//------------------------------//
// Chapter 17: Monsters 
// Story: Fallout Equestria - The Code of Honor 
// by FireStorm2247 
//------------------------------//

						
Chapter 17: Monsters



“We’re not so different, you and I. Not anymore.”




“Hey… Blossom… time to wake up.” 

I gave the sleeping mare a light nudge with a hoof, speaking as gently as I could in the otherwise dead silence of the early morning. However, the bright purple unicorn craned her head around to look at me with very awake but bloodshot eyes; she looked absolutely exhausted… sleep had not come easy for her. 

For the sake of her safety, I had been more than grateful that, after leaving Nova and the others back in Buckley, Blossom and I had not encountered anything looking for a fight during the first half of our return trip to Hopeville. In fact, we had not come across a single traveler or patrol in the barren fields of the Equestrian southeast throughout the whole first day we had walked. Instead, we had traveled together largely in silence, neither of us attempting to strike up much conversation even when we broke our pace for water and food breaks. With Blossom still on her recovery effort from her ordeals over the past couple of days, her distance from me was wholly understandable… and after the Shamrock Farmstead, after Jenny, I wasn’t going to make any moves of my own to speak… outside of what was necessary to say, I was afraid to talk. Instead, upon leaving Buckley’s gates at our backs, I had made a silent vow to keep her safe on our two-day journey back to Hopeville, to be nothing more than a bodyguard until I successfully led her to the safety that my home provided.

Today would be that day.

I followed the exact same route we had taken going towards Buckley, using rocks and craters and debris to remember the way. Again, the two of us gave Plainwell a wide berth, diverting off the Old World highway to traverse open fields early within the first leg of the journey. Thankfully, my photographic memory served me well in guiding us back to yesterday’s destination – the Southeast Regional News Radio Station. When we had found the building on the horizon, I had cautiously asked my traveling partner as to whether or not she would have wanted to rest there, where the very misfortune she was trying to recuperate from had occurred, or if she would have rather kept moving to pass it by. But instead of the latter option, which I had expected, she chose the building itself as our camp, arguing that it was better to be indoors where we could not be attacked from any direction at any time. While I had agreed with her logic on the benefits of utilizing the station once again, I had been nervous about how she would take returning to the site where she had been raped. And yet, regardless of both her past and my concerns, the purple mare had braved through it, and we had sought shelter there for the night; I couldn’t help but admire that strength. 

With only the two of us traveling together, we had ultimately decided that splitting the watch into only two halves would be the best option for our night in the old radio building. She had opted to take the first watch through the leading half of the night while I rested, whereupon I kept guard until color begun to show in the eastern sky. But looking at Blossom now, and I was beginning to feel that I should’ve given her a couple more hours to try and get a little more sleep. She had agreed with me when I proposed getting an early morning start, to move again before the cloud ceiling took on its routine grey… but still… “You don’t look like you slept very well.” I observed with a small frown. 

“Sorry…” Blossom quietly replied, yawning afterwards. “I fell asleep a couple of times… but I always woke back up sooner or later.” 

“Do you want a couple more hours?” I offered. “I’m fine with keeping watch to let you try and get a little more rest.” 

“But… what about Hopeville?” she asked, hesitant.

“I wouldn’t really care when we got there so long as it was before midnight tonight.” I replied. “My goal’s just to get us both there safely, and if that means that you need some more sleep, then so be it.” 

Though very faint, the unicorn mare cracked a smile. “That’s sweet of you… but I think I can manage.” With a couple of blinks, she begun to push herself up to all fours. “I’m already waking up as we speak, so I might as well go ahead and get moving around.” 

I stepped back to give Blossom some room. “If you say so.” 

“I do appreciate your concern though. Really, I do.” Now up on her hooves, Blossom reached a hoof up to brush a lock of her black mane from in front of her eyes, then taking a moment to rub the sleep from them. “I wonder if my armor’s dried overnight.” 

“I left you some food by your gear.” I explained in response, turning back around to face the exit of the control room. “I’m afraid it’s just a can of preserved greens, but hopefully you’ll get your fill.”

“I see that. Thank you.” Blossom replied. “What about you?” 

I craned my head around to see her looking my way. “I’ve already eaten.” I answered, then nodding towards the room’s exit. “I’m just going to head back out to the main entrance and keep a lookout while you get ready.”

“Oh… well, maybe if you don’t mind… I could come join you while I eat?” 

I had been taking my first step toward the exit when she spoke again, her question making me pause to look back fully to her. “If that’s what you want.” I responded. “I just half expected that you’d like some privacy.” 

At that, her faint smile returned. “You’ve already given me a shit ton of privacy over the course of the night… and through all day yesterday.” she replied. “I’d like to think that we could be capable of having at least one conversation over the course of this trip of ours that lasted longer than thirty seconds… unless you don’t want to deal with me, of course.” 

Her words threw me off a little, especially at the question of whether or not I was the one who could or couldn’t deal with her; this had been the most I’d gotten out of her since Shamrock. “N-no, you’re uh… you’re more than welcome to join me. I’ll be out by the double doors.” 

With a nod, she turned back to her gear stashed away in the far corner of the control room. “Alright. I’ll see you out there in a minute.” 

I departed without another word, walking in silence to the open doorway of the station’s entrance. Between our last visit here and the present, the station had been left untouched. In the news room that sat at the fore of the building, all of the old derelict equipment had still remained piled up to one side of the chamber, and the balefire shelter at the structure’s opposite end had still been closed and locked up tight. All of the old radio terminals had remained unaltered in the control room, and the building kept only its old scars from what Lucky Hallion had once described to us as an ancient firefight, as well as the blood stains from when we had found and rescued Blossom from her Black Blood capturers.

As I stepped up to the doorframe, I took in the view of the outside where the sliver of color in the far east had grown only slightly, just barely illuminating the puffy cloud ceiling there to the point of visibility. Like normal, the dusty fields of dry earth were silent, not a single soul out and about to disturb it aside from me and my companion, and sitting down on my haunches just behind the doorframe, I gladly took in that morning tranquility as I lit up my horn and checked over my security armor’s pockets. There had been enough storage space to secure a few preserved food items for the journey back, but now there was only two more left as I emptied the designated pockets of their contents. “One box of preserved grains, a box of dandy colt apples… hm, not much of a lunch.” I observed. “But it’ll last.” Having insisted that Grace keep the majority of our group’s food and water with her back in Buckley, I had been given a total of eight food items plus two water bottles. Half of those items were used up in the first day, the two of us stretching our resources out to make them last for the entirety of the trip. But to both our relief, the Goddesses had been very kind in giving us rainwater to replenish our water supply. Yesterday’s rainstorm had kept the both of us company for hours, soaking armor and weapons and manes alike; good thing the former of the three (at least in my case) had been waterproof. 

I returned the last of our food stock back to its designated pockets, the packages fitting snugly within, just as Blossom emerged into the news room. Nothing from her own collection of gear hovered along with her – only the food I had given for her morning rations. “What are you doing?” she asked curiously.

“Just looking over the supplies we have left.” I answered, looking back ahead as she trotted up beside me. “I’m afraid to say that we’re going to be eating light for the rest of the way back.”

The unicorn took a seat beside me, sitting at the opposite side of the doorway. “Are we almost out?” 

“We’ve got some grains and some apples. It’ll be enough, but we just need to make sure to space it out over the course of the day.” I explained, craning my head around to find where our water bottles were clipped into the armor of my left side; both were full. “Once we’re in Hopeville, you’ll be able to get a proper meal.” 

“I’m sure we’ll manage.” When I looked, I saw as Blossom’s horn came alight long enough for her to pop open the lid of her tin can. But after, she only set the can down to the floor, looking my way as the light around her horn faded. “I hope you don’t mind me saying, but you look like a pack rat with all of that stuff.” she remarked with a small smile.

Well, four weapons, my ammunition, my savings in bottle caps, the food and water, and Grace’s stash of potions and radiation tonics all strapped to my security armor tended to make me a walking symphony of shifting gear. But in truth, I wouldn’t have it any other way, and upon replying to her with those words, she gave me a soft little note of laughter. “And what about you?” I asked after a pause, trying to keep the words flowing. “Your gear okay after all that rain yesterday?”

“I think my armor shrunk a little because of the rain. It’s harder, too.” she replied, then levitating out a portion of her preserved food to begin eating. “I’m not sure if I even want to bring it along anymore, especially since I don’t have any oil to treat it with.” 

“Might be able to restore it… or trade it in if you want. I’m sure Saber wouldn’t mind letting you look around the Hopeville Armory.” 

“Do you really think he’d be okay letting a stranger have access to the settlement’s gear?” Blossom asked.

At her question, I faced forward again, looking back outside. “Believe it or not, you’re not the first pony that’ll have entered Hopeville as a new face. Hell, you’re not even the first pony that Nova and the rest of us have brought in ourselves.”

“Really?” 

“Really.” I answered with a nod. “I suppose that if nothing else, Saber will let you in to live as a part of the community, and at least that way you’ll be safe. In the end… I guess that’s what really matters.” 

To this, she didn’t respond at first, and as the silence proceeded my words, I didn’t look back to her. But it was only a moment later when I heard as Blossom shifted in her place. “Thank you.” 

Though my eyes flicked to the right where Blossom sat, I kept my gaze forward, frowning thinly in reply to her remark. “You don’t have to thank me for anything.” I replied after a breath.

“After everything that’s happened over the past couple of days… yes I do.” she persisted. “I’ve actually been meaning to say thank you for a while now… and I was hoping to ask you something as well… about you… about the recent past.”

I turned to look at her, meeting a pair of eyes that were both curious yet concerned; she had moved closer to me. “Are you sure you want to talk about all that?” I carefully asked. “I don’t want to drag you back to bad memories.”

“I know that we’ve been quiet while we’ve traveled, by and large.” she replied, slowly piecing her sentence together. “In all honesty, for a time, I was kind of… lost in the past… and I didn’t like it…” The mare swallowed hard, shaking her head as she looked away. “I had nightmares after my watch… I relived that night in this building… and I still feel the pain in my throat and my nethers as if it were only minutes ago that it happened… I remember the degradation, the insults, the feeling of helplessness…” I couldn’t keep myself from cringing in sympathy, feeling as my ears pinned slightly back. “But with all of that… I actually dreamt of something better last night.” she continued, once again looking at me. “I saw you, and I saw Nova and her little brother, and I saw all of your friends that saved me that night… and it put me at peace.” Again she paused, letting out a sigh as she bowed her head. “I guess that what I’m trying to say is that, in the end, I was just waiting for the right time… to get the strength to discuss what happened to me again. Because I’ve noticed something about you over the course of yesterday… and this morning… that’s making me worry a little.” 

These last words caught me off-guard, making me raise an eyebrow. “Am I scaring you?” I asked, immediately anxious towards the subject. “I’m sorry if I am…” 

“No, you’re not scaring me at all, I promise.” came her quick reassurance. “I’ve just… I’ve noticed how you’ve looked when you’re staring off into the distance. You’ve been doing it so much, and every time, you get this thin frown when you think to yourself, you narrow your eyes a bit… and I think I know what you’re thinking about. Believe it or not, I’ve seen you taking glances at me… troubled, apprehensive glances… I kept quiet, but after I’ve been seeing how hesitant you were, I’ve been wanting to address it… just at the right time.” 

“I… what are you trying to get at?” 

“You’ve been thinking about Jenny.” she stated firmly, sending a jolt through me. “Haven’t you?” 

For a moment, I couldn’t even answer as we stared back to one another. This was definitely not something I had been wanting to discuss, much more for her sake than for my own. Even with her bringing up the topic herself, I had no desire to delve into the subject, to force her to relive that farm even as she continued to fight away the mental toll that her trauma had put her through. But the way that I had merely given my private thoughts away to her, how easily she had seen through my own silence… what choice did I have? Goddesses, it was probably the silence itself that had spoken my own feelings for me, spoken my guilt to her… because she had read me like a map.

With a sigh, I yielded. “How can I not?...... I was so close… and the way she looked at me, the way she felt safe again when she saw you… she thought she was being rescued.” I had to force myself to a stop to clear my throat; I was already feeling myself start to choke up. “Fuck, I might as well have been the one that killed her in the first place… because I wasn’t quick enough… wasn’t smart enough.”

“Hey…” 

“That second cable…” I continued, shutting my eyes tight. “I could’ve cut it with a swing of my knife…… it wasn’t even hidden for Goddesses sake! It was just there against the wall… in plain sight!” I stomped a hoof to the floor, shaking my head, gritting my teeth; all the pent up regret came flooding out. “If I had been just another second quicker, your friend would still be alive! She’d be with us right now, and she’d have the same opportunity as you… but I slipped… I fucked up… I failed her, and I failed you, and I’m never going to forget that face.” As I let my eyes come back open, I felt the beginning of tears long unfallen as they slowly welled into existence. No… I wouldn’t be able to forget Jenny’s face, so full of hope and relief in one second, and then suspended in shock as she perished… the way her eyes reflected such thankful happiness before they rolled back up into her skull… and Blossom’s scream… that soul-ripping, heartbreaking cry of agony… “And now… and now I’m afraid.” I explained shakily. “What if what happened to Jenny happens to Nova or Shore or Gracie or you? What if one of you gets hurt out here and I fail to save you?… If anything happened to any of my friends like what happened out on that farm… I’d never forgive myself, especially if I failed again.” At last, I turned to look back to Blossom. The mare had been quiet, but she had risen to all four hooves, moving up next to me as she looked sadly back at me. “If you’re looking for an answer as to why I’ve been the way I have been over the past day… it’s because I’m afraid of failing you again… afraid of you getting hurt.” I explained after the pause. “I want to get you safely to Hopeville, to give you the chance to live in peace and safety… at least that way, I feel like I’ve done something right towards redeeming myself… to earning forgiveness… Nothing I do will replace the life of a pony… but I like to hope that this is a start to showing that I’m trying to do better…” 

But in response to my words, I was jolted out of my own grief when my unicorn partner reached a hoof up to me, gently touching my right cheek. “Gunny… there is nothing to forgive.” she said, slowly shaking her head. “Jenny might be gone now, but what’s important now is that you’re letting me come with you, letting me move to Hopeville where I can start over again, pull myself together, meet new faces and make a new life for myself.” Her words, heartfelt as they sounded, didn’t seem to me like they were true. How could they be after my failure? How could she make for herself the strength to put her ordeals behind her so quickly? And yet, when I moved to look away, her other forehoof came up to touch my left cheek, holding my head in place to look her in the eyes as she sat herself down at my side. “You haven’t failed anypony. What happened to Jenny was something that none of us could have predicted. It was a cruel trick by that Talon griffin, not any fault of your own.” she continued, leaning close to keep her eyes firmly locked on mine. “I know that we’ve only known each other for three days, but you’ve already shown me that you’re a good stallion. When you met me, you didn’t just murder me and take my things, and after the farm, you didn’t just throw me away like I was some kind of lost cause. You’ve kept me with you this whole time, and you’ve followed me willingly through my hardships, given me more help than I would have dared to expect. And just like you said, you’re protecting me, trying to help me get myself back together again. That’s not something that a normal wastelander does, Gunny.”

“Getting the opportunity to live happier in Hopeville is no more than you deserve.” I lowly replied, letting my eyes drop down even as she held me there. “After all the shit you went through, shit that I contributed to, I have to get you there. I just have to.”

At that, Blossom smiled ever so slightly, running a hoof along my right cheek. “See? You’re already proving my point.” she replied. “You want to ensure my safety, and you want to ensure the safety of your friends. You’re showing me that that’s part of who you are. It’s your nature, and what you just said to me shows that you have a good heart, just like your friends. And that’s what ultimately saved me from death itself, what let me continue to live on in memory of my friend. You may not think it, but I owe you my life for that… and I’m not bothered by that at all.”  

“You don’t owe me anything.” I retorted sternly. “You shouldn’t even be thanking me.” 

“It’ll be hard,” Blossom pressed after a pause. “but I have a feeling that I’ll be able to make something good for myself where we’re going, and it’s you that’s giving me that opportunity. Jenny would’ve wanted me to move on to take this chance, and she would’ve been happy that I am… I’m happy that I am.” Somehow, she still kept that little smile. “So… thank you… for everything you’ve done to help me… thank you.” Looking into her eyes, I could see that my own arguments were going to get me nowhere. Though self-pity and doubt was perhaps less-than-honorable to feel given the situation, Jenny’s fate had dragged me down into a dark pit of guilt, a place where I was bound to keep myself so long as Blossom stayed close. It was hard to escape it when I still was, at least in some part, responsible. Yes, I could’ve been quicker, I could’ve seen that second wire… but yes, it was something that had taken me by surprise, a trap with a mechanism built with not just one trigger, but two. It had been a conniving contraption, devious, and that griffin, Blackhawk, had bested me then. But through Blossom’s persistence, I was beginning to see something else, the chance to learn and to be better, for my friends, for myself, and most importantly, for Blossom herself. This was something I had to live with, but I had a choice even now – let it run my life, or let it be a lesson, albeit a harsh one, for me to become better, to home in on my flaws and to fix them. Yes, there was a lesson in this, just like there had been with Marian, when Hallion’s sister had made me realize that I was more than just an expendable asset, and that so long as I held on to the values I cherished, I was important to my friends. The lesson here – I had to move on, to remember but to let go, and the way Blossom looked at me… I knew that this was what I had to do for her, and for everypony else. And though I remained silent after her words, I came to slowly nod in her hold, whereupon the violet unicorn’s smile faintly grew as she nodded with me. But still, she didn’t release me, even as silence lingered between us; she only begun to blush, a faint rosy color marking her cheeks. “And… just in case my words didn’t get my point across…” Then, before I could even make a move to reply, Blossom leaned even closer, hooves still holding my head before our muzzles pressed, her lips locking to mine in a full kiss. 

My eyes popped round at the sudden move, my head and neck craning slightly back as Blossom pushed herself into the embrace. I didn’t kiss her back, but our mouths were linked together in a perfect fit. I could see her closed eyes as she held me there, could feel her breath as we stayed joined together. And as seconds passed us by, neither of us moved an inch, only our light combined breathing sounding as we stayed joined together. Then, after another moment, Blossom’s lips left my own with a soft, tender sound of release, and she leaned only far enough back to open her eyes and look at me again, her small smile arcing back up again on her muzzle and partnering up with her solid steadfast blushing. “I uh…” Softly, nervously, I cleared my throat… Goddesses, I think even I was blushing at this point. “I… don’t think I really deserved that.” I muttered. 

But at that, the unicorn mare only giggled, leaning forward to place a quick delicate smooch on my nose. “I do.” she countered, letting her hooves fall away from my face and returning herself to all fours, backing up a step to give us some room. “Well…” she added after a moment. “Um… I think I’m ready to get going if you are. I can go ahead and eat the rest of my breakfast along the way.”

Following her example, I stood back up to all fours, clearing my throat again as I faced the outside once more; it was time to focus on the task ahead. “Alright then.” I replied with a nod. “Let’s get you home.” 

***				***				***

“I’m glad that you have discovered these things. From all that I’ve seen of your home, I feel that you more than deserved to know.” 

“Oh, but it wasn’t easy to see, child. It kept me away from my youngers all day yesterday… I’ll have a full day of making up for my absence ahead of me today.” 

“I’m certain that your ponies are looking forward to seeing you again.”

“And are you ready to go home, to see familiar faces again?” 

“Hmm… It’s not my home… nor are the faces there familiar… but under the eyes of the Goddesses, it is a place of refuge for me……. Yes, I’m ready to return.” 

“It might not be like Harmony, but perhaps there’s a reason why you found the others in your company, a reason why you found their home. The Goddesses might have a plan for you in that regard.” 

“It’s hard to say… especially considering what I’ve had my sights set on. Like I said before, I didn’t find who I was looking for in Marefax, and so I have to keep searching… but if things turn out the way I hope they do, then I may very well find a place for myself in Hopeville to live out the rest of my years, however many they may be.” 

“I hope that you do.”

The voices were faint, but even through the lingering haze of sleep, my ears picked up the conversation taking place outside the closed entrance of our shack that woke me from my rest. I shifted at the presence of the noise, uttering a light groan as I tried to open my eyes. But my eyelids felt like metal weights, only cracking just partly open before they fell closed once again; it was a testament to last night’s success. 

The concert had gone well into the night, all of the songs being showcased having made almost an hour and a half of music. But even after the concert had come to a close, with my more intimate dance with Archer marking the end of my musical experience, all of the musicians had come to gather together for a great feast in the concert hall, assembling with family and friends on the performance floor. This was what had consumed the greater majority of time, as I had been pulled every which way to talk amongst Buckley’s citizens, receiving congratulations and constructive criticisms to my singing, telling the story of my life outside Buckley’s fences, and also having to describe a countless number of times the emotions I had felt when entering the concert hall, when I had gone up onto the stage, and when I had sung my song. According to many of my temporary admirers, The Voice had been a favorite song because of its character and its melodies, adored as the tribute it was to the Old World Goddesses. In one specific encounter, it had been a privilege for me to hear how an elderly couple had recounted hearing the song performed for the first time over thirty-five years ago, and how it revived memories of when they had first met each other during that very same concert; according to them, I had sounded just like the mare who had sung this song on its premier day.

Much to my own personal amusement, it was the socializing that had worn me out, as it had been drawn out well past midnight. On top of that, I had been one of the first to leave the makeshift banquet, having to dismiss myself when I had started yawning periodically during conversations. With me, Shore and Grace and Blake had all similarly excused themselves from the ongoing festivities, all of us opting to return to our shack together as a group where we one and all quickly drifted off to sleep. And while I didn’t know how long we had slept for up to this point, as my eyes once again came partly open I saw dim light painted over the dirt outside our shack’s entrance as the metal door silently swung open. 

From outside, Raemor stepped in on quiet hooves, moving with soft steps as a courtesy to those of us who still slept. Both Shore and Grace were still at rest on two of our shelter’s three mattresses to my left, and Blake was nestled in his usual place under my right wing, snuggled up close to me to absorb the most heat from both myself and our shared blanket. But as for me, my body was beginning to cooperate with my efforts to wake up, especially when I caught sight of green haze outside our door as Mother Shimmer peered inside. 

“Good morning, Nova.” From his place at our shack’s table, Raemor was setting down a small leather sack next to Shore’s reassembled multiplas rifle. “I’m sorry for waking you.” he quietly added, craning his head around to look me in my half-opened eyes. 

To that, I yawned as I gave a shake of my head. “Oh, it’s fine.” I managed to reply. “What’s that bag you have there?” 

“Mother Shimmer has given us a little extra food and some purified water for our upcoming journey into the southeast.” the old unicorn explained, still hushed. “She’s given it to us in hope of our safe return to Hopeville.”

As I blinked away some of the sleep in my eyes, Mother Shimmer likewise stepped inside, briefly looking left and then right at the arrangement of our setup before her eyes came upon me. “Good morning, child. Did you sleep well?” she asked with a smile, keeping her voice quiet. 

“Oh yes.” I answered, returning her smile with a tired one of my own. “I think it was largely due to the concert though.”

“I heard that you were quite something on the stage.” the ghoul remarked in response. “Tracer came and visited me in my silo after he left the festivities, and he told me all about it.”

“I’m glad that everypony liked it.” Shifting myself, carefully to avoid waking my slumbering little brother, I lifted up my left wing to hold up our blanket before working my way out from underneath it. “I’ll be honest, I was just short of terrified going up in front of all those ponies.”

Shimmer chuckled at that. “But it sounds like Ludwig made a very wise choice in making you an additional voice in the concert.” she replied. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t there to see you myself, but it is good to hear that you did well.” 

By now, I had scooted myself off the mattress Blake and I shared, and as I rose to my hooves, I carefully let the blanket slide off the wing propping it up and fall back onto the mattress, keeping the lightly snoring colt warm and cozy as he continued to sleep unbothered by my stirring. “And how are you feeling now, Mother Shimmer?” I asked, stepping over to gingerly nuzzle and paw the blanket up and around my baby brother, tucking it along his sides. “From what little I heard, you weren’t having a very easy time with the items Archer and I had brought back from the Shimmermist Farm… I’ve been a little worried.” 

“No, it most certainly wasn’t easy, child.” the ghoul agreed after a weighty pause. “It was a gift all on its own to discover my true history… but it was also very taxing on me.”

After tucking the blanket around Blake, I backed away from my snoozing sibling to look back at Mother Shimmer. “I can’t lie and say that I understand what it’s like to go through what you did.” I replied with sympathy. 

But at my concern, Shimmer merely smiled again. “Nonetheless, what you did, child – it’s taught even little old me a couple of new things, even after all my many years.” she said upliftingly, then nodding back behind her. “Would you care to step outside with me? That way we might talk without waking your young brother.”

Her positivity on the situation was contagious, making me pass a smile to meet hers as my worry for the Buckley leader’s emotional state eased. “Of course, Shimmer.” Leaving my brother alone to his sleep, I followed after the ghoul as she headed back for the doorway. To my left, Raemor’s attention held on the bag, the old unicorn having now removed a wrapped package of food from the sack. “Raemor, do you want to come out with us?”

“No thanks.” he replied, glancing back and politely dipping his head to me. “I’ll stay here and have some breakfast. Besides, she’s already told me what I think she’s about to tell you.” At the last bit, he turned his head around to Shimmer, passing her a wink which the ghoul mare chuckled to. And though I cocked an eyebrow at his words, I let him be with a smile and nod, then following Mother Shimmer out of the shack and outside. Things were largely quiet outside our walls, Buckley Air Force Base still sitting at peace as the night slowly faded away, being replaced with a gradual yet rather lovely curtain of pale blue as the morning light begun to sweep over the cloud ceiling high above. I could hear murmurings in the peace of the morning as voices echoed in the base’s northern residential quarter, signs that the early birds of the settlement were already up and about. The voices were soft to my ears as I came to a stop outside our shelter, as if they were speaking in whispers, aware that their home was still at blissful sleep, and cautious so as to not disturb it. 

As the last one out, I reached over to shut the door behind us, the entrance closing with a gentle click. “It’s lovely out here this morning.” I spoke up, turning to face the west as Shimmer joined me. 

“Yes it is.” she replied, following my eyes towards the silhouettes of the base’s hangers, almost pitch black against the dim early morning light; the nightlights on the base’s original buildings had already been shut off. “Many have a difficult time finding beauty in today’s world, at least if you have the great fortune to carry memories or gifts that give you the ability to compare it to the Old World. I know that it was hard for me to find sometimes… but you just have to learn to appreciate it for what it is. It is what we have after all.” 

I cracked a half smile at her words, still admiring how the hangers sat against the backdrop of the wasteland sky. I hadn’t lied when I had spoken my mind on the scene, as I felt there was a presence of beauty in it, something I could admire, or at the very least, acknowledge it as something good. But then again… “I don’t know… I think I’m just a sap for scenery.” I stated after Shimmer, turning to her as I chuckled at my own personality. “Maybe it’s just some sort of subdivision of my overflowing nostalgia.” 

“But it’s something that you look for on occasion, something that you’re happy to find when you do.” the ghoul observed, sharing my light chortling. “It’s something that you have to look forward to seeing when you return to your home out there, I imagine.” Well, with that there was no arguing with her. With all that Hopeville and my fellow Stable survivors had gone through, our new home had come to acquire its own unique beauty over time, something that I did indeed always look forward to seeing and cherishing again whenever I left the sanctuary behind. 

“That’s true.” I agreed with a nod.

Shimmer smiled a little wider at my acknowledgement. “And what else do you have waiting for you back at your own home?” she asked curiously. “Anypony or anything in particular?” 

“Oh… just friends… and my favorite custodial closet.” I replied, chuckling again at the last bit as Shimmer cocked an eyebrow. “Hopeville’s a pretty small place, made of only a few old houses, shops, and one big building which is the City Hall. My brother and I officially claimed our own room in the City Hall, used to be a janitor’s storeroom. It’ll be good to be back on… uh… my own floor, so to say.” 

“I see.” Shimmer responded, keeping her smile.

“Other than that, all the ponies who live there are who’s waiting for me, really.” I continued. “Captain Saber’s there, making sure that the town remains safe and secure. He was the head of Stable Security back in One Eighty-One, and he’s taken up that role out here, too. He’s a good friend to everypony in town… There’s little Melody and all her friends… I’m their foalsitter from time to time… Shore’s parents are there too, and I’m one of their family friends since Shore is one of my closest. Then there’s Ivy, a unicorn around my age – she used to be a raider, has a history full of rough spots that got her tangled up with the wrong groups. We spared her life and now she lives with us, already making a good reputation for herself in Hopeville.” I paused to look back to Mother Shimmer, seeing her attentive eyes still on me as she listened with open curiosity. “And of course, there’s Gunny and Blossom… under Gunny’s protection, I have no doubt that she’ll make it there in one piece, but hopefully Saber’s allowed Blossom to move in and get herself back together without much of a fuss. After all she’s been through the past half week…”

Shimmer nodded. “Hopefully you and your friends will all find some peace upon your return home, especially after all of your exploits here. You’ve done a lot.”  

“I think it’s all been worth it, Mother Shimmer.” I assured, gesturing a hoof to her as I added, “And hopefully, because of all that’s been done to fix things around Buckley, you and your people will have a better time of things as well.” 

“Oh I think that’s something we can definitely look forward to, and soon actually.” the ghoul replied confidently. “Within the week, the air traffic control tower should be fully converted into a full-region broadcasting station, and DJ Flynt is going to take over the tower by broadcasting greeting messages and recordings of our music to the wasteland. It will be a significant step in reaching out to the settlements beyond our fences.”

My ears perked, my eyes popping round, at this explanation. “Wow, really?? Will I be able to hear that?” 

“According to Tech Sergeant Lela, anypony in the southeast with any kind of radio or communications device would be able to detect the frequency and listen in.” Shimmer explained. “Depending on the strength of the salvaged equipment from Cirrus Communications, the broadcasts might reach even farther than that. We won’t really know for sure, but either way, it will announce our existence to the whole of the southeast.”

“Wow, I think that’s great.” I spoke with a smile. 

“I do, too. But I know that many of my youngers wouldn’t agree, perhaps even some of them who had formerly encouraged the idea.” she countered, tone lower and slightly concerned.

“Well, it is kind of a frightening prospect considering your history, and your ponies have every right to be nervous about it.” I remarked, cocking my head in a shrug. “But if Challenger hears your broadcasts, the city’s leaders might try and reply to you, maybe negotiate and reach some sort of peaceful relationship. With how they encourage the growth and protection of the existing settlements in the southeast, as well as their own, I’m sure they’d come looking to you for help, and if not that, at least talk on integrating Buckley as an official cooperative settlement in the region. I’ve met and talked with one of those leaders before, not much of course, but enough to know that they’re really working hard to build and grow. Personally, I think you’re making a good choice in this, and I think Buckley’s more than ready to face that world, if not because of the training and organization of its citizens, then definitely because of the weapons and technology protecting it.”

“Yes, I am leading them onto a new road, and like any major change, I understand the fear that can come from that.” she said, nodding. “But I also know that we have become strong enough to face any threat, just as we have done for the past seventy years, and I know that we have become smart enough to understand what we’re coming into and how to deal with it.” As she spoke of her confidence in her flock, her smile returned with full loving warmth (much like, I thought with amusement, a proud mother speaking of the achievements of her children). “After all these years, we are prepared, and the fact that you, a wastelander yourself, believes the same, means a lot to me. Even if you have only had so much experience in the wastes, you still have seen a fair share of what happens here and to me, that gives me just as much of a reason to take inspiration from your opinion.” 

“Don’t think of me as some kind of seasoned veteran.” I warned with a small smile. “But it doesn’t take a seasoned veteran to tell that Buckley can more than hold its own, especially with you at the helm.”

“Thank you, child.” she replied, dipping her head to me. “That means a lot to these old ears.”

I returned her gesture, the both of us slipping into a comfortable silence together as we stood outside the shack, taking in the morning as it progressed. As I took the time to look back up to the cloud ceiling, I could see where the sky had brightened, slightly lightening further in the east and illuminating in traces to the far west where the pitch darkness was starting to disperse. It was a sign that we had been outside for a few good minutes at least, basking in the comfortable morning air… and it was a few good minutes closer to our official departure, to not seeing the concert stage and hearing Buckley’s heavenly melodies, to not seeing any trace of Mother Shimmer, of not knowing how she was… and of Archer… not seeing him for days on end… Goddesses, I was going to miss this place. It’d never substitute for home, ever, but there was so much here that I had come to admire, to enjoy, and more than a few ponies who I had come to respect… and I was going to miss them.

But out of all these questions that would certainly surface over time, one of them was something that I could find answers for while I was still here, right here and now; I wanted to know.

“What about you, Mother Shimmer?”

At my question, she turned to me. “Hm?” 

“How are you feeling?” I asked. “Going into all this… how are you? I know that I asked you before, but we kind of detoured around the subject.”

At first, silence was her response as the ghoul glanced back to me, lips curling into a gradual smile before she faced forward again, looking skyward. “I feel…” she began, her words coming out slowly. “better.” Then, as she faced me directly, she spoke with greater conviction as she added, “Yesterday, and the night before, I spent the whole time confined in my silo, locked away from my youngers and surrounding myself with the items you and Archer had brought from the farm… my farm… I watched those video logs countless times… to see how I lived in the Old World, what I did with my life, who I lived with and who my friends were… I eventually threw that flying disk around the silo…” At the ensuing pause she laughed, a soft series of notes that encouraged me to smile with her as she reflected on her recent experiences. “I knocked over some of my things… made a mess of my chamber throwing that thing around…” she continued. “But I felt like the child I was back then… I felt good…… And after that, I actually fell asleep for a few hours, snuggled up with that purple puppy… the dear thing made me feel like I was back on the farm… in my old bedroom… I saw that room and the rest of the house in those memory orbs, saw it for what it had been… beautiful…… but those were the most difficult things to see.” 

“How so?” I asked carefully; her smile was slowly dropping away.

“The videos showed events… one when my mother was pregnant with me and was deciding on names for me with my father… and the other was a log from close to the Last Day. Those video files showed us separate from each other, and that was emotional enough to see… but the memory orbs were much more intimate, much more personal.” she explained, nodding to herself as she looked away again. “The thing is – I still haven’t watched all of them yet… I’ve only seen three of the six memory orbs you brought to me, but I’ve watched them several times throughout my absence… the better to understand every detail that they showed to me.”

Naturally, I was compelled to question that, watching something over and over again like she said she had done… but the truth of the matter… what she had done regarding her isolation was quite reasonable, given the uniqueness of the situation. “Those uh… memory orbs must’ve told you a hell of a story then, huh?” I instead asked. 

But to that, she begun to smile again. “For the Old World’s standards, I imagine my family was a rather typical one – happy, sociable, hard-working. My parents made themselves a quiet and peaceful life after they had been honorably discharged from the Equestrian Army, and I learned that it was right after they had left the service that they decided to get married, and right along with that was when they decided to have me. The first of the three memories I’ve seen up to this point was from the perspective of my mother when she and my father brought me home from a hospital in Marefax… I couldn’t have been any older than two weeks at that point, just lying there burbling and babbling… and they brought me home in a little pink and white baby carriage.” 

I smiled right along with her. “Aw, that’s adorable.”

“I was a foal with pudgy cheeks.” she remarked in response, chuckling at her new memory. “That, and I was a talking machine right from the start.” 

“My mom said that I was always making little baby noises, always interrupting presentations and get-togethers when I was a foal.” I spoke back, shaking my head in amusement as I joined in her recollection. “My dad was particularly proud of me for that on more than a few occasions.” 

“My father called me ‘a bundle of cuteness’ in that first memory orb.” Shimmer said, sitting down on her haunches. “I’m sure he came up with a quick nickname for me because of that. He had a thing for those… he called me ‘baby girl’ in the second memory orb when he and mother were reading me one of those Daring Do books one night in their bedroom. Apparently it was a childhood favorite of mine, so said my mother… and me myself, too.”

“The Sapphire Stone?” I asked with a smirk.

She nodded with a short laugh. “Yes, I believe that was the one.” 

“And what about the third memory?” I inquired curiously. “What was that one about?” 

“That one was one of my father’s memories from my foalhood.” she explained. “It was the first time he had taken me out into the fields to help him tend to the crops that my family grew. They raised all kinds of things, fruits and vegetables alike – watermelons, celery, wheat, carrots, we even had our own apple tree close to the house. He said that it was for family use only, and not part of the produce sold on the farmers’ markets in Marefax, and we picked apples from it together in the aftermath of a rainstorm while mother looked over the carrot crop.” 

“Those are good memories… truly.” I encouraged with a nod. 

“Yes they are.” she agreed, her smile returning to that full and motherly one that I had seen before. “And I have you and Archer to thank for bringing them to me. You understand now exactly why I’m so grateful, and you understand exactly how important those memories are to me.” I nodded as she spoke, knowing full well just how much she valued those memory orbs. But she continued still, then adding, “You gave me back my missing half, child, and you gave me the tools to see and understand that missing half… who I was all those years ago. Even now I still have more to see and more to discover about myself, and it’ll take me some time. But know that no matter what you do, I’m not going to forget about this favor. What you’ve done for me has changed me for the better… I am eternally grateful to you… and I wish you and your friends all the luck in the world.”

“I’m glad I was able to do my part before I left, Shimmer.” I replied after a pause, holding out a hoof to her. “You’re a good mare. Buckley’s lucky to have you, and I’m glad to have met you.” From her place nearby, she reached a hoof over to press it against mine, nodding in acceptance of my praises. Goddesses… seeing her now, the way she was this morning… I felt that she would’ve held a unique place in Hopeville… that was, if the security of an entire settlement, essentially a civilization in its own right, didn’t rest on her shoulders. 

“Now then, how about some breakfast?” she spoke up again, rising quickly to all fours and trotting back up to our shack door. “All that talk of my parents’ old crop made me a little hungry.”

“Sure.” I answered her, gesturing to the door. “We’d love to have you join us.” 

“Thank you, child. I think I will.” Shimmer replied, fitting her hoof into the door handle and giving it a twist. “I think I’ll have some watermelon… with an apple or two on the side.” Pulling the door back, she looked back around to me to pass a wink, coaxing another smile from me before I followed her back into the shack.

Yes… I was most definitely going to miss this place.

***				***				***

“Wow… there sure are a lot of ponies that came out to see us.” 

Matching my pace by my right side and carrying his own saddlebags, Blake was staring ahead at Buckley’s main gate, eyes upon the cluster of ponies that had assembled by the twin guard towers flanking the base’s closed chain-link entrance. Even from our place on the east runway, with the residential quarters at our backs, I could identify both citizens and guardsponies within the sizeable crowd. Except this time, unlike when we had been captured and brought to Buckley as prisoners, both citizens and guards were mixed together into a single group of onlookers, with no weapons drawn and with nopony on high alert. 

“Yes, there most certainly is.” Gracie replied from just behind me, horn flickering with light as she adjusted the strap of her medical bags, situating them more comfortably over her flanks. “I guess some of them were hoping to say their own goodbyes.” 

“And some are probably happy to watch us go.” I remarked, facing forward as our group walked in the early morning air. 

Breakfast with Mother Shimmer had been a refreshing way to spend our last hour in Buckley, as my friends and I had been greeted to the new day with produce fresh from the base’s underground orchard, a final treat from Shimmer herself. All six of us thus enjoyed a delicious meal that gave us full bellies and plentiful energy for the road, and the simple and easygoing conversation that had flowed throughout that time had put everypony in my group in good spirits as we had collected our belongings and left our shack, returning it to Shimmer to allow citizens to occupy the building in our place. As for Mother Shimmer herself, she made her formal farewell to us then and there, as she was already beginning the task of getting back in touch with her ponies by visiting a guard training session headed by Amber Dawn to observe a batch of new recruits in a weapons maintenance class; she had left us with her gift of food and a big hug for each of us.

Now, the morning had progressed to the point where the whole of the sky was illuminated with the dawn’s pale light, the thick clouds no longer black but a solid sheet of grey and white. Grace, Shore, Raemor, and Blake were all geared up with their respective items, repeating what we had done on our earlier ventures into the southeast. My baby brother was carrying our food and water supplies, both the fresh product from Buckley and that from the Hopeville stores together. Grace was fully geared in her leather armor and reequipped with her revolver, her medical bags partially refilled with additional bandages, potions, and antibiotics that she had haggled from Doctor Preston. Shore had reassembled his multiplas rifle the previous night, the weapon on its last legs in regards to its ammo count, and had returned it and his modified laser rifle to its place on his own saddle, both his saddle and his Stable security armor having undergone their own cleaning. And finally, Raemor was also fully geared up for the trip, grenade rifle and sidearm cleaned and reloaded, fire axe polished, and combat armor and duster inspected and reequipped.

As for me, all of my weapons, my personal saddlebags, and my pipbuck were returned to their rightful place, that familiar weight now wrapped back around me. But in the case of my Manehattan Police Department riot gear, I would need to have it patched back up by somepony with more experience than me upon returning to Hopeville, as my morning in Marefax had resulted in a number of the protective pads earning their fair share of new holes; many of those holes still held the bullets that they had kept from hitting me… it was definitely a worthwhile sacrifice.

“Oh, be a little more optimistic, Nova.” Gracie chimed. “I’m willing to bet that your grand performance up on stage last night is still fresh in the minds of many. There’s probably a few that kind of wish you weren’t leaving.”

I looked back to find my unicorn friend smiling receptively, a gesture that made me sigh in response. “I don’t know.” I replied, looking back ahead. “With the way Mother Shimmer was talking about the various reactions towards her future plans that she’s come to observe, my guess is that there’s still mixed emotions about me… about all of us.”

“Perhaps.” Raemor spoke up from his place beside Grace. “But the involvement of outsiders in Buckley has made a great impact on their way of thinking, their way of life. We will walk out of this base knowing that we’ve done something good for it, and they will watch us leave knowing that we’ve helped them, shown to them that not all outlanders are devious and untrustworthy. That is what’s important here.” 

“For me, the important thing is knowing that Nova, Blake, Grace, and I have all stuck with the principles we value in helping this place.” Shore added strongly behind me. “No matter what Buckley might do from here on out, we’ve at least proven to ourselves that we are still the same ponies we were three weeks ago. We’ve done our good deeds here, helped – it makes me feel good knowing that I’ve held on to that slice of my old life when the rest of it was sealed behind a Stable-Tec door.”

Hm… I hadn’t thought of that… not for a while, actually. Or at least, not as profoundly as I had when considering what my role would be in the fate of little Lucan and his family. After my stay in Challenger recovering under the care of Doc Miles, it had come down to pure survival back home, fighting off the Talon Legion, searching for additional resources. And after that came Buckley, whereupon I became most useful to the settlement through my inherent ability to fly and my experience in fighting on the ground and in the sky. Really, that span of events came down only to fighting and killing, all in the name of survival, all for necessity’s sake… was it bad that all of this had diverted my thoughts to the present? Was it bad that it made me forget the Stable and its modified purpose, that which the Golden Fire family had set in place of a corrupt corporate experiment? 

It was something else to ponder on an uneventful day, but either way, Shore’s words made me crack a small smile; I was thinking of Stable 181 and its teachings now. “Yeah… I guess that, more or less, we’ve at least done right by these ponies.” I replied, nodding at my friend’s assertion. “Even though we didn’t owe it to them, we still helped them, because we understood that they were ultimately looking to understand things about the outside world, even if they had a funny way of showing it… if nothing else, I can go home and return to the others with a clear conscience about that.” 

The five of us were coming close to the main gate now, and nearby, a half dozen late arrivals were trotting along towards the base entrance to our left and right to join up with the assembly. As we moved, I could now more clearly see just how many ponies had come to witness our departure, at least twenty or so beside either guard tower with even a couple of children in the mix, one of whom was standing upon his father’s back to get a good view. Even now, a multitude of eyes were already upon us as we approached, and chatting voices once previously audible to us from when we had been back on the runway were beginning to die down to whispers of their former selves, making them harder to hear despite how much closer they actually were to us. 

“You’ve drawn a bit of a crowd it seems.” A familiar voice drew the attention of my group to the left, where from the trio of late arrivals there emerged Commander Tracer, garbed in his full combat rig complete with its medals and its beret. The stallion officer was wearing a small but pleasant smile of greeting as he trotted along to come and join us, dipping his head as Grace and Shore welcomed him. “Most everpony out here would still be asleep on a normal day.” he added as he fell in, looking out to the nearing cluster of citizens.

“Well, I hardly think the past couple of days have amounted to any kind of normality for any of them.” Gracie remarked with a light giggle. 

“Nor will the coming days, either.” Tracer replied. “I’ll be honest, it’s kind of a shame to see you all go. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, much of which I’m sure each of you would be able to play a contributing role in completing. Pretty soon, we’ll be talking with the outside from the A.T.C., and sooner or later, we’re going to have to move on from talking to an audience that can’t talk back to establishing diplomatic relations. It’s going to make for a long couple of weeks.”

“It might be easier than you think, commander.” Raemor spoke up sagely. “You’ll soon come to find that the entirety of the southeast is dealing with more than a few different obstacles, some of which may require some extra help to surpass. Challenger leads the effort out there, but I think that its leaders are wise enough to know that it will need to find additional support, just as it had done ten years ago.” 

“Like I said a couple days ago, Buckley’s not going to throw itself into a fight unless it absolutely has to.” Tracer retorted firmly. “Ultimately, we’re aiming only to make them see us as a peaceful and neutral group that might only come to eventually trade and interact. We’re not looking to do much more than that.” 

“Challenger’s survived as long as it has because it’s sought the support of strangers.” Raemor explained with equal resolve. “If you seek to interact with that settlement, to share in what it has, it’ll come to you for help in times of crisis, and you’ll have to be ready to commit yourselves to that. Don’t forget that.” 

“Perhaps.” the red unicorn buck replied, humming in thought as we walked on. “And what about you?” he asked us after the pause. “Is your home a part of the support that this city requests?” 

Oh…

Well, that was a big question, one that I wasn’t so sure I could definitively answer. Challenger was the city that helped small towns like Hopeville grow, and right now, Hopeville’s ponies were focused on making sure that Hopeville remained on such a course that it could continue to survive. We had established ourselves solidly, that was certain, but we were still an equal match against the threats around us. The Talons, the Black Blood – both were equal to us in strength, and that made them both a threat that we could not afford to sniff at. As for Challenger, it was not a mere town, but a city of around four thousand, a good majority of which held varying levels of combat experience. At first glance, Challenger was not a place that appeared to be in dire need of aid from the other settlements of the region. Still, Raemor’s words stuck, and even though Hopeville was not directly involved with Challenger’s affairs, having only had one dealing with them in the past when they had brought supplies to us, it would be wise to be prepared to make our own contributions to Challenger’s survival as well. “No… not yet.” I replied for the others, turning to the commander. “But it’s like Raemor said – even though Hopeville’s focused on its own survival, we need to be ready to contribute all the same since Challenger keeps us safe. If it demands something of us, to fight or to scout or to help caravans, we need to be ready to do that.” 

Tracer nodded slowly, visibly pondering Raemor’s advice and my voiced support of it as he faced forward again. “Hm. I guess we’ll just have to see where all this takes us then.” 

At that, we collectively came to a halt, now standing amidst the cluster of Buckley ponies that surrounded us on both sides. Whispers still traversed the crowd, but many eyes were upon us as Tracer faced the rest of us, all belonging to silent faces. “Well… commander, this is where we go our separate ways.” I said with a small smile. “You um… you look out for yourself. And take care of Dawn and little Oscar. He’s still the cutest little colt I’ve ever seen.” 

“Thanks, Nova.” Tracer replied, chuckling as he held out a hoof to me. “You all take care of each other out there, and watch yourselves. And thank you,” he added, looking past me as I bumped my hoof against his and nodding to my companions. “all of you, for everything. You’ve given Buckley a new perspective on things… we won’t forget it.” 

“This is a wonderful place you help lead here, commander.” Grace spoke, stepping forward to bump her hoof to Tracer’s after me. “Perhaps one day we might come back to visit.” 

“The gate’s open for you.” Tracer replied with confidence, then turning to Shore and bumping his hoof. “In fact, I’d say that you can consider it your home away from home. If you’re out wandering the wastes and you’re nearby, you can come and rest here.”

“Thank you, commander.” Shore said, giving him a nod as Tracer and Raemor struck hooves. “And good luck on coming into the life of the southeast. I wish you the best.” 

Finally bumping his forehoof to Blake’s, who smiled big at receiving that farewell gesture, Tracer bowed his head to Shore before his ears suddenly perked. “Hm…” As he looked up, gazing towards the A.T.C. tower, his face rose into a smirk. “Uh oh. Looks like we have a late arrival.” At the same time, my ears also twitched as I picked up a sound above us, like sheets in the breeze – the sound of flapping wings. 

Sure enough, when I looked, I found Archer banking down towards us, angling in from the tower’s control room. “I think it’s for you, Nova.” 

At Gracie’s mischievous sniggering that proceeded her teasing remark, I found myself blushing as I watched the pegasus stallion descend; she had definitely seen the two of us dancing at the tail end of last night’s concert. “Jealous.” I whispered with a shy smile. 

“Maybe just a little.” she playfully murmured back to me, giggling again.

“Good, you’re all still here.” Archer spoke from above, pulling back and beating his wings to slow his propulsion as he hovered in to land. “I almost thought I’d have missed you heading out.” 

I watched with a smile as the pegasus landed on his hooves, giving him a little wave as he tucked his wings back against his armored sides, the stallion likewise garbed in his full combat rig in preparation for another shift on sniper duty. “Nope.” I assured. “You got here just in time.” 

“I just wanted to make sure I came to give you my own farewell.” he stated, dipping his head to us. “But sleeping up in that watchtower, you tend not to hear any of the voices on the ground.” 

“I can understand that.” I replied with a nod. “But yeah, we… we need to get going. Our ponies back home need us to be back soon, and it’ll be a two day walk.”

The pegasus stallion nodded his understanding, giving me one last look with that signature small smile of his as he said, “Well, you all be safe out there. With any luck, we’ll end up seeing each other again outside these fences soon, and by then, Buckley should be well on its way to living in harmony with Challenger and the other settlements of the region.” 

“I definitely hope so.” I replied, stepping forward to stand face to face with him. “Maybe… when Buckley does come out to see the region, we might see some of you out in Hopeville? You and everypony here would be more than welcome on our doorstep… and it’d be nice to see you again someday.” 

“We’ve all got our own duties to see to, friend.” Archer straightforwardly replied. “They’re sure to keep all of us busy for a while yet, I’m afraid.” His direct tone was something that made me deflate inside, just a little. In truth, I was going to miss Archer just as much as I was Mother Shimmer and Commander Tracer… if not just a little more so. I had known him for all of two days, but what we had done together, flying together to the Shimmermist Farm in search of a pony’s memories, fighting together in Marefax and traversing its treacherous ruins for the betterment of eight hundred souls… dancing together wrapped in the sounds of Buckley’s music… wrapped in each other’s embrace… all of this was more than enough to make me feel like I had known him for much longer than a mere two days. It was something that had been forged both in the searing fires of battle and the gentle light of Old World musical treasures, both of which shaped a subtle yet ironclad kind of friendship. That was how I saw this steel-blue pegasus stallion, and I had high hopes that he felt the same way towards me… and yet despite his words, his small smile still held as he kept his eyes locked to mine, then adding, “But I’m sure that a few of us can make the journey.” 

I could only reply to that with a timid smile, and I still felt myself blushing lightly as I leaned forward and reached to sling my left foreleg around his neck, pulling him into a strong hug which he returned in full. At his touch, I let myself close my eyes as I felt him briefly nuzzle along the left side of my neck, and I let out a sigh through my nose as we stayed locked together with almost complete silence surrounding us. It was an embrace that I truthfully did not want to let go of, because I knew that it was one that I was going to miss terribly… but like Archer said – a few could make the journey, and if he’d be one of those few, then I might very well feel this embrace again… hell, I could always hope. 

“Here.”

I opened my eyes as Archer lifted his foreleg off my neck, releasing me and allowing me to take a step back as I did the same. “Hm?” 

“I’ve got a little something for you. It’s not much, but it’s something to remember your time here.” Archer answered me, craning his head around to reach at his left side. Then, with a click, he freed an item that had been clipped to his armor and faced me to reveal said item. It was a patrol cap, much like the one I had worn on the Marefax expedition, colored with light and dark grey as well as splotches of black. It was a different model than the cap I had worn before however, unalike in that the cap itself was adorned with a black fabric strap which encircled it from just above the sun visor, around the sides and to the back like a ring. That, and along with the strap, a symbol had been stitched into the front of the cap, the emblem made of a white star with defined pegasus wings spread out full from either side of it. Archer was holding the cap with the brim of the visor between his teeth, and before I could make any kind of statement, he craned his neck up and leaned over me to set the cap down atop my head. For a moment, I stood still as he reached a hoof up to adjust it, and I felt as both my ears were tucked between the cap itself and the strap that ringed around it; I understood then that my ears were to fit between them in order to keep the cap from falling off, just like how the headset on Buckley’s cap had kept it from falling off in flight.

And as the stallion flier made his final adjustments, my pipbuck emitted a chirp, drawing my eyes to the computer as I raised my pipbuck leg off the ground; my inventory was displayed, expanded with a new item at the very top of the list – Archer’s Patrol Cap.

Returning himself to all fours, Archer took a step back to look over his work. “There.” he proclaimed with a nod. “How does it fit?” 

“It fits perfectly.” I replied with a smile, rolling my eyes up to look upon the underside of the cap’s visor as I lowered my pipbuck leg. The cap did fit very comfortably, and with the strap resting overtop the middle of my ears to keep it supported on my head, the rest of the cap sitting right between my ears, it was fit not too snugly and not too loosely; it was just right. 

“It’s a patrol cap from my previous life. The black and grey is urban camouflage, so it matches most of your colors.” the pegasus stallion explained, bringing me to look him in the eyes again. “Like I said, it’s not much, but hopefully you’ll remember Buckley when you wear it.” 

“I think it’s wonderful. Thank you, Archer.” I replied with a heartfelt smile. “I just wish I had something to give you in return.”  

The pegasus, however, shook his head. “Memories.” he replied with his small smile. “You’ve given me memories, Nova. I think that’s more than a fair gift.” 

And so my effort to restrain my blushing went down the drain, my cheeks reheating instantly as I shyly looked away from him. “Aww… gosh, Archer…” 

“That a boy.” An older-sounding buck from the crowd spoke encouragingly.

But touching response and hot blushing aside, there was still something about my new item that raised a curious question. “But um… what did you mean by your ‘previous life’… if you don’t mind me asking?” I asked, looking back to him.

But to that, Archer let out a single note of light laughter after a moment of silence, shaking his head. “Well, that’s a long story.” he answered, smile still sustained. “A story that’d take up a dinner or two in Hopeville.” 

I cocked an eyebrow, letting my face rise into a smirk as I tilted my head to one side. “Are you asking me out on a date, Archer?”  I questioned boldly. 

His smile shifted into a smirk to match my own. “Maybe I am.” 

“If you set one hoof in Hopeville, I’ll hold you to that.” I warned.

“I wouldn’t even think of going back on it.” he smartly replied, giving me a wink.

Oh sweet Luna, yes.

“Easy, tiger.” Tracer spoke up, punching Archer’s left leg as he came to stand beside him. To my amusement, several ponies in the crowd passed polite laughter; they had been privy to mine and Archer’s conversation… but I didn’t even mind; in fact, I welcomed it. “Don’t scare her out of here. Let her walk out in peace.” Again, a round of laughter passed through the assembled onlookers, laughter in which I and even my friends shared in. “Although, I do agree that the patrol cap looks good on you, Nova.” Tracer added with a smile. 

“She looks like an army officer.” Raemor observed with a chuckle.

Craning my head around, I saw Grace and Shore giving me big smiles, even Raemor giving me his own smaller one which I gladly shared with him. At the same time, Blake pushed himself onto his hind legs to reach up and gently tap the rim of my cap’s visor before falling back to all fours. “You do look really cool with that hat.” my baby brother added. 

At his remark, I leaned down to give him a quick nuzzling. “I’ll have to be careful that I don’t poke you in the eyes with this visor when I try and nuzzle on you now.” I replied with a giggle. Then, looking back up to Archer and Tracer, I gave them a final bow of my head. “Well, I think it’s time.” 

“Alright then.” Giving me a nod, Tracer looked up towards the left-side watchtower. “Open the gate!” 

Just a second later, and the pony up in the tower activated the gate mechanism, and the chain-link entrance rolled back to present the cracked pavement of the road to us. And then, with a final round of heartfelt farewells, Blake and I led our group past the base perimeter and out onto the road, heading southwest to follow the growing light of the morning. 

We were finally going home.

***				***				***

“That’s quite a story.” 

“We never saw it coming.” I replied. “Eight hundred ponies, all living behind those fences and protected by an Old World artillery battery. The place is a fortress, almost as big as Challenger and just a strong, if not more so.” 

“It seems that they’re quite cultural as well.” 

To that, I nodded. “Oh yes. Once they warmed up to us, they let us see just what it was that they protected so ferociously. No super weapons, no secret Stables, just music… they have a church, a techno club, and a concert hall. It’s their defining aspect, that soft heart that sits in the center of an iron shell. Once they learn to trust you, they’re just as peaceful as we are.”

“They’re quite hospitable once you get to know them, too.” Gracie chimed in. “They have delicious food that they grow on their own, they have a wonderful spa, and they even let Nova wear a dress made by Rarity herself when she performed in their concert.” 

“And they have fascinating technology – magical items, computer hardware, and advanced weaponry.” Shore added. “A water talisman, a fully functional underground orchard, a spark generator for electrical power, computerized anti-air turrets, howitzers, tactical Old World military equipment, and even a prototype tank developed by retired members of the Ministry of Wartime Technology during the late stages of the war.”

“The community that is Buckley Air Force Base has been around longer than even Challenger has, and from what we’ve learned from its leaders, it holds the same ancestry that you do, more or less.” Raemor said after. “They came from a Stable as well, there’s numbered One Ninety-Two. It was quite the interesting connection that they revealed.” 

Reaching a hoof up to rub his forehead, Captain Saber let out a sigh. Upon our arrival to Hopeville, we had found our leader sitting beside the town’s stone welcome sign, looking out to the south like he had done many times before. After a hearty greeting, welcoming us home after our consecutive days of absence, he had demanded a full debrief on what we had encountered out there that had kept us away from home roughly a whole day beyond our expected time of return. He had listened to our summary with only calm and focused attention, even now as we told him of our encounters with Buckley’s many secrets. Perhaps the only thing that won any kind of outward reaction of shock had been during our recollection of Buckley’s history in which they had repaired the base’s unused balefire missile and used it to destroy the Equestrian Army’s Fort Volker ammo and ordnance dump to the north; learning that Buckley Air Force Base had been, during the war, one of Equestria’s ballistic defense sites, had hit him with quite the spell of surprise. Throughout the rest, he had taken in the information quite easily, which had at first made me fear that he had perhaps been upset at our prolonged absence… that maybe something had happened here in Hopeville while we had been away.

“I guess first and foremost, I should begin by apologizing.” Saber said, lowering his hoof to the ground as he looked me in the eyes. “I didn’t think that you’re little exploration mission would’ve taken a drastic turn like that. I feel that if I’d planned ahead and thought out as many possible consequences as I could, I would’ve managed to get you better equipped for the mission of diplomacy that your trip became… maybe send along a couple of the sergeants on my little council, maybe send Joker or another guard for some extra fire support…”

“Well, you clearly understand that it took a turn for the unexpected.” Shore spoke first. “None of us saw what was coming until they were launching howitzer shells at us.” 

“Yes. I wouldn’t wish that on anypony I know.” the captain replied. “And all of you were there when those big guns of theirs opened up on you?” 

“All of us.” Raemor confirmed.

I couldn’t help but wince as I saw Saber looking to my baby brother; if my patrol cap’s strap wasn’t holding my ears in place, they would’ve likely pinned back. “I see.” Saber said, Blake looking up to him to give a small smile. The Captain returned his smile with one of his own, but I still caught how his eyes flicked to me as he leaned back. “Either way, it seems like you got on their good side, earned their trust. And really, that means that as long as they’re true to the peaceful intentions they showed to you after your helping them, they’re likely to see Hopeville as a neutral, if not friendly party. And if nothing else, that’ll at least serve to keep their guns off our heads when they decide to visit the settlements outside their borders. You’ve saved Hopeville from what could’ve been a very serious threat, and that’s damn fine work you’ve all done in that case.”

“With any luck, nothing unexpected like that will come around for a while.” Grace responded. “I like it when it’s nice and quiet.” 

“I hear you.” Captain Saber agreed with a small smile. “But more importantly than all of that, I’m glad that you’re all back safe and sound. Everypony’s been worried about the lot of you.” 

“What about Gunny?” Blake piped up. “Is he back now?” 

“He showed up just last night.” Saber answered the colt. “He brought a newcomer in along with him, purple unicorn with a black mane and tail. I’m reckoning that you all know that mare in one way or another since Gunny brought her back.”

“We found her as a group.” I explained. “She’d been captured by Black Blood and we freed her.” 

Saber nodded at that, lowly replying, “Gunny told me she went through some difficult times. He didn’t go into details, but I didn’t press him to either. The poor mare was quite relieved to see Hopeville, which I feel would’ve been quite out-of-character for most normal strangers.”

“And how is she now?” Grace questioned. 

“She seems to be doing rather well for herself here.” Saber answered encouragingly. “She’s had good meals, been introducing herself to some of the others, and has just all around been integrating herself into the life of the town. She’s definitely in better spirits than she was when she arrived.”

I nodded in approval, glad for the good news of both Gunny’s safe return and Blossom’s improving health. “Good, good.” 

“Well, we’ve been sitting by this hunk of stone here for a while now.” Standing up to all fours, Saber reached his right forehoof over to pat Hopeville’s welcome sign. “How about we head on back, and you can all go ahead and get settled back in. Don’t worry about any assignments or patrols. Each of you has earned a good night’s rest tonight. That, and I’ve got plenty of extra help walking around now.” 

“Extra help?” Shore questioned, the five of us following after the captain at his nod. 

“Challenger came through with its promise for some extra support while you were away.” he answered, making my ears perk. 

“Yeah?” Grace asked, likewise pleasantly surprised. “That’s great news.” 

“Another group from the city showed up two days ago.” Saber explained, leading us onto Hopeville’s entry road. “They brought a wagon with some extra supplies as well as a dozen soldiers to help defend the perimeter. As a result, we’ve got some extra ammo and ammo crafting materials, lanterns and oil, and much to everypony’s instant approval, a shipment of pillows. There wasn’t enough to go around for everypony here, but we made sure that the foals and a good chunk of the civilians got one. And of course, couples share them.” 

“Pillows!” Blake piped up happily. “So I have a pillow now?” 

“There’s one for you in your room, Blake.” Saber answered him with a chuckle. 

“Awesome!” 

Well now, that would most certainly be a welcome addition to our room, and I had every bit of faith that my baby brother would be sleeping quite soundly tonight.

“Has anything else been happening around town?” Shore then inquired. 

“There’s been a couple changes to the town infrastructure that our council decided to implement, what with the growing number of inhabitants and traders.” Saber explained in reply. “We converted what used to be our supply building in the northeast corner of town into the town trading post and caravan rest stop. Supplies get brought there and sorted before they’re sent to either the general storage or the armory, and whatever we have extra of we set up for sale for travelers on the lower floor. On the upper floor are rooms available for traveling merchants and traders to hole up for a night to rest and resupply. In turn, the site of the old trader and caravan outpost is now another residential shelter for our own ponies to sleep in. So now we have three houses and the City Hall devoted to sheltering our citizens.”

“Do we get enough visitors for the trading post to stay busy?” Shore questioned. 

“No, nowhere close. Not yet anyway.” Saber responded with a light laugh. “But it just went up a couple days ago, and we’ve gotten the occasional passerby before then. Setting up the store now just means that we might be able to draw in more visitors, resources, and currency. Challenger might give us supplies, but having a bottle cap stash of our own would be useful. You never know when a trader might come by with some unique items for sale.” 

I could understand that. It was a smart move on the captain’s part. “Has anything else changed?” I asked him. 

“Everything else is still the same as when you left. Although, in your absence there was an attack.” Saber answered, though immediately adding to quell my spell of shock, “It was only a small Black Blood party that we repelled quickly, just over a dozen strong trying to chip away at our defenses. There was a couple injuries on our side but nothing too serious. The most it did was give our flak crew some combat experience behind the barrel of our new gun. The guards have taken to calling her The Overmare, because they remember how Crystal went down fighting back in the Stable. Some say that her spirit’s manifested itself into that weapon to carry on her fight, to keep protecting us.”

“She most definitely wasn’t the kind of leader to sit behind the guards and cower.” Shore remarked lowly, reminiscently. 

“It shows how much everypony still misses her, misses our old way of life.” Gracie added with a sigh. 

“We may have had to change a little to live out here, but there’s nothing wrong with remembering.” the captain replied. “In fact, I encourage it in the guard… but on a brighter note, things have been largely quiet here, and Hopeville’s got a few new citizens that came in while you were away. A married couple came down from the far north looking for a quiet place to rest and raise their filly. After them came a pair of unicorn brothers looking for a break from the adventurous life. Both of them are crack-shots with their bolt-actions, helped us out during the attack. And just hours after them, a unicorn mare showed up with her little sister looking for safe haven. They’re all here and seem to be getting along with the rest of us just fine, and with Blossom, that puts us up to a hundred and forty-nine ponies living here. If you count Clover’s unborn child, we’ve got a hundred and fifty… and technically, if you count the Challenger ponies that came in to help protect the town, we’ve got a hundred and sixty-two.”

Now that was a good number to hear! “Hopeville’s growing again. I’m glad to hear that.”

“A lot of those newcomers were among the ponies basking in the big old rainstorm that came blowing through a couple days back, the one you ran into flying around in that old city northeast of here.” he replied to me, craning his head around to pass me an amused smile. 

“So you got some of that too, huh?” 

“Yeah, lots and plenty of it. Helped us to find cracks in the rooftops that were letting water in and allowed us to put bottles and buckets under them.” Saber answered me. “We’re currently working with the leader of the Challenger squad here to figure out how to get some construction epoxy in to fill some of those cracks. Right now it’s sounding like for smaller and more specific supply shipments, ponies from the settlements head to Challenger on their own. They can either shop in the city market or wait for the next full delivery by the city caravans. But we can afford to wait. We’re just collecting rain for extra water in the meantime… better than having no water.” 

“Well, it sounds like things are going quite well.” Gracie cheerily spoke behind us. “It’s good to be back home again.” 

By now, the captain had led us up the road to the City Hall’s east wall, and we all now had a clear view of the courtyard. In the growing darkness of the mid-evening, on the day after the morning we had left Buckley Air Force Base, the Hopeville courtyard and the streets around it were full with activity. A number of foals played a lively and hectic game of tag in the courtyard itself, and there were both children that I recognized, including Flash, Melody, Candice, even Juniper and Chance, and others that were among the newcomers, including a dark brown unicorn colt with a smooth dark green mane and tail, and a bright pink earth pony filly with a bronze mane and tail. Parents and other grownups sat along the edges of the courtyard to watch and admire the game’s progress, and I saw both Ivy and Daisy among the spectators. On the roads themselves, various couples and other groups walked and otherwise shared the evening together, which had, much to my amusement, forced the guardsponies to expand their perimeter outside the town limits to conduct their border patrols. On the east side of town, the armory, repair shop, general storage, and the new trading post were the sight of additional activity, other guards and even a couple of the green-armored Challenger soldiers moving between the lantern-lit buildings carrying orders and items of interests, varying from new rifles to ammunition containers and tool boxes; a pair of unicorns worked together to lift a large yellow water barrel up the steps of the general storage building. And on the west side of town, the Hopeville Inn and the three residential buildings were glowing even brighter, and voices carried out from each of them to mix with the lively hubbub of the courtyard. 

Hopeville looked more alive than it ever had before… and Goddesses did it make me smile.

“And we’re glad to have you back.” the captain warmly spoke back to Grace, stopping to turn around and face us as the rest of us likewise came to a halt. “Like I said before, none of you will need to worry about assignments for the rest of the day. If you’ve got things you want to check up on around town, I understand. But I won’t be assigning any work until sometime later tomorrow. I want all of you to get some food and rest tonight, and that’s all.” 

“Thank you, sir.” Shore replied. “I’m sure we all will.”

But it was then the captain’s gaze swung to me, eyes set into a firm stare as he said, “You’re all free to go, except for Nova. I’d like a couple minutes to speak with you in private, if you wouldn’t mind.” 

I didn’t like where this was going, especially with the subdued yet present severity that I could hear in his voice. But at his words, I swallowed and nodded. “Yes, captain.” 

“What’s wrong?” Blake suddenly piped up. “Is Nova in trouble?” 

“No, not at all, Blake.” Saber assured, bringing himself to a half-smile as he looked down to the colt by my right side. “I just need to have a word with your sister, that’s all.” 

“Blake, would you go with Grace while I talk with the captain?” I asked my young sibling, likewise turning to look down to him. “I’ll come and find you when I’m done here.” 

Thankfully, he nodded, complying without a fuss. “Okay… sure.” 

“Thanks.” Reaching down, I gave him a quick but affectionate nuzzling along his forehead. “I won’t be long.” 

“Come on, Blake.” Grace beckoned with a smile. “I think I see Gunny down the road. Let’s go say hi.” 

With that, my baby brother followed her away, with Shore and Raemor trotting close behind her and leaving me with the captain. For a moment after, the older earth pony stallion didn’t speak, merely looking me in the eyes. That firmness in his stare remained, almost crushing, and it caused me to look back towards the town center just to catch a break; sure enough, Gunny was standing just outside the town repair shop, the second building down the east road, as the others joined him to say their hellos. “I um… I have a feeling I know what you’re wanting to talk to me about, captain.” I then spoke, careful, looking back his way as I cleared my throat. 

“What am I going to talk about?” he politely asked. 

To that, I let out a sigh, bowing my head and concealing his stare behind my patrol cap’s visor. “Blake…” I replied, keeping my eyes to the ground. “Right?” 

The captain was silent, replying at first by jabbing my right foreleg with a forehoof; only when I looked back up at him did he answer. “Before I say anything else, I want you to know that I’m not upset.” he said. “There’s nothing for you to be punished for or anything like that, but after hearing your story, I need to get a warning across to you and I need you to hear it out and understand. You’re a very smart individual, Nova, so I have faith that this will be easygoing. But I still need to speak my mind.” 

I gave him only a single nod. “Of course, captain.” 

“Now, about Blake… after the evacuation, you two have become much closer than just siblings who lived a lazy life underground.” he began. “He’s followed you on virtually every assignment that you’ve been sent out on in order to remain at your side. But while this is amiable, you know the risks involved with it, and you know personally that his following you has put his life on the line time and time again. You do know this right?” I gave him another short nod… but inside, my thoughts were churning something fierce. I knew he was right… but every time, I had kept Blake with me at his request, let him come with me because he had wanted to help me complete my tasks, to help me because of what our father had told him – to look out for me and to be there for me on the surface. Oh no, I hadn’t forgotten about our dad’s final words to him, and I definitely hadn’t forgotten the fear that Blake had felt when he had seen me on Challenger’s hospital bed, matted in my own blood. But every time, despite his honorable intentions, I had been hesitant, nervous, and I had never let him out of my sights when we had been traveling together. I knew the risks, the dangers… yet still, hearing the stating of the ultimate risk to my dearest Blake directly from somepony else, especially our commanding leader, made me flinch as if I’d nearly been struck. “Yes, well, now your travels together have seen to it that you don’t forget what you know… the hard way. According to your story, Blake had to run for his life when howitzers were raining high explosive shells down on him. You know it already, but I’ll say it anyway – if one of those shells had been just a little closer, a little more accurate… your baby brother would be dead right now…… let that sink in, Nova.” 

And I did… 

For just a single moment, Blake was dead… I had lost him four days ago… buried what was left of him in the ruins of that old village that Buckley had demolished with the guns that had torn my baby brother apart limb from limb… and here and now, back home, I was alone, with the only memory of our last day together being that of the fear in his eyes before he was devoured by the flames of the artillery shells…

With a pained grunt, I shook my head, bowing and shutting my eyes tight as I took in a sharp breath and quickly let it out… I had never thought such painful thoughts before… it hurt like a dozen gunshot wounds…… “I… I know the risks.” I spoke, working to regulate my breathing as I recovered myself, stomping those terrible images into dust… and then stomping on the dust. “I know the dangers… but when we found Buckley and they fired on us… I’d nearly lost him. I let him come with me because he wanted to be there for me. He wanted to be there to do his part and help me… but that doesn’t change the fact that he’d almost died out there that day… and if he had… it would’ve been my fault.” I paused here, long enough to look back up at the captain, the older stallion listening with attentive ears… and looking with sympathetic eyes. “When he was with us… he was always closely guarded.” I explained to him. “I watched over him like a phoenix. When he’d ask to go somewhere with me, there were times when he wasn’t aware that he was asking that he follow me into a combat situation, and I’d find some other way that he could help me while staying where it was safe. He’s done his part, worked hard in his own way as he followed me across half the region… but no matter how closely I guarded him… I couldn’t protect him from every danger that was thrown at us… guarding him isn’t enough to protect him from an artillery salvo.” To that, Saber nodded in understanding, but still did not speak; I knew that he wanted me to tell him everything. “He went through some things that he shouldn’t have had to go through during his time with me.” I continued after a sigh. “The artillery barrage… the Black Blood Raiders’ Forward Post and the ponies they… that they gutted and butchered and put on display… Proudspire and the attacks that the Black Blood executed on the town time and time again… he’s seen stuff that he shouldn’t have seen… and all because I gave in to his persistence. You know, I’d try to persuade him to remain here in Hopeville with his friends, with Melody and Flash and the other children. But he’d just keep pressing… and he wouldn’t stop until I let him come along… and in part I wanted him to… to be able to keep him close… to let him feel like he was doing the right thing and fulfilling his promise to our father…”

And it was here that my argument fell away… I’d run out of things to say in my defense, and I feared that Saber was expecting more. But instead, he quickly stepped in to break the silence that had crept its way back between us, saying, “I don’t fault him for his reasons. He takes on from his father in his stubbornness, but also in his will to uphold words of promise. But out here, at his age, that’s something that could prove to be fatal, and it brings up what I wanted to warn to you, if you’d let me give you some advice.” I nodded right away, silent to let him continue uninterrupted. “When it comes to Blake, you’re going to have to learn how to be more assertive when dealing with his desire to help you. You’ll want to do what you think is right – it’s who you are and that’s very respectable. But sometimes doing the right thing is going to require some sacrifice on your part. You think it right to let your little brother follow you on your missions so that he can respect his father’s wish. But in this case, you may have to put aside what you think is right and deny Blake the chance to fulfill that promise in order to preserve his safety… I guess what I’m trying to say is that in order to do what’s right, you may have to do something that you don’t want to do.” he explained. “You’re the pony he looks up to now because you’re the only blood family he has left… and in essence, you’re his mother until he comes of an age where he can wisely make these kinds of decisions on his own. He’ll come to learn about how to deal with the dangers of the wastes here in Hopeville because he’ll be taught the necessary skills by you and the town guard and so on, but only when the time is right. Right now, he’s too young, and I’m telling you – taking him out into the wasteland is going to cause him more harm than good, and the same goes for all of our foals.” At this, I nodded again, focusing in at the sudden shift in his speech. “Our children are our most valuable ponies, and we protect them viciously. With you as their foalsitter, I need to warn you now – should any of them follow Blake’s example and come looking to follow you out of town to help you, you need to turn them away. I’m not saying that you need to report to me if they do, because they may not even ask to follow you. But I am saying that you need to enforce that they stay in Hopeville where they’ll be safe, same goes for your brother.” 

“Of course, captain. I understand.” I assured instantly; I was confident enough in myself to say that I definitely knew better than to let other foals try to talk their way into joining me outside home borders… but I knew that in the case of my baby brother, I would indeed have to learn to be more forceful in my decisions.

To my answer, Saber cracked a faint smile, giving me a nod. “I had a feeling you would.” he replied. “And can I also trust that you’ll take my words under careful consideration?” 

Again I nodded. “Yes, captain… I do have a lot to think over for the time being… but I understand that as well.” 

“Good. I knew I could rely on you.” My words did seem to ease our leader, as his smile to me grew; that, in turn, made me feel just a little better about the subject. “That’s all I wanted to talk to you about.” he added, nodding back towards town. “I’ll leave you be now so you can catch up with your friends and get some rest. You’ve got the evening off, so please do enjoy it, and don’t let what I’ve said keep you from doing so.”

His new orders carried with them a comforting tone, one that got me to give him a smile in return; oh yes, this discussion had definitely been for the better. “Alright. Thank you, captain.”  

“And thank you for hearing me out.” he replied, bowing his head before we headed our separate ways. But as our final farewells were passed, and him trotting away to City Hall as I headed down the road to join my friends, Saber once again called out. “And Nova…” 

I halted midstride as he called my name, and I craned my head around to find him looking over his right shoulder to me. “Yes?” I asked curiously.

He cracked a small smirk. “Nice hat.” 

Well… that caught me off-guard… but after my mind’s drawn blank passed, it made me giggle, too. That was something that I felt I could use after his little lesson… it made me feel better. “Thanks, captain.” 

***				***				***

BLAM!!!

From the blackness of peaceful sleep, I was ripped back into the land of the living by a violent thunderclap of sound that shook the floor, and even as my eyes snapped open, I felt as flakes and granules of concrete from the ceiling fell atop my back from the shock of the tremendous explosion. But right from that, my ears registered a whole chorus of gunfire, shouting voices, and a fast, thumping roar that proceeded it, coming from outside the City Hall where Blake and I slept. 

Hopeville was under attack!!

“Nova?? Nova??!” 

With my wings I threw our blanket off my back and scrambled to my hooves, Blake doing the same as he called out to me in fright. “Blake, stay put!!” I shouted back to him, putting a hoof to his chest and forcing him to move away; from just outside the entrance of our room, a wave of billowing dust rolled down the hallway from the right side. 

“What’s going on?!” Blake demanded from behind me, backing up against the far wall as he looked on with wide eyes. 

“Stay back!!” I warned again, facing back to the entrance and trotting into the hallway. Through the dust lingering within, I saw other Hopeville citizens looking out in shock from their rooms even as others rushed out with rifles and battle saddles in tow, booking it to the stairway farther down the left side of the hallway. But to the right, aside from an earth pony stallion and an earth pony mare likewise looking out from the neighboring room to ours, I saw myself staring out into the fields of the southeast, partly obscured by a screen of lingering concrete dust where a hole had been blasted into the City Hall; the entire northeast corner of the second story had been blown away! 

“Nova!” 

At Blake’s persistent and frightened calling, I backed out of the hall and into our room again, hurriedly turning and trotting to my terrified baby brother. “Blake, I need to go outside and help the guardsponies!” I explained quickly over the noise. “You need to stay here while I’m gone, okay? When this is over I’ll come and find you!”

But he immediately reached out to hug my left foreleg. “Wait, don’t leave me!” 

“I need to help repel-”

From behind me, close gunshots stabbed at my ears as a barrage of assault rifle fire ripped through the hallway itself, and as Blake yelped in shock, I wheeled around, swiftly reaching down to rip Fire Rose from its holster on my left foreleg. As I situated my sidearm’s firing bit and aimed down the entrance, I heard a stallion cry out in pain from the lasting gunfire before retaliatory shots from both a carbine rifle and a small pistol struck out in response. Nopony emerged in my own line of sight as I kept my mother’s pistol trained on the entrance, keeping myself poised and ready to fight as Blake hid behind me. But no other shots fired as I tensely waited, my jaws squeezing down on the trigger… slowly I moved up to investigate, Blake remaining silent behind me. Then with a short leap, I emerged into the hallway and faced the hole in the City Hall. But I found no hostile targets, only the stallion and the mare from before, the latter helping the former who had taken two gunshot wounds to his right front leg. 

“Nova!” the mare called, catching sight of me as I holstered my pistol. “Whoever’s attacking us has griffins with them! What are we going to do?!” 

Griffins… Goddesses, the Talon Legion was here!

“If you can’t fight, stay in your room! You’ll be safe in the City Hall while the town guard drives them out of here!” I responded quickly, the mare quickly nodding in reply before helping her wounded companion back into their room. “Blake!” I barked, turning to find the colt staring back from his place by the back wall of our own room. “Stay there, and do not move until I come back! Do you understand?” 

“You won’t stay?” he asked nervously.

“I have to help the others fight off the invaders!” I answered, shaking my head. “I’ll be fine, just stay put and wait for me! I’ll find you when this is over, okay?” 

“What about your stuff?” he asked, pointing a hoof to his right; all of our gear was there in an unorganized pile.

“I don’t have time, I need to go!” And that was all I could say to him. Though I thankfully received a nod from my little brother, albeit a scared and tiny one, I needed to get outside and find Captain Saber or one of my friends, to find out what exactly we were dealing with. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to get properly equipped, and even as I set myself to a gallop to close the distance to the gaping hole in the wall, I felt an almost painful pit of nervousness welling up within me. Later in the evening after our return to Hopeville, I had removed my M.P.D. armor, personal saddlebags, and my rifle saddle because of the lack of need to be wearing them in the safety of our perimeter. But now, I was thoroughly regretting that decision, as I slowed to a halt at the now open end of the hallway with only my pistol, its ammo belt, and my pipbuck still equipped in their proper places. 

Through the hovering concrete dust surrounding the hole blown into the wall, I was now presented with a full view of Hopeville as I stood upon the lip of the floor. A full-scale battle raged in the northwest part of town, the Hopeville Inn’s windows no longer lit with lanterns but with muzzle flashes from a dozen assault and carbine rifles. The town eatery that neighbored it from the south was similarly fortified, as was the Hopeville Press on the north end of town, guards taking up positions not only inside these buildings but around them, using the walls for cover. Though they were hard to see under the darkness of midnight, I could still spy the location of the enemy, perhaps only around thirty yards outside of town, Talon soldiers having set up a fortified position out that way, likely with the deployable cover they had used in their first attack here. But it was then that my eyes were drawn to a particularly bright white light, twin beams of illumination that shined down on Hopeville’s defenses around the northeastern buildings… 

And I nearly staggered upon trailing those beams to their source.

Something big hovered low over the ground, yet high enough above the Talon’s attacking force to be able to fully illuminate much of Hopeville’s defenses. Its silhouette resembled a sleek frame with a pointed nose and a twin tail… but on both sides of the body, at the end of a short wingtip, sat the thing’s twin propeller engines. The spinning propellers had been the cause of the thumping sound I had first heard when I had woken, and now that I saw it, I knew exactly what it was. 

It was an aircraft… a vertibuck… the Talons had brought a vertibuck to Hopeville!

Even as I snapped out my wings, the ominous hovering aircraft turned to shine its twin searchlights onto the Hopeville Press, whereupon two miniguns mounted onto its second pair of short wings just behind its nose roared to life, pounding the structure mercilessly with a savage barrage. But the battle wasn’t just concentrated there. In the courtyard, another dozen guards galloped away to join up with the fighting in the northwest while others moved slower to take occasional shots at the sky, or rather the quartet of griffins that flew there. And mixed within the running guards, the gun crew of the town’s twenty millimeter flak gun had brought The Overmare to bear and opened fire; right away, sparks flew from the frontal armor of the vertibuck, and relief washed over me as the buzz of its devastating miniguns went silent, the aircraft’s engines shifting on their foundations to face front as the aircraft moved up higher and toward the courtyard to escape. 

With a leap I launched myself skyward, facing the main battle and keeping myself low above the surface. Above me, the Talon vertibuck flew right by, its searchlights momentarily washing over me as I quickly crossed the courtyard. Now that I was close, I found that a number of improvised barriers had been set up outside of the town’s northeast corner, positioned in front of the press, the inn, and the eatery. Comprised of sandbags and metal scrap, the barricades made one of the extra fortification assemblies that the town had put up over the recent past, and this one held another line of around two dozen Stable guards, with four to six behind each barrier; and behind the one to the far right, just in front of the northwest corner of the press, I found a familiar face as he reloaded his light machinegun. 

Keeping my momentum, I arced down in a dive, eagerly putting distance between myself and a higher altitude, the better to maintain the good fortunate of having passed unseen through the courtyard. But as I closed my distance to the ground, there was no avoiding the passing of bullets, shots striking the wall of the press and whizzing past me as the Talon attackers laid down heavy fire. As a result, I came to exchange flying for running, landing shakily but fully on my hooves before forcing myself into a final gallop towards the barricade as an alarmingly close shot zoomed right by my left ear, almost grazing it. The near hit stopped me short, guiding my focus enough for me to throw myself to the dirt, using the sandbag walls for cover as I instead crawled and wriggled the rest of the way there. 

“Nova, are you crazy?!” From ahead, Gunny was looking back to me, momentarily pausing to take in the sight of my frantic clambering before he peered back up from cover, firing a long burst from the All-Equestrian. I made no reply as I scrambled over the last inches to the barricade, and as Gunny crouched back down behind cover, he stepped in closer to the neighboring guard buck to give me a space at the right end of the barrier. “What the hell are you doing out here without your armor?!” 

“I had to get here and help!” I shouted back to him, leaning up against the stacked sandbags and crouching low. “And there was nopony there who could help me get it on quickly!” 

“Well, I’m glad to see you alive either way!” Gunny responded, levitating his LMG over cover to fire a short burst blind. “I thought you might’ve been injured when that vertibuck hit the City Hall! The thing’s got its own rocket launchers!” 

So that’s what did the damage… Goddesses, we needed a plan and quick! “Do we have some kind of battle plan for this mess?!” 

“The flak gun can keep the vertibuck off of the infantry so long as it remains protected from the griffins! We’ve got about thirty or so hostile infantry in front of us and another twenty just to the southwest of us, all of which are engaged fully!” Gunny explained, securing the All-Equestrian to his security armor to trade it for his riot shotgun and a drum of shells. “We’re working on getting the forty millimeters up here so we can knock out some of those portable steel barriers of theirs! We just need to work to make sure that we keep them from spreading out and getting past us until the big guns arrive!” 

“I hope they get here soon! That vertibuck’s coming back around!” 

The warning from the unicorn stallion neighboring Gunny to the left made me look back over my shoulder, long enough to see that the vertibuck was now flying over the southeast corner of town, nearly completing its arc to come back to the fight even as the flak crew in the courtyard, protected by over a dozen others, struggled to bring the gun around. But against a flying machine like that, there was nothing I would be able to do to help them out. Instead, however, the warning drove me to move and shoot fast, to focus on contributing where I knew I was needed. Fire Rose might not have been an adequate weapon to battle a vehicle with, but I could still do my part here behind these sandbags. Wordless, I bit down on the firing bit of my pistol and freed it from its holster. At the same time, Gunny had loaded up his shotgun with the new drum, levitating the old one into its designated pocket on his security armor before passing me a glance. When I returned it, he gave me a nod as the shotgun hovered in by his head. “Ready…… now!” At his command, the two of us rose from cover together to aim our weapons towards the enemy barricade, and up came S.A.T.S.. Before us, a linked system of deployable steel plate shields faced our position directly with four enemy soldiers currently sticking out from cover to fire, and at least three others, judging by the empty spaces between the Talon legionnaires, hid with them. This group had committed themselves to keeping our position occupied, while other squads nearby engaged our allied defenders farther down the line; the fight had already locked itself into a neutral engagement, with both sides only taking quick shots at one another before dropping back to cover.

The four enemies before me were all unicorns, one mare and three stallions that were one and all aiming down the sights of pristine black assault rifles. Out of them, I dialed in two shots for the stallion on the far left side of their cover and executed the spell. Fire Rose struck out with hot words in unison with a shell from Gunny’s shotgun, and though my first bullet sparked off the plate protecting my target’s torso, the second was a grazing hit, the bullet leaving a burning red trail across the buck’s left cheek. He recoiled from the hit, ducking back down with a yelp of pain as I fell back to the dirt. Beside me, Gunny’s shotgun roared again as he fired off two additional shells, then dropping back down as return fire smashed into out sandbags with dull thumps. Before I could make another move, the familiar buzz of miniguns cut through the whole of the battle, drawing my eyes back to the air where the vertibuck made a strafing run, carving into the courtyard with its deadly twin weapons. And even before it reached the center of the yard, I heard a sudden blast of sound as a rocket suddenly raced out and down from the small wing on its right side behind the nose. The detonation was intense, violent as the aircraft cleared the courtyard and flew by directly overhead; I didn’t see anypony that might’ve been caught by the attack… but I anxiously feared the worst…

A fourth shell from Gunny’s shotgun once again brought me to the battle that I could fight. Beside me he once again ducked down, steady fire pounding away at our sandbags. But then, from the corner of my eye I caught sight of an object as it sailed over our cover to land into the dirt just ahead of us with a dull thump. The metal apple, missing its stem, was nightmare fuel as it prepared to detonate, but only until red magic enveloped it. With a cry, Gunny glared ahead, hurled the grenade around, and launched it with a telekinetic kick, sending it back from whence it came before it detonated with a powerful blast, sending dirt, fire, and dust skyward. Gunny’s quick action, in turn, gave me the time I needed to rise back up and line up another shot. With S.A.T.S. partially charged, I had enough juice to target one shot while taking in the sight of the field. The grenade had detonated just behind the Talon soldiers and their barricade, and though it knocked some of them off their hooves, there had been no kills because of the explosive. Still, only two of the stallions currently remained upright, the both of them dazed from the blast that had shaken them. Lining the shot for the soldier to the right, I programmed the attack and activated the spell; one shot, and the legionnaire went down from a clean headshot.

The fight was my fuel, giving me the strength to quickly avert my attention from the dead soldier as he toppled behind the enemy barrier, and I once again dropped down low to keep myself out of harm’s way. But just as I readied myself to fire again, I caught movement, a single pony galloping full speed towards our barricade. Blossom was running along the front of the Hopeville Press, garbed in leather armor with her lever-action rifle and her revolver secured to it; and just as I found her, so did the Talons, the violet unicorn nearly missing a step in her run as bullets suddenly hammered the wall just above her. I forced myself up and above the sandbag wall then, taking aim to cover the mare, and quickly finding one of her attackers, I fired two shots. Both struck the steel, near misses, but the unicorn soldier dropped back to cover from the bright sparks that lashed up in front of her. And as I fell back to cover, setting my now empty pistol to the ground, Blossom came upon us, leaping the rest of the way to slide on her belly to safety behind our barricade.

“Blossom, are you hit?!” Gunny called over the noise.

“My armor took one round, but I’m fine!” she called back, horn glowing as she unattached her lever-action and brought it forward. “Gunny, Nova, the Talons!” 

“What??” Gunny called, the stallion quickly rearing up to fire off another shell before returning to cover again. 

The mare quickly took in and let out a big breath, recovering from her sprint under fire as I pulled a fresh clip from my sidearm’s ammo belt around my left front leg. “What about them??” I asked after spitting the clip onto the ground next to my pistol. 

“I saw a small group of them leaving town!” she spoke over the battle, scooting closer for me to hear her. “There’s a second flying machine about a hundred plus yards to the northeast, and I saw a team of four Talon soldiers heading that way! They were hauling off unarmed ponies!” 

What??!

“What do you mean??” Gunny demanded, crouching low and crawling closer to us. 

“I think they’re trying to take captives!” Blossom responded, desperately looking between us. 

“They’re abducting citizens?!” 

To my shock, she gave an affirmative nod, not what I was wanting to see. “I saw them forcing along two ponies at gunpoint!” she answered, pointing a hoof back behind her, to the east. “I don’t know why they’d do that, but they’re going to take them out of here to only Goddesses know where!” 

“How the hell did they get in?!” I demanded aloud, ejecting the empty clip, pushing it aside, and aligning the new clip to the bottom of my pistol.

“It doesn’t matter!” Gunny instantly replied, holstering his shotgun to swap it for the All-Equestrian. “We’ve got to go after them!”

“We can’t let them take hostages!” I agreed, sliding the fresh clip into my pistol before it locked closed, ready for use. “You said there were four?!” 

“I saw two griffins and four ponies in total, two of those ponies the ones being taken away!” Blossom answered, flinching as a round struck the dirt just behind her. “There’s bound to be a couple more enemies by that vehicle though!” 

As I scooped up the empty pistol magazine and slid it back into its pocket on my ammo belt, Gunny craned his head around behind him and called back, catching the attention of the unicorn stallion next to him. “Hey! There’s activity to the northeast! We need help, come on!” Giving no time in between for discussion, he turned back to face Blossom and I. “Let’s go, we need to move! Head behind the press and we’ll head out to the east along that street! Go!”

Taking Fire Rose by the firing bit, I rose to all fours as Gunny laid down a long barrage of fire from his LMG, and I wheeled and galloped the short distance to new cover behind the south wall of the town press building. Blossom was right on my tail, with the guard buck Gunny had recruited following quickly behind with his assault carbine in tow. From my new position, I had a full view of the courtyard, and though the flak gun and its crew were still alive and intact, still firing on the vertibuck above as protective infantry kept the four circling and diving griffins at bay, there were half a dozen unmoving bodies on the ground as well, all wearing Stable security armor; there was no way that casualties were unavoidable in this fight…

“Come on, we’ve got to move!” 

Gunny’s command snapped me out of my momentary trance, and as my friend raced by, I followed his lead and pushed myself to a full gallop with Blossom and the unnamed guard falling in beside me. But just when we had cleared the press, the four of us skidded to an abrupt halt as hostiles leapt from behind the clinic and onto the street. Three Talon earth ponies intercepted us, and our group scattered as the three of them armed and aimed their assault rifle saddles. Blossom and I dove to cover into the gap between the clinic and the press building as Gunny immediately opened fire with the All-Equestrian where he stood, our fourth guard turning and galloping into the courtyard to strafe the enemy with his assault rifle just as the Talons released their own volley. Backing myself into the wall with Blossom, I stepped out from cover and activated S.A.T.S., the spell slowing the gunfire to a crawl as I targeted the center hostile. When I executed the attack, time returning to normal, two shots from my pistol struck the enemy’s chest plate. In unison, the soldier to the left was felled by multiple headshots from Gunny’s LMG as I heard an abrupt cry farther to my right. With my attack then spent, I threw myself back behind the wall as the stone just in front of me exploded into chips and dust. But as I did, I saw with shock as Gunny staggered with a cry, a thin spray of blood erupting from the joint of his left front leg. His light machinegun dropped with a clatter, and the now wounded unicorn threw himself onto his left side to get behind the wall. Blossom was next to him in a split moment, using both her magic and her jaws to pull the stallion back to safety, and in the courtyard itself, the other member of our makeshift fire team was lying motionless on his side… it didn’t look like he had made it. 

With a grunt through my firing bit, I wheeled back out of cover. Two of the three remained, both of them beginning to advance closer as they kept their assault rifles trained on our position. Without S.A.T.S., I fired two more shots at the Talon on the left, the second of the two rounds punching into his neck and felling him. But just as he did, I caught sight of an object that came rolling out onto the street from inside the clinic. Eyes going wide in comprehension, I reared back into cover as the final enemy soldier tried to run, the grenade detonating with a thunderous blast and flinging chunks of concrete and soil from the street past me as I flinched away. Then, with ears lightly ringing from the explosion, I stepped out from cover and took aim again, ready to fire… until I found Grace as she stepped out from within the clinic, looking this way and that with nervous but attentive eyes.

“There’s an exit wound!” 

“Armor piercing round… AGH!” 

Whirling back around, I found Blossom as she checked over Gunny’s wounded foreleg, the stallion forcing himself back to a stand while keeping the crippled limb poised above the ground. “Gunny we need to get you inside, now!” 

Behind me, Grace was trotting hurriedly to us, leaving the bodies of the two soldiers she had killed with her grenade. But to her firm demand, Gunny countered outright, shaking his head. “No! You need to help Nova and Blossom!” he replied back as she joined us. “Blossom reported Talon soldiers abducting citizens and hauling them off to a waiting transport just northeast of here! If you hurry, you three can still catch up to them and stop them before they get away!” 

“I need to get your leg patched up!” Grace insisted, moving forward to face him directly, trading glances between Gunny’s freely bleeding wound and his glaring eyes. 

“Gracie go, damn it!” he shouted, making her withdraw from him with a frown. “We can’t let them take anypony from here! We might never see them again if they do!” I holstered my pistol as Gunny pressed his point. But even though Grace stomped a hoof, she quickly yielded to her better judgment, ending the debate then and there. Gunny was right – we needed to stop the Talons from taking anypony away from here. “Get moving!” the unicorn stallion commanded again, grimacing at the pain in his shot limb as he telekinetically reached for his light machinegun, hovering it back to his side. “I’m only going to slow you down!” 

“There’s healing potions in the clinic!” Grace replied over the sounds of the battle. “Get one, and then you can meet up with us! I’ll look over that wound more thoroughly when this thing is over!” 

“Fine!” Suddenly, with a flash of his horn, Gunny’s riot shotgun detached from his armor. “Take this!” Wrapped in red magic, the weapon hovered over to Gracie, who took it without question. “There’s slugs in that drum! You’ll need them! Now go! I’ll catch up!” 

Giving only a nod, Grace let both the shotgun and her revolver hover close by her before wheeling to the east. “Nova, Blossom, come on!” 

There was no time left – we needed to move now.

Gracie took the lead at a quick and determined sprint, keeping her dual-wielded weaponry close by, and side by side Blossom and I set off after her, leaving Gunny on his own. There was no further resistance on our way out of town, no fighting and no soldiers on either side in the northeast corner… on the contrary, it seemed almost eerily abandoned. Once out of town, kicking up thin trails of dust as our hooves struck the ground, I immediately set to searching for the Talons and their captives. Normally, I would’ve taken flight to move faster, to get an aerial view and spot them quicker. But if I went ahead and engaged them solo, without waiting for my companions, I would be the sole target of at least four enemy soldiers, including two griffins. Each one would be able to track me individually, and these Talons were far more skilled than simple Marefax raiders. I needed to stay with the others, the better to focus our firepower and hit the enemy with our collective force. 

Up ahead, the terrain arched up a short height, and the three of us were quickly upon the shallow rise. But then, Grace abruptly slowed as a pair of moving silhouette quickly rose into sight over the top of the short hill. The black shapes rotated at a slow pace, spinning atop immobile foundations that pointed to the sky which were in turn connected to steel wings that attached them to a sleek plated body. And as we emerged to the top of the rise, Grace preparing her two weapons to fire, my eyes fell upon the vertibuck that sat there, the very same that Blossom said that she had spotted. It sat on three wheels, one at the front just under the cockpit, and two towards the rear of the craft. The back of the vertibuck was facing us, and a loading door that made the aircraft’s rear plating had been lowered to the ground to expose an empty and seemingly spacious compartment inside. But in front of the open door, a trio of Talon griffins stood staring back at us as we came to a stop at the top of the hill. They were lined one next to the other, blocking entry to the cargo hold of the vertibuck, protecting what… or who was inside; I couldn’t quite see inside the compartment… but the captives had to be inside! 

But the griffins… I saw assault rifles and sniper rifles on their armor…… all of them holstered…

Beside me, Grace brought her two guns to bear, ready to free our citizens inside and get them back to safety. But as I reached for my pistol to enter the coming fight, I jolted as a sudden sharp and stinging crack of sound ripped into my ears from a close gunshot, and I caught Gracie reacting in the same fashion.

But then her shotgun and her revolver fell to the dirt, the glow of her horn’s magic flickering away.

I looked back up to her, and I found her eyes widened… her mouth hung open in surprise… and a short, weak grunt escaped her as she slowly raised her left forehoof to… 

To the bullet hole in her chest where dark crimson welled up and snaked down her leather armor…

OH GODDESSES NO!!

“GRACIE!” I rushed to her, making to try and keep her supported. But it was right when I screamed her name that she lost her balance, and down the wounded mare fell, collapsing onto her left side as I ground to a halt in front of her. Her eyes were shut tight now, and her breathing was ragged and shaky before she coughed, blood flecking the ground in front of her mouth. Frantically looking her over, already working on a plan to get her off this hill and back into town, my eyes quickly found another flowing red trail on her armor, leading up to a second hole where a bullet had found its mark in her right side; the shot had punched clean through her. “Grace! Grace, just… oh no… just… BLOSSOM HELP ME!!” 

But when I turned to my left, finding the mare just a few paces back, I froze in place, my racing mind ceasing but my heart pounding all the more at the sight I beheld. The violet mare’s lever-action rifle was raised to her eye level, a fading tendril of smoke trailing up and away from the end of the barrel as she looked back at me behind her iron sights, pointing the weapon right at me.

Her lips curled into a smirk.

I let out a short breath, a numbing pit of fear welling up inside me as I begun to shake. No… Goddesses no it… it just couldn’t be… this wasn’t possible… not after everything she went through with us…… and yet there she was, looking every bit triumphant as she kept me locked in her gun sights. Now, new pieces were coming together… the right pieces that created a single terrible conclusion – there were no captives here… there hadn’t been any abductions… Blossom… she lied…

A vice-like grip suddenly clamped around my neck, and I choked as I was suddenly yanked back and away from Grace. I didn’t even get the chance to retaliate before I was bodily thrown, tossed away before I fell to the ground, my momentum making me roll over an entire rotation before I came to a rough halt on my left side again. Quickly, I scrambled up to my hooves, fear driving me to move… to fight or to escape… until I saw a figure now standing between me and Gracie. It was one of the griffins from before, one of the three, and with only a short distance separating us, I could see this enemy flier clearly… and identify exactly who he was. Garbed in full Talon combat armor, the griffin wore a custom battle saddle with an assault carbine on his left side and a light machinegun on his right. On his back sat a sleek grey laser rifle… on his chest plate was a large, pearl-white, five-cylinder revolver secured in its own holster… and on his face, a wicked scar ran across his right eye that shifted as he glared at me. 

Blackhawk…

“Good work, Blossom.” the griffin spoke, not even breaking eye contact with me as the purple unicorn mare stepped up beside him. 

“Easy day, sergeant major.” she replied smugly, her rifle drifting along beside her head. “I’m afraid that we’ll need to leave soon. Others from the town are going to be coming within moments.” 

“Give me a minute.” Blackhawk said, holding a clawed forepaw up to silence her as he kept his eyes on me. “You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this.” 

“I ought to kill you right now.” I growled, cutting through my fear to stand defiant. 

Blackhawk only held his glare at my words. “I could say the same thing about you.” he spoke back, voice dark with hate. “Believe me, I want nothing more than to paint the dirt underneath you with your brains. And now that I’ve finally got you where I want you, I’m finding it very difficult to restrain myself from doing just that.” Briefly, he paused in order to glance to Blossom. “Bring that other mare here.” At his order, the violet unicorn turned back and trotted to where Grace still lay on her side, pulling her roughly to her hooves and ignoring the short yelp of pain that came from her. I took a step forward at seeing my friend forced to her hooves, glaring and ready to scream out all my hatred to the mare that had sprung this trap on us. But just as I made to, I jerked forward, nearly falling on my face as a rifle butt struck me hard on the back of the skull. When I recovered, I saw as one of the two griffins behind me closed his wings, landing back on the ground from his hover; now these two griffins were flanking me, ready to shoot if I made any other move… 

Goddesses, I needed a plan… I needed backup…

With Blossom shoving a weakened Grace up with the barrel of her rifle, the two mares now stood at Blackhawk’s right side as he continued, “But luckily for you, there’s a number of reasons that keep me anchored, some of which are actually my own.” At his words, I matched his glare with mine, but I remained silent. What did he mean by that? He’d made me an enemy while I remained absolutely clueless to his intentions. He’d attacked my home, then ambushed my friends, executing an innocent wastelander in the process, all to find me, to get my attention! And even though he had my attention now, he still didn’t give an answer! 

What the fuck did he mean?! 

“You’re the pegasus that entered Plainwell and outmatched an entire outpost.” the griffin spoke, suddenly raising his right front paw up to grasp the stock of his laser rifle. “You escaped that town and assisted in the prison break there. You were severely wounded in the fighting, and yet you fought hard enough to kill four Talon soldiers, two of them ponies, and two of them griffins – one male, one female. And after that, you flew off to the east and escaped, and the rest of the soldiers in that town were too busy killing off the rest of the town’s citizens to pursue those that escaped, those that kept your hide alive. That’s what the reports that came to me said… and when I got word of what happened…” Here, the griffin paused to pull his laser rifle free of his armor, shaking his head as he lowered it to the ground in front of him; my eyes followed the energy weapon, my glare faltering as I suddenly shivered… the calm manner of his movements… I couldn’t tell what he was planning to do. “Because of your actions that day, you won my attention, Nova.” he said, his paw falling to the weapon as he situated his claws around the trigger; I quickly looked to Grace to see how she was… she was trembling on her hooves, on the verge of collapse again as her head was bowed low. “No…” Blackhawk corrected himself. “you demanded my attention. What you did not only hindered our operations in the area… but what you did changed me.” At that, as my eyes widened slightly in surprise, the griffin slowly brought his laser rifle to bear, raising it to my chest level with his right paw. “Before you interfered, I was a merely a soldier who followed orders, commanded other soldiers and led them into battle. Now, I’m the consequence of your actions in Plainwell, I’m the one who’s going to teach you the penalty of your interference,” I took a step back as his voice darkened to near murderous abhorrence, and I let out a short breath as my heart rate quickened; I braced myself best I could for a hideous wound. “And I am going to make you pay the price.” 

But he didn’t shoot, as the barrel of the laser rifle then swiveled away from me… and fell upon Gracie…

And he pulled the trigger…

Grace’s head jerked sharply to the right as a red beam of energy smashed into her skull… yet she remained on her hooves as the sound of the shot rang in my ears, long after it had physically faded. For just a moment, she stood there, mouth hung open and eyes wide with shock… and then, her entire body begun to glow a shimmering red. The aura of light grew brighter and brighter, rapidly, until it grew so intense that my friend’s mouth, muzzle, horn, and lastly her eyes, disappeared… before her entire body collapsed upon itself, falling into a glowing pile of red dust. 

I screamed, my ears stinging at the sound, my throat burning at the force, as what had once been my best friend was reduced to a pile of shimmering ash before my eyes. Caution and fear, elements of the hope that Grace and I would’ve gotten out of this together, were stomped into oblivion as I galloped for Blackhawk, my scream quickly mutating into one of blinding, burning hatred for my enemy! I was going to break him! I was going to rip him open with my bare hooves, show his heart to his dying eyes – I WAS GOING TO FUCKING BUTCHER HIM!!! 

From his seemingly calm state of focus, he suddenly yelled out a cry to match my voice of explosive rage, and he swung forward with his laser rifle, the weapon a swift club in his paw. And just before I reached him to tear him to shreds, the weapon swung up and smashed into my lower jaw, utterly halting my momentum and knocking me off my hooves. I landed heavily on my back, and I had only gotten to open my eyes again before Blackhawk’s claws came down on me, his big right paw clamping wholly around my throat and cutting off the screams I wanted to cry. I gagged at his iron grip, snapping my forehooves up and shoving at his leg to get him to release me. But his limb would hardly budge, and his hold around my throat only pressed harder as he came to stand over me, eyes glaring down on me. I couldn’t make a sound, couldn’t scream again – I could only choke as his full weight came down on my throat, forcing me into submission as he lowered his head down to speak. “For taking my wife from me in Plainwell, because of the female griffin that you shot down in aerial combat,” he spoke, voice low and menacing. “you turned me into a monster. And now, I’m going to return the favor, and create in you what you created in me.” 

The fury in me was diminishing, and if I could have, I would’ve reacted to his final revelation, his exposing of the truth, of the event that had made me his enemy. But it all just faded away, suffocating with me as I only struggled merely to breathe again. I shut my eyes tight as I tried once again, futilely, to force away his paw with my hooves. All I got from my effort was tears, tears that streaked down my cheeks as I fought against Blackhawk’s brute strength in vain… tears that came for Blossom’s betrayal… for my failure… for my friend who paid the ultimate cost for what I had done in Plainwell… But even these tears, my churning thoughts, didn’t last long, as suddenly, I jerked at a jolting pain that ripped into my belly, and my eyes snapped open to see a weapon pointed to my torso. It was held in Blackhawk’s free forepaw, a black break-action pistol with a short barrel… but no gunshot had come from it… only a dart whose needle-like nose was now plunged into my flesh. 

Tired… what was once rage, turned to sadness, was now fatigue… I… I wanted to sleep now… my mind was black, clouded… it was too much to take in… I wanted it all to go away… I wanted to leave. Already, my eyelids felt heavy, beginning to close as my struggles ceased. I just barely felt claws grip my muzzle to force my eyes up to Blackhawk once again… and the griffin spoke one more time. “I assure you… that when you wake up, this will get much, much worse for you.”

His words… his threat… was the only thing that accompanied me into the black nightmare of unconsciousness as I drifted away from the world around me. 

***				***				***

Darkness.

The black curtain of sleep was congesting, a sensation that had escalated to an aching level of discomfort. I felt only a throbbing pain in my skull at first, the only feeling that reached me in the blackness as it pounded at my senses to make me wake. Only slowly did I become more aware, and the pounding in my skull begun to expand, spreading to a constant burning pain that I felt in my throat. Then I could feel my forelegs – there was discomfort in the limbs that was shared with my shoulders. The joints burned, and so did the hide around my knees… but both areas of pain came from something different… something I couldn’t recognize in the emptiness of my exhaustion. I begun to grow aware of the atmosphere though, and I felt colder air against my chest and belly, wrapping along my sides and covering my body like a blanket, making me shiver just ever so slightly, a twitch. I felt that air on my wings, too, and I felt both of them hanging limply along my back. Then I felt my hind legs, the limbs sharing the same pain as my forelegs, a constricting ring that wrapped around my flesh just above the hooves. 

The similarity was enough to send a waking jolt through me. 

With a weak grunt, I focused, forcing myself to gather strength despite the protests of my tired body. I attempted to open my eyes, still heavy from unconsciousness, and I caught only a glimpse of a sliver of dim light before they fell shut once more. I had to stop, my effort in merely attempting to open my eyes serving only to strengthen the headache that continued racking my skull. But still I persisted, and taking in a soft, shaky breath, letting the air out with a light expelling of air from my nose, I tried again. This time, my eyes opened roughly halfway, and they stayed open for seconds this time. I could make out the source of the light, a single fixture above me glowing a musty yellow-white hue which illuminated a grey wall directly in front of me… and a similarly grey floor below me. It was all I saw before my eyes begun to close again, and though I fought to keep them open, struggled to see more of my surroundings, they fell back closed as my headache continued to remind me of its presence. Then my head snapped violently to the right, a sharp sting ripping into my jaw that made my headache explode. My eyes came open as I grunted with pain, my vision hazy as I tried to focus. But right away, I felt as something clutched under my now aching muzzle, forcing my gaze to swing forward to where I met a pair of glaring eyes… Blackhawk’s avian eyes. 

“Rise and shine.” he spoke darkly, shoving me away as he released me… letting me hear a heavy metallic jingling around me as I let out a short pained breath. My head bowed back down as the sting on my left cheek continued to assault me from Blackhawk’s wicked heavy-hitting punch. But now that my senses had returned in a lesser state, albeit the hard way, I found myself looking down upon my hind hooves, the only ones that stood upon the steel floor. Closed around both my hind legs, just above the hooves, were iron shackles, each clamped tightly down and secured into its own floor plate with heavy chains that held my legs in place. And with this, I found that both of my forelegs had been similarly bound. Except they were spread out wide and pulled upward, and the shackles that were secured firmly around my knees were instead tied to plates on the ceiling via lengthier chains that were just as heavy as the others. The chains were tightly assembled, providing very little slack and restricting the movement of my limbs to only a couple inches at best; I was in confinement, restrained standing upright on my hind legs and sprawled out, my belly facing forward and fully exposed. 

“General,” Blackhawk spoke up, his voice emanating from the opposite end of, what I assumed to be, my prison cell. “she’s awake.” 

I faced front at the sound of the griffin’s voice, and though a light blur hung in my vision, I could still see him by the front wall, standing just beside a closed steel door as his beak hovered by what looked to be some kind of communication module built into the metal. He was garbed in his familiar combat armor now, but his weapons, aside from his pearl-white revolver holstered onto his chest plate, were not on his person. In the lingering silence, he glanced my way with a hard glare, one that I returned as he remained silent, waiting for his reply. Then, “Good. Bring up the monitor in that room. It’s time to show her just what she’s dealing with.” 

The voice that responded over the intercom belonged to a stallion, not deep and resonant, but lighter, a tenor in tone that still spoke with strength and conviction. At the given order, Blackhawk walked across the closed door to its opposite side, whereupon he reached his right forepaw up to the wall where a small control board rested. At the press of its single button, the wall just above it shifted, and with a light grating of steel, the panel slid back and away, revealing a blank terminal monitor surrounded by its own metal frame. Instantly, the screen flicked to life, and from the blackness grew a swiftly forming image. In just a moment, I found myself staring into a pair of intimidating brown eyes, which belonged to a jade-colored unicorn stallion with a dark green mane and tail. The unicorn was an average-sized pony, fit but not stocky, and he wore what appeared to be a lighter variant of the common Talon combat armor that I had seen the legionnaires wear into battle. It was made only of a black armored shirt that covered his chest, his sides, and his forelegs down to his hooves. Across the fabric, the trio of painted white gashes that made the Talon Legion’s symbol stretched from his right shoulder and down across his chest to his left side. Secured in its holster on his right front leg was a single black pistol, his personal military-grade sidearm, and atop his head, resting just behind his horn and between his ears, was a black beret with two shiny steel stars pinned into the fabric at the front. 

The stallion looked to be in a room much like my own, and though it was more brightly illuminated, there was only a steel wall behind him, and a steel floor under his hooves where he stood. “So, you’re back amongst the land of the living.” he spoke through the monitor, his voice coming in loud and clear, filling up my prison cell. “I don’t have a lot of time to talk to you at the moment, so I’m going to be brief. You’ve been unconscious for three full days now, and you’ve been held here throughout that time. You’ve been captured and brought to this outpost at my orders, and now that you are awake, you will be escorted to our clinic for a quick checkup. Afterwards, you will be taken to my office, at which time I will have completed my task and will be able to discuss the reason why you are here and assign to you your mission.” 

A mission? Oh he did not just ask me for my help! “I’m not helping you.” I growled, glaring coldly into his eyes. “I’d sooner die than help the faction that killed my friend!!” 

But blatantly, the Talon General ignored my protest, injecting fresh anger into me. “And you’re going to start this mission by reconsidering what you just said.” he sternly responded. “Yes, I’m aware of what occurred at Hopeville that night, and I understand that, normally, I would not be able to gain your cooperation. But I’ve taken steps to prepare for that, and I will have your compliance.” 

“Fuck you!” I spat at the monitor. “You can do whatever you want to me, but I’ll rot in this prison before I help you in your precious war against the southeast!” 

“Oh, I believe you.” he replied, collected. “But I also believe that you don’t yet fully understand the gravity of the situation you now find yourself in.” Pausing, the General’s horn glowed to life, wrapping up his beret in green light to remove it and set it onto the floor by his left side. “Like I said before, I’ve taken steps to prepare for any kind of stubbornness that you might fight me with, and I’ve prepared to stamp that persistence out before it can become a problem.” he continued, my glare only intensifying at how confident he sounded. “Like it or no, Nova, you’re going to help me. You will follow my orders as a soldier of the Talon Legion until your mission objective is complete. You will do exactly as I say.” At that, he shifted, taking a step to his left and looking away from me. “Because if you refuse, if you try to escape or run, if you disobey me or deviate from the task that I will soon give to you…” Stepping forward, the unicorn’s voice trailed off as he walked out of the view of the camera… revealing…

Goddesses… oh Goddesses no… NO…

My blood ran cold, freezing as all of my rising anger was replaced with binding fear at the sight of an earth pony sitting on his haunches. He was bound to the floor with heavy steel shackles clamped around each of his forelegs, thick chains linking them to the floor, and his head was bowed low. Even as my eyes fell on him, he hitched with a sob, ears pinned back as he sniffled, and as the Talon unicorn stepped up beside him, the captive pony looked up to the monitor, showing me his tear-streaked face and his wide watery eyes. 

They were the eyes of a colt… my baby brother… the Talons had captured Blake…

And yet, even the realization that he was here in this very same prison with me was not the worst part. Because coupled with the irons that bound him, a collar free of chains was closed around his neck – it was a thick steel choker, and around the band was an array of boxlike compartments and blinking red sensors… a device I had seen before… a device I had seen in Proudspire…

An explosive collar…

“N-Nova!...” 

My name came out as a whimper on my terrified baby brother’s lips. The utter and overwhelming fear that cloaked his words, that tortured him, made me throw myself against my bonds. I pulled each restraint individually until my limbs threatened to break. I beat my wings frantically to bolster my strength, to thrash against the chains. But nothing I did could, or would, break them, and all the while, the fucker inside Blake’s cell with him only continued to stare at me, patiently watching my useless efforts as I pulled and tugged and jerked and screamed. In the end, I fell limp against my chains, only breathing heavily and staring with wide eyes at the monitor as Blake continued to sob. And it was only when I had accepted my defeat that the Talon General finally spoke to me again. “Because if you refuse to help me,” he warned. “that collar on your little brother’s neck will go off and take his head with it.” 



Footnote: 50% to level up.