Pain and darkness, a disturbingly familiar combination. The fact that it this had become such a common phenomenon was disheartening enough. I had led a relatively safe life when I lived above the clouds. Now I could hardly go a day without getting knocked out. It was amazing I was still alive after all that. The numerous forces that wanted my head had plenty of chances after all.

“Wake up Sleet Gray.”

A voice, a familiar one, green light.

“Wake up.”

Who was it? Sombra? Was he in my head? He couldn’t be! If he was then that meant…

A bright light, small but there, appeared in the distance. I looked over my shoulder at the green light burning in the darkness. “Wake up, Sleet Gray.” I turned from the green and trotted toward the white light. I felt a…force, a presence behind me. The green light grew brighter. I increased my pace, building into a gallop. “Wake up.” The light grew brighter and brighter, blindingly so…

“Wake up, Sleet, c’mon!” I jolted awake, being shaken by my shoulders. A shadowy, pony shaped figure wrapped in green light crouched above me. On instinct I lashed out with my wing and my talent, a cold wind shoving the figure. The green light stumbled back with the figure, who cried out in shock.

I leapt to my hooves, taking stock of my surroundings. I quickly adjusted to the dim lighting in the room, mostly coming from the green glowing shadow pony, and what I saw was like something out of my deepest nightmares. The rotted faces of ghouls leered from the dark shadows, completely surrounding me.

I felt the familiar vice grip of fear on my heart, but refused to let it consume me. Remember what Clarity said, focus on what you know. They freak out when confronted with fire, fortunately I had a fire gun.

I went to dip my head and grab Black Powder, but the pistol wasn’t there! Shit, what else did I know? Ice, I could freeze them. Flaring my wings, I drew on my talent, feeling the build-up of cold power around my feathers. I faintly wondered why they hadn’t attacked yet, but decided not to question it.

I unleashed the built up cold at the nearest ghoul. A wave of winter wind knocked the zombie pony off its hooves. “Holy shit!” A gargling, boiled voice cried.

Wait, did it just talk? I felt cracked hooves touch my shoulder. “Hey, calm down, we’re not-“

On pure instinct I violently wrenched myself away. “Get the fuck away!” I screamed, or at least tried to. It came out more like a frightened squeak. I unleashed another blast of wind at it.

“Somepony stop her!” That same graveled voice said. No, wait that was a different one. Similar, but definitely distinct.

I felt something intangible grab my wings and shoulders. Pink light glared behind me and I felt a pony that definitely wasn’t a ghoul grab me. “Sleet, calm the fuck down!” Scout’s voice cried in my ear. Why the Hell was he trying to pin me? Didn’t he see the zombies? I continued to fight, but with my wings bound and Scout’s grip there was little I could do.

Slowly, I stopped my thrashing. The green light was coming from my earth pony friend’s PipBuck and was illuminating the…well…ghoulish features of the ghouls surrounding us. My breathing was still rapid, the calm I had prepared was slowly degrading at the sight of the ghouls. “Ghouls, Scout ghouls we need to…”

“Sleet, they aren’t feral!” Scout said forcibly, still holding me tightly in case I lashed out again.

“Not…feral?” I asked, confused.

“Smoothskin doesn’t know there’s more than ferals?” One of the boiled voices muttered derisively.

“You…you mean…” I sputtered, still trying to wrap my head around this. I looked around at the ghouls. Once I got past the terrifying, rotted visages I could see that there were differences. They didn’t have the blank, hungry, animistic looks the zombies had, but rather the spark of intelligence I saw in other ponies. “You mean you’re still…”

“Sane?” One of them offered. I nodded dumbly. “Yeah, we still got our marbles together.” He, and now that I was paying attention I could tell he was a stallion, grinned, showing off rotten teeth. “Hell of a streak, been this way for two hundred years.” He stuck out a hoof. “Jackpot.”

It took me a few seconds to realize he had just introduced himself, and a few seconds longer to react. “Um, Sleet Gray.” I said, gingerly shaking his hoof. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know that…well…”

“That some of us weren’t flesh eating freaks?” Jackpot asked, still grinning. “Lemme guess, first ghoul you ever met tried to bite your face off?”

“My flank, actually.” I said. I noted Jackpot’s Cutie Mark, three bold, orange number 7’s in a row. Somehow that was terribly ironic and fitting at the same time.

“Ferals ain’t exactly known for their manners. They’re what happens when a ghoul loses the will to keep going. Forget everything that makes them a pony. Fortunately,” he gestured to the ghouls behind him “we all got a nice gig going. Keeps us sharp.”

“Yeah, great gig.” One of them, a mare though it was hard to tell the difference, said sarcastically. At first I thought her eyes were particularly deep-set, but when I took a closer look the shadows turned out to be a simple black blindfold. “Get locked in a fucking basement by crazy ass ghosts. And now with a bunch of smoothskins who don’t know how to tell a feral from a ghoul.”

Jackpot rolled his eyes. “Ignore her.” He whispered. “Sweet Spot gets by on being a cynical bitch.”

This was still boggling my mind. I had thought that an inherent nature of ghouls was that they were insane, flesh-gobbling monsters, but now that apparently wasn’t the rule. I felt a chill as something occurred to me. Had there been any sane ghouls in the group we’d taken down? Had I accidentally murdered somepony? “How many of there are you?”

“This is our little group.” Jackpot said, making a sweeping gesture to the other ghouls, about seven in all, who reacted with varying degrees of friendliness. Well, at least I had the assurance that I’d only killed ferals. “We’re a salvage squad from a little town way up in the snow. And as you can see, we’ve fallen on some hard times.”

“We can sympathize.” I said. I looked back at Scout and Clarity who were still holding me down. “I’m fine.” After a second my friends released me and took a step back. “We are…” I paused, who were we? Contracted members of the Shadow King’s army? Fugitives from a government out to slaughter the surface world? Both of those were technically true, but I didn’t think they’d endear us to our new found cellmates. “Scavengers. We came to this ghost town hoping to strike it rich. Never suspected it to be actually haunted.”

“You three?” Sweet Spot said, raising an eyebrow. “A crystal, a Stable pony, and an Enclave walk into a haunted castle. There’s a joke in there somewhere.” She looked at me and I swore she was glaring behind the blindfold. “I thought your kind didn’t like us dirt ponies.”

“I’m not Enclave.” I said quickly, but I stopped myself from retelling my story. I didn’t want to unintentionally bring the hammer down on this group and their town. “I’m a throwback. Something-great granddad had wings, so I do too. I try to stay low, just in case those high-flying cowards feel like sending down ‘recruiters’.”

That didn’t placate the cynical ghoul like I’d hoped it would. “Then how’d you get this?” She asked, holding up Black Powder.

“Hey! Give that back!” I said, lunging forward. The ghoul mare easily side stepped me, chuckling around the handle of my gun.

“Wha’s de mhatth?” She asked. “Chan’ cath a ‘lind pony?” Growling, I flapped a wing at her. With a crackling noise, her hooves became coated in ice. “What the Hell!?” She dropped Black Powder in her surprise, trying to yank herself free.

I snatched the gun before it could hit the ground. With a few casual blasts of super-heated magic, I freed the ghoul. “You shouldn’t take things that aren’t yours.”

Jackpot facehoofed before stepping between Sweet Spot and I. “Ladies, calm down! Sweet, you know we don’t have time for this.” He said. “We’re all in deep shit here.”

“The geister took you guys too?” Scout asked.

“If by geister you mean those gargoyle freaks then yes.” Jackpot said. “But that isn’t the issue. I’m sure you three have been feeling the radiation in this place?” We nodded. “Well this place is outfitted with a powerful spark generator, capable of powering the whole castle until Celestia’s sun goes out. The only problem is that during the balefire strike there was serious seismic movement and the generator was damaged.”

“So it started leaking radiation.” I said, catching on. “And I’m guessing two hundred years of negligence didn’t do it any good.”

“No it didn’t, and neither did the shots it took.”

“Wait, what?” I said, feeling panic rising in my chest and into my voice.

“Yeah, during the struggle with those geister-whatevers the reactor took a few hits.” Jackpot said, kicking at the floor with a cracked hoof. “And by our best estimate it’ll blow like a balefire bomb sometime soon, and none of us know how to shut it down.”

We stood there frozen for a few seconds before the three of us screamed. “WHAT!?”

“The blast will destroy the foundation and bring down the castle.” Another ghoul, a unicorn buck said. “We ghouls won’t care about the radiation, but getting crushed under several tons of stone won’t agree with us, so we need to get clear of the blast.”

“But what about the Stable?” Clarity asked, receiving blank looks from the ghouls. “Stable 126? It’s built into the hill. Did they not contact you?”

“No.” Jackpot said, looking confused. “Town was just as abandoned as advertised.”

If I had to guess, I’d say that the superstitious ponies of 126 didn’t feel like contacting a bunch of walking corpses. “Their kind of a reclusive group.” I explained. “But Clarity’s right, they are in danger as well. The Stable is directly connected to the castle, if the whole thing comes down it could cause serious damage to the Stable.” A very disturbing mental image came to me. “Hell, if the blast is big enough it could collapse the Stable and the hill with it!”

The room fell silent as everypony contemplated that. The Stable, and everypony in it, crushed under an avalanche of rock, dirt, and steel. And we would be trapped in it, there was next to no chance of us getting out of the castle, past the giester, and away from the hill before the reactor went off. Even with a generous estimation of the time before the explosion it would be too close for comfort. “Maybe I could shut the reactor down, I’m familiar with spark generators.” “Familiar” may have been giving me too much credit. I had never actually seen a spark generator with my own eyes but I understood the principle behind them. It should be relatively simple to cut the power source which would halt the unstable reaction.

Jackpot shook his head. “Too risky. The geister are swarmed all over the thing like bloatsprites on a dead body. Besides, it’s pumping out rads like crazy, a smoothskin like you would be cooked in minutes.”

I wanted to kick something. Damnit, this wasn’t fair! All we wanted was some freaking medical supplies! Now we had the fate of a Stable on our hooves, and it was tied to our own! We needed something, some plan, some…

“A distraction.” Scout said. We all turned to the survivalist, looking for an explanation. “If we can draw the geister away from the reactor, then we can clear the way for Sleet to get in. She gets dosed up on Rad-X, finds the reactor and shuts it down. Without the radiation we can take down the geister easily.”

“Yeah, but who’s gonna be the distraction?” Jackpot asked. “Those things are as sneaky as they are strong, just being fast won’t be enough.”

“I’ll be part of the distraction.” He declared.

Clarity was taken aback by the suggestion. “What!? Scout you can’t…”

“I’m the best for the job. I’m quick, and good at thinking on my hooves. Besides, I have this.” He held up the hoof with his glowing PipBuck. “I can keep track of the geister and help us avoid them. Maybe it’ll even help us lure a few to a cool zone where we can kill them.”

I was about to join Clarity in her protests when something occurred to me. “Actually,” I said slowly “this might not be such a bad idea.”

“How do you figure?” Jackpot asked.

I thought back to my first encounter with the giester, and where its attack had been aimed. “When one of those things attacked me earlier it went for my back. Specifically my back, it didn’t just strike there because I dodged under it.” I gestured to my armored coat. “If it hadn’t been for this thing taking the blow, it would have broken my spine.”

Clarity shuddered at the idea. “So what are you saying? He only has to risk breaking his back?”

“No not quite, think about it. When they captured the three of us they could have killed us easily, but instead we get put in here. That, and the fact that one of them went for a crippling blow instead of a killing one, makes me think they don’t WANT us dead.”

Jackpot was starting to catch on. “They just want to keep us locked inside the castle, but why?”

The image of the skeleton curled up under the desk flashed before my mind’s eye. “When they were first designed the gargoyles were protectors. They survived the balefire bomb, but something must have gone wrong. Now instead of trying to keep ponies out, they try to keep their ‘charges’ in.” I turned to Scout. “So that means they won’t try to kill you, just lock you up again.”

“Well in that case it sounds like we got a plan.” Jackpot said. “But who’s going to escort you there?”

“Clarity will have to go.” I said. “She has a spell that lets her super-charge medicine. She can make sure the Rad-X is up to snuff. Other than her, one of you should go along.” I surveyed the ghouls, each of them outfitted with their own weapons. The unicorn ghoul who had told us when the reactor would blow had a bandolier of grenades and a launcher. Another was an earth pony that had somehow maintained significant muscle mass in his ghoulish state. He carried a large, technologically enhanced hammer. Any one of them looked to be more than capable in a fight.

Of the lot of them, the last one I’d expect stepped forward. “I’ll go.” Sweet Spot declared.

Everypony looked surprised by the suggestion. “Wait, really? What about your…uh…” Despite how she had been acting, I was uncomfortable bringing up her blindness for fear of insulting her. Come to think of it, why was a blind pony a part of a salvage squad going into dangerous territory anyway?

“Before I lost these I was the best sniper Equestria had.” She said, gesturing to her eyes. “They said I had eyes like a pegasus, but looking into the heart of the balefire strike that made me like this burned ‘em outta my head.” I cringed, my gut twisting. I had a vague idea of what it was like to lose something so integral to who you are, but I had eventually gotten my wings back when Arterial freed me. Sweet Spot would probably never see again. “Still, I’ve had two hundred years to relearn shooting without seeing.” She continued casually. “I can’t take a Stripe’s head off at fifty yards anymore, but I can keep some haywire golems in a tight corridor off your tail.”

I sighed, glancing at my friends. Despite my earlier assertions, I was nervous about sending them against the giester. What if my analysis was wrong and the giester would tear them apart as soon as they laid claw on them? What if I stopped the generator but Scout died during his mission? What if I couldn’t stop the generator and we all died in the blast?

I shook my head, this was no time for doubt. I had to focus or we all really would die. “Sounds good, let’s do this.”

Using my lock-busting trick we managed to escape the room that had served as our prison cell. Jackpot led us to the generator room, stopping the group before we rounded the corner. “There they are.” He whispered, waving me forward.

Peeking around the corner I had to repress a groan. At least ten geister sat in a ring around the door. Their stony backs and bat-like wings were to us, but I could see the edges green glow radiating from their faces. “Great, I think their feeding.” I muttered. Turning back to the group, I looked at the assembled ghouls with Scout amongst them. “You all ready?” I asked.

The group nodded silently. Clarity, Sweet Spot and I moved to the back, allowing the others to get into position. Scout was about to head out when Clarity stopped him. “This is…surprising for you. To so selflessly risk your life for others.” It looked like what she was about to say was foreign to her. “I think I was wrong about you, my talent was muddled by the state I was in and showed me the worst. I wanted to apolo…”

Scout cut her off with a humorless chuckle. “This? This isn’t selfless.” He gestured to all the ponies gathered. “Getting everypony out of here is my best chance of getting out as well. Me serving as the distraction is simply the best way for the plan to succeed. If I could get the three of us out of here without them…” He looked to the ghouls and shrugged before trotting over to join them. “Good luck with your part of the plan.”

Clarity sighed, shaking her head. I watched Scout carefully, something about what he had said wasn’t quite right. There was no time to ponder though as the plan went into action. The unicorn with the grenade launcher stepped around the corner and with a hollow thumping noise fired on the geister. I braced against the explosion as the rest of the distraction team raced into sight of the monsters. I managed to peak around the corner as the scene unfolded.

The other geister were awakening from their sleeping state, dust falling off of their lanky forms with each twitch. In the center of a blasted crater was a green glowing stone in the shape of a heart. Not the romanticized version used for Hearts and Hooves Day cards, but an actual heart, and though it didn’t move a sound like a heartbeat could be heard.
Suddenly, the green glow intensified and the heart slowly levitated out of the crater. The dust in the air glowed with the same sickly light and began to swirl around the stone organ. The beating increased, growing faster and louder as more and more dust built up around it. I could feel my own heartbeat racing along with it as I stared at the spectacle.

Slowly at first, the ball of dust took shape. First nubs appeared where arms and legs would be, but as the process reached its peak the body reformed more rapidly. Within seconds the geist was reconstituted, standing beside its leering brethren.

The two groups stared at each other in a scene painfully reminiscent of my first encounter. “Okay,” Scout said quietly “now you know what to aim for in the cool zones.” The geist that had been blasted apart screeched, its brothers joining in the demonic chorus. “RUN!” He thundered, just barely audible over the keening.

I ducked back behind the corner, bracing myself against the wall as the sound of clattering hooves, grinding rock, and shouting faded away. When all fell quiet I let out the breath I had been holding, my heart racing. After sending a quick prayer to the Goddesses that they would be okay, I checked Clarity and Sweet Spot.

Clarity looked shaken, but otherwise okay. I could see the fear in her eyes and the dullness of her crystal coat, but behind it was a determination I found heartening. I couldn’t tell what Sweet Spot was feeling, the ghoul’s face didn’t change much and I obviously couldn’t see her eyes. The only indication I had of her mental state was the briskness with which she trotted past me, saying “Let’s get a move on, time’s running out.”

Shakily, Clarity and I got up to follow her. The room was clear of all geister, none were lurking in the shadows or clinging to the ceiling. As we approached the door Sweet Spot made a noise like somepony who’d just eaten their favorite food. “Oh boy, this is a real hot spot! You two should stay back unless you want to be cooked.” She didn’t have to tell me twice, I was already taking a step back before her sentence was complete.

The door was unlocked, so Sweet Spot went in first the check for any additional threats. Clarity and I stood back, away from the radiation while my crystal friend prepared the medicine. The tablets of Rad-X laid at Clarity’s hooves while she waved her glowing horn over them. A soft, comforting pink light emitted from the tablets before fading away. “Okay, they’re ready to go.” She declared, her coat glittering with pride. She levitated the tablets to me, watching me carefully while I took the medicine. “Are you sure about this?”

Clarity’s magic did nothing for the terrible chalky taste. After washing my mouth out, I answered. “No, of course not. I’m going to be plunging myself into a highly irradiated room in the hopes that I can shut down a magical spark generator before it blows and kills us all. Meanwhile, my friend is being chased all over this damn castle by its resident ghosts and Luna knows what else, and I have to hope those same ghosts won’t find me.”

“I trust that Scout can keep their attention.” Clarity said calmingly. “And even if he can’t, Sweet Spot and I will keep you safe.”

I took another pull of water, shaking my head as I swallowed. “No, I need you two to find the tunnel leading to 126 and warn them, evacuate if you can.”

She reacted about the way I expected. “Wait, what? No! I’m not leaving you all alone!”

“Clarity, you’re the only one they will listen to, and I can’t risk sending you there on your own. If you get swarmed by ghouls or the geister find you I’d feel a lot better if you had Sweet Spot with you.”

“Why?” She snorted, rolling her eyes. “Because the delicate crystal pony can’t handle herself in a fight?”

“No, because the crystal pony can make a shield to protect the pony whose really good with a gun. That way, BOTH of you stay alive.”

That placated her a bit, but she was still angry. “And why didn’t you mention this when we were coming up with a plan?”

“Because we couldn’t afford to sit around while everypony calls me an idiot for leaving myself unguarded. And besides, Sweet Spot only needs to get you there, the 126 ponies won’t like her. Once you’re there, send her back to me. The tunnel should be somewhere here in the basement, so it won’t take long.”

Clarity opened her mouth to protest, but nothing came out. Finally she growled and nodded. “Fine, but you ARE an idiot.”

We heard the door open and Sweet Spot trot out. Rounding the corner, I gasped at the sight of the ghoul. Her entire body was glowing a brilliant neon green, save the strip of black where her blindfold was. She smiled, chinks of green light shining between her teeth. “What, am I glowing?”

“Um.” I said intelligently. “Y-yes.”

“Well I certainly FEEL all charged up!” She cackled before sobering. “Seriously, it’s hot in there. Are you sure you wanna go in, smoothskin?”

I sighed, hoping the medicine would be enough. “I don’t have much choice, where’s the reactor?”

“Best I could tell it was the big thing on the right at the back of the room, that’s what was pumping out the most rads.” She nodded to me and stepped aside. “Good luck.”

“Thanks. And my name is Sleet Gray, not smoothskin.”

“Sleet!” Clarity called. I looked back and was met with a Rad-Away pouch floating in front of me. “Take this when you get close to the reactor.”

I pocketed the bag with a grateful smile. “Can I take it properly this time?”

“Do you know how to set up an IV?”

“No.”

“Then no.” I groaned, dreading the awful taste. But I couldn’t delay by arguing any longer. Each minute I wasted was another minute closer to detonation. I took a deep breath and trotted through the open door into the reactor room.

All the others times I had been subject to radiation I had felt like my skin was trying to crawl off my body. Intellectually, I knew that was just a phantom reaction caused by my deep-seeded aversion to radiation. Now, in the Heaven’s Point Hospital’s reactor room, I could feel a body wide tingling sensation, almost like my genes were protesting their treatment. The room was a clutter of tubes, wires, and other clunky machinery. The noise of the reactor far in the back was an omnipresent whirr, like the engine of a Raptor cloud ship.

The door shut behind me, the sound jolting me from my reverie and instilling panic. What was happening? Why did Sweet Spot close the door, was she trapping me in here? Was this payback for humiliating her?! I ran to the door, pounding on it with a hoof.

“Hey, hey, hey, calm down!” The ghoul’s boiled voice called back. “The door is unlocked. I closed it cause it’s shielded against radiation, we don’t need those ghosts wondering why their buffet is wide open.”

“O-okay.” I called back. My heart had slowed, at least somewhat. Part of me was still gripped with fear at being closed off in this super-irradiated room. Wait, super-irradiated! Shit, my panic was wasting time! I turned and galloped into the room, hopping over fallen pieces of metal and ducking wires.

The damn room was a maze! The force of the balefire bomb had shaken a huge amount of parts loose, only some of which had been cleared. I had to wonder how Sweet Spot had navigated the room with her blindness. Maybe as a ghoul she could sense the irradiated objects around her?

No time to ponder, Sleet! I reprimanded myself. Move! And I moved, ducking and weaving under obstacles as fast as I could. It took only two minutes to find the reactor, but the way I was feeling it might as well have been twenty. The tingling had become a cold itching just under the surface of my skin. Pulling out the Rad-Away, I tore the tip of the IV off and stuck the tube in my mouth, sipping greedily. The horrible sour taste nearly made me gag, but the alien sensations faded with each sip.

Keeping the pouch in one of my coat’s many pockets, I examined the reactor. It was a large, square hunk of metal with faded warning labels plastered all over it. Two over-engineered looking coils sprouted from the top like antenna, connecting to power cables trailing into the ceiling. The reactor itself was shoved into the back corner of the room, with only a few feet between it and the wall.

“Okay, what to do what to do…” I muttered to myself. “I could trip the emergency switch, that would shut down the spark core and have it run on a back-up source…” Fluttering on top of the generator, I carefully avoided the coils while crawling to the back where the switch would be.

To my dismay, where the switch would be I found only piles of scrap metal, probably collapsed during the bomb. I could see the switch under several pounds of metal, but at this angle I’d need to be either exceptionally strong or a unicorn to move it.

Taking another sip of Rad-Away, I dropped back down to the floor, search for another way. I ran through every emergency shut-down protocol I could think of, but I could access none of them here and those I could were blocked or damaged. I wanted to scream in frustration, but I forced myself to remain cool. “Okay, think, the only other way to shut down a perpetual energy generator like this is to remove the core…” But how could I remove the core? I knew where an access panel was, but doing so would undoubtedly kill me. The core was super-heated magic, touching it would be like sticking the barrel of Black Powder to my hoof and firing. Also, the thing was pumping out rads like crazy! Even dosed up as I was, I’d die from radiation poisoning long before the core went inert. There had to be a way to dampen it…

I took a pull from the Rad-Away and like lightening an idea shot through my brain. I had something that could dampen radiation! Rad-Away and Rad-X worked by magically purging radiation, it’s why supplies of the stuff had stayed good even after the end! I pulled the bag from my pocket, still about a fourth left. After much shuffling around, I found a few spare tabs of un-enhanced Rad-X in my coat from when I was scavenging earlier. I had absolutely no idea if this would work, but I had no choice expect to try.

After tearing the top off of the Rad-Away packet, I chewed up the Rad-X tablets and spat the chalky substance into the pouch. Closing over the top, I shook the mixture. This stuff would probably kill anypony that took it, but I wasn’t planning of ingesting. Finding the access panel, I froze it and with a buck empowered by desperation broke it open.

I quickly jumped to the side, not wanting to be at the business end of a radiation cannon. I knew from diagrams that the spark core would be directly at the end of the access tube. Holding the bag in my mouth, I closed my eyes tight, muttered “please, please, please, please” and threw the concoction into the tube.

I quickly ducked for cover. There came a splash, a hiss, and a shot of orange colored steam rocketed out from the access point. The steam cleared quickly, and I cautiously stuck my foreleg in front of the hole. It didn’t mutate, my fur didn’t fall off, and I could even feel a drop in the background radiation. “Sweet Celestia and Luna it WORKED!” I said disbelievingly.

After marveling at the accuracy of my guess for a second, I snapped myself back to reality. It wouldn’t stay like this forever, and I had used my only Rad-Away. Already I could feel the cold itching coming back. I crouched in front of the tube, looking at the core and arm’s length away.

It was an innocuous little thing. A bright blue star of light trapped inside a clear box. The box was connected to more of the little coils, one at each corner, and sparks of energy jumped to them from the star. Once I disconnected the box, the little star would go inert, with nothing to charge it would enter a rest state. And staring me dead in the face was a long, thin crack in the face of the box.

Energy was escaping that crack, causing undue pressure on the box. The leak would either have to be sealed or it would eventually blast open as the higher magical pressure inside tried to get out. That star contained a huge amount of energy for something so small, and such a blast would annihilate the foundation of this castle, possibly even Stable 126.

It was also hot, I could feel the heat on my face, making me sweat. I needed to cool it down physically and remove it before it heated up again radiation wise. Right now the box was soaked in anti-rad magical juice, but already it was burning off. “Need to work quickly.” I muttered. Closing my eyes, I stuck my wings into the hole and concentrated.

It started slowly at first, but the momentum of my freezing spell built rapidly. The crackling sound of ice forming came from the access point. I could feel the strain like something tugging on my brain. I was trying to channel weather magic underground, not the easiest thing in the world to do. Still, I took the process steadily and within thirty seconds I had a nice layer of frost going.

Extracting my wings, I opened my eyes and checked my work. The whole tunnel was coated in white frost and the heat from the core had dropped massively. I chuckled, feeling a rare moment of pride, which was quickly interrupted by a wet cough. I covered my mouth with a foreleg and when the fit died down I saw blood on my fetlock. Not good.

Without further delay I reached into the tunnel, grabbed the cube in my hooves, and pulled. It came slowly, my cooling had the unfortunate side effect of making it stick. Bracing my hindlegs against the base of the reactor, I pulled with all my strength. My muscles strained, sweat ran down my forehead, my wings were on pins and needles as if they had fallen asleep. Something that wasn’t sweat ran out my ears and nose. I smelled copper.

I felt the cube budge. That was enough to send a shot of adrenaline through me. With a cry of strain I finally yanked the core from its housing. Unable to change my inertia, I collapsed onto my back, holding the now inert core in my hooves. For a moment I laid there, my lungs pumping and muscles burning. My heart was racing as well. Racing really fast…too fast…

I coughed again, feeling something wet and coppery in my mouth. Looking down I saw blood splattering my coat. “No, no, no…” I gasped, rolling to my hooves. Leaving the core behind, I stumbled back the way I came. The primary source of radiation was gone, but the room was still at least somewhat contaminated. I needed to get ou-

My legs had been growing weak, and all at once they gave out. I fell, striking my head against the floor. The flash of pain helps me stay awake, but blurs thought. Ears ringing, won’t stop, though the reactor stopped humming long ago. I look, blood and gray hair on the floor. Struggle to hooves, gotta keep moving. Voice, hard to hear. “Smoothskin! Hey smoothskin! I can’t feel the rads anymore, did you do it?” Go to the voice, it can help. No energy, head hangs low, red hoof prints, keep moving.

There, door, safety, but nothing left. No control, collapse, cry out. Door opens, hoof steps, something grabbing my leg, dragging…

I don’t know how long I spent in delirium. Time warped and twisted like colors and sounds. My body burned and froze, convulsed and lay still, all on its own. I felt dry as a bone inside, though I was soaked in what I could only assume was sweat. I had moments of terrible lucidity where my duress was all I could feel, and moments of horrible darkness where all I could feel was fear I had died. Throughout it all I was beset by nightmarish visions. Grotesquely mutated ponies were paraded before me. Some of them had extra body parts, some missing, others that weren’t supposed to be there. They all had one thing in common, a gray mane and ice blue coat.

It was during one of those moments of stillness that I came back from the brink. Color slowly bled into my vision, sound and feeling returning soon after. I could feel the steady rise and fall of my own breathing, that was a good sign. Wherever I was laying was cold and clammy, soaked in sweat. As my vision slowly sharpened, I could see the familiar stone wall of Heaven’s Point Hospital.

I was curled up on a bed, feeling wretched. I felt burned and raw all over, like I had been scoured by fire. Slowly, achingly, I looked around. The room was rather bare, a lot of the medical equipment having been removed. The room was dim the only source of light streaming in from under the door. Why was there light? Did and emergency generator turn on or something? In the corner was a chair with somepony curled up under a familiar gray coat. Raising my head, I called weakly, “Hello?”

The garment shifted as the pony under it stirred. Clarity raised her head, blinking blearily, but once she saw me she shot to wakefulness. “Sleet!” Leaping off the chair and knocking my coat to the floor, she galloped over to me, calling towards the door. “Scout! She’s awake!”

I groaned, resting my head again. I still had no energy and even that small amount of physical exertion had strained me. “How long was I out?”

“You’ve been drifting in and out for a few days.” Clarity said, levitating the sweat soaked blanket off of me. I shivered in the cold as she helped me up and pulled off the sheets. “We got the radiation purged from you quickly enough, but we couldn’t do anything for the poisoning itself other than treat the symptoms and hope you pulled through.”

Clarity walked me to the chair she had been resting on, sitting me down gently and wrapping my coat around me. Pulling the garment tighter, I watched as my friend put the bedding in a full bag of sheets is similar condition, stained with sweat, blood and…worse. “Please tell me that was a symptom of the poisoning and that I didn’t mutate to become incontinent.” I said in disgust.

Clarity wrinkled her nose as she closed the bag. “It was, a symptom that is. You were fine after the first day or so.” Turning back to me, she continued. “And you’ll be happy to hear that the healing potions we gave you to restore the lost blood regrew your hair.”

I faintly remembered seeing my mane mixed with blood on the floor of the reactor room. “Well that’s good.” Then something I said hit me. “Mutate…” A cold fear gripped me, making me short of breath. I looked down at the coat covering my body. I felt the same, but what if I wasn’t? After all, I had a few days of illness to get used to anything…new.

Bile rose in my throat as the nightmare hallucinations danced in front of me again. Clarity noticed my distress and approached slowly. “Sleet? Are you okay?”

“C-C-Clarity.” I asked around the fearful lump in my throat. I looked up at her, eyes wide and scared. “Am I still…me?”

Clarity bit her lip and I wanted to throw up. She saw the affect it had on me and quickly shook her head. “Oh, no, no, no! It’s not anything bad! All your parts are still where they should be!”

“Then what is it?” I asked, panic still rising in my voice. “Clarity, what is it!? Am I discolored? Did one eye grow and the other shrink? Did I turn into a…” I choked, almost unable to voice the last option. “ghoul?”

“It’s nothing bad.” Scout said, entering the room. The earth pony looked tired, like he hadn’t slept well the past few days. “Take a look at your wings.”

My gut cramped with tension as I slowly extracted a wing from under the coat. I kept my eyes tightly shut, peeking only after taking a second to compose myself. I was looking at the wing of a stranger. My feathers, normally ice blue like the rest of me, were faded and translucent. If I looked at the correct angle I could faintly see the veins of my wing muscles where the see-through pinions connected. While they retained some of their color, it was only visible when they caught the light just right, otherwise they were nearly invisible. It was like a ghost of what it had once been.

“Damnit, damnit, DAMNIT!” I said, banging the back of my head against the wall. I had clenched my eyes shut again and could feel tears leak from them. “Goddesses DAMNIT!”

“Sleet, what’s wrong?” Scout asked, surprised at my outburst.

“What’s wrong? What’s WRONG?” I yelled back, incredulous. I stared at my friend in disbelief, tears running freely now. “I’m a MUTANT that’s what’s wrong! I don’t care if it ‘could have been worse’ or ‘isn’t that bad’! I’m not a pony anymore, I’m not even a ghoul! I’m just some in-between freak!” I buried my face in my coat and wept bitterly. “I’m not a strong flyer or anything, but damnit my wings were MINE! Now I can barely SEE them!” I looked up at my companions, both of whom seemed unsure of what to do. “For a pegasus this is like…like…like losing your Cutie Mark! Imagine if you wake up and find it faded away? Would that be ‘not so bad’ then? Even if it was d-dumb and useless and…” I couldn’t speak anymore. The sadness and hurt were too much. I buried my face again and cried, barely registering when somepony wrapped me in a warm hug.

It took me several minutes to regain my composure. When I finally did, Clarity gently guided me back to bed. I felt more drained than ever, my body was still weak and the outburst as taken up what little energy I had. At least some point fresh sheets had been placed on the bed, which I was thankful for. As I sleepily crawled into bed, I saw Scout standing next to the door protectively. “What’s wrong? Are the giester still around?” I asked.

“No.” He said. “When you disabled the reactor we were able to destroy half of them. The other half lost their power and collapsed, leaving those heart things behind.”

“Then why are you standing guard?” It was getting hard to keep my eyes open.

Scout and Clarity traded a glance. Even though I fought my exhaustion I was nearly asleep when Scout said. “Stable 126.”

I gasped, waking up. I couldn’t remember falling asleep or why I had awoken. The room was dark as night, though my eyes adjusted rather quickly. Looking around, I saw Clarity on the same chair as before, sleeping peacefully. Scout was still at his post, wide awake. He held a hoof to his lips and pointed at the door. It was then that I noticed the shadows of two ponies standing just outside.

“Did you hear that?” A hushed voice asked. “Is she awake?”

“I doubt it.” Another voice, a familiar one, answered. “You heard her, screaming every night. I think it’s normal for her.” It took a second, but I remembered whose voice it was. After a short pause, Comet Strike continued. “Have you seen the peasant?”

“No, do you think he’s in there?”

“I’d prefer not to find out. He may be ungifted, but he’s dangerous all the same.” There came the sound of hoofsteps as the stallion continued down the hallway. “Come, there are other things to see to.”

The other Stable pony lingered for a moment and I swore I heard the faint tinkling noise that comes with unicorn magic. Just as quickly as it started, the noise stopped and the other pony trotted away.

Scout went to open the door, but I stopped him with a wave of my hoof. Quietly, I got out of bed and walked over to the door. Holding one of my mutated wings over the doorknob, I focused my talent, praying it would still work. Much to my satisfaction, ice formed in the jam, effectively sealing the door.

Scout and I looked at each other in the darkness. He looked as bad as I felt, his eyes were shallow and tired, bags forming under them. His usually sharp gaze was tired and unfocused. “Get some sleep.” I whispered. “Nopony is going to get through that.”

In spite of how tired he was, it was with reluctance that he nodded. He curled up next to the door and almost immediately fell asleep. He was in such a position that if the door was opened it would awaken him straight away. I smiled wryly, expecting noting less from the survivalist.

Climbing back into my own bed, I found it harder to fall asleep. We may have stopped the reactor from blowing and purged the radiation from the hospital, but we were still in danger. The inhabitants of the castle continued to mean us harm, we had just traded in ghosts for ponies.

The next morning, we had Clarity check the door before unsealing it. “It looks like a minor alarm spell.” She said, horn glowing. “If the door was opened it would alert the unicorn who cast it.”

“Could they find out who it was?” I asked. I had felt stronger after getting some real sleep and was able to stand on my own.

Clarity’s brows furrowed as she concentrated. “If they could it wouldn’t be much, at best they could find out what kind of pony it was.”

I sighed. “That’s all they’d need. If the spell showed Scout leaving for any reason it would mean I was unguarded. They could pick the two of us off while we were separated.”

“But that doesn’t make sense!” Clarity said in exasperation. “Why would they still try to kill you two? I thought we had a deal!”

“The deal was we take what we would take what we needed and immediately leave.” Scout said. “We have what we want and were still here.” While I had been out, Scout and Clarity had gotten their hooves on the cache of anti-rad supplies. Part of it was used to purge me of my undue dosage; the rest was split between Scout’s duffel bag, some saddle bags Clarity had found, and my coat pockets.

“We’re still here because Sleet was recovering from saving their ungrateful lives!” Clarity said, still incensed.

“You have to remember, they are paranoid. They’d probably kill us so we wouldn’t reveal their little hidey-hole and use us breaking our word as an excuse.” I ground my teeth, not liking it any more than Clarity did. Pulling out Black Powder, I unsealed the door with a carefully concentrated blast of super-heated magic. “We need to get out of here before they get the chance.”

A magical aura threw the door open as soon as the ice melted. The three of us jumped back, ready to dodge whatever attack came our way. But no attack came, instead a smiling unicorn mare in by far the best-quality Stable outfit I had ever seen stood in the doorway. She had a mane like the setting sun and her coat was the twilight that followed. Her eyes were a startling sapphire, and when they caught my gaze it felt as if my ability to focus had been punched in the gut. Suddenly the rest of the world mattered very little, I wanted to hear what this pony had to say. “Is something wrong?” She asked in a perfectly friendly and innocent voice.

“Um…” I looked to my friends, who seemed as stunned as I had been. Remember Sleet, time to leave. I reminded myself. “It’s just…well…I’m back on my hooves so we…” I lamely pointed in the general direction of outside. “Yeah, just on our way…”

She tilted her head and examined me worriedly. Her gaze held my down like my I was pinned under a rock, or maybe a pile of feathers. “I’m glad to see you up and about, but are you sure you’re in any condition to travel?”

“Well, I feel fine enough, I…” Looking down I noticed my legs shaking unsteadily. When had that happened? And come to think of it I was pretty tired. “Well…maybe I could rest a little.” What are you doing Sleet? Snap out of it! I shook my head, clearing some of the confusion. “Uh, who are you?”

She laughed, a sweet sound. “Oh, sorry, I should have introduced myself.” She held out a hoof which I shook gently. “I am Stable 126’s Overmare.”

The Overmare, the one in charge of the Stable, the one who probably ordered that we be killed. Why did thinking that sound…wrong? Like that shouldn’t be possible? This kindly mare would never order the death of others, it just wasn’t possible! It took me a second to realize I had just been shaking her hoof mutely. Shaking my head again, I let go of her hoof and replied. “I’m Sleet Gray.”

“I have heard about you. I came to personally thank you for saving my Stable and returning the castle to us.” She said, bowing to me. I felt my face heat up, I didn’t deserve being bowed to! Certainly not by this pony!

“Ah…well…um…” I was still receiving no support from Scout and Clarity, who had taken a step back. “Y-you’re welcome?” I said uncertainly.

“You have given us much more than you know.” She said, standing (much to my relief). “With this castle and the supplies in it, we can finally establish a foothold outside the Stable. We can actually connect to the outside world now!” Her eyes sparkled with excitement. “Not to mention the magic! We have the capability of fixing the spark generator so we don’t have to rely on the back-up power. And those guardians…”

The mention of the guardians sent a chill down my spine, a chill that cut through the fuzziness covering my brain. “What about the geister?” I interrupted.

The Overmare looked taken aback that I had cut her off, but she regained her composure quickly. “Well, if we could get them operating correctly they could be a huge asset. What we lack in pony power we can make up for with the guardians.”

“No.” I said, shaking my head.

It was the Overmare’s turn to be struck silent. “E-excuse me?”

“Destroy the hearts. The guardians are heavily damaged and will only hurt you if you bring them back.”

“Well surely we could isolate and fix the problem…”

“It’s not worth the risk, trust me.” I said firmly.

Her friendly expression strained along with her voice. “Very well, we will respect your wishes.” Taking a quick breath to compose herself, she spoke again. “I was going to get breakfast, would you three care to join me.”

“Of course.” Clarity said immediately, stepping forward. “We would love to…” I held out a wing, stopping her.

“I’m sorry.” I said as sincerely as I could manage. “We’ll gladly join you, but could you give us a few minutes? I’m still recovering, and need a moment to rest.”

“Very well.” She said curtly. “I will be in my office, I trust your friends know the way?” We both looked to my friends, who nodded. “I will see you soon then.” And with that she trotted off.

I closed the door, letting out a sigh. My brain felt…muddy, but now that the Overmare was gone the sensation was fading somewhat. “Sleet, what’s the matter with you?” Clarity asked admonishingly. “You’re perfectly capable of walking to breakfast!”

“There’s something wrong about her…” I muttered, staring intently at nothing. “Something threw me off balance.”

“You’re hurt, remember?” Scout said. “But that isn’t an excuse to be rude, she’s nice.”

Now I knew something was wrong. An idea, a possible explanation, floated to the surface of my slowly clearing thoughts. “Scout, how much do you remember of that conversation?” I asked, turning to him.

“She…well…” His face blanked as he tried to grasp the memories. “I…don’t know.”

“Me neither.” Clarity said, her voice rising with worry. “Everything went all fuzzy as soon as she showed up.”

“Same for me, but somehow I broke through it.” I said, going over the encounter in my head again. We were about to leave, the door opened the then… then what? Blue eyes, the last thought I clearly had was blue eyes. Then she mentioned something about the giester and I got another moment of clarity. Perhaps it was fear of the stony monsters, or that it was something I readily recognized, but I had latched onto it and resisted whatever spell I had been under. “I’m not sure how, but I think she scrambled our minds.” I said.

“How? Her horn wasn’t glowing, and I’ve never heard of a unicorn who could cast spells without using it.” Clarity said.

“If she used a spell to mess with our minds, she may have been able to cut out the memory of us even seeing her cast the spell.” I said slowly, still sorting things out. The thought of a unicorn capable of dissecting the thoughts and memories of everypony around her just roaming free scared the living Hell out of me. It meant I couldn’t trust my own mind, the one place I had felt truly safe even before entering the Wasteland. We needed to leave, but so long as the Overmare’s ponies had control of the castle we couldn’t without her permission.

I sighed, turning to Scout and Clarity. “Okay, here’s the plan.”

True to the Overmare’s predictions, we were able to find her office easily enough. I paused, steeling myself before knocking and entering. The captivating mare looked up at our entrance, and I focused straight onto her horn. It was alit with dark blue magic and I felt a prickling sensation on my temples. She stood up as we stepped through the doorframe, forcing me to look into her eyes. I didn’t, instead staring at the bridge between them. The sapphire orbs glimmered tauntingly on the edges of my vision, making the prickling worse. But I stood resolute, remembering my plan. Keeping the image of her glowing horn firmly in my mind, I met her eyes.

It was like being punched in the gut. My head spun, thoughts colliding and dissipating as the Overmare’s magic tried to unravel my concentration. But she was such a nice mare. Why would she hurt me? Besides, her horn wasn’t…No! A voice, my voice, screamed in my head. Remember! She is using magic, she’s hexing you!

Closing my eyes, I focused on the image of her glowing horn. That was what was real, it was proof she was trying to screw with my mind, and I wouldn’t let her. Using that image as an anchor, I threw up a wall of mental defiance against the psychic assault.

All at once the tide of magic broke. I stumbled back a step, shocked by the sudden let-up. The Overmare glared at me, no longer looking supernaturally captivating. I could see the signs of age, previously covered by glamour, and the unabashed hatred she currently felt for me. “How did you know?” She growled.

“After you left, Scout complained that I was rude.” I said, grinning wryly.

She held her glare for a few seconds, then matched my grin with one of her own. Nervous fear quickly replaced my confidence. “A shame he wasn’t as strong as you.” She said, nodding to Scout.

With a twisting feeling in my gut, I looked to Scout. My friend’s expression was completely dead. So vacant was he, he could barely stand on his own. Clarity was in similar condition, she had sat on the floor and begun staring at the old linoleum tiles at her hooves. “Fix them.” I said, my voice as cold as ice.

“Oh, I will, in time. I actually prefer it this way, we can have a nice uninterrupted conversation. Please, sit.” She gestured to the chair set up facing her desk. I cautiously lowered myself into one, not taking my eyes off her. “I had something I wanted to discuss with you while we ate.” She said, and it was then that I noted the food on the desk. I was surprised to see sliced apples, cereal, and muffins all perfectly fresh. It must have been a product of living in such a magically active Stable with an egotist population, they wouldn’t settle for anything less than perfect.

Still, I refused to touch any of it. I wouldn’t put it past the crafty unicorn to poison the food as a backup plan. “And what would that be?” I asked.

“Your performance in the castle. What you did was exceptional, especially for a pegasus.”

“And what does me being a pegasus have to do with anything?” I asked coldly.

“It simply means that you are an incredible member of your species.” She said without missing a beat.

She obviously didn’t realize she was talking to the most useless pegasus the Enclave have ever produced. “There are many pegasi better than me.” I said quietly. There was a sudden sharp pain between my temples and fuzziness covered my mind like a blanket. No! I screamed mentally, throwing the blanket off. The pain ended as quickly as it had begun and I turned a glare onto the Overmare.

She simply smiled as if she had just won an argument. “Not exceptional? You just threw off my attack during a moment of personal weakness. I think you give yourself far too little credit Sleet Gray.”

“Flattery won’t change facts.” I said through gritted teeth. “Now what do you want?”

“Simply put, I want you on retainer. I’ll let you leave the castle and continue doing whatever it is you do, but if I need your help I will contact you and you will come.”

“Sorry, but we already have an employer.” I said, remembering Sombra’s baleful green gaze.

“I promise not to cause a conflict of interest.”

“That might prove difficult, given my employer’s…” I paused, looking for the right word. “Ambitions.”

“My own…ambitions…will be rather limited for the time being.” The Overmare countered. “I don’t believe that my Stable will register to your employer as a threat. And besides, you may be able to serve as liaison between this employer and I. I’m certain that a peaceful diplomatic solution can be reached.”

Even when she wasn’t using mind magic the mare was convincing, though the idea of these ponies teaming up with Sombra was making my gut twist uncomfortably. As it stood though I had little choice. She was holding the minds of my friends’ hostage and I doubted I could leave the castle without her blessing. We were trapped by this mare, and if I was to weasel out of this deal I’d need to play into it first.

“Very well, we’ll work for you.” I said, my tone laced with defeated resignation. Looking to Scout and Clarity staring dully at nothing, I said with more honest pain “Just, please let them go.”

The Overmare smiled sweetly as her horn glowed. My friends slumped for a second before jolting from their trance. “What…the Hell happened?” Scout asked, rubbing his head.

“I’ll explain later. For now, we’re allowed to leave the castle.” I looked back at the Overmare, keeping my expression carefully humble. “Right?” The mare nodded, and I led my friends out of the office.

Once out of sight of the Overmare, my submissive expression melted away to one of annoyance. Goddesses damnit, I was sick of ponies stronger than me telling me what to do! Of course, everypony was stronger than me, so I supposed it shouldn’t be that surprising. Still, I already had a mission for an employer I planned to betray, what was one more besides a mild irritation?

“What happened in there?” Clarity asked, pulling me from my reverie. “I don’t remember anything.”

“The Overmare managed to overtake you minds.” I said with a shudder. “I resisted her, not that it did much good. Now we’re working for her, too.”

“What?” Scout asked, incredulous. “Why?”

“Because apparently I’m ‘exceptional’.” I said, spitting the last word like it left a bad taste in my mouth. “We’re free to come and go as we please, but if she says come we have to.”

“Damnit.” Scout grumbled, clearly about as happy with this as I was. “Tell me you have a plan to get out of this.”

“Not yet, but I’m working on it.” We had arrived in the main foyer where we had first entered the haunted castle. The formerly abandoned room was far livelier, Stable ponies trotting every which way as they worked to restore the castle. Most of them simply ignored us, but what few unicorns did deign to notice our presence did so with great disdain. However, there was one unicorn who was actually friendly. Opal approached us as we made our way to the door, her neutral expression by far the kindest of the lot. “I take it you’re leaving?” She asked once she was in earshot.

“And not a moment too soon.” I replied, then, after a beat. “No offence.”

She nodded. “I understand, I doubt anypony who went through what you did would want to stick around here.”

That was only part of the reason, but I decided not to bring up her racist Stable-mates. No need to alienate the one pony here who was actually civil with us. “You can say that again.” I sighed, glancing forlornly at my mutated wings. I considered keeping them out now that they were mutated, but decided against it. Only the feathers were transparent, the rest was readily visible and would only attract more attention in their current state. Retracting my wings into the concealed pockets, I nodded to Opal and opened the door.

“Pegasus.” Opal called as we walked out. I turned and saw her shuffling uncomfortably. “Thank you, for giving us the castle back.” The thanks clearly cost the unicorn something, perhaps her sense of her kind’s supremacy.

Still, the fact that at least one of them expressed gratitude warmed my heart. “You’re welcome.” I called back. She quickly shut the door and we made our way down the path. I smiled, enjoying the thanks for a little while longer. Soon though the happiness faded as our immediate problem came back to me. I looked at the castle over my shoulder, brooding. Now, to come up with a way to get out of our deal…

Green, malicious lights glared out of one of the windows of the castle. I froze, staring at them. For an instant I was completely immobilized, but I managed to turn and call for my friends. I don’t remember what I said, but I do know that when I looked back the lights were gone. Was that just my imagination? The fear getting to me?

“Sleet?” Scout asked, cantering up to me. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

I stared at the point where I saw the lights for what felt like a very long time. Slowly, I managed to say. “Nothing, it was nothing. My mind playing tricks. Let’s get moving.” I turned and began down the path again, Scout hesitating before following me. Ignoring the harsh cold of outside, I kept my eyes firmly forward, and strode with purpose. I suppose we wouldn’t have to worry about 126 after all.
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Footnote: Level Up!
New Perk: Rad Resistant- You have grown more resistant to being irradiated. Your Radiation Resistance has increased by 20%, thus making you 20% cooler.

Author's Notes:

Yes! It's done! I could say that college has gotten in my way, but writer's block would be closer. Anyway, I need to step it up if I want to get chapter 10 out in a reasonable amount of time. In the meanwhile I hope everypony enjoys this one, make sure to leave a comment telling me what you think, and thanks for reading!