I hadn't had much luck the last few days with scrounging up any old world material to trade, and so I now found myself standing in front of the town's notice board. Mostly filled with warnings or sales pitches done in scraggly hoof-writ writing or more easily read horn-writ. Please contact if found, Radroaches - the other-other-other white(?) meat, sale!, L.F. Good shot ranged pony, Contact Casting Couch for a good time <3 (P.S. 'Funny Stuff' is encouraged! She likes a good time too!)....

Pausing, I took a look back at the 'Good Shot' notice, signed under it was simply a blank shield which I figured symbolized the pony who had wrote the notice's cutie mark. Taking a look down at my pipbuck I figured it was a role I could fill, and I certainly didn't see my broke self contacting that Casting Couch to see if she had any openings for an 'extra'.

"But Light, we don't really need another pony to shoot stuff...I can shoot stuff just fine!" I heard a whine to my left that lead further into the little market place these ponies had set up. Off to the side two stallions, one pink and one light blue, were arguing among themselves. Well, guess I didn't have to go far...

As I trotted closer, I noticed the two standing near some wagons along with a few other ponies. Another stallion in a hat gave me a look over as I approached with a small nod in greeting, which I returned politely before clearing my throat with a hoof lifted to my muzzle. It easily caught the other two stallion's attention, the pink one raising a brow at me while the blue looked sulkily in my direction.

"Were you the one needing a pony that's a good shot?" Turning my right hoof towards them, I gave it a small shake to indicate the pipbuck attached to the appendage. Taking a glance at their flanks I saw the semi-transparent shield butt-tattoo attached to the pink stallion.

They stayed quiet for a few moments, before the bright pink one gave me a wide grin and stuck out his hoof, poofy yellow mane bouncing.

"Name's Light! And you are?"

I bumped my hoof to his, giving a small grin of my own.

"Karma."

I guess I had been too tired to sleep after all that had happened that day. All the same, it was some random scuffling that brought me out of my dreamless haze. Letting my eyes drift open just slightly I noticed that Stan was laying with his head down across his front hooves, hat pulled over his eyes, snoring softly. Psych on the other hoof, was digging around in his bag he had brought, and it was fairly easy to tell from that point where the sound had been coming from. I guess they had switched shifts on who was keeping watch during the night.

It was still fairly early, as the cloud cover above us was just barely brightening into a purple hue, but even with the fire out I could still watch Psych as he held his bag partially open with a hoof, and his horn was alight when he did finally find what he was looking for. Out of the bag he drew a rumpled piece of cloth, which unfolded to what I noticed as Karma's outfit. I never even realized she had lost it at some point, but I guess Psych had snatched it on our way out without any of us noticing.

A few quiet hoof-steps brought him over to Karma, the cloth still wrapped in his green glow, and without much expression he carefully laid it over her curled up form before turning away from her, only to end up with the two of us locking gaze. As my eyes went wide at being caught, his quickly narrowed, and he slowly brought himself back around to his sleeping spot from before.

"You saw nothing." He muttered under his breath before laying back down with his back turned to me, looking out at the wasteland.

Darting my eyes between him and the sleeping Karma, I lowered my ears slightly in thought. The longer I stayed around this particular group of ponies, the more confusing everything seemed to be. Looking above me at the clouds I wondered if maybe it was just because of how I had been raised in pegasus society. Everything up there was clean cut, you did this, you did that, there were things you did not do, couldn't do, and so on.

These ponies barely had known me for what...two days? three for Karma? I wasn't even quite sure anymore. On the thought of Karma I found myself drawing my attention from the clouds back to the sleeping mare, now covered up via her outfit. The things I had seen just simply did not add up. There was the fact she knew about pegasus society to at least some degree that really any surface dweller shouldn't have known about. She knew that Wonderbolt trainee by name, a bucking Wonderbolt in the making, and if that last scene I had witnessed had any merit to it, she knew him quite better than simply a name-basis.

With a shudder, I also remembered that in all rationality, she shouldn't even be alive right now. She had been fired on, nearly point blank, by a nova rifle. What in Tartarus kind of earth pony was able to deflect that? With magic none the less? Did it have something to do with that pipbuck she wore?

Questions. That's all I had at this point, and the only answers to anything I had were answers I really could have lived without. I wasn't welcome in my race's society at this point forward. I had been labeled as an enemy, and all I had for proof was simply my word, which didn't mean squat to any pony above me. I had no where to return to, and all I really had was this random group of strange ponies, and the one mare who had saved my life. And really, why had she?

With a soft sigh, I strayed my eyes down to my own hooves, which I still had my head laying upon, and the short coating of eggshell white fur coating them. Well, more dirt covered than anything else as of this moment, but I knew the color of my coat better than any pony. My coloration was very similar to that other pegasus. Maybe...she had only saved me because I looked like him. I caught myself feeling slightly depressed at that thought.

I closed my eyes, and willed myself to try to quit thinking. I had absolutely no clue that same particular thought had crossed another pony's mind not even a few hours before.

It seemed like I had only a small chance to close my eyes for a mere few minutes before Psych was hoof-prodding us all awake. Though the clouds above seemed more orange than purple now in the later morning hours. Stan was currently scratching at the back-half of his mane with a hoof while Psych sat near by tapping impatiently at the ground. Karma, was giving her head a shake as she woke up with an audible yawn. Glancing behind her she noticed her ragged outfit laying over her and she gave it a curious sleepy expression before shrugging one shoulder and stiffly trying to get to her hooves.

Flaring my wings to either side in a stretch that caused my feathers to ruffle, I followed up with a short flap to help me to get to my hooves. After a similar yawn that I had contracted from Karma, I took a moment to strap on my bags via looping them over my head, and each wing, so that they covered my sides, but allowed my wings free movement. Karma had already made her way over to stand near Stan in her usual spot, while Psych had thrown his own bag about his head and shoulder and started to take the lead, Stan had followed suit and grabbed his sword to place strapped over his back.

Since Psych had given up his position to Karma's free side I decided to slip into the spot near them as we all headed our way quietly back to town. The pace was even slower than before, as Karma was stiffly trying to keep up. My guess whatever cuts she had under that cloak-like thing were not very happy about the movement. But the rest of the ponies seemed to allow her the slower pace, regardless of the time we were making. I uncomfortably looked behind us at the tower, just barely noticeable in the distance.

After going over some details from yesterday in my head, I did realize something I'd meant to ask out of curiosity.

"Um...Psych?" I called to our make-shift leader trotting ahead of us. He simply turned his head just barely to the right to regard me with a questioning raised brow. "I was curious, about the magic you did yesterday." Any topic of conversation was better than no topic of conversation at this point.

"What about it?" His normal aggravated tone softening at my interest.

"Well, shouldn't you, or us, be dieing of radiation right now? Or, at least showing symptoms or something? I didn't know any ponies could actually make balefire." Psych gave a huff of breath at my question before looking forwards as we walked again.

"The thing is, back in the day zebras and ponies created balefire to be deadly as possible against one another. You had the fire, and if you didn't die from that, you died from the radiation it emitted. Insanely effective at long range, but not so at short without getting yourself killed."

"When I was a colt, I had access to a laboratory and came to the conclusion that the two aspects that made balefire deadly could be possibly limited to either one or the other. It isn't like we don't already deal with radiation from the water, because even without the fire, that effect still lasted. So why couldn't I try creating the same thing, but minus the radiation poisoning?"

At this point, he looked back at his own cutie mark and motioned to it with a head tilt.

"So, with the right combination of chemicals, I was able to create with my own magic as a source, balefire, but without the radiation. Just as effective in its deadly properties of fire, but I was able to actually manipulate it without causing radiation poisoning to either myself or anypony around me."

"And that is how you earned your cutie mark." I ended the story for him with a nod of my own.

"Correct. But, as much as I saw the experiment as an achievement, the ponies I was currently residing with did not like it one bit. I was cast out shortly after as a harbinger of past destruction." At this he gave an eye-roll that I didn't have to actually be seeing his face to notice. "They simply could not appreciate genius." A flick of his head upwards to end his statement.

"That is a heck a lot more fascinating than how I got mine, How about you Stan?" I turned my head in his direction. Lets keep this conversation train a-rolling.

Stan glanced over at me from his position on the other-side of Karma, he would then look down at her in an almost careful expression and she simply nodded for him to continue. He then cleared his throat and softly rumbled a reply.

"My family found business with metal. There are not a lot of ways to make caps with the competition of others, but they found they could use old-world metal to make weapons, armor, even bullets, to sell at a decent price to keep us afloat. My father tried his best to make me follow suit, but I was bare-flanked for the longest time, and could not keep up with his level of work."

I nodded to this, I understood what it felt like to be useless for a time. That, and I wasn't about to interrupt the most I'd heard this stallion talk in days.

"One day, I was helping my father scavenge for metal in an old shop that I think used to be for...supplies and junk from out of our country. We didn't know what we would find, but figured it wouldn't hurt to look."

"Anyways, while my father was in a different part of the shop, I found this old hat in the back." He perked his head up slightly to look up at the faded black material that made up the wide brimmed article. "I also found, amazingly enough some of these old large black disks along with a machine of some sort that looked like was used with the black disks."

"Not finding anything else useful, I grabbed both objects and hoofed them into my bags, and threw the hat on my head. My father was very irritated that I hadn't found anything he thought 'useful', but I thought the least I could do is sell it to some junk-collector if I could get them to work." He paused and shrugged a shoulder mid-trot.

"We went home, I found I could get the machine to work when I plugged it into a generator. When I added a black disk, I found it made music. It was the first time as a colt I'd ever got to hear music before, and I found it amazing. I felt the urge to dance, something else I had never done before, and before long I lost track of time. My father found me hours later, with this mark attached to my flank. He also wasn't very pleased with this."

"Did they kick you out too?" I questioned finally, resulting in a slightly narrowed glare from Psych in front of us.

"No. I left of my own accord. He wasn't happy, I wasn't happy, it was for the best. I met up with a friend and we decided to go adventuring. Pyro was not very well liked either, so we decided to head off on our own."

Ah, that made some sense, and I nodded again in thanks.

"And you?" I finally asked Karma, whom refused to look at me.

"I accidentally killed somepony." Was my answer in a rather unusual monotone voice for her.

And....back to everypony being quiet again. What was I supposed to say to an answer like that?!

After what felt like ages, though more than likely just an hour or two we had finally made it back to town. Though I did notice the closer we got, the slower we seemed to go. Psych was still looking forwards, though seemed a bit more subdued than before. Stan himself, was nervously looking around. Karma, well...she was still being the silent conversation killer.

We turned into town...only to find ourselves face to face, or in Psych's case muzzle to near muzzle, with a very angry looking mare. Rainy, to be more exact.

The mare stood with her hooves slightly splayed out, as it only took a bit of her height to make himself look more aggressive than before. She stood with her head leaned down and forwards, inches from Psych's muzzle, narrowed eyes and all. Were they red? Heck, I don't even remember.

"Just where have you all been?" We were questioned in what was obviously a very controlled, yet still angry, tone.

Nopony moved. Well, nopony except me anyways. I turned and looked between my traveling companions and saw that Stan had hunkered down to Karma's height and was trying to avoid the taller mare's gaze. Karma had her head turned slightly towards Stan and was continuing with her quietness even in this new sense of danger. Psych, the braver of the lot, was doing his best to hold his ground, ears perked and giving Rainy a violet glare of his own.

"I went to pick up the stragglers, now if you don't mind..." Psych attempted to step around the gray mare.

And instead met with a leg and hoof thrust out to stomp the ground in front of him. He paused.

"Let me understand this better..." She now seemed to mockingly state in a more normal tone. "...Stan, and you decided to leave, without telling anypony what you were up to. Leaving the rest of us here to wonder what in Tartarus was going on."

"Where the hell else would we be?!" Psych attempted to defend himself.

"AND might I add, you return with one of you hurt. I CAN SMELL THE BLOOD ON HER FROM HERE."

Oh dear, Celestia.

"Its really not that bad Rainy, just a few cuts and..." But, Karma was cut off in her quiet intrusion by Rainy's glare switching from Psych to her. Karma could do little else but pause, and then swallow nervously. "Um...ahem. Carry on."

Switching back to Psych, Rainy slowly raised her head up in all of her sudden anger-filled glory.

"I do not want to see anymore of you hurt for stupid reasons. Have I made myself clear?"

Psych was not one to back down, and he challenged the mare in front of him with that same glared expression he had mostly been keeping up with for as long as I had been with the group. Just as I was about to really get worried about a true confrontation between these two ponies, very slowly Psych's ears lowered back against his skull in a more submissive tone.

"Yeah, I get it." Was his simple statement, in reply.

Rainy then turned her head to look at Stan, who was instantly nodding his affirmation with his hat bobbing on his head. Rather quickly I might add.

With that cleared up, both me and Karma were the only ones left unaddressed. I twitched just barely when she regarded us next, though I could see just a mere hint of her angered mood softening when she looked to Karma, whom was giving the other mare the most pitiful expression she could muster.

Hoping that maybe that act would work well for me, I also quickly decided to lower my head, and give my wings a slight twitter. What I had originally thought to be the more friendly of the lot, I was in the realization that this other mare could easily be ten times more scary. I was not going to get on the wrong side of her hoof.

"Ugh...I'll get you cleaned up." Rainy finally muttered to herself before looking to the two other males of our group. "You two on the other hoof, should go tell Light whatever happened. Now."

Psych couldn't help a rolling of the eyes at her last word with a huff, but he also wasn't going to argue either oddly enough. He made his way around her, slowly, as if he had all the time in the world to get to his next location. Stan very carefully skirted himself around Rainy to walk behind Psych, keeping his head down and his gaze turned away the entire time.

"It really is alright, Rainy. I'm pretty much okay, nothing a half a potion won't fix." Karma mentioned while Rainy turned from the two of us and headed down the street to where they had moved the wagons inside the town. I took up my role behind her, deciding I might as well keep myself quiet in case I say anything to irritate either the two of them.

"And of course that stupid stallion was sure to bring his bag of tricks, but nothing for a wounded..." Rainy only grumbled further with a small shake of her head, followed up with a sigh. "Apologies, I dislike any of you getting hurt."

"Its okay, if I wasn't scared for my eternal soul there, I'd have actually been laughing." Karma replied and gave the mare a grin once we had come up behind the wagons, Rainy had stopped and turned her head to give a small smile of her own.

"Happy, dear. Could you please get Momma her medicine bag?" Rainy would question then as she looked up into the confines of the wagon itself.

Inside the wagon, I could easily hear the rustling of many objects being tossed about, including the cloth frame being whipped around with a sudden pink glow. Next thing I knew, Happy was producing wearisome grunts and a bag was being both pushed and partially levitated towards the back where we were currently situated. As it neared toppling over the side, Rainy's horn enveloped in her own white glow and it was wrapped about the bag, easily lifting it out and onto the ground. Happy then laid over the edge, huffing to attempt to catch her breath while her front hooves dangled cutely while her horn poofed out.

"Its too heavy, Momma!" She whined, making me wince slightly.

"We all know you live such a troublesome life...we are ever so sorry." Her mother simply grinned at the antics of her foal.

Happy pouted at her mother's mocking, giving more than enough reason for Rainy to reach over with a hoof and ruffle the top of her mane to cause the filly to squeak and retreat back into the wagon itself.

When Rainy began pulling the bag open with a hoof I took more notice of the bag itself. It might have started out as a pale yellow at the beginning of its life, but in these recent times it had both faded and took on a more light brown hue in random splotches. On the side facing us though, still in clear detail three pink hued butterflies had been lovingly stitched. For as old as the bag must have been, it had been taken well cared for. Well, as much as something centuries old could have been.

Eventually, Rainy's horn glowed again in that white hue and out of the bag she levitated a bottle filled with the same purple liquid that I'd seen and drank myself before. She then passed this over to Karma while uncorking it for her so that the hornless mare simply had to reach forwards and carefully grab the bottle with her teeth.

"Might as well drink it all, we found enough replacements in town to last us awhile." Rainy mentioned, which Karma nodded to before tilting her head back and attempting to slowly swallow the potion down. Once the bottle was empty, she sat it down near the bag and gave herself and over-all shake, causing her patchwork outfit to shift dust around us.

"Thank you Rainy, that is much better. I was starting to itch." She mentioned to the taller mare.

Rainy simply rolled her eyes playfully before looking to me for a few seconds, causing me to startle just slightly. I'd been used to being ignored up to this point, and finding myself being gazed over suddenly was a bit unnerving, but thankfully she simply looked back to Karma without addressing me personally.

"So its safe to say, the little meetup didn't work out?" She asked.

"That's...one way to put it. I guess." Karma replied in a more somber tone than she had been using with her before. "Looks like we might be keeping this feather-head around for awhile. Well, if you want to anyways, Cloud." She then mentioned before looking back to me.

"Um...I don't really have anywhere else to be..." I scrapped a hoof against the dirt. "I mean, you look pretty crowded as is. I can understand if you do not need another mouth to feed." Karma then rolled her eyes at me.

"Really? That's all? We are all sort of rejects here. Except Rainy, she's chosen to be a reject." She smirked lightly to the dove mare.

"Excuse me if I thought you all needed my help more than staying with my family." Rainy huffed in a retort back. Karma leaned towards the mare and playfully nudged her side.

"We are glad you are here, Rainy. Even if you do scare the shit out of us from time to time." Another smirk. I was finding myself feeling better that the brooding mare that had followed us back to town was starting to liven back up once she was back with her friend.

"Damn well better be." Rainy smiled back to her before looking back to me again with a more serious expression. "But, as she says, I am sure we could let you tag along with us. Will just have to bring it up with the boys, but regardless, with the two of us on your side, would they really say no?"

I took a moment to think about that. After having seen Karma in action over the last few days, and the sudden anger her only other female friend could produce besides the sweet nature, it didn't take much else for me to believe them. I found a part of myself wanting to believe them, more than anything else.

And then I realized, both these mares were on my side, as Rainy had put it. That was...a nice, if surprising, feeling.

Later that night after a rather heated discussion among the entire group once we had head back to the inn, I found myself surrounded by the lot of them in the main room. Again, we were eating a soup mixture that Cleave had thrown together for us all to chow down on. After living mostly on cloud-raised food, I was quickly starting to get used to the warmth feeling these ponies produced in their food.

"We better get ready to leave tomorrow morning." Light was mentioning to us all. "From what Karma tells us, I for one do not want to stick around any longer then we need to in case anyone decides to come looking for Cloud."

At the mention of my name, the ponies of the group all turned to look at me, even Happy. I cleared my throat at the sudden attention and gave a small nod.

"Might be a good idea...and, thank you again for letting me stay."

Light shook his fluffy mane at my continued thanks. I had been present for the conversation that had eventually brought up that I really did not have anywhere else to go once it had been made clear that I was now listed under Pegasi most wanted. At first, the group seemed a little unnerved at the thought of taking on a rogue soldier of the very group of ponies that were well known for not enjoying dirt-dweller company. Karma and Rainy, though had quickly stood up for me just as they said, and shortly after it was agreed upon that I was welcome.

"I do have a small question though..." I decided to finally ask.

"Hm?" Light questioned.

"Well, exactly where are you ponies headed?" And...silence. Well then.

The group of ponies continued to look at me with merely a few blinks among the lot of them. Eventually Light shrugged both his shoulders, looking to Psych and Mist Blade as his side. Mist Blade nodded, but Psych answered with another shrug. Light quickly sighed at the undecided tension between the two of them.

"Tech, do you mind?" He peered over to the green stallion laying near Cleave who was currently sipping his soup with a yellow glow.

"It's in my bags." Karma raised a hoof and waved to the pointed out stallion, with a slight smirk.

"Why do I always get....ugh." He muttered as he put down his soup on the floor and drew himself on four hooves to walk out the main doorway. I looked over to Karma when I heard the mare snickering.

"Unicorns, got to be useful for something." She leaned against Stan with another one of those playful nudges she kept giving out, and Rainy could do little else but shake her head with a heavy sigh. Happy simply giggled.

About that time, Tech was re-entering our establishment. Held in the same yellow glow of his horn's light was a rectangular object, heavy by the looks, and by the large thumping sound it made once he had dropped in the middle of the room.

"Hey! That's mine I'll have you know." Karma glared at the offending pony.

"And you can go get it yourself next time." Tech stuck his tongue out at her and buzzed his lips in a raspberry.

"Why I never." Karma feigned hurt, holding a hoof to her chest and letting out a dignified sniffle that left most of us chuckling, me included. It at least seemed like the mare was feeling better, among others it appeared she was able brighten up.

Light smirked over at his companions while getting to his hooves and stepping closer to the object, letting his hoof lightly scoot it so that I could view it better. I was surprised to find out that the object was actually a book. A real book! Not just those burned out things that my school had shown us to show what happened to things on the surface. This thing actually looked to be in fairly good condition, given its age. Frankly, I was mesmerized for a second.

The book itself was large, and obviously heavy with the material it held. From the outside the slightly worn cover held a brown hue, and that was the last thing about the object that was dull in nature. Gold metal infused partially to the binder and corners to give it extra strength, along with the plates that were fixated to the bottom and tops of the cover. Unreadable runes of some sort were carefully carved into these plates in an more decorative manner than actual readable text. In the middle was the masterpiece of the cover, three slender crystals in pale blue and vibrant purple hovered among the gold that fused them to the book itself. Over-all, the crystals only looked partially scratched, and the gold had just the barest hint of tarnish.

Light gave me a minute to enjoy the outer layer of the object before lifting a hoof again to slowly fold back the front cover.

Inside, on the first page appeared to be a letter of some sort. Written in a fancy purple ink in what was very obviously unicorn-writ writing. I leaned in close, and squinted slightly as it had seemed like ages since I read anything as regal looking.

Dear B.B.B.F.F,

I really hope this book reaches you in a timely manner. With everything going on with the war and my ministry, I've rarely been able to take the time out to truly enjoy past ventures. I have to admit, working on this side project in what free time I am allowed has been able to keep me more attached to happier memories. I really hope when this is all over, and I intend to end it soon, I can take a holiday to visit you and Cadence. I miss you, big brother.

So, I present you with a copy of The History and Chronicles of the Crystal Empire. Finished! I mended the torn out page, and I also added our encounter with its very own chapter towards the end of the book. I am sending you this copy, before I send another to Rarity's ministry so we can start giving out copies to the public libraries. I doubt we can get that done as the war continues, but I will at least be ready to allow ponies to truly learn the greatness of that wonderful city and its equally wonderful ponies as soon as everything with this horrible war is over.

I hope you can read this, and be reminded your little sister loves you.

Hope to see you soon.

Your L.S.B.F.F,
Twilight Sparkle

"This is..."

Karma had at some point, raised to her hooves and had stepped over to Light's side. Gently she placed a hoof near the edge of the first page and caressed it softly. I watched as she leaned down slightly to look at the pretty writing and towards the name of the pony that had signed it.

"It never reached its destination...but my ponies found it centuries ago, and kept it safe for history's sake. When I left, I took it with me. I don't think they are very happy with me right now with this missing from the protected section of our library. But it was always my favorite book, and I was going to take a least a little happy memory with me."

Looking up to the beige mare I could only blink, I'd only heard stories about the so-called empire. Mostly colt and filly stories told by parents to give their foals good thoughts to dream by. I barely believed it myself. Karma simply gave me one of those smirks, that seemed to hold both a little sadness, and adventure within it.

"This is..." She quietly murmured, finishing my earlier sentence for me.

"...The Crystal Empire. That, is where we are going."

Author's Note

And so, another chapter finished. This took me a lot longer as I had to deal with not only work, but a wonderful vacation that the very same Rainy Day lovingly took me on with her wonderful family. I never knew the water of the Bahamas could be so blue! And I got to see the ocean! And kiss a dolphin! It was wonderful!

I did not get to add in more sections to this chapter than I would have liked, but I am trying to stick to a strict 5k-6kish code for each chapter. Just enough to read, and not be too lengthy. That, and I enjoy the challenge of finding a way to both start and end a chapter to attempt to keep this interesting. 5,778 words, just a little under 6k, but Ive looked over this chapter numerous times, and really don't see anything else I want to add to it.

And so, onwards! To the Crystal Empire! Squee.