"And you say you just found this, out in the wasteland," An older stallion asked, examining the prize his daughter brought home.

"Yeah," The mare - Red Mist - answered with a nod.

"You know," her father said, "Somepony will give you a pretty nice amount of caps for this," he floated the Pip-Buck back to his daughter.

"Um, actually," - Red Mist put a hoof on the back of her neck - "I want to keep it. I found some really useful stuff on it, like a map, and a radiation detector, and even a targeting spell!"

"But you have no way of putting it on," Red Mist's older brother retorted.

"Not yet," Red Mist said, "But I'm sure one of the stables around here has the tools to open it!" She took the Pip-Buck from her father, and tried to pry it open with her magic.

"I am not letting you poke your head around in one of those stables!" Her Father shouted, "Not while you're under my jurisdiction!"

"But Daddy!" Red Mist complained.

"I said 'No!' Those stables are just too dangerous! You remember what happened to your mother?"

Red Mist was silent. She didn't like the mention of her mother, not after that time she went into stable 24 - Alone - So she just lowered her head, and turned to go to what she had claimed as her room in the weather-torn office complex her family called home.

She sat on her pile of blankets and hay for a dreadfully long five minutes before remembering the Audio Recording. She levitated the Pip-Buck out in front of her, and began to listen.

~V~V~

First, I want to tell you about myself.

I as born into a small family of four, There were my two older brothers: Silver Stone, and March, and my twin sister, younger than me by a full five minutes, Bella.

Even though my brothers were almost ten years older than me, and Bella, we got along with them pretty well. And by 'got along' I mean, we tried to stay out of their way. They didn't like the idea of not being the only children anymore, and liked to pick on me, and my sister whenever they got the chance. We tried not to give them that chance.

The only ponies my sister and I got along with - in true twin fashion - were each other. We did almost everything together, from being in the same classrooms our entire schooling career, to playing "Dress-up" as fillies. She even got me to wear a dress once. Just once though, and it only lasted a few seconds.

The only things we didn't do together, was work. As a matter of fact, Bella went straight on to work for The Ministry of Peace, as the war had been going on since we were about ten years old. And if I remember correctly, she got to work first hoof on the original Mega-Spell project; the one that was meant to heal multiple ponies to full health at once, not the altered version meant for mass destruction.

I, on the other hoof, went on and became a bar tender, despite my efforts to get into working for one of the ministries. Yeah, I worked my ass off to get one of those jobs, and my sister is the one who actually did! Go figure, but I digress.

My sister had more of a passion for healing the sick, and injured anyway, and I just wanted to get something in Ministry tier. Even during my time as a bar tender, I still worked my ass off, because nopony gives up on their dreams after they fail only once, but this time, instead of learning how to get into working for a ministry, I learned about what they did-- and what their motifs were - that sort of thing.

~V~V~

"Hit me with another," a middle-aged stallion told me from across the bar counter.

"You've had six already," I informed him, not wanting him to over-do himself.

"Hit me," - the stallion drunkenly emphasized - "With another."

"Alright," I said reluctantly, using my magic to levitate a bottle of Bourbon from the shelf behind me, and topping off his glass, which he swigged down as swiftly as a drunken stallion could. I only rolled my eyes.

"Excuse me -" a younger stallion called, getting my attention, "- Can I get two glasses of Apple Whiskey with a shot of Vodka?"

"I can get you two whiskeys," I told him, taking the bottle off the shelf, "But we don't have any more Vodka. The Zebras stopped importing the stuff when Princess Luna passed her contraband law last month." I poured the glasses of Apple Whiskey.

"Aw, that's too bad." - The stallion took the drinks - "Vodka always gave it a nice kick."

"I'll take your word for it,"I said with a smile as the stallion walked away, and I was left to my own devices.

My shift was almost over anyway.

You have no idea how much I miss having a home. Someplace to go back to at the end of the day, and feel at peace with yourself. I haven't had one of those since the mega spells fell. No, this place that I'm at now is not a "home." It's a prison. A prison I created for myself because I can't stand to see the state that the world is in for another day.

I lived in a single bedroom, studio apartment. The perfect dwelling for a single pony of only twenty-five. It wasn't much; It had a small kitchen, a living room that contained a couch, and some small bookshelves, and then there was also my bedroom, a single bathroom, and a small balcony.

I dropped my keys into the small dish I have on my kitchen counter, and trotted myself over to the fridge, grabbing myself a bottle of wheat-barley ale, and moving towards the balcony, where a beanbag chair sat, facing the edge.

My shift ends just before sunset, so - when I get home every night - I like to sit on my balcony with a drink floating next to me, and watch the sun set. My apartment is in the perfect spot too, so the sun will pass directly behind Ten Pony Tower, the Ministry of Arcane Science's Manehattan hub - and where my sister lives - and create a prism effect as the light passes through the glass windows.

I visited Bella up there once. It was really nice, but the ponies who live up there are a little too... stuck up for my taste. Not Bella though.

You see, we grew up in a situation where you were grateful for what you had, and we learned not to complain about what we didn't have, because there are other people - not just ponies - who have it much worse, and Bella carried that straight over to her suite in Ten Pony Tower. All I saw when I went up there were only the essentials, other than what the suite had already come with.

"To be honest," Bella said as she gave me a tour of her suite, "I don't even use half of this stuff, but this is the lowest tier that Ten Pony Tower had to offer."

"Then why don't you find a place that only has what you use?" I asked, admiring her stuff.

"Because the only other places are too tiny, even compared to Mom, and Dad's house back in Ponyville." She answered, "I'd love a place like yours over in Appaloosa, but that's too far of a commute, even by train; not to mention the coal shortage."

She had a good point. She was good at making those. She dealt with what she had available to her, within reason.

As I watched the sunset, there was a knock at the door, and at the most inconvenient time, too. The sun was about to pass behind Ten Pony Tower.

"One moment," I called as I took a swig of my drink, but whoever was at the door didn't have much patience, and knocked again.

"One moment!" I called again, a bit louder this time, but the pony at the door still persisted, and forced me out of my spot.

With a groan, I called out, "Coming!"

When I opened the door, I was greeted by a young - yellow - earth mare with a rose-red mane, and what she towed behind her would change pony life forever.

~V~V~

Terminals. One of the many ways Earth Ponies have made things easier on themselves. They have a 10 Terrabyte storage capacity for all of your home, and business needs, and - if you had the skill - you could run an entire building autonomously, but - even one-hundred and thirty-two years after the war - I still have yet to see that.

Anyway, the yellow mare who came to my house had one of only ten prototypes, and I had the privilege of being one of the lucky few who were selected to test one of them. I would even receive a free upgrade to the highest tier of their commercial product if the tests proved successful.

In no time after that, almost everypony had at least one terminal in their household being used for all sorts of things. Wives used them in the kitchen to store recipes, husbands used them in the garage for looking up instructions for various repairs, and businesses would use them for inventory, and accounting, but mot me.

I was the only pony I knew who didn't use their terminal for what it was designed for. I tinkered with mine, making it run smoother, and faster than it did out of the box, and do you know what I did next? That's right, I did absolutely nothing. I made my terminal run like an Olympic sprinter on steroids, and I did absolutely nothing with it.

I knew how to take the thing apart, and put it back together again blind-folded - and in the opposite room - but what I didn't know, was that the Ministry of Moral had been watching every tweak that I made, and the three mares over at Stabletech were swift to come to my door, and personally ask for my help.

"What are you offering?" I asked.

"We can easily double your current salary." The pale-purple Unicorn answered.

"That is, if..." The tan Pegasus began to say, but I cut her off.

"I'll take it.