With the sound of a roar I was driven awake from mildly cold slumber of our shelter of the morning, as a pillar of flame erupted outside of the makeshift igloo that we had taken shelter in. The pillar of flame was a rather impressive thing, several ponies high, and it even widened out to a pillar of black smoke and more rolling flames that dissipated in the morning cloudy light. The cause of the inferno had been the same recent companion who set fire to the feral ghoul nest the night before, and with her pyrotechnics, she served as one Celestia damned massive alarm clock.

"What in the hay...?" I managed to grumble out, as my momentary heart attack by being roused by an explosion overrode my brain which was still waking up.

"Oh? You're awake at last are we?" Pumpkin Blitz cast a momentary look back at me, "Don't mind me, testing a formula I wrote. Should probably move soon though, a signal like this will probably attract all sorts of nasties and ghoulies. Would be fun to burn them all, but I don't think mass genocide is on the menu for today, is it?"

"I'd hope not..." I grumbled back at her with enough snark to do Grey proud, "Can't imagine that would be a win win for either side."

"Oh, someones a grump." The masked mare snorted, "Beats your zombie zombie and screeching little filly attitude from yesterday at least."

I rolled my eyes, "I get it already, you want to move out and stuff, no need to put the world on fire to get your point across."

"Oh the fire wasn't for the point." Pumpkin said, "It was for the entertainment."

I deadpanned, "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Really, really?"

"Yes, really really. Haven't you noticed by now that I like fire?" Pumpkin snorted again, before gesturing with her head towards the pillar of fire and smoke, "I do this sort of thing a lot."

Note to self: Don't get on the list of things she likes to burn.

Thanks brain.

You're welcome...

"Give me a second to wake up and get myself moving then..." I muttered back at her, and she nodded, prancing around the fire quite proudly at her 'experiment'. I had to admit though that she made one heck of an alarm clock, as I repacked my gear and stretched, at least the heat of the fire warmed me up a bit more than the scarf was doing, it was still freezing and it was going to be another miserable hike through the rough snowy terrain, but the temporary comfort of the flame was enough to thaw my wings, as stiff as they were from this cold weather. It definitely was not the kind of weather for a changeling's wings to endure long in due to their very thin, flexible and rapid motions needed to maintain flight. If I had the energy and ability to I'd put them under the disguise of pegasus wings, for that would provide them some comfort at the cost of maneuverability, but as is, my magic was still limited to the shadowy massless tendrils that still took a good portion of effort to raise, even if it seemed effortless.

The distraction, however, kept me from thinking about far more grim thoughts, my insecurity had almost gotten me killed in that 'ghoul nest' though I guess nest was the wrong term for it, I shuddered at the image of ghouls trying to reproduce. Would hive be more like it? No, hives imply there is a queen ghoul, which just sent a worse mental image to rebuild those shivers of disgust. For lack of a better word, however, I decided to call it a den of ghouls, it seemed that they were sleeping in those bubbles of those, waiting for prey to stumble upon them, and with their previous activity seeming to be sleeping, it made a lot more sense than the other two options.

shaking back out of my self induced mental rambling, I brought myself back to overlooking the bleak surroundings as we trotted on towards that ever distant marker that marked the crystal empire. It was surprisingly bright as the day went on, but then I realized why, as I looked up instead of scanning the surroundings.

Bright blue, bright bright blue that decorated the sky instead of that ever present ceiling of grey clouds. Suddenly I was small again in comparison to that sky. That and there was something large and firey in the sky. I shrank down a bit, was that a giant mass of napalm!? It was bright to the point of being painful to look at and I adverted my gaze, still crouched down in panic, ready to bolt.

"That's the sun dumbass." Pumpkin Blitz informed me.

"The sun?" I asked, still trying to get a look at it but still being foiled by its ever present brightness.

"First time seeing it? Well then don't get used to looking at it unless you want to go blind." Pumpkin snorted, "Seriously you're a stable pony right, and haven't heard of the sun in any of your books?"

"I know what the sun is." I snapped back, "I've just never seen it, and the books kind of just describe it as a round ball of fire. So excuse me for acting strange." I looked away from it, but there was now a spot in my vision. Blinking furiously but it didn't seem to dislodge it. Great, all I could do was wait for that spot to fade from my vision. That glowing ball of fire was nothing like the books.... But then again, the picture books of my earlier youth described the surface of the world as green and full of trees, with a perfect circle as the sun, a symbol similar to the cutie-mark upon the princess of the suns flank. Though Grey also had explained it as a great ball of fire, I hadn't really thought much of it at the time. Was this the sky Grey had loved?

My motions of brief confusion aroused a chuckle from my companion as we continued walking, as we walked I was glad for the winter gear we had. Boots that ran up to the top of my legs helped with this new cold, and with their winter white colored, helped my normally black chitin blend in, and kept my hooves as warm and toasty as possible in this cold weather. My battle saddle had been properly adjusted before we had left to overlay on top of a winter coat that had come up with other supplies over the course of our stay in the Hole, a piece of gear that proved valuable for containing heat provided by not just the science-heat-scarf but my own body. Bitterly I realized that the product of science had created at least one thing that wasn't going to maul me in the face for once. I let out an internal chuckle at that, realizing the irony of the moment. Having hated technology for so long, it was hilarious to be relying on it to live, then again, wasn't guns an evolution in the science of war? I could attribute a lot then, to that irony then.

As we walked endless rolling white hills began to sparkle, and for once I was actually caught by the snow as a bit of beauty in an otherwise bleak setting. With the sun around, it was a lot better of a view, as sparkles seem to reflect off the cold wet ground of snow. It didn't cause me to halt, which felt... odd... I found myself viewing the hills with suspicion, like a balefire bomb would pop out at any moment, or that we would stumble upon a set of ruins completely rigged to the brim with landmines while a crazy enemy sniper took pot shots at us. Was I really that jaded already with life?

Shaking my head clear, I lowered the scarf from my face and took a deep breathe of the cold morning air to clear my thoughts, on the next ridge, a distant speck caught my attention. Apparently I wasn't the only one as Pumpkin asked, "Is that the place you're looking for?"

Checking my map confirmed we were nowhere even near it, let alone being able to be within sight of it, I checked my scope on Ambush, and it confirmed what my map said, "No... Seems to be an outpost..." I searched the stone grey surroundings of the camp, it lacked a flag identifying who it was, nor was it covered in corpses like a raider flag. A civilization out here perhaps? I could see occasional specks of movement, but it was still too far away to spot individual details of anypony's equipment or appearances, "Want to risk it?" I asked.

"Probably should hide our wings and your horn if we do." Pumpkin replied, "They may treat you with a bit of decency back in Vanhoover, but there you had the primary radio-pony vouching for you but out here without a radio signal? They wouldn't treat a pegasus kindly, let alone a changeling."

"Wouldn't be surprised much. After all back in the stable we were raised to die in line of service in the Stable to make up for what other changelings did during the war." My mouth muttered my words for me, it was almost a gut instinct, a bit of protocol back in training. Back then the few magic instructors we had pretty much drilled in during our early days of magic that, "A Changeling who can't change; is a dead-ling." The problem with that was that I completely lacked any form of magic currently to change my form, which made me a sitting duck when it came to infiltration.

After around ten minutes we came up with something, though I felt like a literal mummy once we did it. We used some of our excess bandages to wrap up my head and horn, filling the crooks and crannies of the later part with bits of cotton. Over my eyes went a set of goggles that Pumpkin had on hand for 'fast flying emergencies', as she called it. The reason for full body coverage was as simple as the chitin of my skin. It was clearly different from the average ponies fur, and Pumpkin reasoned it would be easier to claim that I was a major burn victim than try to keep on a ton of snow gear, though she did say that I would have to try to keep myself covered up as much as possible, as for her, she simply adjusted her wings to inside her coat and covered the slits up with her equipment. We'd both be lacking flight, as I similarly dressed myself. Though with all the protection that I was wearing it would be a relatively difficult matter to blow it unless they decided to look underneath the bandages.

Magic training would have to wait, then, sadly, I realized that. There wouldn't be time to practice my magic without making it seem overly unnatural or as an easily misunderstood hostile action. Though we went together, after we had finished donning our disguises, we began the long trot to the distant settlement in relative silence. Curiosity made me wonder just what awaited us up ahead. Caution said it was a bad idea to go anywhere near another outpost. Then the words of my deceased mentor echo'd in my head, as if encouraging me to find an answer to a question, What does it mean to be a Changeling to you? Well his question would soon be answered again as we marched towards distant civilization.

Xp Footnote: 40% until level up.

Next Chapter: Chapter 43: Warm Welcome Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 35 Minutes