BANG! BANG! BANG!

There was the sound of gunshots ringing in the air.

“Buck, buck, buck, buck, buck!” shouted a male voice.

“Dammit! These things are hard to kill!” shouted a female voice.

“Just keep shooting at them, Sludge! Only two of them left!” shouted a male voice.

The voices belonged to both Sludge and Funberry. The two of them were currently shooting at some monstrous-looking, bulky, bipedal dog creatures with sharp teeth and claws known as ‘Hellhounds’. While they were on their way to Hoofington, the dog creatures had come out from underground and started attacking the green mare and the pretty stallion. After a shootout, a few of them were on the ground, dead, while two others were still moving around, alive.

BANG!!!

One of the Hellhounds had gotten shot at close range by Funberry’s shotgun and died instantly.

“Yes!” he cheered.

As for Sludge, she was having a hard time against the dog creatures. These things were tough, seeing as how the green mare shot them multiple times before they even died. Also, Sludge hasn’t mastered ‘shooting guns with hooves’ yet. So, there have been a few hits and some misses.

“If only they could stay still in place long enough for me to shoot them,” she thought.

As soon as the green mare thought that, she realized something, but it was a long shot.

“Funberry, I was wondering. Is it possible for you to use your telekinesis or whatever to hold them in place in order to make it easier to shoot them?” asked Sludge.

The gunshots coming from the pretty stallion’s gun had stopped.

“Never tried it with larger creatures like Hellhounds before, but I’ll give it a try,” he said. Funberry’s horn glowed with magic. “Cover me if it doesn’t work.”

She nodded in response. Then, the next thing that happened, the dog creature was held in place by the pretty stallion’s magic. With them now being held in place, that made it easier for the two of them to shoot the Hellhound.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

The bullets were shot into the dog creature multiple times. After a while, seeing as they’ve shot it enough times, the pretty stallion released his magic from around the Hellhound. The dog creature fell to the ground, dead.

“Thank Celestia. We were able to survive,” said Funberry, relieved.

“Yeah,” agreed the green mare, panting. Sludge turned to look at him angrily. “You just had to test out the grenades, didn’t you?”

He put up his hooves in defense, scared. “I’m sorry, but how was I supposed to know that the explosions would attract them?! I’m no psychic!” argued the pretty stallion.

It was Funberry’s fault that they were being attacked in the first place. It had only been a few hours since they left the Stable, when all of a sudden, the pretty stallion had decided to practice his aim by throwing the grenades around with magic while they were trotting. It seemed that the explosions had attracted some Hellhounds that were digging underground. “Next time, be more careful. We’re lucky no more Hellhounds showed up after all that noise we made fighting the other ones,” she advised.

The pretty stallion nodded, agreeing. “Got it,” said Funberry.

Sludge sighed. The green mare looked down at the dead dog creatures. “Hmm…” she thought. “Ah, what the hell. Might as well try it.”

The green mare approached one of the dead Hellhounds and got out the dagger.

He looked at her confused. “What are you doing, Sludge? They’re already dead,” said the pretty stallion.

She didn’t answer Funberry. Instead, Sludge used her other hoof to grab onto one of its claws while holding the blade of the dagger at the side of the nail. Then, the green mare started sawing the blade back and forth at the nail.

“Just collecting its claws. It might be useful later one day,” she explained. Since it’ll take a while to collect all of the claws from the dog creature, Sludge decided to make some small talk. “So Funberry, I’m curious about something about you.”

The pretty stallion smiled. “Is it about how I got this pretty?” he asked.

The green mare stopped just so she could roll her eyes before continuing to saw away. “No,” said Sludge, an uninterested tone in her voice.

Funberry pouted playfully. “Aww. Too bad,” said the pretty stallion. Then, he smiled. “Fine. Ask away.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what made you want to travel around this wasteland? I mean, are you looking for something or some…pony?” asked the green mare.

That surprised the pretty stallion. “Oh,” said Funberry.

“You don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to. I was just trying to make some small talk,” informed Sludge. “I mean, we did just first meet a few hours ago after all. You probably don’t trust me enough to talk about it yet.”

She knows that he won't tell the green mare since they barely know each other.

He gave off a small shrug. “Ehh, I guess it's fine if I tell you. You do need to know why I'm going to be making so many stops in different, dangerous places while guiding you,” said the pretty stallion. “There’s a chance that she might also be able to help me with my goal. If not, then that’s fine.”

That surprised Sludge that Funberry was willing to tell the green mare, so she gave the pretty stallion her attention while continuing to saw away at the nail at the same time.

He cleared his throat. “I left my home, which I won't be telling you yet as I don't trust you enough, in order to find information about my long line of great Great Aunt Pinkie Pie. Once I have collected all of the information, I plan to bring it back to my family to show them all the mystery of what happened to her,” explained Funberry.

Sludge was kind of impressed. It sounded like a great goal for him to try and accomplish. “Wow. So what kind of information are you looking for about her?” she asked.

“What happened to her during the war, and if she hid out somewhere safe, like one of those Stables? And if she did hide out at a Stable, I need to find out which one she hid in, and then see who her current, living descendants are there,” explained the pretty stallion. “To do that, I’m going around checking out some of the Stables, including the Ministry of Morale and her home in Ponyville.”

The green mare hummed as she sawed away at another nail. “That’s very interesting, Funberry,” said Sludge. Then, she looked confused. “What are the Ministries?”

The green mare knows what ministries are, but she doesn’t know what the ministries in Equestria do. Funberry became shocked himself as Sludge didn’t know anything about the Ministries.

The pretty stallion snapped out of his shock. “She probably grew up without knowing about what Equestria was really like back then. I guess it’ll be fun talking about multiple great Great Aunt Pinkie Pie,” thought Funberry. “Well, a long time ago, during my really Great Aunt Pinkie’s time, she and her friends were the ones who wielded the ‘Elements of Harmony’, six magical artifacts that used the power of the six mares’ friendship as a weapon against those who threatened Equestria, even the world.”

He stopped as his throat felt a little dry. So, the pretty stallion reached in and grabbed one of the drinks from his saddlebags. After removing the bottle cap and placing it into the saddlebag, Funberry drank some of it.

The pretty stallion sighed in relief. “Now, as for the Ministries, my really Great Aunt Pinkie Pie and her five friends were in charge of their own Ministries. There was Twilight Sparkle’s Ministry of Arcane Sciences, Applejack’s Ministry of Wartime Technology, Fluttershy’s Ministry of Peace, Rainbow Dash’s Ministry of Awesome, Rarity’s Ministry of Image, and my really Great Aunt Pinkie Pie’s Ministry of Morale,” he explained. “From what I was told by my mom, the Ministry of Morale’s job was to travel around and cheer up ponies, so my really Great Aunt Pinkie Pie did it by having parties, which really worked and cheered up tons of ponies.”

The green mare as she sawed away at the next nail. “That’s very interesting to hear about your ancestor, Funberry. She sounds like a great mare,” said Sludge.

Funberry nodded, smiling, and finished the rest of his drink. “She sure was, and still is,” said the unicorn.

There was something the green mare wanted to know as she might as well help Funberry achieve his goal while also trying to find a way back home. After all, Sludge knew that if she wasn’t around, eventually the pretty stallion would wind up dead somehow.

“How many Stables are there anyway?” asked the green mare, curious.

Funberry thought about it for a while before shrugging. “I don’t know. I guess…more than fifty or one-hundred?” he guessed. “All I know is that there were a lot of stables built throughout Equestria back in the day, and that is my best guess, I guess.”

She was flabbergasted, and had to stop sawing. “Fifty or one-hundred?! That’ll take years to get through all of them!” shouted the green mare.

The unicorn nodded. “I feel the same exact way as you do, Sludge-” Funberry then looked determined. “-but I’m willing to travel all over Equestria just to solve the mystery. I have to do this, for my family,” he said, adamant.

Sludge was silent for a while before sighing, and continued to saw through the nail until the green mare cut it through completely. She then started on the next one.

“How many Stables did you go through?” asked the green mare.

“Before I met you? One,” answered the pretty stallion.

Sludge hummed again. “I see, and how long have you been traveling from your home to the Stable?” she asked.

“About a few hours,” answered Funberry

The green mare was once again impressed. “I’m actually both surprised and impressed that you were able to live this long traveling through this land within a few hours, and you even killed all of those raiders. All without getting a single scratch on you,” she said.

He looked prideful. “Well, defeating those raiders was a bit hard, but thanks to those spells I had I knew I was able to outsmart them and survive,” boasted the pretty stallion.

Something popped into Sludge’s head as the green mare realized something, and she needed it answered. “I’m curious about something else,” said Sludge. “Your ancestor was friends with the ones who had their own Ministries, right?”

Funberry nodded. “Yup. They were the best of friends, even while they focused on their jobs and their own Ministries,” he answered.

“So, if Pinkie Pie was such great friends with these other five mares, then wouldn’t their Ministries also hold information about her too, right? If so, then shouldn’t we-” She finished sawing through the third nail. “-also be visiting the other Ministries too, not just the Ministry of Morale?” asked the green mare.

The pretty stallion thought about it for a while before realizing that Sludge was right.

He started smiling. “If we add the other Ministries to our list of stops, then we’ll have more than enough information from all of the places we’ve visited to piece together everything and find out where my ancestor ended up,” said Funberry, excited. “When my siblings find out that I visited all of the Ministries, and not just the Ministry of Morale, they’re going to be so jealous.”

“Exactly. Once I finish with declawing these things, then we can leave,” she said. The green mare only had seven more claws left to go.

The pretty stallion only nodded excitedly in response. Sludge then started her work on the last seven claws while he watched.

Few Minutes Later

The green mare had finished cutting off the other seven claws and placed them into her saddlebags along with the dagger. Sludge shook out her hooves to remove the weird feeling after gripping and sawing the claws off for some time. Once the feeling was gone, the green mare was ready to continue on to Hoofington.

Funberry looked like he was thinking about something. “You know, if we were to alternate between galloping and trotting, and took only a few breaks, we might be able to make it to Hoofington before night,” the pretty stallion informed. “It’ll be hard for the both of us to defend ourselves at night if we’re attacked by creatures other than the Hellhounds. We could even be attacked by Raiders if our guards are down.”

Sludge nodded in agreement as she wanted to reach the town or city by nightfall and started galloping towards Hoofington.

Sludge:

• New Perks:

1. Evasive Shots: +10 agility and evasion when dealing with multiple hostiles at once.
2. Intuitive Gut: A feeling that surfaces when finding materials that can be used to make new weapons.

• Skill Note:

1. Gained Hellhound Claws (10)

• Footnote: Level Up

Funberry:

• New Perks:

1. Evasive Shots: +10 agility and evasion when dealing with multiple hostiles at once.
2. Discord’s Wheel of Chaos: -10 Luck; Accidentally causing chaos wherever you go without meaning to.

• Footnote: Level Up

Author's Note

Funberry has a habit of causing chaos without meaning to.

She'll need those claws to construct a weapon in the future.

The Psychopath proofread this chapter.

Comments are welcome.