When morning had come, Maul had already left,a note carved into the wall about 'On a Hunt' in jagged lettering. Gone with him, was Scrapyard, who had decided to follow the metallic ball of death and carnage today it seemed. I wondered briefly what such an adventure with them would be like, but those notions were dispelled as Sombra and Pumpkin wanted to instead focus on finding a way into the collapsed tower that had once stood tall in the center of the Empire.

"The old entrance was at the base of the tower, those have been blocked off thanks to the balefire explosion that toppeled it. By the time we would unblock those entrances, the two of you would of long since become glowing ghouls." Sombra had explained, and on the drawn map, we crossed off that as a viable entrance.

I pointed to the other end, "What about the top of the tower?"

"No good, collapsed in the rubble, would take months to clear out the pathway." Pumpkin commented, as we crossed off another path, "We saw that on our way in."

"That Leaves the sides then, find a way inside, and we can reach the shard." Sombra committed the statement and it was hard to disagree with him."

"Then we need to search," I took command, in a way it was a little bit of glee to give orders, albeit more of suggestions, "Sombra, you take the top of the tower, that way you can overlook either of us in case we get in trouble with the locals. Pumpkin, you and I will take either side of the tower itself, sound like a plan?"

"Tower may be massive, but massive towers tend to have more than one balcony if memory serves." Pumpkin nodded in agreement. Not sure why we don't just blast our way in."

"Its magically reinforced." Sombra stated, "Shining Armor had during the war continually reinforced the tower during the course of the war, and in the end it took a Megaspell from under its foundations to topple it, and even then, it mostly maintained its shape until it hit the side of the city, where most of its structural damage then occurred." He sighed, "Then the second disaster struck with the Balefire Bomb from the Zebra side, which caused genocide of all three forces and the state of the city you see today."

"Wow, the city was hit with two bombs?" Pumpkin asked in awe, and Sombra nodded.

He explained, "The first bomb was planted underneath the foundations, when it blew, the Crystal heart tried to absorb the blast, it was mostly successful, stopping all but the crater you now see, however that had disintegrated at point blank the supports holding up the tower, and split the Heart itself into three pieces. One which launched itself straight up through the tower as if an arrow, stopping somewhere inside. The others, flying off in opposite directions never to be seen again by my eyes." He then nodded to me, "We shall follow this plan. If any trouble arises, I'll scare them off."

Soon we left, after a decently hot meal and some prep work to make sure our gear was still properly oiled for the cold weather. Then we were out, flying towards the base of the tower as we made way towards the crater, briefly convening to re confirm our goals before setting out down the length searching. An hour soon turned into two, then three as we made our way down the length. I could of sworn we were being watched, and it would of been foolish not to think so considering where we were flying. I kept my eyes peeled on both the tower, and occasionally checking my surroundings, and I could tell from my side that at least Sombra was doing the same from his higher up position.

The tower itself was about four times as wide as the arena back in the stable, or about half as wide as the big grins primary think tank facility. What it made up for that the think tank didn't have however, was in sheer absurd height that now translated into width as we searched on. The monotony only being broken up as Sombra vanished over the edge of the tower, probably to help Pumpkin. I readied myself to join in and see what was the problem when my eyes caught something.

There was a balcony, half embedded in the snow, with a lot less rubble than the other entrances so far. I gave it some thought, and guessed that Sombra and Pumpkin, two of the three most terrifying ponies I knew who were alive, could probably handle whatever was going to threaten them. Between Sombras dominate fear tactics and Pumpkins liberal use of explosives and incendiaries, anything they would fight would be dead. I turned course to explore this potential entrance. Landing softly in the snow, as my wings sheathed themselves, their unnatural glowing, even in the daytime light, quenching itself as I trotted and approached.

The stones were heavy, I could tell just from looking at them that it would take a lot of digging and heavy lifting to move all the obstructions out of the way enough to allow a pony entrance into it. But in comparison to the other entrances which looked as if an entire landslide had collapsed onto them, this was probably the best shot over the last few hours. I made to take off and share my findings when my suspicions of being watched were confirmed.

It happened so fast, that I didn't even had time to react. Four sets of claws had erupted from the snow at my hooves, and grabbed me by the legs, pulling me down into the holes they had come from and holding me tight as wings fluttered futilely to pull myself back out. A Snow hound then erupted behind me as I twisted and tried to thrash my way out, but the grips were relentless. The rough voice said, "Pony need to chill out, else Dogs get mad."

"Let-me-go!" I yelled in response and the snow hound held one of his ears, as the other flattened itself against his skull.

"Pony shut up now." I briefly saw the flat end of a shovel before my world became one of blackness and pain.

It was warm when I woke up, vaguely I was aware that I was unarmored, and unclothed, not even the armored bodysuit remained on my person. To say I was distressed would be an understatement. My face was cold, and I'd likely of froze if it weren't for being wrapped up tightly in other clothes. What had drawn me out of my unconsciousness and into the world of pain and light had been loud voices growling at each other.

The first one was deep, deeper than even Maul as he growled with the force of a generator on the fritz, my vision was still blurry, But it belonged to what looked like a large white and steel grey blur among the background of blurs that my dazed vision was presenting, "Have you gone mad Silver Grit? Bringing a... Candidate here of all places?"

The word 'Candidate' was spat out as if it was a curse, and the other one, a smaller blur at this point, but coated in faded green in the mid point had a slightly more feminine voice, "But you always say a missed-"

"Opportunity is a wasted resource, I know." The other finished for her, "But I also said not to interfere with the ponies packs. What do you think will happen to the tribe if He-Of-Shadows or the Metal-Fiend that travels with her comes here?"

"Not to mention the crazy-explodey-one." A third voice chimed in.

The gruff large ones form shifted as I tried to clear some of the blurriness with staggered blinking. My massive headache seemed to stem from both the back of the head, and the forehead underneath my horn. Seemed there had been a second blow, probably to make sure I was unconscious when they first captured me. "Thanks for the reminder. Now may I ask just what you thought would happen if you brought the candidate here?"

The smaller one, now that I had a moment to clear some of my head, did sound more effeminate as blurred outlines took vaguely snow-hound like appearances, albeit unlike the majority I had come across, most of these ones were mostly two thirds the size of the larger heavier muscled ones that Sombra had brought down, "She has best shot of any so far, since she beat He-Who-Sang-Too-Much."

Vision finally came back into focus, the large blur belonged to possibly the largest Snow Hound I had seen to date, who also happened to look positively ancient for wasteland standards. He wasn't sheer muscles like a brute or the mad minotaur that had nearly killed me. He was barrel bodied, with thick fur all woven into wide plaids from the top of his shoulders down. A massive beard adorned his face, which got lost in his body fur as it trailed into it before the line vanished into his mid section, three massive braids leaving from the face, and trailing all the way down into connecting where the belly button would be underneath the fur. My eyes became lost on the details momentarily so I blinked again to make sure I was seeing the details right.

"The more reason to not bring her into the scout tribe den Silver, to do this, is folly." In the meantime the hounds teeth caught my interest, normal and not filed to jagged points. One tooth stuck out from the lower jaw, the right side in particular. On the opposite lay no tooth, but a scar that stretched from the bottom of the jaw and up past the eyebrow of the same side, leaving a permanent snarl on his face. One of his eyes were glass, that being on the scarred side, and the other was staring at the smaller one, "She is not even one of their kind!"

"What even is she?" one of the smaller dogs asked.

"Yes! If she is not a pony, what is?"

He pointed at me, and I stared puzzled at them as they stared at me in the face, "She is a-" he began but I gave it a shot to join in.

"Changeling." I said, "I am part pony, but mostly changeling."

"Bug like those of past?" One small one spoke up.

Another, less competent at speech also chimed in, "Those had queens when live here long go, yes?"

"That means candidate material!" The third voice chimed in, followed by an eruption of noise, that was only ceased by the largest one, probably safe to assume leader, clapped his large paws together in a stunning silence ensured.

"She speaks at last, and knows our faces now everyhound." He spoke loudly now, his voice firm but not aggressive, rather resigned, "Since the pups are out of the bag, I guess its now up to me to fill her in and hope for Hearts sake that it is enough to keep the Pony-Of-Shadows out of our tribal digging grounds." he gestured to me as if an afterthought, "Release her."

It was that point when a tiny furry face came into focus directly in front of my face, giving me a big Scrap-yard styled lick before dragging the rest of its tiny body past my face. A pup? If it was, it was adorable, though it used its tiny claws to undo a seam of duck-tape being cut apart as if tissue paper. Like a cocoon of a butterfly I was ungraciously dropped out of the hanging fiesta of furry blankets that I had been stuck in. Unlike a butterfly though, I landed face first onto compacted snow.

The one named Silver Grit giggled. She was a slightly thing, thinner than the average in the room, but with a pink strip of hair and a lot more bits and oddities on her armor, which was a faded pink with a double belt forming an x across her chest. She had weird markings in the same color going down her furred chest, with a heart in dark red in the center of her chin. "Such grace."

The large one put a paw on her to quiet her down and spoke up again, bringing a staff out from behind him that had a resemblance to a jeweled heart, but framed with golden laurels, "Small Changeling, as is in accordance of the Scouts, I apologize for the rude introductions and discomfort you have had so far."

He gave a formal bow, and after I had righted myself, I gave a short one back by lowering my forelegs and neck down. Couldn't hurt, right? I added in, "Um... Nice to meet you? I'm... Aria."

Manners were the right way to go indeed. Unarmed and unarmored I wasn't ready to pick a fight. The lead dog, alpha dog, or whatever he was called introduced himself, "I am Captain Rinotto of the Scout division. Acting commander of this pack. Or rather, what is left of it after near two hundred years."

This ticked a bell, training from the Stable itself in a command structure, "That's... Military rank, correct?"

He looked genuinely surprise, a slight sparkle of life behind weary eyes, "Correct, if you know that then-"

"You're operating with somewhere near a company of individuals in rank and file." I finished for him, and he rolled his eyes at me.

"Well this will be simpler than I thought. Did you read up on it somewhere or did you already come across the others already?"

"Others?" I wasn't trying to avoid the question, just honest curiosity that lead to it.

"Company Ammoclad and Company Enforce. The other two tribes of military still loyal to the throne after all these years." He replied, "You probably had a run in with the Enforce without either side realizing that you're more than the rare raider or Steel Ranger that wanders in around these parts looking for treasure..." he rolled his eyes, "And typically die right off the bat to either them or the ferals. They're the ones built more for confrontations. We're the Scouts."

At my blank expression he shooed away the other hounds, and gestured me to follow him. Silver Grit followed us as well, and he continued on, "Long time ago the Empire had multiple army divisions devised by General Shining Armor in order to help cover multiple fronts at once in the event of an attack of the city. When the bombs fell most of the folk around here ended up either as ghouls, dead, or unable to recover. Changelings in this city actually died out from lack of emotional energy in combination with the two bombs that hit the city."

"Zebras and Equestrian?" I asked, noting that he didn't specify.

"Correct. Balefire from the Zebras broke the heart from underneath it, and then when waves of enemy infantry and support came in from both sides, the Equestrian megaspell finished its travel and struck, killing all three sides here for the most part." He lead us through tunnels made of reinforced snow, holes in the ground leading to deeper stone where various maintenance tasks for the village were being performed, "Thanks to careful planning, some portions of our defense survived, what wasn't horribly killed or mutated from the radiation gathered on the outskirts of the city and split into three fronts as planned. However we never got word from General Armor, or Princess Cadence afterwards, and we eventually ran out of standing orders after the five decades. What survived became the three Diamond Dog tribes. Scouts, us, who research and survey any tactical threats, scanning for weakness and on rare occasion acting as snipers for hit and run type situations."

"It was my brilliant plan that captured you cutie." Silver remarked proudly.

"I still have a headache from the blows to the head." I retorted dryly.

The elderly Captain Rinotto slowly drew a claw through his beard, carefully tracing the inlaid braiding of his beard as if wanting to face into his palm but with great restraint not to do so, "We'll see about treating that before you go. As I was saying, there are the enforcers who used to act as standing backup for if the perimeter was ever breached, they'd patch it up until reinforcements would arrive. Now a days they mostly try to keep the streets clear of ferals, and the Ammoclads, who manufacture the bulk of what the rest of us use. Not great in a fight, and much prefer to do scrap runs once an area is cleared than go into conflict."

"So you have one company each for gathering information, acting on it, and clearing up the resources needed for the next area of defense?"

"That's how it was supposed to work, yes." The elder grunted, and I took comment on how his expression soured.

Bringing myself just short of being side by side I asked the elephant in the room, "Was?"

Silver actually cut in, "Groups fractured after the first hundred years, spent the rest of the time in our own corners of the empire, we still maintain some relations for trade; but we've all grown distant as a result of different priorities. Used to be dozens of companies of mixed races, but now there's just the ghouls and the three snow-hound tribe groups thanks to the long period of post-fallout and resources becoming ever more scarce from the long term effects."

The chief tacked in, "Kind of hard to grow crops when everywhere is snow and ice. We've made do with what we can. But without the heart being restored, this kingdom is doomed to breathe its last breath before much longer."

"What can the heart do that hard work can't?" I asked, and that got a snort out of the old snow hound.

"Before the war, the heart kept the ground warm, as well as its people united and protected. Not sure what it'll do now that all the ponies who gave it power are ghouls, but it should hopefully at least restore ground to a farm-able state and remove the nigh near two hundred years of snow build up as it did before when the Empire first re-appeared from its banishment."

"And if it doesn't?"

"Then we need to move on, and let the city die." The chief said plainly. It wasn't in his voice but his eyes, that he wished this wasn't the case, "Go south, establish a new hold on warmer climates. There is a high chance that we would not survive, at least not in comparison or competition to our rumored brothers the 'Hell Hounds' but we'd refuse to go out without a fight for life."

That drew concern, I didn't like seeing anyone like this. I bit my lip as I considered what I could do to help. They needed it, that much was clear as purified water. I thought of something after a few minutes, it wasn't much for them to go on but it was better than offering nothing, "I have a few acquaintances in a place called 'The Big Grin' that might be willing to help. I have a few new benefactors there that might be able to help, if at least just provide a place to stay. Usual threats over there are just now a few left over feral ghouls and the occasional brute type since control of the main facility was regained."

"What's a brute?" Silver asked.

"Imagine a ghoul about the size of a wagon in muscle mass and with regenerative properties unless the head is destroyed. Big, often time dumb, and hits like a missile launcher on impact." I answered, "Good marksmanship or repeated blows to the head is often enough to take one down. Though melee combat is something I'd usually advise against." I shuddered as I remembered Bull Frown.

"The offer is appreciated but we're going to stick to our directives for as long as possible. Hope is not yet lost little bug." Chief-captain Rinotto responded patiently, "Though it offers some measure of comfort to know that not all is then lost should we fail here. Let us make sure that such a situation never comes to pass." We were interrupted by a distant crash of noises, yelps and hurrying paws.

"Sir!" a hound dressed in combat armor was hurrying towards us, "Some crazy mare and two seriously evil looking stallions are outside the main entrance and they want to talk to you."

I deadpanned, and Rinotto palmed his face with his paw, spreading the claws out so he could still give a pointed glare, "See Silver, this is why we do not take ponies back to base. Let us solve this fuss before violence breaks loose.."

We continued upwards, emerging in a concrete and ice infused bunker as the distant forms of Maul, Sombra, and Pumpkin were about fifty yards away. Somewhere Pumpkin had picked up and fixed a megaphone and next to her was the unsettling sight of what looked to be a massive bundle of explosives, with not one but three balefire eggs in their center. Where did she even find those?! "ATTENTION IDIOTS." Pumpkin yelled, "YOU ARE IN THE PRESENCE OF A NIGHTMARE NIGHTER OF THE MOST EXPLOSIVE CALIBER WIELDING A BOMB CAPABLE OF LEVELING SEVERAL CITY BLOCKS."

"Oh dear Celestia no." I whispered.

Pumpkin took another deep breathe in and resumed shouting into the megaphone, "IF YOU DO NOT RELEASE THE LOVEBUG ON THE COUNT OF FIVE I WILL PERSONALLY LET YOU WITNESS IT FIRSTHAND."

"She's... uh bluffing... Right?" Silver chuckled nervously, no one present paid her any mind.

"ONE."

Oh sweet Celestia and Lunas rubbing flanks no no no!

"TWO."

I began to fly up waving my hooves as best I could, trying to get her to ceasefire. Apparently it wasn't good enough to get her to call off the explosive wave. She could clearly see me, but she probably wanted to blow them up anyway.

"THREE."

"Stoooopppppp!" I gave a shrill squeak, all I could think of was the balefire explosion Cait had unleashed. We did not need a repeat of that ever. The dogs may have knocked me out, but they weren't raiders or cannibals or feral ghouls.

"FOU-" Pumpkin began but Sombra knocked her upside the head, and caught the explosive in his own magic as it began to drop. Pumpkin began to curse him out as I flew upwards to try and clear up the situation. Ground side I could see Maul shaking his head, if it was in amusement or disappointment I wouldn't know.

But quickly I began to fill them in on the details.

Xp Footnote: 50% Until level up.

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