“28… 42… 17…92…34…” Celestia, make it stop! I spouted off numbers involuntarily, feeling my stomach lurch inside, acid traveling up my throat along with what little was left of my breakfast. Vomiting over the floor again, the cashier stepped bacwards, out of disgust. Twintails was panicking beside me, glancing out at the bottom of that radioactive cesspool as my horn hummed painfully. Shit… Twintails, help! I let off a groan as the numbers continued to filter through my head.

“Dammit man, give me that!” Fringe shouted into my ear, reaching for and grabbing my pip-leg. Gah, don’t pull so hard! He worked with the dials, flipping a switch on the back of it. The inter-built pip-buck began to blast out a high-pitched whine, which quite honestly didn’t help my headache at all. I held a hoof to my head, feeling sick again, but at least now not being assaulted by numbers. I swore seven was mocking me... “Come on, get ahold of yourself. Would figure the buzz is irritating, but it’s better than whatever the hell that signal is doing to you.” The power-armored stallion grunted, holding one of my shoulders and steadying myself as I panted heavily, the whining soon dying off along with the numbers. I looked up at Fringe, coughing a bit. “Why haven’t you learned how to jam signals if that’s your reaction to them, eh? Thought you were supposed to be good with stuff like this.”

My breath was a little ragged as I stood up, the cashier picking up a mop to start cleaning up my sickness. I rubbed my temple a bit, still disoriented but thankfully watching as the planet stopped rolling like water. “Ugh, s-sorry…” Twintails looked back at the bomb in the center of town, a grin forming on his muzzle and his eye twitching erraticly, looking somewhat faint. I thought you liked watching these bombs go off... “Whatever station that is that's doing that, it’s coming in a lot clearer here than back outside EQUAD. If we find it, we should be able to shut it down.” Fringe grunted lightly, giving myself a few pats on the shoulder before we headed out of the shop, the shopkeeper glaring at us as we left. Quit your whining, stripes, you’ve probably dealt with it before.

“W-well, the tower can’t be too far out of the way, it doesn’t look like there’s anything between here and Sunrise Castle. No wonder they call this the 'big empty'...” Twintails regained himself, stumbling a bit on his hooves ad taking a deep breath as we walked through town. I did my best to avoid making eye contact with anyone around - the sooner we got out of here, the better. “It’s probably just an old CONELRAD system stuck on a broadcast loop. Used during the war to confuse dragon bomber strikes. Far as activating balefire bombs, though, that... that's a new one for me.” Fringe led us around the edge of the crater, heading into a small café. Guh, food, yeah, might... maybe not want food that things that are healed by radiation eat. The power-armored stallion laid his large rifle down against a couch, sitting down next to it with a whirr of motors. Kind of wonder if I could bribe Nova into giving me a set of that stuff...

“You two ought to get comfortable, storm’s not clearing up anytime soon.” Fringe let off another grunt, peering out of the old window - huh, why does that look more fitting on that cruiser we hitched a ride in? - and lighting up another cigar. I reluctantly sat down on the dirty sofa, Twintails sitting beside me, his rifles jingling as a small cloud of dust puffed out, a soft clicking being heard from our geiger counters. Fallout-filled furniture, great. We sat in silence for a moment before a ghoul waiter... waitress?... trotted over to us. “I’ll have a Wild Pegasus, anything hard.” The ghoul jotted down Fringe's order as I shook my head, Twintails pulling out a Sparkle Cola. The waiter walked away, and I rummaged around in my saddle bags. Second to last Sarsaparilla, better make this one last... I popped the cap off and slipped it into my worryingly light cap bag, the measly 7 caps jangling against each other slightly.

I took a sip of cola, the fizz stinging a little as it ran down my acid-burned raw throat. A black and white and red form caught my glare as a zebra ghoul passed by the clouded window, breathing heavy. “Why is it Zebras haven’t been evicted from this city yet? The others seem to have gotten the idea down already.” I was about to take another drink, but the power armored earth pony answered myself with a very heavy hoof to the shoulder. I felt the lip of the bottle jam into my teeth, spitting some of the soda back into it. Owwie...

“Keep your smart mouth shut, last thing we need is to be kicked out of here in this weather.” He hissed in my ear. The ghoul returned with Fringe’s drink, setting the orangeish bottle on the counter before he collected the required caps. Fringe twisted the cork out, taking a swig of it around his cigar. “Besides, it’s not like they have much of a choice. If you happened to forget, bombs hit everyone, and everyone suffered the consequences.” I didn’t say anything, only taking another sip of soda. Twintails did the same, glancing around the shop absent-mindedly.

My pegasus friend set his Cola down on the table, leaning into the chair a bit. He pulled up his Pip-Buck map again, checking to see how far exactly we were from Sunrise Castle. The wind howled outside as we drank, ghouls passing by, always unwilling to step back out into the cold. “So, you’re with the Steelponies?” Twintails asked, trying to find something to break the admittedly awkward silence. “Why exactly are you following us around anyways, keeping us alive? Oh, ah, thanks, by the way...”

Fringe slipped the quarter-empty bottle into his saddlebags, turning to face us both, a certain look on his face. “All I'll say, there are ponies out there that have taken an interest in you.” I downed the last bit of Sarsaparilla, levitating the bottle over to a trash can. “Of course, with your habit of charging into any situation head-first, they have every right to be concerned. I'm just, well, making sure you don't get your bloody asses blown off.” He said gruffly, glancing at Twintails. He'd been doing that a lot...

Twintails gave a slightly annoyed look at the mustached stallion, about to say something but only letting off a sigh. We sat in silence for a while longer, Fringe eventually pulling out a deck of cards and started to play Solitaire. I looked out the grimy window, watching as the guards standing at the gate switch shifts. The storm had died down quite a bit since we arrived, the clouds returning to their normal welcoming shade of bluish-grey. Fringe collected his cards and slid them back into their box, tossing it back into his saddlebags before standing up and hitching his rifle to his back. Twintails and I stood up; I cracked my neck a bit as Twintails ruffled his feathers. “The storm’s letting up. If we start now we can probably make it to Sunrise Castle in a couple hours.”

I readjusted some of the metal plates on my armor before we headed out of the restaurant, Fringe having left a couple caps on the table as a tip. The freshly fallen snow crunched a bit under our hooves, the idle clicking of our Geiger counters returning as myself and Twintails swallowed down a few more of the anti-radiation pills. The dirty snow blew through the open gate, Fringe leading us in the correct direction, the compass swinging around madly in the corner of my vision to say that we all were heading southwest- or, wait, south. Guh, stupid thing's probably on the fritz from those bombs. Our Geiger counters quieted to the occasional thirty second or so tick as we put more distance between ourselves and Topatow. I felt my horn vibrate softly again, a faint static filling my ears. I groaned and put my hoof to my head, but the sensation passed quickly. Twintails looked over to me, concerned. “I’ll be alright. Let’s just hope we find that station soon.”

---

We walked through the snow, the icy winds blowing around us, thankfully not making it feel like I ran my face over a cheese grater this time. Twintails shifted his back-mounted guns a bit, their clinking in the saddle faintly heard over the blasts of wind. We were near the base of a gradual hill, something starting to come into view over the edge. I checked my Pip-Buck, the light green lines showing we were still a few miles from Sunrise Castle. As we approached, the static filled my ears once more, my horn vibrating. Aaagh, shit… not again. I put a hoof to my temple, but instead of a wave of numbers breaking in again, my Pip-Buck gave off a loud whine, mingling with the static. Twintails looked worried, but Fringe continued on. The beep continued, but my headache didn’t grow worse, thankfully - my head simply felt like a dead TV screen, filling with a large amount of static rather than numbers.

Unfortunately, the closer we got, the more the signal seemed to be overpowering what interference my puny pip-leg could put out. Fif…teen… For…ty…Five… I stopped, rubbing my head some more. Twintails and Fringe stopped, my pegasus friend trotting over to me, looking into my eyes. “Are you alright? Should we, ah, should we find a different way around?” A frown grew on his face, myself first nodding, then shakng my head, pushing forwards towards the metallic... thing, my headache pounding. Hold it together, Minty... Twintails looked back up at the top of the hill, the tip of a radio tower now visible. “I, ah, don’t think that interference trick is working anymore, Fringe.” I gave a shuddering breath, praying the transmission would end soon.

“We just… need to wait until… it stops.” I gulped down a breath of air, trying to fight the vomit rising in my throat. My haunches fell to the snow, the fluff dampening my tail as I shut my eyes tightly. My Pip-Buck beeped and whined, trying to dampen the signal from the tower. Seventy… Six… One Hundred… and Three. I groaned, the signal slowing, the whine of my Pip-Buck subsiding. I swallowed several times, forcing my lunch back down. “Al-alright, I think I’m good. I just hope it doesn’t start again when we’re inside. I don’t think I could handle being that close to the signal.” My eyes went up to the top of the tower, watching the slow blink of the red light.

We slowly traipsed up the hill, the small building coming further into view. It was nothing more than a small radio station, the windows boarded up, the doorway blocked by a small pile of snow. It didn’t look like anyone had visited in a while, though that didn’t set it apart from many other buildings that were around here. Fringe tried the handle, but the rusted and iced-over metal didn’t budge. He grasped it in both hooves, shaking it back and forth violently, but to no avail, prompting a stern grunt from teh stallion as he bit on the nub of his cigar. “Alright, stand back.” Twintails and I stepped behind him as he moved backwards, lifting up his rifle and taking aim at the lock. The massive gun cracked loudly as the bullet smashed into the small hole, the door flying open from the force. Ow, ballistic lockpicking, I thought that was just something that Twintails did...

We stepped into the building, entering what I could best describe as a monitoring room. A few tables of switches, dials, knobs, and lights lay before a surprisingly intact pane of glass, which revealed a room of microphones and seats. I trotted up to the desk nearby, looking around for a power switch. Ah, come on, there has to be something here! As I twiddled a few dials, something atop the desk, admist the degraded paper and pencils, caught my eye; it was a small porcelian figurine of a yellow pony, appearing to be hovering in the air with one hoof barely on the ground. I picked it up, her pink mane covering one of her eyes, reading the inscription upon the black base; 'Be Kind'.

Fringe trotted over, scanning the corkboard on the wall as I tucked the figurine into my bag, not wanting him to see it for whatever reason. I looked around the room, spotting a circuit breaker on the wall, a wide grin coming to my face as I quickly ran over to it. Clasping the rusted lever in my hooves, Twintails poked his head up from behind a garbage can - okay, not gonna ask - coming over to help. There was a loud screech as the metal slid against itself, but as the switch fell to the off position, the few still functioning lights flickered out, leaving us in semi-darkness. A sigh of relief escaped myself, along with a light chuckle, finally feeling my head not being massaged into jelly. Twintails fell back, chuckling and grabbing myself in a light hug, wearing a smile as he... wiped his rusty hooves on my barding. Gee, thanks. “Well, thank goodness that’s dealt with.”

As we were heading back out, ready to greet the wasteland again without worrying about things exploding in our faces, there was a jiggle at the door leading into the sound booth. It swung open, a figure freezing mid-sentence as he spotted the three of us. “Oh come on, did this thing die aga-” My eyes went wide; in the small beams of light that tricked in from the boarded windows stood a figure with an unmistakably striped coat. He looked between the three of us, very worried - oh, he had every right to be. He leapt back behind one of the degraded couches, lifting up a hunting rifle. “W-what’re you doing here!?” Fringe stepped forward, but the zebra turned the muzzle of the gun towards him.

“Hey, calm down mate. We thought this place was empty.” The power-armored earth pony lifted a hoof up in front of himself as I lifted up Ivan, pointing the charged prongs towards the zebra. The stripe turned his sights towards myself as I pulled on the trigger, the prongs beginning to spark, lightning arcing between them. The cowardly bastard stalled, looking out from behind the scope, inspecting Ivan more closely. His eyes went wide as he dropped his rifle, raising his hooves - good, always like battles where the enemy knows their place.

“Wait! Don’t shoot, I’m a friend!” He shouted, shaking his forelegs in front of himself. Like hell you are. I pulled the trigger tight, the lightning discharging towards the striped bastard. What a coward - he'd ducked, letting the electricity sear the wall behind him in a big black mark. I popped out the dead ECP - why couldn't that wiry foal-eater just have stayed still!? - but before I could reload, Twintails knocked Ivan off of my back. It fell to the ground, several parts clattering inside of it and sounding as if they'd broken. “Hey, careful!” The zebra rushed over to the Tesla Cannon, inspecting it for damage. I jumped forwards, my dense augmented forehoof connecting and pushing him away, into the wall nearby. Don’t you even think about putting your filly-raping-... As I shoved him to the side, I was granted a good look at the symbol upon his flank. My gaze falling down towards Ivan, the same ornate ‘i’ emblazoned on it's side... euuugh!

“Gaaah! I’ve been using Zebra tech for this long?!” I shuddered, feeling positively filthy, seriously wanting to take a bath or shower as soon as I could. Hell, I'd jump into that radioactive cesspool back in Topatow if it meant I could get the... ZEBRA germs off! Twintails looked apologetically towards the striped bastard, who looked very offended. Oh, cry me a fucking river, you savage. “Wh-why did I take that thing? No wonder it was in terrible condition!” Fringe winced as the zebra’s expression grew angrier. I stared over at him in horror, moving between my forehooves - out, out damned stripes! - and the rather scowly face.

“Great. Of course the captive I lend my cannon to is a racist.” He trotted back over to the power switch, starting to push it back up. “If you’re all here to raid the place, go ahead. Just leave this thing on.” I felt a pit appear in my stomach as he struggled with the switch, my rear legs throwing myself forwards as I shoved him away from the breaker box. He let out a sharp scream as his head banged into the corner of the wall nearby. “What in the name of Luna was that for!?” He shouted, standing back up shakily and holding a hoof to his head. I noticed the bit of blood trickling from his forehead, a twinge of guilt striking through the wall of disgust I still felt on myself. Wh-why did I feel guilty? The zebra rubbed at his head, looking down at the bit of blood on his hoof, Fringe walking up to take a closer look at the wound.

“Sorry, he’s a little… odd.” The power-armored earth pony said simply, as I bit back a retort. “That signal of yours is screwing with his head, turning it back on now wouldn’t be that bright.” As Fringe explained further, I felt the little twinge of guilt building inside myself. I... I hurt someone that was surrendering... no! The one surrendering was a, a dirty no-good Zebra! The soft, timid voice of a mare spoke up, seemingly inside my head. 'That was rather rude, wasn’t it? I mean, the poor thing seemed like he was just scared.' I shook my head a bit, trying to drown out that voice. He was a Zebra. Zebras are all evil... right? I focused back on the conversation, the zebra looking a little less frustrated. “We were just stopping on our way to Sunrise Castle, we'll leave as soon as the signal stops making our friend here have seizures.” For a moment, I was tempted to kick Fringe right in the side. You don’t tell a zebra your plans!

“Fine, but I can’t leave my signal off. Why, that is my business and mine alone.” His enigmatic answers weren’t helping his image right now. No doubt trying to send back information as a spy. “But you said you were heading out to Sunrise Castle Air Base, correct? I know the rough location of a large cache of experimental weapons, that’s how I made Jules here.” He nudged the tesla cannon, a faint smile coming to his face. I felt my cheeks going a bit red in anger, watching him cradling the lightning gun. It's name. Is. Ivan. “Unfortunately, I tripped the security system while I was first there, and all the bots are likely active again. I can’t get in myself, but all four of us might be able to.” He picked up Ivan, managing to swing the giant mechanism over his shoulder with ease. Dirty striped... but, he said he lent it to me... it's done a lot for me- NO! Zebras are chaos incarnate! Their weapons and technology and everything about them is pure evil!! That pink-maned pegasus mare in my head looked a little disappointed, her puppy-dog eyes staring right at me. “Doutful anyone besides myself would even know the codes, and hacking the busted up mainframe would likely be near impossible. If you will help me recover some of the weapons there, I’ll dampen the signal and you’d be free to take whatever it is you needed.”

Twintails looked over at me, worriedly biting at his lip as I scowled and rubbed at my head. Stupid... little... mare... “I don’t think we really have a choice, Minty.” I was taken aback, staring at my pegasus friend's face for a moment. Leading a zebra through to an old military base with security on maximum supposedly to stash of weapons? Yeah, I can’t see any problem with that, not one fucking single issue! Twintails trotted closer to me, lowering his voice. “Minty, even if he is planning on recruiting some sort of army with the stuff in there, do you really think it’ll stand up to Megaspell Mary?”

“I’m more worried about him right now. How do we know he doesn’t already have a bunch of his friends holed up in that place?” I hissed back at Twintails. He bit nervously at his lip, glancing back at the zebra. The stripe was simply standing and staring at us, one of his eyes blocked partially by his Mohawk. Twintails gave me the same look as before, indicating he didn’t have any better ideas. I groaned a little under my breath before turning to face him. “Alright, you’re coming with us. But the station stays off until we bring back what you need, and we’re not afraid to take necessary actions if you decide on backing out on your end of the deal.” I glared at the zebra.

He snorted, trotting forward. “Well, it’s certainly good to know we’re all in a loving relationship.” He trotted past me, pushing the busted door open to the cold wasteland. “After you.” Holding the door open, he returned my own glare, that mocking tone in his voice irritating me to... well... not do anything. We all headed out, Fringe taking up the rear as Twintails and I lead the group. I looked back at the zebra, who let off a small sigh as he brushed some of his mane aside. “Sorry. I’m Nikolai.” He put a hoof out to shake mine, myself pausing for a moment, staring at it. That little yellow mare in my head nudged at couple wires that ran through my brain, urging me to take his hoof. Begrudgingly, I stuck my hoof out and gave it a few shakes, immediately turning forwards again and wiping my hoof on my armor. The little mare spoke up again, a sigh moving through her smile.

'Well, that’s a start.'

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