It was hours before I was able to get myself to move away from Grey's body. His form looked as if asleep if it wasn't for the unnatural stillness that came with death. My eyes had run out of tears, and were puffy and dark green from irritation caused from wiping them constantly. I sniffed and stretched, slowly averting my gaze, lest I break again.

The masked mare followed my path with mild surprise as I trotted out of the cave, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to look for a place to bury him..." I spoke calmly, much calmer than I really was, "Then, I'm going to the crystal empire... I guess..."

"You're seriously planning on continuing north without any other ponies to back you up?" the orange mare asked, and I ignored the question, trotting out, eyes downcast at the ground.

Outside I took my first breath of cold fresh air, the outside of the cave was a mountain with light layers of grey flecks along the top, at the bottom of the mountain side, about twenty meters down the rough path was a much thicker layer and I slowly unfolded my wings and hovered down there, searching with my hooves for a soft enough place to start digging with my hooves. "You're going to get frostbite if you dig like that idiot!" The orange mare called down. I ignored her.

I worked on in silence, a few minutes later Scrapyard came trudging through the snow and began to dig with me, and with a roll of her head the orange mare went inside and came back out, towing along a set of boots from one of the bags and all but throwing them at me while she descended, fully dressed in winter clothes, whereas I was dressed in just my under armor suit and scarf. I stopped to put the boots on before continuing with my digging, and the three of us worked in silence. Well mostly silence... Scrapyard occasionally stopped, to let out a quiet whine towards the direction of that Celestia damned outpost. The green flames still hadn't calmed down even after a few days, an after effect of balefire mini-megaspells being set off together as a cluster.

As we uncovered and dug up enough earth, I gingerly went to go fetch Grey, and carry him over to the pit. I had taken off his coat and scarf, as the dead, as Grey once put it, wouldn't have much use for a gun or a coat. Those were folded tightly in one of my saddlebags, as a keep sake of him. My wings stuttered in vain hope that he was really just asleep but my heart and mind knew else wise. He was stiff and it took some work to put him into a position of rest in the pit.

"he's a pegasus isn't he?" the only other living pony nearby asked, and she gestured at the stubs where Grey's wings had been removed, "Should burn him then first, and burry the bones. They say its an old pegasus thing so that their spirit flies on the winds towards their next life while their mind and body are put to rest below."

I paused, but then nodded towards her and she sighed, pulling out a small cherry sized and colored object, "Give me a sec then." she clicked her teeth as she dug through and pulled out a match, igniting it and then the mini-bomb, and tossed it in.

I turned my gaze away as there was a loud pop, and a barrage of sparks erupting from the pit before a fire started on the... contents... inside.

We sat there till the fire went out before shoving all the misplaced dirt back on top of where it came from, leaving a small pile. I shoved over one of the several large boulders to the edge of the pit, and drew the starmetal knife, and started to cut out a message for the tombstone that would signify Grey's grave.

It was disappointingly simple, to my tastes, but it was all that I could manage for him at the moment. Turning my attention from that, I rolled another boulder over to sit next to his, and wrote a second gravestone for the other lost companion of mine.

It began to snow as I finished the last few words, carefully carving each letter, and once I was done the orange mare asked, "So what are you going to do now? Return to Vanhoover and try and get some revenge from those few changelings that escaped or continue on to make that guys death mean something?"

I turned my gaze to her, behind her she gestured towards two paths while standing on her hind hooves, one towards the burning steel ranger base, and the other towards the darkening clouds of a snowstorm. Wordlessly I turned my head towards the later path, and started to trot off, gathering my bags and gear as I went and trodding into the storm, a new navigational marker loading into my pipbuck as I entered the frozen north proper and for a moment not much else filled the silence but the steady crunching noises that came from beneath me as I moved on. Starting to put distance between me and that horrid burning military compound.

Scrapyard, I noticed, didn't follow. He was sitting near the gravestones, staring at the burning wreckage, waiting for a master that would never come. occasionally turning his head towards me and back at the fire as if torn between waiting for his deceased master and following his masters command. He didn't move from his spot though, which would probably be a good thing, since it was my escape from the stable that had lead to Grey leaving it as well and running into the rangers that lead to both Caits death as a result and Greys later demise as my escape brought a retrieval party of changelings down on us and that had lead to Grey getting stabbed from my inability to also escape...

I was so useless...

I gave out a low whistle to try and get him to come with, but he didn't budge and I trotted on, he would be safer if he wasn't with me. He was a clever wolf and would certainly find a way back to the Steel Rangers at the hole. The blur of light grey in front of me was interrupted by orange as the pegasus landed in front of me with a heavy landing, and pulling her hooves out of the deeper snow and back onto the first few inches of lightly packed snow, "Names Blitz, by the way, Pumpkin Blitz, since you haven't asked."

"Aria Web..." I muttered in response, walking around her and continuing on my way.

The wind howled, and my gaze could see but grey with yet more countless flecks of grey as we walked, the cold wasn't distracting enough, nor the starting storm. I wasn't overly worried, just miserable. The grey was the same color as Grey's coat, if not slightly lighter than the wasteland before the bunker, and my mind sought distraction from grief, that dangerous yet unavoidable break in my mental competence as contained, and not dealt with issues that I had pushed aside for so long tried to rise back to the surface of my thoughts.

Is what I'm doing right? Did we really have to destroy that AI back when? How many have I killed either by my own hooves or inadvertantly?

...What if I had been a few moments faster?

I grit my teeth, as the mental image of what could of played out started to write itself in my head, I clicked on my pipbuck, something to distract my mind, a song, or something. I got something else instead, as I tuned in mid sentence to the twins who ran Mr.Hoofington's radio station.

"-ment of silence for the two great legends of the wasteland. Yes indeed children, our mysterious stranger and sentinel has left the wasteland, to a better place we here in The Hole hope. To those of you who knew these two brave stallions, who laid down their lives in the beliefs of good and justice, our hearts sing out to you in these troubling times... The current status of the rest of their companions is still unknown, though it may be a while before we have word of their conditions... In memory of our two legends, a song sung by our own Mysterious Stranger will be starting shortly. A personal request, he asked, in case he should fall as he had in these recent days."

After a short silence, a steady twang of a guitar started up, as though played with slightly clumsy, yet dedicated hooves, words followed, and at first I almost didn't recognize the voice, it was younger, less gruff, and spoken without the bitter, pessimistic edge I'd come to know most of Grey's speech from, genuinely happy instead, "Love me as though there were no tomorrow... Take me out of this world tonight... Take me, make me forget my sorrow. So, when I wake tomorrow, I'll know our love was right."

Another voice joined in, after a few beats of strings, as if musically replying in turn, "Kiss me as though it were now or never...Teach me all that a heart should know. Love me as though there were no tomorrow... Oh, my darling, love me, don't ever let me go..."

She was quiet, and her voice was soft, though I paused with rising confusion as the voice was quite similar to my own in all but demeanor and that it sounded a fair bit older than my own. Momentarily Grief was spurned for putting two and two together, and I tacked in the assumption that this had been Grey's special somepony that he was singing with. Confusion and mental processes collapsed again under an even heavier weight as the song continued on by itself, the two singers swapping between each small collection of words alongside the music.

I continued to trot through the snow while the song continued on, Pumpkin Blitz following closely from behind as I followed the directional marker. Slowly the music began to fade out into static as the distance between Vanhoover and us became too great for the radio station to keep a clear signal and I caught the end of the song with them singing together the ending words of it before the radio tuned off into senseless static, "Love me as though there were no tomorrow... Oh, my darling, love me, don't ever let me go..."

Xp Footnote: 80% until level up.

Companion Lost: Scrapyard has left the party for personal reasons, he may reappear after a while. All feats related to this companion have been lost while he is out of the party.

New Companion Gained: Pumpkin Blitz: The Nightmare Nighter who never had a chance to introduce herself until now.

New Companion Feat: Jack-O-Lanterns: This mare seems to have a method of crafting Incendiary Grenades and may share them with party members. Additionally, this mare knows how to craft on the go and dosen't require a crafting station. Also all fire based weapons deal 10% more damage while she is in the party. But what is behind that mask?

WARNING: Aria Web has left 'The Wasteland'. You will be unable to return until your quest is done, do you wish to continue?

Next Chapter: Chapter 41: Cold Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 59 Minutes