Nopony had imagined our heroic act of rescue to end this way, until we were told that there had never been an order for any kind of intervention but one for withdrawal, so Sunshine had simply shut off the communication relay and ignored the last. We were brought to our dorms after the orange mare had been arrested and were told to do nothing until some higher ranked pegasi said something else. Non of us, neither Hurricane nor Sky Striker nor me slept that night, we just sat there, silently, thinking about the events of the day: Sunshine had done the right thing for sure, but to disobey a direct order had been very... unwise. She had impulsive since our foalhood, but that impulsive...
"What do you think will happen to her?" Sky Striker asked and broke the silence we had kept since our arrival.
"I don't know." I answered and turned towards the buck. "I remember seeing Wind Claw or my father angry before, but it was nothing compared their faces when they arrested Sunshine. Disobedience... it's serious business, even if we helped somepony from the surface. We are enclave soldiers after all."
"But what do you think? They cannot simply... kick her out of the Enclave or something like that, can they? Banish her to the surface, imprison her or banish her to the surface and imprison her there?"
"I really don't know. Nopony got hurt, neither of us nor one of the surface dwellers, so it won't be a harsh penalty."
At least I hoped it wouldn't, because Wind Claw had made himself clear he would shoot her instantly if it was up to him.
""")_x_("""
Sunshine's hearing and the following trial itself weren't anything I had ever seen before: the central element was to find out, who had done something wrong and how bad this had been. Sunshine explained repeatedly she had been the mastermind behind the whole operation, that it hadn't been an act of general refusal by our team. She declared that she alone had heard the order to withdrawal and she herself had decided to ignore it, but somehow this wasn't enough for the courtponies. Mission reports were analyzed, recorded transmissions were reheard and again and again there were the voices of the elder and more conservative pegasi, demanding her immediate condemnation and banishment to the surface, after amputating her wings of course.
The others, myself included, were interrogated as well and sometimes it felt as if we were caught inside one of those old detective stories like the ones you could borrow from the library. They launched threats and promises, put pressure of any kind on us, even the pegasi of higher ranked families weren't spared. After one week of trial, when nothing new became apparent, the judges finally retired for deliberation.
The appointed day was the first occasion for us to see our formal commander again and the detention had left her looking terrible: an unwashed mane, a filthy orange hide, dark circles around her eyes and without her uniform she seemed... naked somehow. During our forced hiatus I had gone through some of the Enclave's law book and searched for the possible penalties. Among other things there were multi-month prison terms and compulsory labor, but fortunately no dismemberment and banishment, thank Celestia.
And when the judges finally announced their verdict, I felt relieved:
They had come to the conclusion that Sunshine alone was the responsible pony, that we had been following the orders we had thought were coming from our superiors in all conscience. Therefore we were acquitted of any charge, our commander on the other hoof was found guilty. But since her action didn't hurt anypony, it being quite comprehensible and because our whole group had become kind of famous by the maneuver-incident-thing- the last one was only an assumption of mine - she was punished mildly: For the next month she wouldn't be our commanding officer anymore, she wouldn't be anything to be exact, just an ordinary pegasus doing some irrelevant jobs for redemption.
I had never heard of that kind of penalty, but I didn't want to question a court decision I didn't know nothing about. And Sunshine was still with us after all, so it was... good... definitely positive. Just as another hiatus we got to go on, as compensation for the time in investigative custody. Or maybe Wind Claw had simply refused to train us anymore...
The days at the academy melded to the same, regular time units they had always been, but the break took the periodic training sessions and replaced them with countless hours of boredom and talking. At least we were still allowed to go to the gym, the shooting range and the library so we could kill some time. The majority of my team had went home, I thought about it myself, but my father had made it clear that he had neither the time nor the energy to deal with me too. But it had always been like this, the only thing more exhausting than being the daughter of the High General of the Enclave was being said general.
Sky and Cloud were almost in the same situation, but their parents seemed to have more problems than only their work and Hurricane remained at my side out of loyalty probably. Sunshine came around from time to time, time to time meaning actual every afternoon after she had finished her work at the cloudgate. Everypony seemed to be more relaxed while she was with us, it gave us the feeling of everything being as it should be. And she could tell what she had heard at work.
Among other things she told us that the pegasi of Thunderhead were discussing actions like Sunshine's for a while and were thinking of "legalizing" them, Lunar Rock's council was also discussing the matter of forming some kind of surface-support-group. We didn't talk about the issue of the orange mare's misconduct or anything connected with it if it wasn't Sunshine herself bringing it up, you never knew how she would react and I preferred to keep my feathers. Normally we were talking about ordinary things, stuff like our teammates' flings and so on. I was quite surprised by Hurricane and Sky Striker, I never thought the two bucks to be... gossipy and I knew them for a while now.
And so the days went by and nothing really mentionable happened, except for a rogue storm cloud in the dining hall. But one day Sunshine kicked our dorm door open, a piece of paper hanging out of her muzzle. She checked her surroundings, saw only me standing there and literally smashed me to the floor.
"Refefted unanimoufly!" she mumbled, completely forgetting to take the paper out of her muzzle and only me confused look let her think of it. She spit it on the ground, still standing above me. "They rejected it."
"Who rejected what?"
Had she asked the court to give her rank back earlier? Even I could have told her this wouldn't work.
"They don't want a volunteer corps like the one in Thunderhead. The council has rejected it."
Don't say something wrong, Feather, or you will loose more than just another pinion.
"Oh,well... and that's not good, is it?"
"Not good? Not good?!" she shouted into my ear. "That is damn awful! It's a disaster! You were down there too, you have seen the ponies down there. They need help an they need it right now!"
Holy Luna, she was burning with anger.
"And those council klutzes refuse to act, just like that!"
"Well, them may have had a good reason to..." Oh, if looks could kill...
"Oh, yeah, there was a reason: sending a team down there would be too dangerous, the war-like situation would overtax any pegasus. Rot! I've seen how it is down there and so have you." And with that she set me free and threw herself on my bed, while I tried to sit up as painlessly as possible. "I can't believe that they're doing this. There's no danger for well armed pegasi like us and still we have to sit up here in the clouds while those innocent surface-dwellers die because of some stupid leak in their water pipes."
"Maybe we just haven't seen the real dangers yet? The Enclave wouldn't tell us to stay away from the surface just because they're evil or something, would they?"
Ouch! Apparently this had been the wrong choice of words, because the mare flew me down and took place on my wings again.
"Oh, I do think so. Why else would they call us back from helping Sunflower?"
"They may have thought you were missing something."
"We told them that they were armed with melee weapons, nothing that could harm us!"
"But we didn't knew for sure, they could have stashed the firearms away. You haven't seen anything, you were depending on us, we could have made a mistake."
Slowly the angry look faded and the orange mare descended me.
"You... you really believe they're not just holding us up here?"
"Why should they? If it would be save down there, we would have gone a long time ago."
Sunshine trotted to the door slowly and sight, standing in the door frame.
"There're times I would like to do it, just like Calamity in Neighvarro. Just fly down there and help the surface without any support by the Enclave. Everything would be much easier..."
Now she started to frighten me. Saying such things out loud was dangerous, not just that said stallion had killed his entire team, if there was any evidence that Sunshine would make an attempt to do something dashite again it, compulsory labor would cut it.
"Please don't say such things, Sunshine. You know what would happened to him, what would happen to you..."
The crime of turning dashite had been created shortly after the cloud cover had closed at the end of the war. The mare Rainbow Dash, one of the most important ponies in pegasus history and bearer of the Element of Loyalty, had decided to shift the focus of her loyalty from her own people to the still burning remains of ponykink below the clouds. Turning dashite was punished by branding and being exiled, if the Dashite was lucky, but death was also an appropriate punishment. Death by the hooves of her own team... our hooves... but it wouldn't come to that!
"You're right, Feather. Of course you're right." the mare answered sadly. "It was just a... monomania, I was wrapped up in the idea..."
Any without another word she left me alone.
I sat on the ground for quite some time after Sunshine had left, uncertain about what to do now.
Should I report her? If she really wanted to leave the Enclave, this would be the best thing to do, not only for her sake, but for ours too.
But on the other hoof, Sunshine was one of my closest friends and she already had had some crazy ideas in the past, but it those had been ideas, nothing more, so I decided to take counsel with my pillow. If Sunshine would act strange again I would have to... I didn't want to think about it.
""")_x_("""
Sunshine didn't behave any dashitely the next weeks and with her, the daily routine returned as well, even Wind Claw agreed to train us again, most likely he had been convinced by his superiors, using only solid arguments and a multiplas-rifle. But the orange mare visited us less and less and Cloud Striker revealed to us one day, that Sunshine had struck up a relationship with on of the bucks at the cloudgate.
Funny, I always thought her to be into the mares... like... me
And after the... nothing happened.
One day...
And the day afterwards...
Even the day after the day afterwards.
Not sign that Sunshine had changed at all, except that she was going for the males now. She visited us more often again and regained her rank after that month of compulsory labor, joining us in training again, even if Wind Claw apparently hadn't forgiven her yet. But he had his orders and, as he reminded us again and again, he obeyed them. Sunshine even attended a course for using power armor, even if she would never had to wear such a thing for her being a commanding officer. "You never know what time the griffins decide to attack again." she answered, rolling her eyes, whenever I asked for the reasons. But besides that, she behaved normally and she seemed to be over the whole volunteer corps thing and her Dashite phase, she was the old one again.
One night, while the others were still on a flight around the academy, Sunshine and I were talking about the coming elections of the Enclave high council when suddenly her face darkened and she looked at me gimlet-eyed.
"Feather, do you remeber me talking about that volunteer corps and this Dashite from Neighvarro, Calamity?"
"That about you shooting us all, swooping down to the surface and saving the locals from any trouble without the help of the Enclave? Yes, I remember it, but don't worry, I didn't take it that serious and I haven't reported you either. You're welcome." I answered, making a expansive gesture with my wings. As I glanced at her she was still looking at me. Was it just me or did her eyes looked sad or... regretful?
"If – and that's just a scenario – if you would have the opportunity to leave the Enclave behind and help the surface, would you do it?"
"Sunshine, please. You know as good as I do that the Enclave will not..."
"Just a scenario! IF you WOULD have the opportunity. If so, would you fly down there, possibly with – I don't know – your marefriend to do the right thing?"
Was that some kind of trick question or – her what? Did she... had she said friend or... marefriend?
I thought she was dating that buck?
"Would you?"
"I... well, I..."
Oh, I felt really uncomfortable.
"Tell me."
"I really don't think I should..."
"Tell me ! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!" She almost screamed and took a step towards me.
I don't want to loose any more feathers, please!
"I... I don't know." I answered, finally, and she paused for a brief moment, looking at me in bewilderment. "I really don't. Yes, of course I've seen how miserable lives they live down there, of course I pity them... and I would like to help them, even without the Enclave's help..."
Whirling Feather, what are you saying? You shouldn't even think of that!
Sunshine's face brightened in relief.
"But on the other hoof: What else is down there? Sure, we may have seen that settlement and the ponies inhabitating it not being nasty mutants, but we've also met these slavers and, according to the locals, there're even worse things down there: bandits, mutants, monsters... And besides, what could somepony like us do at all? We are soldiers, we shoot at things and maybe we hit a bad guy, but we can't solve a village's problems by force. And after all, the Enclave is still my... our home, I could never abandon it like that. Helping the surface, maybe, but not if that means leaving my home without the chance of ever returning, left alone the death squads that would pursuit us."
It hurt physically to she Sunhsine's hope being crushed by these few sentences, turning the joy in her expression into sadness.
"So, no. I wouldn't fly down there without permission, besides every piece of armor is equipped with a transmitter, they would caught somepony leaving not an hour later, and the cloudgate itself is also locked, there's no getting through."
The orange mare looked at me sadly, muttering something that sounded like: "me then" and walked slowly towards the door.
"Hey, we're you going?!" I called out to her and she called back:
"I'll spend the night with my coltfriend, you know... the buck from the cloudgate."
And just as I wanted to respond she added:
"Don't worry, our superiors agreed. Farewell, Feather. I hope we'll meet again."
What?!
After she had left I lay on my bed, thinking about what had been said: I could never leave the Enclave and live a pointless life on the surface, alone. But with the Enclave's help... maybe the surface policy would change within our lifetime, maybe. But before I could think about my friend's plan and why something like that would snare me in a morality trap, my body decided that it would rather sleep than think. Good idea, body, there had been enough stress for one day.
""")_x_("""
The alarm clock! Again!
I hated this loud, ear-piercing noise that... wait, that wasn't my alarm clock. And it wasn't in the morning either! I looked out hte window and saw that I was nighttime, but no usual nighttime with all that blackness, the darkness was illuminated by countless spotlights.
"What... what's happening?" Hurricane was grumbling from his bed, trying to get rid of his blanket.
"Fire drill?"
"This is no fire drill." I answered in a rush and searched for Sky Striker, who also got out of his bed slowly.
By Luna, this buck was a sound sleeper.
But before anypony could guess the type of the alarm we were hearing, there was an announcement over the academy's speakers:
"Attention! Attention! Viilet alert! There's an unspecified assault on the cloudgate and the academy! All combat personnel, report to your action station at the courtyard, unit Delta-4 is required at the armory, initiate combat preparation! This is not a drill! I repeat: this is not a drill!"
Why us?
"Why us?" Hurricane echoed my thoughts, the bucks stared at me cluelessly and I looked back just as clueless.
Maybe she...
"Well, we're a few steps from there, probably that's why" Sky Striker answered in a rush, put on his uniform and bolted for the door. "Come on, this is an emergency, we better don't be late."
A short time after that we all were on our way towards the armory, everypony wearing either uniform or their power armor jumpsuit. There was quite a number of in the coridors and we brushed against other cadets and power armored pegasi frequently. We reached the armory, the entrance was guarded by two soldiers in power armor, and saw the result of the "unspecified assault": The original guards, a stallion in green uniform and two armored pegasi were laying on the ground, next to stallion's head was a small pool of blood and muted shouts issued from the paralyzed soldiers next to the entrance.
Several suites of armor were scattered on the floor, but the gun cabinets were still closed and, presumably, locked. But who should assault an well stocked armory without taking any of the weapons? Just some rioters eager to make a mess?
Suddenly there was a stomping sound behind us and as I turned around I found myself face to mask with a heavily armored soldier of the Silverish Guard. "Take arms, armor yourself immediately and follow me towards the hangar!" he announced with a deep and metallic voice.
"But... there's still somepony left, Sir." I said cautiously after the others had started to take on their power armor. "Sunsh... Commander Sunshine is still missing."
"If she's not here yet, she won't come at all. Now, grap your weapons and folllow me!" he answered forcefully, so we hurried to do as we were told, not thinking about what that could mean for Sunshine, and as I had my battle saddle sat onto my back, the laser rifle attached to it,Wing Beat at my foreleg and my uniform in place, the soldiers urged us forward and towards the exit, where the immense metal pegasus spread his equally metal wings and took of, with us in tow.
A vertibuck was waiting for us as we arrived at the hangar and along with the aircraft there were several pegasi standing around, waiting as well.
The bad feeling that had grown inside my chest intensified as I saw president Cirrostratus, my father and the angriest Wind Claw ever standing next to her.
"Unit Delta-4 is ready for deployment." The guardspony said and stepped away, revealing the faces of the two highest ranked pegasi in Lunar Rock, both of them looking at us with a sad expression.
"My little ponies." the grey mare intoned sadly. "Something sad has happened, something I had hoped would never happen during my period of government:"
Oh goddesses, it was as bad as I had feared.
"By now you may have realized that your team isn't complete. And unfortunately it won't be complete ever again."
The wishpering among my teammates was ended by my father stomping his hoof.
"I'm really sorry, but I have to tell you that your Commander has left the Enclave.
Sunshine has turned dashite."
...
I... I had that in contemplation, but hearing it now... it was like being punched in face and stomach simultaneously.
The ponies around gasped collectively.
"It has been a long time since the last pegasus decided to leave the Enclave's safety and broke through the cloud cover. Their reasons were different any time. Sunshine's reasons might be upright, but she assaulted the armory and the cloudgate itself and by doing this she committed a crime that has to be punished." Cirrostratus continued. "You're her teammates, you will be the first pegasi to take up the pursuit, to chase her down and capture her."
The buck next to me, Sky Striker, raised a hoof.
"Excuse me, ma'am."
"Feel free to ask."
"How are we supposed to find her? The surface is a huge place and there're hiding spots everywhere for sure. She could have flown anywhere."
My father took a step forward and answered after he had been authorized by a nod of the president.
"We're informed that she acquired a set of power armor in the armory."
But I had said to her...
"The good news is that every armor is equipped with a transmitter. Every vertibuck has an integrated tracking system, so you will be able to follow her." He looked at my team, than his eyes fixed on me. "In case you can't capture or persuade her to follow you back you.. " he took a deep breath. He hated to say what he had to. "...you are constrained to shoot her, there's an explicit firing command. We can't risk her getting caught by an anti-enclave faction, she might have vital information about Lunar Rock's defense and security protocols. The Enclave's security has top priority."
He pointed at the vertibuck and we entered the vessel without another word. Much to my surprise Wind Claw was entering as well, wearing full combat gear. According to him it was a matter of honor for him to bring her down, for he was to blame for her betrayal as well. I didn't like his verbalization...
""")_x_("""
There was a dead silence as we crossed the great cloudgate, nopony had expected that Sunshine, our Commander, a mare we knew for years, would be capable of doing such a thing. Wind Claw and I, the former second in command, were sitting in the cockpit, looking at the radar-EFS-whatever-system and watching Sunshine's movements. The orange mare was a swift flyer, but we were following her at top speed, we would gain upon her in about ten minutes.
"But how did she pass the cloudgate?" I asked with a low voice, breaking the silence seemed... inappropriate.
"She had an accessary to the act." Wind Claw answered grimly. "Surveillance tapes show her entering the control room, a stallion opened the door from the inside and then both of them went to his post. And as he looked away for merely a second she knocked him down just as she did with the armorer and opened the gate." the stallion huffed in anger. "I always said you should need more than on pony to open the cloudgate, but no, nopony is listening to me, ever."
"The buck...?" Had Sunshine started an affair just to bludgeon him and fly away?
"He will have to stand trial after we got the Dashite. For those exact reasons visitation is forbidden at the control room."
"And the alarm?"
"Automated. It starts whenever the controller doesn't press a button every now and then."
Then suddenly there was a peeping noise and the dot that displayed Sunshine stopped.
"What happened?" I asked the pilot, but he just shrugged his shoulders.
"The target has stopped moving, that's all I can say." he answered.
"Great! "Wind Claw shouted next to me. "If she doesn't move we get her even faster!"
Why should she stop flying? Had she been attacked by somepony or... something? Was she hurt?
"Sir, we'll get visual contact in about three minutes." the buck in the cockpit said to Wind Claw, who was already stretching his wings.
"Excellent. She must not escape. Ready the missiles! Blow that traitor to pieces."
Missiles? We had missiles? I always thought vertibucks were for transport only and now our trainer was about to shoot at Sunshine. With fucking missiles?
Dashite or not, that's stretching it too far.
"Private, I order you to reject that command!" I shouted at the buck, who was now looking from Wind Claw to me irresolutely and our trainer did the same thing.
"Countermanded!"
"Reject the command!"
"Reject that command!"
"I am commanding this operation, Sir, and it's up to me to decide by when we're talking and by when we're shooting. And right now, I want to talk, Dashite or not."
"You have no right..." the stallion started and was about to dart at me when Wing Beat's laser on his chest stopped him.
"Oh, I don't think so, Wind Claw. I don't know what's gotten into you, but it isn't common sense as far as I can see. Sunshine is my... she our friend and we won't shoot her down just like that."
"I'll court-martial you." the elder stallion said with a snarl. "Soldier," he turned around and was now addressing Hurricane, who had watched our dispute for the longest time. "you will arrest this mare, she's interfering with our mission. Take her to the escape hatch, tie her down and gag her, good and proper."
The blue buck looked at the outraged stallion for about half a minute until he shook his head and walked over to me. "No, Sir." he answered, causing Wind Claw's head to turn even redder than it already was.
"Say that again, colt!"
"Sir," Hurricane assumed a upright pose, just like the one we all assumed everyday in the morning when Wind Claw came to train us. "I'm rejecting that command, Sir. You volunteered for this mission, Sir, and therefore you have no authority, Sir."
"Arrest him." I said to my blue comrade. "Do what he told you to do."
He nodded, but as soon as he taken a step towards Wind Claw said stallion reared up, drew his own gun, an ordinary pistol with a tongue trigger, but before he could fire a singeel shot or even take aim there was a blue flash, he went down and lay there paralyzed except for his head.
Fortunately he lost his firearm in the process or he would have shot everypony in range. I turned around a found Sky Striker, a strange blue sparkling energy weapon pointed at spot Wind Claw had been standing a few seconds before.
"Pulse gun," he said descriptively, "very effective against power armor."
Why did we had... nevermind, we also had missiles.
"I will destroy you, every single one of you! I will end you and your traitorous dashite and I willmbf..."
A gag in his muzzle ended his furious screaming and he was dragged towards the end of the vertibuck. He was kicking and screaming, literally, but since his limbs were caught inside his armor, this didn't hurt anypony. Hurricane took his place in the cockpit next to me.
"It was the right thing to do." he said and I nodded.
Of course it had been the right thing, but Luna, there would be so much trouble if we got home again, regardless of whether we caught Sunshine or not.
"Lieutenant, visual contact in one minute." the pilot said and tried to sound as emotionlessly as possible. He didn't seem to be as sure about our action as we were.
"Understood." Hurricane and I rose and turned towards the team, it was time to deliver a speech as heroic as possible to motivate the remaining pegasi. "Motivate" them... to hunt one of our own down and maybe kill her.
"Listen up, everypony! I'm telling you the way it is: we were send out to catch Sunshine and..." Everypony knew what was next and stared blanky at the ground. "...and maybe... maybe... kill her. Sunshine decided to leave the Enclave, her and our home, and although I respect her decision I cannot agree. She's a potential threat to the Enclave. But we'll only shoot if there's no other choice, until then we talk. "
"Visual contact!" the pilot called out behind me.
Well then...
"Everypony get ready for deployment!"
I stepped into the cockpit again and took a look out of the front window. And there was she: I saw the orange mare walking on the ground, a few hundred feet away. She had dropped her armor but seemed uninjured, thank Celestia. It felt like an eternity since I had seen her the last time... And suddenly there was another peep and flashing lights, different from the one I had seen earlier and they seemed... dangerous.
"Proximity warning!" the buck next to me shouted and started to hit many buttons.
Proximity... That was...
And explosion shook our vessel, a loud creaking and the tail gate opened, a strong wind beating through the gaping hole.
"What. Was. That?" I asked shocked.
"Some kind of Celestia-damn missile." the pilot answered hectically. "We've lost our communication, we've dropped off the radar." He pressed the same buttons again and again, then his jaw dropped as the same warning light flashed again. "By the love of Celestia and Luna, here comes another one! We can't take another hit!"
Another shake and then I saw how the back of the vertibuck exploded in a bright orange ball of fire. Wind Claw and two other pegasi looked at me with pure fear as they were consumed by the fire. And I did nothing but looking back.
"Hold on, everypony!" somepony shouted from somewhere, maybe I was the pilot.
"Cling on tight, we're going down!" I yelled and clutched at my seat, seeing the ground coming closer and closer.
A deafening bang and then everything around me went dark.
""")_x_("""
I heard shots and distant screams as I woke inside the cockpit. My whole body ached and my wings felt shredded, but they weren't, thank Luna.
I looked at the rest of my body: my uniform was torn open in many spots and the hide below wasn't white anymore. It was red.
Blood.
But something else was wrong... very wrong...
I... I had been laying on the ground... no the vertibuck itself , or what was left of it, had turned upside down! And the blood was everywhere, to much blood...
I turned my aching head around and saw the pilot his... corps: He was hanging in his own seat, his eyes widened and whole body twisted in pain, a huge piece of metal had pierced his chest, impaling him.
I did the only thing I was capable of right now: I screamed and crawled away from the bloodstained corps as far as I could before I hit the wall.
Gore and debris everywhere. I tried to control my breathing but it was futile. And then there was a hoof from behind, grabbing my shoulder and turning me around.
"Feather? Feather, are you alright?" Hurricane asked, his face covered in blood and his armor being penetrated in several non-essential spots.
"I'm... I am okay." I muttered and looked at the blurry blue buck with watery eyes. "What happened?"
"An assault by some of those dirt dwellers. Shot us down with missiles. We took up an allround-defense position and are currently we shoot at everything that moves, but things look black, we already lost four ponies. Fortunately they ran out of missiles and grenades." Slowly we crawled towards the exit of the wreckage and towards the shooting.
A nightmare.
This seemed the appropriate description for what I was seeing now: We had crashed into a small canyon, my team had taken cover behind rocks and pieces of the vertibuck and was firing at a faceless bulk of ponies at the other end. And there was laughter. Crazy, vile, repulsive laughter.
Four pegasi were already lying on the ground and as Cloud Striker was about to draw her fallen brother to safety there was a loud "bang" and...
...her head exploded in a cloud of gore and flesh.
My wings convulsed, I went down and couldn't look away from the decapitated body of my friend.
Hurricane was calling out for me, but it seemed far away.
Blood... laughter... gore... Cloud Striker's head...
A hoof struck me in the face and woke up... kind of.
"Feather, snap out of it!" Hurricane shouted, his foreleg risen for another strike. "We've still got a mission to fulfill. Do you hear me?"
Right... Sunshine, ouch! dash it...
"We still have to find Sunshine and bring her back."
"But... how?"
"She's been on her way south or east, whatever, this way." he pointed his hoof at the other end of the canyon, the one that wasn't occupied with attacking surface dwellers. "There are more than a few boulders over there, a pony with power armor can't overfly it without being shot, but you... you're swift enough to cross them by hoof, while we fend off those dirt ponies. Are you still with me?"
I nodded, barely swallowing the lump in my throat. "Y... yes..." So much blood. "But what about you? You can't stay..."
He hold my head between his forelegs and looked straight in my eyes. HE hold MY head. A fine leader I was...
"We will stay and figure something out. The Enclave would never abandon us, they'll send help, dead certain, so don't worry about us. Now go and just get her!"
I nodded again and dashed towards the rocks, while the blue buck dived into cover and started firing wildly. When I snapped out of my adrenaline rush I was standing atop the hillside, watching the plains around me and in the distance I spotted an orange shimmer of the mare I followed. I hesitated to turn around again, pictures of falling pegasi, covered in blood, dominated my thoughts so I spread my strained wings and took flight, the shots and the vile laughter were chasing me, driving me to fly faster than I thought I was able to. Somehow I thought if I could reach Sunshine, everything would be fine. No Hurricane would be left alone facing countless enemies, no nameless pilot would be impalted in his own seat, Cloud Strikers head wouldn't have exploded in gore, nopony would be hurt at all.
My whole body was aching during my flight, the few hundred meters felt like kilometers, my vision blurred time and time again and I drifted away from my course. As I had drawn very, very close Sunshine seemed to notice that she was followed. She shouted out loud, span around and saw how I hit the ground. I didn't land, I hit the ground, literally.
I picked myself up and the pale light of the surface showed her face.
"Whirling Feather? What..what are you doing here..." she asked aghast, but then she noticed the rest of my body, her eyes were widened in horror.
"What happened? How did you...?"
"Shut up!" I yelled, Wing Beat pointed at her, the red dot dancing on her chest. "And don't move!" My side was killing me, oh Celestia, my whole body was killing me. "Sun... Commander Sunshine, I arrest you on behalf of the Enclave's high council and the president of Lunar Rock."
The orange mare looked at me, first confused, then saddened, and sat on the ground. I had to be quite a sight to her, standing there all bloodstained, dressed in shreds of an uniform and a heavy pistol pointed at her chest. I had never understood why weapons like Wing Beat were called "heavy" pistols, but now it felt heavier than a fucking power armor, I nearly collapsed keeping it up.
"What happened, Feather? Where's all the blood from?" she asked shakingly, while I was fighting for consciousness.
"It doesn't matter, you will join me and..."
"Where is it from?"
She already knew...
"Your trap!" I tried to scream, but whimpering was the only thing I was capable of.
"Trap?"
"You knew there was an tracking device in every power armor, Luna, I told you so myself. Everypony thought you were after better comabt gear, but you... you turned it into a trap. For us! We were following your signal, overflew a small canyon and... and then some filthy dirt dwellers attacked us, the shot us down! I woke up inside the vertibuck, there was blood everywhere... but not just mine..." Tears of pain and sorrow were running down my cheeks. "But your friends just couldn't leave us alone. No..."
"My friends?"
"Four of us were dead even before I woke and as crawled out of the wreckage I saw how... how Cloud's head exploded!" Her eyes widened and she gasped in horror. "Hurricane's holding them off for now and now I'm here... how could you do this, Sunshine?" I asked and heaved my foreleg to aim at her again. "How could you leave the Enclave, your home, us, just to help those pon..those monsters down here?!"
She looked at me with her sad eyes and didn't say anything.
"There would have been other ways to accomplish your goal..." Yeah, ways which would have cost pony's lives. It was her fault all over, Whirling Feather, it was all her fault! She was to blame for everything. She, the Dashite, the traitor, the enemy...
"Feather, please..."
"Don't call me that!"
"I know it won't comfort you, but it was never meant to hurt anypony."
Lies!
"I left that armor to set you on the wrong track, yes. You should loose me and stop your pursuit. I never wanted you to get attacked, I never wanted you to get hurt, it was... an accident."
"Shut up! We'll contact the Enclave so they come and pick us up. The court will decide what happens to you."
"I'm so sorry, Feather, but I cannot let this happen."
Before I could answer, before I could do anything, she had closed up to me and rolled over me as usual. I lost myself inside a vortex of streaks of color and wings and as I returned I was laying on the ground and Sunshine stood in front of me, holding Wing Beat in her muzzle.
"I respect and love you as a friend, but I can't let you drag me up there again where I would be no help for anypony. I'm sorry for what I've done..." She lifted her foreleg she had attached the gun to and I closed my eyes. "...and I'm even more sorry for what comes next." Something hard hit my face, killing my lights and drowning me in darkness again.
"I'm sorry."
""")_x_("""
Level up: Level 4
Skill(s): Survival 25
New Perk added: Adrenaline Rush
"Just... a little bit... further..."
You gain +1 to your Strength and Agility whenever your health drops below 25%