Fallout Equestria: S.T.A.L.K.E.R

Chapter 38: Jagged Halos

The horizon grew brighter, and from the final crescents of blackness emerged the restive form of Corporal Aurora. She and Willow had voluntarily exchanged shifts keeping their sleeping compatriots safe from harm. The thestral in question was standing alone by the smoldering coals of the previous nights cooking fire, his tussled grey ears swiveled back to the sound of Aurora's hoofsteps and the clicking sound emitted by her mechanical barbed tail. She stopped just shy of the little rise he was standing on and scanned the horizon.

"Hey Corporal, you're an early riser? I didn't peg you as one. Nikolai ain't even up yet."

Aurora had only gotten about two hours of sleep- She spent most of her time practically hounding Willow, not for information, in fact the two had hardly said a word to each other during the whole night. They lolled about in a 20 meter odd radius around the cabin-Nothing came of it, of course. Which is why after the fourth rotation Willow quit and took to a state of semi hibernation by the remains of the fire until Aurora had decided to get her meager self allocated amount of rest.

The armored pegasus shifted her head slightly, and edged closer to Willow. “Last I slept for too long I woke up to a hive of radroaches crawling over me.”

Willow laughed, and then narrowed his brow. "Wait-Seriously?"

She nodded “It turned out the house I picked was home to a whole colony of them. Ever since then, I've always kept my ears perked up-even when I'm sleeping.” Willow cringed, he never liked bugs, radroaches in particular-The parking garage back in Garden had morphed that dislike into a quiet loathing for the things.

"I've never done something quite so dumb-But Nikolai told me he once slept out by a Balefire crater. And... Now that I think about it, I've slept in the midst of raiders."

“That could have ended badly for him if he didn't take Radaway. Seeing his skin isn't all chewed up like raw cooked meat tells me he at least took some precaution?”

Willow laughed. "Well, yeah-He... Probably did, though that's not half as bad as some of the other stuff we've been through since he met me-"

A faint moaning sound emanated from within the cabin, followed by a loud 'clunk!' and the sound of boots over rickety floorboards. Nikolai appeared at the collapsed doorway a moment later and stretched his arms out as if to embrace the whole world. "Ah, still no sun! I do not know why I continue hoping. Did you two get any sleep last night?"

She turned around and looked at Nikolai, whatever expression she had to offer him covered by her helmet. “Barely, but I'm used to it by now." Nikolai shook his head in disapproval.

"That is not best idea." He chimed as he blinked and rubbed the sleep from his eyes and ran his gloved hands through his hair. "People function best with the sleep, you see. Otherwise bad things begin to happen."

“You'd be hard pressed to make me sleep after my last half baked attempt had me waking up to a colony of radroaches mistaking me for a corpse.” Nikolai's right eyebrow drew itself sharply upwards, and then he laughed heartily.

"And you would be hard pressed to find a thing that fatigue and determination could not push you too do, please, will you have breakfast with us?"

She sighed softly, “Yeah, I wasn't going to say no to that.”

"Great, because I have cold rations left over from yesterday-And another mutant squirrel-At least, according to Willow. He does the hunting at night-When creatures think it is safe to venture out of holes, he proves them wrong and.... Feeds us in the process."

“I'll take anything you provide for breakfast..." She insisted. "Well, except for meat, I'm still not used to their taste and my teeth aren't made for that fucking type of diet.”

"Is not Buffet, I am sorry to say-But it should keep us alive. Baked Pinto beans?"

“That was never in my mind- And yes, that would be fine." Her face glowered with a neutral expression.

And so that sat down around the meekly rekindled fire and ate breakfast, Nikolai's mind seemed to have crowned and gilded over the fact that Aurora was an Enclave Soldier, now to him- power armor aside she looked like just another tag along equine guest of his eating with his friends. Nikolai tore a piece of near charred mutant squirrel off his spit and chewed it vigorously. "Aurora, how did you and Willow get along last night?"

“Pretty fine, although we barely had any conversation aside the one we had shortly before you returned to the waking world. I appreciate that he took over my guard duty to allow me to get two hours of sleep.” Nikolai nodded and patted Willow on his back, right between his batish wings, which curled and folded inwards at his touch. Willow's ear twitched, and he sat himself upwards. Nikolai licked his mess tin clean again and washed it down with a less than healthy amount of water before packing everything away into hit rucksack.

"That visor of yours-Does it have built in night vision?"

“It does. I have only used it three times, including at the Depot yesterday. With the amount of cloud cover above, I'm surprised the Surface isn't shrouded in total darkness.” She raised her visor and ate the pinto beans directly from the can, the corners of her peachy muzzle puckered slightly at the taste. Nikolai had used what stale pepper, salt, and dehydrated sugar he had left from the night prior to fashion a sort of rudimentary baked beans.

While Aurora's muzzle was practically stuffed into the can, Nikolai continued to espouse his story, "That was not even half as dark as it gets-Shortly after I arrived here I had the misfortune of experiencing night here under a new moon-So dark I could not see hand in front of face!"

Aurora made sure to swallow her food before speaking up, her gaze moving from the can of beans Nikolai's dirty face. “There was one night I recalled that it was unusually so dark our Major had to suspend all operations. All we did that night was gather in the common room at the table, talk, and play board games aside from eating dinner and going to bed.”

"Ah, well-" Nikolai replied. "I have found that it is actually best to do most of traveling at night-Especially in dangerous places. Most mutants stay far off of beaten tracks and-Well your usual bands of degenerates do not possess night vision-As long as you have good sense of direction and don't start randomly shooting or, ignite flashlight or torch-Then you are fine. The only reason I do not do it is because I am usually too tired to do so."

“You still have to be careful; darkness can either be your ally or an enemy." She mused." Not all muties hide during the night. Hell, I heard some of them flourish in the dark. I'm surprised that the hoof-full of marauders that do, even have the mental faculties to understand the dangers of tangling with stuff like that.” Nikolai smiled. "Well if you live in anyplace long enough you start to pick up how it functions, no?"

"Sound knowledge all around?"

“Well...now that I think about it, I often spend my days here out alone, and I sometimes travel during the night when there's no place to crash in.” She set her attention back onto her food and resumed eating.

"Then you should pace yourself. Check maps, make a plan; Ok, I start out here, and I will make it to 'this, this, and that spot today, and then end here at this place' plan to get there early, ensure is safe, set camp, and do not leave cover once it gets dark."

The empty tin can crumbled in Aurora's grasp. " I do... But I've never had to use them. I don't lead, Nikolai, I follow orders." She emphasized that last bit rather sharply.

"Some people used to consider me to be Loner-'rouge element'-But I have better word for it-Self employed." He laughed at his own comment.

"So far out of reach..." Aurora muttered, tossing her can away and watching as it rolled down the gradual dirt incline towards the highway before coming to a stop against a cobblestone.

"What was that?" Nikolai's voice tinged with satire.

“Nothing. Thanks for the pinto beans. Tell me when we're leaving.” She lowered her visor and trotted off towards another part of the camp-she had barely made it 5 meters before Nikolai exclaimed- "Ok!" Enthusiastically. "Willow-Flashpoint, grab your things, and let us get move on! We were never here!" She wheeled about, wanting to say something expletive, but she restrained herself and kept quiet. She trotted back inside to pick up what few things she had with her.

The four began to head eastbound along the semi paved road, as the mountains that held Murkycrest Garrison and the cabin that had sheltered them through the night, it wasn't long before a slim, thin, and very tall spire began to come into view out of the haze on the horizon, it's top all jagged and twisted off-Visible even at a distance.

"Do you see that spire? That is our destination. You do not even need map to notice it, blin it is tallest thing for kilometers around!"

No reply came from any of Nikolai's compatriots right away-So naturally the fuzzy peach colored mare in power armor beside him thought that he must have been talking to her; “It was hard to pick out of the haze last night. And speaking of haze... If you can quench my curiosity, why do you want to go there?” Nikolai hadn't been talking directly to her, he'd been addressing all three equines present as well as well as himself-he was given a lecture, in a manner of speaking.

Nikolai rubbed the bridge of his nose through his mask and looked up ahead at Willow. Nikolai didn't mind being in any particular 'place in line' when it came to traveling. Flashpoint always made for interesting back and forth conversation-And Willow always had a way of making him laugh out of the corner of his mouth with his odd thestral mannerisms. But whenever they were out on the open road it was always up to Willow to scout ahead-Which more than once had led to hours on end of witty bantering back and forth between Flashpoint and Nikolai. The two had found that they had an awful lot in common. Aurora, meanwhile, seemed to be permanently locked into a state of quiet solemnness. But the trio had only just met her-And so far, The Stalker wanted to imagine that they were getting along pretty well. Granted... he- seemed to say that of almost everyone he met. But the cloaked power armor clad pegasus trotting beside him did seem, at the very least, to be invested and vitally interested in his little group, even if she did seem distant most of the time. But this was the opposite-She was almost too observant. But Nikolai didn't mind.

"Surely you did not expect me to see giant spire and not want to pay visit? Is curiosity at it's finest. I have learned that if it looks interesting from distance, it is usually pretty interesting up close as well. And-From it being interesting up close, and-Obviously artificial in nature-I can deduce that there is probably something of value inside!"

“Well, you should show some constraint with your curiosity. It might someday lead you somewhere else and into a situation where even your profession can't help you. It's just a piece of advice I hope you''ll use to keep yourself safe.” But Nikolai didn't mind, at least she seemed to show concern for her traveling companions.

"I appreciate it Aurora, I truly do. But it is nothing I did not already know. Do you know what the best kind of fight is?" Her head shifted her head and ruffled her wings-And The Stalker knew with almost absolute certainty that the expression below her visor was one of confusion. So he answered his own question for her.

"The one you do not have to fight in first place! I am businessman, first and foremost-Not a soldier! And getting shot at is bad for business. This place, you see-Is like place I come from, in that- If you are patient, and wise, and... You know-Lucky. Then it will pay off! And you do not need to be some kind of all crazy-kooky no fun grumpy loser to do it-I... Was not referring to you, by the way."

"Nikolai!" Willow called over to his friend. "The direct front around the tower looks devoid of life so far." Nikolai brought his binoculars up to his eyes and scanned the lower portion of the titanic ruins. "Mm, we will stop about kilometer away from the base of the tower. Willow can scout ahead from there."

"That sounds like a good plan, what then?" Aurora asked him. But Nikolai had already began to walk away. Aurora groaned in frustration and trotted after him, her brown cloak flapping in the wind behind her.

"Nikolai!? What then?"

"We profit!" The Stalker replied assuredly. "We find cool stuff, and we profit. Is simple... On paper."

"Is just that-the.... Paper is one thing that I neglected to bring!" He laughed dryly and hung his head for mock dramatic effect, a invisible frown decorated the inside of his mask at the same time.

A tree cracked, and an errant mutated beetle crunched below Flashpoints boots. They stopped at a little rocky rise and bunched up behind it, ahead of them stood the looming presence of the SPP Tower. Willow and Nikolai made one last scan of the perimeter before the little thestral bolted off in it's direction. As the Stalker watched his friend disappear though the dust and haze in his optics, he couldn't help but notice that something felt... Off about the air here. It wasn't radioactive or toxic. His Geiger counter was still reading out normal levels of thaumaturgic Balefire background radiation, and his anomaly detector was silent. But the air still felt different-The wind had changed directions, now blowing directly into his face as opposed to from the east.

"Do you feel that, Aurora?"

"Feel what?"

"The wind, the air. It's different, isn't it?" Aurora shifted her armored wings uneasily from side to side while Nikolai took a strained seat up against a downed oak stag. "I've been near SPP Towers before. They effect the environment around them. It's odd that we haven't encountered any rise in humidity-"

"Willow's back." Flashpoint informed them. Nikolai pushed himself back to his feet and waved cordially. "What is story?" He asked Willow.

"I stopped a ways off from the actual entrance- A thing you can't see from here is that the west side's got skyscraper sided chunk out of it. Another thing-There's nothing threatening around the entrance-just-An awful lot of fog."

"Is it poisonous?"

"I would have noticed if it had been." Willow gestured to his nostrils. "It's humid, really humid. Not nearly as much as the Everfree but-Close... Another thing. I smelled living plants."

"Living plants... Down here?" Aurora murmured to herself, turning away from the bat pony. "Yes, living plants I ain't lying. He looked over at Nikolai. "These weren't Garden plants. And they weren't like the ones in the Everfree Forest either." Aurora's head swiveled about between the two halves of the duologue, confusion and exclusion sent red hot waves of silent worry through her mind. She didn't know what they were talking about-But she was determined not to let it show. She had a face to keep up and that was what she was going to do. So, she simply nodded and gave a quiet; "Mhm." To Nikolai.

"Mutated though, I presume?"

"Probably." Willow answered. "But for now it looks safe to move in closer." Nikolai turned and tapped on Flashpoint's shoulder, the zebra having been preoccupied scrolling through the tabs of his PipBuck-like a human teenager growing glued their first digital phone.

"Is, eh-Time to go." Flashpoint's striped ears perked up, and he quickly brought himself to all fours as the others were already beginning to leave the vicinity of that rock.

The ground beneath them grew softer and less rocky as they neared the base of the collapsed tower. 'Tower' didn't really do it justice. It had to have been one of the largest structures that they had come across in their travels. It put the ornate towers of Canterlot and the skyscrapers of Salt Cube City to shame. All around the tower lay a debris field that stretched out for at least a half kilometer in every direction. According to the map and-limited data from Flashpoint's civilian PipBuck and Aurora, there should have been a ground-observation structure. A structure which had been crushed by the Tower's fall from grace.

"Blin, guys-Do you know what I just realized?" Nikolai stopped his compatriots about a hundred meters shy of the base of the tower, just past the loose ground based perimeter fence and right at the edge of the mysterious fog bank.

"What?" They all replied, almost in sync with one another. Nikolai froze for a moment and looked down at his boots, then back into the fog. "Eh-Nevermind, I Forgot! Stay close and- try not to wander off, yes? Be on the lookout for anything that looks expensive, magical, or anything that glows and sparks! Давай! Ми йдемо! Come on, let's go!"

"And I did say close behind! I don't want something snatching you guys up."

The halted at the base of the tower, and immediately the Stalker ran into an issue. There weren't any visible ground level doors. It made sense, given that this thing was supposed to be floating upwards of a kilometer in the sky. They paralleled their way along the metal superstructure for a brief 5 minutes until they came to a 10 by 4 meter tall crack which had been formed by it's fall from the heavens. The Stalker had a hard time believing that all of this had been levitating all those thousands of meters above sea level, but he had seen and heard enough in his time here to know that it was absolutely the truth. Something which Aurora confirmed.

"We haven't run into any defenses yet." The peach colored mare commented. Nikolai, who was peering inside the gapping hole in the side of the structure, looked back to cast a weird gaze upon her. "Defenses? Look at this place. May I need to remind you that this thing used to float?"

"You don't." She retorted dryly. "But we should proceed carefully, we don't know what could be inside there. Not to mention that we might not be the only ones here." But Nikolai wasn't listening, he had already ventured a few paces into the interior. "Woah, bla... It is cooler on the inside! Nikolai took a step backwards and nearly slipped on something slick and fuzzy underfoot. He spun around and shifted his rifle to meet whatever this new thing was, only to nearly obliterate a large carpet of rich green moss. He held himself for a moment, and then slowly began to chuckle.

"Are you ok?" Flashpoint galloped inside to the scene of Nikolai cracking up laughing. "I-I almost shoot moss! Hah!"

"You almost shot a pile of-" Aurora stopped when she saw the moss. "Is that..."

"Real plant life? Yes. The surface is not as barren and dry as you may have been led to believe-Provided you look in the right places. It really is not too difficult. Not that-Moss, has much use to it."

"Hm." Aurora nodded her head. "Interesting. I'll have to report this to my superiors."

"Eh-To speak of your... Superiors-Mind walking and talking with me?" Nikolai lowered his rifle and waved her along.

"Not at all."

Willow took the lead now, with Flashpoint in tow. Nikolai activated his rifle mounted light and-Aurora's shimmering orange visor told the story for her. The Stalker didn't want to reveal his own night vision device, especially what with it's strikingly similar appearance to Aurora's visor. He didn't want her getting the wrong idea, and he knew how much the Enclave coveted magical technology. Showing her Flashpoint's PipBuck and his own PDA was already treading a very fine line, and Nikolai didn't want to test how much further he could push it.

"You superiors, your compatriots-" Nikolai began. "Your commanding officer-The Enclave! Are they looking for you?"

"I don't know." She tilted her head as they came to what looked like a real hallway. "A better question would be if they're searching for this place. Given how large it is-and the fact that is a Single Pegasus Project Tower, I'm sure that they know it exists but-This is the first time I've seen or heard of it, granted I'm only a Corporal. And if they've been looking for me for as long as I’ve been down here on the surface then they probably don't know where I am."

"No tracking devices implanted on you or your armor?" She shook her head. "Not that I know of, Nikolai. But I'm neither a technician nor a scientist."

"Hey Nikolai, come check this out!" Up ahead and around a corner, Willow was staring up at at something. It was a breach in the ceiling. The Stalker jogged over and shined his rifle light through the hole. The beam of photons disappeared into a pale cloud of fog stories above. Further ahead was another massive gash in the hallway. Aurora trotted to the edge and looked out. It was an almost unexplainable sight-Fog and cloud stretching up into what seemed like infinity. She had to admit, she'd certainly never seen anything like this ever before.

"Wow."

"Wow indeed," Willow replied. "These things look like they're mostly hollow on the inside. But better judgement tells me that that wasn't meant for anypony to fly through."

"What do you think it's purpose was?" Aurora asked the thestral. Willow shrugged. "I don't know. And I probably never will." Flashpoint kept back from the hole, but Nikolai walked right up to the edge and peered out."

"Cool." He said, his voice full of amazement which faded after only a few seconds. "Anyway, moving on on. We have much walking ahead of us. The Stalker shifted his weapon mounted light back into the hallway and backed away from the edge of the hole. "Let's go." He repeated. Aurora and Willow moved back away from the edge.

As they made their way through the bland metal corridor they had begun to realize something, this whole place was... Barren. Barren and strictly utilitarian. Another thing which they had realized was that they were in a maintenance hallway, which explained the odd amount of exposed pipes and wiring and the lack of any proper doorways. The four figures made their way down the quiet hallway, occasionally interrupted by a creaking pipe or some strange mechanical noise off in the distance. None of the lights were on, but at least the air was nice and cool. And, according to the two ponies in the group who weren't wearing respirators, smelled and felt quite a bit better than the air outside did.

After about 15 minutes of walking, they came to what resembled an enormous aircraft hanger, big enough to comfortably fit a fleet of jet airliners inside of. Up until now the interior infrastructure of the tower had seemed mostly intact, but the whole of this hanger was in utter waste, with jagged hunks of metal sticking up from the floor in random places, the sound of dripping water from the ceiling some 20 to 30 meters above was the only thing making any noise. Nikolai stepped out onto hanger floor and realized that it had been jarred upwards at about a 10 degree angle-in some places the incline grew even steeper, steeper, but far from insurmountable.

"Now this is some real sci fi shit!" The Stalker cried, throwing his hands up and shaking them in the air.

Littered about were the remains of a few ruined 'Vertibucks', Which Aurora was instantly drawn to. She spread her wings and half flew, half galloped over to one and peered into the empty cockpit. Nikolai followed behind at a brisk jog.

"Woah! Where is thunder?" He exclaimed. As if on call, Aurora's magically enhanced mechanical ears snapped to his comment and she almost lost her balance as she whirled around, her battle saddle moments from activation. The Stalker saw the glow of the shaped tips and sidestepped while still in motion. "Oh! Sorry about scare and-Thank you for not shooting me."

Aurora laughed uncomfortably. "Yeah-You're welcome, think it's operational?" The Stalker roared with jovial laughter before replying with a deadpan;

"No. I think is past expiration date." Nikolai's radio began to play the opening notes of an acoustic guitar song titled, "The Ferris Wheel of Pripyat". The opening notes came out a little louder than Nikolai intended, reverberating off the ceiling and far walls of the hanger. The Stalker rushed to turn it down but, if something was out there it would have heard it by now. Still, Nikolai didn't feel the sense of unease he normally felt in a place like this. It wasn't making his self proclaimed "Stalker Sense" tingle, so to speak.

"It would be cool to be able to operate one, but I would not even begin to know how to repair it. And restore it to working order... Just-Leave it be. I do not see anything of value on the exterior and you are not going to force it open through any means you currently have available. Let me-" He unfastened his small crowbar from it's seat within his pack."-Have a go."

He felt around for the little crack on the side of the craft that signified it's sliding door, jammed the tip of the bar inside, and pushed it open with one great heave. There was a crackle and metallic screech as the rusty door was forced open. Nikolai peered inside. "Nothing-Well... I mean, unless you see anything of use, Aurora?" Nikolai gestured to the interior. She took a good look inside for a while.

"I... Don't." She sounded resigned.

"Let us continue making our way to the center, then. There will be no easy pickings here. If nothing of worth comes from the center-or-Core... Of this place-Then we will return here and give it a more in-and-out picking over, ok?" The Stalker said all these things while he was already in motion, snaking his way across the enormous hanger floor towards the large doors on the adjacent side of the wall to the maintenance route they had trod in through. But Nikolai stopped about ten meters short of the metal doors. There wasn't an ordinary lock, keypad, or access terminal- Well, there was a terminal. There was a terminal screen, with a... Well-There wasn't a real keyboard. In it's place, there was a miasma of grey/white cloud which had been morphed into the shape of a terminal keyboard. The Stalker stuffed his hands into his pant pockets, and poked the 'terminal' experimentally. Nothing happened. He took a swing at it with a clenched fist, and it went straight through like it wasn't even there. Not a single wisp of cloud left the terminal.

"Ohoho!" He clasped his hands together and turned to face his friends. "Aurora? Please assist me, this is ridiculous." The Enclave mare rolled her eyes below her helmet and trotted up to the terminal, she raised an armored forehoof to begin to type, when suddenly-She stopped.

"What is it?"

"I-Don't know the password." She admitted. Nikolai groaned. "Then try using whatever sort of 'access' level crap you have on you! See if that works out because we will not be stopped by a some magic-ass cloud computer! I insist upon it!" Aurora put her forehooves on the 'keyboard' and typed in something which she spread her wings to keep from Nikolai's prying eyes. She finished, and took a step back from the cloud terminal. The display above it shimmered green, and the doors slid open. "Well, that was certainly easier than I thought it would be." The armored mare said those words with an enlightened tone in her voice.

"What brain quack came up with that thing?" The Stalker demanded satirically. Aurora shrugged. "I don't know, but... We use them all the time. They're good at keeping Enclave secrets out of Wasti-I mean, out of surface dweller hooves."

"Give me enough time and I will find a way to break into anything, ask Flashpoint."

"He's been right about that." Flashpoint replied. "So far-"

"-He's been right on technicalities." Willow added.

Nikolai raised a clenched fist and slowly extended his middle finger. "Technicalities... Sure! Sure! Let us say that me saving your lives is technical! Blin, this is no time to debate this-We do it over bean and rehydrated potato soup later! Aurora... I have something else I must confide in you. Is important."

"What? What is it?" Nikolai looked over his shoulder at Willow and Flashpoint. "Willow, take point about five meters ahead of us. Flashpoint, er-hang back, please. I need to discuss something with Aurora." The Stalker waited for his friends to take a healthy distance between himself and them.

"Who is this friend you are looking for again, um-Wait-Sorry, her name is Vivacity, yes? You said that she was wearing a white hazmat suit? Does this model of suit you are referring to have an orange visor?" Aurora stopped in her tracks.

"Yes... It does? Why, why? Nikolai, have you seen it before? Where?" Her metal ears perked up and her barbed tail twitched. Nikolai had stuck a nerve in just the right way. He had said something that she wanted to hear, and he still had questions that needed answering.

"Ok, but first of all-I need you to promise me that you will not spill any of this to your friends back home. It was long, long way from here... Way off by old Ministry chemical laboratory."

"You-You did? You really did? Did you get a good look at-"

"No, I did not. Whoever it was fled once their compatriots began to fire on us. And I began to shoot back. Plasma burns are bad for business, you know. So I shoot, and I run. And I run some more until I lose them. I do not know what happened to them."

"Are you sure?" Aurora pressured The Stalker. Nikolai shook his head. "It is beyond me, I am sorry."

"When was this?"

"About... Three weeks ago, perhaps?" Aurora turned away from him. "And you fired upon them?" The Stalker shrugged. "What else was I supposed to do? Your compatriots up there in the clouds shoot at everything that isn't one of them! Even you shot at me when we first met! It is just something I have come to expect." He said, trying to douse the fire he had started in telling the mare that he had engaged her coworkers-He certainly wasn't planning on telling her that most of the shots had connected with their targets. She was smart enough to make that inference on her own. " I do not believe that pony was the one you are seeking, I am fairly certain that I heard a stallion speaking." Aurora said nothing. But down the hall was the entrance to two sets of elevator doors, and off to the right of, a set of emergency exit stairs that climbed up too many flights to count. The Stalker went to jab his crowbar into the elevator door, and then quickly changed his mind. That elevator probably wasn't working anyhow.

"So... I guess we're taking the stairs?" Willow asked dryly. The Stalker unslung his pack and crouched down to retrieve a bottle of Vodka from within, he pulled his mask up by the filter and took a long swig.

"Ohoho!" He clasped his hands together. "Now, now we can scale it." He grabbed the door by the metal crease along it's edge, and yanked it back. The door hissed open with a loud creak, and pegasus skeleton tumbled out. Aurora took a step back and gasped.

"They must've gotten trapped in here." Willow proposed. "I don't see any broken bones or bullet holes anywhere." Nikolai stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Aurora?" The mare was mumbling to herself again.

"Aurora!" He repeated, his voice a bit louder and clearer than before.

"They must have died all alone..." She whispered under her mechanical breath. Nikolai walked over to Aurora and took a knee beside her. "You did not know them, Aurora. Do not worry, now, come on. We still have things to do." Nikolai wasn't the best at comforting others. But he needed to get Aurora's mind off the old winged skeleton and back onto the task at hand-Or... At hoof, in her case. Nikolai asked Willow to check his map, and the thestral informed them that their next stop up from where they currently were would be the sensor array about a third up the tower.

A whole third of the way up the tower. Forty five flights of stairs in that gosh awful humidity, it was like walking uphill through a riverside swamp. They were all nearly drenched in sweat and panting like dogs by the time they reached their first destination. The Stalker exhaled a heavy sigh of relief as he doubled over and clenched his knees, swearing under his breath. Ahead of them was a wide steel door rimmed with black and yellow stripes and, emblazoned on the doors, was the black emblem of a lightning bolt emerging from a cloud with a pair of outstretched cartoonish wings on either side.

"The emblem of The Ministry of Awesome." Aurora told them. "They ran clandestine operations and developed all sorts of secretive projects. I'm believe they even created the first iterations of the power armor I'm wearing right now. And... They built the S.P.P Towers over 200 years ago, they helped create the cloud layer over the Wasteland." The Stalker took a good look at this door, another cloud-based terminal stood in their way.

Aurora 'worked her magic' on the terminal once more, or at least she tried to. This time the door refused to grant her access, and the door was much too sturdy for any of them to break through. Even the energy weapons Aurora had mounted to her battle saddle might not have been enough to breach the door. They didn't have the time to sit around and try to figure out how to access it, and so they consigned the secrets of the sensor array to time and continued on to the Tower Core.

The Tower corridors were large and ominous, but utilitarian at the same time. It was like they had been created by someone almost as an afterthought. Someone had built this place with the intention it being left alone to run itself once it was completed, not to even begin to mention the obscene amount of security cameras all over the place." Aurora had mentioned "Clandestine operations" but I cannot help but wonder if any of these things are still functional. I would highly doubt it-but-I am not an electrical... Spell engineer person. I am not stupid, but I do not know how these things work, yes?"

"I know what you mean." Aurora comforted him. "Spell matrixes are a little too complicated for me, it's unfortunate. I wish I could understand them better."

It took another 10 minutes of accession, but the four were eventually able to reach the core of the structure. They opened the door which led from the emergency stairwell to the interior and were met by a gust of cool wind that wreaked havoc on Aurora's mane. She didn't seem to care. And then Nikolai's ordinarily dormant anomaly detector suddenly began to beep.

The ceiling had been completely overtaken and swarmed with what The Stalker could only describe as a miniature version of a storm system. Grey waves of clouds with faints sounds of thunder and the occasional rumble and flash of lightning. "Ohoho... Now this is cool!"

"I've never seen anything like it." Flashpoint eyed the cloud covered ceiling with suspicion.

"Aurora? What do you make of this?" Willow asked their resident pegasus. Aurora unfurled her wings and lifted up just off the floor, enough to touch the clouds.

"I've never really seen anything like this either. The SPP Towers were designed to control the weather. But the control systems of this one must have been damaged when it crashed to the ground."

Outside of that the hallways took the appearance of what Nikolai could only assume a starship looked like. A long abandoned, lost in space starship that is. Clean, grey metal with a hexagonal design pattern. He could reach up with a stray hand and poke the aberrant cloud formation with an index finger if wanted, but right now both hands were preoccupied in set positions on his rifle, and they weren't going to move anytime soon. Ahead was another door, this one was guarded by yet more security cameras and a long since past expiration date automated magic laser turret.

"Aurora, Willow? Can you try and detach that thing from the ceiling? I want to see if I can take that emitter with us." The two winged equines looked at each other, then hovered up to the turret. Willow circled the defunct weapon once, then looked back at Nikolai and shook his head. "I don't think we'll be doing much of anything with this. It's heavy and-It's spent all this time in this environment. It's worthless."

"I agree." Aurora added quickly. Nikolai liked magical energy weapons, the one hidden away in his rucksack told the whole story behind that, but he didn't quite yet know how they worked and-he was a bit scared to try and find out on his own. The Stalker jabbed a finger back at himself. "Then get down, we still need to come away from this place with something."

Willow glided down and took a spot beside Flashpoint, Aurora tried to do the same, but one of her hind legs caught a miniature cloud formation, and the mane on the top of her head stood up from a sudden release of static electricity from the cloud. This must have caught the Corporal off guard, because she jerked herself away and bucked the cloud with her hind leg. This sent the cloud formation careening into the ceiling, off which it promptly deflected and ricocheted back down the hall.

"Sorry! Accident!" Aurora spouted. Nikolai began to laugh. "You sent that thing flying like a блядь ping pong ball! Don't apologize, that was awesome!" A net of miniature lightening bolts crisscrossed the ceiling, and the Stalker's anomaly detector beeped a little louder.

"Davay, folks. Whatever we are after must be through this door. Help me get it open"

It was a jungle. It was a literal jungle, what lay on the other side was cold, humid, and overgrown with plants that ran up all sides like some sort of isolated paradise. The control room was nothing short of fascinating-Not to mention that it looked nothing like what any of them had expected. Whatever made this Tower tick had turned it into it's own little self contained ecosystem. Ahead, a soft blue glow cut through the fog, which twisted and contorted to the groups presence as if it was alive. Nikolai put a finger to his mask filter and urged them to be quiet, he reached into the pouch on his belt and fully withdrew his detector, which was now emitting a steady pitched alarm tone. He slowly brought up a clenched fist, a silent plea to his compatriots to stop and allow him to venture forward alone. Aurora didn't seem to get the message, how could she? She didn't know human hand signals like Willow and Flashpoint did. And so, when Nikolai moved forward, she moved forward a few paces behind him.

"Where are you... Where are you!?" His detector continued to beep louder as he moved further into the room, until at last, he came to something, a cylindrical metal pillar that had an enormous crack running right down the middle. A bolt of violent blue and white electricity shot from it but missed him.

"Oh right-I... Eh, I almost forgot." He fumbled about in a side pocket and withdrew a little iron bolt. He kissed it 'good luck' through his mask and gently tossed it in the direction the bolt of electricity had come from. Nothing happened. He suddenly felt very stupid tossing hunks of iron into a magic cloud teeming with equally magical and unstable weather patterns. He toddled forward a few more meters, his anomaly detector was flashing orange, and the little radar screen showed the anomalous item as being directly on top of him.

With a relaxed knee, Nikolai got down and began to wave his detector over the debris on the floor. He unsheathed his crowbar and began to sift though the rubble. When all of a sudden, the beeping struck a steady tone. He set the detector aside and dug through the metal and assorted office plant biomass on his own. His gloved hand fell upon something cool and smooth. He wiggled his hand under it and picked it up to see what it was.

What he found in his hand had to have been the largest blue sapphire he had every put his hand on, encased in a latticework of golden metal. He picked up his anomaly detector and held it up to the gemstone. Sure enough, this was it.

"Blya... I think I just found the Hope Dimond!" He looked it over, unsure of what to think about it and all the while oblivious to the fact that a certain power armor clad pegasus was standing right beside him until she spoke in a hushed tone.

"What is it?"

Nikolai looked over his shoulder at Aurora. "I don't know-But... I swear I have seen something that looks like this before."

He threw open his pack and fumbled around inside of it until he came to 'A Foals First Guide to Sorcery'. The book that a Zebra Sorcerer had so graciously gifted to him a while ago. He opened it up and carefully flipped through the yellowed pages until he came to a segment on Talismans.

"Blue rock..." He trailed off. "I don't believe it. This is-eh... hehe... This is a Water Talisman, apparently. That was-Unexpected but... Um... Not unwelcome. Far from it, this-this is awesome! This solves so, so many problems."

Aurora crowded around the blue gemstone with more than a healthy dose of intrigue, “I'm going to assume the purpose of Water Talismans is to provide clean water, not create a whole ecosystem. Now I'm wondering how this is even possible.”

"Yes. That... Is it's purpose, an infinite amount of clean water, mind you. These Towers-They were supposed to be able to mess with the weather, yes? Produce clouds? Whatever sent this place plummeting to the ground and-whatever left that gash in the side of it probably messed with it's internal workings. I would not be surprised it if started to snow in here right now-"

"Hey, Nikolai!?" Flashpoint's voice thundered from across the room. "It's snowing over here by one of the terminals!"

"Speak of the Devil." The Stalker deadpanned. "I've seen a load of weird stuff today... I'm not going to question this... Place, as long as there isn't anything waiting to pop out of a corner and attack us." Nikolai pointed over at the entrance, and then at the spiraling clouds above.

"If anything here wanted to attack us, it would have done it by now. I do not believe we have much to fear from monsters in this place, Aurora." He unzipped his rucksack and searched for something to store the Water Talisman in, he was running out of space in the precious few leaded containers he had, so he settled on an old T-shirt. It was far from ideal but, it would have to work for now, he wrapped it up like a baked potato and gently set it in the last available spot.

"Whatever caused all of this," He pointed up at the cloud obscured ceiling. "Is what we should be worrying about."

She frowned below her visor. “Well... You got what you were after, let's get out of here before we find out about it the hard way." The Stalker slung his pack back onto his back and got it settled in among his ballistic vest. He rolled back his tarnished jacket sleeve and checked the shiny officer's watch underneath. "Mm, the day is still young. Let us see if we cannot crack that terminal and see if we cannot figure out what happened to this place in all it’s…eh..." He waved his hands all around, "Weirdness.”

"Nikolai?" Flashpoint exclaimed from across the room. "I waved my PipBuck over this terminal and it turned itself on, should that happen-"

"I don't know that Flashpoint!" He spat. "Ask Aurora." The mare shook her armored head, signaling that she wanted no part in this spontaneous argument. Nikolai rambled on over to the terminal and examined it. Thankfully this one didn't also use a cloud interface.

"You would probably have to hack into that thing." Aurora apprised Nikolai, gesturing to the blinking blue light on the screen. Nikolai shook his head.

"Flashpoint? That PipBuck on your foreleg, it has space to store the-eh... Holotape blackbox things?"

"Yes...? Nikolai where are you goin-" Nikolai reached for his crowbar and began to pry open the back of the terminal. He motioned for Flashpoint to step up beside himself as he reached into the boxy magical device and withdrew something that looked like a VHS tape from a science fiction movie. "Go on, let us see it."

While all this was going on, an inactive terminal over suddenly sprang to life, showing a crude digital diagram of the Tower in it's original configuration, the words, "Warning: Talisman Matrix Incomplete: Unstable Weather Patterns Detected" flashed over the screen.

"Crap on a stick..." The Stalker swore under his breath in Ukrainian.

"What does it mean by unstable weather patterns?" Willow asked Nikolai. Who shook his head and pointed at the screen.

"I do not know, and I do not want to find out! Come on, let us vacate the premises immediately! We have overstayed welcome!"

Aurora glared at murderously below her visor, "I knew this place was bad news from the start. Now it's about to engulfed in a literal shitstorm!" She turned tail to run, "Stop wasting time and lets get out of here!"

And then the air conditioning broke. No, that isn't a metaphor, the temperature immediately shot up by another 20 degrees Celsius, bathing the four in a wave of sudden blanket head. They clamored out of the control center and found themselves in a freezing rainstorm in the hallway. They didn't have time to figure out what was going on, that would have to wait until they were back on solid ground. They bolted down the corridor and made a sharp turn as Willow paused momentarily to help Flashpoint up after the confused zebra had slipped and fallen on a patch of ice that had formed in his path.

Crack! They heard something off in the distance that sounded like thunder, the wind inside the corridor was picking up- And they all felt the metal buckle and squeal underfoot and underhoof. Everything was coming unwound all at once. And they were caught right at ground zero of one of the most dangerous prewar ruins in all of Equestria.

In a frenzy they descended all forty five flights of stairs in only 10 minutes. More lapping rain poured down all around them. For lack of any better analogy, it was like the weather was chasing them. The air around them was practically alive, and it resented their presence there. They barged out into the dilapidated Vertibuck hanger and found it in absolute pandemonium, portions of it were radiating with parched heat, others with tropical humidity and wetness, others still with snow. To Nikolai's own merit, at least he didn't stop to gawk at any of it-even when for a moment when a hailstorm's the size of fists began to rain down in the tunnel they had came in through.

"What now?" The Stalker almost had to grab Aurora and pull her away.

"Hanger! Descend! Давай!!" He waved them along across the cavernous hanger space as the ground beneath them rumbled and buckled, sending debris careening down from the ceiling. They bobbed and weaved around hunks of metal and ruined Vertibucks until they arrived at the drop-off which dropped of in a full 20 meters to the surface.

"Blyat! The Stalker cursed, mumbling to himself in crooked Ukrainian all the while. "Aurora-Willow!" I need your guys' help getting down there!"

"I thought you told me you never wanted to fly agai-"

Nikolai paused Willow, and then jabbed an accusing finger at the thestral. "We can have this discussion later, come on! Take Flashpoint! Aurora and I will follow!" Without a second thought, Willow wrapped his legs around his friend and whisked the zebra out of the hanger.

"What do you want me to do?" Aurora urged Nikolai. The Stalker thrust his thumb back at himself. "I need you to do to me what Willow just did with Flashpoint, have you ever done this before?" The Stalker queried, taking a step forward to look out at the drop ahead of him. It was nothing like Canterlot but it would certainly not make for a pretty impact should he slip or should Aurora lose her grip on him.

"N-no!" Aurora stuttered over the roar of the. "I wasn't trained for this!" She took a step back away from the edge, her wings and tail shifting back and forth with all manner of uncertainly.

"Wing it then!" Nikolai ordered. "Please!?"

Aurora fell silent. Nikolai shook his head and groaned in frustration. She shot him a look of mild malcontent “Are you kidding me? This is absolutely risky for a lot of reasons and I've already mentioned one of them, and while my power armor's got an integrated talisman to reduce armor weight, I'm not sure if it applies to carrying others. We'll fall under our combined weight!”

"Blin-I need to fix this or neither of us are going to make it out of here! Think Nikolai, think! What can you say to this pegasus to convince her that flying you to safety is a good idea? For goodness' sake- think fast!"

The Stalker took a knee in front of Aurora. "Aurora." He began calmly, he removed his mask and pulled his hood down until it was back around his neck. "Aurora! Have some some faith in your own ability! You say you are a soldier, act like it! Please! I am trusting you on the condition that you trust me and my plan." He reached out and set a hand on the mare's shoulder pauldron." Her expression was indeterminable behind her mask and visor, but after a few moments her mask slid away from her muzzle, revealing what looked to Nikolai like a genuine smile. "Ok Nikolai, let's do it." Her grin grew wild. “Then get ready to fly like a bird, you damn monkey.”

Aurora lifted off, and then reached down and picked Nikolai up from under his arms, his rifle dangling on it's sling all the while. She curled gently curled her mechanical tail around his left leg as a support measure, and left the hanger threshold with The Stalker laughing wildly all the while But as the two descended towards the ground in a less than controlled manner, with The Stalker looking like an oversized green puppy all the while.

The wind made the power armor clad mare wobble and shake like a windsock as she tried to land. But she did it, and she had gone quite a bit further than The Stalker had believed she could, they found themselves at the edge of the tower debris field, with Willow nearby, and Flashpoint just beyond him. They had stopped in place, and were shouting something at Nikolai and Aurora. The cacophony of the storm and the lapping rain made it impossible to hear what they were saying. Nikolai thrust a finger at them, and then pointed at his earlobe. Flashpoint jabbed a hoof up towards the sky, almost like a mock solute. Only it wasn't.

"What was that all about!?" Aurora shouted at Nikolai. The two looked back over their necks at the tower, and particularly at the clouds above the tower, and broke off into full tilt gallops in pursuit of Nikolai. Far above, The Towers magic had begun to weave the clouds together into a spinning hook shaped cloud formation that tore towards the ground at breakneck speed, gathering strength from the air around it as the little hook evolved into an enormous funnel cloud, pulling bus sized chunks of metal off the ground before it ever touched the dirt.

"Oh shit! Oh shit oh shit oh shit!!!"

Nikolai heard the roar behind him and didn't dare stop to look back, even as the earth began to shake and rumble so much it was hard to keep going straight. He had to keep running. There was a tornado behind him and he knew it. Somewhere ahead, he saw the land roll and dip down sharply. Tornadoes were so rare in Ukraine they might as well have been considered the stuff of legends. But he had watched enough TV and heard enough stories from American Stalkers to know how to 'properly' flee from one and hopefully not die in the process.

"Over there!" He herded Aurora, who didn't seem to need to hear his order twice, down the embankment. He looked off in dismay at Flashpoint and Willow, his blood ran cold. Towering above them was an enormous spinning cloud, almost as large as the SPP Tower. A thought suddenly came to into his mind and he scrambled for his radio to contact Flashpoint through his PipBuck.

"Hey! Flashpoint!" Nikolai bellowed into his radio, pulling his mask up over his face so that his friend could speak clearer. "Find a low spot in the ground and hunker down! Is just wind! DO IT!" The Stalker watched from a distance as the two disappeared between a cluster of freestanding boulders as the tornado licked their heels. The Stalker crawled down to the bottom of the embankment, right beside Aurora, covered his head with his arms, pushed himself up against the dirt, and waited for the roar above them to stop. A hunk of jagged metal the size of a pickup truck flew overhead and landed somewhere out of sight, a dead tree collapsed on top of their hiding spot. It was so loud he could barely hear himself think. He lay there, clutching his rifle and silently praying that his friends would be alright.

Then, somewhere in all of this chaos, everything went quiet. Nikolai heard a whimper come from behind him. It was short, and for a moment he thought he had imagined it. But then he heard it again. Nikolai looked over at Aurora.

"Not now, not like this. Not now not like this." She pleaded with herself. "Not-Not like this. Not alone, not alone. I'm not finished!"

The Stalker was beginning to reach out, when all of a sudden Aurora turned around and buried her armored head in his coat. Nikolai cupped his head down ruffled the top of her mane. "You no die here today if I can help it!" But the storm was too loud, she couldn't hear him.

As astounding as it was, he had been right. There was a pony under that armor, more... Specifically-There was a person under that armor. And she was scared sick that she was going to die here in this hole beside a strange looking creature she barely knew. Seconds passed on his watch, then minutes-the roar grew more and more distant, until it seemed like it had stopped altogether. "Is it over? Is it over?" Aurora repeated, her body still pressed up against the dirt.

Nikolai crawled up out of the embankment and poked his head up over the berm to get a better look at the destruction caused by tornado. It had cut a kilometer wide swath of destruction across the Wasteland, trees, blackened or otherwise had been uprooted and smashed to splinters-and the earth looked as if someone had taken a plow to the surrounding landscape. He suddenly found himself awash in a beam of sunlight that faded just as quickly as it had arrived. He scanned the debris field under the shadow of the now wrecked almost beyond recognition SPP Tower. With the immediate danger gone, his next concern was his friends.

He pressed down on his radio's talk button and uttered one word: "Flashpoint." And just like that, a scruffy stripped figure perked up from behind a boulder a few hundred meters away. He looked back at the Corporal and and patted the dirt beside himself. "Come on. Is safe now!" But she didn't move. The Stalker scrambled back down to Aurora's side, sending bits of loose dirt and gravel flying as his boots dug into the embankment.

"Hey, Aurora. It is up there safe now, come on." She shook herself out of her trance, and then lifted herself off the ground and poked her head out of the embankment, looking around cautiously. She let out a sigh before flying out of her and Nikolai's hiding spot “Thank the skies. It's interesting to read and learn about tornadoes and what they're capable of but to see an actual one at that distance? Fucking crazy.”

"I was expecting something to happen, but blayt... Not that! But-There is first time for everything, yes? What do you say we go greet our compatriots?" Flashpoint and Willow waved at them, and Nikolai and Aurora waved back as the Stalker's radio resumed it's normal Zone FM programing.

"If I'm ever gonna make it on them streets of gold, I've gotta quit livin' on a dead end road..."

“Of course. Let's not keep them waiting.”

"You absolute psychopath," Willow began, starting towards the Stalker. "What the hell was that?" Nikolai pulled his mask back off and looked down at his friend with a smile of pure acknowledged stupidity. "Just another day in the office!"

Feeling he may have underestimated the situation, Aurora looked at him like he was crazy before letting out a deep sigh and shrugging with her wings “Bat, you have one hell of a friend.”

“Damn right I do.” He touted proudly. Willow bounded up to Nikolai, and the two pounded one another on the back. "I can't believe we made it through that."

Nikolai took a knee and did his best to gently set Willow down on all fours. "Well we did," He pointed off towards the thin lines of tarnished grey asphalt that crisscrossed the eastern horizon. He let out a laugh and a nod of satisfaction.

"Today was big success! Now let's get going before someone notices what happened here, yes?" He clasped his hands and pointed his right index finger northward.

"Already? After that?" Aurora cocked her head.

Nikolai's index finger remained resolute. "Yes, 'after that'. Unless you have a magic taxi that you can summon out of ether, then we will be walking to our place of evening rest."

Aurora pied a look back at the remains of the Tower. “Our stunt would definitely bring some curious raiders in if they aren't freaking out seeing 'vortex-shaped clouds' for the first time in their life.”

“They are not the ones I am concerned about, Aurora-" Nikolai rested a hand on he grip of his rifle as it dangled on it's sling. "It is your ‘Constituents’. That worry me.”

She was first silent for a few seconds as she realized what he meant, she inhaled uneasily through her teeth. “Right, let's get out of here before they see us.”

“Let’s make for-Hey, Flashpoint?” He pointed down at the device buckled to his friend’s foreleg. “Pick some place from your Pipbuck map that we rest up at for the night. Preferably far from here, yes?”

Flashpoint took a glance down at his PipBuck, fiddling with the knobs and contending with its soft droning until he stopped on something.

“There's a small town, it’s about a three hour walk north-northeast of here, but with terrain like this we should be able to make it there before it gets dark with time to spare.” Nikolai nodded, and Willow followed suit a moment after, having seen The Stalker give his approval.

That “town” as it turns out, had ended up being a modestly sized trailer park. Even PipBuck maps can be wrong from time to time.

After an airborne flyover by Aurora, and a quick survey by Nikolai Flashpoint while Willow watched their backs they had determined that they were alone. The distinct lack of gory perverted raider décor and the lack of cages and hoof prints would have likely been enough for Nikolai to call it quits normally, but Aurora had given his mind the mental jog it needed to remember to check the cluster of rusty and decrepit mobile homes and out buildings anyway.

Compared to the SPP Tower they had fled from only hours earlier there was nothing of any value to be found, save for still unopened bottles of Sparkle Cola, along an ancient shotgun and a box of shotgun shells. All locked in a safe under a bed that was stubborn to give way to the wrath of Nikolai’s crowbar. This wall done while the skeletons of a pair of earth ponies stared on with accusing soulless expressions. Meanwhile Willow had discovered that the metal fire ring out back behind the trailer would make for a good fire- the giant packs of bug infested charcoal and firewood that Flashpoint had found in an adjacent home were only a bonus on top of it all. Now, they sat around the fire in half relaxed quiet, with Aurora sitting so close to the fire a strong wind could have turned him into a human spot fire and Nikolai bumbling about at the lights edge, his gloves stuffed into his back pockets and the ornate Water Talisman changing hands frequently as he carefully palmed it from one hand to the other.

“Will you quit pacing back and forth and join us?” Willow asked impatiently. “You’re gonna make the radroaches, and us dizzy watching you.”

Nikolai stopped his pace, and turned his head to look over at his friends. His ragged face took on an anxious look. “I risk all our life and limb for this magic rock, and yet-I cannot figure out how this проклята магічна штука damned magical contraption works!”

Aurora looked at Nikolai. Although she had been looking at the skies earlier, her eyes filled with calmness for the first time since morning. “I don't know how that stuff works. Maybe you put the talisman in a container filled with water? Perhaps the mere contact alone would clean it.”

“Perhaps it would-but this thing is supposed to create an infinite amount of clean, drinkable water.” He suddenly scrunched his brow. “I need to go answer ‘the call of nature’ behind trailer, I’ll be right back.” Nikolai jogged off around the trailer.

Trickle. Trickle. Fwoom!

“Nikolai? What was that?” Willow shouted. Aurora stood up. The gemstone tips of her magical energy weapons began to glow and she turned tail to face the trailer. A moment later, The Stalker emerged from behind the trailer, holding the Talisman in one hand, shimmering with a faint blue light, and soaking wet.

“I swear to god that I don’t know how I did this.”

Aurora lowered her rifles when she saw the Stalker in one piece.... well, fine, but soaking wet. “Skies damn it, Nikolai, I thought you'd caught yourself in a fucking explosion.”

“I appreciate your concern Aurora.” Nikolai said, looking aloof. He looked down at the wet splatters on his vest, pants, and coat. “ But I think I managed to get this thing to work.”

Willow rolled his eyes, he had been half ready to tackle Aurora at the sight of those magical weapons flaring to life. But he managed to convince himself that it wasn’t a big deal. “That’s become a normal occurrence with him.”

“What has?” The wet Stalker spat breathily. “Finding cool shit? Well-I-eh… suppose that I have gone about figuring out how it works a bit recklessly….”

“But I am safe and you are safe and I have not been vaporized by either this thing or her,” He cast a mild look towards Aurora. “Yet-So let’s go scrape together some dinner rations. And perhaps have our first decent glass of water since Canterlot?”

"Since Canterlot?" Aurora inquired in disbelief. Willow stopped himself from facehoofing.

"Since Canterlot." The Stalker repeated slowly, pointing at the imprint in the dirt where Aurora had been a moment ago. "Sit back down, I'm finally going tell you that story. Well, me and... I suppose Willow and Flashpoint can chip in as well. It’s quite a long one.” With the day at a close, they took their seats, and Nikolai began amidst the sounds of eating and the crackling of the fire.