> Walking in Mairephis
>  by Sunka
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Some Days You Just Want to Stay in Bed
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

 “THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!” Luna's hoof smashed into the polished marble floor, sending a poof of powdered stone around her long, elegant legs. It would take long hours of toil and labor for the repair crews to fix the hoof sized crater and bring the elegant gold and white marble floor back to it's original sheen.

The Royal Canterlot voice rebounded off the walls and rafters of a room that was already designed to magnify a pony's speech. The effect rattled the numerous stain-glass windows. Those at least were designed to withstand a hurricane’s winds. It was far easier than replacing after every royal tantrum. “MY CHAMPION HAS BEEN...DAMAGED. WE DEMAND WERGELT!” Another stomp, another crater.

She stared down at a light green stallion. The left side of his face had large, light splotches around his yellow eyes. Hidden in his shaggy dark green mane was the stub of his horn. Puss still oozed from his wound. His body was sagging, but at as much attention as he could muster.

The “champion” was bracketed by two pegasi, one in a Wonderbolt uniform, the other a Shadowbolt. Their true coloration was masked by the glamor of their barde. Messer Wind, the Wonderbolt on the right was the larger and had a set of mechanical wings to replace his amputated appendages. Two unicorns were waiting in the wings of the formation The one on the left was a white stallion with a blue mane and tail, the other a mare with a yellow coat wearing a blue wide brimmed hat.  A zebra hung back by the door watching the 'festivities.’

“I'm sorry, Princess,” started Shining Armor, former Captain of the Royal Guard and Celestia's current head of 'Special Tasks And Reconnoitering for Equestria', and the unicorn on the far left, but the ruler of the night cut him off.

“We know it is through no fault of yours, good and obedient servant. It is the High Inquisitor Trixie we will press.”

“Sister,” Celestia's calm voice broke through her sibling's tightly wound furry. Funny to think how she was in charge of change, yet always seemed to be the last to know these things. “Dear Sister, we no longer have wergelt as a punishment.”

Luna glared back at her sister while pointing at the former unicorn. “He is without horn, how shall he perform his duties for us?”

“He is a competent pony. You've told me so yourself. I'm sure he will-”

“No,” said Yards, the dehorned unicorn. The ponies around him looked at him in disbelief. Softly the zebra whistled.

“You're not competent?” asked Celestia.

“No, I'm not doing whatever it is. I've been a 'good and obedient servant' for over a decade now. What's it gotten me? Dead friends, gallons of blood on my conscious, a broken horn and new friends that are running for their lives or locked up below us in the dungeon.” He turned around to walk away from his obligations.

“You can't do this,” Astro Rey, the pegasus in the Shadowbolt barde whispered to him.

“Hey, you're a Lunari too. Why don't you go be her champion, I'm going to go see a doctor like I should had two days ago.” He stormed out of the palace and past the barracks. He managed to make it three blocks from the castle proper before vertigo took him and he fell in the roadway.

“Holy buck, you actually told the princesses off.” Yards looked up and saw a white and chocolate brown zebra standing over him, staring at him with umber eyes.

He decided to ignore her as she kept talking. “I think they said something about ‘concussion’ so they'll likely let it slide.” 
Yards grunted. There were ponies behind him that he was blocking. He needed to get out of the road.  “Help me up.” He held out his hoof. The zebra grinned a too big smile and helped pull him to his hooves. Wobbling, he leaned against her to clear the road while grunting a thanks.

“Hey, I know we're competing and all, but there's no reason for us to be enemies, right?” She leaned into him, trying to look up at a silly angle. Medical conditions prevented him from finding the humor in the situation.

“You might want to be my enemy. All my friends have lately ended up getting arrested. You didn't happen to see what direction the hospital was, did you?”

The zebra laughed. “You really should plan these things out better. Makes them more dramatic”	

“Yeah well, when I'm reciting speeches while holding skulls I'll worry about drama.”

She gave him a warm grin. “I'm Catawampus.”

“Yards.”

“You already know the boys, right? The other mare's Aurora Verity. You have to excuse her love of giant hats, it's a dramatic quirk of hers.”

“There's you and the drama again.” He grunted and tried to clear his head. He really needed to see a doctor soon. “When I get to the hospital, are you going to leave me alone so I can stew in my own mad for a while?”

“Would it do you any good?”

“It'd make me feel better.”

“So would some henket. But feeling better and being better are two different things, yes?”

He sighed, looking down. “She...she....what Trixie did...”

“Was wrong.”

“She's done it before. I could feel it.” He shuddered, remembering her mind wandering through his memory, staring down every dark secret. “How is it legal?”

“How would you have preferred she done it?”

He sighed. “That she'd left us alone.”

“Left alone? That she ignore a changeling that could drive off a dragon and kill off an entire squad of military trained ponies? That even her own friends were scared of her?”

He closed his eyes, trying to find a vent for his rage. “Yes, Toffee did the right thing. It was legal, it was right, it...it's my fault it happened.”

“Was it?” Her tone made it clear she didn't believe him.

“Yes. I was living a lie. Apple Rhubarb was abetting. But I was trying to make things better for everypony. I swear.” He looked over at his companion.

“I don't like to believe it when a victim tries to claim it's their fault.”

“Most victims aren't me.” He looked away from the zebra to in front of them. They were back at the palace. Yards glared at Catawampus.

“What?” she shrugged. “It's the closest medical facility.” She looked around innocently. “Oh, and there's Captain Shiny Pants.” She waved her hoof high in the air. “HI CAPTAIN SHINY PANTS!” Shining Armor cringed and waved back with the stiffness of embarrassment. “I'M TAKING HIM OVER TO THE MEDICAL WING! OKAY? SEE YOU LATER!”

Yards couldn't help but chuckle at his adversary’s humiliation. Catawampus dropped her foreleg around his shoulder. “Come on, let's get you to a doctor, okay?”

_____________________________________________________________________________

Starched sheets. It was amazing the things you missed. They weren't even comfortable, but the familiarity brought that sense of comfort. He rolled over in the hospital bed. The hustle and bustle of the hallway kept him from falling into a deep sleep. Yards always wondered why they didn't sound proof their rooms so ponies could get some needed sleep to recover in a hospital. Still, he decided to stay in that blissful twilight stage of not awake and not asleep. Mmmm, Starched sheets.

An all too familiar voice was at the door. “Is he okay for a mission?” That smug, condescending voice. Like she's always talking down to some foal.

The doctor sighed. “Physically he's had severe trauma to his horn. The cut is clean and there doesn't appear to be any nerve damage to the root. Mentally, he says Trixie did some sort of mind reading spell on him. I'm going to have to report that.”

“What about him. Can he perform?”

“Perform what? Magic? No. It's going to be months before enough of his horn regrows for him to do magic.”

“Is he safe to travel?”

The doctor pawed at the floor. He knew what she wanted to hear but could he go against his goddess? “Yes,” he sighed. Buck. That meant leaving the nice, warm, crisp sheets. Large, heavy steps walked into the room with a little entourage. The door closed behind them.

“Yards McCanter.” She summoned him from sleep. He really didn't want to leave these starched sheets. He wanted everything to be okay. He wanted to feel safe. All the bad things that’s happened to him and his friends. He wanted it to go away. Mumbling, he hid his head under the sheets to protect him from the angry sun.

“Yards, I know it's been a difficult time, but Equestria needs you.”

Yards “harrumphed” and dug himself deeper under the covers.

“You're needed.”

“I need to stay in the hospital. Send 'Shiny Pants.'”

“Was it not your idea that the two factions try to work together. How are our militarizes going to coincide? Can you show us that you can put aside your anger?” Her tone changed from commanding to matriarchal cajoling.

She knew him too well. Curse you logic. He flipped the sheets off his head.

“I'm hurt.”

“We need you to go to Mairephis. It's important that you get there as fast as you can.”

“You want me to go, I want Apple Rhubarb back at Sweet Apple Acres.”

She gave him a look that was a mix of amusement and appreciation and just the faintest hint of calculating bitch. “I was unaware that you had become a mercenary.”

“My friends shouldn't have to be punished for what choices I've made.”

“They aren't being. Apple Rhubarb chose to not tell anypony that you'd lied about killing the changeling. She chose to allow you and Luna to create a test facility under Ponyville. Her own actions bare consequences.”

He glared into the nothingness. There was a pregnant pause while Yards looked at the blood pressure machine. Finally he worked up the nerve to ask the big question. “What about Delta?”

She shook her head. “This is something beyond my power.”

“Little Rhu, she's safe, right?”

“Yes, my little pony.” Ugh. He hated it when she called him that.

“The pegasi?”

“They are already on their way to Mairephis.” That caught his attention. He turned and looked at Celestia. Shining Armor was standing beside her. Celestia continued. “Toffee Chips and Messer Wind will follow up clues about old, large buildings in the area. Astro Rey and Starfall will be running down leads on missing ponies.”

Yards looked over at Shining. “Alright, Nancy, what's going on?”

He hrumped and glared at him. “We've tracked the Smooze leak to a facility in Mairephis.”

Yards facehoofed hard. “You're kidding.”

“Nope.” Shining's voice was flat. He was just as amazed at their stupidity.

“They're working on a weapon designed to destroy a pegasi city...in a pegasi city?”

By way of answering Shining only returned his look of incomprehension.

“So...If I don't go. There's a good chance of a smooze leak that could destroy the city?”

Shining nodded.

Yards snorted. “Months. I sent that message months ago. Now I've got to leave before I should or else thousands will die again.?” He looked down at his hooves. Slowly he laid them down beside his body before looking at Celestia. “Why are the mares involved?”

Celestia's brow furrowed. “Is there some reason the Elements shouldn't be involved in protecting Equestria?”

“They’re not the Elements.  They've not been trained. They don't know...anything.”

Celestia's scowl deepened. “They know how to do research, They know how to talk to ponies. Really, you shouldn't dismiss your friends so easily.”

There was a knock at the door. Subconsciously the two parted as the door opened to reveal a nurse with a small cart. She pushed her way into the room. “Excuse me, Your Highness, I need to get some readings.” The nurse bowed to the ruler. Her hat held back her brown mane. The robin's egg blue scrub she was wearing almost perfectly matched her coat. Yards opened his mouth as she slid the thermometer under his tongue.

“You must go with Shining Armor to Mairephis and assist the other elements in stopping this attack. Your victory is of vital importance.” Celestia's command voice was in rare form. Great.

“Princess, I must ask that you please not do things to cause his blood pressure to spike like that,” reprimanded the nurse.

The Princess graced her with a political smile. “My apologizes. I didn't mean to make your job any more difficult.”

The nurse pulled an injector off her cart. Yards felt the needle slide through his skin. Thick cold was pushed into his body before it was pulled out. “That should hold you for a day. When you leave they'll have a bottle of antibiotics for you. We don't want that horn's infection getting worse. Also change the dressing for the next three days twice daily. Make sure you clean it real good when you do. I'm serious.” She took umbrage at Yard's bored look. “If the infection gets to your root you could lose your horn for good. Make sure you take ALL the antibiotics.”

He only nodded. The nurse pulled the thermometer out of his mouth and started writing in a folder.

“When are we leaving?” Yards sighed.

“As soon as your affairs are ready.”

He nodded. “I'm going to need some things. Will I have access to my gear?”

The matriarch nodded.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Klack-klack-klack-klack went the wheels on their train car. There was no direct line to Mairephis. It had been destroyed in the war. As such a more round about approach was necessary to go the far West-North-West route from Canterlot. It had been a full day on board and another half day still to go. A day of staring at Shining Armor. A day of him staring back.

There was nothing for either stallion to say. They'd known each other for years. Shining had helped him through his first few years in the castle. He'd always had a soft spot for new recruits. The unicorn had always been a good big brother to everypony.

Yards took a drink for his watered down juice. A good big brother...there was one thing they'd never discussed. “What was she like?”

Shining gave him a puzzled look.	

“Your sister. Twilight. What was she like growing up?”

He sighed, and looked out the window at the passing scenery. “Selfish.”

Well, that was a word that Yards had ever heard used to describe her. “Really?”

Shining nodded. “Yeah. It was always her way and what she wanted. Mom...Twilight...after Twiley, mom couldn't have anymore foals, so...she became her whole world.” He looked up into space. “If she wanted to read, I got to do the dishes. If the lawn needed mowing? Twiley was too busy studying.” The former prince scratched his head and took a drink from his own glass before continuing. “I complained once. She'd just thrown an absolute hissy fit and taken my Smarty Pants. Mom said I was too old for it and that I was a bad brother. I said Twiley was a greedy bitch.” He smiled softly. “When I could sit again my parents told me that if I wanted her to be better than that I had to set a better example. So I tried. I guess I've been trying ever since. When she got into Celestia's I thought it was finally done. Then the tuition bills came in. I had to join the military to help pay them.”

Yards nodded. “Well, there's at least one thing we had in common.” He raised his glass, “Here's to tuition reimbursement.” The unicorn smiled and they clinked glasses. Yards didn't want to press about her death. Though he hated Shining, her death was far too sacrosanct.

A mare walked by their table pushing a cart. She had a soft yellow coat with light blue mane and tail. Her cutie mark was three mint leaves.

“Hey there, you two need a refill?” She held up a pitcher of juice medley.

“Sure,” Shining Armor hovered his glass on over to the waitress. She smiled as she refilled his glass. Yards pushed his over with his hoof to the edge of the table. She put a couple of ice cubes in before refilling his empty glass. Shining smiled at her and she returned it with a sly look.

“So, heading to Mairephis?”

“Yup,” Yards answered.

“Going to the festival?”

The two stallions looked at each other. “It depends on if we get business done in time.” Shining said between drinks.

“Huh, they don't usually make much room for us ground pounders up there, have fun,” she waved her hoof at the table, winking once.

“Coming after our women?” Jabed Yards as she walked away.

“'Our' women?”

“Well, I don't have a horn anymore. I'm an earth pony now.”

Shining shrugged. “It's the burden of being famous.”

Yards gave a dark laugh. “You're not famous. You're Twilight's brother; or you were 'that stallion' that was divorced by the alicorn of love.”

Shining glared daggers across the table.

Yards had him and had to press his advantage. “Cez, what kind of a buck up do you have to be for the personification of love to give up on you.”

“She didn't divorce me. She...left.”

Yards felt the thrill of battle against his most hated foe. He had to escalate. He held his hooves together up next to his head and continued in a high falsetto. “Oh, Auntie Celest! He's such a brute! Please protect me from his wicked hooves!”

Shining slammed those 'wicked hooves' onto the table, making their drinks jump. “DO NOT EVEN JOKE ABOUT THAT! I'd never hurt her.” His nostrils flared with rage. Yards smiled in victory and looked out the window.

Shining started to calm down and looked over at his adversary. “It looks like that stab wound I gave you in the neck healed up.”

Without looking Yards attacked again. “Yeah, wounds often close over. Except of course your mom's axe wound. It's open all the-” His head was shoved against the window and pinned there with magic while Shining got up and delivered a sharp hoof blow behind Yard's ear. Yards tried to laugh despite the pain but the psychokinetic envelope around his head refused to allow him to open his mouth.

There was a reason nopony had spoken yesterday. There'd be a reason nopony would speak again until they came to their destination.

> Make New Friends, Keep the Old.  One is Adamantie, the Other a Pain in the Flank
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mairephis. Like most pegasi cities it was an archipelago in the sky. There were the stratus slums ringing the local branches of the weather factories that were held up on cumulus clouds. With the fall of Los Pegasus they were responsible for the weather manufacturing for most all of the West coast. That meant the factory was churning as hard as it could day and night trying to keep up demand.

Above that was the alto cumulus clouds that supported the large government buildings and the homes of those that worked there. Above them still were the Cirrus Estates. Those with the means to live on their own little cloud lived high above it all. There were a few mountain tops, with clouds ringing them. Those provided for the mineral and agricultural needs for immediate consumption and the homes of the necessary few non-pegasi for a modern city to function.

The stallions stood on the ground at the locomotive depot. This was where large scale non-weather related goods came and went into the city. There was a lift system that carried cargo and personnel from the train depot on the ground up to the clouds.

Shining began to concentrate, working out a spell. Yards began to dig through his saddlebags. He drop a set of shoes on the ground and began to kick them on.

“So, guess you need a cloud walking spell too?” asked an exasperated Shining.

Yards held up a hoof. “Nah. We were going to call them stratus shoes. It lets anypony walk on clouds.”

Shining chewed on his lip, thinking while they stepped into the lift to the city. “So you guys had the sacking of Los Pegasus planned out that far in advanced?”

“No, these were intended to aid pegasi cities with their tourism trade. Not everything has to be about killing somepony.” They walked into the lift with a load of cargo and rode up and up and up, waiting forever to reach the city.

Shining's ear twitched as he popped his ear. Yards yawned then scratched his nose. Nopony was willing to say anything. Shining sighed and pulled a book out of his saddlebags. Yards pulled his water bottle out and sipped for a moment before putting it back. Shining pulled out a pack of gum and popped a piece in his mouth. Almost hesitantly he floated it over to Yards.

He was torn. He didn't want to accept anything from him, but his ears really needed to pop again. Reluctantly he slowly pulled out a piece before putting it in his mouth. It was peach flavored. Quickly he spit it out of the lift then pulled out his water bottle again. Shining chuckled.

“So, where are we supposed to meet up with the rest of our group?” Yards finally fully broke the silence.

Ever regal Shining looked up into the city. “Astro and Star are supposed to be working some of the lower neighborhoods, trying to mix with the locals to see if anypony has been hiring anypony for unusual construction jobs. So they're likely the ones we'll encounter first.”

Yards grunted in acceptance and stood still, waiting for the elevator to finally reach the end. He started looking around at the boxes that were going up with them.

“Did you ever wonder why inanimate objects are just fine with clouds but living things that don't fly fall right through?” Yard's curiosity was piqued.

“You know, I'd never thought of it.” There was a ding and the upward movement finally stopped.

“Oh, Sun Butt's supple rump! Finally!” The door opened and they stepped out onto the clouds. It was weird, almost like trying to walk on a trampoline or an inflated floor. His hooves gave some, but quickly sprung back out of the condensation. It made walking a tricky timing puzzle that took them several minutes to solve.

“It kinda feels like I'm walking on my bed or something,” Shining confirmed.

“Yeah, just waiting for your mom to tell me to stop. Oh wait, that doesn't happen.” Yards laughed at his joke while Shining grabbed something to beat him with. A flier came off the board that caught their eye.

“Oh, it's the Mairephis Summerbration lineup this year.” The two checked the three day list of talents and acts.

“Wow, 'Chained to the Plow' is going to be on this year.”

“You would like them, see Golden Note is playing at the other end of the park.”

“Sorry, not all of us got to grow up and have an easy revelation like 'I like to protect things' to help them find their place in society.” After a pause for breath Yards continued. “Though Golden Note isn't bad, for a golden oldie.”

“She's not that old.”

“Her first hit is older than me.”

Shining winced. “I'm not that old.”

“Sure, Grandpa, hey what was it like going to school with Starswirl? Did he blow the curve?”

Shining glared at his compatriot then returned to the list, rather than draw attention to them by busting his face open. That's when something very important caught his eye.

“Oh, there's a wet mane contest Saturday.”

Yards's attention was immediately drawn to the activities part. “Really?”

“Maybe...we should...” Shining started fishing for a phrase.

“Be very thorough...” Yards supplied.

“Yes, thorough in our investigation.” Shining rolled up the flier and neatly tucked it into his saddlebags.

“So, where are we meeting everypony else?” Yards asked.

Shining supplied a key. “We've gotten a cloudstone in the strata. We're using it as our base.”

The cloudstone was in a long line of buildings. As was traditional, it was adorned with columns. These were the simple Tuscan rather than the more fanciful ionic seen more prevalently throughout the city. The main door in was actually a balcony on the 'ground' level. There was also a balcony and sliding door on the second level that apparently led to the master bedroom. No thought was given for non-flyers.

“I don't like this, we're a unicorn and an earth pony walking into somepony's house. It's too conspicuous.”

Shining chuckled. “You're too paranoid,” and unlocked the door. It swung open easily. “We're a repair unicorn and his flunky.” The soldier gave the engineer an evil grin.

The whole “House” was about fourteen feet across. This opened up to the living area with a modest couch and chair. There was a doorway across with a simple dining table in front of a window looking out. Yards could hear ponies in the kitchen area, laughing. It was Starfall. Straight in front of the door there were rough hewed steps that clearly weren’t stock leading to a hole in the side of the ceiling leading to the second floor where apparently the bedrooms were stationed. This was the simple home of either a pair of laborers or a low level manager whose mate stayed at home to tend foals. It had a very heavily loved and almost abused feel to it.

Yards walked in smiling to himself while Shining shut the door. The door closing caught the attention of those ponies in the kitchen. Starfall stuck her head around the doorway.

"YARDS!” She launched herself around her friend. He wasn't quite ready for the embrace and almost fell over. “OH, I heard what happened after I left to watch over Apple Rhubarb. I'm so sorry!” Yards returned her embrace and those fabulous wings wrapped around him. He could feel himself blush from the contact. Starfall nuzzled his hair around the stump of his horn. “You don't mind if I look, do you?”

“Nah.”

She parted his mane. “OH, oh no. They really did. I'm so sorry, Yards.” She hugged him again. “Do we need to change this?”

“Well. Sometime tonight.”

She let him go and came around behind him, pushing him towards the stairs. “Let's get that taken care of now.” Yards allowed himself to be guided up the stairs to the second floor. The bathroom was over the kitchen, which struck Yards as odd and bordered on unsanitary. Once in the bathroom he sat down in the tub, to give her a better access to his wound and to not take up all of the space in the tiny room.

She had to keep those long wings tucked away while inside the small room. Starfall had been around the farm a little, but Yards had never spent any time alone and this close to her. He got a good look at the roundness of her flank. Her tail was just dragging the floor. It's soft silver color was dull in the dark room. Her cutie mark was a five pointed star with a thin line of a different color coming from each point of the star streaking across her dark indigo coat. She turned around with a foreleg full of bandages. One of her forelegs had a her Martyr's Charm around it to protect her from mind control effects, like changelings, the other had a cheap ribbon around it. She'd tied her mane back in a kerchief, but it came tumbling chaotically out the back. Her eyes were a deep green. Wow she was beautiful. She caught his stare and smiled quizzically.

“Oh, nothing. Say, did you see the flier for the Summerbration?”

“Yeah, Tangerine Shadows is playing. I love her.”

“Did you see the wet mane competition?”

She stopped for a minute while her brain made the connection then snorted a quick laugh. “Oh,” She stood on the side of the tub while she brushed away his mane from where she'd be working. It offered Yards an amazing view of her undercarriage.

He tried to look away and talk about anything but what was in front of him.

“So, I take it you and Astro are getting along well?”

She was pinning his mane back with bobby pins to hold it out of the way. “Oh yeah, he's a great guy. Warm, kind, funny, gentle.” Her voice was wistful.

“Something wrong?”

“Yeah, he was too perfect.” She was pulling the old bandages off. “You're not off the hook.” She pushed away gently and looked down with a smile. “Going after him would be barking up the wrong tree.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “He's one of 'those'.” She began to clean the wound. “Wow, that looks gross. Did it get infected?”

Yards didn't so much nod as flinch from the digging out of the old damage. “I've got to take antibiotics for another week to make sure it doesn't spread.”

She dripped a few drops of iodine into there and Yards bit back the need to scream bloody murder. Then she squirted a heavy dose of cream onto a pad and applied it to the top of his horn before sealing it all up with tape. “So...it's, it's going to be okay, right?”

“Me or the job?”

“Both,” she gave a weak smile.

“The doctor said it would probably be at least two, probably three months before my horn was back and I could do magic again. And, I don't know. “ He looked away and she settled back onto the floor. “Shining may be a complete bastard, but he's a competent military leader. Listen to what he says and do it when he says. That should maximize your chances of surviving if we actually do get into something really bad.”

She smiled and leaned forward to kiss his boo-boo. “Better?”

“Yeah. You have a very gentle touch. I think you missed your calling.”

She laughed, “Nah, I can't stand blood.  Especially after, well when I met Toffee and them.” She started pulling the pins out of his mane before recovering his stub, hiding his shame.

“What's the ribbon?” he asked her while she put away the supplies.

“Hmm? Oh, the club we went into today. I can't legally drink yet.”

“Wait, what? How old are you?”

“Nineteen.”

Suddenly Yards felt like a dirty old stallion.

“Well, I think we've given those two enough time to talk about their secret plans.”

“Secret plans?” Yards ears piqued up and his blush faded.

Starfall opened the door and walked back into the hallway. “Yeah, it feels like Astro is hiding something, but I'm not sure what.”

Yards sighed as he followed that rump downstairs. There were low murmurs coming from the kitchen, but it didn't stop when they walked in. Shining was sitting on a cushion by the table; a beer floating next to him.

Astro was just wearing a dark green scarf. It contrasted sharply to his dark red body. His brown mane was still in it's pomp and his tail was still bobbed. Yards had never seen his cutie mark. It was a six pointed star with a crown hanging lopsidedly to the left. He had a half empty bottle of beer in front of him and an unopened bottle in his hoof. “Yards, there you are!” He launched the bottle at the former unicorn.

Yards yelled in surprise and deflected the bottle away from his head, into a wall.

Shining laughed. “I didn't know you had a marefriend over, Star.”

“Yeah,” sighed Yards, nervously. “I screamed like you mom did last night.”

“Oh, Cez, Yards I'm so sorry.” Astro handed him his own beer before going to get a mop and broom. “I totally forgot you'd lost your horn. I'm sorry.”

“It's alright.” Yard's grabbed a towel off the counter and tossed it over the spill. “I guess I'm sloppier than Shining's mom.” He chuckled to himself, looking over his shoulder to see a scowling Starfall. Angrily she stormed off back upstairs.

Yards looked at the other stallions and shrugged, then took a pull from the beer. “So what do we have going on?”

Astro dumped the broken bottle into the trash and retrieved a fresh one from the fridge. “We can confirm that builders are disappearing here and there. They’re grabbing ponies right before they get their Mastership. Then they're telling everypony that they're working on the rebuilding effort for Los Pegasus.”

“We know they're not there?” Yards took another pull. Ugh. He looked at the bottle. “Is your backwash that bad or do pegasi need to learn how to brew?” Having taken the required polite sips he sat it back on the counter. Alcohol and Yards didn't mix well.

Astro laughed. “It's the local label. If we're going to fit in, we've got to be able to swill it. Yeah, I know a pony who's working in the rebuilding effort. I sent her a letter with names of the ponies that have disappeared from here and she can confirm none of them have shown up there.” He tossed the cap at the trash, it bounced once then dropped in. “So, what's you guys' cover?”

Yards sighed. He could have planted himself so easily instead he had to come up with a permutation. He waved at his saddlebags. They had long tails designed to cover a blank flank. Heavy chains wrapped around his rear. The bags themselves were embroidered with flames and the name “Chained to the Plow.” “Roadie. In charge of lighting.. If they need some electrical work they might grab me that way.”

Astro looked him over. “Well, you are a bit old for one of Sweetie's groupies.”

“That the new singer's name?”

“Yeah.”

“Great. I'll spend the rest of the night memorizing their tour schedule.” Astro nodded and the two turned to Shining.

“Command Control Coordination. I'm staying here to keep communications between the three groups flowing. Odds are good we're going to have to move quick and we're going to need everypony at once.” He pulled six sets of comm horns from his saddlebag. They levitated to the table and were charged. “Did you get me a city map?”

Astro pulled a map from the cabinet and brought it over to the table. “As best we can determine the homes of the missing ponies are in red. Where they disappeared from is blue. The numbers coincide with which pony it is. Key's on the left.”

Shining nodded. “Excellent work. Make sure to pass it on to uh...Star?”

“Starfall,” finished Yards.

Astro smiled. “Hey, she's looking for a stallion. It'd probably do you some good, Boss.”

“I'm married.”

Astro gave him a look of amused disbelief.

“You’re old enough to be her father, what about Toffee?” Yards asked.

“I told you I'm married. Oh, Bravo Team? They should be back soon.”

Yards bit back his bitter retort about not how could he consider himself married if he hadn't seen his wife in eight years. Delta was still gone, he might not ever see her again. She was just a friend. To have lost his wife, he really shouldn't be making jokes about that. It was so much fun to hurt him, though.

The front door opened. Excited hooves rushed into the room. It was Messer and Toffee. “We found it!” Toffee squealed.

“What happened?”

“Well, I was digging through the real estate tax records. It turns out that a Mr. Moissanite Springs bought a cirrus estate a year ago. He ended up with a zoning violation for moving it out near an old stratocumulus outside of town.”

Shining gave her a confused look, but let her continue. Yard's eyes had long glazed over. You couldn't weld clouds together so he had largely ignored them in college.

Toffee turned to Messer, waving a presenting hoof his direction. “So Messer here went looking into some old military base records. Turns out the stratocumulus in question used to be an old base.” She then puffed out her chest and wings in pride. “That was purchased by...” she looked around, waiting for an answer.

“That guy?” offered Shining.

Toffee beamed a smile his way. “Correct.”

“Wait, you can buy a military base?” Even Astro was surprised.

“Lotsa bits,” was all Messer said.

Shining looked over to the military liaison. “So, what do we know about the base's history?”

“Top secret.”

Shining rolled his eyes. “Alright, I'll send some missives in the morning. We'll get to the bottom of it. Great work everypony. Let's get some grub and then get some sleep. We've got another long day tomorrow.”

“Do you have a plan?” Yards asked.

“We're going to study it tomorrow. I”ll get a floor plan. We'll go over it and see what we can come up with, alright?” The other ponies nodded.

“Keep digging in your areas tomorrow, maybe we'll find out some more that's useful. Yards, it looks like you won't have to infiltrate anything. Uh, maybe you could help me find some sort of structural weakness in the base we could exploit?”

Yards shrugged. “I'm going to need a book or something on vapor tensile strengths. Going to need some groceries, too, if you're looking for some explosives to utilize on said weaknesses.”

“You didn't bring any?” Shining smiled.

“No, I didn't think it would be wise to bring military grade explosives onto a civilian train. Especially, considering that whole 'terrorist on a train' thing going around.”

“I bought cutting cord,” offered Messer.

“Good, then I just need to make something that could set that off. That's a lot easier.”

“Alright. Get Messer a list of what you need for the explosives, Toffee, can you find him some books before the library closes? And Astro...I'm thinking griffonies. Everypony else like griffonies?”

“I know I do.” Astro's amusement was confusing. He gathered up orders while Yards pulled out a notebook and a pencil from his saddlebags and began to write off a few necessary household ingredients for Armageddon.

After they'd left, the engineer moved to the table and started setting up some basic equipment.
“Are the scales for measuring how much you hurt other ponies?” The feminine voice behind him asked.

Yards turned around to look at Starfall. Shining had disappeared. “What?”

“Why would you say something so hurtful to somepony else?”

“He's a dick. He deserves it.”

“So what did his mom do?”

Yards searched for something to say. Starfall walked up beside him. “This isn't like you, what's wrong?”

“This is an old fight.”

“Why?” She threw a wing across his back, giving him a supportive hug. “Is it, what happened to you?”

“We've hated each other long before then. It's...it's a betrayal thing. He stabbed me with his own horn while I was trying to get Princesses Luna out of the Canterlot riots at the beginning of the war.”

“I can't imagine the Princesses fighting.”

“Well, they weren't like physically kicking each other. It was a lot of heated arguments, name calling, decrying of shortsightedness vs monstrous insensitivity. The actual war...Well, once war started they stayed somewhat hooves off. I guess they'd realized that their 'leadership' had whipped their minions into too much of a frenzy to stop.”

Yards moved around some of the equipment to make room for the bundle of electronics he pulled out of his bag. “Shining Armor was largely in charge of the Solari army. Well, that wasn't destroyed by Dash's buck ups.”

“He really stabbed you?”

Yards moved his head away and placed his hoof on his neck. “Here. You can still feel the scar.”

Tentatively she moved a hoof to the point on his neck. Softly she breathed a “wow.”

“And since he knew me, and knew that I was in the Lunari R&D, he blames me for all the horrible weapons of destruction I...we built.”

“Is it really him that's blaming you? I haven't heard him.”

“He's waiting for a good shot. He's...”

She hugged him softly as he stopped. “Sometimes, the hardest pony to forgive, is ourselves.”

He stopped everything and just remained still in her wings. She stood there quietly holding him.

Eventually he turned to her. “Wow...so...how's your sammich making skills?”

She laughed. “Not as good as Apple's.” Softly she pulled her wing back from him

“Thanks.”

She smiled back. “It's alright. I'm more than just a pretty set of wings.”

He returned her smile.

“So, no more of this bitterness? Especially to somepony's mom.”

Yards nodded. “I'll try.”

She kissed his cheek. “Good boy.”

“Operant Conditioning requires regular reinforcement.”

She gave him a confused look.

He waved his hoof as he went back to work. “Never mind. There's a reason engineers aren't known for being smooth.”

> Prepertory Bombardment
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It tickled. Yards moved his head away. Something was tickling his ear. He swiped at it with a hoof, only to contact something. What did he just punch? Groggily he came to.

He'd camped out that night in the living room. There were only two bedrooms and the pegasi were already using them. A floor made out of fluffy clouds wasn't that horrible for sleeping. His sleeping bag shared the same enchantment as his shoes. That way he could sleep with his shoes off and not accidentally roll over and out of the house.

Beside his sleeping bag was a mug of hot apple-cinnamon tea and a bowl full of reheated kechak from last night's griffoniese. Kechak was made with cactus, lichen, onion, peppers, a little brown sauce and chunks of two different cheeses that melted the whole thing together as you ate it. Real griffon chefs put goat flesh in there. Ponies replace it with a combination of tofu and mushrooms. This place used button mushrooms. He ate it, but much preferred how he'd had it back in Mustang Gulch while he was in the service with the black tree fungus.

“Morning Sleepyhead.” Yards rolled over to see behind him. The dun colored librarian was standing over him. Her zebra striped mane and tail were still down. Something was up.

“Toffee? Doing something new with your mane?”

“Nah, just letting it breathe some.” She shook her mane, Braiding it took a lot of hair to wear something “up” like she usually did. He hadn't noticed how long it was getting. “Do you like it?”

“It's nice,” he said reaching for his tea. “Wha's goin' on?”

She looked at him quizzically.

He rubbed his eyes. “Come on Tof, you wake me up chewing on me, you're changing your appearance, cooking.”

She looked away. “Well, it's...I...you, seem to like mares that are more assertive and...”

“Toffee, no. Don't. Not for me, not for anypony.”

Her eyes pleaded with him. “But,”

“Tof, you're an Elemental. You are a heroine.” He stomped his shoes on as he slipped out of his sleeping bag.

“I don't feel like one.”

“Do they ever? You've read enough stories you should know how this goes.”

“Well, usually they have somepony back home they're fighting for...”

Yards sighed. “Toffee, look...”

“I know, you don't want to chose and hurt feelings.” She looked down in dejection.

Yards stepped over his breakfast and lifted her head up with a hoof. “Look, I'll always be there, I just...I can't be your somepony special. Hey, how about, Messer. He's a hero, you know.”

Toffee scowled. “He's also about as conversational as a brick.”

“He might just be shy. Come on, give him a chance.”

She huffed. “Yards, why?”

“Because I care, so I want to see you happy. Since I can't make you happy, then I want to find somepony who can.”

“I love you too.” Quickly she turned and walked out the door.

“Wow, and I thought I had troubles with Aurora. You handled that reasonably well.” Shining emerged from where he was sleeping in the dining area.

Yards picked up his breakfast and carried it in to the table. He bit back his first few retorts in honor of his agreement with Starfall. As he walked by all he said was “Thanks.” He sat down at the table and began spooning his meal into his mouth.

Shining started rummaging through the cabinets. “Hey, if you want, you know, I could give you some pointers on leadership. You've got good instincts, could help with the mares.”

Yards bit back his bile. Sure tell him what a failure he is. Rub it in his face. He grunted noncommittally.

“I've got to go with Messer to Ft Chickadee Bluff. My clearance should get us all we need to know about this old base we're looking to infiltrate.”

Yards grunted again. He'd agreed to at least not antagonize him, nopony said he had to talk to him.

Shining poured hot water over his instant oatmeal. Then he sat down at the other side of the table from Yards. They chewed in silence, staring at each other.

“Looks like you won't have to go undercover. What are you looking at doing today?”

“Reading.”

“Okay.” Shining fished for a topic. “Do you need anything?”

Yards looked over at his paraphernalia on the other side of the table. “Cheese-bits.”

Shining nodded.

Yards carried his dishes over to the sink then walked up the stairs to the bathroom. Apparently Starfall had already left too, so he hid out in the shower until the other stallions left. He dried off and changed his bandage before coming down to an empty house.

He reached out with his mind to grab his book and grunted in pain as the magic manifested internally. Sighing he walked over and physically grabbed it before settling down on the couch. Nuzzling through he started taking notes on tensile strengths.

The clouds used for building materials were far different from the easily bucked clouds the weather factory used to carry rain. These were stronger and reinforced, so you couldn't accidentally buck a hole in a building. This was going to be a military base, so it would be even more difficult to destroy. That was why the Solari created Smooze in the first place. Yards had to revisit his worst subject in college. It was going to be a rough day.

_____________________________________________________________________________
A little after noon Messer came back. Yards had stretched on his back with his head dangling off the edge of the cloud-couch. His sleeping bag was draped over the furniture so he could be more comfortable and still yet not fall screaming to his death through the floor.

“Still reading?” asked Messer.

“Yeah, No horn, can't do magic so I'm just an earth pony in a cloud city.”

“No wings didn't make me an earth pony.”

"Is your family three quarters earth pony?"  Yards looked at him.

“Stop being a bitch.”

Yards righted himself. “Excuse me?” His hoof slid off the couch and punched through the floor. He managed to catch himself with the rest of his body.

“Leader's don't whine.”

“I'm not a leader. I'm a research engineer.” Yards kicked his shoes back on. He walked over to his antagonist. Messer was slightly shorter, but thicker. He could probably take the unicorn in a fight, even on the ground. While standing on a cloud, without his magic, the fight would clearly be his. They both knew it, but Yards refused to back down just out of spite. The now earth pony looked him square in the eyes when the pegasus smiled.

“That's a good leader.”

There was a knock at the door. Reflexively Yards grabbed for it with his magic only for it to stab him in the head. That was going to take some getting used to. Messer opened the door and jumped to the other side to make room for a large crate. Shining came in right after. The crate was addressed to “Commander Shiny Pants”. He sat the box in the middle of the living area, where a coffee table would have been. Then he started pulling boards up.

Inside were suits of barde. They had been too big and obvious to take with them on the train. Shining pulled out his personal suit and set it aside while Messer pulled out his own. Yards saw his old set down in there next to some other stuff he didn't want to bring on the train. Like his grenades.

“Why are there six sets of barding in here?”

“For all of us,” Shining answered Yards.

“The mares shouldn't be going. They're not trained.”

“There's three of us to make sure they survive.”

Yards glared at his math. “That's why we shouldn't take them. If we leave them then we're all likely to survive. If one of them panics, their actions could kill us all.”

Shining gave him a stern look. “The Princesses said to take them. It's out of our hooves.”

“It doesn't matter who's bad idea it is, it's still a bad idea.”

“Do you not trust your friends?”

Yards glared at him. “That's not fair.”

“No, it's not. But you're going to have to get over it. They're coming.”

“They're my ponies.”

“You're not a commander. You're an engineer.” Messer interrupted.

Pure hate boiled out of his soul. It was a good thing that he didn't have his horn, otherwise he'd wrap a psychokinetic field around his heart and squeezed.

“Are you ready to be a leader?” Shining asked Yards.

All Yards could see was white. His rage began to take hold. Sorry, Starfall, but he wasn't able to hold his anger back anymore.

“Only if I'm leading the train on your mom.” Yards leapt over the crate and came down at his enemy. Shining casually grabbed him in a PK bubble. Yards tried to counter it, but his horn zapped him back. He screamed his impotent rage.

Shining just held him there until Yards tired himself out.

“I FOUND IT!” Toffee shouted as she walked in. She stopped and looked at a slowly rotating Yards, suspended in the air. Her head rotated with his body. “Yards?”

“He's in time out.” Shining said without looking. They were organizing the weapons and gear from the crate. “Here, see if this fits.” He floated out a set of light barde and began to set it on her back.

It was of general Solari design with it's typical golden color. The accents were done in an orangish color. The chest piece was emblazoned with a quill and book, much like her cutie mark. Her cheeks blushed as he adjusted the stiff wicker and metal plates held fast by cotton web belting. “It's...it's...beautiful. Thank you. Wow.” As he finished he backed away to give her room to flap and try some movement. Yards saw her. It wasn't just the armor that was beautiful. Shining made some last minute adjustments to help her encumbrance. The armor itself was considered “light” grade, even for pegasus barde. It would provide basic protection for minimum weight. Well, the minimum weight for armor. She was barely able to fly in it.

Messer smiled at her. Shining gave a good natured laugh. “Let's just hope you don't have to get used to it.”

“Thank you,” she said again.

“So what did you find?” Yards asked from his invisible bubble.

“Oh,” she said from inside her new helmet. Gently she pulled it off, fixing her braids while she did so. “So, I did some looking around and apparently Mr. Moissanite just bought a 50 gallon drum of hynasse oil.”

They all stared blankly at her.

“Hynasse oil!”

They all looked at each other. She gave a disgruntled sigh. “Clouds are made out of moisture. There are numerous thing that you have to protect from humidity, like a wardrobe or books. Hynasse oil is the stuff you spray on a cloud to create an elastic barrier that stops moisture.”

“So...” Shining was still trying to put it together. “How much can he do with 50 gallons?”

“Well, assuming a standard of 300 square foot per gallon, double coated...” Yards did some quick math, “enough for a missile silo.”

Shining eyes narrowed with focus and he pounded one hoof into the other. “We've got to get in there and stop him.”

“No we don't.”

Shining's hard glare turned to mystification with a blink. He looked up at the floating, wingless pony. “We've got no evidence he's doing anything wrong. So far all he's done that we know of is that he's bought an old base, which must be okay since the Solari did it, and bought enough of a compound to create a lab, a library and a nice swimming pool. There's no way we could get a warrant for this.”

“We don't need a warrant, we have Celestia's blessings.”

Yards scoffed. “And Sun Butt wonders why ponies consider her a tyrant.”

“We're not tyrants, no pony has to be hurt.”

“Oh no, we're just going to show up on his doorstep with six ponies in military armor and say 'excuse me, Mr Chemist, we'd like to come in and look around.”

“You've heard of him?”

“Don't know him from Faust.”

“How do you know he's a chemist?”

“His name.” Yards rolled his eyes, stating the obvious. “Come on, what's your degree in? Physical Education?”

It would be that time that Starfall walked in. She looked up at the floating stallion and was instantly disappointed. Walking past him in silence she made her way to the kitchen.

Astro followed her in and walked over to the crate. “What did they send us?” He reached in and pulled out his barde. A photo fell out. Yards couldn't be sure, but it sure seemed like he blushed even more red before quickly shoving it out of site.

“What was that?”

“Oh, just the girls...”

“Well, we should give it to them.” Shining pulled the note away and looked at it. He blushed too and then tossed it into the crate. “Oh.” was all he said.

Toffee trotted over to the crate, curious as to what they were so embarrassed about.

“No, no. It's not for you. It's from our other two team members.” Astro positioned himself between the librarian and the crate. Toffee gave him a condescending smile before reaching inside. She looked at the picture and turned a bright red. “They, they know I'm not into mares, so they like to tease me over it.” Toffee pushed the photo to the bottom of the crate. She pulled out the other set of armor. It was a Lunari design, but this one had the gold coloration of Solari armor.

“I'll go help Starfall try this on.” She quickly disappeared into the kitchen.

Shining put the lid back on the crate and rolled out a series of plans on top of it. He rotated them and Yards so he'd be able to see. “We've got six hours to come up with a plan, then we're going to turn in and come at this right before dawn. Yards, let's find the weak points.”

They began to look over the plans. There weren't any real weak points. Missile silos were designed to take direct hits from flak and anti-armor guns. If they collapsed it completely then it would feed the smooze and allow it to take over the whole city. They poured over the blueprints, page by page, feeding ideas and tactics back and forth. Eventually a smell began to distract them. It seemed like the girls had whipped up something. They came in carrying cake pans.

“Nachos?” Starfall carried two pans in. She was wearing her new armor. It fit well. The yellow tint complementing her indigo hide with strong contrasts in a sky blue color, including the star on her chest strap.

The pans full of nachos they were carrying were cheesey, with black and kidney beans, bell peppers, onions, jalapenos, tomatoes and a quick garnish of chopped lettuce. “I figured you boys would like some hoof food while you work. Snacks are my specialty.”

“Looks good.” Astro told her.

“Yeah, it helps when you've got somepony as patient as Toffee here to stir the cheese sauce.” She gave her accomplice a smile as she carried in two more pans.

“You know,” Yards started thinking out loud, “It's basically a shell. The exterior has been reinforced. The interior is left soft and spongy to basically allow for movement and shock absorption. Now, it's got a limited range of movement and it's mostly an 'in and out' motion.” He wanted to stab himself for oversimplifying it like this for the lay. “If we torsion it inside, sorry 'stir it up', then we should be able to collapse it in, while leaving the shell. It would fill with smooze, but we could contain it all inside. If all goes to the worse case scenario.”

“How would we get it to spin on the inside?”

“We plant here, here, and here. That should leave these remaining supports at an odd enough angle that it torques them while they collapse. But it'll kill all of us. Let's just use this as a 'Plan C'.”

“What's Plan A?” Astro asked with a mouthful of cheese sauce.

“Well, it's all a big misunderstanding, we talk it out,” he looked over at Starfall, “and everypony goes away alive and happy.”	

“So what's the most likely?” Shining asked.

“Plan B? I recommend fire, and lots of it.”

“So, how do we set fire to clouds?”

“Yeah, that's not the hard part. The hard part is how do we set fire to clouds without also setting fire to us. I mean I could whip up some lithium bombs and kaboom!”

“Incendiary rounds,” answered Messer.

The other stallions nodded in agreement with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

“Think you can get them, 'Shiny Pants'?”

“Do you want to go back up in the air?”

Yards feigned indignation. “So what's your plan?” he asked while licking beans he just noticed off his hoof.

“We head out in the morning. Messer and Toffee will head to this point, Astro and Star head to this point and we'll take this point. Plant the charges, rendezvous here. Then we'll advance to this area where they've most likely got the lab. Be on the lookout for paperwork. We need to know how far they've gotten and, Celestia forbid, where they've shipped the smooze to. Everypony understand?” He swept their eyes, making contact and ensuring their understanding. “Alright, mares, study the map while we're gone. I'll get us the special ammo, come back and we'll take a turn with it.”

“So you want me to finish the bombs?”

“No, I told you to study the map.” Shining gave him a sly grin as he walked out the door.

“I hate that pony so much,” Yards growled under his breath.

Starfall walked over beside him. “Okay, that was definitely an attack from him.”

“I need air.” He walked outside. The air was, just, so thin, and humid on top of summer humidity. He sat down on the cloud porch and looked up at the sky. The afternoon sun was beaming down onto him. She owed him. Toffee walked up behind him.

“Are you okay?”

“No.” He hung his head, but closed his eyes so he couldn't see the ground. “I don't have any control. I can't control the situation, I can't control my anger.” He rubbed his eyes. “And I'm scared for you two. I screwed up. I should have been training you girls. When we get out of this, I'm going to do better. I promise.”

She laughed. “Oh please. You're not the only one in this situation.”

“You're a librarian and, a waitress, being put in a paramilitary instance. Have you even ever fired a gun?”

“Well...no.”

“Exactly, yet you're about to be sent to storm a military base. Doesn't that-grrr!” He stomped the clouds in frustration. He should be in a hospital, not here.

“Yeah, it terrifies me. I don't know what to do. I've never read anything about this. But you know what? The Princess believes in me. Both of them. If they believe in me, then why can't you?”

Yards opened his mouth to argue, then stopped. Slowly he closed his mouth and deflated. “I-I do believe in you. You have the potential to be an Elemental, but even they aren't invincible.” He walked by and quickly kissed her cheek. “Just promise me one thing? Please don't pull that whole 'we may not live through tomorrow' line?”

She smiled at the stallion then blushed slightly. “Actually I was thinking 'wanna go make an alicorn?'”

He looked at her in disbelief.

“Well, I just figured,” she started to fidget with her braided mane, “what would Delta say?”

Yards smiled at her then walked back into the small house to see Starfall intently staring at nothing. Clearly she had no idea what she was looking at. He walked around the crate to the other side as Toffee walked up beside her. “Alright girls; let me show you some breaching tactics that might help you survive.”

> Having Fun Stormin' the Castle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Are you sure you can use that?” Shining shouted back through his comm. They were doing lazy circles outside the base. Yards was strapped into the support harness under Shining. Shining wasn't that skilled with flight harnesses and it showed. Yards could only draw strength from Rhubarb Salad's example when he had taken her up in the same position.

The SMG Shining was referring to was strapped to his chest. Clips of incendiary rounds ran up his left forehoof. “I was certified on them, which is apparently more than what you did with this harness,” he answered.

The other members were simply hovering around the doorway to the fort. Hovering was one of the advantages pegasi had over harnesses. Astro and Starfall were at the door. Toffee and Messer were on either side of the door. Astro again rang the intercom buzzer.

“Hoof Scouts! We have thin mints!” he called at the mic. The speaker didn't even pop. “Huh, that usually works.” He sounded especially disappointed.

“This always works.” Messer tagged himself in and Astro took his spot at the flank. Messer began to apply the cutting cord. A sticky yarn of thermite augmented with a few enchantments, Messer peeled the wrapper off a short section of the cutting cord, slapped it against the closed metal doors, and traced a good sized circle with it. Cutting it to fit, he carefully stowed away the remainder before pulling out a lighter.

With a flash the door opened. As luck would have it, that was when Shining was coming in. “I'm going for it.”

“Oh buck!” Yards hugged himself. That hole was barely big enough for him to fly through and he had much more practice.

Shining missed the approach vector and clipped the left wing into the remainder of the door. The good news was that if they hadn't they would have slammed into the right hand wall of the corridor behind and died instantly. Instead they were flung cartwheeling into the security checkpoint. Yard's body wrapped around a steel beam and his barde bent protecting him. Yards started fumbling through a series of clips. First to free himself from Shining Armor, then to release the main body part of his armor. He had to hurry. The metal of his crupper had pierced his flesh and was digging to his kidneys. Hooves appeared all around him as the others arrived to try and disentangle them.

“Yards! Are you okay?” Toffee was starting to panic, but he couldn't talk. His lungs were refusing to fill with air. All he could do was nod and point to where the blood was coming from. Just once, would it be too much to ask to not get the crap kicked out of him?

Shining had apparently broken a leg and was having to hobble. Yards was too hurt to make any sort of 'momma' joke.

“Girls, first-aid, NOW!” Messer began shouting orders, taking over for the wounded leadership. They swarmed over Yards while he and Astro set about pulling Shining's leg back into place and splinting it.

“Don't forget to give him the shot.” Astro reminded over his shoulder. Absently Starfall nodded and pulled out a syringe. In her panic she was off by a bit and it went into his muscle and not his vein. Yards held back a howl of pain.

Having something to do was keeping them from panicking. They couldn't have any panicking, not in here. Focusing on something other than how horrible the situation was would help their brains be able to process the problems they'd be facing in here.

Slowly Yards put his hooves onto the floor and tried to stand. They needed to wrap the bandage all the way around his torso so it could stay on. That's when he noticed the floor was an ugly, industrial, beige, laminated tile. Well, that kinda made sense. It was a military base. Having a real floor meant earth pony logistics and unicorn technicians could move about freely inside once they were up. As the mares finished tying off the pressure bandage the shot started kicking in. Mhh, he tried to keep from swimming away from his body. It was too soon to go down, but the morphine and penicillin chaser was beckoning like a sandy beach.

Finding his Hock and Kestrel 789 he slapped the sling around his right fore leg’s knee and rotated the small gun to it's “safe” upwards/outside position. He nodded to the mares to do likewise. They had simple pistols for them to use, with conventional ammo. The reserve depot Shining had raided for their weaponry didn't have enough specialized ammo to go around. They'd been given a few pointers and some corrected stance measures, but they'd still never fired them; hopefully they never will.

Yards waved Starfall over to help Shining's group then sent Toffee to the hallway to keep an eye around the corner in case guards showed up. Yards started picking around at the remains of the security point. There had been a half wall. Behind that was a desk and pillow. There were a few office supplies scattered here and there. The only real “paperwork” were old magazines of various repute and doodles and scribbles of boredom. In the back corner of the tiny office was a locked weapons locker. If they wanted to they could get into it with some more cutting cord, but he wasn't really sure it was worth the time.

Still it wasn't his call. He turned to the mission commander. From the grin on Shining's face his shot was working too. Great. “Hey, Shiny Pants, you want to loot whore this?” He nodded his head at the weapon locker.

Shining shook his head. “Let's not do anymore damage to this place than we have to, just in case.”

Yards nodded back as they made their way to the corner.

“I don't see anypony,” whispered Toffee. Messer took point down the hall, his weapon out and ready. Astro was behind him and to his left. That way they didn't block each other's line of fire. The girls were cradled in the middle. They didn't have their weapons out for good measure. Better that they not accidentally shoot the guys in front. Finally the two leaders came up' making sure somepony didn't come up from behind them.  This formation protected the civilians as best as they could.  

The hallway turned left. Cautiously they advanced. As they went further away from the corner the light from outside grew fainter. There was only emergency lighting on, so it quickly became little islands of light in a dark sea.

“Messer, swap me,” Yards whispered over the communications horn. The pegasus moved back without delay as Yards moved up to take his place. Yards flipped his visor down and allowed the night vision enchantment to bring up the detail. With both Lunari up front the party was less likely to be surprised in the darkness.

The corridor made another sharp turn, this time in the darkness. The constant double backing was to make it more difficult for invaders. It was why they were only using short ranged weapons while inside here.

One more corridor at another ninety degree. This one also with a single light source on in the roof at the far end. There was a portal at the end of this hallway made of a huge valved door. This would be the first target for Plan C. The main base had to be ripped away from this corridor. Yards and Astro took positions on either side of the doorway. Yards pulled his weapon down and along his leg into firing position. Fear was creeping into his body. This was it. If their enemies were waiting, both of them would be dead before they got through.

“I've got armor, I'll go first,” whispered Astro. Yards didn't argue the logic.

Astro took a gulp of air and jumped through the door. Yards was right behind him. There was a flight of stairs leading down. There was just enough light to be able to see. The stairs led down to a landing then doubled back in the darkness. Messer began to apply cutting cord. Yards walked over to hand him a small explosive charge that would detonate the cable remotely.

Down the second flight they found another valved door as well as more stairs down. Slowly Yards turned the valve while Astro waited for the door to swing open. Again, Astro was through first, followed by Yards. The room was decorated in fifty year old finery. This level of the base was a large platter shaped structure. This half slice was designated as a lounge and storage area.

There was a large map of Equestria with little pins pushed into it. If Yards looked close enough he could see the Solari/Lunari crests to designate who was where. It was seeing it laid out like that that really drove home just how outnumbered the Lunari actually were. They never really had the numbers to be able to push their way foreword much. If Rainbow Dash hadn't been so rash in her attack and led to her route, the whole thing could have ended very differently.

There was very little stored here. What little there was looked like fresh tools, candles, cleaning products, emptied food crates and lots of ink, quills and paper. Somepony was looking to take a LOT of notes. Astro and Yards moved through the room, lighting a few candles here and there for the others. The rest of the team filed in quietly, gently. They began to work over the room, looking for any clues.

At the middle of the platter there was a central spindle that ran up and down both floors. There was a small hallway around it's circumference. That would be the next location for the detonation. Just as soon as the rest of the floor was cleared.

At the far side of the room were a few bunk beds. The blankets were fresh. There were privacy screens that appeared to be new, too. This was sign of recent occupancy. This was apparently where Moissanite was bringing in the new ponies.

The remaining half of the floor was split up into four quarters. The slice farthest from the door was the narrowest. Not only was it thinner it was shorter. This was the medical center. It was setup to handle sprains, aches and minor pain, not combat damage. The first aid kit here was new and appeared to be off the shelf. The rolling bed was left over from the war, however.

There was a door on the far wall. Astro opened it quickly. It was the Janitor's closet. The air burned of harsh cleaners. Apparently this was something in constant use. This slice was clear.

The next area was the largest remaining: lavatories and showers. Messer and Toffee reported that there were fresh supplies in there as well. All contained in a set of small lockers. There didn't appear to be any locks on them, however. A quick look through them showed an overabundance of different types of mane care products of both genders. Ultimately, there were no monsters in here.

Quick and methodical, Astro and Yards made their way to the far room of the floor. It was a power switching room. Here was the massive power control panels that controlled the energy for the station. There were a few replacement crystals in a corner for the old system that would burn them out fairly quickly. Yards gave the panels a once over to make sure the room was clean.

The final area was the cafeteria.  Shining and Messer swept through the pantries and refrigerators. It had a few chairs, some hot plates and a couple of large refrigerators. There was preserved food and things like alfalfa bars stored here, but nothing particularly tasty. This was the rally point all three teams met back in. This floor was clear.

Messer then began to apply the demolition charge to part of the central column.  To cause it to spin and twist on detonation. Nopony really wanted to talk while they set up their own suicide.

They then filed out of the level and down more stairs. At the bottom there was another valve door to their right and a security checkpoint to the left.

“The office should be down here. Do you want to check this floor or proceed to primary target?” Yards asked Shining.

Shining gave a pained look. “Let's check here. We don't know if we'll be able to come back.”

“Bug hunt,” groaned Messer

“Oh come on, we'll go plant a fourth charge, make sure it goes boom.” Yards slapped at his shoulder. The Wonderbolt nodded.

The group walked into the bottom plate. This quarter was the command center. Dials and switches were all over machines. There was a door on the far side that led to the office and a door to the right.

“I don't get it,” said Starfall.

“'Don't get' what?” asked Astro.

Starfall waved her hoof. “This. What is this?”

Shining was attempting to levitate the lock on the office. “A hundred years ago the biggest threat to Equestria was other armies. Things like invasions from the Griffon Kingdoms, or The Minotaur Mesas. These missile silos were designed to wipe out huge swaths of armies or cities. About fifty years ago the threat began to change and became more like small, kabalistic groups. Like errant demigods and changelings. These things were expensive and hard to maintain, so we started phasing them all out.”

“Why would somepony want to wipe out most of a city?” Starfall was aghast. For once it wasn't Yard's job to explain things. He had his own job to do. He led Messer through the door on the right into the communication room. This was a joke. The old technology of message delivery was, to say the least, cumbersome. It was amazing just how quickly it had changed in the last seventy-five or so years. Still, most civilian uses were just barely above this. The princesses really should let go of the technology. The ignorance and inability to communicate had ultimately been the cause of the Civil War, surely letting ponies communicate would prevent such a thing from happening again.

There was a door on the far wall. That area would be filled with the old crystal power storage system, and the harnesses unicorns would wear to provide power for the base. They needed to know how much was there to gauge where and how to set the bonus charge.

The room was full of fully charged power crystals. That made no sense. How could that have been? This place was supposed to have been abandoned for a while and as far as he knew there were no missing unicorns.

Yards was doing some quick math when the rest of the group started calling him. Quickly he pointed out where to set the other charge and trotted to the office. Astro was watching at the door out of the control room. Shining and the mares were on the other side of the desk, looking at a ledger.

“Can you make anything out of this?” he asked, spinning the book around to face him.

Yards began to look over the numbers. It was some sort of equation. It was a set of individual problems that rolled into each other, tracking certain variables. There also appeared to be dates. The numbers tended to be similar. In fact they were all the same percentage, it was only a difference in one variable.  The person doing the math seemed to just take half of the number then add it to a running total. There were a few others that were added to it as well. One looked like hydroxylapatite. Wait, where did he know that compound from? He backed away from the book. Oh Luna's mercy, no. Those percentages...

“They're rendering ponies,” was all he could whisper.

Quietly Shining closed the book and slipped it in his armor. Secondary objective was complete.

They made their way down the long corridor to the actual silo. They'd laid the final round of explosives at the beginning of the tunnel. If all came to naught, then that command center would collapse into the silo, smashing everything together in a horrific pyre. Equestria, at least, would be saved.

Some lights were on, but not nearly all of them. It was just enough to get by. Yards and Shining walked quietly down the steps. The pegasi flew close by, hovering in silence.

As they made their way closer, they could hear singing. Empty silos apparently have very good acoustics. The voice was deep, and tended to hum often. Only occasionally breaking into a word or two about “worms crawling” or “greasy grimy gopher guts.” Then they could hear the splashing.

“Was it tasty?” the voice asked. “While you enjoy that I'm going to need a new sample.” A crane above them whined to life as a fifty-five gallon barrel wrapped in chains fell down into the darkness below them. “It doesn't hurt, does it?” The voice began to cackle.

“Tss,” Astro pointed at a platform down below them where a white coated pony was working the crane's controls. They made their way as quickly as they could without making excess noise. The hoist pulled the drum up to the level where the pony was and he moved over to band it shut; humming to himself the whole while.

Moving back to the controls he swung the barrel to the ledge on the other side.

“Plan 'A'?” asked Astro.

“Maybe we can get him to surrender.”

Astro sighed before flying closer to the mysterious stallion.

“Ah, you are the gentlecolt with the thin mints?” the stranger asked.

Astro gave his best disarming smile. “Ah, sure.”

“Sorry, I've been quite busy. I just haven't had time to see to you.”

As they got closer Yards could make out more of the owner. His white coat shone with a luminosity the belied the darkness of the silo. His mane was done up in a giant poof, followed by tight, horizontal curls along the side. It was an aqua color. His tail was very short. His cutie mark was a graduated cylinder.

“Yeah, I bet. Why don't you come with us and tell everypony about your success?”

Moissanite grinned at him. “Oh, they will soon know of my success.”

“So you plan on unveiling...” Astro waved a hoof over the edge.

There was laughing, but it wasn't from Moissanite. The others looked at each other.

“Soon we will be introduced to the world. It's just not yet time.”

“But...”

“Shhhh.” Moissanite put his hoof to his lips. “It's so convenient when ponies deliver themselves.” He lifted his hooves in the air. “Who's hungry?” There was a great cheer behind him as a wave rose up over the rail.

Yard's mind stopped working. He refused to accept what was before him. The reports never really talked about what smooze looked like. He'd assumed it was something kind of milky, slightly viscous liquid. What rose up was...grape yogurt with googly eyes and mouths that sang.

Messer screamed out in defiance, emptying the clip of his SMG in a strafe across it. The incendiary rounds pierced a pair of eyes. The mouth associated with it belched and the two eyes became four. The new set migrated over and a new mouth joined the chorus. WHAT. THE. BUCK.

The great wave crashed over them as everypony screamed and huddled together. There was a pink glow surrounding everypony that only added to the other-worldliness of the situation. Shining was groaning under the effort. “Hey, everypony, close in. This isn't as easy as it looks.”

Faces stared at them from every angle. They could hear the voices singing outside the shield. What passed for one of the faces opened wide. Another face emerged from it's mouth and licked the shield. Then it disappeared back into the original mouth. What the buck? Yards mind refused to accept that they were going to be killed by a purple dairy product.

They were dead. There was nothing they could do. Shining was doing the best he could to save everypony, but that was all he could do. The ammo had been largely ineffectual. This was it. Yards reached for the detonator remote. They were going to die, at least it would be for something. Toffee bumped into him, crowding in terror.

“I'm sorry Toffee,” he said.

She looked at him with tears in her eyes. “I-I love you.” 

He nodded at her.  "I love you, too."

Starfall was beside her. “Starfall, I wish it was different.” Starfall was whining in terror too afraid to pay attention.

“It's been real, Messer, buddy.” Astro was already at acceptance. Messer snorted. He was still in defiance.

Yards was in the bargaining phase. There had to be something. What? They couldn't do anything without it knocking out Shining's shield. That meant they only had one chance. The grenades might make a quick hole they could flee through. Especially if they could onion layer the shields. Pfft. Even if he had his horn, he didn't know the spell Shining was using. Without his horn, he was an earth pony, just like three fourths of his family. Wait. He was an earth pony like his family. He was an Earth Pony!

Toffee was still clinging to his side. He reached over and gathered up Starfall between them. The white's of her eyes were prominent. “Starfall!” he shouted at her. “Starfall, Look at me! It's going to be alright.” Panic made her look at him. He smiled all the hope he could at her. He had a plan. But he needed everypony to join in. Now wasn't the time for blind panic.

Crushing her to the two of them he started talking in a soothing tone. “I've got a plan. Do you trust me?”

Weakly she nodded.

“Are we friends?”

She nodded again.

“What about Astro, you've been hanging out all week. You like him as a friend too, don't you?”

She nodded, still confused. Toffee gasped. She realized where this was going.

“Starfall, I'm really glad you joined us. It meant so much to me that you switched out a two day run so you could be at my birthday party.”

“Well, yeah, of course I would. That's what friends do, right?” Starfall smiled weakly. She was trying to find any solace she could in her situation.

“Astro, Messer, it's been a real privilege getting to serve with you two. Astro, you're okay in my book. From letting me try and spare Delta, to sharing a beer, you're a real decent pony. Messer, thanks for helping me realize when to stand up for something.”

The two stallions looked at each other slightly self-consciously, before grinning weakly at the open display of affection.

“I mean it,” Yards continued, “ if we get out of this, first round is on me.” He held out his hoof for them. Astro took it. Excellent. Yards held on to it. Now for the hard part.

His neck throbbed. He knew what it was. This hate, it wasn't him. Starfall had been right. This was a poison created by Shining's sense of betrayal when Yards had walked away to protect his own princess. It wasn't a part of him, it didn't belong in him. It was in his life. He could either let it consume him and kill everypony else, or he could take ownership of his life. He chose life. “Shining, I'm sorry.” He felt the dam inside break. “It's my fault. I shouldn't have let it get this far.”

“Hey, you're a good soldier. Yeah you gave me some lip but you always did what you thought was right, even when it conflicted your orders.”  Shinning wasn't looking.  He was far too busy straining to keep everypony alive as long as he could.

Yards reached out and touched Shining, flooding him with the combined power of the other five ponies' friendship.
_____________________________________________________________________________

The hospital in Mairephis wasn't that bad. They'd kept Yards and Shining for observation for 24 hours, done a little surgery and they were released just in time for the Summerbration.

The libations had been pouring all day, and by the blessed night things were getting crazy. To Yard's surprise Starfall and Toffee had signed up for the wet mane contest.

Messer was there as well. He was easy to spot with his prosthetic wings and throngs of admirers. Astro wasn't far from him. He had an eagless under each wing and seemed quite fond of their attentions.

Shining was there as well . Most of the crowd around the stage were young stallions. His size difference and baring caused them to give him a wide berth. They really didn't recognize him. Here a hero every bit as important as Messer and Astro was, yet nopony seemed to notice him. It was kind of sad.

The announcer for the contest pushed a full raincloud over the stage as a mare walked under it. Yards chose to walk over to the unicorn.

“Hey,” he started awkwardly.

“Hey,” Shining acknowledge.

“So, how about that Fire of Friendship. Pretty crazy, huh?”

“You could have warned me.”

“Yeah, see, this is kinda what we need to talk about. This hostility between us. It's not who we are.”

“I know. You did a big thing there, kid.”

“Yeah. I really am sorry about what's happened between us and all, but I don't know if it will ever be like it was before.”

“It never will. But that doesn't mean it has to stay as bad as it is. You've got potential. Maybe soon we won't be CO and XO, we'll be equals.”

Yards smiled. Starfall was next under the spray. Her mane was short, but it clung tightly to her curves. The crowd hooted their drunken approval.

“So, to tolerance?” Yards held out his hoof. Shining took his eyes off the stage, looked at his hoof and accepted it.

The rain came down on Toffee. She'd upbraided her mane for this and it swept down. The crowd went road apples crazy. Blushing she started playing to the crowd. Yards smiled, to see his friend begin to come out of her shell. She trotted around in victory, her head high. Yards cheered.
_____________________________________________________________________________
The engine's crystals had lost their charge several miles ago. That was okay. They had gotten the cart down out of the cloud. Moissannite could pull it the rest of the way to the stupid lackeys. Those foolish earth ponies. So blinded by hate that they would volunteer to carry the barrels of weapon grade smooze to the Crystal Mountains. There they'd be “dealt” with by his master's own ponies. He was needed elsewhere for other plans.

Adjusting the harness slightly he pulled the cart over the hill where the rebel earth ponies would be found.
There was a small knot of ponies milling about, breaking down a camp. In the middle was a green mare with a fedora, directing the chaos. Moissannite pulled his cart up to the crowd and unhitched himself.

“Are you-”

“Mantis,” the mare finished for him. She then barked out a command to a subordinate.

“You're supposed to be delivering my cargo.”	

“Change of plans. We've got a much more lucrative target.”

“You agreed to to this,” he growled. The plan was changing. He hated it when plans changed. It was bad enough he'd lost his laboratory to their explosion.

Mantis glanced over and looked at the cart. She sighed in annoyance. “Rock Lobster, Mayfly, Earwig, go ahead and take this load where it was supposed to go.”

“Three? It was supposed to be guarded by six!” Three wasn't enough, he needed one for each barrel, but it would appear it was all she was willing to give him. Others would have to be found.

“That's all we can spare. Besides, it's not like anypony goes that far north anyway. They're not going to need guards.” She walked away, done with their conversation. “Alright everypony else, let's get ready to head to Sweet Apple Acres!”