus shifted her weight about a little, clearly having not really given the idea any thought. I sighed, trotting around to the hatch that lead up into the cockpit.

Puling myself up into the Valkyrie, Night Strike followed behind me, looking over all of the controls at the pilot's seat while I turned attention to the back seat. “Well, there’s bound to be an ‘open bay doors’ button on here. They had to have some way to unload the bombs that they didn’t actually use during a run safely.” She scanned the controls as I pulled out the control manual from my saddlebags, skimming through it again. Swear I saw something pertaining to this somewhere... I flipped through it, trying to find any information on the bomb bay. Before I could spot a relevant page though, there was a beep and the sound of grinding metal as the bay doors opened wide, myself lookng up to see Night Strike hitting a random button at the pilot's controls. Guh, manuals are useless.

We slipped through the doorway at the back of the cockpit and into the now opened bomb bay, where the large megaspells were waiting on their quick-release hardpoints. Scouring stood below us, staring up at the bombs. “Alright, you got the doors open. Now how are you gonna make sure they aren’t active when we take ‘em out?” Night Strike inspected one of the bombs, scratching her head as she did. I looked to the side of the bay for some sort of diagram or instructions, though could find nothing.

Night Strike leaned up to where one of the bombs was hooked to, trying to undo it. “Well, I mean, we’re not flying it, so I think they’re not active right now. Just get ready to catch this thing if I can get it off...” She fiddled with the latch on the hardpoint, only succeeding in making my heart stop as one of her hooves slipped and banged against the nose of the bomb. I bit at my lip, quickly pulling the manual out again and flipping through it, trying to at least find the index. Bombing controls, Page 53-65, okay... now to keep her from blowing us all up.

"A-actually, Night Strike, maybe I should do this? Because, yanno, I actually read the manual? Just give me a sec." The pegasus blunk a few times at myself and moved herself back onto the metal platform at the nose end of the bomb bay, before hopping down and out of the aircraft with a small sigh. I gave a nod, looking back down and flipping through the pages, working my way back to the cockpit. "Okay... safe release of unused ordinance, make sure arming circuits are all set to off and fail-deadly switch is in safe position, press and hold release button for three seconds. Alright..."

Flicking the indicated switches into the indicated positions, and selecting the right bomb... I hope... my hoof hovered over the red button. I drew in a breath, clenching my eyes tight and pushing my hoof down, counting off the seconds. One... two... three. A clunking noise was heard through the open back door, along with a small scream, though thankfully no massive skin-tearing fireball. Good. Letting off a long sigh, I trotted back out through the short hallway, seeing Scouring holding the megaspell Night Strike was climbing on in his magic.

Scouring let out a slow breath as he saw myself come around, Night Strike looking up towards myself. “Next time, give us a bit more warning, aye? Nearly didn't catch it.” He trotted backwards, carefully moving the bomb out from under the Valkyrie. I jumped out of the plane after him, Night Strike following suit.

We walked over to the mini-tank where Aerith and Crash Dive were waiting, watching as we cane over with the long box-tailed bomb. Scouring carefully lowered the bomb into the trailer, and Crash Dive got to work securing it in. “Hey, at least we’re not dead, right? It should be unarmed, hopefully.” I let off a small sigh, climbing into the mini-tank and turning on the radio, a smooth waltz crackling in as we began to roll off towards Shady Shores once more.

---

The air was crisp as we drove along the coast towards Shady Shores, the megaspell sitting in the back of the trailer. It was tortuously slow going, as Scouring and Night Strike refused to have us move faster than a brisk jog, lest the bomb suffer any unwanted disturbance. I groaned, smacking my head down onto the steering bar of the mini-tank. “Are you suuuuuuuure we can’t go any faster? I swear the bomb wasn't armed, I did everything the manual said to ensure that! Why would you carry something around that’s going to blow up if you sneeze too close to it?”

“You know what this thing can do. I thought you said you didn’t want me to blow you up?” Night Strike responded, shifting a little in the trailer. I just continued to drive along, muttering threats under my breath. I swear it’s going to be five days before we reach Shady Shores at this rate... “And you were the one who didn’t want to pay Ripple the five gold bars to go bring this to Shady Shores himself, so quit your whining.”

“I am not paying him 75,000 caps because he’s too scared to just drive by some abandoned research station with a live bomb as a favor. And don’t tell me that’s an unreasonable demand!” I called back over Night Strike’s chuckling. A radroach scuttled out of the brush, its antennae twitching a little before it scurried under the tank and to the other side of the road to pick at a dead bird. Oh, nature sure is beautiful. We passed by some wooden steps leading down to a beach, several pre-war carts and barbeque stands laying around on the sand below.

After a while of driving, the sun was hanging low in the sky, much like my head was hanging low over the handlebars. Guh, hopefully I can convince them that the bomb's completely safe so we can actualy motor it tomorrow, because this took way too long today. The wire fencing of a military compound came into view up ahead, myself guiding the mini-tank through it and over to the familiar bunk houses, grunting slightly. Well, it's at least somewhere to stop for the night... "Alright, we're stopping here until tomorrow. I'm sleeping in a bed, you guys do... whatever. Goodnight."

Turning off the mini-tank's engine, I pulled myself out of the seat and onto my hooves, stumbling over and through the doorway. Aerith followed behind me as Night Strike, Scouring, and Crash Dive all looked over the bomb, myself heading to the nearest old bed and flopping down onto it. Guh... well, it's a little better than sleeping on those bags of bottlecaps, at least.

---

The engine roared loudly behind myself as we sped onwards to Shady Shores, my back still complaining about last night but a smile wide on my face as I watched the world pass by through my goggles. I told them I made sure all of that bomb's safeties were on when we got it out, but no, gotta travel at a speed a snail could overtake 'just to be safe'. Thank you, my silver tongue, for helping me convince them we can go faster.

The Battered-Sea power station finally could be seen coming up over the horizon, the sun cresting in the sky as we approached. Slowing down as we closed in to the side of the building, I spotted the small door leading down into the Shady Shores facility, and pulled up next to it. “Alright, let’s go get Pearl and this thing set up. Least we can really book it afterwards, miht even be able to make it back to that training camp before the day's over.” I climbed out of the tank, trotting over to the trailer where Aerith and Scouring were levitating the bomb out. They set it down alongside the power station, Night Strike and Scouring getting to working with it, while I trotted over to the set of doors, standing at the head of the stairs leading down. Watching them as they worked, eventually they both stepped back from the bomb, coming over beside me. Takng a breath, we all soon began our slow decent, our hooves echoing down the cold, stone stairway.

The air became mustier as we climbed downwards, the wind from outside dying down to be replaced with the deafening silence of the underground hallways of the facility, the faint hum of electronics eventually meeting our ears as we approached the main server room. We were soon back in the central hub, fans whirring as tickertapes clicked along. We trotted over to Pearl’s terminal, the outline of her face flickering silently. “Uh… Pearl? You here? Ya got your chassis all ready to go, right?” Night Strike asked. The whirring of fans grew louder for a moment before Pearl’s screen flickered again, shifting from a blank expression to a smile.

“Heya guys! Yep, I’ve got her all ready to go, she’s just fixing up some wires at the moment. I told her it wasn’t going to matter anyway, but I should really know by now I never listen to myself." I paused for a moment, looking towards the rest of the group, all of them as confused as I was. Before I could ask, the soft wooshing of a small jet could be heard coming in from down the hallway, us all watching as a spherical robot with multiple eyestalks and utility arms came into view. A screen on the center eyestalk showed an image of Pearl identical to the one on the screen, myself just barely noticing a nurse's hat placed atop the robotic body. Well, um... okay then.

“Hello! It’s good to see you guys again, I was just trying to fix up some of the stuff before you blow it up. You don’t want to make anything else more dangerous on top of setting that bomb off!” Um… I looked back and forth between Pearl and Porta-Pearl, trying to wrap my head around things. The Porta-Pearl’s face switched to one of confusion to match mine, before switching back to her normal friendly smile. “Oh, I bet I know what you’re thinking, you thought I was going to move completely into this chassis, didn’t you?” The robot waved a hand dismissively. “Well, that was the plan, but then I realized, why waste all that time moving everything when I can just copy and paste myself? AI isn’t as nice and easy to move as the photo of the staff party, you know.”

“Uh… alright.” Night Strike said, trotting over to get a better look at Porta-Pearl. “But, isn’t it a little weird talking to yourself? And wasn’t the whole point of making this thing so you wouldn’t get blown up in the megaspell detonation?” Porta-Pearl hovered quietlya round, getting a good look at all of us. O...kay, maybe she just wanted to know what we looked like in all dimensions? That... kind of makes sense. I think.

The original Pearl responded in place of her portable self. “Don’t worry about it, I still won’t be blown up! Well, I will, but I also won’t. Isn’t science fun? I’ll be like Starswirl’s cat! Only not quite. Close enough for a test!” I rubbed my temple, not entirely able to wrap my head around what she was talking about. Did Starswirl own a cat? What does that have to do with a copied, or cloned AI getting blown up? “Well, hopefully this fixes the problem with the anglerponies. And if not, well, I’m sure I’ll think of something else!”

“Oh, speaking of problem solving,” Night Strike said, rummaging through her duffel bag, pulling out the movie reel we’d found back at the Starlite Drive-In. She looked around for a moment, keeping it held with her. “Almost forgot to leave this with the megaspell. If that doesn’t wipe that thing off the face of the planet once and for all, I think it’s safe to assume there is no diety above whatsoever, only creepy animatronic manticore face.” She gave a small nod as Pearl watched on from her big screen and the small screen, before heading back towards the stairs, us all leaving the original Pearl behind.

“Bye guys! Have fun blowing me up!” Yeah, nope, that doesn’t make me feel guilty for a collection of code at all.

The crisp ocean air that met the Battered-Sea and blew about it ruffled our manes as we made the last flight of stairs to the surface, Pearl hovering up alongside us. I hooked left out of the doorway to where we had placed the megaspell, the still untarnished reel of film clutched against my chest as the fresh snow crunched underhoof. Standing in front of the three-meter-long device, I let off a small cloudy breath, taking the film tin and forcefully burying it in the snow directly beneath the main body of the bomb's warhead, where it'd most certainly be vaporized, or at the very least crushed underneath the rubble. Goodbye, and good riddance... "Alright, let's head out. Hopefully we don't get any weather come in that screws with the bomb's systems, don't want to risk coming out this way after pulling the trigger. Just hope the weather holds up and doesn't blow the fallout down onto us when this does go off."

Hopping myself up onto the back of the Mini-tank behind Boomer, Static gave a nod in response, starting up the engine and pulling his goggles down over his eyes. Pearl sat herself down in the wagon alongside Scouring and Crash Dive, her robotic arms folding up into a resting position as her screen-eyestalk wore that smiling face. "Oh, wow, didn't know you guys had an ARSP-variant Motorbug, that would definitely explain how you were able to get around with a bomb that size so quickly! Guess whatever place you got this from didn't fare too great after the war either... oh, Seahoof Armory, what a shame. They always were happy to send a few rounds up here for testing on the Anglerpony project, spent exactly 472 rounds of twenty millimeter standard armor piercing to make sure their shells were nice and tough! They barely even were penetrating by the time we were finished!" ...I don't think I'll ever get used to her gleeful explanations of why those things are as tough as they are. Just have to deal with her for a little while, Strikey, until we can find somewhere she can go...

The engine revved loudly beneath me as we pulled away and started to distance ourselves from the Battered-Sea Power Station, powering down the roads heading southwards. Static seemed to be happily laying on the throttle as the white smokestacks vanished behind a small rise, myself finally finding and slipping on those goggles. Huh, well, these are probably decent enough to filter a megaspell if I stare directly at it, maybe. Oh, but I wanna see as much of the blast as possible, though... decisions, decisions. Eh, can work it out when we get back to the sub pen. Maybe. Probably could dig a trench to hide in, too, if we wanted...

A few minutes of the engine droning on later, I was resting back against Boomer and fiddling with my pip-buck, when Pearl's screen-stalk flashed from her thinking face to her shocked face, looking about. It settled on looking off towards the eastern side of the wagon, before her voicebox sounded out loud, and jarring - sheesh, volume control, please? "STOP! Unidentified civilian in the blast danger zone!" Wait, what? Ehm, hope she wasn't referring to Hornsworth, because if so, well... heh, if there are any 'civilians' left there, I certainly wouldn't mind if they wound up getting a little irradiated. Who knows, maybe the blast'll fry the electronics of those freakin' robots, too... nah, ground burst wouldn't do that, would have to be high-altitude. Hang on, back to reality, Strikey.

The mini-tank came to a slight skidding stop as Static looked back from his driver's position, looking first up at me and then to the wagon behind us. "What? What's going on, is Pearl alright?" Answering Static with a shrug, I hopped off of the back of the mini-tank, Pearl lifting herself up to look around from her position in the cart. Aerith scratched at her head in confusion, the earth pony at the front grabbing his umbrella and climbing out with me, looking back to the screen-stalk that was scanning the patchy forest off to the side.

"I'm getting an unidentified heartbeat off about forty meters that way, if the bomb's as big as you say this is well within the secondary blast effect zone, and may even be at risk from the shockwave. We should warn them." Okay, she does have a point there, don't want to kill someone if they're not a raider or rebuilding freaky animatronics. Honestly, it's their fault for not building their house closer to the road... "You know, unless they're a zebra, in which case we should tie them in place and see what happens. It's a necessary experiment, even if this might be the last time a bomb like this gets set off... in which case, it'd be all the more necessary!"

Aerith blunk at her in confusion with the rest of us, pulling her rifle and Tommy Gun out at the ready as I looked out through the forest. Static trotted up besid myself, his umbrella balanced on his back. "Riiight, zebra or not, we should at least check and see if we should evacuate them. Imagine what people'd say if we were responsible for ghoulifying somepony, I'm good but I don't think I can keep them wanting to buy weapons from us if that happened."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm so sure they'd be angry that we did it. We'll have it announced on Radio KAOS well before we set the bomb off, anyone well within the blast zone like whoever that is when we detonate only have themselves to blame." Turning back to the mini-tank, I pulled Thumper out of my duffel bag, stuffing a few grenades into my jacket's pockets. Incendiary, HE, buckshot, slug, and a dragon's breath in the breech. Not saying we'll have to get in a firefight, but, yanno, better safe than sorry... with our luck, it'll be another bear. "Crash Dive, Scouring, you stay with Pearl and make sure she doesn't get injured, or, break or something. We'll get warning to them."

The power armored ponies gave a nod in response, myself fitting Thumper on my back and starting to trot out into the forest behind Aerith, Static beside me. The cold shore breeze blew overhead, rustling the bare branches and moving our manes slightly, the chilly snow crunching underhoof as we made our way away from the road. A short walk later revealed a shallow wooded valley, and a small scrap wood cabin in the middle of it, a stream of smoke rising from a pipe poking out the side, carrying on it the smell of... Sparkle-Cola? Myself blinking a few times, Static let off an annoyed sigh beside me. "Can't you go five minutes without opening another bottle?"

"That's not me this time, I swear! I think it's actually coming from that cabin... somehow." Scratching at my head with a hoof, Aerith shrugged in response as well, starting to head over to the small shack. Static glanced about for a moment, before letting loose another sigh, us both soon catching up to the alicorn. The sweet smell of carroty nectar of the goddesses hung un the valley, every now and again permeated by a hint of radishes... Sparkle-Cola and Sparkle-Cola RAD. Oooh, I think I'm gonna like whoever this is...

Aerith knocked on the door a few times, her rifle and tommy gun stowed at her sides, a small clatter of pots being heard from inside, along with a stallion's voice. "Agh, yeah, hang on! Heh, just gonna be a sec..." Well... least he's friendly. Hm, this place is in a valley, so it should be protected from the blast, at least a little... the door opened with a small creak, a unicorn standing at it, his mane heavily frazzled and coat slightly patchy in some places, mainly around his hooves. O...kay then. "Oh, heh, uhm, hello! Dont really get visitors too often... can I help you? Would you be interested in some home-brewed Sparkle-Cola, perhaps? I've got it tasting just like the real thing!"

'Ah... sure, I suppose.' Aerith brought up a screen for him to read, the unicorn responding with a wide grin and stepping away from the doorway to let us through. Well, no points for neatness, but... sweet Celestia, I didn't think there was this much Sparkle-Cola memorabilia in the whole wasteland. Makes the TOG look like a rest stop store! A pair of heavy thuds sounded out as Aerith's weapons fell to the floor either side of her, her jaw hung slack. 'You... -really- like Sparkle-Cola, don't you?'

It took a moment for the unicorn to notice her magical sign as he trotted over to a barrel with a couple empty bomb-bottles, opening the spigot and filling them up with a rich dark caramel-colored liquid, some frothy foam coming out of the necks as he brought them over. I was still ogling all the merchandise as he let off a small laugh, levitating one of the bottles into my hooves. "Yeah, you could say that. Goes back generations, this shack was my father's, and his father's, and his father who built it. All of 'em loved the soda, worked years on figuring out how to make more. My dad got it down about... five or six years ago. Go ahead, try it, guarantee it's almost perfect."

Looking into the bottle, I idly thought for a moment, watching the soda fizzle quietly. Looks like Sparkle-Cola, smells lie Sparkle-Cola, put in the same bottle, but how can we be sure... well, worst case, at least I can probably spit it out fast enough, and Aerith's probably pretty resistant to stuff as well. Closing my eyes, I brought the glass neck of the bottle to my lips, and started to gulp it down.

The unforgettable taste of actual, real Sparkle-Cola met my lips instantly, albeit with a small twang of metal, though close enough to fit the bill. The bottle was drained away quickly, myself gasping for breath afterwards and staring at the stallion who'd passed it to me, wide-eyed. Oh, you magnificent bastard, I'd kiss you right now if Static weren't here and I didn't think it might be weird. He let off a weak chuckle, taking the glass bottle back from me, wearing a grin. "So, take it you're a bit of an enthusiast as well. That case, might have something else that'd interest you..."

The unicorn trotted over to a corner of the small shack, as Static gave his bottle of home-brewed Sparkle-Cola off to me, looking about as annoyed as he usually is when it comes to this stuff. "Don't forget why we're here. We'll have to tell him about the megaspell at some point... though, you know, it wouldn't be a bad idea for him to move his operation somewhere more populated, anyways. Probably is some market for nearly-new Sparkle-Cola... hey, maybe he could even make a batch of that new Sunrise Sarsaparilla." Yeah, and I'm an alicorn with horns for wings and an extra foreleg coming out of my head. He wore a smirk as I finished off the second bottle, Aerith just finishing her first one.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Eh, at least it'd be something that wouldn't be liable to completely bankrupt these towns that we could do for them, and it is a pretty convincing reproduction. Get enough bottles together and he could put together a whole brewing plant." The unicorn hopped back down from a loft area, levitating a patchy scroll and a black case close by himself and wearing a small grin. He undid the small string that held the scroll together, letting it unfurl so we could read it, both myself and Aerith looking at it intently. Six to seven bottles regular pre-war Sparkle-Cola, extra radishes if available (if not, see step 9), 10g isolated Strontium-90 (if not available, see step 17), sugar substitute... wait a second.

"This was something that my dad was working on that I managed to finally complete, though I don't know if I got it entirely right. Kind of ran out of true samples to compare it to, and I'm admittedly not entirely keen on drinking it after having to down a whole radaway last time I did. You'd probably have a better handle on what this thing ought to taste like, first group that I've met that have the same love for Sparkle-Cola as I do. So... mind taste-testing it?" He wasn't... this isn't... he levitated up the black case in front of himself, which upon closer inspection was an old case for a violin, some faint blue light coming out from between the seams. Undoing the latches, he opened it up, revealing the pair of bright blue glowing bomb bottles inside. Sweet mother of Celestia, now I -really- want to kiss this stallion.

He levitated one of them out in his magic, myself taking a trot forwards to look at it more closely, before he placed it in my hooves with a smile. Still not entirely believing what I was seeing, or holding for that matter, I undid the cap, listening to the faint hiss of carbonation come out of it. The unicorn watched on expectantly as I brought the neck to my mouth and tilted it upwards, the glowing liquid pouring out of it and onto my tongue. Oh, sweet mother of Celestia and Luna above, if this is really his homemade recipe... I finished the small sip, staring at the unicorn with wide eyes. "So, what do you think, one Sparkle-Cola lover to another, did I get it right?"

"You have no idea how much I want to kiss you right now." Okay, well, probably not the response he was expecting, but damn if it wasn't true! He let off a weak chuckle, setting the violin case aside and taking the bottle of homemade Sparkle-Cola RAD back, re-sealing it with a bottlecap. He was smiling at least, so I suppose he did take that as a 'yes' to his question... setting the glowing bottle back in the case, he picked up the scroll, starting to roll it back up. "W-wait! How much do you want for that recipe? W-we've got plenty of caps, millions of 'em, and-and we just cleaned out a whole submarine too, yeah! We can pay you with that, it was loaded full of gol-"

"N-now hold on just a second there Night Strike, we aren't paying a million caps just so you can have enough Sparkle-Cola RAD to swim in it. Besides, we stopped here for a reason, remember?" I blunk a few times at Static, the unicorn across from us just watching on in confusion, keeping the scroll held in his magic. The blue earth pony faced him, glancing back at his setup at the far end of the shack for a moment. "Look, while I know my friends here would love to stick around to spend the rest of the day getting drunk on Sparkle-Cola, you actually need to leave and head as far south as you can over the rest of today and tomorrow. We've got a megaspell set up north of here at the Battered-Sea Power Station that we're going to detonate, and we're trying to limit civilian casualties as much as we can."

The way the unicorn's expression changed, you'd think Static had just insulted his entire bloodline by saying that. He put the scroll into the violin case, snapping the lid closed over it with a small huff. "Yeah, sure, that's a new excuse. You're not going to fool me with that pegasus shit, you just want me to leave so you can come back and steal the recipe from my house later. There's no such thing as megaspells." ...um, brain? Er... yeah, nope, I think by brain just crashed. I mean, that last sentence... he can't be serious, can he?

I blunk a few times as my mind rebooted itself. Night Strike OS, Ver. 1.0.18, copyright 2269 Twintails & Featherweight's genes, there we go. The unicorn levitated the violin case back up to the upper loft, letting off a small huff and grumbling under his breath slightly. Okay, all the drivers are coming back online, there's the speech and voice ones... "Eheheh, um... what was that last thing you said?"

"There's no such thing as megaspells, they're a pre-war hoax, probably dreamt up by the Ministry of Image or something so morons actually thought that we and the zebras had doomsday weapons that could end the planet. I honestly thought you guys would be smart enough to know something like that, you're really nice otherwise." Aaaand it's crashed again. Okay, gotta install some software updates to prevent crashes caused by utter and absolute nonsense overloads on this reboot. The unicorn looked at us all for a moment longer, before letting off a small huff. "There's one thing I can't stand, it's being lied to my face just to be robbed. You could've at least had the decency of coming up with a believable reason for me to leave, like bugbears or hellhounds or something." Urge to kiss falling... urge to strangle rising...

Static seemed to come to his senses first, as mine were beginning to be overridden by pure unbridled fury. "Look, we really don't want to rob you, we just want to make sure you won't end up dead, because we -do- have a megaspell, and we -are- going to be setting it off tomorrow. And you -are- in the blast danger zone." The unicorn scoffed at Static, my jaw clenched hard and forehoof itching to grab Thumper as he started to turn and go back to the other end of his shack. Static paused for a moment, looking over at myself. "Well, what about ghouls? They were made by the megaspells and balefire bombs, you think they're just, I dunno, fake or something?"

"Oh, I believe that ghouls were made by bombs. Big incendiary ones, not megaspells. I've made a lot of jerky in my time, and you can't tell me that they don't look like some finely-roasted and pulled bear meat." Yeah, yep, I don't think my eye has ever twitched before but it's definitely doing it now. The tinkling of a magic aura met my ears as I found my forehooves being held against the ground, myself glancing down at them to see Aerith keeping me in place. Oh, come on, I just want to make him as pretty as a ghoul, give or take an eyeball... "I'm staying here. But, hey, I'll humor you a little, if there really is a 'megaspell' that you've got up north by that old power station, and it's as dangerous as they allegedly are supposed to be - hell, if that thing turns me into a ghoul! - come back and I'll give you the recipe for RAD. If you're just screwing with me though, it's a million caps, no, TWO million, up front, right now. Take it or leave it."

I don't think I've gone from wanting to kiss somepony to wanting to strangle them to within forty millimeters of their life and make up the rest with Thumper as fast as I have with this guy. Static let off a sigh, shaking his head in disbelief and turning for the doorway, Aerith releiving myself of Thumper and making me follow along behind her. My hooves dug scrapes in the wood floor as I was dragged out, teeth still gritted, being picked up and set back down in the snow. Static looked back towards myself, his annoyed expression going to one of alarm. "U-um... look, Night Strike, it's not worth it. You've got plenty of RAD already, and he'll get his when we set off the megaspell anyways. Just... just breathe right now. We'll come back sooner or later to get it."

Drawing in a long breath of the frigid winter air, I held it for a moment, before releasing it in a cloudy huff. Right... his shack is in a valley, the recipe should be protected from the thermal pulse since that works on a line-of-sight deal for the most part. We'll come back after we set off the bomb, we'll get the recipe, and I'll get to rub it in his advanced radiation-poisoned face. Who knows, maybe all the fallout will actually allow him to get some brain cells back. Silently, I started to trot back to the road, the others following my lead, with Aerith hanging on to Thumper.

Hopping back on behind Boomer, Scouring, Pearl, and Crash Dive all watched us in mild confusion, Static starting up the engine underneath me. Pearl's screen-stalk bore her confusion face, looking towards us. "Were you able to evacuate that heart signature, or restrain it in place for blast study effects? I'd assume the latter based on your elevated levels of adrenaline and obvious signs of anger." Passing a glare off into the forest, I let off a sigh, looking back to Pearl as the mini-tank began moving again.

"It was nothing to worry about, just some stupid animal. They'll get what's coming to them."

---

"That was Two Suns in the Sunset from the Roger Trotters album The Final Cut, and you're tuned into Radio KAOS on this fine evening. And, heh, as it just so happens, we here have just gotten in a rather interesting report direct from the Vanhoover Five themselves, since it turns out tomorrow evening we'll be seeing two suns in the sunset as well. Or, well, at least a second sun after the first goes down, heh. Yes, as it turns out, they got their hooves on a five-hundred-ton yield tactical megaspell, which as they tell me is half the yield of the one they had set off just a few days ago to destroy a sunken submarine that was harboring some of those nasty monster sea ponies... er, Anglerponies.

"Now, they did give me a list of warnings concerning it, since unlike that one that rocked the station here this bomb will be set off on the ground, open to the air. This means that the explosion will be visible for a good few kilometers away, especially so since it'll be at night, so they'd strongly advise anyone who wants to see the blast to not look towards the northwest for at least ten seconds after zero is reported. We will have a live countdown from them routed through the station tomorrow night, so no saying we didn't warn you well in advance if any of you decide to stare at something that's a couple thousand times brighter than the sun. Welding goggles would work if you do want to watch it safely all the way through.

"They did make it a point to mention that the fallout from the blast is expected to mainly fall over the north, heading towards the east and towns such as Maple Station, which I'm sure the ghoul population there will be quite thankful for in these days of limited radiation storms, heh. They did evacuate everyone they could from the danger zone of the explosion, and I'd consider this announcement a fair warning to anyone who hasn't gone as far south or east as they could at this point and hid behind a hill, so if anyone's caught in the explosion, again - don't say we didn't warn you.

"Now, as this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing to witness from a safe distance, they did encourage any newsponies to come and experience the explosion with them. My understanding is that they'll be capturing it on video holotape from two cameras located from their viewing perspective, one with a normal lens and the other mounting a special magic-vision lens, for apparent scientific reasons. Guess they aren't only the most explosion-happy heroes in the wasteland, they do appreciate the finer parts of setting off massive bombs, heh. Us here at Radio KAOS will also have a camera set up to record the blast from our perspective, and of course will be recording the broadcast for playback."

"Anyways, as I've been wearing my newspony cap for a while now, let's change tune and get some music back on. This is the album Radio KAOS, and you're tuned to Radio KAOS. Goodnight Vanhoover, and enjoy~"

---

"Happy mushroom, friendly mushroom, firey mushroom cloud of death~" Letting loose a stupid giggle, I sat myself down behind the sandbags we had moved off of the sub pen's roof and set down to form a small trench in the snow on the hill just to the north, wearing a wide grin. It'd taken the better part of today to get back and have everything set up, including allocating Extra Edition and the other newsponies that could make it to their own trench a short way away from ours, but it was all going to be worth it in the end.

Static sat down beside me, glancing up to the cameras that rested side by side and letting off a small grumble. "Well, they're set up now. Hopefully we'll get this in true enough color when it happens, this lighting isn't showing much through the viewfinder, and I don't want to be staring through eitehr of them at it. Wish I would've known we were going to be doing this back when we stopped at that hardware store, could've grabbed more goggles..."

Wearing a smirk, I pulled the pair I had out of my saddlebags, tossing them over to him. He fumbled with them for a moment, before finally holding them still and looking at them. Glancing over to myself, I let off a shrug, leaning back in the small trench. "Take 'em, I'm not using 'em. Was a trick I remembered seeing on those old test films my dad has, can see the blast and fireball much clearer if you do the wait ten seconds trick, and I'm gonna be able to see it in full glory while you're watching through a tinted lens. 'sides, there's the cameras, too."

"I'm never going to understand why you like watching these things that can potentially injure you for life, or worse." Static let off a small chuckle as the rest of us settled in in the small trench, myself scooching over to the portable military radio we'd pulled from that training camp. Tuning in the dial, I poked my head over the sandbags, staring out towards the north at where the Battered-Sea Power Station stood, and where Shady Shores Biological Research sat beneath it. "So, almost ready for setting this thing off?"

"Almost, we just need the detonator. Scouring?" Looking to the power armored unicorn, he returned a nod, turning his helmeted head around to look towards his armor's stowage compartments. After a few moments of searching, however... well, needless to say this was starting to get a little worrying. "Eheh... um, you do have it, r-right?..."

Scouring looked towards me to speak, though was interrupted almost immediately by a cheerful Pearl levitating herself over. "Hiya guys! Sorry about taking so long, was just doing some touching up to the detonator. I have a label-maker on this chassis, useful! Oh, here you go." Wearing the smiling face on her screen-stalk, her pincher arm presented the detonator, which thankfully looked relatively unchanged and prompted a sigh of relief from Scouring, and myself. Taking it from her, I took to looking it over, eventually spotting her addition - a white sticker label, marked with the words 'SCIENCE BUTTON'. Well, she's got a sense of humor, I'll give her that.

"Alright, let's get this show started. Pearl, might want to keep down after it blows, don't want to know what the blast will do to that flat screen of yours." The robot gave a nod... I think, settling herself in the trench with the rest of us and giving one last glance over the sandbags. Wearing a smile, I turned back to the radio, pushing the button for the microphone. "Radio KAOS, come in Radio KAOS, we're all set here, what's your status?"

There was a moment of silence before White Noise came over the radio, the music coming from the other trench making it apparent we weren't patched in just yet. "Ahm, we're good and ready to go here, if you guys are. I'll just get the recording systems and feed-patch going... mmmnh... alright, good luck guys. Patching you into the broadcast in three, two, one."

The music went silent from the reporter's trench, myself pushing on the microphone talk button. Oh, this is so exciting! "Hello North Vanhoover, this is Night Strike of the Vanhoover Five, and we're coming to you live from a little makeshift trench just up the coast. We're going to be conducting a ground burst of a five hundred tons of TNT equivalent tactical megaspell, aimed to entirely destroy the hidden Shady Shores Biological Research facility and take all of the Anglerpony eggs there with it. And to indulge in something I've really wanted to do since we crashed down here... ahm, anyways, eheh. At this point I'd seriously suggest anypony without welding goggles on or a wish to be permanently blinded face in any direction other than the north or west, we don't know exactly how this thing will look but it'd be brighter than the sun during the daytime, so night can only be worse."

I picked up the detonator and rested it on the radio, with my hoof poised to push the tongue trigger on top of it. Ooooh, here it comes... "Countdown's starting now, so everypony brace yourselves. Twenty seconds to detonation... nineteen, eighteen, seventeen..." The chill night air blew over the trench, Static and Aerith adjusting their welding goggles one last time. "...sixteen, fifteen, fourteen..." There was some small scrambling over in the press trench, myself positively giddy with excitement. "...thirteen, twelve, eleven..."

"Ten." Another breeze blew over the trench, carrying some fluffy snow with it. "Nine." Cloudy breaths hung in the air as everyone who could watched out towards the north. "Eight." The breeze died down, everything becoming eerily quiet. "Seven." The earth pony beside me adjusted the artillery earmuffs he had on - C'mon, a little tinnitus never hurt anyone. "Six." Five seconds left to go...

"Five." A stupid grin was plastered on my face, staring down at the detonator on the radio.

"Four." Scouring's armor whirred slightly as he adjusted himself - or it could've been Crash Dive.

"Three." Okay, that might've come out as 'squee', but I'm hyped, damnit!

"Two." Sweet Luna above, here it comes...

"One."

The detonator clicked as my hoof pushed it in, and a fraction of a second later the sky behind me lit up in a brilliant, blinding flash, brighter than the sun, brighter than the Solar Burst grenades, brighter than anything I'd ever seen before. The breath was sucked out of me as I slowly, agonizingly watched the intense light fade around me, scooting forwards to turn around. Still keeping my eyes below the trench line, I slowly lifted myself up, eyes wide and watering - if it was from the wind or the beautiful sight set before myself, I didn't know. I would like to claim the latter.

A gigantic, white-hot fireball was rising far off to the north right on the coastline, followed by a thick dark-brown stem as the head cooled off to a yellowish-orange color, rising high and mighty above the wasteland. What felt like an eternity later, the white wall of disturbed fluff in the shockwave's wake could be seen racing across the snowy wastes, heading straight for us. I kept my head above the trench as the shockwave finally struck us, thunderous and loud, making the ground vibrate violently and throwing myself against the back of the trench, a very wide and very stupid grin plastered clean across my muzzle. I let off a shuddering moan I hadn't realized I was holding in, letting my limbs fall limp as the mushroom cloud continued to rise and the snow started to settle back down.

Pearl stuck her screen-stalk up above the trench after the shockwave passed, and - in a way slightly different than me - couldn't contain herself. "YEAH! WE DID IT! SCREW MY HOUSE!!" I broke out into a bit of laughter as the robot beside me made her joyful exclamation, catching my breath. Alright... I've had my hoof on the microphone button this whole time. Whoops.

"Ah... heh... w-well, there you have it Vanhoover, the Battered-Sea Power Station and Shady Shores Biological Research are now no more than a glowing crater in the ground. Radiation showers are expected to fall upon Hornsworth, Happy Valley Camp Site, and Maple Station in the coming days, and for now... well, I hope you enjoyed the show as much as we did. I'll give the broadcast back over to Radio KAOS n-" A short scream came from the press trench, Aerith being the first to look over to it, myself shuffling around to see what she was looking at. Pulling the goggles off, she turned to stare out towards the north, myself glancing over the trench's edge and catching... something, in the air, heading closer to us and leaving a firey trail in it's wake. That... is not good. "U-uh... there's been a small development here... please stand by."

Releasing the microphone button with a click, the air was filled with a droning noise as the firey craft drew ever closer, some of the press ponies running away in the direction that the thing was crashing. Well... okay. Watching it as it drew ever closer, it kind of looked like an aircraft, with the same big propellers that the Seaddler has and two upright fins on the back, but the design was just... strange. I didn't think a circle could fly like that... well, I mean, it probably does do a better job when it isn't on fire!

The craft sent up a heavy spray of snow as it skidded along the coastal plain, eventually coming to a stop just shy of the trenches, the part that connected to the right propeller still on fire. Spreading my wings wide and giving them a flap, I darted up out of the trench, Aerith right behind me and the rest rushing on the ground. Oh, come on, please be okay... why do these propeller planes keep on falling out of the sky near us!?

Landing against the snow with a dulled thud, the strange pancake-shaped craft showed it's full size, Aerith already beginning to heft as much snow as she could manage with her magic onto the right propeller cover to stem the flames. I moved up and over to the cockpit, looking through the foggy glass at a stallion passed out at the controls, a trickle of blood coming down from under his leather cap and staining his greyish coat. Okay, really hope he is just passed out... A lever alongside the canopy caught my eye, myself pulling it and dragging the glass cover back, Aerith and the rest of the group coming over to meet me. The pilot let off a long groan - good, good, just passed out.

As we worked with getting the seat restraints undone and the stallion out, another pony came galloping up to us, her exhausted breaths causing heavy clouds in the frigid night air. Oh, right, of course... had to say the press is welcome to watch the bomb go off. Extra Edition spent a while catching her breath as Aerith and Scouring carefully pulled the pilot out, eventually forming a few words.

"Seriously... what is it with this coastline attracting crashing air craft!?"