Alchem woke up, instantly sitting up and looking around. They were in the same room, the same position, the same air. Alchem didn't want his mind playing tricks on him, so he looked over to Eater and saw him sleeping. Before Alchem did anything, he looked at Eater's face and admired it. Despite looking fierce while he was awake, Alchem had to admit that Eater looked a little bit cute while his eyes were closed.

Alchem laid in front of Eater and placed his wing over him, seeing that Eater liked the feeling of Alchem's wing. Eater grabbed Alchem's wing with a hoof, before nuzzling into it. Alchem enjoyed the feeling of it, but he quickly pulled his wing away as Eater was about to bite down on it. This action made Eater open his eyes and look at Alchem with an angry glare.

"What do you think you're doing?" Eater asked calmly, while stretching his forehooves and his not damaged hindleg. This surprised Alchem that Eater was speaking softly. He was caught so off guard, that he didn't notice Eater's wing creeping towards him. Eater rubbed Alchem's side with his paper like wing, making Alchem jump in the process. He looked over to Eater's wing and looked back at Eater, watching as he just smiled at him.

Alchem didn't know how to feel about the events that were spiralling out in the direction that they were, but he wasn't intending on stopping them either. Eater was going to be the one to stop it, as he turned onto his back, dragging his wing from Alchem's side and placing it back behind his back. Alchem smiled as he got up, being stopped by Eater's hoof.

"What do you want Eater?" Alchem asked politely, smiling as he looked down at Eater. Eater didn't say anything, but instead, he tapped the ground beside him, signalling for Alchem to at least sit down next to him. Alchem sat down and looked at Eater again, seeing that he was still tapping on the ground. Alchem lied down and kept an eye on Eater, still seeing him tapping his hoof, but not at the floor this time. Eater was now tapping his chest lightly. Alchem slowly moved, more or less shimmied, over to Eater before resting his head on Eater's chest. This made Eater smile, as he closed his eyes.

Alchem kept his eyes open and stared at Eater, his vision almost unable to pick up the changeling in the darkness around them both. Eater opened one eye and stared blankly at Alchem, making Alchem blush in the process. Alchem immediately got up, looking angrily and mischievously at Eater, before walking over to the window and sitting down next to it. Eater slowly got up, feeling a little stiff from yesterday's events and trotting over to Alchem.

Eater slowly brought the saddlebags over, being originally used as a hard blanket for Alchem to not get cold. He placed them down and sat down next to Alchem, before he began to open all of them and sort through the stuff inside. Alchem turned and opened a saddlebag at random, seeing that he opened the medkit box saddlebag first. The boxes contained different types of ammunition, but Alchem would have to go through them all to check what ammo was what.

Alchem saw a pencil across the room and walked over to it, picking it up with his mouth. He immediately spat it out and spat out the taste of it, making him feel sick. Eater picked up the pencil with his magic and saw that the lead was perfectly intact, but the wood around it was eroded away, as a result of the art of the Wasteland. Alchem returned to his place and laid down, before Eater chuckled to him.

"How about you choose a different saddlebag? I'll do the writing with… this!" Eater suggested, pointing at the eroded pencil. Alchem smiled at him, accepting his decision and taking another saddlebag. The next one had the guns inside of it. "Alchem? Pass me your pistol. I'll reload it for you." Eater commanded, seeing that Alchem followed orders as he passed the pistol with his maw.

Alchem watched Eater as he got to work. Eater took out the magazine of Alchem's pistol and got to work putting some bullets into the weapon. He knew exactly what bullets would go into the magazine, so he got out the maximum amount of bullets he could, that would fit into the weapon properly. He placed up to eight bullets into the magazine and slid it back into the pistol, sliding the chamber at the top of the weapon, to ensure that the pistol had a bullet loaded and ready to fire.

Alchem watched as Eater closed the box, before writing something on the box and putting it to the side. Alchem looked over at the box and saw that he engraved the word '45 ACP' into it. It was clearly visible, so they knew that the ammo was correct. They didn't want to be getting rid of ammo that they were going to use, so they needed to sort it out as soon as possible, so that a little later, they could begin to trade some of it for a big amount of caps.

A thought entered Eater's mind, as he remembered all of the caps that he had acquired from the raiders, the first time. He was eventually going to find those caps, it was just about which of the five saddlebags they were in. It was just a game of patience. As for right then and there, he was going to sort out everything that he and Alchem had, distributing all of the stuff they weren't going to use into a saddlebag for selling. At least that way they could keep two saddlebags each, while gaining some caps in the process.

They were both on the last saddlebag, sorting out some of the few remaining items they could. They thought to themselves that they were going to come to the conclusion of selling all weapons apart from the shotgun and sniper and the two pistols they already had, along with all of the ammo, apart from the ones that they needed.

Alchem was going to keep a couple of medical supplies, just in case one of them was to get hurt. As the thought of that went through Alchem's mind, his eyes darted to Eater for a quick second, before resting on the saddlebag again. Most of the second bag that Eater had searched was junk, so it was easy to get through. Apart from the syringe that he had from his home, it was all junk, so he came over to help Alchem with his problem of searching through the saddlebags.

They were nearly finished with the saddlebag, when the rock came out of the saddlebag. Eater looked a little shocked. He was sure that he put the rock into his saddlebag. Alchem picked it up with his wing and then instantly dropped it onto the floor, the rock being burning hot. Alchem was surprised that the rock wasn't able to burn through the bag of the saddlebag.

Eater picked it up with his magic and watched as it glowed slightly, illuminating the room a little. Alchem pouted, not able to be able to pick up the beautiful rock and examine it.

"I found this inside the tavern back at Journey. Apparently, a raider by the name of Sawblade or Sawtooth, or something wants it and can unleash its power. The only thing is that he is the leader of the raiders, so we need to keep it out of his or her hooves." Eater explained. Alchem just looked puzzled, like something didn't add up. He thought to himself for a second, before looking at the rock.

"What would the leader of the raiders want with a glowing rock? For all we know, it could be radioactive, which might suggest why it hurts when I pick it up." Alchem suggested. Eater nodded in response to that and pondered the idea. Alchem could be correct, but it would take some looking into to find what was so special about the rock. Eater placed it in one of his saddlebags and made sure that it was protected by something, before closing up his saddlebag and placing it over his back, hurting him a little in the process.

Alchem noticed that it was slowly getting lighter outside, so he decided that it might have been a good idea to go outside and get some irradiated air, because fresh air was a thing of the past. Nothing was fresh anymore because the radiation would get to the things first. The only way that crops could be considered 'fresh' is from keeping them away from the radiation, whether that would be locking them up in a quarantine zone or a place that the radiation couldn't get to.

"Alchem? Did I tell you that I'm immune to radiation?" Eater asked, getting Alchem to turn to him.

"I, urm… I really can't remember, but now I do, so urm… yeah, nice." Alchem replied, not focusing on the conversational question that Eater had asked. Instead, he was focusing on the weather outside. It was raining. It had not rained in a long while, but radiation in the water meant that it was dangerous to go outside, meaning that they would need to get some protective clothing to step hoof outside. It was still early in the morning, so they thought that they could wait a little while, before venturing outside and talk to Roselight about the plans for today.

Alchem walked over to a table and saw that it had some barely visible photos there. He sat down on an old rocking chair and grabbed one with a wing. He had to blow the dust off it and shake it a little, before the image was visible to view with normal eyes. Eater placed the saddlebag down and walked slowly over to Alchem and leant against the rocking chair, the holes on his hooves acting like grapples, keeping him latched onto the rocking chair.

They both looked at the photo, being confused due to many aspects. It was of a zebra mare and a pegasus stallion, both looking very happy. They had a little filly next to them, not looking at all like any of them. She was completely different. She had claws, a beak and a… a scorpion tail! The caption at the bottom read 'Project Chimera will be with you!'. Alchem and Eater both looked at each other as the image made no sense to both of them.

"Maybe chimera is a mixed breeds project?" Alchem suggested. Eater nodded and pondered that for a second. Maybe Alchem was right, but the scorpion tail definitely freaked Eater out. Eater placed the image back down with his magic and looked back at Alchem, still pondering or questioning what project chimera was. He was now very curious to know.

Alchem got up out of the rocking chair and stretched his legs. Eater was probably able to admire Alchem's body at that moment, but was too distracted with the thought of the picture. It was definitely something that they would have to find out about and ask about in the settlement. They still didn't know the name of the settlement, but they both guessed that they would in due time.

Eater walked over to the saddlebags and picked up his two, along with the spare saddlebags that they would sell. Alchem did the same shortly after, before they looked out the window again. The rain had calmed down, which made it viable to move outside safely. They both looked at each other, before walking to the door and pulling it open. They both looked around, looking about to see if they had missed anything, before stepping out into the drizzle and radiation.

As soon as they were outside, they closed the door behind them. Turning around, they noticed that the settlers were awake and busy. Roselight was talking to the zebra that was with the raiders yesterday. Alchem was curious to see if he had reformed into a better zebra. Eater too was curious, but he wanted to see if the trader was awake. They both walked towards Roselight and the zebra. It was a little awkward to see that they were both talking about something and shouting at each other, but hey, that was the Wasteland!

Roselight spotted them both and smiled, waving a hoof at them both. They both waved back at her. Alchem then waved to the zebra, who then gingerly waved back. He then returned to the conversation with Roselight. Alchem turned to Eater and smiled.

"Let's go and look for the settlement trader." Alchem suggested to Eater, getting a nod of confirmation from Eater as a result of it. They walked past both Roselight and the unnamed zebra and looked around for the trading post or building, something to give them an inside of if there was one.

They saw a shop-like area ahead. It was nicely decorated, with light and candles at the front of the building. There was a gryphon standing at the front of it, sorting different items out that were in display cases. It looked impressive. They both walked up to the front of the building and smiled.

"Excuse me sir, do you know where there might be any trading posts or what not around here?" Alchem asked, getting the gryphon's attention. He turned around and bowed his head. His beak was chiseled a little and he wore a couple of scars across his face. Apart from that, he looked relatively healthy.

"The name's Gretzky! I can tell you a little bit about the settlement, but not much. This is a trading shop or in pony terms, just a shop of miscellaneous items." The gryphon spoke. His voice was aggressively soft and persuasive. Eater liked it. "What is it you need me to help you with?" Gretzky asked, his face beaming with curiosity and concern.

Eater used his magic to pull the saddlebag with all of the irrelevant items, up to the counter. Eater looked back at Gretzky and chuckled as he saw the excitement in his eyes. It reminded him so much of a little colt that he used to get with, to go out at nights with. Mischievous little eyes, like he was going to do something bad.

Gretzky looked back up to him and blushed a little, before opening the saddlebag and diving his claws in. He nearly became one with the saddlebag, because his feather colour was also the same colour as the saddlebag. He was brown feathered with a white set of them going over his left wing, almost exactly like a stripe.

Gretzky pulled out item after item, as he evaluated each one as it passed, ranging from guns to plastic medkit boxes. He was happy to take all of them. He filtered through the items and saw that there were a couple of broken parts to weapons. He picked them up carefully and placed them in a different corner of the store. He came back and gave the saddlebag back to them both. As he was giving them back the saddlebags, he saw the ones that they were wearing and smiled.

"You two both have two saddlebags each? Tell you what, I have some good, good good good saddlebags here, plenty of room for anything you could come across and plenty more room for additional stuff. I could take those ones off ya for the other ones I have, if you're interested?" Gretzky promoted, turning around and flying across the room and grabbing something.

Eater pondered the thought, as Gretzky came back with a bigger saddlebag. Alchem looked at both his and Eater's saddlebags. They weren't the biggest, but they were just what they had to survive in the Wasteland. An upgraded saddlebag would have been amazing to have. There was no way that Alchem was walking away with nothing.

"This saddlebag here has at least four times the space, compared to your saddlebags. Let me make a little deal. I'll give you these two saddlebags, one for each of us, and you trade yours over to me. How's about that for a deal?" Gretzky prompted, making both of them ponder. Alchem had already begun unpacking his stuff and Eater just looked at the saddlebag, before coming to a conclusion, the same conclusion that Alchem had.

They placed all of their stuff onto the floor, making sure that all of it was in sight so that somepony couldn't steal anything that they had. Alchem had a load of medical supplies with a couple of medkit boxes, consisting of ammo and more medical supplies. Eater's saddlebag contained a couple of things, a couple of different guns. The SMG he had originally picked up, along with the shotgun, sniper and LMG. He was thinking of selling the SMG and the LMG because of the lack of calibre correct shots or just how impractical they were. The sniper and shotgun on the other hand, would be effective at saving ammo, so they were good options. Eater was thinking of giving the shotgun to Alchem, so he didn't have to worry about selling it.

Eater passed the shotgun to Alchem and got a curious glance back from Alchem. He looked at the shotgun, before gingerly taking it from Eater's magic, placing it in the pile that he was creating, opposite Eater's pile. They both gave their saddlebags to Gretzky and took the bigger one. Alchem snagged the first one and raced back to his belongings, leaving Eater to wait for Gretzky to fly back over and try to find another. He did indeed find another and flew back over to the counter and passed the bag to Eater. Eater happily accepted it and walked calmly to his items. He kept the sniper rifle next to him as he placed some ammunition and the image into his saddlebag, along with a couple of medical stuff that Alchem gave to him. After that, they turned back to Gretzky and gave him questionable looks.

"Why do you need the saddlebags anyway?" Alchem asked, getting both the attention of Gretzky, as well as Eater.

"There is a material in the silk of these specific saddlebags. I have collected a few of them, but I need more. The special material in the saddlebags allows me to create a more enhanced, longer lasting, maybe even permanent radiation resistance serums." Gretzky explained. Alchem was starstruck and Eater was confused. Why did the saddlebags hold the key to survival within the Wasteland? That was a thought that would keep Eater up at night.

"We'll keep an eye out for any saddlebags that look like that, if you want." Eater suggested, getting a praising glance from Alchem. He was probably going to back Eater up with that suggestion. Gretzky began to break apart the saddlebags, while keeping an eye on them both. Eater looked back at the saddlebags that he had. The saddlebag for junk was not applicable for Gretzky, that was the reason Gretzky gave the saddlebag back.

"If you did that, I would be happy to pay you for it!" Gretzky announced. Eater shook his head and looked at Alchem, before looking back at Gretzky.

"I think that paying us to get something for you, to help you out in your efforts is a little much. Caps don't mean anything right now. They aren't mandatory!" Eater said, looking around for anything that he could use within Gretzky's shop. Eater saw something in the distance of the shop, way at the back of the shop, buried under some items. "Do you mind if I hop over and check something out?" Eater asked, getting a look from Alchem.

"Sure, just hop over and tell me what you see." Gretzky commanded, seeing Eater hop over and walk over to a load of items. Gretzky followed and Alchem stayed put at the counter. Eater grabbed an item with his magic and pulled it up. It was a little rusty, but Eater clearly knew what it was. It was a syringe gun! Eater picked it up and walked over to Alchem, showing him the weapon or utility item. Alchem smiled, but then sighed. He loved it, but he felt a little bad about not getting Eater anything, so he too hopped the counter and walked over to Gretzky and whispered something into his ear.

Gretzky nodded and then searched through the piles of items, along with Alchem helping him. Eater just watched and smiled as they both searched hard for something.

"Found it!" Alchem shouted, getting the attention of both Eater and Gretzky. Alchem pulled out a cloak, but this wasn't a cloak that Eater had seen before. It made itself adapt to the lighting and kept itself hidden. "This, Eater, is a zebra cloak! Super sneaky pieces of fibers that blend together to keep the wearer warm and hidden." Alchem explained, watching in excitement as Eater walked closer. He seemed interested with the cloak, as he looked at Alchem and then back at the cloak.

Him being a changeling made him sneaky enough, because they were shape-shifters. The cloak was just an additional piece of warmth to Eater. Alchem used his wings to place it over Eater and stood back and looked at him. It was a perfect fit, but it didn't work that well. He needed to look pained and scarred for it to work well. Alchem paused for a second, before he looked at Soul Eater and focused hard. Originally, Eater had worn scars and marks on his chitin, but as Alchem looked closer, he didn't wear them anymore.

"Eater? What happened to all of your scars and marks?" Alchem questioned. Eater didn't look different, his expression stayed the same as he opened his maw, then immediately closed it again, trying to find the words to say, or at least spit out. He changed his form again and came back to his usual self. His scarred, worn, battered self. Alchem smiled, as he walked back and saw Eater with his new attire. It made him look good, if not terrifying, due to all of the injuries he had attained.

Eater looked back at the syringe gun and walked over to it. He picked it up and looked at it, before getting it snagged off him by Gretzky. Eater looked slightly confused at why he did so, but kept his cool anyway.

"How much do you want for it all, the cloak and the syringe gun?" Eater asked, getting to his saddlebag and getting out some caps. Gretzky smiled and shook his head.

"For all you have brought in, I suppose that I did owe you, so I'll let it be free." He claimed, sending a static look to Eater's face. He didn't know what to say to Gretzky in that situation. He was pleased with the result. He looked over to Alchem with a smile and saw that he was holding a sheet of metal in his mouth. It looked like steel, but it had something to it that made it not look like it, at the same time.

"Ah! Umm… Alchem? What is that?" Eater questioned, instantly losing the smile on his face. Alchem used his wing to take the metal out of his mouth and smiled.

"Just some metal I want to buy!" Alchem replied, showing a bright smile on his face. Eater thought that Alchem must have known what he was doing, so he just went along with it. Eater picked up some caps from his saddlebags and flew them over to Alchem, using his magic. Alchem extended his hoof and caught the caps, before handing them to Gretzky, in one fluent movement. He held his claws out and caught them, before bowing and putting the caps away.

"You didn't have to, but thank you!" Gretzky acknowledged, smiling at both of them. Eater nodded at him and then turned to Alchem, wondering why he wanted some steel. He tilted his head at the material and then stuck his tongue out at it, before turning away and looking back at Gretzky.

"I think that is all. If we come across anything that we might find interesting, we'll inform you." Eater said, watching as a small smile grew into Gretzky's face. Eater turned back to Alchem and saw that he was talking to Roselight. He slowly crept up to them and eavesdropped on their conversation.

"...well I don't think that he'll appreciate it. I'm not happy that you're making him go out on his own. What if something bad happens to.." Alchem spoke, before seeing that Eater was listening to the conversation. Roselight turned and looked at Eater, a little surprised that he heard the conversation. Her ears folded back before she coughed and then looked angrily at him.

"Sorry to tell you this Eater, but I don't trust you! I trust Alchem, but not you. So, that being said, I'm making you go out and get something for me." Roselight commanded, getting an alarming glare from both Alchem and Eater, as well as Gretzky in the distance. Gretzky hopped the counter and ran up to them.

"I'm sorry, did I hear that properly? You don't trust him after he took a bullet or two for your settlement to be safe?" Gretzky prompted, pressuring Roselight and challenging her for an answer. She didn't speak as she looked at Eater, seeing the new scars that he had, due to getting shot by the raiders in the settlement. She shook her head and looked at Gretzky with tired eyes.

"Can you get a radiation suit for Eater? He's going to need it where he's going." Roselight asked, seeing Gretzky nod in defeat, before he turned and flew back to the shop and grabbed a radiation suit. He came back shortly and passed the gear to Eater. Eater shook his head in annoyance.

"I'm immune to radiation, so I won't be needing this. The cloak is fine!" Eater admitted, holding the radiation suit in his hooves. Gretzky grabbed the gear and sighed, looking down at the suit, then up at Eater. A shard of life erupted in Gretzky's eyes and he smiled, getting an idea for something. He flew back to his shop and began to look for something. Eater looked back at Roselight and sighed, before she gave him a command to follow.

"I need you to locate something for me, an artifact of such. It's in an irradiated area, so you need to be careful. The only ponies that are able to go there right now, are the Steel Rangers. They got some firepower to boot, so you need to try to sneak around as much as possible." Roselight ordered. Eater sighed and turned to Gretzky, being signalled over by him. Eater walked over and saw that he was searching for something else. He pulled out something in a box and looked at Eater, smiling as much as he could.

"Don't tell Roselight, but I got something that would work wonders, if you happen to come across anything within the Wasteland. A flare gun, but not just any flare gun, a Steel Ranger flare gun. Once fired, an artillery unit fires multiple shots on its position." Gretzky admitted, sighing happily. "This is a rare piece of equipment, so take care of it. I'm only gonna give you one shot, so make it count." Gretzky added, handing over the flare gun, already being loaded.

Eater wanted to have a harness, so he grabbed a fair amount of caps and gave them to Gretzky. Gretzky looked confused, as Eater looked over to Alchem and then back at Gretzky for a final time before he needed to go.

"I need a harness!" Eater blurted out, trying to hurry up every action being made. Gretzky flew over to a specific section and pulled out a clean looking harness and flew back to him, throwing the cloak off, as well as the saddlebag Eater had and strapping the harness to Eater's body. The harness was set and comfortable, making it more enjoyable to wear. It had holsters for weapons and held a big weapon on the side. The pistol slotted in perfectly, along with the flare gun. The sniper fitted too, so Eater inserted it into the holster. There were additional pockets and pouches for other items, but they were irrelevant right then and there. Eater put his cloak back on and turned to Roselight, seeing that she held a map. He picked up his saddlebag with his magic and placed it on, under the cloak. He was ready!

Roselight showed him a map of the area and Eater evaluated it carefully. Without a second to spare, Roselight used her magic to place the map in Eater's saddlebag, making him feel a little less scared. His objective was to locate an artifact within an abandoned factory, flooded with radiation. Eater would be going alone, while Alchem was told to stay back and help with some stuff at the settlement. Gretzky and Roselight just stared blankly at Eater, making him feel mildly uncomfortable. Eater took one last look at Alchem, before he sighed and turned, making his way towards the gates.

The gates opened up and Eater looked up at the guard at the gate, the same guard that both Eater and Alchem met coming into the settlement. Eater smiled at him and watched as the stern look of pride was replaced with fear and uncertainty. The guard turned his entire body towards Eater, signalling that he was more than just tense. Eater shook his head before walking through the gate. As he was walking under, the bridge dropped instantly. Eater jumped out of the way, outside of the settlement. The gate would have decapitated him in the process of leaving. Eater would have been that it was the guard, but he didn't know what the controls for the gate were like. Still, he had his suspicions.

Eater walked out and looked to the wall, to see nopony on the wall. Now he was sure that the guard was up to something. He would have been sure to give the guard a visit when he got back. As for now, he turned around and began to walk, before somepony called out his name. He turned to see Alchem at the gate. Eater slowly trotted up to him and looked him in the eyes with anger.

"I saw what that stupid guard did. I'll have words with him, alright?" Alchem announced quietly, seeing a little smile appear on Eater's face. "Be safe!" He added, before letting Eater turn away. Eater ran into the light, before vanishing into a cloud of smoke in the distance. Alchem sighed as he turned around and looked around, looking for Roselight. "Be safe!" He whispered to himself, before walking back towards the centre of the settlement.

Eater followed the road as far as he could, before the road became hard to see. He could still make it out, it just wasn't easy, due to the conditions that he was in. The rain was beginning to fall and it would eventually begin to hurt Eater. Although he had the cloak on, it would eventually get through the cloak and get onto his chitin. Everypony else was more scared about all of the radiation in the water, but Eater was immune to radiation and radiation poisoning, so he didn't have to fear that at all.

It became very apparent that he was the only one that could have done this, due to not being affected by radiation. Originally, Eater had assumed that it was just a racial discrimination act, but he was beginning to disagree with his own mind. He was beginning to believe that Roselight wanted to take advantage of him, probably for her own benefit. Whatever the case, Eater had a job to do.

The rain came back and hailed over him, soaking him with its slippery wetness. It was going to be a matter of time before the water got through the cloak and onto his chitin. He continued to walk down the road, spotting distant sights getting closer and then further away, almost like he was hallucinating.

A house came to his vision as he walked down the road. It looked ransacked, but nopony could ever tell in the Wasteland. It was the land of mystery! Eater slowly approached the house, before stopping to think. He originally thought that the rain would have gotten through the cloak by now. He uses his magic to shake the water off the cloak, but there was no water that came off. Eater watched as a single drop of water landed on the fabric of the cloak and then danced across the surface of it, before it slid off it and back to the unsettled land. This cloak had to be enchanted, it just had to.

Eater returned his focus to the house, opening the door and watching as it fell off the hinges. It smashed to pieces instantly as it grazed the floor. It was almost like it was the shell of a once standing door, but that was just speculation. Eater entered the building and saw that everything was destroyed. It hurt to see things like that. He hated destruction to the fullest, so watching or seeing something like this, would have made him feel terrible. For everything, there was a backstory. If there wasn't, then what would be the point of something existing.

Eater shook his head, diving in way over his conscience. He walked into the one beautiful kitchen and saw that everything was unsalvageable. He scowled at the thought of everything that he came across being ransacked. Again, Eater shook his head. He opened a cabinet and saw that there was some irradiated food inside it. He could tell that it was irradiated, due to the ominous green and red glow that emitted from the tin can. Eater could have probably eaten it, but he didn't know what to do with it. He took the can and opened it up, getting a whiff of the irradiated and gone off food within. The smell alone almost made him throw up. He emptied the insides out and held it away from him.

He spotted a river that ran alongside the road and paced over to it, dunking the tin into the river, giving it a wash. The river was most likely polluted anyway, so washing the tin in it made no difference, he hoped. He took a look at the tin and saw that it was a lot cleaner than the tin had originally been, so he popped it into his saddlebag for scraping. Anything in the Wasteland was a useful asset, so they needed to acquire as much as possible. Eater was literally becoming a scavenger right then and there. There was no doubt about it!

After he placed the metal into his saddlebag, he moved through most of the cupboards and cabinets, finding nothing else in them at all. It was a disappointment, but he wasn't going to expect everything everywhere, especially if the raiders or scavengers had gotten to them first. He would be lucky enough to find anything lying around.

That thought got him thinking about the entire factory that he was meant to be going to. The area, which he just assumed was a factory, was supposed to be irradiated with all sorts of horrors. Since he was immune to radiation, he would have been the perfect creature to take advantage of. That thought alone made Eater a little angry. His eyes still glowed bright red, probably due to the amount of radiation in the air. He was pretty sure that radiation was the reason they glowed red, but it only worked while there was no sunlight. Since the bombs fell, there was no sunlight, but that wasn't the focus of his day today. He had a job to do and by Celestia, he was going to do it properly.

He was told that a group called the Steel Rangers might be there, looking for something too, maybe the same thing that Eater was looking for, but he did have a counter to them. He had a flare gun for a Steel Ranger artillery unit, which made him feel that little bit safer. The area that Roselight wanted Eater to travel to, was visible, even from the settlement. It just looked like a factory from a far distance, back at the settlement.

Eater had been walking for a little while, but he was almost there. The radiation was definitely in the air, as the air became hazel and dull, like there was no freshness to it. Eater saw a pony that had been dead on the floor, for what seemed like years, judging by the state of them. Eater went to touch them and watched as his hoof grazed the cheek of the once living pony, as it fell to dust, before being swept away by the little amount of wind that there was. That made something twist and turn within Eater, something that craved life, ponies living within here. There was likely not going to be any, but he could always hope.

He saw that there was a cart that the pony was pulling, before he turned to dust. Eater looked in the cart and saw some supplies, all knocked over, but still in good condition. Eater couldn't tell how strong the radiation was, but it was definitely strong, due to the fact that nopony had looted this cart. It was untouched! Eater grabbed some cans of food, some cans of water and some bits. Bits were useless in the Wasteland. You could probably get a cap per bit or two. He grabbed them anyway, sweeping them up with his magic, before placing them in the saddlebag. He looked back and saw some makeshift armour, with a supply box with it. He opened the supply box with his magic and saw something very, very rare indeed.

Eater had found a material supply stash! It had materials that would help the settlement a ton, so he picked it up with his magic and placed it into his saddlebag. He was surprised that he fitted that stash in his saddlebag, but when he looked, he had only filled a quarter of his saddlebag. Surely his saddlebag was magical or something? He didn't know, but he was able to hold a lot of things. The power of saddlebags! He shook his head again and regained concentration on what he was doing. He found a weapon in a secret compartment of the cart and instantly dropped it into his saddlebag. He hadn't seen its type before, but he had something to do. He jumped off the cart and walked onwards, towards the objective.

The area that he was going, definitely was a factory, judging by the pipes pointing directly into the sky. That might have explained why it was so irradiated around the area. Maybe that factory had blown up? Maybe something had gone wrong on the inside? Who knew? Nopony, because everypony that did know was dead, most likely. Eater slowly approached it, watching it as it loomed over him. He changed the brightness of his eyes, being a shape-shifter and all, changing his eye colour black, just so that he wouldn't give himself away to anything that was inside the area.

Since he was a shape-shifter, he could change into anything he wanted to. It was useful in the Wasteland, because he could lose sight of ponies chasing him and change into a rock or something. He kept that aspect in mind, just in case he needed to hide or flee from something that he couldn't handle.

He got to the entrance of the factory and pulled on the gate with his magic. It was rusted and broken, as well as being stuck. He pulled against it multiple times, before he shot at it with his horn, sending a bolt of energy through the metal. It didn't work at all, making only a scratch in the metal. He sighed, not realising that the metal was not being damaged because of it being heavily irradiated and rusty. It would have broken into dust if it was a little softer of a metal.

Eater began to walk around the factory, seeing that there was an exit or opening to the factory that had been carved by the factory's exhaust tunnel or tube. It had fallen over and crumpled the wall, allowing a small gap to be able to fit through. Eater struggled through the wall and cut himself a little, more or less scratching himself in the process, rather than cutting himself. As Eater got in, he looked up at the top of the wall and went wide eyed, followed by putting a hoof to his face. He felt like such an idiot as he laughed to himself. He could have just flown over. He chuckled at his stupidity as he turned around and scouted out the area.

He used his horn to shine a beam of light around, using his horn basically like a torch. He could see that the air was thick and everything was quiet, a little too quiet for his liking. No noises but the sound of rushing water, coming from the river to the side of the factory. That was it! Eater scanned over his surroundings and saw that there were corpses of ponies and other creatures on the floor of the yard. The bodies were ranging from relatively new, to skeletons of ponies that would never be identified.

The ponies that had been there, relatively new to the body collection, looked like raiders. There were no scavengers around and all of the raiders that were there, died with their eyes open, making them creepier to advance towards. It brought a little bit of fear to Eater's mind, but he shook his head for the hundredth time today and went to loot them. He looted the corpses that just stared at him blankly, while trying to keep it in his mind that they were 'just dead'.

He found some medical supplies on a couple of them, a fair few caps on all of them and a couple of weapons and ammo. One of the raiders was even prepared to come to this place, packing a gas mask with some oxygen tanks. Eater didn't understand why the raider had oxygen tanks with him, but he clearly wanted them, due to him being somewhat buried into the ground. Eater took the gas mask, thinking that either him or Alchem could make use out of it. If not, then he could sell it to Gretzky for cheap, cause he had helped out so much, especially with the extra protection that he now had.

The weapons that he had acquired were above average weapons. They ranged from only ammo to a couple of snipers. Each sniper was different to Eater's, but he would have to check them all out in his spare time. He found some assault rifles on some of them and a huge amount of ammo for them. They were very expensive to run, so that would be some easy caps to gain for them. SMGs were present in the loot pool as well, making the trip already worthwhile, but he still hadn't even scratched the surface of what he wanted to do with the factory.

He regained his focus, after shoving two shotguns into his saddlebag. His saddlebag was beginning to become full with stuff, but he did have quite a big amount of room left in his saddlebag for more. He walked up to the factory entrance and pushed the door open, finding that the door jammed half way. He used his magic to teleport into the factory, through the little gap and turned as the rubble blocking the door fell, blocking him inside the room and blocking the door he came through. There was no turning back, or so he thought.

He looked about, using his magic to illuminate the area. He could see all of the inners of the factory, mostly the mechanical side. There was something that disturbed him though, the amount of pony corpses that littered the factory floor. There was evidence of life there and the pre-war efforts took it away. There was also evidence of what the ponies were making in the factory, due to the insides of the mechanical devices that they made. PipBucks! Eater didn't realise that any of them were being mass produced. This might have explained why most of the ones in the factory looked broke.

There was only debris on the floor, along with the corpses of hundreds of ponies. Maybe the factory was where everypony gathered before they all had their fur and blood evaporated? Who knew? Eater looked at all of the PipBucks on the conveyor belts and sighed. He looked around for an office of some kind, standing still and just pivoting. He spotted an overlook, which connected to a strange room above. Bingo!

He began to slowly move about, making sure not to make too much noise or step on the skeletal figures too much. It made him feel sick to his core, but he had to press on. The settlement rested in his chitin smooth hooves. He drew out his pistol and walked around making sure that nothing was a threat to him in there. He could hear something, but he was pretty sure that it was some rad-roaches or something. He ventured through the factory, finding more and more bodies of ponies who once had some life to live.

He eventually got to the stairwell of the building. There were sections going up and sections going down. Eater chose to go up first, trying to get into the area he had previously seen. He climbed up, deciding that flying would be a terrible thing to do, due to the buzzing of his wings or if he changed them, the flapping of the wings. His hooves were the lightest things he could step on, so he continued to use them. He had already forgotten about his wounds, but they were healed up a little anyway, due to Alchem being the medic he was, the medic that was needed.

Eater climbed each step, hearing a creek with each step that he stumbled up. It made his ears fold back, not knowing completely if anything was here. He kept his pistol up and ready, using his magic, as he scampered to the top of the steps. There was a door that wouldn't open, so Eater did the only other thing he could do. He bucked the door, making it fly off its hinges and fall over the side of the railings to the catwalk. He instantly regretted bucking the door as hard as he did, because the previous pain was beginning to come back. He laughed to himself for missing a couple of brain cells.

He regained composure and walked carefully across the catwalk and could see some rad-roaches scurrying across the ground. Since Eater was technically a bug horse breed, the rad-roaches didn't see him as a threat. He chuckled again to himself.

"Worst superpower ever! Immune to roaches." He silently chuckled to himself, looking down at the irradiated roaches. A noise stirred something within Eater. Fear! He readied his pistol and aimed at where the noise came from and began to growl, focusing on the exact point. Green eyes came from out of the darkness and slowly grew, showing that the creature was getting closer to him.

It stepped into his light and Eater watched in shock. It was the same timberwolf that he and Alchem had encountered previously, which threw Eater off completely. Eater watched as the timberwolf eyed him, moving closer and picking up a rad-roach, before chomping down on it. Eater picked up one with his magic and waited to get the attention of the timberwolf. After the hound finished chomping, it eyes Eater, then the insect. Eater could see that it was ready, so he chucked it a little way up and watched as the timberwolf pounced into the air and grabbed it, before swallowing it whole.

The wolf landed and made the entire catwalk shake. Eater got a little closer and saw that it was wagging its tail at him, its wooden tail. It was so cute! It was almost like a normal dog before the war, but it had been… Eater came to the assumption that because of the flesh being warped around the wood, that it might have been subjected to the likes of killing joke, a plant that would change anything to something that it feared or just didn't like. The effects were somewhat permanent, so there was little to no chance of something being reverted. Eater's guess was that it was a normal dog before killing joke.

The timberwolf raised its head and then snarled behind Eater, almost like trying to tell him that somepony or something was near. The timberwolf jumped over the railing before landing on the floor and running away, into the darkness beyond. Eater had to be weary of where he was going, just in case he was going to be followed. Eater rubbed his eyes with a hoof, before continuing to walk across the catwalk again, making sure to make it to the other side this time.

As Eater got to the other side of the catwalk, he noticed yet another door. This one was partially open and as Eater walked up to it and tried to open it, it swung open like it was nothing. That brought a little smile to his muzzle, before he ventured inside, having one goal of searching for an artifact of some sort. He entered the room and saw that it looked comfy, more comfy than any other parts of the factory. Eater walked up to the display area, overlooking the bottom of the factory, where he had originally seen the overview from the floor.

He turned around and could see that there was a very important looking desk that spoke to him, metaphorically. He walked over to it and began to search it, finding that the desk had multiple draws. He opened one of the four doors of the desk and saw that there were just a load of notes. Eater took a brief look through them, finding that they ranged from bills, to plans for the factory to build extensions to it. All of the stuff was irrelevant to Eater, so he looked through the draw, trying to find anything useful. He found a key in the middle of the papers, so he picked it up and placed it on top of the desk, before checking through the rest of the draw. He found nothing!

He closed the draw and opened up another. This was a more personal draw, because it contained a couple of images of a stallion, mare and filly. A family! Eater sorted through the draw, collecting the pictures and seeing if there was anything useful within them, which there was. He found a pistol with some ammo and some alcohol. Eater began to add up the pieces and realised that the stallion might have worked here, judging by one of the images including the mare and the filly, together. Eater was smart enough to know that the alcohol and the gun were for taking the easy way out, if the worst came to affect.

Eater turned around and grabbed the office chair, before siding down and examining the photos of the past. The stallion definitely loved his family, that was clearly shown in the images. The photos reminded him of his family, his father, his mother and him. Two of them were outcasts, while his father was just a normal pony stallion. He missed them so much that it brought a tear to his eye. He had to keep going, for their sake, for them to rest in peace that their child was successful in one way. He had never pleased his father to the extent that he liked. Sure, he did please his father, he did make him proud, but only a little, which encouraged him to stride on further.

Eater placed the photos back into the photos into the desk draw and took the gun, ammo and alcohol and placed them into his saddlebag. He would be sure to make use of them at least. He heard something move in the distance, but didn't take notice of it. He searched the last two draws and found that there was a locked one. He unlocked it with the key he had just found and opened the draw, seeing that there was a code of some sort. A four digit code that would open something, possibly a safe that was hidden in the area. He picked up the scrap of paper with the numbers and held it with his magic, before finding that there was nothing else in the draw and closing it.

The last draw was jammed, so he tried to open it with his magic. That did nothing and he accidentally snapped the draw handle off. He used his magic to pull on the draw once more and found that nothing was working. Eater regained focus on what secrets the code could have unlocked, so he swept the room and tried to find the safe or at least a number pad. He found the safe! It was behind one of the fallen bookshelves. He moved the bookshelf out of the way, using his magic and proceeded to enter the code.

"Two, eight, seven, one!" He read aloud, hearing the echo throughout the factory. The safe cracked open and he saw something that stood out from everything else in the factory. It was a perfect conditioned blueprint for something. He was pretty sure that that was what Roselight wanted. He placed it carefully into his saddlebag and looked back into the safe. There was a box with things within it, so Eater just plopped it into his bag. He looked back for the final time and saw a fully finished and hopefully functional PipBuck. He picked it up and walked away from the safe, hearing something in the factory. There was chatter!

Eater rushed to the overlook and peered down at the figures, seeing that they were all in suits of armour. Eater was pretty sure that he couldn't take on any of them, let alone five of them. He stayed quiet and listened to the conversation between them.

"Alright! Let's get straight to the point. We are here for that blueprint and the spare PipBuck. Let's find it boys and then return to base. That blueprint is key for the Steel Rangers to get back into the battle." One of them announced proudly, shouting in unicen. They began to scout about and that was Eater's chance to run. He wasn't going to be able to fight them, but they could fight themselves. Eater grabbed the flare gun with his magic and turned off the amount of light that he was emitting from his horn, to ensure that he wouldn't get spotted at all. He saw one of the exhaust pipes leading out of the roof, having a hole in the side of it. Eater aimed the shot at the hole in the side of the tube and fired, sending a volley of power and a tiny amount of light across the room and into the sky. He had to run!

He flew over the balcony and ran across the floor, seeing them all there. They were going up the stairs, towards the catwalk. One of them shouted as they spotted Eater flying down from the catwalk. They readied their weapons and pointed it at Eater. He froze and looked at them all, seeing that the ones without the headgear looked stunned and confused.

"Sir? What is that thing?" They shouted, making sure that the ponies that were higher up, could hear. They just aimed at him and didn't make a move. "Does it speak?" The same Steel Ranger asked, referring to Eater. Eater nodded his head, slowly backing away from them.

"Don't let him get away! For all we know, he could have the blueprint!" One of the Steel Rangers shouted, ordering them to aim at him and keep an eye on him. Eater sighed and teleported behind them all, a little down the downward staircase. He made it so that he was blended into the wall, before he began to move.

"God damn it! Find it! Kill it!" Another Steel Ranger announced, getting furious at the group for letting Eater escape their lines of sight. Before they could do anything, the radio on the Steel Ranger's armour began to freak out, with constant calls and messages. One of them picked up that there was artillery about to hit their position. Eater rushed down the stairwell and slammed open a door, before closing it, locking it and moving something behind it, so that they couldn't buck it down with the additional weight of the armour.

Without a second glance back, Eater rushed down the corridor and came to the river, running underneath the factory, to allow some motors to work. Eater dove into the water, his cloak still dry. It definitely had some zebra spell or enchantment on it. He swam down the stream and dove up for air. Turning around and looking behind him, he saw the artillery coming in. It hit! The explosion radius was huge, forcing Eater to return to being underneath the water, as he watched orange flames pass over the top of the water. Those were not any normal bombs.

There were one, two, three, four bombs dropped, one after another. Eater was close to drowning in the water as he couldn't come up to breathe, due to fiery flames spewing out and over the top of the water's surface. Eater came up to breathe and coughed vigorously. He scrambled out of the water and looked back at the factory. Where was the factory? Where were those Steel Rangers? He didn't want to stay to find out. He had to go!