The most shocking thing about waking up the following morning was that I did so relatively calmly. When I opened my eyes, I didn’t find anypony hovering menacingly over me, no eyes peeking at me from a shadowed corner, and the sound of breathing, which I took to be my friends sleeping, dispelled any chance of eerie silence. Not only that, but I felt rested, or at least more than I had in the past few days. My sleep hadn’t been peaceful by any stretch of the imagination, nightmares of yeti attacks and endless blizzards had plagued me, but I had still slept through them well enough.

“I think I’m becoming desensitized.” I muttered, which was a worrying thought. I had to consciously relax my shoulders, which had tensed instinctively upon awakening. After taking a minute to calm myself against the unnaturally good morning I was having so far, I rolled over in bed with the intention of gliding to the floor.

“Hello!” The brightly colored unicorn colt standing just underneath me yelled.

“HOLY CELEST- OW!” The loud greeting made me jump in surprise, but since I had slept on a top bunk this meant I whacked my head against the ceiling. Clutching the back of my head in hooves and wings, I overbalanced and fell to the hard concrete floor. “Owwwwwwww fuck…” I hissed, squeezing my throbbing head.

The colt looked down at me, eyebrows furrowed. “You don’t look like a hero…”

“Who the Hell asked you?” I spat.

My irritation didn’t faze him. “Sis told me you were a big hero who saved Jack and the ghouls from monsters, but heroes are cool and cool ponies don’t bonk their heads.”

I stood, gingerly holding a wing that I was channeling cold power through to the sore spot on my head. “Even heroes have off mornings.” And I’m no hero.

“Not the Stable Dweller! She’s awesome!” The little colt said, bouncing excitedly.

“Who’s the Stable Dweller?” I asked.

He stopped his bouncing and looked at me as if I just asked who Princess Celestia was. “You don’t know? Don’t you listen to the radio?”

“Not really, my friend doesn’t like it when I…” I turned to look at Scout’s bunk and found it empty. “Where’s Scout?”

“The earth pony? He and the pretty unicorn are in the mess hall with Sis and the ghouls.”

“Wait, so the sound of breathing I heard, that was you?”

“Uh huh!” He said, nodding rapidly.

I looked down at the excitable little colt, who had the same electric blue shock of mane that Clouds did but with a warning-sign orange coat. “You aren’t very…subtle, are you?” I asked.

“Nu uh!” He said, shaking his head.

Right, noisy little colt and a possible concussion, even my good mornings aren’t good mornings. Stepping around the colt, I trotted towards the door, still holding the wing to my head. The sound of his hoofsteps followed me into the hallway. “So, I’m guessing Steam Clouds is your sister?”

“Yep! Sis and I live in the super-secluded bunker together, but she does most of the science-y stuff. I’m in charge of the salvage.”

“Salvage? How do you salvage anything with those monsters outside?”

“Oh, I don’t go outside. The super-secluded bunker is much, much bigger than the spot you saw. Sis and I haven’t had the chance to poke around the whole thing yet, even though we’ve been living in it all my life and most of Sis’. Reason I do all the salvaging is cause I’m smaller and cause of this!”

A bright orange light started flashing behind me. Turning around, I caught an eyeful of the light flashing from the colt’s horn. The effect on my headache was like a lightning bolt to the brain. Covering my eyes with a hoof, I stumbled back with a cry. “It’s my special talent!” He yelled as if the bright light made me hard of hearing. “Light tricks! It’s how I got my name, Lights!”

“Lights?” I asked, squinting.

“Flashy Lights! Sis named me!” He said proudly.

“Great, great, now could you please dim that?” I asked. He relented, and after a few seconds of blinking I managed to get the spots out of my eyes. “So, Flashy Lights.” I took quick note of his Cutie Mark, one of those spinning orange emergency lights. “Appropriate. So, you’re my wake-up call?”

“Yep! Sis sent me to getcha. The earth pony didn’t want me to, he was all like,” Lights scrunched up his face and said in a deep voice while shaking a hoof “she never gets any sleep, let her rest, blah blah blah!’” Returning to his normal voice, he continued. “But Sis was super excited to show you what she made, so she had me come get you anyway.”

“Great.” I muttered, then, out loud said. “Well, let’s not keep them waiting.”

The four-hooved headache and I soon reached the mess hall, which was the same room we had met Caber in last night. The other ponies (living and undead) were gathered around the tables eating breakfast. Scout, Clarity, and Steam Clouds were all gathered around one table, so I went to join them. Sliding onto the bench next to Scout, I pressed my wingtips to my temples, trying to squeeze out the headache. “You okay?” Scout asked. “I thought you were actually sleeping for once.” I shot a poignant glare across the table at Flashy Lights, who had started yammering at his sister, then glanced at Scout. He nodded in understanding.

There was a buzz of magic as Clarity gave me a plate of food that I accepted gratefully. The plate had sliced apples, oatmeal, and fresh hay, all of which I was surprised to see. This food looked higher quality than what we had above the clouds! “I thought Sweet Spot said they didn’t have food down here.”

“I said we didn’t need to keep food fresh.” Sweet Spot said from across the room. “We ghouls still need to eat. I think.”

“You think?”

“We still feel need to put food in belly.” The giant earth pony who had wielded the equally giant hammer spoke up in a Stalliongrad accent. He was talking between bites of mushy, brown apple. “Fresh matters not, ghouls don’t taste.”

I felt a little ill watching the ghouls eat, their food well past the expiration date. “Isn’t that unhealthy?”

The big pony laughed. “Leetle smoothskin, being ghoul is unhealthy! Probably do not have to eat, but we do for we feel we should. Keeps mind working, and is cheap!”

“That’s why I brought my own food.” Clouds said in a low voice. “The ghouls are nice, but rarely make accommodations for living ponies. Not many visitors.”

I nodded, taking a bite of apple. When the taste hit my tongue my eyes shot wide open. Sweet Celestia this was fantastic! I quickly ate the slice I was working on then scarfed down three more. “You’re acting like you’ve never eaten an apple before.” Scout said, watching me eat with amusement.

“’Ever lik’ ‘his.” I said around a mouthful of fruit. Swallowing, I asked. “Where did you get these?”

“I grew ‘em!” Clouds said with a note of pride. “Lights and I found an experimental underground agricultural system designed to provide Stables with steady food supplies. The data I found on it said that only a couple of them actually got these things, and even then some more than others. This one Stable down by Ponyville has a whole orchard growing right underground! Anyway, with the constant fresh water supply here in Meltwater, all I needed was to fix up the artificial sunlight generators, rig up a fertilizer system, and voila! Insta-apple farm!”

“Incredible.” I muttered, examining one of the apple slices. “What’s the out-put on it?”

“Enough to feed the whole town. We still need Jack and the ghouls to go out and get specific things like medical supplies and stuff, but other than that we’re almost entirely self-sufficient. Not bad for a buncha ponies surrounded by giant monsters, huh?”

“Speaking of giant monsters.” Scout said. “You had something you wanted to show us?”

“Yes! Yes I do! Lights,” She said, turning to her little brother “bring out the thing!”

The little colt’s horn glowed orange as he pulled out something that had been stashed under the bench he and Clouds had been sitting on. It looked like a giant folded cloth, which was it proved to be when Lights opened it with a flourish and said “ta da!” The cloth was huge, easily large enough to cover several ponies and made of some kind of silvery material.

“A big blanket?” Clarity asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Not just any big blanket!” Lights said from behind his display. “It’s made from three different layers of material. One to keep ponies warm, another to stay on the outside and always be cold, and one in the middle to make sure the other two don’t touch!”

“Heat camouflage.” Scout and I said at the same time.

“Yep!” Clouds piped up. “The yeti will only be able to see the outer layer, which is made of a thin material that doesn’t retain heat. That way, it’ll always be the same temperature as everything around it, making it effectively indivisible to them!”

“And the middle layer is an insulator that doesn’t conduct heat very well.” I said, catching on. “That way the body heat of anypony wearing it doesn’t show on the outside, meanwhile the inner layer keeps them warm! That’s brilliant!” Clouds beamed at my praise.

“Yeah, but why’s it so big?” Scout asked, poking his head under the table where the blanket was fanned out beneath our hooves. “It’s kind of impractical to carry around something that huge.”

“Oh, yeah, about that.” Clouds said, laughing nervously. “I kinda maybe sorta got carried away with the sewing. I was so eager to have my proof of concept and wanting a lot of data that I made it kinda…” She lit up her own horn and, working with her brother, levitated the whole thing up. It practically reached from floor to ceiling. “Really really big.”

“Well, it’s big enough to cover all three of us at least.” I said, craning my neck to see the top of it. “You’ve tested that it works, right?”

“Well, not against live subjects.” Clouds admitted as she and Lights folded up the blanket and stored it away. “But we have a thermal camera or two in the bunker and a few tunnels where the heating is out. Both Lights and I were filmed with the camera while under the blanket and we got no heat signatures, so everything seems to be in order.”

“There’s one more problem.” Scout said. “How the Hell are we supposed to see from under that thing?”

“Well it’s not like visibility is really a thing in the blizzard.” Clouds reminded him. “And you have your PipBuck, so just lead them by the compass!”

“Yeah, but the compass couldn’t pick up the yeti until they were right on top of us.” He countered. “We wouldn’t know they were there until we bumped into them, then they don’t need to see us to kill us.”

“If you don’t like it then don’t take it!” Lights said, glaring at Scout from around the blanket.

“I’m just saying we need a way to see, otherwise what’s the point?”

I chewed an apple slice, not paying attention as the two colts argued. There had to be a way around this. Suddenly it came to me. “Mmm! Mmm!” I tried to get everypony’s attention, but my mouth was still full of food. Clouds and Lights dropped the blanket, so everypony was looking at me as I struggled to speak and swallow at the same time. “Mmm! Whait, Ah go’ it.” Swallowing, I pointed to Clouds. “You said you had a radar that picked us up, right?”

“Yeah, I…oh wait!” Her eyes widened as she caught onto my train of thought. “If I could modify the radar program…”

“Integrate it into the E.F.S. compass…”

“And get it to register on the display…” By this point the two of us had our forehooves on the table and were leaning towards each other in excitement. Then, Clouds gasped. “But how? Would there be enough room?”

“Trust me, there’s more than enough room. These things have massive storage. So, can you do it?”

“Yes! Yes I can!” She reared up, kicking her hooves in excitement before leaping to the ground and galloping off. “I need to get to work!”

Laughing, I grabbed Scout by the hoof and flew after her. “C’mon Scout! You’re getting an upgrade!” Clarity would later tell me that, after a short, stunned silence, Lights had commented that ‘smart ponies are weird’, to which she agreed before they chased after us.

We spent the next hour or so in Clouds’ section of the bunker while she worked on modifying the program. Scout had sat bored near the big terminal, various wires coming out of his PipBuck as Clouds worked away. Lights was showing Clarity around the rest of the bunker while we worked. Meanwhile, I had amused myself with poking around the lab, with its owner’s permission. There had been a workbench with several spare magical energy weapon parts scattered around it, so I was able to do some maintenance on Black Powder and soon had the custom pistol looking brand new.

Putting Black Powder away, I continued to look around at the various technological wonders in various states of completion. It seemed that Clouds had taken every bit of interesting tech she could find from the bunker and brought it back here to tinker with. Most of it looked to be for military use, there were disassembled guns and suits galore strewn about with wires and empty magazines. One thing looked out of place, it was one of those multi-armed medical things that had been in the Scrap River doctor’s office. I trotted over to the little screen with keyboard on the side, poking a few of the keys.

Suddenly the device came to life, whirring and flailing its arms wildly. I screamed in surprise, leaping backwards and into the air. The thing continued to whir for a few seconds before falling still, with only the slight hum of electricity to give any indication it was on. “General rule, don’t touch anything with more than four arms.” Clouds called, not looking away from the terminal.

“What is that thing?” I asked, not landing even though the thing had stopped.

“Auto-doc.” Clouds answered casually. “Their medical bots designed to assist in surgery. Thing is, that one doesn’t actually heal anypony.”

“Then what does it to?”

“It installs subdermal implants that enhance various traits in a pony. One to make you stronger, one to make you smarter, even one that makes you more charismatic.”

That last one made my ears perk up. “What do you mean charismatic?”

“Like ponies are more drawn to you, they’ll listen to what you have to say.”

As casually as I could I asked. “Like could it make you, prettier?”

I saw Scout looked at me with his brow furrowed, his gazing asking me what I was going on about. I didn’t meet his gaze, instead waiting while Clouds thought about it. “If it does it would be relatively minor. That one’s a hormonal implant so theoretically it should cause physical changes over time.” She chuckled. “Though for all I know it just makes you give off pheromones that’ll have every buck near you too turned on to argue with you. I haven’t actually tested any of them.”

I landed next to the thing, and after first making sure I wouldn’t set it off again, scrolled through the selection of implants on the screen until I found charisma. I stared at it, the little cursor blinking over the word. I could hear them, my brothers taunting me, calling me “cold flank”. With this, I could change that. Maybe not significantly, but considering the way I was…

This is bullshit. A little voice in my head said. That won’t make any appreciable difference.

But any difference would mean something. I thought.

You already have a difference, what about your wings?

Those just make me a freak!

Who has said that other than you?

They don’t understand! They aren’t pegasi! I set one hoof above the clouds and I’ll be spat on as a genetic monster! I broke their precious purity and it didn’t even do anything. My shoulders were tensing as I continued to mentally yell at that damned voice. I’m still the same! Still boring! Still…

“Sleet!” Clouds called, snapping me from my internal monologue. I looked up to see the unicorn detaching the wires from Scout’s PipBuck. “I have an alpha of the program ready. Scout and I are gonna go test it out, want to come along?”

“Uh, no thanks.” I said, trying with some difficulty to keep my voice from shaking. “I still want to look around a bit.”

Clouds shrugged and started to trot away. “Alright, suit yourself. C’mon Scout, we need to open the roof and let the blizzard in. The radar says no yeti in the area, so we better go while we can.” Scout gave me a curious look, which I returned with a mustered smile. He galloped after Clouds, the door closing behind them.

Cold flank. With a few swift keystrokes, I started the procedure. The device jumped to life, whirring and spinning. After a few deep breaths to steady myself, I hopped onto the little surgery bench and let the thing get to work. I felt thin, metal extensions push apart my mane at the base of my skull. I had to force myself to remain still as the points scraped against my scalp. Once my mane was out of the way, a pad soaked in localized anesthetic was pressed to the spot. I took quick, regular breath, trying to calm my racing heart as the whirring started up again. I could distantly feel a pressure at the numbed spot, then a sudden spike of sensation that made me gasp. Several quick motions and a spray of liquid followed and the machine fell still.

“Is that it?” I asked nopony in particular. I didn’t feel any different. Reaching back with a wing, I gently poked the spot where the surgery had taken place, feeling stitches and a lump that wasn’t there before. “I guess it worked.” I muttered, sliding off of the surgery bench. When I landed on the ground, my knees buckled, making me stumble into the same workbench I had been tinkering at earlier. “Whoa, that’s not right.” I said. “Okay Sleet, get your bearings…”

After a minute of stumbling and staggering, I managed to steady my legs and trot around normally. The first thing I did was find a bathroom and check myself in the mirror. The first thing that hit me was how terribly disheveled I looked. I hadn’t actually gotten a look at myself since I had fallen out of the clouds. My mane had grown and was horribly tangled, my hooves were dirty, and my overcoat was tattered at the edges. The most obvious thing were the spots where radiation poisoning had made my coat fall out and it had grown back in unevenly.

There was nothing I could do for my coat right now, but I could at least fix my mane and hooves. Finding a comb, I tried to pull it through my mane and instantly regretted it when it got caught on a knot and pulled painfully on my scalp. A quick run under the sink for the comb and my head made for a smoother experience, and after washing my hooves I was soon appearing somewhat civilized again. In fact, I did look just the tiniest bit different. I had never cared much for mane styles, choosing instead to just keep it neat, but for some reason I had combed it off to the left side without really thinking about it. “Maybe the implant comes with a dose of vanity.” I said to my reflection.

From down the hall, I heard Steam Clouds’ voice call out, “Sleet! Good news!”

After quickly checking that my mane covered up the spot where the implant had been installed, I cantered back to the lab. “What’s up?”

Clouds had started typing away at her terminal and didn’t immediately answer my question. Scout on the other hoof had given me a confused stare at me as soon as I entered and continued to do so for an uncomfortable stretch of seconds. Eventually, he said. “Did you do something with your mane?”

“Well, yeah.” I said not expecting him, or anypony really, to notice. “I went to the bathroom and saw that it was all messed up from traveling, so I combed it.” I found my wingtip fiddling with my mane, keeping it in the position I had given it. “Just kinda felt like I should.”

“Huh.” He said, still staring at me. I felt my cheeks turning red, was this implant stronger than I thought? Had Clouds been right about the pheromones thing? Finally he shrugged and turned to watch Clouds work. “I don’t suggest making a habit of it, stuff like that tends not to last on the road.” There was the Scout I knew.

Clouds jabbed a key and exclaimed, “Right! So! Good news and not-so-good news! Good news first, the conversion went swimmingly. The radar integrated into the PipBuck’s programming really well. Not-so-good news, there are a few bugs with interface compatibility…”

“All I could see were dots and nearly went deaf from the pinging.” Scout deadpanned.

“Exactly. Fortunately, my Steel Ranger helmet over there has a really similar display, so I should be able to sort that out on my own. Scout said he wanted to pick up supplies, so how about you two go to the general store in town and I’ll get this sorted out?”

“We’re going shopping?” Clarity asked as she and Lights returned to the lab.

“You three! Even better, I need full focus here, and my favorite little-assistant-brother free to help. Lights! The helmet!” The little colt snapped a salute and scurried over to the bench housing the Steel Ranger armor.

The three of us took our leave as they got to work. “So why go for more supplies anyway?” I asked as we stepped out of the elevator to the surface and I slipped my wings away. “Aren’t we set for life on anti-rad medicine?”

“Yeah, but there’s still food and ammo to consider.” Scout said. “And I don’t know about you, but giant blanket or no I’d like some actual clothes designed for going out in a raging blizzard.”

We found the general store soon enough and were surprised by the size of the selection. Ammo of nearly every description, boxes of medical supplies and food, and assorted other junk that I saw no obvious use for. But there was something else I noticed too, signs of disuse, shelves stacked to the brim with too much stock and a thin layer of dust over everything.

“Welcome welcome welcome!” I looked up as the shop-keeper, a middle aged earth pony stallion with a dusty brown coat and graying yellow mane, trotted over to us. He shook our hooves in turn as he continued to talk (Clarity was once again wrapped in her disguise, and her hooves were covered enough so the shop-keeper didn’t notice her crystal nature). “It is so nice to see new faces here! You must be the newcomers who got past the yeti, I’m Knick Knack, welcome to my store! Please take your time, look around! Can I help you find anything?”

“Actually, yes.” I said, gesturing to Black Powder. “Do you have any spark packs?”

“Yes we do! Follow me, please.”

Scout and Clarity continued to browse as the Knick Knack lead me away. We wove through the overstocked store, stepping around boxes and squeezing past shelves. “Business is a little slow I take it.”

“It’s practically non-existent.” The shop-keeper lamented. “The town is so self-sufficient that ponies have practically no need to come here, and you are the first group to get past the yeti in months.” As we came to the supply of spark packs, he looked left and right before whispering to me. “To make matters worse, my only regular customers are the ghouls. They are the only ones in town who need ammo, that and that drunk bomber of theirs constantly buying all the booze.”

“What’s wrong with Jackpot and his team?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, it’s because they’re ghouls!” Knick knack said as if he were talking to a filly.

“Uh huh.” I said very slowly. “And the problem is…?”

Knick Knack started to shuffle uncomfortably as I glared at him. “W-well, I don’t have a problem with them personally, like I said they’re my best customers! It’s just, well, most ponies don’t care for ghouls and when they see them shopping here it makes the living ponies less inclined to…” None of this was appeasing me, which he could clearly see. “So, how about those spark packs?”

I decided to drop the topic and get on with the transaction. “How much?”

“Thirteen caps a pop.”

Thanks to my experience working with Apparatchik I had a good idea of what the value of most common Wasteland items was, so I could see how ridiculous his offer was. “No deal, five.”

He at least put on a good show of looking taken aback. “But that’s practically theft!”

“Hardly, and considering how overstocked you are you should be practically giving them away.” I picked up a hooffull off spark packs from a box and let them fall back to prove my point.

He sighed, hanging his head. “You’re right. Every week Jackpot and the ghouls come back with more and more stuff and I have nopony to sell to! If it wasn’t for those accursed yeti we could actually get some trade!”

“The town seems to be doing fine, even with a slow economy.”

“It is, that’s the thing! But soon we’re going to grow too large for the town to sustain and either we push out and get eaten by yeti or starve here, and I still won’t be making sales!” He shook his head, looking dejected. “But, fine, you’re right, five caps a piece.”

“Works for me.” I scooped up a good number of spark packs and we went to the counter tucked away in a back corner to complete the payment. My friends had already gotten what they wanted, Clarity had picked up Med X, healing potions and magical bandages while Scout had stocked up on food, ammunition of his own, three sets of winter gear, and… “Are those grenades?” I asked nervously, pointing to the little metal apples.

“Yep, I figure if we run into any more giant monsters we’re going to need something with a bit more kick.”

“You at least know how to use those things, right?”

“They won’t blow up before I want them to.” He assured me. We paid for our things and started to leave. On the way out though, I noticed something bright yellow along one of the walls, which upon closer examination revealed itself to be a pile of hazmat suits with the symbol for radiation on them.

Those were the sort of thing that would come in handy at the Empire. “Hey.” I called over my shoulder to Knick Knack, who was putting our caps away in an old world till. “How much for these?”

He looked up at my call and saw what I was pointing at. “Oh no! Those actually aren’t for sale.” He trotted over and gathered up the suits. “I keep meaning to take them off the floor…”

“Why aren’t they for sale?”

“These aren’t your average, everyday rad-suits.” He explained. “The ghouls found these in some old hospital below the snowline. They have built in radiation dampeners that increase the suits performance immensely. You could walk into a fresh balefire crater with these on and only get a mild sunburn. But Steam Clouds said she wanted to experiment on them, and besides technology like this is incredibly expensive, I’m afraid I cannot sell.” He started to walk away.

“Wait.” I said, stepping forward and putting a hoof on his shoulder. “We’re going to be going somewhere pretty irradiated soon, and you have five of those suits. We only need three.”

He thought about it for a second, but shook his head. “I’m sorry, no. I cannot put a price on these.”

Damnit, I wanted those suits! They would make our trip to the Empire so much easier. I needed something to convince him, anything. Then an idea hit me, I didn’t particularly like it, but it might just work. “What if we had a different method of paying?”

Knick Knack sighed, frustrated with my persistence. “And what could that possibly be?”

“What if we solved your yeti problem?”

The shop fell silent for a long stretch of seconds. Scout grabbed my coat, pulling me in close and hissed at me. “Sleet, what the fuck are you doing?! I see why you want those, but they aren’t worth getting us eaten.”

“Except we won’t be eaten, so could you please let go and let me explain?” Scout continued to glare at me for a second before finally letting me go. “Thank you.” Adjusting my coat, I turned back to Knick Knack. “Steam Clouds made us a device capable of shielding a pony’s heat signature, effectively making us invisible to the yeti. We know the reason Jackpot’s assault on the cavern failed, the yeti learned to look for the weapon’s heated barrels. What we’ll do is find individual yeti and pick them off, then hide under the blanket while the barrels cool down. Not only that,” I gestured to Black Powder “this thing sets stuff on fire. I think a giant flaming corpse will be a sufficient distraction for monsters that see heat, don’t you?”

“That…could work.” Clarity said, rubbing her chin. “And if we take out enough yeti to break the blockade on the town, then all the fresh water here could go out to the rest of the Wasteland.”

“I could get some actual trade, it would be wonderful!” Knick Knack said, lighting up at the idea.

Scout was the only one not warming up to the idea, but he knew he was outvoted. “This is another of your stupid risks, Sleet.”

“I know, but don’t those usually pay off?” I asked, giving him a smile.

He sighed, shaking his head. “Giant monsters, I’m going to need more ordinance. Do you have any land mines?”

“You’re going to do what now?” Jackpot asked, eyes wide.

“Yeah I know, it’s a big risk, but we need those suits. We’re planning on scavenging some really radioactive places soon and they’d be a big help. Besides, I’d like to help out your town.”

“Well that’s awfully philanthropic of you and all, but I don’t want to see you three eaten for this!”

I sighed, not wanting to explain this a third time. “We won’t be. We’ll use Clouds’ giant blanket…”

“Heat Masking Thermo-Tarp.” Clouds corrected me.

“Heat Masking Thermo-Tarp to stay invisible to the yeti. Then we pick them off one at a time, really slowly and carefully. It will take a while, a long, long while if that will help, but we’ll be perfectly fine. Sufficient reduction in the yeti population will allow Meltwater to trade with the rest of the Wasteland and you may even get more mercenaries to come in and finish the job.”

“Yeah, and I’m working on mass-production for the HMTT.” Clouds chimed in. “So any living ponies will be able to evade the remaining yeti easily!”

Jackpot rubbed his forehead. “I don’t like it, not at all. But if you insist on doing this, then I’m going too.”

I had expected this response, and in fact been looking forward to it. “I was hoping you’d say that, after all you know where the yeti cavern is and more about them than any of us.”

“Ifin yer goin’ boss, then so ‘er we.” Caber said, banging his mostly-empty bottle on the table for emphasis. There were several mutters of assent from the other ghouls.

“No, no, no.” Jackpot said, waving a hoof. “This group should be as small as possible. We don’t want a repeat of last time.” The group fell silent at that. “We’ll do as Sleet said, take things nice and slow and quiet.”

“If you want quiet, I can help with that.” Sweet Spot said, hefting her rifle. There was a silencer screwed into the end of the barrel, adding another few inches to the already sizable weapon.

“I said no. We all know what happened the last time too many of us went after those monsters.”

“Yeah, and we all know what happens when you don’t take them down quickly!” Sweet Spot retorted. “I know you’re a decent shot, Jackpot, but you can’t kill one of those things in a single hit, and neither can the smoothskins. You need somepony who can drop them before something goes wrong.”

“And why are you so eager to come along?” I asked.

“Because I don’t want to see another one of these missions go to shit. And frankly, after the last one, I’ve been wanting another crack at those things.”

“I don’t want to see another mission go to shit either.” Jackpot said in an understanding tone. “And the way to prevent that is to keep the group as small as possible.”

“No, she poses a good point.” I said. “The whole point is to strike quickly and efficiently. The best way to do that would be to have a sniper.”

Jackpot gave a rattling sigh. “Damnit Sleet Gray, stop being so reasonable.” I smilied apologetically as he nodded. “Fine, but no more, and that’s final!” There was displeased murmurs and shuffling amongst the other ghouls, but that stopped at when Jackpot waved his hoof. “Quiet, all of you! If you want something to do, then prep for our next outing! We can poke around one of those old suburbs, the one with all those crazy lights in it. Sure to be something good there, eh?”

The ghouls reluctantly agreed and got to work as we left. Clouds joined us, at least until the edge of town, saying she wanted to see her prototype in action. In little time we got to the town’s outskirts. We stood next to a recently-erupted geyser, steam and heat still thick in the air. Though it was oppressive, I relished the heat while we had it, knowing that soon I’d miss it.

Scout passed out the winter gear he had purchased to all the living ponies going on the expedition. He had gotten a heavy, hooded coat and a set of sturdy boots for each of us, which I gratefully put on. I declined the second coat, wanting to keep access to my wings, though Scout made me promise to put it on if we ever needed to travel without the tarp. As I slipped on the boots, I asked Jackpot. “Do you still feel cold?”

“In a way.” He said, checking the load on his weapon, a large, six-shot revolver. I was unsure how it would stack up against the huge yeti, but I trusted Jackpot’s judgment. “It’s kind of like how you feel air on your skin. You know it’s there, but never really think about it.” He poked my shoulder, causing me to twitch involuntarily away from him. “This beef-jerky skin isn’t exactly conducive with touch, you know?”

I flushed, embarrassed at my gut reaction. “Sorry.”

That only made him laugh. “Don’t worry about it.”

I’ll admit, Jackpot fascinated me. Considering his situation, he had no reason to be so kind and cheery. “How do you deal with it?” I asked. “You know, with being...”

“Dead?” I nodded. “I was a gambler, back when I was alive. Got my Cutie Mark when I hustled the school bully out of all the lunch bits he stole. Ever since then, I lived by my luck, and it usually paid off. But sometimes it doesn’t, cause there are the moments where you make it big, the ones where you go broke, and still others...” He looked down at his own desiccated arm. “Others put you somewhere in the middle. But hey, this is the hand I got, I’ll play it. Certainly better than the alternatives, I could have died in the apocalypse or been cooped up in a Stable all my life!”

“Play the hand you have.” I said, thinking of my mutated wings. “I want to call a redraw.”

That got a hearty laugh out of Jackpot. “Sorry kid, no mulligans!”

While we were talking, Steam Clouds was installing the improved radar software onto Scout’s PipBuck. She had brought the program along on a holodisk, and after a few minutes of fiddling around with the device, asked Scout to fire it up. “Alright, here goes nothing.” Scout said, pressing a few buttons.

“Well?” Clouds asked.

“It appears to be working.” Scout said, looking around at something only he could see. “And I’m not getting my ears blasted off.”

“Alright! Now, phase two, does it work when I do this?” Clouds magically draped the giant blanket (Heat Masking Thermo…whatever) over Scout. Clarity and I started laughing as it settled down around him, the tarp was so comically huge compared to Scout that he looked like a foal playing under the covers of a bed.

“I’m still picking up signals, I think we’re good to go.” His muffled voice called, ignoring our laughter.

“Excellent! I love it when a code works!” Clouds lit up her horn and raised up the tarp for Clarity and I. “Alright you two, in you go.” As we trotted under the supersized tarp, Clouds stopped me with a quick hug. “Be careful, it was nice having a pony around who actually knew what I was talking about. Don’t go getting eaten!”

I returned the hug and gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine, I promise.”

“You better be!” She called after me as I stepped under the tarp.

Once we were all under the tarp, Clouds lowered it, leaving us in darkness. “Scout, can you get us some light?” I asked.

“Already on it.” His voice said from right next to me. With a click and a whir his PipBuck lit up with soft green light, illuminating the three of us. There, now for the big question, how do we move in this thing?”

He raised a good point, the weight of the tarp pressed on us and though that was manageable the size of the thing was an issue. The slack in front of us would make simply walking forward difficult without tripping or pulling the thing off. “I have an idea.” I said, flying up with my hooves over my head so I lifted the tarp until the edge was barely brushing the ground.

The only problem was that the damned thing was heavy! I had only just lifted it and my shoulders were already burning. “Clarity, a little help?” I asked, my voice tight with strain. Clarity’s horn lit up with pink light, a corresponding glow pressed upward on the blanket, lessening the weight. “There we go, ready!”

“We’re set to go in here!” Scout called out. “Jackpot, Sweet Spot, you ready?”

“Sure are!” Jackpot’s boiled voice returned, muffled by the layers of fabric separating us. “I’ll take point. Just follow my dot and I’ll have us at the cavern in no time!”

“Alright then everypony.” Scout said, positioning himself as his radar instructed. “Let’s go.”

And so we went, Clarity and I holding the tarp up while Scout directed us. It was more than a little disconcerting having no idea where I was going, especially since I was helping to hold up the only thing that could probably keep us alive. More than once Scout made a turn I wasn’t expecting and we nearly took the whole thing down. Fortunately we had worked out a series of calls on which direction to go by the time snow started to appear under us. As we ventured further beyond the range of melt from the town’s geothermic activity, the snow grew deeper and deeper. We kept quiet save the calls of which way to go, and even those were hushed, this is the part where Clouds’ cleverness was tested.

“Hold on, we’re stopping.” Scout said, barely loud enough to be heard.

While we were stopped, I landed next to him, rubbing my sore shoulders. “Why? Something wrong?”

Something pony-sized pressed against the tarp and Jackpot’s voice came through in a whisper. “You reading this, Scout?”

“Yeah.” He said, looking around at something only he could see. “Yeti.”

I felt Clarity tense next to me, and I couldn’t blame her. The thought of the giant monster being mere feet from us, separated by only a meager giant blanket, sent a chill down my spine. “How many of them are there?” I whispered.

“Three, two there.” He pointed to our immediate left. “And one there.” This one was slightly to the right.

“How close?”

The blanket was pressed upon from the outside, covering my mouth. “Too close.” Sweet Spot hissed, barely audible through the cloth.

“Should we take these ones out?” Scout breathed.

“Too risky, can’t guarantee clean kills in the blizzard.” Sweet Spot said. “Just move slowly, and be as quiet as possible.”

I looked to my friends, Clarity looked about as scared as I was, but Scout simply nodded and mouth ‘let’s go’. With an assenting nod, I flew up and lifted the tarp, Clarity’s magic lighting up around me. This was the moment of truth where we found if our little tarp worked. We started forward at an agonizingly slow pace, and I found my imagination plagued by visions of the gigantic white-furred monsters. I could see the yeti trudging through the snow with our little blanket, so hilariously small compared to them, creeping between them.

Time and space felt like they were stretching, so much so that by the time Scout raised his hoof to stop if felt like we had travels weeks and miles. I had tensed so much that I was hardly able to flap my wings. Poor Clarity didn’t look much better, her crystal skin was practically gray with her mane falling limp. “What is it?” She asked in a shaky voice. “Have they spotted us?”

Scout turned around and scanned behind us, then turned in place a few times. If I didn’t know he had that radar I’d have thought he’d lost his mind. I lowered myself to the ground, shaking more from the residual tension than the cold snow I’d landed in. “I think…” Scout said hesitantly, as if he was cautious about believing it. “I think it worked. We left the yeti behind.”

Clarity and I both sighed in relief, sitting in the snow heedless of the cold. I found myself laughing after a second, tension flowing out of my shoulders. “Holy shit, it worked. Good going Clouds!”

Clarity shook her head, chuckling as a crystalline sheen came back to her coat. “Sleet, I’m with Scout on this one. You come up with the stupidest, riskiest idea.”

“We’re not out of this yet.” Scout reminded us. “We know that we can sneak around the yeti, now we need to know if we can kill them.”

We managed to get to the yeti cave with little further incident. Once Scout made sure there were no yeti in the immediate area, we peaked from under the blanket at the entrance. Before us stood a great mountain, stretching upwards into the clouds. A gigantic fissure ran up the face of the mountain, starting out wide near the bottom and tapering off a good twenty feet up. The crack in stone was easily large enough to fit one of the yeti, and from what we could see it extended deep into the mountain. “Well, that’s it.” Jackpot said, trotting into our field of view.

“How many do you think are in there?” I asked.

“I’d say about twenty. Clouds told you these things mutated from trolls right?” I nodded and he continued. “Well trolls were never the brightest or most sociable things in the Old World. The mutation made them a little smarter, so they learned how to hunt in packs, but they still don’t like each other, so the dens tend to stay pretty small.”

“Wait, ‘dens’?” I asked, emphasizing the plural. “There’s more than one?”

“Well yeah, these things are a whole species after all. There are a bunch of dens all over the Frozen North, but they are extremely spread out. This den is the closest to Meltwater by a long shot, so that’s why its members are threatening the town. If we take it out, it will get the town off of yeti radar unless a loner wanders by from somewhere else.”

“Alright then, how about the caves themselves?” Scout asked.

“They’re pretty expansive, and most of the chambers are large enough to give the yeti a few feet of headroom. On the plus side, there are a few short and narrow tunnels we can use in a pinch.” He paused, and when he next spoke his voice had tightened. “They helped us hide and escape last time.”

“If all goes to plan, then we won’t need them.” I said. “How much does it take to bring one of those things down?”

“Either a lot of lead to the body, or one big bullet through the head or other vital area.” Sweet Spot said, motioning to her sniper rifle.

“Then you’re going to have to handle most of the kill shots. Think you can do it?”

The ghoul gave a gurgling laugh. “I’ve had two hundred years of practice without my eyes, and these things are stupid. I know how to find their heads, don’t worry.”

“Alright, no sense in waiting around any longer. Let’s go.” The ghouls nodded and we slipped back under the tarp.

“You’re sure about this, Sleet?” Clarity asked as we got back into position. “Call me cynical, but I’m not really comfortable having a blind mare be in charge of taking down the pony-eating monsters. I mean, I know she says she’s adapted to shooting without her sight, but have you ever actually seen her shoot?”

“Well, no.” I said after flapping back into position to carry the tarp. “But Jackpot says she can do it, and I trust Jackpot. Besides, we didn’t have a lot of options for quick, silent kills.” I imagined what it would have been like if we’d brought Caber along, and while an exploding yeti sounded spectacular, the blast would draw more attention than we could afford.

“There’s no going back now.” Scout said, orienting himself by the radar. “Let’s get going.”

And so we went into the mouth of the cave. It didn’t take long for the snow to give away to hard rock as we entered the fissure in the mountain side, the hooffalls of my friends echoed slightly with each step. I knew that the ghouls had to be moving more quietly than we were, and that the tarp was masking our sound as well as our heat, but I still winced with each clip and clop. At least flying made me perfectly silent.

Tension filled the air under our tarp, everypony holding their breath, waiting for the inevitable first encounter. It took a long, long minute, but eventually Scout raised a hoof. We stopped dead, as frozen as if I’d turned us all to ice. Scout’s head slowly turned as he tracked something that was circling around behind us. It felt like every hair on my body was raising as he turned fully around and looked behind us.

When the tarp raised up from behind, I nearly leapt from my skin. It took everything I had not to scream as Jackpot entered. “Don’t worry, I came in behind its line of sight, it didn’t notice anything.”

“How’s it look out there?” Scout whispered as I slowly landed.

“Good sized one, all alone, sitting in a corner. Looks like its eating. Sweet Spot is going to take it out.”
Clarity’s questions before we entered the cave came back to me, and I was filled with curiosity. “Alright, I want to see this.” I said, moving to the front of the tarp.

“How? You can’t go out there.” Clarity asked.

“I’m just going to peek.” I said, laying down on my stomach. The cold of the stone floor seeped through my overcoat, but I ignored the chill as I raised the tarp just barely high enough to let one eye look out. I almost shouldn’t have bothered, there was next to no light in the cave, though as my sight adjusted to the dark I could begin to make out a few things. Outlines of the rough stone walls formed the boundaries of the room, and I determined a shuffling, pony-shaped patch of darkness to be Sweet Spot.

Then, I spotted the yeti. At first its white fur made it look like a pile of snow, but the fact that it was moving and making a rather unsettling crunching noise proved otherwise. It was difficult to estimate how large it was, since it appeared to be sitting, but even then it rivaled Coming Storm in terms of height.

Looking back to Sweet Spot, I watched as she positioned her sniper rifle, settled into a firing stance, and did something I thought was completely insane. She whistled, a loud and sharp whistle that echoed off the walls, and to my nerves may as well have been automatic weapons fire from a small army. Naturally, the yeti noticed immediately. The giant beast rose from its sitting position with a grunt, and that was when I got a sense of how freaking massive the thing was. The mutant troll towered over us to the point I couldn’t see its head without sticking my own out further, something I wasn’t going to do anytime soon.

Sweet Spot whistled again, each echo making my chest tighten more and more. I prayed to any higher power that would listen that the ghoul knew what she was doing. As the yeti stomped it’s huge feet, turning towards her, it started to roar. I say ‘started to’ because it only took a second of the guttural cry for Sweet Spot to raise her gun, fire once, and silence the thing forever.

I watched, the one eye capable of seeing the spectacle wide to the point of nearly falling out as the tower of white took one step back, then two, then fell with a crash that shook the floor. The crash made me release the breath I had been holding throughout the whole ordeal, which had taken no more than fifteen seconds.

Throwing the tarp up, I stepped out and stared open mouthed at the body of the yeti. I had expected her to do it, counted on it even, but seeing it done, and especially how, still took a second to process. “You just…got it.” I said, in the dead tone of the shell-shocked. “By whistling. You just killed the giant monster by whistling.”

“Told you I could do it.” Sweet Spot said proudly. “Do you know if any of those bat ponies still exist? Maybe I’ll go run with a group of them someday!”

Scout insisted that we take an incisor from the dead yeti as proof of our kill. I had no idea how he was able to pull the huge tooth out, let alone store it in his duffel bag, but somehow he managed it. Then, anticipating that other yeti would have heard the crash and come to investigate, we prepared to take the monsters out. Firstly, I set the corpse of the dead yeti on fire with Black Powder, the large amount of heat would provide a nice distraction, if an absolutely atrocious smell. Then, we picked a tunnel to wait in. Jackpot told us that, while the yeti were less than sociable, they did have the tendency to congregate in the larger caverns. We chose the tunnel to lay our ambush based on the fact that it didn’t connect to those large areas, and thusly should receive less traffic.

It turned out we were only partially right. We hid around one of the bends in the tunnel under the tarp, Scout watching his radar for any motion when he muttered, “Shit”.

“What is it?” Clarity asked.

“We have three of them coming this way.”

“Shit.” I agreed. “How far away are they?”

Scout’s eyes scanned over something only he could see. “Hard to say, best guess minute and a half.”

“You hear that?” I called through the tarp to Jackpot and Sweet Spot.

“Yeah.” The sniper ghoul responded. “I’ll only be able to take down one cleanly. The others will spot my barrel and it’ll be too hard to line up a new shot.”

“Ninety seconds.” Scout warned. I could hear heavy footfalls coming down the tunnel.

“We’re going to have to fight the others.” Jackpot said. I could hear him readying his weapon.

“Is there any way we can avoid that?” I asked, hoping against hope there was. The sound of the yeti was getting louder, and closer.

“Afraid not. If we can take out two, then we’ll have the chance to run before the third can block us off, but it’ll be risky. My advice? Take out the legs. It’ll still be dangerous, and they can still swing their arms, but we’ll get and keep distance.”

“Forty-five seconds. I hope you have a plan, Sleet.” Scout asked tersely.

I began running scenarios through my head, each option flashing through my mind and being discarded as unusable. Then, two things came to me, how much the first yeti I encountered panicked when its arm caught fire, and something Scout had asked the shopkeeper in Meltwater. “Okay, plan, Jackpot, can you cripple one leg in a single shot?”

“Shouldn’t be a problem, just gotta put the right shot in the right place.”

“Okay, Scout, prime one of those landmines you bought and give it to Clarity.”

“What?!” The crystal unicorn asked incredulously. “Why?!”

“You have magic, you can place it more precisely than the rest of us.” I could feel the floor shake slightly. “Sweet Spot kills one, I blind another by lighting its face on fire, Jackpot takes out a leg on the third and Clarity mines its other one.”

“And then?” Scout asked, in the process of priming the mine. He glanced at his radar. “Twenty seconds.”

“Then we either kill them or run like Hell.”

We fell silent as the yeti approached. Scout had handed Clarity the mine, which she gripped lightly in her magic. I crouched, wings flared and tensed with Black Powder at the ready. Scout had said twenty seconds, it felt like twenty minutes. My mind circled around and around my plan, throwing all sorts of potential problems into the mix, visions of the whole thing going wrong dominating my thoughts. I tried to calm myself, imagining a great wall of ice in my mind to hide mentally hide away the panic. It worked, at least partially and I was able to think clearly, though my heart didn’t slow.

It would have to do, as the yeti rounded the corner. I couldn’t see them, but the rumble of their footfalls made it obvious they were there. “Ready…” I breathed, barely audible. Sweet Spot whistled, the stomping ceased, one yeti growled. The pwiff of the silenced sniper rifle, the gurgle of the yeti dying, and excited roars of its companions, all of these signaled me screaming “GO!”

Scout threw the tarp up, the light of his PipBuck lantern revealing something from one of my nightmares. The fallen yeti lay diagonally across the tunnel, black blood pooled near its mouth as its companions stood behind it. One yeti was making to step over the dead one while the other roared and reached for the ghouls. All of this was bathed in a green light, turning the already ugly scene ghastly as I took to the air. Assessing the situation as quickly as I could, I picked my target, the yeti reaching for the ghouls.

Jackpot backed out of the giant monster’s grip, holding out a hoof so he pushed Sweet Spot back at well. Before it could swing again, I flew by its eyes, my living heat signature seizing its attention more than the fleeting heat of the rifle barrel. The beast snapped at me with its huge jaws, barely catching my tail. I felt a few hairs pull out as I flew up, keeping its attention away from my companions.

I looked down to aim at the thing, and felt my heart seize as a massive hand tried to close around me. Beating my wings crazily, I flew backwards, shooting several bolts of orange light at its palm. A few struck home, causing the yeti to flinch back with a pained roar. It gripped its burnt hand in the other and glared up at me with intelligent, hate filled eyes.

I looked back into those eyes and lined up my shot. ZAP! The blast of orange light struck square between the thing’s eyes, a fire instantly sparking to life on the white fur. “Yesh!” I cried around the stock of the gun. “Ah did i’, Ah got ‘im!” The beast roared as the fire started to overtake its face, slapping at the burning fur with its massive paws. At least that’s what I thought it was going to do. I was so caught up in my little victory that I didn’t notice that huge paw was swinging at me until a second before it struck.

With a scream, I tried to twist out of the way, but my reaction was far too late. The blow broadsided me on the right, feeling and hearing something snap in my chest. I didn’t even have time to tumble before smashing into the stone floor. I tried to scream, or even just breathe, but my chest felt as if I was the one who had set on fire. I lay there, unable to take anything but the shallowest gasp, while the burning yeti raged above me. There was an explosion off to the side, another roar joining the first only to be followed by a massive CRASH!

I could at least let my head loll to the side so I could see what happened. It seems that the others had been successful in their attempts to take down the third yeti. The monster was trying to push itself up, but between having one knee shot up and the foot on the other leg blasted off, it was unable to.

My victim, its head now completely engulfed, flailed for a few seconds before tripping over its downed companion. It fell on top of the other yeti, making the floor shake an eliciting a bellow of pain from the crushed yeti that petered out into a lifeless rattle. The fall seemed to have killed the burning yeti as well, as it ceased moving.

Deafening silence fell in the tunnel, save the sound of smoldering fur. “We did it…” Clarity muttered, shocked.

“Yeah, and it was very loud.” Scout said, coming to his senses quicker than the rest of us. “Let’s get moving.”

“Sounds good to me.” I said, or at least started to say, but as I sat up a horrible pain flared in my side. Screaming in agony, I collapsed onto my back, gasping and holding a hoof over the right side of my chest. Scout cantered over to me, reaching out to move my hoof. “Don’t, hurts.” I whimpered, unable to say more.

“Shit, her rib is broken.” He growled.

“We don’t have time, we have to move.” Sweet Spot said, her ears twitching. “I think I hear more coming.”

“We aren’t leaving her.” Clarity said firmly, trotting over me while levitating a shot of Med-X and roll of bandages out of her saddlebags. The shot glowed brightly with pink light as she empowered the medicine before injecting it into my arm. Almost immediately the pain faded, not by much, but enough for me to breathe easily.

“I never said leave her, just throw her on your back and let’s get moving, c’mon.”

“We can’t move the tarp if Sleet can’t fly, and she can’t fly with a broken rib.” She started to magically undo the buttons of my coat as she talked.

Sweet Spot face hoofed, groaning. “You don’t treat a broken rib! She just has to suck it up.”

“I can’t treat it, but I can dull the pain. Jackpot, help me lift her, gently now.”

While the sniper grit her teeth in annoyance, Jackpot nodded and got on the other side of me, kneeling down to slip his hooves under my back. “You okay, Sleet Gray?” I gave him an incredulous look, eyes tight with pain. The Med-X hadn’t quite taken full effect yet, so even the little bit of movement made my side burn. He smiled sympathetically. “This is going to hurt, ready?” I gave a tight nod and he slowly raised me up. The sharp spike in pain made me groan.

Clarity had wrapped the magical bandages around my chest. Even the slightest touch to my right side had made me whimper, though when she finished and the healing energies set in the pain receded further. “Okay, I think I’m good.” I said, buttoning up my greatcoat. It still hurt something awful, but it had been reduced to a background pain rather than a stabbing agony.

“Are you sure? Can you fly?” Clarity asked as I stiffly got to my hooves. Now that I could stand, I got a better look at the situation.

I had fallen near the blasted feet of the collapsed yeti, my burning victim lying on top of it. Scout was standing near the head, checking the way we came for more yeti on his radar. Sweet Spot paced near him, ears twitching. I gave my wings a few flaps, and while it hurt it wasn’t enough to cripple me. “Yeah, I think I can, let’s get going.”

“Thank the Goddesses.” Sweet Spot muttered, trotting towards us. “For ponies who wanted to do this as safely as possible, you don’t seem to mind sitting around in the open.”

“Wait.” Scout said, holding up a hoof.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, what now?” The ghoul snapped, whirling around.

“Something isn’t right.” He said. “Are there other tunnels adjacent to this one? One my map wouldn’t pick up?”

“That’s impossible.” I said, shaking my head. “The auto-map feature would have scanned the whole cave as soon as we entered.”

“Then I want an explanation for why I’m picking up a contact on the other side of that wall!” Scout said, pointing to the wall on the other side of the fallen monsters. “It keeps fading in and out, but it’s there.”

“Shouldn’t the radar get it?” Clarity asked.

“It’s coming through on E.F.S., not radar. That means it’s not moving.” He started to slowly circle around the bodies, glancing between the wall and his E.F.S. “Wait, now it is, but I’m still not getting a…” He looked up from his compass and at the yeti. “ping…” His eyes shot open and he leapt backwards, catching the firing bit to his battle saddle in his mouth. “ITS NOT DEAD!”

As he screamed, the burned yeti’s massive bulk shifted, placing its huge paws on the ground and pushing up. I watched in horror as the deformed beast raised up, a twisted roar building in its throat. Scout opened fire, trying to finish it off, but even with S.A.T.S. he was unable to kill it quickly. It had to be blind from the fire, but its ears still worked and it lunged towards the sounds of Scout’s gunfire. He jumped out of the way of its grasping paw, but now he was trapped further away from us.

Sweet Spot whistled sharply, attempting her earlier trick. It managed to get the thing’s attention, certainly, but not the way she wanted. Rather than turn its head to present her a shot, the mad beast lashed out, its huge foot snapping out with frightening speed. Even if she could’ve seen it coming, there was no way Sweet Spot would have gotten out of the way in time.

There was a heavy thunk as she was struck and an even louder CRACK as she was whip-lashed into the wall, her head colliding with the hard stone. The yeti roared, and I swear I detected a note of victory in its bellow. That roar was silenced not long after by a thunderous gunshot that originated from next to me. The yeti clutched its throat, blood running between its fingers, before collapsing, truly dead.

Jackpot stowed his revolver in its holster and walked over to Sweet Spot’s limp form. “Is she dead?” I asked softly.

“Yeah.” He said after a moment kneeling next to her. Standing, he turned and cantered deeper into the cave. “C’mon, let’s go.”

“You aren’t going to leave her here, are you?” Clarity asked, shocked.

“The yeti won’t find her body, I’ll come back for it later.” He said hurriedly. “And if we don’t move soon we’ll join her.”

“Wait.” I said, putting a hoof on his shoulder to stop him. “What do you mean?” I asked, something about the tone of his voice worrying me.

Scout cantered over to us. “Somethings up, I got a ping on the radar, but it was moving away from us.”

“Yeah, one of them spotted us.” Jackpot said.

Silence fell as we all processed that. “Without attacking?” I asked, the implications horrifying me. “But that means…”

“They’re learning.” The sound of echoing roars seemed to come from all directions at once. “And they’ve surrounded us.”

The yeti were onto us.

Even with the tarp, enough yeti knew we were here to being blocking exits. Not only that, but they started traveling closer together. Scout’s radar regularly picked up packs of three or four monsters staying within one tunnel of each other, meaning we had next to no chances to attack. Through combinations of sheer luck and risky traps we were able to pick off about four more, but each kill tightened the net around us.

Not only that, but I was slowing us down. My broken rib forced me to take regular breaks from flying. Even with the painkillers, the injury was too severe to ignore completely. During one such break Scout said what we were all thinking. “We can’t keep going like this.”

“He’s right.” I said. “We’re running too many risks stopping like this.”

“Then what should we do?” Clarity asked.

“We scrap the mission and come back later.”

“No.” Jackpot hissed from outside the tarp. “We have to end this.”

“I know you’re hurt from what happened, but we don’t have to capacity to end this.” I said, keeping my tone neutral. “If they yeti weren’t on alert then we might be able to even without her, but as it stands right now this is too dangerous.”

The ghoul gave a rattling sigh full of anger and resignation. “You’re right, I know you’re right, but what can we do? This is the second mission to fail, how do we beat these things?”

“I don’t know, but we can’t do it here and now. The best thing we can do is escape, get this tarp cut to size, and come up with a new plan.”

It was agreed that we would leave and so we started towards the exit. From where we had stopped, getting to the exit would involve passing through a large central cavern that connected with many tunnels. As we approached the cavern, Scout reported his radar picking up near twenty of the giant monsters moving in and out of it. I could hear them, we all could, the milling footsteps and growling of the creatures bounced off the stone. We all fell dead silent as we crept into the cavern, the sound of the yeti expanding around us.

I could feel the agitation in them, the constant motion and the tension in their bestial voices. It garnered a weird sympathy for the monsters in me. Something was killing them off as well, though their threat wandered unseen. I had heard stories of giant creatures called elephants that had wandered the plains of the Zebra nation and had been afraid of mice, even though they could crush them easily underfoot. The irony, and parallels to the current situation, was not lost on me. But these elephants would not fear the mice, nor would they run. And if they caught sight of us, we would be crushed without hesitation.

The pain in my side was building. I didn’t know if it was the Med-X wearing off or just the constant motion agitating the bone. Either way, I was finding it harder and harder to maintain the altitude I needed to carry the tarp. Slack began to drag on the ground, just enough that we didn’t notice until it was too late.

As we came to the exit of the cavern, we grew eager. Scout told us through so many gestures that he was picking up no yeti beyond the cavern. The thought of maybe being able to move more freely and away from the monsters excited us, and we quickened our pace. In that haste Scout failed to note the yeti whose path we would cross. Had I been at full strength, this would have been no problem. We’d have passed in front of it with no complications. But as it stood, the slack of the tarp dragged behind us, and was caught beneath the yeti’s foot.

The tarp was pulled from us, the rush of cold air freezing us as solid as water. Knowing that remaining still wouldn’t help, I spun and looked up at the yeti that had revealed us. The giant looked down at me, red eyes squinting in confusion. There was no uproar, no stomping or attacking. We hadn’t been spotted by the masses yet, but that was rapidly about to change. I had less than a second to do something, so I made a distraction.

Pulling out Black Powder I blasted several shots at the yeti. I wasn’t aiming anywhere specific, I just wanted to hit it. Bolts of orange light struck it in the chest, and where they struck fire built. The yeti’s battle roar became one of surprise and pain as the flames spread over it. I put several more bolts into the crowd, looking to spread the fire as much as possible before screaming “RUN!”

We fled, using the moment of surprise to weave between the forest of yeti legs. By the time we got into the tunnels, the roars had begun in earnest and the rolling thunder of their pursuit followed us. “What do we do?!” Clarity screamed, not caring for silence now.

“We find a smaller tunnel and hide!” Jackpot thundered.

“And then what?” Scout asked. There was no answer.

The chase felt a lot longer than it was, mainly because the agony of my broken rib was coming back in force. I had abandoned flying not long after we had been exposed, and now it hurt to the point that I was stumbling more than galloping. Clarity noticed my distress, slowing so I could lean against her as we ran. I appreciated the gesture, though we were losing speed, and the stallions were pulling ahead of us. We rounded a corner several seconds after them and if it weren’t for the green light of Scout’s PipBuck ducking into a crack in the wall, we would have lost them.

The crack was wide enough for one of us to fit in at a time. I took the few seconds to lean against the cold, rough stone wall, gasping in pain and exhaustion. By this point I wasn’t sure if it was the Med-X fading or all the agitation I had just put the wound through, but it felt like I had been stabbed by a splintered piece of wood.

“Sleet, get in here!” Scout’s reprimand snapped me from the haze of agony. Slowly, gingerly, I slipped into the crack in the wall. I was plunged into complete darkness, the abyss given borders by the tight, jagged walls. Sharp stone forced my wings back into their pockets and a jutting rock struck my head, but I was able to fit, if just barely.

I ended up pressed against the others, scrunching against them so that no part of me was sticking out of the crack in the wall. At least if we die now it’ll be close together. I thought grimly.

The sound of the stomping yeti made us hold our collective breath. The monsters roared in frustration when they didn’t spot us, though they continued down the corridor. I managed to turn myself around and look out the crack in the wall, watching as the white fur passed by our shelter. Then, a few stopped. We all pressed back further, even though we were already crushed.

The yeti roared at one another, though what they were saying, if indeed it could even be called speech, was beyond me. All it would take was one of them to kneel down, and I was certain the residual heat of our bodies pressed together would leak into their vision. Death, a mere glance away.

But it never came, instead something else wholly unexpected. The rata-tat-tat of automatic gunfire surprised both us and the yeti. The beasts standing outside our hidey-hole stomped around, probably turning to the noise, and roared what I was beginning to recognize as their battle cry.

The gunfire rapidly grew louder until it reached a crescendo, and the monsters screamed in pain. With crashes that shook dust from the walls, the yeti fell. The head of one came down, looking into the crack in the wall. I stared into the monster’s dead eyes, wondering who the Hell had brought enough fire power to drop the giants that quickly.

Lights cut through the darkness. Voices and hoofsteps begin to echo off the walls. One of the lights pass over the crack we were hiding in, and the voice I assume belonging to the light’s owner calls out “Boss, over here!”

Hoofsteps approached the crack, a flashlight held by unicorn magic shining onto us. I had to squint against the light, unable to make out the features of the pony who had saved us, but when she spoke in a Stalliongrad accent, I knew I had met her before. I heard Clarity gasp in horror behind me, and though the yeti were dead, I felt more trapped than ever.

“Business Mare! What surprise to see you here!”

My eyes adjusted to the light, allowing me to make out her insincere smile. I returned one of my own, even as my heart seized in sympathy to the fear I felt radiating from my crystal friend. “Hello, Cat O’ Nine Tails.”
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Footnote: Level up!
New perk, Quick Draw: You can draw and holster your weapon 25% faster.

Author's Notes:

Sweet Celestia and Luna FINALLY it's done. Ironically, I'm a fool for thinking I'd have the free time to write during a break from school. Free time is so much more manageable when you have a regular and predictable class schedule!

I know what I said last time, so I won't make false promises about the next update. Just know that I try, oh my god do I try. In the meanwhile I hope everypony enjoys the chapter and I highly encourage feedback! Drop a comment, tell me what you think, and I'll see you all at the next update!