"Fast! Thine injuries... land a moment, please!" The high pitched yelp of the batpony on my tail just made me groan, pointing out the obvious while I kept pushing to catch up to the mark in on my compass.

It's not like I couldn't tell she was right, I drank a healing potion already but they weren't as effective anymore. Surprisingly, it's actually difficult to find a nice, radioactive toxic dump or something when you actually want one. I spent most of my time since leaving Stable 111 trying to avoid such places, now I was still scanning the ground weaving along under me to find one.

Blood was still dribbling down my coat and spattering to the ugly, rolling hills and I kept losing altitude. Witching Hour left had Zed to deal with our rescued hostage and easily caught up to me after I left the destruction of the Skybridge, worriedly sticking close and refusing to abandon her mission, where I went, she went. She was a great deal faster and better than me in the air anyway, as my injuries caught up to me, the gap had just widened.

"But... Val..." I croaked and kept trying, why couldn't I just instantly be good at this dammit, Zed's batwing making zebra fetish gave him better skills than me, I had to catch up to my griffon friend somehow, she hadn't looked or sounded good when she flew off.

My thestral tail snorted and gave me a shove towards the ground, "Thou can't help her if you pass out or die stupid! Land or I shall make you! There! W-Water will work, right?"

Ugh.... yes, there was plenty of that in this part of the Commonwealth, lots of swamp and floodplains, the pond she pointed out seemed a better option at least, I caught a glimpse of yellow at the shores. Who would believe I'd be grateful for all the illegal dumping of toxic magical byproducts that had become endemic during the last days of the war, but the yellow barrels rusting at the shore would be a good deal more useful than just the mild tingle of regular creeks and swamps.

Fighting my urge to just keep going, I admitted she was right and veered that way, making a lurching, looping dive that ended with me splashing down and smacking one of the containters with a bong, wincing and holding my foreleg as my pip-buck immediately started chattering. Oooohhhh that was better... A surge of rads that started knitting wounds together as effectively as any healing potion, the needle on my rainbow colored gauge climbing steadily from the blue 'clean' zone, up to green, filling me with energy.

Witchy landed at the shore and watched in fascination, prancing at the lapping water and keeping her distance while I sat and waited. This wasn't as good as finding some spare balefire bomb crater or cracking the shielding on an arcano-flux reactor, but it was strong enough to work with, better take advantage while I could despite how anxious I was to get up and moving again.

"There, good.... I would attempt to treat you, but it seems that is much better than what my own skills can manage. Are you alright? H-How does that feel anyway?" Witchy kept watching my various gunshots and ragged wounds regenerating, a note of awe in her voice at the show.

"Weird... Good... Er, Jade likes it a lot more than I do, maybe if feels better for real... umm... real I.M.P. alicorns, but it does feel pretty good. Give me a second, then I'm going again, alright?" I splashed in place, fluffling my wings to wash the blood out and soak up more, faster.

I kept staring at the radiation counter on my hoof, up to yellow and climbing... If I was going to treat the device as a power gauge now, I wanted it topped off into the purple if I could. At least my concern for Val let me ignore the resulting friskiness, my only real observation on doing this so far had been the more energy I had, the more I wanted to DO. Violence was an acceptable substitute for other more enjoyable exercise at least, a good thing with the pretty batpony with me.

"You don't have to come Witchy. I don't know what's wrong with her, but I'll come right back as soon as I find out. You really don't have to keep shadowing me everywhere, I said I'd come to your town already." Come on... crossing into orange slowly now....

Witching Hour just shook her head and took the opportunity to check her weapons, the gleaming anti-materiel rifle still attached to her matching armor. "You are my mission, I can't leave you alone, sorry. I... I am concerned for Miss Valkyrie too, we've talked a bit, she is a strange but funny griffon..."

"That's a good summation of her alright... Which is why I'm worried, she doesn't act like that usually, she never leaves me alone during a fight or runs off. Gotta get to her, catch up as quick as we can."

"How will you find her? Are we going the right direction still? I have seen no signs to track...." Witchy asked curiously, making me wave with my pip-buck bearing foreleg to her and tap the screen.

"Locator Tag, shows up right on the map wherever she is... mostly, the Institute was able to mask it, otherwise I've never run into much else that gets in the way though."

She craned her neck to take a better look, prancing on the shore but still avoiding the pleasant clicking from my hoof. Her slitted amber eyes crawled over the device in appreciation, stretching a lavender-grey hoof out wanting a closer look but held back. "Ah, I had heard they could do such things, but never seen one working before. From your Stable you told me of?"

Looking into her interested, sparkling eyes, I tried to focus on Val and had an idea to distract me. Mid orange on the radiation meter would have to be good enough and I fluttered out and over. "Yup, actually I have like 100 of the things or so... Not on me of course, but I do hold on to a few in case I meet somepony I like and trust. How would you like a present Witchy?"

A squeaky gasp came with her wary look, glancing at the pip-buck and up to me hopefully, speaking slowly with caution. "I... Y-You would let me have such a thing?"

That decided me, so far Witchy always acted surprised at any act of kindness or gift, which seemed strange and sad. I floated out my orange handled pip-buck key and one of the remaining devices in the depths of my bags, carefully hovering it over to her waiting foreleg and clicking it in place.

Getting close enough to run through the startup sequence was distracting, all that lovely batpony right next to me, but I managed to get through it and watch the health status screen. The cartoon pony flickered, changed to a pegasus, then seemed unsatisfied after getting a good read on her biology, the feathery illustrated wings changed to leathery thestral ones instead with a beep.

I watched smiling as she blinked and shook her head at the HUD coming up in her vision, her eyes widening as she reached a hoof out to touch the floating display and giggled getting used to it. Suddenly giving a high pitched whoop of pure joy, she tackled me in a wildly inadvisable hug, nuzzling and chirping happily. "Thank you! Oh thank you Fast, this is wonderful! I never..."

"O-O-Ok! E-Easy! Too close! H-Hugging... Too nice!"

She squeaked and turned an even prettier rosy color, flapping away in a rush as I shot up into the night and tried hide my own blush. Val needed help, not the time for... I'm in charge body! At least she had a good idea of the problem and wasn't insulted, giving a bashful shrug and hugging her new pip-buck to her breast as she flew up with me. "S-Sorry! Just... thank you Fast, very much!'

"N-No problem... really... Umm, I should probably tell you a few things about pip-bucks, w-while we're catching up and all..."

For once, somepony was willing to raptly listen to my tutorial! Explaining how to make use of the arcano-tech device at her hoof let me focus on nice, safe repair-pony business; S.A.T.S. and Eyes Forward Sparkle, Inventory sorting spells, auto mapping functions, a click of the radio filling the chilly night with soft music to her delight. Anything other than the pretty filly beside me or the griffon I was scared for ahead. Witchy had been right to make me stop, beyond physically, I had to have my shit together mentally too as we closed in on Val, she needed me.

Discovered Location: Rockberry

"W-What is that? How does it know what this place is called?" Witchy gasped as we circled the ruined town below, she must have gotten that little map update too.

"Not entirely sure actually... Pre-war places like this had entries in the Stable-Tec database, they know what old places are easy enough. Sometimes they do that for new places too though... They're really smart, at least yours hasn't started making suggestions to you yet right?"

"Suggestions? Pip-bucks do such things for you?" She replied incredulously, eyeing both her own and me suspiciously. Yep, hers wasn't giving her missions yet either.... Why just mine?

"Not usually, no... Don't worry about it, now... why would she be in there?"

I nodded down to the largest structure remaining in the desolate ruins, trying to wiggle a hoof in my ear at that annoying whine I could barely hear that kept coming back. No friendly town or anything here, just shattered streets and businesses, all surrounding an imposing fortress of brick and columns, the rusting red letters mostly hanging on above the multiple front doors reading 'Talon's Department Store'.

"Where? I still don't understand how you know where she is with this, it is a lovely gift but... am I missing something?" Witchy replied in confusion, of course, she didn't have my wealth of locator tags or know how to bring them up even if she did.

Spotting a good enough spot to land, I glided down to an old parking garage across the street from the store and waved her over. A few clicks and taps through her menus transferred Val's tag info, along with my own. "There, see it?" At her wide eyed nod she turned right towards the ugly looking ruins and I continued. "You have my tag too, so now you don't have to stay right on my tail to keep an eye on me, right?"

Her flat stare kind of ruined any hopes of assuaging her with the new ability to track me, fancy leg computer was nice, but she was still determined to keep me right in front of her. I guessed after all the frustration of trying to find me in Goodneighbor, with so many other ponies dressed the same as me for Nightmare Night, she was pretty leery of letting me get away again.

Instead she tossed her head and trotted over to the rusting railing, stretching up on her hindlegs to lean over the bent bars, peering over at the store below. "It looks inhabited... well, not inhabited, but somepony has been in and out frequently enough... This place is creepy though Fast, no zombies or monsters nearby, just empty and dead..."

E.F.S. and my enhanced senses agreed, nothing but blowing trash moved down there. Rockberry was desolate and dead, even by wasteland standards... Multiple sets of stairs led up from the cracked sidewalks and up to a large plaza in front of the doors, a corroded statue atop a fountain showed a griffon with wings outstretched, claws matching in a wide welcome that was kind of countered by the blood and corpses surrounding it...

"Pretty good learning to use Eyes Forward Sparkle so fast Witchy, it is weird there's nothing down there though."

She blinked at me a moment and her bright orange eyes looked down, noticing the compass in her vision again and shaking her head. "Oh! No, I meant... I am unused to relying on anything so convenient, I don't get anything back when I sound though."

At my confused blank look in return, she smiled and leaned over the railing, opening her mouth after a deep inhale and shouting... nothing? It looked like she was yelling something, but no sound came out.... wait, there was that odd, high frequency whine again that I kept hearing, but with so many new noises I hadn't paid much attention. She was making that noise?

After a moment her soft lips closed and the noise stopped, it really was her. She held still and listened carefully, her tufted ears twitching before she turned and nodded smartly after the odd display, "Nothing. Nothing living in range anyway, hard to tell with all the obstacles and junk, but it is very empty..."

That was interesting... I really knew almost nothing about batponies, they were the elite, Luna's personal guard, us regular ponies didn't exactly run into them often outside of Canterlot before the world ended, now... I was pretty curious about this Dreadnot she hailed from, but like most of my vague goals, it kept getting pushed back.

Good enough for me anyway, I vaulted the rails and drifted down the the fountain statue at the entrance. My stomach tried to flop around at the stench down here, someone had decorated the statue with bodies, artfully arranged bodies that had not died well... the fountain below filled with congealing blood just topped off the macabre display.

It was such a contrast to the happy looking statue too... Griffon statues in pony towns were pretty infrequent, this one didn't look that old either. A joyous looking female griffon of tarnished copper, wide eyes and beaming smile, her plumage swept back into a tail behind her head, her stance wide and welcoming, wings and claws spread open to the sky, beckoning customers in.

This griffon even had a cutie mark etched into the metal flanks for some reason, a corroded shield somewhat like my own, vertical bars and a trophy. Though I had to wipe away viscera clinging there to get a look after spotting the indistinct lines, for a moment thinking a prewar griffon bizarrely had one of the Gunner's barcode like tattoos there. Floating more sludge and gore away from the base queasily to clear off the small bronze plaque, reading it to myself as Witchy landed beside me;

"S-Someone you knew?" Witchy asked with only a note of disbelief, still trying to absorb the fact I was actually around when this griffon was.

"No... I was just a foal you know, and not nearly so popular... I don't know everyone from before the war Witchy, or even a lot about them except for celebrities like the Ministry Mares and stuff. My mom was friends with griffons, I didn't know one started Talon's though. This is the biggest one of these department stores I've seen, the one my parents took me to wasn't near as fancy. She just... reminds me of Val, most griffons I've met don't look so happy..."

I was still in a hurry, but something about that griffon tugged at me, now that I said it I realized I was right, she did remind me quite a bit of Val and even a little of mom's friend Auntie Broom. Though how much could you tell from a statue? Then again, what griffon would pay to have a statue made that depicted them that way? So happy and kind? Val might toss a rude gesture or sultry pose in for fun, but she'd probably look like that as a statue too.

A series of explosions shook the building over us, sending the dangling S in 'Store' down in a crash nearby. Explore wasteland ruins later, Val first! I ran for the center doors and yanked them open, dashing into the gloomy space inside without a thought with the batpony at my side.

"More contestants! What fun, eh Val? Oho, looks like you were right, there's your boss now! One of those cowardly bats from Dreadnot too! Welcome to Talon's! Ready to play?"

My weapons were drawn in a flash at the static filled voice filling the bizarre store, a sudden clang of metal slamming down behind me had me flap up and spin in the air, the entrance... A booby trap? Those sturdy steel shutters blocked off any escape, and I had gone high enough to bash my head into rusty chain link fencing, strung across the open area leading up to the higher floors of the three story department store.

I floated back down rubbing my head and getting a better look at what trap we had walked right into. This place was more than just ruined by time, somebody had been actively helping the years along, decorating what I could see in displays that put the fountain outside to shame. Corpses were dressed and posed in sickening dioramas next to ponyquins, blood and gore spattered the walls in crazy swoops and curls, skulls were stacked in little pyramids in the broken glass of the nearest store off the main open area...

We were in what had been the entrance / food court, only a few empty shells of eateries and tipped carts with rotting umbrellas among all the junk to tell. Each counter facing the open area had been the subject of the insane interior decorator in charge here. What looked like an old pizza place originally had a pair of ponies hanging out of the big ovens in the wall. A large spit was lanced straight through another recent body and rotating over a bed of coals in front of another ruined eatery, the cooked foal had a sickly apple stuck in his mouth, and the smell...

I was horrified, both because of the choking reek filling this place, and the cloying scent of that poor cooked colt making my fangs twitch. Meat... They made him meat... and I... That sneering voice echoing from the speakers laughed as more explosions sounded out above us with a screech, breaking me out of the terrible thoughts chasing each other in my head, Val!

"Oh no, our new players came in the wastelander's entrance, not the tribute one Val, you'll just have to try to find each other, meet in the middle huh? Or fail again, let him die and come get me, I know you've missed me Valkyrie, still one of my greatest works of art aren't you?"

Val's voice echoed through the cavernous space from somewhere far above, full of pain and fury, followed by more explosions shaking dust from the rafters.

Alright, taking a better look, I realized whoever set all this up had made a hideous maze out of the place, arrows pointed to ways through the warren of junk and corpses, crumbling crap from above shoved in piles to make rough pathways deeper into the store, the gleaming silver of triplines flashing back to my eyes from the nearest. Traps... they liked traps...

A pair of dead escalators led up to the second floor, while the first floor stretched out ahead and turned right in the darkness ahead. This place was a labyrinth, a maze fit for any minotaur, full of traps and bombs by the sound and quick glimpses of pressure plates and tension triggers now leaping out at me. 'Awareness!'

'The Wastelander's Entrance...' That's what he called this, meaning any poor scavenger that gave Talon's Department Store a try hoping for long lost loot, would find themselves part of this sick game and trapped. The offhoofed mention of the 'Tribute's Entrance' made me think of the ponynapped Mint Twist from Eclipse too, somehow I doubted they'd let her go after they had their fun with her, she was probably going to end up here...

The dark Shroud in my head roared to life at too much, too fast. The corpses, the smells, the mind that would do something like this, Val's hurt tone and the crackling taunts warbling through the functional speakers... All of it was just feeding that black core of fury, I didn't need to know why Val hated the griffon she had chased here anymore, I wanted him dead myself, and not quickly... 'Be Dark...'

Up... that's where Val was, that's where I was going. I sent Best Served ahead of me as I flapped, a gleaming flash that sliced through the fencing overhead. This place was designed around ground ponies, pegasi had to be pretty rare targets judging by the more recent looking additions partitioning off the floors.

The starmetal blade parted the barrier like butter and I flew forward, grunting and pushing my way through the opening and out into open air. Blockades aside, Talon's had been built totally open, from the barred skylights letting dim moonlight in from the roof, to the littered floor, the upper floors looking down on the open space from rotting wooden railing at the sides. Fences were not enough to stop me from just ignoring the maze and going straight up towards Val, I was coming, just hang on...

"FAST! LOOK OUT!" Witchy squealed from behind me, tugging her way through the gap and pointing at my distracted look back.

I felt a light thump, something small just hanging in the air that dropped away at the lightest touch, something small and round I tried to dive away from just as it exploded and sent me sailing. My attempt to jerk left at least went with the direction of the concussion, I crashed through the railing and rolled into a shattered display, a ponyquin wearing rags and a corpse strung up like a marionette.

Groaning my way back up, I winced at the flare of pain in my poor new wing. The right was shredded, bleeding and bent at an alarming angle. I had them such a short time before seriously fucking one up too... Holding my hurt new appendage to myself with a whimper at the unfamiliar pain, I looked out past the rails I smashed and spotted more of the round objects, looooots more...

Witchy carefully pulled herself free and ran across the springy fencing, not daring to fly up among all those grenades. They were scattered everywhere, hanging from the heavier bars and grates welded together to block the third floor by nearly invisible wires at every level, an aerial maze of touchy explosives. Turns out the fencing wasn't the only concession to airborne victims then...

"Ah, ah, ah.... Cheating to just go right through 'Shroud', I put such work in my little playground here, can't have pegasi putting it all to waste can I? You're interrupting a long overdue reunion here, the least you could do is play the game right..."

Every taunt was just stoking the flames burning behind my eyes, that son of a bitch.. he thought this was fun! Delighted in the torture and suffering he was watching from somwhere safe apparently. Vengeance spun in my magic and blasted the nearest speaker I could see, a screech of feedback flattening Witchy's ears as she scrambled over and dug in her packs, pulling out magical bandages and trying to wrap my wing quickly.

The Shroud's voice tolled out, but there wasn't any comic inspired lines this time, no clever quips or urges to run and be better. I was in complete agreement with the darkest part of myself, that griffon was going to die, if I had to blow this whole place to smithereens to do it, that's what I'd do. Once Val was safe...

"Don't let him goad you! Thou art injured, you can't fly already! Who knows what else he has waiting for..." Witchy bound my crippled wing after tugging it straight with a yelp of pain. She was right, but that gruff, sadistic voice still echoing through this place...

"Awwww... Getting mad Shroud? Come and find me then, if you can. I wouldn't suggest trying to just avoid my playground entirely again. I guess you could try disarming allllll those little surprises, Valkyrie may not last that long though... Fastest route for a ground bound pegasus like you is through the maze, just follow the arrows, I even left prizes! In the meantime how about I regale you with tales of your traitor bodyguard eh? How much have you told him Val? Anything?"

Val's hurt voice screeched out above, but was overriden by a bump of volume from the speakers as the Gunner griffon spoke over her.

"I'll take that as a no then! Such a poor excuse for a griffon, playing with ponies, keeping secrets from your employer! I thought our time together was special Valkyrie, didn't I carve discipline into that fine form so lovingly? Aren't the marks of my education still with you? You need a refresher course don't you?

Of course I don't have the rest of my crew here to help like last time... This is my private little escape, and you did quite a job wiping out the rest anyway. Feel better? You still dream about having so much personal attention Val? I bet your runty little pegasus friend there just pales in comparison... or can you even bear to be with..."

I screamed in the Shroud's voice and junk rained down from the patchy ceiling at the rattle, Witchy squeaked and ducked away from the fury radiating off me as I panted and stomped back to the grenade laden empty space outside. Those hanging grenades would be a major problem for a pegasus or griffon who'd have to get close to disarm them, one at a time, over and over again... This sadistic Gunter thought I was just another pegasus to toy with too, time to clear that up right now.

My blue magic washed over every darkened metal apple I could find or touch with it, grabbing them all in a cloud and sending them flying away from Val's marker, up to the fences above, over to the walls above the entrance, everywhere safe. The whole building was shaking under the assault of dozens of explosives going off like fireworks, green flashes of plasma, fiery orange clouds that rained shrapnel down, sparking matrix disruption grenades cooking off here and there.

"That... was very unfair... You're not playing by the rules Shroud, ruining the game! Val can tell you all about what happens to rulebreakers, traitors... Of course you won't be as fun to educate, some of the crew likes a buck every once in awhile, but personally.... fine, young griffon flanks are more my taste, isn't that right Val...."

The only answer was Vals echoing screams and more explosions above, followed by Gunter's sadistic chuckle.

"Play the game right, or I stop playing around and finish her... March."

Passing through the housewares department on the second floor, I couldn't help staring into another partitioned room and the depravity inside. This wasn't the first of these we had run across, but each one was sadistically inventive, prize rooms...

Various sections of the store had their wares and displays twisted, some valuable object was put out as an obvious lure and trapped to hell and gone. In this case, it was a heaping bag of caps sitting in the wreck of an office chair, right in the middle of a maze of desks and filing cabinets, all your office needs...

The posed corpse pointing the way into the entryway served as a warning of the stakes, bottlecaps jammed in his eyes and his mouth stretched in a bottlecap studded rictus of a smile, his skin and flesh melted off horribly. Shaking in anger as we passed the room the body pointed to, I saw the teetering vats overhead attached to counterweights barely holding in place. Go in for the caps, make a wrong step and splash! Unfortunately it didn't even seem radioactive either... the sulfur reek in the air said acid...

Witchy was helping lead the way, she kept making that high pitched whine every now and then, finding the more cleverly hidden traps in our path as we kept going, disarming what we couldn't avoid. Gunter was certainly creative when it came to this shit, the batpony glared at a rusty old baby carriage that started convincingly crying, but gave it a wide berth. "This... this place is evil Fast, I knew the Gunners were bad but... but this..."

I grunted in return and tried to stay in control, every step we took further into the Gunner griffon's lair, every fresh travesty and story spelled out in blood, all of it was just feeding the dark Shroud in my head, better than radiation ever could. The only consolation I could attempt to offer was that this seemed like just Gunter's hobby, if the place was staffed with more of his crew it would simply be a slaughterhouse instead of a maze, he did this because he liked doing it...

Glancing into a tiny shop just because of the faded ads for fancy gadgets to try to calm myself, my stomach flopped at the disgusting sight. A pistol in good condition sat propped against an odd box not much bigger than a hoof on a small pedestal, a moldy sign hanging by a single thread above it read; 'Try the latest advancments from Roseluck Pest Solutions!', the puddle of meaty smelling glop and stained barding made me shudder, what the hell kind of trap did that?!

"Fast? Are you sure you're alright? Y-You scare me when you look like that..." Witchy called over cautiously from a rusting steel shutter closing off another shop further down the mezzanine overlooking the first floor, I realized I was snorting angry breaths and grinding my fanged teeth.

"Fine... keep going, up, faster..." I answered in a tightly controlled growl, stomping after her and passing by a toy Ahuizotl on the ground that started banging the brass cymbals it held, beating a drum on its dark back with its strange tail while its eyes blinked. What a strange toy, a villain from Daring Do that still worked... why did it seem so creepy with that leering grin and...

The shutters sprang open before I put it together, after the carriage I should just expect everything in here to be a trap, but a toy? E.F.S. lit up as a dozen zombies started shuffling up in the closed off shop beyond that made my pip-buck click angrily, more than a couple glowing green and growling as they charging at the two of us. Witchy's silver combat rifle chattered in short bursts, tearing into the new danger while I joined with the Terrible Shotgun, bucking a few back that got to close to only a few bites and scratches.

By far the greater danger was these things running loose and setting off more surprises, we couldn't run or take cover for fear of running into some deadly new trap in our haste, standing our ground was the only option. A trio of the snarling zombies tackled me and I couldn't help thinking of the zombie trapped in Mr. Cane's home, they had been ponies once, they weren't just some obstacle in Gunter's game.

I slashed back with Best Served in my mouth, decapitating one and straining against the weight of the other two still trying to reach over the first. The slobbering, snapping, glowing green mare might have worked here once, or been a nurse, or a teacher, or a lawyer or...

Two short bursts from Witchy's rifle ended my contemplation of the zombie's former career, whatever she had been before, she was dead now. The batpony mare huffed around the grip of her rifle with a hint of satisfaction. "This Stable-Tec Assisted Targeting System is quite convenient isn't it? This explains some of your frightening accuracy..."

Shoving the corpses off with her help, I winced up and looked into the shop they had come from, noticing the healing tingle of radiation coming from inside. "Yeah, it's pretty handy alright... hmm..." What a weird trap, green gems and tightly wound coils in a makeshift contraption that seemed to be flooding the room with rads, what a horrible way to go...

For normal ponies anyway... For me Gunter's trap had become an unintended boon and I impatiently sat under the device, watching my radiation meter climb and sighing at my wing straightening and healing. Once I felt better, I flapped up on the restored appendage and poked at the trap with my tools. A bit of fiddling and pulling the spark cells ringing it powered it down and I yanked it from the ceiling, I was keeping this thing...

Being somewhat restored just made me itch to find Gunter even more, I wanted Val first, but the evil bastard was right behind her on my list. He had apparently been enjoying letting the tension build, leaving us wander and try to find my friend, but sounded a little put out when I rejoined Witchy outside.

"You are like one of those freaks aren't you? Bad form... you're supposed to go into a healing prize room, not a trap... How should I punish him Val? What you did to Graven would be ironic wouldn't it? Or maaaybe... maybe I'll give him the same treatment the last pony you liked got, what was his name again? I'm such a busy little bee, I can't remember all of my special friends, I do remember that look in his eyes when I told him what I left you to though... oh how he squirmed and..."

More explosions and lines of M.E.W fire lanced out from around the corner, followed by Val's bellowing cries, scorching the walls, blasting speakers and screaming a horrible noise of nothing but hate, resonating with the dark pulse in my head perfectly. Val! There she was! The bright orange and red griffon limping around the bend ahead was far too red though...

She was dragging a scorched hindleg behind her trailing blood, more of the precious fluid coated her armor, closed one eye shut, dribbled from her broken wing. What wasn't coated in sticky red was scorched black, the fluff of her tail singed, her plumage frazzled and sopping into her violet eye, tears streaming from that one open orb as she wailed and kept laying down death at nothing.

"ShutUp!ShutUp!ShutUp!ShutUp!ShutUp!ShutUp!ShutUp!ShutUp!" She cried in rage and pain and... shame... deep, long festering shame...

Just one long, straight stretch of traps separated us, screw caution, I could see her! The wires in my way were too much, getting to her was what mattered, nothing else. I brought up my lightning walking spell and glared back at Witchy, trying to control the blazing anger struggling against the gentle souls of frantic Ministry Mares up there, trying to hold back a rising black tide as I hissed. "Stay back..."

The problem with traps like the one that nearly killed me in Thundega, was that they were set up and timed around certain expectations. I spent a lot of time in bed thinking about it after that little misadventure, if I had managed to jump back down the stairs fast enough, I probably would have been ok. The opposite was true too of course... If one was crazy enough to just plow through tripwires heedlessly as fast as they could, you could stay ahead of the triggered traps.

Blasting straight ahead with lightning arcing in my trail, I was more than fast enough to keep ahead of the string of surprises waiting in the shadows of the shattered stores I passed. Not just explosions either, I heard and smelled a fwoosh of flame after hitting one, an errant hoof landing on an old bathroom scale set off a trio of shotguns held in vices to the side, I was pretty sure a big damn blade came falling from the shadows above on the last wire, then I was through and charging right at the sobbing griffon.

I tackled her to get her to stop, all those red blasts were incinerating whatever they found, but weren't doing much other than making her feel better I hoped. I glanced back to see my batpony companion staring at the sparking trail and all the triggered traps, shaking herself and following at a cautious run.

Grateful for a little earth pony strength, I held the screaming griffon under me in a tight embrace, trying to soothe her and dig in my packs for anything to heal her simultaneously. I screamed for Witchy, she was no Jade, but she demonstrated at least passing familiarity with field medicine, better than me at least.

"Sssssh! It's ok Val! I'm here, just calm down! It's ok!"

"Awww, how touching... found another innocent buck for all them warm, fluttery feelings Val? Bet this one ends up...."

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

Witchy skidded to a halt and spun on the spot, her silver combat rifle sending bursts of fire out and destroying every speaker nearby, guided by those sensitive, fluffy ears. Once the taunting voice died down to an echo from further away, she pushed me aside and got to work, shoving another healing potion into Val's beak and pulling out yards of magical bandages while the griffon kept blubbering weakly. "That griffon is horrible... H-Hold still please Val, let me help!"

"S-Shouldn'ta come boss... d-don't... don't look at...." Val's clenched eyes refused to look at me, but I didn't care, trying to remain out of the thestral's way and hugging her sopping neck tightly.

"S-Shut up Val... order..."

A corner store of broken windows showed rotting bedroom furniture inside, along with a lot more of course... but the moldy beds and place to get out of the main hallways were what I wanted. I tugged all the corpses up from the best looking option with disgust, unable to look away from the spiked implements that had been shoved in every orifice, while the mare was alive by the stains...

I flipped the whole mattress in my magic and rejoined Witchy, carefully helping to transport Val and gently put her on the bed, looking around helplessly while she kept working. Not a doctor alicorn, but the batpony had stopped the worst of the bleeding and every potion we had was doing their best. It seemed woefully inadequate though...

I looked around the big shop on the housewares level, my burning gaze falling on one horror after another. What should be a showcase for home furnishings was instead some kind of gallery of torture, sexually themed torture to go with all the beds I assumed. No pleasant kisses and nuzzles went on here, this was the sickest kind of torment I could imagine, what was probably waiting for Mint Twist if we hadn't saved her...

"Fast, I've done what I'm able... We don't have the supplies to handle this, she needs a doctor... badly..." Witchy snapped me out of thoughts of what I was going to do to Gunter when I found him, guiltily realizing I was cataloging everything he had done here himself for future reference.

She was right, Val's breathing was ragged and raspy, she was wrapped in stained bandages and draped unmoving over the mattress. We usually had our own private doctor and healing potions had stopped working on me right, with usually fairly convenient radiation to rely on, I just didn't have enough on me...

I stroked her cheek sadly, my concern the only thing that seemed to restrain the dark Shroud in my head at the moment. I twitched when one violet eye opened and rolled my way weakly, heavily lidded and tired, but still Val. "D-Don't... look all.... pathetic boss... s'ok... be fine... S'alright, just... go kill the fucker... don't matter what happens ta me... so long as..."

Wiping tears away, I shut her up the best way I knew how under the circumstances. Lunging forward and kissing her, long and hard to her muffled surprise, pulling away and stamping a hoof. "You matter Val, shut up and rest. You are NOT dying, got it! That's an order! I'm gonna find something for you and be right back, y-you better just sit there and wait till I get back!"

A small smile crossed her beak and she chuckled with a cough, blinking sleepily and sinking back to the bed. "F-Fine... yer the boss... go on stupid... c-come back an' do that again... when I feels better..."

She drifted off while giving her teasing answer, but even that was better than that sad voice. I gave her another early, a soft peck to her forehead before nodding in determination and turning to an anxious and bloodstained Witchy behind me.

"Thanks, for helping her like that, if you weren't here... I'm glad at least one of us knows what they're doing, you're pretty good at medical type stuff, thank you Witchy, I owe you."

"T-Tis but a trifle... and not enough by any means Fast. Any proper member of Luna's guard knows basic battlefield medicine, but I am not up to this! Broken bones, burns, internal bleeding, a punctured lung! I... I can't do this! She needs real help, as soon as possible, we gotta go! Get her out of here and..." Witchy's voice started rising hysterically as she listed the litany of life threatening injuries, she was worlds better than I was helping Val, but way out of her depth even with Val's pip-buck helping to diagnose her, and infectious in her urgency.

I reloaded my weapons and gave Val a worried, parting look, turning to storm back out and struggling to keep my voice even. "O-Ok, stay put, do what you can for her and I'll be right back. We can't leave."

"Where are you going! What do you mean we can't leave?! You shouldn't leave her! Revenge over the life of your friend.... what the hell is wrong with you! Are you..." Witchy's voice started taking on a harder edge, believing I was willing to leave Val to her fate just to kill the Gunner still cackling from somewhere in the maze.

"Prizes... He put out prizes. There has to be a healing potion here somewhere, first aid station, something! I'm going to go find it and bring it back, if the only stuff available is what Gunter has on him, then I'll go get it. Besides, Val would kill me if we leave while that evil fuck is still alive"

She looked to relax just a hair, but still stamped a hoof and followed right behind me, tugging my tail to keep me back. "She's gotta be alive to do it!! That griffon is gonna die without help Fast! Find something to help her sure, but we have to go! That horrible Gunner is not worth..."

I turned on her and knew from the shocked look on her face I was losing the battle against the worst of myself, she flinched back from the burning glare that fell on her and I tried to soften it as I answered. "He's seen you too Witchy... if we leave him alone then the Gunners will know a batpony of Dreadnot helped us. Do you want that? He. Can't. Live. I'm not abandoning either of you, don't ever think it. Stay with her, keep her safe, I'll be back..."

I really wished I knew healing magic, all the other new surprises and perks, but I still couldn't heal a boo boo, let alone a medical emergency. This was all I could do, the only thing that the steady, driving demand for retribution in my head would accept as a delay, Val first, Gunter second...

Ignoring Witchy's squeak of protest, I ran out into the hall, lightning surrounding my limbs and my weapons drawn, I was not holding anything back, if I happened to run into Gunter's hiding place while looking to help Val, I wanted to be ready to rip him to shreds quickly... I kept flicking my eyes up to the ceiling in between scanning for traps, scrapped speakers and cameras... lines running this way.... He had to have control over whatever security or operations center was still functional, a griffon versed in electronics and old world junk, but I was willing to bet I knew more than he did...

"Ah, there you are, she dead yet?"

Speak of the devil... I was coming into range of functional speakers, back where he could taunt me again, unknowingly digging his grave deeper and deeper. Every smarmy syllable just stoked the flames in my head, oh I was going to kill him sooooo much...

"What, not liking the game? Shame, I am! Bringing the traitor Valkyrie and the Shrouded Stallion back to base ought to get me out of trouble nicely after your little raid. Tell me she's still alive at least though, she's worth ever so much more alive you know. I'm not the only one who's been dreaming of another run at her too, lieutenants weren't enough last time, this time every, single, Gunner is getting a turn, until she's a smear soakin' in the sheets!"

"I'm going to kill you Gunter. I'm going to revisit every torture and torment I can find you've done here on YOU."

"That could take awhile, I've kept notes though! Few recordings of my best work even if you'd like to see. Guessing she's alive then, good! Have to keep her that way though, take a look to your left..."

Grinding my teeth, I craned my head around, hating doing anything the griffon wanted, but desperate for anything. The mellow purple glow of a super healing potion was exactly what I hoped for, letting me ignore the chortling echoing through this tomb as I flapped my way over towards an appliance section, rusting hulks of old dryers and washers forming a maze around it.

A prize, the chunk of wood by the door proclaimed as much in words that were meant to look encouraging, but instead sounded like a sick joke as I read the sloppy red ...paint... 'Hurt? Keep going! Almost there!'

The crystal decanter was resting atop a corroded white stove, a flickering spotlight for the display still working to showcase the object I wanted from this store, but not much to reveal all the assorted triggers weaving their way through the store like a deadly web. My nightvision eyes could pick out all the grenades and mines, the fragile potion waiting like some golden idol in a dusty temple. I got the gag... try to make your way there hurt, slip up and even if you aren't blown to pieces, the potion that could save your life would be shattered. How hilarious...

My first thought was to simply surround the bottle in my magic and float it over, why bother going inside at all? I stopped myself in time though, I was getting an idea of how this Gunter operated, most of his traps and displays had a common theme. The only food was either prizes in trapped rooms, or the cooking corpses downstairs, starve, risk death, or eat pony, har har... Come for riches? Become part of the display. Even better than tormenting hurt ponies, would be tormenting them for their hubris. Any unicorn would think the same thing, did I really think he didn't anticipate that? That he wasn't waiting for it?

Ok... can't just grab it... Going in there was probably not a good idea either, but I had to have it! If I was a sadistic fuck like Gunter, how would I set this up, mechanically speaking? A dabbler in the world of repair-ponies was no match for the real thing, unless his skills were a whoooole lot better than I thought, he probably couldn't set the stove itself up as a trigger to blow, though I was willing to bet the oven was stuffed with explosives or some other nasty surprise.

No, only a few things would work with what he could do most likely. A pressure plate trigger would be best, but obvious and he didn't want that did he? I saw a few laser triplines, but they would be too obvious too in the dark. Simple, simple worked best if you could get away with it. Tie a bit of fishline to the back of the bottle and string it down to the stove, lucky victim makes it there and grabs it, kaboom...

I shifted in place and thought impatiently, so close and yet so far. I could see it, could manipulate it with telekinesis, but without knowing how it was set up, I couldn't do anything. I needed.... aha, kitchen appliances in this store, bathroom fixtures just down the hall. Running over, I peered the the entrance for what I wanted, ignoring the stack of orange Rad-Away packets dumped in a cracked pedestal sink surrounded by bathroom scales, I grabbed a dirty medicine cabinet with my magic and wrenched it free from the moldy display.

Tearing a good chunk of mirror free, I trotted back and carefully floated it and my wire clippers into the appliances shop, weaving and bobbing past all the triplines and behind the potion. Most regular ponies didn't have eyes as sharp as mine, making this a little impractical, but I had the fine control and the vision to put it to use.

Ahhh, there it was, glued right to the bottle on the back, a silvery thread of wire leading down to the makeshift bomb, why would anyone wire a glowing bottle of Sparkle Cola RAD into a bomb?! Nevermind, caaaareful.... careful.... 'snip!', I flinched back and waited, but no blast consumed the trapped shop, success!

Just in case, I wrapped the wide bottle in my magic and tensed in anticipation, taking a shaky breath and yanking with everything I had. The crystal bottle flew through the air and into my waiting hooves, still intact as beeps started sounding out in the shadows behind me and I ran back to Val.

I stumbled at the series of explosions started going off behind me, still safely ahead of the blast wave baking out of the storefront as every trap in there cooked off. Then suddenly the world was tinted a bright, neon red and I was flying, tumbling, falling, curling into a fetal ball around the precious potion to protect it. Tossed through the air ahead of a massive red fireball that shook the building and collapsed that section of the third floor, sending it crashing down to the second and then down again to the first in a choking cloud, more bombs going off as it went. Sweet Celestia! Was that from the bottle of freaking cola?!?!

No time to wonder, nevermind the warm dribble of blood down my hindlegs, or the twinge at my shaky attempt to pull myself free of the rubble I wound up crashing into. My trenchcoat's repair talisman was reaching out to sagging sale banners hanging from nearby walls and reknitting itself, I could keep going, I won... that's what mattered.

"Clever... Clever little pony aren't you? No wonder you're such a pain in the ass. Congratulations, you won the bonus round! Ready for the round 2, where the risks and rewards really get up there?"

"Not playing your stupid game, come on out so I can kill you..."

"Booooring! Wrong answer Shroud, I'm afraid that's a penalty!"

At the laughing declaration, E.F.S. lit up with red and turrets sprang from the remains of the ceiling, above the entries of fancier shops, everywhere... Shit! Blasting forward on my hooves, I floated the Terrible Shotgun ahead of me, firing from the flank at any of the automated defenses in my path, stuffing the precious super healing potion my my coat and making a frantic escape under the static filled laughs following me.

The one above the bedroom furniture section didn't have a clear line of sight on Val and Witchy at least, spinning from its attempts to chew through the partitioned walls in the way to track me, getting a .50 round from the batpony's anti-materiel rifle for its trouble that sent it to the ground in a shower of sparks. I charged through the entrance, tossing the potion to the bed with Val and immediately zooming back out over Witchy's warning squeak around the grip of her rifle at the surprise, had to keep them focused on me...

Alright wing, sorry for letting you get hurt, but I need your help here... A streaking run at the rails sent me back up and I beat my wings trying to climb, up to the nearest turret and tackling it in my hooves. Several nearby started zeroing in, but planting my hindlegs against the spongy ceiling gave me a good enough grip to twist the whole chattering contraption, spinning it to fire at its fellows before their rounds blasted it to pieces under me.

Armor piercers... Gunter had been playing with those too, I couldn't see a Department Store loading their security turrets with AP rounds, they were after shoplifters and thieves, not an armed zebra incursion. Rubber bullets weren't nearly as fun for the evil bastard laughing over the speakers though, several had punctured my straining forelegs and shoulders, but I'd be alright... last long enough anyway. All I needed was more radiation from somewhere, Val had needed the real help, I could take a few hits for her.

Even better, before getting knocked aside by the turret blowing up, I got a better look at the wiring leading to it. Signal amplifiers... wherever Gunter was, it was probably a good distance away and these were fairly early systems, distance was an issue. The gem studded widgets attached to the lines could stretch that distance, but it would need to be networked into a better system elsewhere, a relay station before heading down to the controls...

There! The griffon was smart, but not smart enough. Piling corpses and junk in just one more macabre bit of decor against the carefully hidden, closet sized steel door was good enough to hide from casual observation, but that was what I had been trying to find after Val's potion. I wrapped all of it in my magic and flew by, tugging and pulling with a roar and sending the detritus out off the railing, triggering more traps as I dove to the revealed door marked 'Security Station - 2nd Floor'

"Let's change the rules Gunter! Ready for the lightning round!?!"

"HEY! What're you... STOP!"

I flung the door open with a grin, knocking the ancient skeleton in the seat aside and pushing my way in, finding a waiting port in the closet of equipment and patching into it over Gunter's screeches. This wasn't part of the game was it? Oh no.... how sad... Let's see how you like this then...

Jeez, I was surprised he managed to get into the system at all, his clumsy clawprints were all over the code, must have actually just found a password to work with somewhere. Not a high level one either... He was awkwardly trying to fight the intrusion, but he was on my turf now, I cut him off and locked him out entirely, his screaming yell cut off in a squawk of static.

He was still desperately trying to do something, but he was no longer in control whether he liked it or not. Now then.... let's see where you're accessing the system from exactly... Basement level, security main office, terminal #4... excellent... Ah, a service elevator, that's how he got down there from the roof entrance and lost Val, well, let's just shut that down too!

What else... I could just shut off the turrets, but feeding them new targeting data was better... There we go, riot protocol lockdown... that's how he got the steel shutters to block every exit and turned this place into his private cage. Looks like he could only manage all or nothing though, a few clicks gave me what I hoped, I opened the front door, and only that one...

I knew I must look like a monster, grinning evilly with long fangs sprouting out and burning red eyes, I didn't care though... I tapped into the PA as Gunter had until now, lighting my horn and booming out in the Shroud's voice, rattling the walls and blowing a few speakers out there by the sound.

Stifling rather crazed giggles of anticipation at the thought of hunting this bastard down, I clenched my eyes and tried to not look like quite such a lunatic, willing those sharp fangs to go back to being nubs before leaving. Had to check on Val, make sure she was ok, then... oh then...

The place was still plenty dangerous even without the Gunner running things, all his little toys weren't part of security or anything. But considering I had probably set off everything between me and Val, I abandoned a bit of caution in my haste, skidding to a halt at Witchy prancing nervously at the railing outside the store, torn between looking up and around this level, and back down to the yawning pit below. When her eyes landed on me running back, she leapt from the rail and flew over in a blur, panic making her already high voice rise to almost ultrasonic levels.

"Fast! S-She... I couldn't stop her! I didn't know what to do!! She can't... w-when she heard..." The batpony ranted and hopped in place, sweat springing up on her brow as my stomach dropped into an icy ball.

Basement... I said basement, I said where he was... over the loudspeakers...

Turning to run in a panic back the way I came, I charged right at the the smoking ruin of Gunter's 'prize room'. It wasn't ever going to be good for much again, but it did give a straight shot to the ground floor where every trap had been triggered in its wake. I dove down the gaping hole and dodged jagged beams and sparking wires on the way as well as I could, thunking into a sizable chunk of floor barely hanging on and careening down to the smoldering rubble at the bottom, Witchy right behind me.

"I'm sorry! I didn't think she could move! L-Let alone... I tried to make her stay!" The batpony filly sounded pretty scared, what, did she think I'd blow her brains out for...

"Don't blame you, nopony can stop Val when she's pissed enough, just hurry!" The thought I had to reassure my new companion that I wasn't actually a homicidal maniac was concerning me, but I guessed I really couldn't blame her.

In the short time we'd known each other, I'd killed raiders in their home for their alcohol, destroyed a Gunner outpost and probably 40-50 of the asshole mercenaries, then came here and started skirting the edge of just letting the Shroud in my head have complete control... Yes, I was probably a little worrisome...

I'd have to try to clear it up later, explain... explain I heard voices in my head fighting each other, oh yeah, that would tooootally smooth things over, convince her I was the picture of sanity... I'd do something anyway. Right now, Val had forced herself into moving again, the super healing potion enough to get her up and going, straight down and after Gunter. By the horrible taunts and hints at her past that she never told me about, I couldn't really blame her either.

More explosions rocked the building, how much could this place take anyway? It was pretty sturdy stone, but that crazy cola bomb had done some serious structural damage I couldn't help assessing on the way. It may have lasted 200 years, but a good chunk of Talon's Department Store was doomed, maybe a year, maybe more, but eventually...

For now I was happy to find a long wishing pool stretching away on the ground floor outside my makeshift express path, a scummy puddle of blood caked sludge still in it, drips from the leaky roof I was sure, which meant radiation... Another of Gunter's bits of irony, a bucket and ladle rested at the edge next to empty water bottles, thirsty? Have a drink...

I altered my course to jump in the puddle and run on, soaking up what I could and avoiding more traps, following the escalating noises. After so long, I knew the sound of Val's 25mm grenade machinegun by heart, the dark blur racing ahead of red lines of M.E.W. fire was the portly, vulture-like Gunter, diving crazily and sending balls of plasma back at her in a crazed screech.

I had the Last Minute up and aimed at a run, charging the gauss rifle to full power and taking a rough shot at the big target. Val was too hurt, give him a better target... a more survivable target. The crack of the 2mm EM round punched through his green Gunner combat armor and out the other side, knocking him down from his frantic climb and turning to lay down more plasma blasts at me.

I could survive and regenerate a lot now, but a lucky shot with a magical plasma weapon or good old M.E.W could still melt or turn me to ash, not something I had really considered until those stitching shots started veering my way. An almost inaudible crack behind me sent him jerking and pinwheeling in the air again though, Witchy's long anti-materiel rifle making an almost matching hole in his breastplate at the other shoulder, staining all of it red and making one wing droop.

Gunter tried diving away, aiming for his mountains of junk walls for cover and pulling a big 12mm sidearm. I leapt up and flapped for altitude, aiming to meet the bastard and tackle him, instead hammered with the heavy rounds to the chest and sent crashing into a pile of roofing he hid behind.

Oh that hurt, the high caliber pistol kicked like a mule, I sucked in a burning breath and looked up into the dark 12mm tunnel overhead, the panting, bleeding griffon sneering craftily as schemes ran behind those sickly yellow eyes. Hostage or victim, that was about as complicated as those thoughts looked.

An ear piercing noise sent his claws up to his head with a grunt of pain, rings of magical distortion just overhead and battering him, narrowing as they led back to the batpony making all that racket. The two of us moved together, I grabbed Best Served in my mouth and twisted my head at the paws planted atop the wall, as I heard a series of bursts from Witchy's combat rifle behind me that tore into his right foreleg and wing.

Both feet were then neatly sliced off and sent him tumbling down to the other side and Val's squawk of victory. I scrambled up and tried to fly over the barrier quickly, tumbling over the other side to a very bloody, deranged looking Val holstering her own pistol and igniting the Shishkebab, weakly sauntering after the fat griffon trying to drag himself away with his claws.

"Whassa matter... thought ya was lookin' forward to tha reunion Gunter... Know I have been, thought I'd repay the favor so ta speak... hafta thank the boss, like seein' ya crawl like that tubby, an' it puts my target front an' center don't it?" Val's voice cracked and she kept lurching her way after the bleeding griffon, inching his way back towards the front entrance and jibbering in fear.

"No Val! I-It wasn't my idea! O-Orders! You know! Come on! If I disobeyed they'd have done the same to me! It was all Graven! N-Nothin' personal!" The Gunner's pleas just washed over me, but I restrained the furious urge to get started on him, he was Val's first...

"Yeah? Well this is.... personal... deeply." The curved blade of the Shishkebab shot forward, point first and right on target for that lashing tail and.... ewwww....

Despite everything, no matter how much he deserved it and how much I agreed, even cheered her on... watching a white hot starmetal blade cornhole anyone was a little nauseating... It was actually better once she stopped twisting it around in glee and actually ripped it free, tearing her tormentor in half in a bloody spray that made her a completely red griffon instead of a mostly red one.

The sizzling, burning blade fell to the ground at her paws and she looked up to the ceiling, her claws hanging limply at her sides, her eyes closed in bliss and breathing shakily, her beak making silent words for a moment before her eyes opened and she looked down at me woozily, a soft, sad smile and grateful, shimmering eyes.

"Thanks boss... gonna take a lil' nap now..." and she did just that, crashing to a heap on top of me and drifting off into unconsciousness. Leaving me pinned as Witchy flew over and landed next to us, staring around with wide eyes and a little fear while I waved feebly from the floor.

"I promise.. we're not normally like this... caught us on a bad week..."

It took a little convincing before Witchy helped drag me free and we guided the sleeping Val outside, choosing to put a little distance between us and Gunter's playhouse, huddling near the steps leading up to Talon's and looking around wearily. We needed somewhere to rest, let Val recover, she needed Jade badly and the blue physician was still in Eclipse.

There wasn't much to use, Gunter had been using this place a long time by the looks. Poking my head into a few ruined shells of buildings just showed they had all been swept clean of anything of value, no more convenient healing potions or supplies here... all probably turned into 'prizes'. I held the lightly snoring griffon and tried to wrap my wings around her for warmth against the chilly night, waiting for the batpony to return from her scouting flight above and rocking her gently.

Witchy finally returned silently and hovered above, pointing to the north and a medium hill covered in spindly, dead trees, the peaks of a few roofs barely visible at the top. "There's a few houses up there, strange but mostly untouched, shelter anyway. Can thou take her that far?"

Distance really wasn't an issue, she needed to go there, I'd take her. I surrounded her lithe form in my magic and lifted, weakly flapping my way up and dragging her along behind me. Yes there was a housing development up there alright, good. I kept glancing around for some convenient pool of glowing green sludge or something, fighting exhaustion at every beat of my wings while the batpony kept pace at a safe distance.

"Y-You're sure thou art..." Witchy whispered cautiously, I did tell her not to come along for all this.

"I swear to Luna, I am not crazy. Just... I have a temper apparently, I never did in the Stable but... certain things out here kind of trigger me ok? You are perfectly safe with both of us, I give you my word."

"N-Not what I was going to ask... but I'll believe thee. That way, the big one at the end seems in the best condition." Witchy pointed the way and I followed, feeling every wound waking up without the twin balms of rage and adrenaline to ignore them anymore.

I managed just up to rooftop height when my pip-buck flashed in my eyes; Discovered Location: Fair Lines Estates. A single crumbling street led into the housing development, framed by two lines of identical, squarish, utilitarian housing falling in on themselves and ending on one cottage that did look a good deal better than the rest. I gratefully drifted down and headed for the door, praying it wasn't locked, I really should ask Val to teach me how to pick locks like Fancy had learned from Freya at some point.

Thankfully, the door creaked open to a dim ruin at the first tug on the knob. Simple, rough housing even when it was new, only a few broken pictures on the walls, shelves of musty books and scrolls in the corner, a kitchen and bathroom to one side, living room to the other, bedroom in the back. The only really unusual thing was the preponderance of clocks... cuckoo clocks, digital clocks, a tall grandfather clock, souvenir Sparkle World clocks, looooots of dead clocks, all stopped at 9:53.

What had been a fairly fancy bed before the war held up well enough and I let go of Val carefully, setting her to the bed and falling over as soon as the drain on my magic was gone. She wasn't that heavy, but I had used up nearly everything I had left, the rad counter on my leg all the way back to the blue again as a visual indicator of what I felt, empty.

Witchy checked her over again, those fluffy ears twitching near her chest as she listened carefully, giving a worried look and nodding. "Safe for now... she must have help though, moving her this far was bad enough."

"J-Jade... need Jade, please, go get her Witchy..."

She looked torn, glancing between us and out the window at the dark night. "You have no medical skills at all though, do you? Perhaps you should... oh, but then I would still lose you... hmmm..."

"D-Don't matter does it? Don't have any more healing supplies, you're faster than I am, by a lot Witchy. Please, please help her, go get Jade. I'll give you her locator tag, you can go right where she is and right back, please..."

The batpony filly shuffled in place uncertainly, sighing in defeat and sitting to detach her anti-materiel rifle, a little ungainly when speed was the goal. "Very well, you plead, not demand or threaten... that is good. Y-You are very scary when you want to be, to think the same silly colt so excited over toys would... You are a very strange pony Fast. I will go, stay with her, let her rest, talk to her if she wakes, she needs it... Do not leave this house and disappear again or by Luna I'll..."

"Thank you Witchy, so, so much... I swear, not going anywhere, anything you want in Dreadnot, I'll do everything I can."

That looked to relieve her a little bit, she brightened up and stopped looking so nervous, nodding happily and trotting off into the night, barely a whisper of her wings flying off at top speed to the east. That just left me and Val alone, the griffon's snores not quite wall rattling in her injury.

With the batpony gone, and Val passed out, I could wince and limp my way around without worrying about pretending to be ok. I wouldn't leave Val, but somewhere in this house had to be something I could use, if I didn't do something Jade would be dealing with two patients in a world of hurt, not just one. Exploring helped me calm down too, after all of Gunter's traps, I was a little paranoid.

Hmm, one rough, moldy armchair, one bed, one set of drawers, one set of dishes, whoever lived here before, did so alone, and this was the nicest of these houses? Singles housing maybe? Cheap shacks for students? Nothing looked cheap in here, just very spartan except for the shelves of books. 'Applied Gemstones', several tomes on Starswirl the Bearded, history, spell matrix theory, advanced spell books... I grabbed what was still legible and moved on, think stupid... radiation...

I searched the place top to bottom, but was starting to despair ever finding anything. I did happen across a wall safe Val would be happy about when she woke, pretty sturdy and hidden under an framed image of two horizontal bars, like the rest of the place, it was pretty spare decoration.

A rolltop desk tucked away in the corner before a short stool wasn't as frustrating as it could be, only all the drawers were locked not the whole thing at least. Though a postcard and several shipping receipts for 'Scenic Spectacular Island' weren't much of a bounty. Pacing the living room area and drinking a glowing (and apparently highly explosive) bottle of Sparkle Cola Rad, I facehoofed and dug in my bags, finding the radiation trap I had taken and moving as far from Val's corner of the small cottage as possible.

I spread my wings and huddled over the strange contraption, a bit of rough, wasteland era jury rigging that wasn't hard to make work again. I'd have to take a better look, maybe I could improve it or something, for now the surge of rads was heavenly. My wounds started generating as the rainbow colored gauge at my hoof climbed from blue slowly back up to yellow.

Reluctantly I shut the trap down, I had no idea how much I was absorbing and how much might be close enough to Val just a room away, a few seconds was good enough. I could even walk steadily on my way back to sit with her, catching her shifting at my return and groaning. "Nnn... h-hey boss... still alive huh?" The injured griffon moaned and tried to laugh, a claw shooting to her ribs at the motion as she sucked in a pained breath.

"E-Easy Val! Yeah, still alive, don't screw it up ok? Just hang on, Jade's on her way, get some rest and it'll be ok."

"Where's muh stuff?" her dark claw slid down her bandaged side and spread in panic on not finding armor, weapons, anything but magical fabric trying to restore her slowly.

"I got it, it's ok. Good thing you keep putting me through your torture training huh? If I couldn't carry it, I would'a left it."

Those violet eyes popped open at that, twinging to get up and smack me and groaning instead. "Ow! Ok ow, w-will beat the snot outta ya later boss, not funny.... H-Hey... umm, g-get up here alright, can't keep cranin' over ta look at ya. P-Please boss... No funny stuff, just... d-don't wanna be alone..."

I nodded and flapped up, trying very carefully to manage a landing and falling to the springy mattress on her far side with a soft thump. I wasn't going to ask about the things Gunter had taunted her with, tried not to think about it at all, like I had peeked at something private and shameful, but I had heard... and she sounded so hurt by it.

Once I was down and wriggled up against the headboard, Val flopped over and curled up around me, sighing shakily and burying her face against my side. Slowly, very slowly I started feeling wet warmth spreading there, her battered ribs hitching beside me as she made muffled, strangled cries.

I sat there and tapped my hooves together uncertainly, reaching a tentative hoof out and stroking her back as she sobbed against me. "Sssh, umm... i-it's ok Val, he's gone, you got him. I'm here, just... you just keep crying if you need to, I won't leave you, it's ok."

At that the floodworks really opened up, soaking my side with a torrent of tears while I just kept cooing and stroking her softly, trying to be comforting and thankfully decidedly not frisky. I stared out the single window in here and wondered how long it had been since she had actually cried, how long had she held this in?

Too long. Way, way too long. I couldn't heal her like Jade, couldn't teleport her to safety like Magnolia or Swan or fly her away, couldn't read her mind and simply know what was wrong like Ivy, couldn't cheer her up with a few words like Glitter, couldn't make it all better in any way that didn't involve either fixing something or killing someone, but I could sit here, as long as it took.

"It's alright Val, I love you, it'll be ok. Just let it out."

New Perk Added!-------------------------------

Light Trot----------
------After surviving the Gunner funhouse of Talon's Dept. Store, there's pretty much no booby trap you aren't familiar with now! You are agile, lucky and always careful; or maybe you have just mastered the art of self-levitation. Either way, you never set off enemy mines or floor-based traps.

Companion Perk Added!---------------------

Phoenix Tears-------
----You have reached maximum affinity with your griffon mercenary, it just took awhile to crack that shell. The fiery Val's tears don't have healing properties or anything, but their blessing grants you an additional 20% fire resistance and 10% damage with fire, explosives or magical energy weapons while Val is in your party. As an additional benefit of your own flight instructor that cares, you gain double the benefit for any skill points put in the Flight skill as well.