Our travel had been mostly uneventful for the first week or so traveling north. The looming mountains of the northern ridge mountain range was getting larger and larger as we closed upon it, but it seemed that our next trial was coming up faster than expected. Between us and progress was a large ravine too narrow and deep to simply climb down, yet too wide to jump over. around it a messy system of metal platforms and large pipes lay like some sort of mechanical maze, as if daring travelers to try and cross it. I could fly over it, sure, maybe even carry Scrapyard across the ravine, but Grey and Cait were way too heavy of a load for me to carry across it. Walking around it would also mean a several day detour as the ravine stretched miles on end and it looked like towards the west it was getting wider.

"Just what happened to this stretch of land?" I asked to no one in particular as I eyed the depths of the ravine, barely visible but there were plenty of wreckage here as well.

"They said a pegasus airship was shoved to the ground by a dragon here." Cait replied, eyeing over the thin metal paths that made up the bridge system across the ravine, no doubt calculating a route across it, "As it had one of its wings shoved into the ground while going at a massive velocity, the battleclass cruiser known as the U.P.E. Rainbreak and a necrotic ghoul of a dragon crashed, and the former exploded while the later dragged away the wreckage for its own use. Apparently later on this mishmash was built because the crash also exposed several rooms of an old underground bunker that was built also into a sewer system that was revealed by the crash, though the problem of that is that if you look at any old geography, there was no reason for the sewer system to have been built all the way out here."

"Done monologuing?" Grey asked.

"Almost, I could go into the various conspiracy theories, but the most common one was that this was an underground railroad for military research that would of later been used as an actual sewer system once the population expanded significantly. As you can tell, well, the war wasn't kind in the past."

"Great. Can we get a move on already?"

Cait looked to Grey, "Eeze what's with the hostility? A little history never hurt anyone."

"I'd rather not be here by the time Changelings from Aria's stable come to get her back. As is we spent far too much time in The Hole already. I'd feel a lot safer if we were out of their search paths and past your ranger fort."

"Fair enough." Cait commented, and I added in.

"Will your power armor be able to cross this? I don't like the looks of those metal pathways..."

As if to testify for my words, one of the metal bridges suddenly collapsed, and I winced as metal roared and whined as it crashed along the sides of the ravine and came to a deafening halt at the bottom. Following the crash there was signs of movements at the bottom. Though I couldn't quite make out what, whatever it was it blended in between the rocks. Extending my senses, I couldn't feel anything. Wait, not even Grey, Scrap, or Cait... I peered curiously upwards, to where I could see the slanted tip of my horn. It wasn't even lit, that was a bit worrying. I hadn't really had the chance to recharge my supply while in the Hole, though I had thought that my horn would of been cleared of its burnout by now. Roggar had said he'd be back to teach me about what had changed in me, but he had yet to reappear after these few days in my head.

"Should be fine as long as I don't go barreling down one at full speed." Cait replied, "A few ranger patrols have crossed this before, without causalities anyway. Though I'll admit its been a while since any of them came around here."

"There's always a first time for everything." Grey commented bleakly, trotting on down the first of the metal pathways, "Aria, get Scrapyard across the Ravine and then provide firing support for us nearby, I'd rather put as little weight on this... maze as possible."

I nodded, sliding off my saddlebags and the weapons off my battle saddle, "Mind watching these for me while I get Scrap across then? He's a bit big for me to carry across, let alone with my packs still on me."

Grey nodded, stopping in his tracks as he sat down, on the top of the ramp down, "Go ahead."

Cait chuckled, "Well this should be interesting, a flying wolf..." he muttered to himself, "Three ponies are going to owe me drinks after this."

Comments aside I buzzed into the air, and stretched, it was good to be in the air again, and as I flew closer to Scrap, the wolf gazing curiously and delivering a sloppy lick to one of my hooves as I lowered myself on top of the affectionate wolf and locked my hooves together. With accelerated effort, and slowly burning muscles, I managed to pull Scrap off the ground and into the air. Scrap struggled at first, nearly causing me to lose my balance and send us careening into the ravine, but he stopped after about five feet, and merely stuck his tongue out, panting happily and his tail slowly wagging, batting aside my own with each impact. Teeth clenched, I slowly flew Scrap across the ravine in the span of several minutes, which ended with the wolf once cleared being dropped onto the ground and me landing for a quick breather as said wolf, excited over his short flight, chased his tail around in circles before tackling me and covering me in yet more of his wolfy affectionate licks before I could leave to fly back over.

When I returned I could hear Cait remarking to Grey, "Good pup, Scrap is, I have to wonder though what it is like to fly in the air."

Grey grimaced, but ignored Cait, trotting back down the path without so much a word while I hurried to readjust my battlesaddle and packs. The ranger commented, "Eesh, what's with him?"

I didn't say anything, it wasn't my place to share Grey's secrets. Grey was a pegasus, and from what I could tell that held a certain... stigma that either they were by default, part of the Pegasus Enclave. Around my sixth year of life, we were taught a bit of history regarding Equestria, by that time my body was the equivalent of a young teen in growth, and my caste was still around twenty strong in changelings. We were beginning to be taught about the horrors that we might encounter in the wasteland in another class while 'history' was being taught to us during the same days. Though both classes had two things in common. First was the universal hatred of Zebras, which was a shared racist view that the scientists comforted themselves with sharing as the primary place to blame for all the sins in the world. The second, was the cowardice of the widely known Pegasus Enclave who hid up in the sky layer and locked down their skies, effectively blotting out the sun and moon while the world burned from bale-fire underneath.

According to Grey, while Changelings were the spies of the Zebra empire, their existence had faded into mythological status in the wasteland, and thus the surprise when it came to my existence, let alone that of my stable. My mind stopped wandering as I caught up to my friends, wings buzzing as I remained airborne, patrolling ahead of the rest of them while they navigated the rusted steel pathways that clogged this section of ravine. Briefly I wondered why whoever had built this had used so much resources for such a complex network of beams, when all that was needed was a single bridge. My only guess was that there was something of value in the walls, or perhaps wreckage from the fight that had happened here sometime ago that was salvaged, or that it was intended to be a dwelling of some sort. Several of the pathways did lead into shallow caves, and some of the metal did look like it was taken from the hull of something else.

Some of these caves would have something of interest in them like a few cans of vegetables, an ammo box with pistol ammunition, or the remains of where somepony had made camp a long time ago. During a longer stretch of one of these caves, a pipe that had been roughly shattered and twisted into a bridge connecting two different caves as a pathway across the entirty of the ravine. In this pipe, which was twice as tall as we were, was innumerable posters to a white pony with alternating shades of blue for a spikey mane. Faded as they were, it still didn't compare to the numerous purple glasses that seemed to watch us as we passed through the section of the pipe. Softly I heard a chitter... followed by something... ghastly.

It sounded like nothing I ever heard before, like somepony had stabbed a radspid in the vocal cords and it had recovered from its ordeal with a myriad of voices acting as one. The chittering continued,as dozens of beady tiny red eyes lined the darker edges of the pipe from both directions. The strange ear grating song continued on as my pipbucks light along with Caits helmet flared into life, revealing these chittering creatures and the source of the noise.

They had heads like rad roaches, though the bodies of centipedes. Each one of the creatures were at least six feet long and on either side of us were at least a dozen of them. They were unnaturally silent in their movement besides the chittering that was being emitted by their dangerously sharp looking maws. Their bodies ended with angry red looking prongs that were clearly made to grip and crush others that they approached, and I did not want to get anywhere near them. Their master however momentarily freaked me out, before I realized it was a pony.

Dressed in a patchwork of carapace shells from the creatures was a pony who looked like the incarnate of the rad-centipedes. He was standing on his rear legs, supported by his heavily clad rear end which was composed of no less than five of the strange things clinging to his rump alongside each other, giving him the appearance of a giant shelled slug pony. His head armor was composed of the dead head carapace of two other centipedes while behind his head laid a mantle and shoulder armor made of dozens of the red angry prongs that were also taken from the dead members of the species.

And worst of all he was playing a strange bag like instrument that was constantly grating against my eardrums. Cait slowly opened his bag with his magic, pulling out a small necklace with a bag attached to it, "Well then, no better time than now for this..."

The creatures rapidly approached, but stopped in their tracks as the levitated bag had its string pulled and opened, another ungodly scent flooding the air alongside the muck of the pipeline. Immediately the chattering increased as the creatures were caught between the scent and its masters entrancing music, but primal fear seemed to win out as the two dozen insects that weren't attached to their master fled. From my viewpoint, I caught sight of what was making the scent.

The radspid pheromones, I slowly recognized them from our first few jobs together, particularly the inferno that had erupted from that mission. The music went silent as Grey muttered nearly inaudibly at the smell, "I think I preferred the bugs."

I almost agreed with him, it was nearly intoxicating, but Cait left it out regardless, a small bag that now adorned his power armor. Grey drew a pistol to shoot the guy but paused as the strange pony yelled at us, "Very well you strange folks!" He pointed at me, "I see you travel with one of the chosenlings!"

What?

"Just answer me questions three and you shall pass! Fail to answer my questions three, and this pipe explodes!"

"Aria did you spot any explosives on the pipe before you landed?" Grey asked me nonchalantly.

I shook my head, from my airborne patrols I hadn't spotted anything. Cait chuckled at my response, "Lets humor him at least Its clear hes a bit screw-headed, and I would rather save some ammunition if we can talk it out rather than have to shoot our way through him and his friends."

I nodded in agreement, and Grey sighed, his eye twitching in general annoyance, "Fine. But if this fails I'm shooting him."

The temptation to roll my eyes was strong, but I resisted out of habit, instead calling out to the carapace and centipede clad pony, "Fine, What's the first question?"

"What is the most useful tool for survival in the wasteland?" He shouted out after a momentary delay.

That question was puzzling, my knee jerk reaction was to either shout 'medical supplies' or 'gun' but neither of those were tools which could provide complete survival on their own. As I pondered, Cait, however, yelled out, "That's easy, the most useful survival tool is a machete or an Axe."

"How so?" Grey asked, "I can see some reasoning behind it, but there are still other alternatives..."

Cait elaborated, "It is not just a weapon, but a tool that could be used to cut wood, build shelters, and collect food. By itself its the most useful thing I can think of, since it provides the most basic things needed to have a prolonged survival in an environment rich of obstacles."

From the strange pony came the reply, "Its a satisfactory answer though not quite the correct one, the real truth of the matter is that a Towel is the ultimate survival item."

What.

Grey muttered, "Similar lines of thought..."

Again, What?!

"How is a towel more useful than what I suggested?"

He called out, "A towel is the most useful item you can carry. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold nights of the northern Equestria or the Bad-Land tundras; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches to the west, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the clouds on something other than the floor; use it to sail a makeshift raft down the slow heavy rivers past Rainbow Falls; stuff a stone in it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of a Cockatrice! You can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course you can dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough!"

"Still not as useful as an Axe!" Cait shouted back at the strange pony.

"Regardless, my second question still comes!" The insect clad pony stomped indignantly, continuing on with his high pitched whine, "To who, does the title of the best music performer go to?"

I opened my mouth to respond with Mr.Hoofington, after all the twins who currently ran in his stead were really popular in the vanhoover district, but Grey beat me to it with a slightly... different response, "DJ P0N3, Of course, She has access to most of the nations broadcasters in comparison to the other broadcasters that other regions might have."

"Correct!" Yelled the insect pony, who looked more frustrated than appeased by Greys ample response, "How did you know?"

Grey deadpanned, "You have most the tube behind us covered in posters of her and you expected us not to know?"

The sound of the strange pony facehoofing was audible from meters away, "I knew I told them to remove those posters..." he muttered to presumably himself, and he continued on, sounding more exasperated, "Final question, what is the capital of the Zebra nations?"

"The economic or political capital?" Cait shot back at the guy and he paused.

"I... don't know." The bug clad pony admitted to the steel clad pony after a good minute. The bugs on him slowly leaned up onto their rear halves looking from Cait to him and back again, in confusion at their masters sudden indecisiveness, "Is there a difference?"

Cait nodded vigorously, "Depending on who you ask the economic capital varies quite highly in regards to the political capital as the later could be considered Roam, where most of the war planning in Zebrica happened while under martial lockdown, which suffered the local populace from trading whereas a few cities north east of Roam was the Port of Ba'neigh. Which was heavily fortified till the bombs fell."

Both myself and Grey looked at Cait strangely. Grey, likely because of Enclave education in history being similar to my own stables, in regards that there was no city called 'Ba'neigh' in the zebra empire. At least not in my short lessons. Cait was... bluffing? Either that or he didn't outright know from whatever the Steel Rangers had taught him over the years. Whatever the case it worked as the questioner responded, "Very well then, you may pass! Thank you for your time."

We began to trot forward, Grey muttering to himself about idiots and Cait reapplying the safeties to his weapons as I followed suit. I could feel the back of my neck tingle at the watchful eyes of the centipedes as we left, and subconsciously I got a little more closer to Cait, wary of an ambush. My fears were ill found as the goddess awful bag-music resumed, and the red eyes in the dark turned away with the sounds of scuttling as the bridge-keeper was promptly swarmed over with by his soldiers.

Once we were out of earshot, I asked, "Ba'neigh?"

"Minor refugee tribe during the war." Cait said, "Actually part of the eastern continent of Equestria currently, but I counted on the guy not knowing the actual existence of it, since Roam was only a political front rather than the true center of their empire according to some records found by the ministry of Technology we found a while back regarding some more obscure regions and boundaries, one could say that the true centers of the Zebra empire were unknown to Equestria. Otherwise we would of focused on capturing them on the war to end their supply lines sooner."

"Why Ba'neigh though?" Grey asked.

"First thing that came to mind." Cait responded, "Can't take too long thinking of an answer or a bluff like that would of fallen short, make it seem like an honest retort and you'd be surprised what you can get away with. Hesitation, as I've learnt, makes one predisposed to the notion that they're lying."

Grey snarked, "Unless its an unusual question or one they know the answer to, in which case a moment to think may be needed because otherwise that ploy might backfire."

"It worked didn't it?" Cait asked, and to that Grey was silent, refusing to grudgingly agree to the Steel Ranger.

Mentally I noted Cait's tactic for my own use sometime in the future if it was ever needed. Grey sighed as the Ranger laughed and I brought another question to bare, "What would you of done if your bluff didn't work?"

"Gatling laser." Cait replied easily, "Grey was already planning on shooting the guy. So a faceful of lasers wouldn't of done much different."

I frowned, "But we could of just taken a moment to-"

Grey interrupted me, "Forget it Aria, what has been done is done, even if we both know the proper response to that insane bug obsessed ponies question, there was never a guarantee that he wouldn't of accepted whatever we said. After all the odds of facing a Changeling child soldier, a power armored Steel Ranger and this old stallion." he gestured to each of us in turn, ending with himself, "And doing any sort of damage to something other than our ammunition supply, was slim to none."

"Sad but true." Cait remarked, "Doubt short of ripping my helmet off en mass that those creatures couldn't of penetrated my armor, though they'd have to get really close for that, and we're kinda armed for taking out a lot of different kind of threats. Small insects aside."

He did have somewhat of a point, though it still felt wrong to consider just shooting somepony so poorly armed, Grey ominously intoned, "Words are what separate ponies from the monsters and animals." and left it at that, trotting ahead of Cait as I took to the air again.

Scrapyard was overjoyed to see us after we finished crossing, though he stayed well away from Cait until he resealed his necklace and stowed it away. Eventually we made camp in yet another of the ruined buildings on our pathway towards the outpost that stood watch between us and the frozen north of the Crystal Empire. It was there that I made a remarkable discovery.

Xp Footnote: 75% left until level up.

Footnote: Radipedes(Rad-e-pEde): a subtype of the Rad Roach family that came into existence when one unfortunate container of the Pegasus Species Preservation Project was dumped into the remainder of the wrecked Cloudship's radioactive engine. The results were six feet long centipedes that proceeded to strangle and gore the remainder of the unfortunate crew who tried to cross the ravine in search of the lost engine. They were eventually tamed by a raider who, tainted by radiation became fused to part of ones head and gained an unnatural kinship between the bugs and himself. To the point of becoming to see them as his kingdom.

Next Chapter: Chapter 35: A Statue of the Pegasus Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 31 Minutes