I take a sip from the bottle of lukewarm water in my holey hoof and shift to get just a bit more comfortable in the barely standing chair I sit on. I've only been back from a scavenging run for an hour and I find myself already wanting to leave again if only to escape the stuffy atmosphere of the Ward 13 that we call home. It's been like this for 3 years now but it feels like it's been at least 20 or something.

I can't remember a time when it wasn't like this; fighting the Root, scavenging for every scrap of food and drop of water we could get our filthy hooves on. Hell I can't even remember my name, my whole identity, memories of my past life and all, long since forgotten as a side effect of constant exposure to the World Stones. I'm not the only one neither.

The 'lucky' few which form some sort of bond to the stones are the only ones that leave the Ward nowadays due to the root prowling the streets of the ruined city. Heh lucky they call us. Dying nearly five times every week only to come back is just as traumatizing as it sounds, you never get used to it.

"Hey come on we gotta get going" A deep Stallion's voice says to me. I look up at and quickly identify the large, grey Pegasus before me as Scrapper, already in his armor, a personnel friend of mine for about a year now and one of my two partners in our routine scavenger trips, he got paired with us when his old team just up and left.

"We just got back. At least let me rest for a little bit longer, feels like my hind legs are gonna give" I say in an almost as deep voice as the Colt in my home... shack.

"We don't find it, we don't eat it remember? Now get your coat on X is waiting for us" He responds in an upset tone all his own.

"Yeah yeah... Lemme just put this... somewhere" He nods and makes his way out of the non-existent door in the doorway. Looking around and eventually just deciding to lean over and put it on the broken down air conditioner that serves as my table, making me miss the magic I used to be able to perform, I get up and pick up my coat and small gas mask just where I left it on the cold concrete ground in a corner in my shack and start heading over to the armory.

While I am bumbling my way over to the armory I feel the air itself heating up from the twin forges the armory sports. Entering the armory I spot a familiar friendly face, Rigs.

"Hey I thought I'd see you sometime soon so I got your usual gear ready for you" The pure black earth pony stallion greets me with his trademark grin that almost feels like it warms your very soul.

"Hey Rigs and yeah I just got told by Scrapper to 'get your shit' so here I am!" I say to Rigs with fake enthusiasm and my own friendly fanged smile.

"Well at least one of us gets to see the sun every now and again friend, go see Mccabe to get your mods sorted while I finish up" He tells me with a somewhat sympathetic look in his eyes.

"Yeah probably should" I respond, the smile vanishing from off my black muzzle at the mention of my favorite engineer.

"I can hear you two you know" Said engineer sneers from her work station next to Rigs'.

"Heeey Mccabe I'd love to talk but I gotta meet up with-" I try to salvage this already downhill conversation but get interrupted by Mccabe shoving my of so beloved mods roughly into my chitin covered chest.

"Take your shit and get outta my sight remnant" She says with a tone of finality and hostility, taking the hint, I retrieve my weapons from Rigs and start affixing them to the backpack he also provided while stowing my sidearm on my flank.

Wanting to leave the now awkward situation I hastily and unceremoniously shove the mods into the bag, put it on my back hanging from my withers and leave the armory without another word, starting for the World Stone room down the hall.

Trotting inside it's the familiar large room with barely working consoles on one side and the massive crystal we call the World Stone on the other, all basked in an orange glow from the crystal. I quickly spot Scrapper without his helmet, which was hanging from his side, talking to a smaller Pegasus stallion that I recognize as X simply from his wide brimmed hat. X sees me and waves me over.

"So we doing a regular run or are we going somewhere else in that God forsaken city?" I ask.

"Scrapper didn't tell you?" Looking at said stallion for confirmation. "Well... not exactly" X says to me, I give him a confused look and remain silent "Recently or five minutes ago, there was a new World Stone that popped up. Normally that would mean somepony just found a quick way back here but when I decided to go out and meet them... Well. Lets just go, you two need to see this to believe me" X informs us, I look to Scrapper and try to silently ask him if he knew about this. He didn't.

I put my front legs on the World Stone along with Scrapper and X and close my eyes, awaiting the now familiar feeling of dematerialization.

It arrives and I feel myself being pulled harshly but not uncomfortably or painfully, if that makes sense, then the feeling of being hastily put back together comes and goes too.

I open my eyes to see my hooves on a much much smaller World Stone than the one in the Ward, I look around the crystal and see my partners doing the same. I turn to analyze where we are and am greeted with a sight that should have been impossible considering what was left of our world. Green trees, and lots of them too.

"X? You wanna explain the color of rust I'm seeing? Or rather the utter lack of it?" I say to my cohort.

"Can't tell you what I don't know. That's why I got Scrapper to get you, this is unfamiliar territory and I'd rather my team be with me when we find possibly interesting or flat-out dangerous stuff!" He informs me excitement clearly in his voice and on his face with a hint of curiosity behind his eyes.

"So Scrapper when you said 'we don't find, it we don't eat it' you really had no idea where we were going did you?" I ask the now sheepish looking Scrapper while flexing my insectoid wings.

He opens his mouth to say something but those words died in his throat when a mares scream tore out through the otherwise silent forest.

Looking to my brothers-in-arms we all ready our weapons and Scrapper puts on his helmet, my Chicago Typewriter or a bundle of cobbled parts which resembles that, Scrapper's shotgun or a bunch pipes that also resemble a shotgun and X's hunting rifle which is actually a lever-action hunting rifle. Noding to to each other we start galloping towards the direction of the scream.

Clearing some brush that's to thick to run through with my scrap sword I spy the mare/s that likely let loose the source of our impromptu journey and I have to admit, they're all lookers.

The head of the group is a lavender unicorn, don't see many of those anymore, with a violet mane with a stroke of pink in it and a cutie mark depicting a pink star surrounded by six other stars, who is currently looking confusedly at the rest of her group.

The middle of the group consists of an orange earth pony with a blonde mane, a stetson? And three apples as a cutie mark, who looks like she is going to shout at something, looking angry. A pure pink earth pony with three balloons as a cutie mark who is staring at wide-eyed at something as her mouth hangs slightly open. A rainbow-maned cyan Pegasus with a cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt coming out of it as a cutie mark and she looks ready to kill something, her wings flared.

The back of the group, cowering on the ground, is a yellow Pegasus with a long pink mane and a cutie mark depicting 3 butterflies. Said Pegasus looks up at the sound of the thick brush being cut into by my scrap sword and screams at the sight of the three of us.

The rest of the group of mares turns to regard us but none of us see them turn as our attention is focused solely on what they looking at before.

A hoofful of tall figures stands before them made purely of gnarled wood, standing tall on three trunk-like appendages while holding a large serrated knife on one arm and a large throwing axe on the other with 2 large horns on the top of it's head and multiple red glowing dots where a face would be is something I wish I could never see again.

The Root

While the mares are facing us, assuming we're the closer threat, X quickly aims his hunting rifle and fires 3 shots quickly killing one of the seven 'devils'.

The sound of the shots stun the mares, probably never seen a gun before, while I also aim my typewriter and pump more than a hoofful of rounds into two separate devils while Scrapper unceremoniously charges into the fray shotgun in one hoof and his handy dandy scrap hammer in the other.

Scrapper fires a shell into a devil, killing it instantly, and drops his shotgun not having time to chamber another shot and uses both hooves to smash another devil into smithereens. He turns in time to see one of them throwing it's axe towards him, thinking quickly he uses his wings to aid in propelling him to the side, dodging the axe.

X obviously being smarter than I pumps a round into the offending devils head ending it and leaving the last one.

Me. Too busy being transfixed on Scrapper being Scrapper didn't see another axe mid-flight until it cracked my chitin and buried itself into my chest, gasping from the sudden and unexpected pain, stagger backwards while starting to bleed profusely, earning a simultaneous gasp from the mares. Slightly miffed from the pain but absolutely livid from being hit in front of others, not forgetting the fact they're also all beautiful mares, I decide shooting the rest of my 60 round magazine (So like 20) into the singular devil was a good choice, so I did.

After we were finished with our bout of violence on those unsuspecting devils we turn to the now terrified and angry mares.

Me in all my brilliance decide to break the ice.

"Sup" I greet coolly. Axe still buried in my chest, blood leaking out and all.

Author's Note

Oh boy. Writing the main 6. This is gonna be painful.