Losing feathers: A long road.

"I think that we should probably just mark the ruins then come back for the printers later, Starry. We can't carry them with us, and I wouldn't imagine that Kira would want to turn back to get more ponies to do so. Plus they're printers, I don't think they're in any particular danger of being taken."

Scrap cheerfully responded to Starry, before trotting over to where Kira said that she'd seen the exit. Surveying the broken staircase he scratched his head.

"Hmm...looks like were gonna have to find another way up there. Maybe we could make some sortof thing to get us up out of all the debris?"

As the door flew open Rad almost fell through the broken catwalk, snapping out his wings just in time and hovering above the hole. "Whoah... That was close..." He looked down to the floor below and spotted the others from their group. "Oh hey guys!" He called out. "Nothin' up in the other floors apart from old paperwork an' some medical supplies I grabbed, you find anythin'?" Rad made his way down towards the others, dropping to the floor near them before looking around the room. Not really having any idea what anything was. "So I guess we could just stay here?"

Kira looked up at Rad as she shouted down to the rest of the group, she was first a bit in shock from the sudden appearance of the pegasus and was a bit glad when she remembered that he actually had wings that really worked unlike hers.

She gave a look back at Scrap and Starry and giving them a small nod. She had only half listened to Starry as she spoke about the machines but she had listened enough to know that the unicorn was right. Printers was really hard to find working even if it was not really sure that these worked it was three of them so they could cannibalise them to get working part and maybe get one working.

"Starry just mark it with your pip-buck and we can get it back to Stableton later once we get back home." She looked up to Rad and Nova again and waved for them to get down.

"Come on we can make the camp in here, a good as place as any and at least we have a roof over our head for the night before we move on."

Scraps waved up at Rad and Nova when Rad poked his head down. Answering Rad's question he responded.

"Nah we didn't really find anything. Just some old printers."

Nodding to the gryphoness after she said that they would stay there for the night, he went to find a spot as far away from the pile of bodies that he could to set up his sleeping roll and settle in.

Starry's gaze darted up toward the ceiling in surprise. She was genuinely startled to see Rad Boom shouting down from the floor above them. She took a deep breath after her heart skipped a beat; regaining her composure. She tapped some buttons on her pip buck, leaving herself a note to come back here after the adventure was over.

Starry nodded toward Scrap Parts, letting his answer suffice for Rad's question. She dropped her saddlebags in the corner, as she began to set up camp. "I'll take the first shift," Starry announced, grabbing her weapons and trotting toward the hole in the ceiling.

"Could you and Nova lift me up there? I'll get a good view from the rooftop."

Rad looked at the machines in the room. He had never seen a printer before, but even he could guess what they did. "Fancy..." He heard Kira say they would stay down there for the night, there was a lot of open space, so he couldn't really see any problem. Before Rad had a chance to pick a spot to sleep he heard Starry ask him and Nova for help up to the doorway he'd come through. "Sure can Starry! Shouldn't be anythin' to worry about up there, unless it was damn good at hidin'." The pegasus headed over beside Starry, and waited for Nova so the two could help the mare up.

Nova looked at the others as they noticed them, surprised that it had been such an uneventful building. Still, it wasn't something to complain about. Nova went to join the others, taking in the sights of the machines as if they were liable to explode at any moment. Eventually, she reached Starry and nodded, smiling a little as she moved to her other side to help Rad.

"Always happy to help."

"Thanks," Starry said, as Nova and Rad lifted her toward the toward the higher floor, "I'll wake one of you when it's time for the next shift, or if I spot something dangerous headed our way."

Starry trotted up toward the roof, where she'd bunker down and stare out over the horizon for any sign of movement.

With Starry taking up position on top of the roof of the building for her turn as the night watch did the rest of the group slowly make them self as confable as they could for the night. The last light from the dimmed sun behind the did soon disappears and the night turned into the darkness that only the wasteland could have.

With the others taking a rest from the day did the night crawl forward slowly, it was one of the nights were absolutely nothing happened a night where you were alone with you own thoughts. Still even the slowest of nights did sooner or later end even if someponies did not want them to do so soon.

Scrap yawned and rolled off his sleeping pad, rested and ready to move again. Thankfully his watch was uneventful, with nothing but the average background noise to disturb the peaceful silence. Honestly that had surprised him, something always went wrong.

Not wanting to disturb the others that were still enjoying their rest, he quietly withdrew a few thing to eat for breakfast, and ate as he rolled up and stowed away his sleeping roll. Once that was done, he would wait for the others to wake up.

Kira yawned loudly and got up from where she had slept during the dark hours of the day. Her entire back felt like crap liked she had been sleeping on something really unconformable. Looking down where she had slept she noticed that she had been using a skull of an long dead pony as a pillow and had rolled over and crushed the rip cage of probably the same pony.

"AHH!" Kira shouted at the surprise of waking up and seeing the dead remains of a pony the first thing in the morning, really it was better then coffee to wake you up but much more shocking then anything ells. Really she was not easily disturbed my old bones but still it was a bit much to wake up to.

Scrap had been daydreaming when Kira woke up so he didn't really notice her waking up until she had screamed. Startled and suddenly on high alert he drew his lightning pistol just in case.

Looking over towards Kira he asked.

"What's wrong Kira?"

Starry woke up with a snort as Kira shouted. She hadn't been atop the building all day; she had awoken one of the other ponies to take a shift after several hours. Who was up there now was beyond her, but Starry had made her bed against one of the walls.

"Wha?" Starry muttered, as she levitated her glasses over her eyes; clearing her vision. She took a deep yawn. "Is it time to start moving?"

Kira looked to the two awake ponies and casually threw away the skull she had been sleeping on hoping that they would not notice it as it rolled over over to the rest of the remains. She did not really want to tell them that she got spooked buy just waking up and seeing a skull.

"Oh it is nothing." She said to the two and motioning for Scrap to lower his lightning pistol. "Oh and yes Starry it is time to get moving. Wake the others and tell them to get ready to keep going."

Nova slowly stirred, blinking awake as she yawned ever so obtrusively. Eventually, after the yawn had settled down and Nova had begun the arduous process of standing up after getting some rest, she looked around to the others.

Nova took into account where everyone was, ad judged that there was no imminent danger. Nova shrugged and stretched out her wings a little, realigning the feathers before she spoke.

"I guess we've got a long way to go yet haven't we? If you want I can fly ahead a little bit, see if there's anything dangerous in our way before its trying to kill us or eat us." Nova smiled slightly. "I could use the practice as well."

Kira looked over to Nova as the black and stripped pegasi stirred as she woke up from where she had been sleeping that meant that Rad was up on the roof still taking is last watch before they moved on. The gryphoness tilted her head as she listened to Novas idea and nodded slowly at it as she understood, it was a good plan to have her or Rad ahead of the group as the rest of them moved forward with much less worry about what was ahead.

"Okay Nova you do that just don't go do anything crazy if you see anything dangerous just get back to us and warn us so we can move around it if possible." Kira did not feel like fighting today she really just wanted to have a nice walk in the waste with nothing attacking her, but know what the wasteland thought of that it was possible that that would not happen especially with her luck.

"Oh and Nova get up on to the roof a kick Rad for me and tell him we are moving out." With those word did Kira pull her saddle bag up on her back and strapped it down along with her launcher. "Right then let get moving on." She said to the rest of the group as she started to walk out of the building and headed east out into the wasteland.

Rad was sat on the roof looking out into the wastes, he had taken the last watch, so he figured he'd just stay up here till everypony was ready to leave. He had swiftly gotten bored and right now was idly rolling a small piece of pipe between his hooves as he watched for anything that could be a threat. Of course he hadn't just been messing with the length of pipe, evidences of his boredom was all around him on the roof. A small house built from little bits of rubble and wire, with a small pegasus made from twisted wires and old paper stood in it's doorway. And many games of naughts and crosses scratched into the roof around him, at least he had won every game.

Rad sighed out of boredom and flopped forward, his forelegs and head hanging over the side of the roof as he waited for some indication they were leaving, either from seeing the group heading out the building, or somepony coming to get him.

Nova smiled and nodded to Kira, happy that she were able to stretch her wings today. Nova nodded again at the instructions about Rad, flying her way casually up the roof. After she took in the sight of what was plaintively a night spent in boredom, Nova sneakily prodded Rad in his side.

"We're moving out. I'm flying ahead so you won't have to move too quickly." Nova smiled and began to help Rad up. "Now if only you could learn to control sleep walking..."

Scrap tucked his pistol away, snickering a little as he noticed Kira throwing away a skull. As the rest of the group started to move out, Nova flying ahead and grabbing Rad, Scrap got up out of his corner and stretched for a second before following the gryphoness out into the wastes again.

Hopefully Nova's scouting ahead didn't turn up anything and they could proceed to their destination without being impeded too much.

With the spotted gryphoness leading the group forward while Nova flew ahead of the rest of the group to look for anything that could be a threat for them so they could avoid it. Luckily for the group the group it seemed that they were keeping the luck up as there was nothing that was anything more threatening then some stray giant ant that the group did easily scare off as Scrap Parts turned one of them in to ash from his lighting pistol and the rest of them scurried away to where ever they had once come from. But this was the only thing that seemed to happen as they keep travelling though the unknown of the wasteland.

Days passed as they keep travelling taking occasional breaks either in buildings or out in the open sky of the wastes, but they had luck during their time of respite. It was almost a week after they had start their travel when Nova saw they had finally come up to the large mountain range that stood in the groups way and the east part of pre-war Equestria and further more the way that continued on to their destination. This was one large obstacle for the group as it seemed to be no real way to travel over the very step cliff side that was stretching far up into the cloud layer and kept going beyond.

Kira stood a the foot of the mountain before them and flipped though her pipbuck as she occasional looked up at the massive rock formation before her and the ponies following her. Well this was going to be a problem. Only two of them was able to fly at it would take to long of a time for them to fly over each of them to the top or to the other side, and that is not know how big this really was. Maybe they could go around it, no that could take so much time that it was almost better to go back and that was something Kira did not want to do not now.

"Okay any of you got an idea what to do now?" She said as she looked back at the ponies, there most be some way they could do this. "Maybe we can climb?" She suggested not really she thought that was a smart idea either before going back to looking at the map on her pipbuckm, there must be something.

Starry took a glance up the mountain. Travels over mountains were long and hard; a great number of Equestrian explorers and pioneers died trekking over mountains, and those that succeeded didn't typically prepare for a two-way trip.

"Climbing might take ages. What's the history of this mountain? How did old Equestria deal with it? They may have constructed a tunnel leading through the mountain. Nova, Rad, could either of you get a bird's eye view and see if there are any roads leading into the mountain?"

Once again the journey seemed to be rather uneventful apart from a few stray ants. Rad wondered if he should come and live here, maybe then he wouldn't get shot as much. As they approached the mountain Rad stared up at it, he'd never been this close to mountains before, at least not from ground level. “I guess we could look for a path, I'd hope they had a way through here before the war... Otherwise our journey's gonna get a lot longer.”

Nova looked up at the mountain, following it's form until it resched as far as she could see. Nova knew flying over this wouldn't be easy, so wasn't even about to suggest it. Her reaction to climbing it was similar. So, they either had to go through it, under it or around it. Nova thought a while longer.

"I guess going around it would take too long?" Nova honestly asked. "Still, there must be a way through. If there was a city on the other side, there'd likely be train tracks."

The two pegasai took to the air to get a better view of the area around the mountain range to see if they could see if there was any way to get though the huge rock formation. They flew off in each direction trying to find something that looked to be a tunnel that the group could use instead if walking around and there by cut out several weeks of their journey. White Rad flew of in his direction it flew for quite sometime seeing a lot of road that lead up to the mountain but none of them lead to a tunnel. In the mean while Nova had a lot more luck, she only need to fly a shorter distance before she could see an old train track that actually lead in to tunnel opening that lead into the rock of the mountain. The tunnel had some rock laying in front of the entrance but it looked like the group could get though without any trouble at all.