I sat on the couch, happily munching my daisy sandwich, enjoying the texture rather than the flavor, due to my lack of a sense of taste. I jumped as somepony knocked on the door, my telekinesis imploding and launching the meal across the room. I frowned at my sudden lack of control before shaking my head and standing to see my mother trot out of the kitchen to the door, her own sandwich balanced on a paper plate on her head.

“Oh, hi Ashes!” The scar-covered zebra said with her impossibly wide smile. “Come on in. We’re just finishing lunch.”

“And Ah was just cleanin’ mine off ay th’ wall.” Mom gave me a confused look. “Mah magic imploded.”

She replied with a quick nod of understanding, and turned back to Ashes. “How are you doing? Do you want anything?”

The grey earth pony chuckled nervously. “Uh… I kinda just wanted some advice.”

“Oh? Well come have a seat.” She said cheerfully. “What’s on your mind?”

As Ashes trotted over to the couch, I noticed that her ears were down. Quirking an eyebrow at her uncharacteristic behavior, I scraped off my sandwich off of the wall and, with a shrug, stuffed the whole thing into my mouth.

“Uh… I kind of… I think I have a crush on a close friend of mine…” She trailed off and bit her lip, nervously tapping her hooves together.

“That’s great!” Mom cheered. “Is it somepony we know?”

“Uh… well… yeah…” She sighed. “But I don’t know if I should… you know… go after her...”

“Her?” I asked. “Ah thought ye liked bucks.”

She balked. “I do, but… I like mares too… I thought you knew that.”

“Since when?”

“You know that my first kiss was with Jazz, right?” She said flatly. “The three of us even had a big conversation about it.”

I blinked and shook my head. “Ah dunnae remember that.”

Mom snorted. “That’s when I told you about how I used to date this mare that-“

“STOP! I REMEMBER!” I did not want to hear anything about my mother’s teenage love life again... Ever.

“So, what’s wrong?” Mom asked. “Why not just tell her?”

“Well, what if she doesn’t feel the same way?” Ashes seemed to shrink into herself. “I don’t want it to be awkward if she says ‘no’…”

“Ashes, ahm pretty sure Zeed would at least try and make it work.” I left out the fact that I’d seen the zebra ogling Ashes on multiple occasions.

Ashes blushed. “I-I never said it was Zeed!”

“Och please. Ah see how ye blush any time she says somethin’ nice tae ye.” I rolled my eyes. “Ye’ve been doin’ it since ye broke up with Coral.”

Mom smirked. “And I’ve seen how you sigh and get this silly, wistful look on your face whenever she leaves the room.”

Ashes laughed nervously. “Oh… aheh…”

“Just tell her, Ashes.” Mom smiled. “I’m sure she’ll say ‘yes’.”

“Well… I would but…” Ashes sighed and planted her face into the couch cushion. “She’s already dating Flip.”

“Ah thought she was datin’ Slip?”

Ashes waved a hoof dismissively. “No, they broke up a month ago. Goddesses, I think she snogs more than any of us put together.”

Mom grinned a sly and mischievous grin. “Oh, I think I got her beat in that department.”

“AAAGH, MOM!” I put my hooves over my ears. “Ah dunnae want tae hear that!”

She giggled. “Sweetie, you are too fun to mess with. Anyway, just tell her. If nothing else, you’ll at least get it off your chest.”

Ashes smiled lightly. “Yeah. I guess I should…”

She sighed again. “I just hope I don’t screw up…”

~~~~~

We waited until the Bone Eaters had stopped actively looking for us, Which took til midnight. Now, only a few patrols were running around the streets. Zeed tried to get some sleep for the three or four hours we’d hid but, being the insomniac she is, she only ended up constantly shifting in the corner, and the bags under her eyes grew even more visible.

I was relieved when Stock finally gave us the all-clear.

The only thing that kept us hidden as we snuck out was the darkness, due to the fact that that the only ones who knew anything about stealth were Zeed and myself. Even then we were really bad at it.

We ducked behind anything we could. Cars, doors, piles of rubble, lampposts. I was the first one to go to the each hiding spot, due to my ability to see in the dark, and check if it was clear. Then I quietly called the others over, and we’d repeat the process.

Surprisingly, nothing happened. I had expected the Bone Eaters to put up more guards or something after our attempt at breaking in, but there were only two or three patrolling the streets, and they were easy to avoid, due to being drunk off their asses.

Eventually, we came to a small, single-floor building, and decided to take a quick rest and check where we were.

“Where is it, Raid?” Zeed whispered from behind me. “I can’t see anything.”

“It should be over here.” He replied. “Knives, can you see anypony?”

I peeked around the corner, my weird right eye’s night vision giving me a perfectly clear, though colorless, view of what appeared to be a tunnel heading downward into the side of a hill. “Nae. Not a pony in sight.”

“Any turrets?” Asked Stock. “I never got a good look at the place.”

“Uh… Ah cannae see any obvious ones…” I shrugged.

“Guess we should get moving then.” With that, Raid began to sneak down the street once more, with me and Zeed immediately behind him, and Stock watching our backs.

We continued hiding behind anything that would cover us, just in case, as we moved. Eventually, we reached the entrance to the tunnel. I stole a quick glance around.

“Alright, so, where’s the parking lot?” I asked.

“It’s down here, come on.”

“Down… why is there a parking lot down there?” I quirked an eyebrow before I remembered that he couldn’t see it in the darkness.

He gave me a confused look. “Because it’s an underground parking lot?”

“Why is there a parking lot under the ground?” I reiterated.

“Knives, do you realize how much space a parking lot takes up? Most of the ones in Canturbury go underground. Saves space and makes for more interesting city planning.” He swept a hoof around, indicating the wasteland. “Most of the lots in Canturbury that are still standing are underground. I think the only one that’s at ground level is way up near the mountains.”

Zeed growled in frustration. “Riveting as this conversation is, can we get a move on, please?”

Rolling my eyes at the mare, I followed Raid down into the darkness. Raid shone his pipbuck light around the tunnel.

The concrete tunnel was just barely large enough for two auto-carts to fit in side-by-side and still have enough room for a single-file line of ponies to walk. It was almost featureless save for a few support beams on the pedestrian side, which was separated from the rest of the area by a chain-link fence, now laden with massive gaps. The area was filled with the eerie sound of dripping water. There was a series of lights on the ceiling, half broken, and all of them off. The ground was still a bit damp from the storm we rode in on, and the numerous cracks were filled with small amounts of water. Apparently, a sizeable amount of the rain had gone straight down here.

“Luna’s Moon it’s dark …” Zeed whispered.

“Nae kiddin’. Ah thought this place would ay had power in it.”

Raid hrrrm-ed. “Maybe the storm took it out yesterday?”

“It seems wet enough.” I replied. “If we can find a generator or somethin’, Ah’ll take a look at it and see what Ah can dae.”

“Good.” Stock chuckled. “I think you’re the only one who can see down here.”

As we descended further, I noticed through holes in the walls and ceiling that the place was filled with pipes. I could hear them rattling, which led me to believe that the complex might have functional plumbing. Regularly, the tunnel would level out and spread into another level of parking, where the whole thing would make a left turn and start going down again.

“How deep is this thing?” Zeed mused. “It feels like we’ve been walking for hours…”

Raid took a look at his pipbuck. “About… four hundred feet. We should almost be there.”

“This is taking forever.” The zebra groaned.

“Relax, Zeed. We’ll get there eventually.” I said.

“The ‘eventually’ is what’s annoying me-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

I stood in shock as my friend tripped on a cracked block of concrete and started tumbling down the tunnel, which had suddenly become about twice as steep. Normally, a slope like that would have made me a bit nervous due to how high it looked, but I was too stunned to notice. I did, however, notice the sound of metal clanking off of the concrete somewhere. After about five seconds of rolling, she stopped in the middle of the slope.

“ZEED!” I yelled as I broke out of my shocked state and rushed down, easily preventing myself from tripping due to the fact that I could actually see where I was going. “Zeed, are you alright?”

“Ohhhhh... My head…” She moaned. “I’m not dead am I?”

I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Nae, but ye sure as hell scared the crap out ay meh.”

I helped her back to her hooves, only to have her stumble again. With a frown, she looked at her hoof and groaned. “Crap… I threw a shoe.”

“Och, are ye buckin’ kiddin’ me?” I groaned back as I started to search through the metal pieces in my mane. “Ah dunnae have th’ tools fer that!”

“Tools for what? You don’t need tools for a shoe.” Raid said as he started shining his light on the ground. “Ah! Here-“

He stared at the rubberized metal shoe lying in the spot where the floor leveled out again. “This is a shoe?”

“Och, Ah dunnae even have any nails.” I sighed. “Ye want me tae-“

I was interrupted by both Raid and Stock screaming almost simultaneously, both with a horrified look. “WHAT?”

The sound echoed in my skull, as well as the rest of the tunnel.

“You actually nail these things in?” Stock gasped.

“Holy fucking shit…” was Raid’s response. “That just sounds horrible…”

“Well how else are we going to keep them on?” Zeed snorted.

With a blank expression, Raid held up his front hooves, pressed them together, and slid one over the other. He then proceeded to hold up what looked like a clear slipper covered in. “Everypony just wears slip-ons…”

“With adhesive gel.” Stock said flatly. “Goddesses, nails? Really? Why don’t you go and burn the frogs of your hooves off while you’re at it?”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s nae that bad.”

“Yeah. It doesn’t even hurt.” Zeed said. “Besides, it’s not like everypony in the prison wears them. I mean, yeah… most do, but that’s because the floors can get slippery.”

Raid’s eye twitched. “That has to be one of the- no. No. I’m not getting into this. For fucks sake your prison uses a balefire reactor. I’m not getting into this.”

Now Stock’s eyes widened. “They use a what?”

“Nope! Not getting into this!” He shouted.

Snickering, I turned to Zeed. “Ye want me tae take ‘em off fer ye? Shouldnae take too long.”

“Please? I think there’s a hammer somewhere in your bag.”

~~~~~

Removing Zeed’s shoes had taken about 2 hours, according to Raid’s clock, due to the lack of tools and my weak magic. Raid and Stock had gone ahead to scout the area, leaving the two of us alone.

“Ask him out.” Zeed said as we trotted down the tunnel. She was walking oddly, mostly because she had never gone unshod before.

I groaned. “Fer fuck’s sake Zeed, will ye quit pullin’ tha’ out at random?”

She grinned. “I’m not doing it at random. I’m doing it whenever we’re alone.”

I gave her a brief glare. “Ye know what Ah meant. Ah’ll say somethin’ when Aam damn good an’ readeh.”

“Which is when the world has ended.” She replied. “…again.”

“Stop tryin’ tae mess with mah love life.” I said.

“Why? You need all the help you can get.”

I let out a growl of frustration. “Yer one tae talk.”

“How so?” She quirked an eyebrow.

“Ashes.” I said. “She may have screwed up pretty damn bad, but ye still overreacted. Ah happen tae recall ye sayin’ somethin’ along the lines ay-“

“’I am never going to forgive you.’ I remember.” The zebra winced. “And I regret every single word.”

She sighed. “I miss her so much…”

We kept walking in silence for a few moments. Taking a glance at her, I saw that she was dragging her hooves, and her ears were down. I sighed, and tried to cheer her up a bit. “Zeed, Aam sure it’ll turn out alright. Just talk wi’ her.”

“I doubt she’d even want to see me.”

“She was crying her eyes out when ye said that.”

“I told her I hated her…”

“Why dae ye think she was cryin’? It wasn’t just because ay what she did.”

“I shouldn’t have blown up at her.” Zeed sniffled.

“Zeed, if ye didnae blow up at her, Ah woulda been surprised. That’s why Ah told her tae wait until Ah was there tae tell ye. Fer fuck’s sake… from what ye told me, she said it wi’ sae much self-loathing…” I shook my head. “It was just th’ worst possible way fer her tae say it, and at th’ worst possible time.”

Zeed sighed again, and I facehooved. I was trying to cheer her up, not depress her even more. “Look… Ye’ll both work it out. Just be patient.”

There was a loud metallic clanking noise in the distance, and I heard Raid scream in pain, followed by the sound of Stock laughing. “GAAAAGH! SON OF A BITCH!”

“Raid?” I called out. “Ye alright?”

“I’m fine. Just… stuck…” He replied.

“Dumb-fuck got his flank stuck in an air duct!” Stock gasped through her laughing.

Zeed and I rounded the corner to see that Raid had, indeed, gotten himself stuck in an air duct. They were in front of a door, with a large hole in the ceiling. On the ground just under the hole was a large section of the duct, which had Raid’s hind legs dangling out the back. Stock was on her back laughing heavily. She was soon joined by Zeed, who had burst out laughing the instant she saw Raid’s predicament. I tried to suppress my own giggles, choosing to snicker instead.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ve achieved my life-long dream of becoming a big metal burrito.” Raid groaned. “Now can somepony please help me out of this damn thing?”

Still trying very hard not to laugh, I grabbed his back legs, braced my hoof against the duct, and yanked him out. Slowly, he stood, and stretched his back. “Ow…”

“What in th’ hell were ye doin’ in there anyway?” I asked.

He pointed to the door. “Trying to get that unlocked.”

“By goin’ through an air duct.”

“I was hoping it would unlock from the other side.” He said flatly. “Neither of us can get the door open.”

I stared at him for a second. “The air ducts... which lead to a ventilation system.”

“Uh... Yes?” He replied.

“Alright, Ah dunnae what nonsense ye’ve been readin’ in those comic books, but in real life, air ducts just lead to an air conditionin’ unit.” All I received in response was a blank stare, and I facehooved.

After a moment, I asked, “Did ye at least remember tae ckeck th’-“

“Yes, I remembered to check the power cables this time. They’re all connected.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m not that stupid. We just need a password to get this thing open.”

I looked at the door, a large, metal thing seemingly decorated with various locks and seals, with a terminal embedded into the wall next to it.

“Zeed? Ye want tae try it? Aam nae too good wi’ computers…”

The zebra shrugged, and trotted over. Of course, when she got over to it, Stock started laughing again. Zeed gave her a confused look. “What’s so funny?”

“I didn’t realize how short you were!” The ghoul guffawed. “Wow, it’s actually past your eye level.”

Zeed glared at her for a moment. Slowly, she rose up on her hind legs, crossed her forelegs, and continued glaring, tapping one of her back hooves in an irritated manner. Stock promptly stopped laughing. Under her breath she muttered, “Stupid zebras and their sense of balance…”

After a few seconds of tapping at the keys with her front hooves, Zeed dropped back to all four hooves and proudly proclaimed, “Done!”

Then the door opened, and we were met with an incredibly cold blast of air. I shuddered from the cold, and could see Zeed do the same, though she bit her lip in a weird way. Stock and Raid, however, simply stood there with bemused expressions.

“Drafty.” Said the ghoul.

“That’s an understatement.” Raid said.

“G-goddesses... T-ten seconds and Aam already sh-shivering.” I said through my chattering teeth. “Ah can feel it through mah jacket.”

Raid took his own jacket off and offered it to me. I raised an eyebrow. “What about ye?”

He shrugged and smiled. “I’ve been in colder places. You need it more than I do.”

“What ab-bout Z-zeed?” I asked nervously, a blush appearing on my face.

“I’m fine, Knives. Cold doesn’t…” She shifted uncomfortably and swallowed. “Bother me… Per se…”

With a smile, I donned the leather jacket, slipping it on over my denim one. Within seconds, I felt the warmth of the enchanted jacket spread through my body, and my shivering subsided.

Stock was the first to go through the door, followed by Raid, myself and the Zeed.

The hallway was completely coated with ice. There was a loud rushing noise coming from the air vents, along with freezing cold air that I could actually see moving despite the ambient temperature. Half of the doors on the sides of the hallway were so heavily frosted that I could tell there was no way we were getting them open any time soon. The door at the end of the hall was hanging open, two of its three hinges apparently broken off by the ice over the centuries.

“Goddesses, how in th’ hell did this happen?” I mused.

“Somepony left the freezer open?” Stock snorted. “Who knows what those idiot scientists were up to… Maybe this was deliberate, and they wanted to see what happens when you freeze a building.”

“Somehow Ah doubt they were that stupid.” I said.

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure.” Raid chuckled as he pushed the door aside. “They did some pretty stupid shi-woah…”

I looked past him to see another room, much wider than the hallway, with a large catwalk leading in multiple directions. Just below the edge of the metal walkway, was a thin layer of ice over water that seemed to be churning. I could see another catwalk a long way down through the cracks in the ice, and another one below that. The sight of it was coming very close to triggering my acrophobia, so I looked straight up and saw that there were three more levels above this.

“Cool.” I said. Zeed smacked me in the back of the head. I glanced at the zebra, who was still biting her lip for whatever reason, and grinned. “Sorry.”

Raid rolled his eyes. “Bad puns aside, we should keep moving.”

He casually trotted out to the middle of the catwalk.

“Uh… Blue? I don’t think this is a good idea.” Stock called out. “Ya can’t swim, remember?”

He stopped, and turned to deadpan at the ghoul. “Really? I completely forgot that I lack a somewhat-important survival skill.”

“I’m serious. That thing is probably rusted like nopony’s business.”

“It’s fine, Stock. The catwalk’s not going to break.” Raid turned back around and continued trotting.

Then there was a loud beep, and he froze, his eyes popping wide open.

“Oh. Fuck.”

The catwalk exploded, throwing Raid into the metal wall just behind us with incredible force and a sickening crunch, producing a massive dent. He gasped with pain.

He remained there for half a second, while all of us stared at him in complete and utter shock. Half a second passed, and he fell into the water with a splash.

“RAID!” I screamed as I dove in without even thinking..

Behind me I heard Zeed shout, “Knives, what in Luna’s name are you doing?”

I didn’t respond. Instead, I swam through the freezing water towards the barely-conscious stallion, who was currently sinking at a rapid pace. I reached out with my magic which, while far too weak to actually pull him up, was enough to keep him from sinking further and slightly reduce his weight. I grabbed his shirt with my teeth, and began to haul him upwards.

I then realized that I’d made a stupid, stupid mistake. I’d jumped into freezing water, and I was not a good swimmer. Add to that the fact that I had a large amount of metal tied into my mane, I found that I was sinking like a rock. Suddenly panicking, I redoubled my efforts to reach the surface.

There was a splash, and I was met with the sight of Stock swimming towards me, flapping her wings as though in flight. She swooped down, grabbed me in one wing, Raid in the other, and shot back up through the water, where Zeed pulled Raid onto the nearest intact section of the catwalk. I pulled myself up next to him, coughing, spluttering, shivering, and for the most part regretting my decision to jump into freezing water.

Over my own hacking, I heard Raid spit up a considerable amount of water, gasping in pain repeatedly as whatever injury he had was aggravated by his coughing.

“Who the fuck uses force mines?” Stock screamed. “Seriously? What the fuck?”

“Raid, can you tell me where it hurts?” Zeed asked.

“My back…” He gasped.

She put her hoof on him and he gasped.

He struggled to stand on all fours, and took a knife out of one of his pockets. Taking it in his teeth, he pulled the collar of his soaked shirt away with a hoof and cut into it.

“Blue, what are you doing?” Stock gasped. “You’re supposed to be incognito!”

The stallion glared at her. “Fuck cognito, I’m in pain.”

He started tearing his shirt open, gasping once again as it snagged on his elbow.

I grabbed the knife with my magic and started cutting through the fabric for him. He thanked me, and I started pulling off my own soaking wet shirt, as well as the leather jacket, before I started to freeze. I threw the clothing through the door, where it landed with a wet slap by the wall.

“Here. Ye might want this back.” I turned to hoof Raid’s jacket over to him, and my jaw dropped.

Celetia’s white-hot flanks he’s a pegasus, was my first thought upon noticing the two rather large wings on his back.

They were the same color as his coat, but for the tips, which were a much darker shade of blue. My eyes drifted down the wings, tracing their shape in my brain, noticing that the feathers seemed a bit off, until they stopped at his back, where they lingered on his apparently incredibly well-toned form. There were a couple of rough patches where I could only assume the fur had grown back over a scar, but other than that it was a smooth sea of ultramarine fur. I could see the muscles moving beneath his coat as he twitched his wings, trying to figure out where-

I blinked as I realized that I’d been ogling an injured stallion for about half a minute.

Despite my best efforts to fight it back… despite the fact that a friend had possibly been seriously injured... a blush appeared on my face, and a single thought entered my brain.

Holy crap… he’s fucking hot…

~~~~~

It was dark as they trotted through the wasteland.

Green followed Wretch very closely, occasionally stopping to check and make sure her canned drink was still in her pocket, while Wretch was happily humming a tune.

A small shack came into view, and Wretch cocked her head at it in a curious way, changing course to approach it.

She stopped just in front of the shack, a small rectangular thing made entirely out of metal sheets and what looked like a few wooden planks. She circled around it a few times, while Green sat nearby and watched the older mare with a look of confusion.

“Um… Wretch?” She asked tentatively. “What are you doing?”

“I like this.” Wretch replied cheerfully. “It’s interesting.”

Green blinked, somewhat disturbed by the pink-and-black pony’s fascination with common wasteland architecture. “What?”

“A whole thing made out of scrap! That’s cool.” The mare smiled, and knocked on the door.

There wasn’t an answer, so she went inside, with the still confused filly following her in.

The room was nicely refurbished, which was odd for a shack in the middle of the wasteland, but the skeleton lying on the bed gave some clue as to why it was this way.

Green inspected it for a moment, and shoved it off so she could sit on the bed.

Wretch began searching through the room’s single wardrobe, humming that same tune and occasionally looking back at Green to see how the filly was doing. The small pegasus was curled up into a small ball, wide awake, but clutching her stomach with her forehooves.

“Are you alright, Green?”

Green looked at the older mare with a surprised look. “Oh… Uh… Y-yes. I’m fine. W-why?”

“You look like your stomach’s hurting again.” Wretch raised an eyebrow. “You feeling sick?”

Green shook her head. “No. No. I’m not sick. I’m fine, really.”

“Green, if you’re not feeling well you can just tell me. I’d be glad to stop for a while and give you some rest.”

“I swear, I’m okay.” Green pleaded.

Wretch sighed, wishing her friend would stop being so nervous, and returned to rifling through the drawers.

She was interrupted by an extremely loud growl coming from the bed.

She stared at the filly, who tried very hard not to blush in embarrassment.

“Was that you?” Wretch asked.

Green gulped. “No…”

The pink mare smirked. “Come on, Green. Tell the truth.”

Green sniffled. “I’m sorry.”

Wretch sighed, and rolled her eyes. “Come here. Let’s get some food in you.”

“Bu-“

“No buts. If your stomach is still that loud, you obviously need food.” The unicorn levitated several snack cakes out of her saddlebags and floated them over to the filly.

“Bu-“

“Green, just trust me.” Wretch trotted over and patted her on the back. “But don’t go crazy like last time.”

Green blushed, but relented.

“I’m going to go look outside, alright?”

Green nodded, and watched as the older mare left the room.

She promptly scarfed down every single snack cake.

-----

Footnote 1: Diamond Knives
Level up! (11)
Repair : 91
Explosives: 50
Melee weapons: 86

Perks:
In your face!: Opponents get a -10% chance to hit you when you are in melee range and only holding a melee weapon or are unarmed.

~~~

Footnote 2: Zeed Kazdri
Level up! (10)
Energy Weapons: 80
Medicine: 100 (maximum achieved)
Science: 53

Perks:
Future Mare (1/3): Your love of comics has given you insight into the use of lasers, plasma, and rail-gun type weapons. You gain +5% critical chance and +5% Critical damage per rank of this perk.

~~~~

Footnote 3: Raid (???)
Level up! (11)
Speech: 74
Intense Training: +1 Intelligence

`
Quests:
Active Quest:
O’ Father, Where Art Thou?: Infiltrate or assault the Bone Eaters’ base near Bladesville.

Other quests:
Sifting through the dust:
1) Find information on the location of Ashes.

2) Find information on the location of Obsidian Knives

3)–Find information on the location of Nezan Kazdri

-----

(Author’s Notes)

Force/concussive mines are never fun. Especially in the games where they disarm you. That is just obnoxious and makes no sense.

-Delakirus

Thanks to Kkat for Fallout Equestria, and Somber for Project Horizon. Thanks to Matkingos for making sure this doesn’t suck as much as usual. Thanks to whomever reads this, and again, critiques are very much welcome.