Bleak grey wasteland. That was the words I had associated with the land I had arrived in, and while unpleasant and dangerous, had ultimately been put to shame in the description to the current storm. Bitter and cold, this one presented a challenge that truly lived up to that particular description with light grey everywhere. As sleet came down in droves, I vaguely wondered if the world was falling. Never the less did I trudged on, and through the forceful storm fronts that tried on more than one occasion this past hour alone to knock me over with the sheer force of the howling wind.

Mentally I was no better off, moving was absorbing most of my thoughts, as I looked downward my face all but mummified by the scarf wrapped around it and looking downwards as not to be blinded as often by the flat out blizzard. After hours of this, a tug on my near frozen solid tail momentarily halted me long enough for the cause to trot up to my side and the masked mare who called herself Pumpkin Blitz to yell over the wind, "Unless you want to die out here, we need to take shelter and wait out this storm!"

Briefly I looked around, not seeing any marks of a solid structure anywhere nearby, and asked sarcastically, "Where is this shelter, that you want us to eve-"

She put a hoof over my covered mouth and then directed my attention downward to the snow, before scooping aside several hooves worth of it. More snow lay beneath, but she kept digging, and I got the general gist of what she was doing. The brief communication shutting down again in the howling wind as we spent the next half an hour digging a shelter out of the snow, and setting up camp in our cramped sanctuary. The howling wind was dampened as falling snow sought to cover the entrance of our little cove as we shoveled a bit more space out, and a small light in the form of a lighter from Pumpkin Blitz was the only light that kept us from a pure dark abode to mourn in, or a noisy cold grey.

After a short bit of eating, we tuned into an uncomfortable silence, I, staring at the snowy wall, and she quietly tinkering with a hunk of metal from her pack with a few tools she had on hoof. The snow in this light was a tinted white, almost a grey color with the touch of light from the tiny fire we were around. The color that also stood for my friend's first name, tinted red as his blood was on his chest... My eyes flicked close as I recalled that determined snarl that was on his face before he took that knife. A knife meant for me. I shuddered a choking down another noise from myself before it could fully erupt. A bit too late though as the quiet sound of metal momentarily ceased, before starting up again a few moments later.

I eventually fell into an uneasy sleep, when I awoke, the noise had dimmed down to a quieter noise, and as we dug out together, the clouds still remained but the worst of the storm had passed, now just a few fat flecks marked every few feet of space instead of a full on storm, and with visibility greatly improved we trudged onward. This snowfall, as well as our general silence persisted for a few more days before we came up one of the several dozen rolling hills of snow and for once we were given pause by an unexpected event. A small concrete square decorated the top of the hill as we approached, and upon first glance it seemed like a pool that had been long forgotten in time, but on a closer inspection (and some hoof digging), it turned out to be a building.

Silence was broken first by Pumpkin, "Think anything of use is in there?"

I muttered into the ground.

"Pardon?"

"Don't know... Don't care..." I responded a bit louder, still staring at the ground.

"Well I do." came the snappy retort, as the Orange dressed and furred mare snorted indignantly, "Hmm... how to get this sucker open..." She dug through her pack, pulling out a grenade and putting it on the ground, "Think this'll work?"

"Only if you want to destroy whatever is inside it as well." I snapped back, already quite done with this buried building, "And if there's any explosives in it, we're blowing the entire place up most likely."

"Well got a better idea?" The orange mare asked, her tone challenging, as though to try provoking me into action. For what it was worth it did get me moving.

"Well yes, for one..." I muttered, drawing my kusarigama with a flick of my horn and driving it an inch into the top concrete before stomping it down to the hilt in a single action. My next action was to drag it by my mouth around until I had a clumsy circle, at which point the load of concrete dropped down with a loud bang into the floor below, which gave way under the immense weight of a large slab suddenly hitting it and dropped down even further to another floor, "Tada..." I muttered, sheathing my blade and gesturing towards the hole, "You or me first?"

"Pearl before swine." Pumpkin retorted before jumping in.

I didn't bother with a retort, jumping into the hole I had made after her. Initial impressions we're immediately given as my wings lighted up the surrounding environment and my pipbuck alerted me to ambient radiation. It was a home of sorts, with wooden floors inside a concrete structure, the windows we're broken and snow piled up packed mostly outside of the house, with but a bit of it having managed to actually end up pushed into small piles from pressure of the snow behind it rather than intently dragged in. Ice coated the walls and ceiling with long frozen water curiously and on closer inspection I noticed that we were specifically in a kitchen, and the layer of Ice along the walls and floors seemed to of stemmed from a broken sink that was frozen mid-geyser, though several skeletons decorated a wall, cuddled up together; an adult and two foals. A single parent? Did the other serve in the war?

My curiosity dampened again as I recalled Grey's current state. Sigh, a bang to my left brought my attention back as Pumpkin Blitz kicked in a door that had been locked in ice, its frozen hinges giving way to brute force of a buck and the screws holding it to its frame being shattered, "Might as well be quick about it." Pumpkin said after she had my attention, "No telling how far we're going to need to go today, and I would rather collect what we can and go. Mind checking downstairs while I see if I can get something out of that frozen refrigerator?"

I nodded, and the masked mare turned away to check out the kitchen some more. I went through the door, and down some stairs, my wings providing the light I needed to see by as I descended into a living room. The living room lead to the outside, which was clearly blocked by snow, but the doors that also were connected were mostly collapsed. Of the three, one lead to a hallway buried in snow, a second into a closet that had a scooter with no front wheel and some long since decayed clothing, and the last was locked. Taking my knife out I cut out the hinges, and winced as the door fell inwards, and slid down yet another set of stairs, the general cold blue-grey giving way to a crystalline icy sheen as I took careful steps down the ice filled stairway.

For a while the only sound was my steps on creaking stairs, as I trotted down, my hooves reaching the end upon which more of the slippery ice remained. It was a cellar, yet... It was weird. A number of broken barrels lay stacked together on one side, the bottom most layer submerged in solid ice, wheras the rest had been smashed open, long gone was their contents, yet along the walls we're also something different from a wine cellar. For the second odd thing was that there were a variety of jail cells, all frozen in various states, from open, to half open, and even a few shut ones. Peering inside, I could see large hunks of uneven ice, almost like spheres in the cell, large things more than two ponies wide and tall just clinging to a wall. My curiosity resparked as I looked up and saw more of these strangely shaped formations of ice upon the ceiling and upper walls as well. In one of the shut cells I thought I saw something in the dim edges of my light, but I dismissed it as another formation of ice.

A desk came into sight at the end of the cellar, alongside a machine that looked mangled and shredded as though by an explosion. With my knife I managed to pry open the desk, and inside were a variety of documents and books long since frozen shut, and quite a few tapes, most of which to my frustration were broken. Out of them all only one did work, and tuning into my pipbuck I played it.

An old sounding voice of a stallion resounded, after a few crackles, "-445. It's Moon Nighter again like always. the cranberry juice has been fermenting well in the cold arctic of the Crystal Empire's outer borders. Already the recent batch has been chilled to just the right kind of perfection I'm looking for, though I'm letting them sit a bit longer to see if they can get even better. Wrench-y is complaining about the plumbing again, though for good reason, damn sink keeps breaking almost monthly due to the below freezing temperature out here. Neighbors in this small outskirt village is in short supply, but I think that they'll come running to try this next batch, maybe then I'll have a few more friends as well. Hah. They say this place was an old sheriffs office, I'd believe it judging from these cells, though now we have a new bit down here aside from the barrels and the old desk. A generator! Balefire at that, some stable tech bloke had an experimental self sustaining power source that they wanted to try out and I said 'why the hay not, free energy!'. Damn thing keeps breaking down though, the nervous lad visits near daily, alongside his assistant. Things have been getting grimmer every week it seems as this darn war drags on, and from the rumors it sounds like something big is going on. I'll be hosting a party to raise some spirits, both figuratively and literally, ha."

It crackled out as the rest was too damaged for my pipbuck to read any further, and I shut it off after a few moments of static, resuming my search of the desk and the broken terminal that also remained near the blown balefire generator. No wonder my pipbuck was going off something crazy, lucky that my own wings were out and channeling a bit of it away, I'd likely need a rad-away else wise. As I shuffled through the remaining desk contents, I caught a faint shape out of the corner of my eye in one of the cells. Another faint luminescence barely brighter than a worn out glow stick. It was still there, however, and it was also blue, but the source of it didn't come from another set of wings, but rather a hunched figure in a corner of one of the cells.

"Hello?" I asked, but I garnered no response from the hunched pony. He was curled up and shivering in the darkest corner of the room, back wearing a ragged looking set of clothes.

It was a simple motion to cleave the bars of the cell apart, and I briefly wondered how the stallion had gotten himself stuck in here, as I approached, "Uh... are you alright?"

The shivering figure stopped suddenly shivering. Slowly he stood up and turned around, my pipbuck started to go crazy as his glow started to pick up, easily out matching my own wings glow, it was a neon blue stallion, correction it had been a stallion, its lower jaw hanging open, as rotted teeth and barely preserved flesh was caked with ice as it faced me. Its pupils were gone in replacement for a pupiless glow that immediately made me take a step backwards. It made a horrible, bone chilling retching noise as it took a few steps towards me and began to howl.

Immediately the basement started to light up. And not in the good way. I leveled Ambush and fired a shot at it, whatever it was, and to my surprise the close range shot of the sniper rifle tore a hole through him, that immediately made my pipbuck pick up yet more radiation pace as it charged, hooves collecting energy, and turned for a buck.

I was caught in an explosion of radiation that sent me sprawling across the basement floor. Where did that even come from?! The ghoul howled again, and I noticed the source of the other lights, inside the large round ice formations other ghoul like beings were beginning to awaken from their frozen slumber and I squeaked, my previous emotions and usual tactical mind failing for the epitome of fear. Dozens of ponies were being preserved in here after the aftermath, fueled possibly into a form of ghouldom from the busted balefire generator after the bombs fell. I hurriedly came to my feet and jumped as the first ghoul lunged for me again, using his head as a perch I jumped off him, and took to the air, immediately flying up the stairwell... Screaming.

I slammed the door between the basement and the first floor shut behind me with barely a paused kick before continuing my flight upwards, my panicked screaming as I flew up the next set drawing notice from Pumpkin, "The bloody heck you shouting for?!"

"Flee, now, if you want to live!" I shouted in response as I flew quickly past her and up into the hole in the ceiling that lead to the outside. Another Howl sounded out this time with more as Pumpkin Blitz took off, tossing down an incendiary as she left. When the ghouls came charging up the stairs, they didn't even pause, they kept moving with unnatural motions up the walls and around the ceiling until they reached the snowy surface of their nest. At which they took turns howling at us as we flew away from them.

"And Secondly," Pumpkin asked, "What the heck are those?"

"Don't know." I said a bit woozily, head still spinning a bit from the earlier explosion, and wings still working on top speed, "But one of them... kicked me so hard that he made an explosion, and I'm not dealing with that!" I replied in turn, "Nope. N.O.P.E. Nope." I stated in I imagined was a matter of fact tone. May Celestia and Luna damn my own curiosity for things unnatural!

"Seemed like a strange breed of glowing ghouls to me." Pumpkin Blitz replied, paying no heed to the later bits of my freak out as I got down the adrenaline high, "Hmm.... Blue though? Most of em are usually green or yellow."

"Still going to nope out of that!" I said, as we continued to fly well over fifty feet in the air, we didn't stop until they were long out of sight, before touching down again, and resuming our walk.

"So you're talking again, are we?" my orange companion asked me, mildly snarky.

"If that screaming was talking, guess yes..." I replied, my mind still a buzz of activity over the implications of those 'glowing ghouls', "Found a mostly intact bit of audio from the wine cellar of the guy who brewed it... and apparently he was still there."

The masked mare rolled her head dramatically, "No kidding."

Her sarcasm was dry, but it was comforting to say the least. It sort of reminded me of Grey, my mood dampened again. Only to be shocked as a hoof slapped me across the face, "Oye, stop that." Pumpkin Blitz stated.

"S-stop... what?", Confusion, seriously, what did I do to deserve a slap?

"Stop being..." Blitz searched for the word, "Not you. Wheres that mare who ruined my plans, what? twice? And saved my life once? Your friends are dead, I get that, but one of these days your mopeyness will get you killed."

"He was like a father to me... though..." I muttered despondently. Only to get another slap.

Ow.

"Yeah? Well I'd bet he wouldn't want you to die out here with being careless or reckless enough to wake an entire hive of feral ghouls."

"And then t-there's... Cait... and Trixie... and... and..." I failed to continue, tears were coming up again, "They're all dead because of me!"

"Wrong. From the looks of it, that old stallion saved your life because he thought yours was worth more than his. So far it looks like he made that bit in vain with how you're acting." The Blitz shouted back at me, "In fact, I bet these Cait and Trixie characters also did the same for you, didn't they?"

When I failed to respond she ranted further, "Imagine their faces if they could see you now, crying your eyes to icicles in the wasteland, their sacrifices for a grown mare whos bawling like a child over them. What a stuipd wast-"

I didn't let her get any further, Sadness, grief, and rage mixed into solid motion as I vented it, lashing out, my hoof connected to her face, knocking her to her back as I leaped upon her, dealing blow after blow. Hoof upon hoof landing on mask and lower belly, as I pummeled my pent up rage, sorrow, and self hate on her. After a few minutes my blows began to soften until I eventually dissolved into a teary mess.

After a minute of silence and a groan from Pumpkin Blitz said, "That's better, let it all out." her tone had become remarkably softer, "Vent those emotions now, and hold onto what remains..." she quietly wrapped two hooves around me and pulled me down, carefully taking a potion out of a discarded bag and chugging it down, "Pack hell of a punch Web."

She held me like that for a good few minutes before she started to push me off, cleaning herself off of snot, tears and fixing her mask back properly, I asked her, "Why did you...?"

She looked away, "I said what I did so you would vent. We all need to vent a bit once and a while, and with you trying to bottle it up so much. I wanted my rival back. You're a competent mare, the radio says as much when they rant on spiel after spiel about what you and your friends did around the Hole, and its time you stopped blaming yourself about things you didn't actually do."

"But..." I tried to argue back but she put a hoof over my mouth.

"No." Blitz said in return, "Before you speak, take a moment to not think, but just feel. Remember the good times you've had with your friends, and only that. They are dead now, and nothing you can do is going to change that. It's the bitter truth, but you need to hear that, and to remember them for how they were, not what you 'could' of done to prevent it. If anything, dedicate yourself to becoming a better mare, instead of falling into an ugly state of uselessness. The wasteland is not forgiving enough for that sort of attitude, and neither is this particular white and grey speck of waste."

I took a deep breathe, and closed my eyes, doing as she asked, the gaping hole in my metaphorical heart where my friends had been, was still open, and gruesome at that, but it was more manageable as I recalled the few happy times I had with them, For the first time in days my muscles began to relax and when I opened my eyes again, I spoke quietly, but steadily, well mostly steadily, "T-thanks Blitz..."

"Don't thank me." Blitz replied in turn, both looking away and turning away from me, "I just hate seeing people at their worst unless I put them there. Don't consider me buddy buddy with you yet. After all you still disrupted two of my plans and nearly got us both killed in that stupid underground house."

Her attitude was all over the place, but I could tell she was being sincere. Even though she was rather rude, she did manage to get a small smile out of me, the first smile since I had entered that steel ranger base of doom at least.

Xp Footnote: 40% until level up.

Note Added : Balefrost Glowing Ghouls: Strange ghouls of the glowing variety. They are known to lay primarily dormant in ice caves and submerged structures for years as feral, only coming out of their deep sleep when prey happens by. They are extremely agile and territorial in their nests and often plague long forgotten or rarely visited ruins in search of prey to devour. Their signature abilities consist of an arctic breathe which they use to seal themselves up in stasis or freeze smaller opponents, and their Bale-frost explosive blows, which they concentrate bale fire radiation into an explosive burst in their hooves. While they can climb walls of ice and snow like a spider a wall, they are unable to climb other substances. These glowing ghouls are few in number in the frost, mostly owing to the fact that not many ghouls stand in stasis in a frozen environment rich with radiation.

Next Chapter: Chapter 42: Let it Snow. Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 43 Minutes