I coughed as Scouring helped move the large automatic grenade launcher forwards, letting me flip up the back of the mini tank, steam billowing out from inside. Shit, I really don’t want to have to try and push this thing all the way up to Maple Station... if we can even get this thing moving without the engine, it’s just so damn heavy. I waved the steam away from my face, letting it clear up and drift out of the garage, the chill wind from outside taking it. I peered in at the inner workings of the mini tank, trying to locate the source of the problem. Guh, I know it’s chilly outside but the heat coming off of these parts really isn’t a good replacement. “It looks like the seal we put on the new gasket blew out.” I informed the others, letting off a small sigh. “I thought you said you knew how to get a nice even seal on this.” I chastised Crash Dive, only to immediately regret it and step around to the other side of the tank as she glared at me.

“Aaaanyway,” Night Strike spoke up, much to my relief. “Well, try again, or we’re going to be stuck walking the rest of the way, and I’d rather not have to brave this storm if I can help it. I only like snow when it involves forts, snowball fights, or craters to hide in.” I grabbed the toolbox and flipped it open, digging around inside for the ratchet and some pliers. I bent down into the guts of the machine, doing my best to twist some of the bolts holding the engine feed pipe in place without burning myself on the metal. As I looked again, more steam was coming from the engine itself - oh, great. Something really must’ve gone wrong to get enough pressure to blow this thing apart...

I leaned back out of the tank, Scouring’s horn lighting up as he carefully lifted up the unbolted head of the engine, some coolant and water leaking out from it. A few of the separators of the gasket had completely shattered, leaving the three cylinders open to each other. Oh, this isn’t going to be an easy fix, is it… I carefully slipped the gasket out and placed it onto a workbench in the garage, Aerith moving so the heat from the engine wafted onto her. “Alright, I think I’m going to need some metal bits… glue… and probably three rolls of duct tape to get this thing secure enough to last us up to Maple Station.” I began to dig around in the cupboards of the garage, thankful to find a roll of duct tape and a bottle of glue.

Night Strike tossed a few bolts onto the workbench beside me, chewing at her lip and heading back over to the mini-tank. Alright, let’s see if I can figure this one out... I started to seal the bolts together with the glue, unwrapping some of the duct tape and starting to wrap it around, creating a rough seal between the holes of the gasket. I repeated this with the other two breaks, and wrapped some extra duct tape around the other divider as well. “You can’t really think that’s going to hold, can you?” Night Strike asked. I shrugged and slipped the gasket back into place on the engine.

“Well, it’s the best we’re really going to get, just gotta find a four leaf clover or something, that should help.” Scouring lowered the head of the engine back on top of it before I began to fit it back into place. I leaned back and shut the hatch of the tank before hopping back into the driver’s seat, Boomer moved back into place and Night strike taking her spot as well. “Alright, hooves crossed.” I turned the ignition, the small dashboard lighting up and the reactor starting up the tank. There was a sputter and another cough of steam before the little half-track rumbled to life once more. I breathed a sigh of relief, the rest climbing aboard the wagon, before rolling the tank out of the garage and starting to head northwards again.

The cold air bit at our exposed coats as we slowly trundled along the ground. The treads rolled smoothly over some of the loose bricks laying in the road as I turned towards the large quarry. I eased up on the pedal a little, not wanting to bring the poor little engine up to full revs with the jury-rigged gasket in place. We rolled past a police station, my Geiger counter starting to tick a little faster as we turned down a road that led to the large highway passing the quarry. A rusted over sign pointed the way towards the crater. ‘Gemdale Mining Company. Private property, trespassers will be arrested.’ Well, seeing how that law’s hardly enforceable nowadays, I don’t think we’ll be in too much trouble taking a peek.

I turned off towards the quarry, approaching a large factory sitting on the edge of the crater. I glanced over the edge into the mine pit, following the twisting paths of mine cart tracks, several of them falling away into a pit in the center of the crater filled with rubble. Okay, maybe I actually wouldn’t want to go digging around in a direct hit from a balefire missile, the factory’s good enough for now. Glad to know Night Strike hasn't rubbed off on me quite THAT much yet... The large cooling tower of the building loomed over us as we approached, casting a shadow down over the entrance.

I rolled up to the doors, the engine rattling a little as I switched it off. “Are you sure there’s even going to be something valuable here? I thought Equestria had an overabundance of gems.” Night Strike asked as I lifted up a large metal door beside a conveyer belt running down into the mines. “Wasn’t that the whole reason the war started anyway?” We entered the floor of the factory, the belt from outside leading to a large metal bin filled with rocks embedded with the shiny precious stones.

“Well, yeah, I doubt most ponies now are demanding gems as much as pre-war Zebras were. Still, there’s plenty of machines running on these things, you never know when you’ll need a replacement board... Not to mention this being an ammo goldmine for energy weapons, too.” We trotted further into the production lines, myself lifting up one of the ores and looking it over. I tossed the amethyst chunk back into the bin and followed the cableway it hung on with my eyes, smiling widely. “Heck, if we could find a number of ponies with nothing better to do, we could fix up this place start a monopoly of gemboards!... ah, after we clear out the radiation, at least.” I reached into my saddlebags, digging around for a bottle of Rad-X as my pip-buck's geiger counter clicked away merrily.

Popping one of the pills into my mouth, I tossed the bottle over to Night Strike. We approached a large furnace, a barred door on the front allowing me to peer inside to see several ores sitting on top of a large pile of coal. Ok, so lack of anywhere to get a good amount of coal may be a roadblock to gem monopoly, but I’m sure I can figure something out; I’ll just have to hire a dragon, or something. Maybe convert the place to flamer fuel... I walked around to the back of the furnace, finding a large valve connected to a few pipes running from the wall to the smelter.

Thinking for a moment, I took a hold of it and gave it a spin, the valve creaking loudly as the surface rust broke away with some effort. There was a series of clicks before a small flame appeared in the pile of coal. The black rocks quickly caught fire and began to spread, heat emanating from the furnace. “You aren’t actually thinking of waiting around until those ores have smelted, are you?” Crash Dive asked, annoyance clear in her voice.

“You never know, maybe it’s enchanted to smelt them down faster.” I stared into the furnace, watching as the ores did indeed already begin to glow with heat, the gems shining brightly inside the rocks surrounding them. It wasn’t long before the rock began to slowly ooze off of the gems, dripping down into a trough that ran off into a bucket also filled with useless gravel. Scouring placed his hooves on a lever connected to the grate the ores had been sitting on, tilting it up to cause the gems to roll off and down a chute into a vat of water... er, well, ice. The gems hissed and a cloud of steam rose into the air as they fell in, the heat melting away the frozen top of the pool and their glow subsiding. I stared into the bucket of water, carefully fishing out one of the gemstones after it had cooled off.

The hunk of mineral shone a little in the light, its surface slightly cloudy. Night Strike dug out a few of the other stones, rolling them over in her hooves. “Uh, are you sure these are actually going to be worth anything like this? Don't they have to be cut and treated, and printed, or something like that?” I shrugged a little, taking them from her and tossing them back into the bucket of water before continuing through the factory floor.

“Alright, I got ahead of myself. There might be some cut gems around here, though.” Crash gave a sigh of irritation as we continued through the factory, a door on the opposite end opening up into a small room lined with desks, each one affixed a large lamp sporting several movable lenses. One of the desks still had a few gems resting on it, catching my attention. I picked one of them up, holding it underneath one of the magnifying lenses as the others searched the room for supplies. My eyes widened as I could see the gem glowing even more brightly through the lens, an aura of energy slowly pulsating around it.

I fiddled with the mechanism holding the lens to the table, managing to unscrew it and lift it up to my eye. Scouring glowed through the lens as he dug around inside a filing cabinet, his horn shining brightly despite him not casting a spell. Lowering the lens I waved Aerith over. She took the lens in her magic and glanced through, an amused smile crossing her face. “Any idea what kind of enchantment this is?” I asked, turning the piece of glass over in my hooves. Aerith shrugged, holding a gem under the lens again.

‘I think it’s something that detects inherent magical energies. The cutters probably used them to make more powerful stones, or pick out the right ones or something.’ Her sign read. I raised my eyebrows a bit, holding the lens up to my eye again. I could see Night Strike’s silhouette glowing faintly, her wings especially so, in a darkened office through the cracked wood as she rummaged through the desk, slipping something she found into her duffel bag.

“Hey, don’t hog all of those for yourself, Night Strike!” I chuckled, Night Strike’s head popping up in surprise. She opened up the door to see me grinning through the lens. “You know, these make for a pretty good impression of night vision goggles. Short of a megaspell going off, I won't be blinded by them, either.” I placed the lens carefully into my saddlebags before trotting over to another gem cutter’s table and unscrewing the one affixed to it. Night Strike rolled her eyes as I pocketed the second piece of glass, a faint sigh escaping her lips.

“Pfft, yeah, I’m sure you’ll look really intimidating with those Grandma-thick lenses tied to your face.” She chuckled, giving her head a shake. I rolled my eyes in return and ignored her, digging around for something to help keep the lenses around my head. Come on, you can’t tell me this place doesn’t even have some strips of leather lying around, or a belt or something... Night Strike glanced out a dirtied up window, seeing grey clouds rolling across the sky, a few flecks of snow starting to drift down from them. “I think we better get going, it looks like the storm’s coming in again.”

I abandoned my search for goggle equipment and followed the others back through the factory and out to the mini tank. Hopping in and twisting the ignition, the tank thankfully rumbled to life once more, and I was able to turn and start to drive uphill towards the road leading north. As I reached the top of the hill, though, the engine began to sputter again, the tracks jerking along roughly underneath us. No, no, no, c’mon, don’t die on me already! I pressed down on the pedal a little harder, but all this did was cause another pop from the back of the mini tank. We stalled at the top of the hill, myself looking back as we began to roll back down the hill towards the mines. Oh, shit!

I twisted the bars wildly, trying to turn us away from the gaping pit, my hooves pressing the brake pedal as hard as they could. Aerith’s horn lit up, the trailer’s wheels turning and leading us away from the mines, bumping along and slowly rolling to a stop back in front of the factory, steam pouring out from under the hood once more. “Fuuuck!” I cried, flopping my head down onto the handlebars.

Night Strike slid off the back of the tank, flipping open the hatch and letting the steam pour out. “Alright, we get it, you don’t like running without replacement parts. Stupid thing.” She whacked the side of the tank, another burst of steam flowing out and prompting her to grimace. I climbed out of the tank to look at the various interlocked pieces as Scouring shifted a little on the back.

“There’s no way we’re going to get this fixed enough to get us to Maple Station.” I said, stepping back from the engine. I sighed in frustration, leaning against the side of the tank, taking a moment to rub at my temples. Snow fell around us, a little thicker than yesterday, the skies dark as night even with it being early on in the morning. “Well, now what?” Crash Dive climbed off of the back of the tank, moving to unhitch the trailer from it. She grabbed the chains holding in the cargo and began to undo them before walking back around to the front of the tank.

“You’re dragging this thing the rest of the way. It’s either that or leave it here, and we’re not setting up camp in the middle of a radioactive crater and hoping somepony stumbles across us.” She lashed the chains around the front as I trotted around to her. Scouring took another set of chains, hooking them up to the trailer to form his own makeshift hitch to drag the trailer behind himself.

“You can’t actually think I’m going to be able to drag this whole thing alo-” My protests were cut off by Crash Dive grabbing me around the neck, pulling me over and slinging the chains around my shoulders, keeping them secure. I glared back at her as she stepped in front of me, Scouring trotting up beside me carrying the trailer behind him with Aerith curled up in the blankets in it.

“Hey, least she’s only making you carry the tank, lad.” He chuckled as he began to slowly trot forwards. I grumbled, but began to move forward, the chains tightening as I did. I dug my hooves into the ground, the heavy vehicle rolling along the ground behind me. I was able to move up to a slow pace behind the rest of them, the chains digging slightly painfully into my shoulders. Guh, this is not going to be fun, couldn’t you have at least given me that power armor to make things easier? Scouring walked along beside me, the wheels of the trailer squeaking slightly as they made fresh trials in the snow.

I shivered a little in the cold air as we reached the top of the hill and began to trot along the northern road, the snow crunching under my hooves as we turned to follow the curve of the road, moving slowly further away from the edge of town. The large grey clouds rolled across the sky as we trotted onwards, the snowfall becoming heavier, the wind starting to whip around more violently. Night Strike brushed some of the excess snow that was building up on the tank and trailer off, her ponytails flittering in the wind slightly. Scouring's breath came out in large steamy chuffs even from behind his helmet, struggling to keep the trailer’s wheels plowing through the snow on the road. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t think 'e’re goin' to be able t' pull these things much further in this storm!”

Night Strike looked worryingly over to Aerith, who was curled up under the blankets, trying to keep warm. “Yeah, we better find somewhere to stop soon, I don’t think we’ll do really well in the middle of a blizzard. At least it’s not really radioactive like back home, right Static?” She turned to look at me with a weak smile as I trudged through the heightening snow, the tank slowly rolling behind me. I grunted as I pulled the tank a little further - radioactive or no, I’m not getting this thing anywhere in three feet of snow. She pulled up the map on her Pip-Buck, scrolling through it. “It looks like there’s some small rest stop a little further ways up according to the caravan route we got. It’s closer than trying to turn around at this point.”

Crash Dive nodded and we trekked onwards. The road sloped downwards, allowing my muscles a little bit of time to relax. As we trotted down the street, a split appeared in the road, turning off into a small cluster of trees. Night Strike led us down the exit, the trees shielding us from the harsh winds somewhat. The road curved around through the woods, the path becoming much rougher than the smooth stretch of road we had just left.

A sign appeared next to a curve in the road along with a small booth. 'Starlite Drive-In Theater' it read, the movable tiles that spelled out the names of the movies having almost all fallen off or faded away. Beside the booth lay an overturned cart that had crashed into one of the trees. Night Strike trotted up to and pushed the curtain hanging over the back away before shouting, “Woah, screw digging around in dead ponies’ fridges, we just hit jackpot!” She leaned back out holding several bottles of Sparkle Cola designed like miniature bombs. Huh, that’s kind of neat. She began to trot over to the trailer, placing them down into it.

“I’m surprised a stockpile like this hasn’t been taken already!” She giggled, moving back and grabbing some more of the bottles, stuffing a few into her saddlebags. I gave an eyeroll, watching her - probably because nopony out here is as obsessed with soda as much as you are, Strikey... A strong gust of wind blew through the woods as Night Strike carried over another batch of soda and dumped them into the trailer, Aerith taking one and popping the cap off.

Beginning to trot forward, I pulled the tank through the drive-in's gate towards a clearing on the opposite side. “How about we grab the rest of the sodas when we’re not on the verge of freezing to death?” I suggested. Night Strike rolled her eyes, but only took a couple more sodas from the wagon before following me into the clearing. On the opposite side was a large metal structure with a flat white face, some abandoned wagons poking out through the snow-covered ground. Snow was piling up on a small building in the center of the clearing, all of us flocking to it to get out of the cold. I began to unhook the chains tying me to the tank as Scouring did the same with the trailer, Aerith and Crash Dive trotting into the building.

I followed the others in once I was unhitched, thankful for the safety from the harsh winds as we entered the building. A small concessions counter stood opposite a wide window facing the screen. I opened a door into a small adjacent room that held a stairway, following it up to be met by a large projector, a spool of film already sitting on the machine. I stepped inside, looking at a few other canisters of film labeled with faded marker. Night Strike trotted upstairs behind me, pausing at the stairwell to see me inspecting the reels of film. “You think this thing still works? It’d be a good way to pass the time while we wait for the storm to blow over, at least.”

“Worth a shot.” I took one of the reels, blowing some of the dust off the case. ‘The Iron Giant’ - Eh, sounds interesting, at least. I removed the reel sitting on the projector before hooking up the one I’d picked off the shelves, carefully slipping the film through the rollers in front of the bulb. I flicked a small switch at the back, the spools beginning to spin as the projector hummed and heated up. Heading downstairs and back out into the main room, I found the others sitting on a musty couch in front of the counter.

“Found the couch and this in a break room behind the concessions.” Night Strike said, handing me one of the new bottles of Sparkle Cola. “There were some bags of popcorn back there too, Scouring’s working on getting the popper running. Good thing, too, seeing how we forgot to grab something to eat back at Gemdale.” As if on cue, my stomach growled as I realized what time it was. Sheesh, I’m turning into you, Strikey. I headed around back to see if Scouring needed any help, only to find him bent down in front of the popper, fiddling with some of the metal bits. He hit something with a clang before standing up and flicking a switch on the front. The sound of bubbling oil met our ears, swiftly followed by a few pops as the kernels began to explode.

Night Strike fiddled with her Pip-Buck for a moment, and music suddenly filled the air before fading away to be replaced by the soft beeping of the space-probe visible on screen. I helped Scouring pour the popcorn into small bags before we trotted back into the main room and sat down beside her on the couch. Aerith lay on the floor in front of us, curled up in her blanket as Crash Dive pulled up a spare wooden chair to sit on. I passed a bag to Night Strike as the space probe’s quiet flight was interrupted by a rumbling as a large object passed by it, hurtling towards the Equestria. I began to munch down on the popcorn as well, the flurry outside reminding me of home as we sat down to watch the movie.

Well... better than being cramped in the TOG...

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