A Shadey Nightmare Night(Social celebration)

"Really, think I could take a look at this gun that keeps in jamming? There may be something wrong with it that I could possibly fix."

Scraps replied, chuckling a little as they trotted closer to the party.

"Whatever is fine, I don't normally drink, so I wouldn't know one thing from the other. And thanks!"

Once Rad and Scrap got back to the party he took the gun from his shoulder and gave it to the unicorn to look at. "Here ya go, i've checked it over and cleaned it many times... Can't find anythin wrong with it, maybe you'll have better luck eh?" He left Scrap to look over the gun while he went to get some drinks, Rad wasn't much of a drinker either so just went with beer for them both. He trotted back to Scrap a short while later. "Any ideas?" He said, putting the drink down by the unicorn.

In the short space of time between when Rad disappeared to get the drink and when he reappeared, Scraps had broken down inspected and reassembled the rifle (Repair 100) and yet he couldn't find anything wrong with it.

"I can't seem to find anything wrong with it. Everything seems to be in excellent condition, and it looks well maintained. There is absolutely nothing that explains why it's jamming."

Rad nodded. "I thought so... I think it's cursed... Or possessed... Or somethin, either way it really seems to liked not workin when I need it most. Thanks for takin a look anyway Scrap." Rad smiled under his mask and went to take a drink, though succeeded only in hitting his gas mask with the bottle, after a moment of confusion he took the mask off and managed to successfully drink from the bottle, trying to act like nothing happened.

Xeshir blinked as Arc still didn´t seem to quite catch what she had said back at the party. She stumbled as she followed Arc to his bedroom and patted his shoulder as he tried to search for a mat. "Sugar...Ah think you didn´t get what ah said before..." She said in slubber. She gently grabbed Arc chin and planted a soft kiss on his lips. Hopefully, she thought, THIS would make his inebriated mind finally get it.

Aquilinus walked into the house and looked around, it was a pretty nice house. Better then his that is for sure, as he looked around he heard Arc talking about sleeping on the couch and pulling out the mat. As he watched Xeshir lifted off of him and walked over to Arc, shortly after she kissed him. Sighing Aqui knew where Xeshir wanted this night to go, he would have to try and turn her away from the couple if those two were to have any fun tonight.

"Heh. At least it hasn't exploded in your face yet. That really sucks, especially when the pony you were shooting at was about five feet away."

Scraps responded with a little laugh before taking a swig of his drink, noticing Rad attempt to do the same and the amusing results. He snickered a little before asking

"So what should we do now?"

Rad laughed at Scraps comment. "No... This gun hasn't, the one I had before it did! Right in the middle of a fight too!" He thought for a while on what they should do, then had a thought. "Anypony here ya think I should meet? If not then I say we invade someponies conversation, see how they react eh?" Rad gave Scrap a nudge and chuckled.

"Really? I thought I was the only one that's happened to, but I guess not." Scraps replied, laughing happily. "Then I guess we're invading a conversation, cause the only ponies I've seen that I know are the pony who I was shooting at when my gun exploded and his marefriend, and Arc, who can go buck himself-actually scratch that, I think I saw Kira earlier, and she's cool, so let's go see if we can't find her!"

"Don't worry Jas, I should probably have stopped a while ago. I'm fine up until a certain point, then I get all emotional like i am now... I hate when this happens." He fired back one last cup, and set the empty glass aside. "As for Scandia," he continued, "Well, my father wasn't the only griffin I lost to the enclave... I had known Scandia almost all my life. We were the only two young griffins in the tiny village I grew up in. We were always doing things and playing together whenever our parents didn't have us doing chores... I suppose it's only natural we fell in love as we grew older." Crackle paused and contemplated his empty glass once more. It took more willpower than he thought he had, but he forced himslef to look away. "The last time I saw her was the night before the enclave attacked. We were watching the stars after we... well... I'm not going to say what we had just finished doing." He paused briefly and sighed. "She always loved the night. Said it was when she felt the most alive... I remember her eyes that night. They seemed so vibrant. During the day, they were just a plain, boring shade of yellow. At night, they practically sparkled, and the black tips of her feathers seemed to shine in the moonlight... I always thought she was more beautiful under the stars, if such a thing were possible. The way her snowy feathers caught what little light there was practically made her glow..."The griffin trailed off, staring at the empty glass again.

"Oh fuck this." Crackle filled his cup until it overflowed and chugged the entire contents on one fell swoop. "This talking is pointless. My family is dead, the gryphoness I loved is also probably dead, and this Celestia-forsaken, Collector-cursed wasteland is killing me by minutes. It's only a matter of fucking time until a raider puts a bullet in my skull or my organs shut down from radiation, and there's buck-all I can do to change any of that!" He slammed his glass down with enough force to shatter it, the shards slicing his talon open in several places.

This drawer. No, this drawer. Okay, so the next one... alright, so perhaps in the cabinet? thought Arc as he shuffled through the various containers in his bedroom. As it turned out, it wasn't in the cupboard too. Then a hoof tapped on his shoulder, so Arc turned away from the furniture, hoping that somepony else succeeded in finding it.

He turned around, facing Xeshir, smiling at him. "Oh, you found it Xesh-ummmf..." Arc eye's widened in shock as he got kissed, suddenly profusely blushing. When Xeshir pulled away, he latched his ears to his skull and nervously grinned, with a silent meep escaping from his mouth, cowering a little in front of Xeshir. "Oh..."

Kestrel had finished his tea a while ago, and had set about watching the crowd and listening in on their talks. Little of intrest had happened, excluding Crackles tale. It was a sad one for sure, one that in a way the griffon at the bar could partially understand. Memories long buried rose up, causing Kes' talons to dig into the mug he had.

Then Crackle broke his glass, and the story ended.

Kestrel pondered his next move carefully, as well as his words. Then, with the clink of his boney cloak, Kestrel stood and then began to make his way over to the table. He nodded a greeting to the female griff, and to Jasmine, then his cold illuminated eyes locked on Crackle. He was a healthy looking sort, strange coloration, average size. Kestrel filled the role of his costume well...almost too well. For a good long while Kestrel stared, silently judging the younger griffon before him; thinking again of what to say.

Then, with a chilling calm, he spoke.

"Why? You have hope, Scandia may yet live, and you've made it this far. Why are you giving up now?" The Collector asked. Gaze unwavering.

Rad nodded, he recognized Kira's name, but it was a vague memory, so he guessed he must have just worked with her at some point, but never really spoke. "Ok, lets go find Kira, the name rings bells, but I don't have a face to put to it. So you'll have to lead the way." Rad smiled, and took another swig of his drink. He didn't really much like beer, but he didn't exactly want Scrap to be drinking alone, and he could deal. "So, ya think ya could find her in this mass of ponies?" Rad laughed and looked around.

Kira who was on her third bottle already had been listening in to gryphon as he told the other about his Scandia. She was not sure about why she had done it but she really felt sorry for the male gryphon, there was something in his story that she could relate to and was fearing every day that would happen to her love.

Taking a long sip from the bottle she had she got and started to walk over to the collection of ponies on unsteady legs, maybe three bottles of whisky was a bit much even for the gryphoness. Kira stuck out among the mass of ponies as she was one of the few or probably the only one that did not have a costume and even being a small gryphon she was still bigger then most ponies that was around her, and her begin drunk did not really help.

Scraps nodded to Rad, and started to lead the way, having spotted his gryphoness friend easily, considering that she stuck out from the mass of ponies by the simple fact that she was a griffon and naturally larger then most ponies. "Already found her, wasn't that hard actually."

He continued to lead Rad toward Kira till they made it over to her.

"Hiya Kira!"

Kira looked to the unicorn in front of her for a very long time, her brain being in a heavy fog she was not really sure who this pony was until a very bright smile spread on her beak. "SCRAP!" She shouted with a heavy slur as she lifted the unicorn in a tight hug.

"howareihavenotseenyouinforever." She said in a quick wave of slur that made what she said almost impossible to understand what she said as she kept holding him in the air still in a hug.

Scraps could only manage a surprised blink after Kira yelled his name before he was suddenly lifted off if his hooves and pulled into a tight hug. Still being held off the ground and in a hug he responds, chuckling a little at the obviously drunk gryphoness. "Nice to see you too, Kira. I've been pretty good myself, you? Oh and I'm not sure if you've met him before, but that's Rad."

Crackle looked up to see the imposing griffin dressed as the Bone Collector that he had offered a drink to earlier standing nearby. It unnerved him how he hadn't noticed the etherial figure approachong. Even drunk, Crackle normally kept his wits about him enough to notice somebody approaching. You didn't survive long in the wastes by being unobservant. After a moment of silence, the other griffin spoke. Upon hearing his words, Crackle let out a short, sad laugh.

"Heh. You're wrong on one part, I havn't totally given up yet. The wastland may be draining my life away one tick of the clock at a time, but I'm not about to go quietly into the night. I'll go down with a gun in one talon, raider blood on the other, and the ashes of this world in my lungs." He curled his bloodied talon into a fist. "Luna knows, maybe someday I'll even make it home again."

Kira dropped Scrap without warning as she turned to Rad Boom with a wide drunken smile on her beak, she looked the pegasus over real quickly before also lifting him up in a tight hug.

"Rad I never thought I see you again!" She almost screamed into the ponies face with a very happy expression on her face. The gryphoness looked over to Scrap with a smile. "I did not know that you knew Rady Scrap."

Had he been the sort, Kestrel might have just smiled at the comment; or chuckled at the irony of this situation. He had, in a way, a similar attitude. It was not from the devotion to a lost love, or the desire to one day get home again, but instead from simple familiarty. Kestrel was a creature of war. He had bathed in blood, and heard songs in screams; his tales were told through scars. Its what he knew. Its what he was good at.

It was what he did.

"You are from the old kingdoms no? I hear they still stand, despite what happened. Fight hard, be strong, and you may yet see them again." The Collector said, mouth and eyes aglow. He was silent for a moment or two after that, thinking of something more to say. "Perhaps I will be the one to guide you."

Always one to be late to parties, but never really sure what was fashionable or not, Trails sauntered into the room while things were already well under way. His costume wasn't really much of a stretch: just his old vest over a well worn white shirt with a bandoleer and bandanna draped over him. An old cowpony hat with a feather in the brim finished it.

The buck didn't waste much time getting to the bar, making a beeline for it soon as he entered. "Bottle of whiskey, nothing too fancy."

Nova still had no idea what was actaully going on and decided to figre where she would sleep. Doing that, Nova decided to sit down on the couch, testing how it was and whether or not she would be able to get a decent amount of sleep on it. Nova found it satisfactory and waited for the others to return, in order to decide sleeping arrangements.

Crackle thought on the black griffin's words for a moment. "Well, the tiny village I called home was probably within the borders of the kingdom. We were past the cloud barrier covering equestria, but not by much. I couldn't point out the area on a map; I was never taught where my village was myself. To be honest, finding it again would be pure luck. I still intend to search for it, though." He met the gaze of his intimidating counterpart for the first time. "Having a guide such as yourself would be much appreciated."

Xeshir giggled as Arc blushed and cowered, to her it was adorable beyond description. She began to gently nibble his ear as she said. "I warned you and you never listened." She said singing as she continued to giggle. Then she said. "Green! Nova! Get in here." As she busied herself with Arcs ears, wanting to make him blush and stammer more.

The Collector offered but a single nod in response to Crackles comment. In all honesty Kes had been considering going back there, to the Far North for a long while. Life had kept him closer to Equestria however, and he'd not yet gotten to planning out his trip yet.

The Collector found it strange that the kid couldn't identify his hometown on a map, but then again even he had issues showing exactly which grove in the Everfree he'd been born in. It was rather hard to remember something you only saw for a few seconds before getting away to avoid the predators of the forest after all.