I awoke from my uneasy sleep. My face was dampened by a cold sweat, and the faint smell of smoke seemed to linger in my nostrils. My cheek was stinging as Crosshair stood over me, his orange eyes staring back at me intently as he kept a hoof over my mouth. He lifted his hoof to his lips, making a shushing motion and began creeping away. We'd taken refuge within a ruined little shop, the kind that bore a family's name on the front. In this case the name ‘Cutter’ had been written on a rusted sign.

I didn't dare get up. Crosshair could move silently, but my power armour would be far too noisy for stealth. Instead I levitated my damaged helmet over to me and slid it back on. The small warnings were still there, but I did my best to ignore them as I watched Crosshair. The zebra's coat seemed to help him blend in with the environment, his features almost blurred when he was in the shadows.

With my helmet now on and fully active, the built in EFS showed three red blips just outside the building. I was guessing three ponies, or maybe zebras if my new 'friend' was any indication. There were probably more zebras in the surrounding area, possibly friends looking for him. I glanced at Crosshair, who was spying on the hostiles outside, and mentally facehoofed when I realised I had his rifle in my steel saddlebag.

I reached into my saddlebag and pulled out the rifle, Crosshair watched me with a frantic expression. I didn't know what he was hinting at as I levitated the rifle over to him. He crouched down and leapt forward. A series of bullets punctured the walls where Crosshair had been crouching, I now realised why he had looked panicked. My magic glowed when I had been levitating the weapon over to him, alerting the hostiles outside the building.

Releasing the weapon to Crosshair's awaiting hooves, I scrambled up and steadied my aim at the door. Without warning, it slammed inwards, splinters of wood flying everywhere. With a few metallic sounds a grenade bounced in, coming to rest in the just settling refuse. Curses flying unbidden from my lips, I sprawled out over the floor away from the explosive.

Even with my helmet, the explosion in the entryway was near deafening. Shrapnel, both of wood and metal, shredded into the walls and ceiling. Lifting myself up, I had just enough time to look back at the smouldering entrance before a earth pony came rushing in, assault rifle spraying on full auto. Jumping in between the unarmored zebra and our attacker, a few bullets spanged almost harmlessly off my armour. I felt Crosshair rest the rifle atop my helmet and use me as a firing position.

His rifle sent out three incendiary bullets, they struck their target and sent the attacking pony screaming into the night, his coat aflame. Crosshair stopped leaning on me and began adjusting his rifle as I began walking out the missing door. I felt Crosshair's eyes on my back and for a second, I was gripped by the insane notion that I was about to become a char-grilled pony. I chastised myself as I walked outside the door and looked around. The burning pony lay dead and two others were hiding behind an overturned wagon, my EFS showing them as yellow, rather than red.

Crosshair stepped out and seemed to spot the two ponies taking cover. He shouldered his rifle, taking aim and licking his lips. "Knight Crosshair, just what do you think you are doing?" Crosshair looked at me, giving me a 'You can't be serious look'.

"I am ending these two miserable ponies who sought to end our lives. Did you expect me to heal them?" I sighed in frustration, Crosshair made a valid point.

“They’re amber on my EFS, we should let them go. We need to conserve ammunition for Wintertrot right? The zebra had an odd look on his face, like he had a bitter taste in his mouth. He evidently didn’t enjoy letting these ponies go.

“Are we going to make a practice of letting potential assaulters live?” He asked with a pointed look, he said sarcastically. “Ones that may think avenging friends was a good idea?” His eyebrow hadn’t quite lifted off his head, but it was making a valiant effort.

“We won’t avenge Buckaroo, honest.” One of the would be Raiders cried out.

“Y-yeah, what he said.” A twitchy and jittery earth pony stuttered as she took the bold and dumb move of standing up with a grenade in her mouth. I pointed the zebra rifle at the ground with my magic, holding it in place.

“My ‘friend’ here seems determined to shoot you. Might I suggest getting a move on please. Oh and if I catch you two acting like raiders again. I’ll put a grenade up your arse and pull the pin.” As the two grateful raiders galloped off, I held Crosshair’s rifle in place until they were out of range of my EFS.

I took this time to properly examine my zebra companion. He had a black and white striped coat like all zebra. His tail was solid black, whilst his mane which was the traditional zebra mohawk except he kept it short, like a buzzcut. His glyph mark, as zebras call them, had a small swirl, surrounded by a circle with four lines going through it. Crosshair noticed my pause and gave me a curious glance, prompting me to speak again.

"I apologize Knight Crosshair, this is still a little new to me." Crosshair nodded, an eerily calm expression on his face. My horn lit up and opened my steel saddlebag. "Also I want you to wear this." I levitated out a soft metal suit I had managed to pack, back on the transport. Crosshair took the suit and examined it with a keen eye, he turned it over and over, before he gave me an approving look.

"This is reconnaissance armour, light yet hardy." Crosshair held the gunmetal grey suit up, like it was some bizarre mollusc. I watched as he tried to squirm and slip it on. “Here, let me show you how to put it on.”

I undid the straps around the legs and chest, allowing the zebra to slip into it . The suit clung tightly to his body as he examined how it helped him move more silently.

"There's no helmet for it." I added rather sheepishly as Crosshair practiced some bucking with his hooves, lost in a world of his own. "I'll just let you get used to the armour." I added and turned away as I began to search through the barding of the burnt and bloody, dead raider.

The first light of the day illuminated the boundary between Wintertrot and the wasteland. The cold and lightly frosted tundra ended, and an endless field of dirty grey stretched out before us. I lifted a clump of the slate grey substance and watched it compact into a semi-solid lump in my hoof.

"It's snow you silly Ranger. Don't tell me you haven't seen snow?" Crosshair had an amused smile on his face as he watched my fascination with something he likely considered mundane.

This was snow. Real snow. The first sign of weather besides lightly irradiated rain in Equestria. Perhaps Wintertrot still had seasons? Or maybe it lived up to its name and we were about to trot into a permanently winter landscape. The snow I had picked up was half melted by the time I put my hoof back down. I wordlessly began walking forward, Crosshair following close behind.

Walking along the snowy landscape was a hazardous ordeal. I realized how easy it could be to fall and trip on debris buried in the snow. I went over twice, after tripping over jutting pieces of wreckage, concealed by the cold substance. To add to the hazard, a snow storm kicked up as we continued towards Wintertrot, making me briefly consider turning back. But that would mean we would have to walk back, besieged by a snowstorm.

The cold winds did nothing but give me brain freeze as my exposed horn and small portion of my scalp were exposed to the elements. Crosshair seemed at home in the cold weather, which I considered odd since zebra were from much warmer climes. Perhaps he was from Wintertrot? I knew I would have to pop the question, but exactly how eluded me.

I could swear my horn was starting to freeze up, the core of it seeming to be painfully brittle. I directed Crosshair to look for some shelter, and channelled magic through my horn, hoping in vain to keep it warm. While waiting, I dug through the snow covered ground with my armored hooves. It was an interesting diversion which unearthed a few frozen treasures. When Crosshair saw me digging, his eyes nearly bulged from their sockets, and he started to shout something.

I didn’t hear what he said as my vision went black as the ground beneath me exploded, sending me skywards. I ragdolled through the air, my eardrums ringing as I landed painfully on my chest. The soothing sensation of my suit auto-applying med-x, dulled my painful ribs and let me focus on what was happening. My helmet’s display was white, becoming clear again as it rebooted and then red as hostile blips began appearing.

I got back on my hooves and watched as a mound of snow moved towards me with incredible speed. The mound burst open revealing what I thought was a rather large and angry white Yao Guai. It howled as it lunged at me, thick saliva flying from its face as it bounded towards me.

My grenade machine gun roared into life, peppering the area with grenades. I felt the explosives detonate and send up clouds of snow, obscuring my opponent. I halted my barrage after the fifth grenade and found the white terror was still coming at me, its yellowed eyes and pinprick pupils glaring at me. I lifted my Magi-drill and let it speed up as I galloped at my attacker. The beast snarled and swung at me with frightening speed. Its thick claws cleaved away most of a shoulder pauldron, and his teeth latched onto the side of the barrel of my grenade machine gun. I panicked as I tried to pull free and felt the snow white creature lift me with a great wrench of its head.

In my stressed state, I fired my grenade machine gun. The explosive shell hit the teeth in the barrel’s length, blowing the weapon and monster away from me in different directions. The explosion bent my armor into my side, warping the metal and shifting my still broken ribs. My shoulder and side ached horrendously, and I screeched silently with pain.

The monster stumbled back, holding its mangled jaw.

Through the haze of pain I saw an opportunity to kill my attacker, and fired my missile launcher. To my surprise and frustration, however, it dove into the snow and vanished, the missile striking the ground several feet behind where it had been, sending up a cloud of dirtied snow. I could make out some vague lumps moving in the snowstorm, so I staggered towards them, limping on my injured left legs.

Crosshair was locked in a deadly dance with another of the monsters. Seeing this one from a distance, I recognized the creatures as hellhounds, vicious descendants of diamond dogs. This one’s long blade-like claws swung in quick arcs as it tried to slice its striped quarry in half. The zebra was barely keeping his hellhound at bay with a combination of ducking and weaving between it wild and ferocious sweeps.

My own attacker was likely waiting to ambush me again, but rather than wait for him, I stumbled closer to Crosshair’s own skirmish. Crouching low, I positioned myself so I was on the blind side of the hellhound’s vision as I readied my missile launcher, feeling a fresh missile slam into place. I did my best to aim for the hellhound’s back, and fired. The air was pierced by a great, painful keening as the missile impacted against the hellhound, bringing it down to its knees.

Crosshair took advantage of the crippled hellhound, dashing around the heaving monster and scrambling up its back. The Hellhound tried to bat him away, but the zebra was faster, dodging the wild strikes and positioning himself on the injured monsters back.

Crosshair was twisting his hooves, wrapping his hind hooves around its neck, and began slamming the hellhound on the back of its skull. The white beast cried out in fear and pain, bloody dents appearing where the zebra’s hooves struck. I didn’t have time to admire Crosshair’s hoof work as my own attacker was returning, the ground vibrating beneath my hooves.

I quickly levitated a healing potion to the intake slot before I had to leap forward. The snow erupted behind me, giving me just seconds to turn to the right and fire the missile pod. The missile launcher UI flashed in my EFS, reminding me I hadn’t reloaded it, having been too engrossed watching Crosshair fight. As the potion worked through my body, the ringing in my ears gave way to a strange wail, then my hearing came back with a pop. Just in time for the hellhound to howl loudly enough to set my ears ringing again, then bound forward.

I threw myself into a desperate roll to the left and powered on my magi-drill. The purple magic bled off the weapon in violent twist of arcane fury.The sudden flash of purple made the hellhound pause and give me what I presumed was a confused look. I lunged forward, hoof raised so I could drive it into the chest of the white hellhound. Claw met drill as the beast tried to block the blow. An audible crack made the hellhound noticeably wince and stagger back, clasping its right paw.

I admit, I was surprised when I saw blood that wasn’t mine ooze from the hellhounds paw. My drill had actually managed to damage a hellhounds claw, a material that can cut through steel ranger armor. I let a smile creep on my face as I charged the hellhound once more, actually leaping at him as I aimed my magi-drill at his chest. The hellhound wasn’t quick enough to block my second strike; evidently a cracked claw was extremely debilitating.

My magi-drill tunnelled through the hellhounds other hand and began burrowing into its chest. Hot steam arose as the beast’s flesh was cooked and charred by the arcane tool that was hollowing out its chest. The hellhound gave one last gurgle as it fell on its back and lay still. I panted, adrenaline beginning to fail me as the battle ended. I climbed off of the fallen hellhound and looked for Crosshair, wondering where he might have gotten off to.

====================================================================

We moved on, looking like a nearly scrapped Protectapony and a battered Frankenzeebra. Crosshair walked slowly and deliberately, testing the snow in front if his for any more hidden traps. Crosshair had wrapped himself in the two fur coats of the Snowhounds we had barely managed to kill earlier. I walked a few paces behind him, shivering as the cold wind and radioactive snow, assaulted my left side. The gaping hole in my armor had been barely closed by what little scrap metal we had managed to scrounge up.

I began to slow, my eyes drifting upwards at the sight before us. From afar, it had looked much smaller. Now I stood in its vast shadow, Crosshair beside me. He was ignoring the misshapen miracle of nature and architecture before us, and scanning every window and roof top in the surrounding ruins.

Before us, stood what could only be described as a slab. A slab of Ice, steel, concrete and iron. A testament to pony engineering and ingenuity. In front of us was the vast white wall of Wintertrot, frozen in what must have been at least three metres of solid blue ice, coated in an ever constant coating of snow. The snow came crashing down far to the west of us, a vertical avalanche that could easily bury Crosshair and myself in seconds.

There was one entrance, a large hole, where once a massive gate must have stood. Abandoned carriages and wagons littered the road into the tunnel, we passed around the frozen steel chassis and made our way to the entrance. As we passed beneath it, I felt truly small and inconsequential. The whole wall seemed to be pressing down on me. I knew it was paranoid to think like that, but the wall really did feel oppressive, and the fact that it was surrounding us on almost all sides didn't help matters. The roof of the tunnel we passed through was utterly black, except for the wall of red blips above us.

"Knight Crosshair, the roof is full of hostiles." I whispered, doing my best to keep my voice low. Crosshair glanced up and squinted as if he could see into the impenetrable darkness above us.

"Elder Inkwell, it would be wise if we stayed quiet and moved quickly. I fear a brood of Bloodwings has taken roost here." Crosshair walked much more softly his hooves barely ruffled the coating of snow and ice beneath our hooves. “Fortunately for us, they sleep deeply in the cold, almost like hibernation.” I sighed in relief, knowing that at least we had a better chance of going undetected.

My armoured hooves made trying to walk quietly a bad joke, but I could keep the noise low if I went especially slowly. Instead I continued at a brisk pace, hoping the daylight hours would deter any Bloodwings from trying to make a snack out of us.

We made it halfway through the tunnel when Crosshair suddenly looked back at me. An expression of horror written upon his face, sending me into a panicked standstill. Then I noticed he wasn’t so much as looking at the entirety of me, but at my currently resting forehoof. Looking down, I may have peed a little inside my armor. I could see the outer lip of an EMP mine. If I were to lift my hoof, it would go off and shut down my armor until it could be hard booted, making me a sitting duck. Crosshair trotted over to me and pointed to my other hoof.

"Lift your hoof Elder and I might just be able to save your life." I lifted the armoured hoof and nearly went off balance since my magi-drill and missile launcher were both on the same side. Crosshair halted my fall and examined my hoof carefully, small beads of sweat dotted his brow as he struggled to hold me up. He lowered my hoof back down and walked over to my side. Before I could voice my protests, Crosshair was going through my saddle-bag, pulling out a small pair of wire cutters and a needle. When I had picked those up, I couldn't remember, perhaps I had picked them up at the Cutter family shop?

“Lift your hoof as soon as I tell you Elder. Otherwise you're going to have to get out of your power armor in 3 seconds.” I nodded, feeling myself shake a little nervously, he bent low. using the pliers in his mouth to pull at the mine’s casing. As he pulled, the mine almost slid out from under my hoof, luckily the zebra had used one of his own hooves to stop the mine. The zebra ranger spit out the pliers and began toying with the needle, trying to get it to sit right in his mouth, watching Crosshair fumble with the needle gave me an appreciation for hoof-knitting that I hadn't had before.

He placed his left hoof against my own now, pushing against it. “Now Elder!” My hoof lifted and I pivoted around as I prepared to turn and run.

*Beeeee*

The first warning beep filled me with dread, right before it was abruptly cut off. I looked back and much to my relief, the mine hadn't simply delayed in its detonation for dramatic effect. Crosshair had placed his own hooves on the mine to keep it from sliding or moving and used the needle in his mouth to mouth the small trigger inside, disabling the mine.

I let out a sigh of relief and lifted the mine with my telekinesis, floating the explosive device into my Saddlebag, figuring it could come in handy, possibly as barter materiel or against robots. I was about to thank Crosshair when his eyes widened and made frantic motions for me to duck. I ducked down quickly, and felt the air around me grow increasingly colder. Soft, squishy sounds could be heard as something walked down the tunnel behind us.

A luminous blue glow emanated from our unexpected guest; a small indicator in the left hand corner of my vision warned me that I was being exposed to radiation. The hoofsteps stopped on the other side of a carriage we were hiding behind. Crosshair silently moved his hooves as he began to creep around the carriage. I followed, my steel clad hooves muffled by the frost coating the ground.

“Ksssssssshh”

A low guttural hiss seemed to surround us as the hoofsteps drew closer. My fellow ranger slipped behind some crates that had spilled out of a wagon. I followed suite, moving as quietly as possible. I leant against the crate, letting out a breath I hadn't realised I was holding. My helmet informed me that the yellow blip was drawing nearer, but I didn't need it to tell me that, because the radiation meter began to tick again, I wasn't safe, not with that gaping hole in my armor.

Crosshair wasn't faring any better, I could see him sagging, an exhausted look on his face. I would've been surprised to see Crosshair fit and ready, given our hunter was generating an insane amount of radiation, at least ten rads per second. We couldn't afford to wait any longer, I floated out a radaway from my saddlebag and hoofed it to Crosshair. I waited, just until the glowing blue rad factory was close and clambered over the crates. My Magi-drill whirred into life as I galloped forward.

“UUUUUUAAAUUGHH!”

The mouth of the glowing pony shrieked when it saw me. It’s rotten flesh seemingly tearing and healing itself. A blue wave shot out from the ghoul, sending out a pulse of radiation, it passed over me, leaving a cold, sick feeling in my stomach. I didn't break stride, hefting my magi-drill up, as the blue ghoul tried to smack me with one of its own rotted hooves. My drill ploughed into the ghouls left shoulder, black blood and rotten tissue being sprayed everywhere. Before I could drive it in deeply, the ghoul’s right hoof connected with my head, leaving my ears ringing as I staggered back.

“You blue bas-” I was cut off mid-sentence as the blue ghoul slammed into me, it’s hooves raining down blows on my helmet as it tried to break through. Cracks began spreading across my helmets HUD went offline as my vision was ruined by the pounding on my helmet. I thrashed desperately, powering on the drill once more as I swung with my right hoof. The magi-drill collided with the ghouls skull, splattering my helmet with black blood.

I grasped the helmet with my magic, releasing the clamps that locked it on and pulled it off. The helmet reeked, like sewer water, mixed with a dead body. I gagged and turned back to Crosshair who was draining a small bag of Radaway.

“Knight Crosshair, are you okay?” The zebra nodded, shuddering as he took rasping breaths. Was the taste of Radaway, that foul to him? Before I could ask him, Crosshair was running over to me, a worried expression on his face.

“Elder Inkwell, are you alright? Do you feel numb anywhere? Cold? Dizzy?” In truth I felt exhausted, probably radiation sickness from that ghoul.

“I'm fine Crosshair, perfect-ly...fi..” The words died in my mouth as I’d tried to lift my right hoof, only it felt like I was trying to lift a lead weight. I looked down, my eyes widening in shock as I saw my entire right hoof was coated in a layer of ice, a ridiculously thick layer of ice. Crosshair tapped the ice, making a dull clicking sound.

“We have to leave right now. We’re lucky all that noise didn't awaken the Bloodwings.” I glanced up at the ceiling, seeing only a solid wall of black. “Come Elder, we are halfway there, we mustn’t stay any longer.”

I groaned as I had to drag my frozen leg, Crosshair standing on his rear hooves and holding his rifle aloft. My leg made a dull clunk, each time it impacted the snow. We walked in near silence, Crosshair carefully watching the road ahead for any more surprises. I considered putting my helmet back on, but scrapped that idea when I saw the ghoul’s blood had soaked my helmet and frozen into a layer of ice. I made a mental note to avoid fighting these ghouls in melee if possible. The exit loomed nearer, I left out a sigh of relief, and wondered how I was going to get my Hoof free.

“Hissssss”

“Oh, Cocknoodles.” The hiss announced the arrival of a ghoul, thankfully of the non-glowing variety. Ghouls began to gallop at us, some pulling themselves out of rusted wrecks and others trying to claw after us or gnash uselessly as their frozen bodies slowed or trapped them. I gave up any pretence of trying to escape quietly and armed my missile launcher, Crosshair was defending us from charging ghouls, his incendiary rounds were setting them ablaze. I noted that some of the ghouls were keeping their distance, merely hissing and spitting as clouds of blue gas seeped out of their misshapen mouths.

“Elder, keep moving! If you stand still your hooves will be frozen!” As Crosshair shouted to me, I saw a pegasus ghoul swoop down at Crosshair.

“CROSSHAIR, ABOVE YOU!” The ghoul was quicker than the zebra, sinking its foul teeth into his right shoulder. I wasted no time, firing my missile into the nearest group of ghouls and began hobbling over to my fellow ranger. I nearly tripped as I approached and swung my frozen hoof, sending the pegasus ghoul screeching and hissing into an overturned carriage. I grunted as I lifted Crosshair with my magic, placing him on my back and began lumbering towards the exit, my frozen hoof pulling and straining at my left leg.

The feral ghouls continued to pounce on us and slow us down. Their teeth were ineffective against my armor, and Crosshair fortunately was able to swat away most of ice zombies that tried to cling and bite us. Still, two of them had managed to get a grip, one on my tail and another was gnawing ineffectually on my rear, right leg armor. My hooves heavy, I dragged us outside the tunnel. Crosshair staggered off of my back, preparing to take down the ghouls with his bare hooves.

Looking into the tunnel, I could see the eerie blue glow of dozens of eyes. Hungry ghouls were ready to pursue us into the city. I looked around in panic, searching for some way I could halt the approaching ghoul horde.

“THE TUNNEL! CLOSE THE TUNNEL!” Crosshair bellowed at me, whilst delivering a good buck to a ghoul’s face, caving it in. I aimed at the tunnel, and fired. Unfortunately I was severely inaccurate without any sort of targeting spell. The missile soared into the tunnel, illuminating the dark passage and the bodies of hundreds of Bloodwings.

*Skeeeeeeeee!*

A horrible screeching, chittering filled our ears as Bloodwings awoke, the beating of their wings was near deafening. I panicked and backed up, tripping over my frozen leg in the process. I fumbled with my magic, trying to load another missile, succeeding in temporarily jamming it.

“Celestia damn this weapon!” I cursed as I cleared the missile launcher’s barrel and reloaded it. Crosshair was firing his zebra rifle, trying desperately to hold off the charging ghouls, the swarm of bloodwings acting as a shield for the frost breathing zombie ponies.

*Skreeeee - Booom*

The missile landed a direct hit above the tunnel, sending a large chunk of ice, cascading down. With a dull clunk, my saddlebag's ammo feed loaded another missile into the weapons system. I let this one loose near where the first had hit, sending more ice tumbling and large spider cracks up the frozen wall.

“One more, I think!” Crosshair called out. His zebra rifle lay discarded, and he had resort to using the assault rifle we had gotten from Buckaroo.

I nodded in agreement and aimed for the large cracks in the wall. The missile launcher roared as it sent out another explosive missile, the projectile’s smoking trail followed it as it made contact with the wall. We got the desired result as slabs of ice, rock, and snow thunderously fell on the tunnel entrance, burying it under a giant pile of rubble.

“There is no turning back now Elder. The nearest exit from here is all the way at the eastern side of the city.” I nodded dumbly, still admiring the ruined carriage tunnel. “Come Elder, we must find shelter.”

Before us lay mighty skyscrapers and industrial buildings, streets choked with old carriages and skywagons. A whole road was blocked off by a collapsed, office building. I let Crosshair lead the way as we took our first steps into Wintertrot.

====================================================================

The buildings around us were blurred as the heavy winds and snowfall began to kick up. They grew out of the surrounding blurry landscape, like great grey monsters. I approached one frozen door and tried to buck it open. Crosshair facehoofed as I fell forwards, the ice easily resisting my attack.

"Elder Inkwell it is not wise to make unnecessary noise. You might attract something." Crosshair's voice was muted a little by howling wind, but still audible. I cocked my head at him in curiosity.

"We've taken on Wintertrot ghouls and Snowhounds, Crosshair. What could be more dangerous than those abominations?" Crosshair's orange eyes stared at me for a moment that went on far too long, his eyes had a glazed look as he finally replied.

"You will see soon enough Elder." The cryptic message was made worse by the finality in his voice as he began walking ahead. I trotted after him, not wanting to get separated.

Our Journey into the city finally led us to a building with a way in. Someone had blown a hole in the side of an old diner, evidence suggesting it was an old wound on the structure’s frozen facade. We made our way inside, and found the snow covered interior was at least marginally better than being out in the snow. Crosshair seemed to blend in with the grey, snow covered room as he disappeared into the shadows. I made my way towards the back rooms and found myself in what looked like an old staff room, complete with lockers and a coffee machine in the corner.

The greedy little pony inside me, rubbed his hooves together in anticipation as I began to loot the cupboards. I found a box of apple bombs cereal, a box of instamash (Just add water.), six cans of beans and a bizarre product called T.I.T Instant meals. I turned to leave and instead saw Crosshair enter, dragging a dirty old mattress into the room.

“Where did you find that thing Crosshair?”

“I found it upstairs elder, it is better we sleep down here however. The upper floors are terribly exposed to the elements.” Crosshair the mattress over to a wider patch of the floor, close to a set of worktops. “Elder,you should rest for now, I’ll take the first watch.”

My body eagerly complied as I trudged over and stepped out of my heavy and partially frozen armor, before collapsing on the reasonably soft mattress.

====================================================================

The heavy hoof-falls awoke me from my slumber. The wind outside had stopped howling, which probably meant the snow had as well. Whoever was outside the room sounded much larger than a regular pony, but those were definitely hooves I heard on the other side of the room. The hooves paused outside the door, I glanced around the room and noticed Crosshair’s absence.

The door shifted forward as the pony on the other side opened the door with excessive brute force. A large head poked into the room, it's huge nostrils flaring as it sniffed the room. It glanced at the mattress on the floor and saw me.

"Ha ha! FOUND YOU!"

Footnote

Inkwell: Level 2

Perk Added: No Pain, No Gain - You gain 25% more experience when crippled, and your DT is permanently increased by 2.

Crosshair: Level 1

Perk Added: Rifle Enthusiast - You are good with rifles, you can zoom in further and have increased accuracy with any rifle, but only when standing on only two hooves.

Author's Notes:

Had a blast writing and then revising this chapter. Can’t express my gratitude to my awesome editor Lesolan, now read his note. ^_^. Next chapter will be back up when it is done.

(Editor Lesolan’s note: We spent 45 minutes on the footnote alone. /faceclaw. Could NOT come up with reasonably non-OP non-high level perks. Multiple disconnects hindered our progress. But we endured, just like IW likes to take it in the mmmmphllpghpdlkbh anyways... So yeah. WOOOH! Done with chapter 2! Only 5 more to go. /facedesk.)