The sky was a dark grey and the mud brown along with scorched wood with the land soaked in murky water, such words of description nopony could have ever imagine had somepony asked them to describe the land of Equestria. Suddenly all the silence came to an end as thunder and rain came down, a lone stallion unicorn galloped ducking and weaving through the narrow trenches.

The stallion panted from all the running that he was just too exhausted, but he needed to press on for he was not far from the outpost now. The rain began to hail down on his helmet gracing his ears with the sound of pitter-patter pitter-patter, as he inhaled his nose took in the scent of unwashed fabric as his trench coat and uniform got completely drenched in the pounding rain, at least it did its job of keeping his possessions in his pockets dry, he sighed as he took in his surroundings for the entire position was covered in craters made from bombing runs and artillery shells.

The war or more commenly known as The Great War had turned into the most destructive conflict that Equestria had ever seen in its history, it had evolved into modern warfare where airships were fitted with thick armour and armed with long canons ranging up to 120 to 211 km with a speed up to 32.4 mph hitting their targets with deadly accuracy, along with the return of tanks, when first introduced the lumbering bunkers were confined to a ceremonial role until now. The war saw both sides designing and experimenting new ways on how to kill their enemies faster and more efficiently.

As the war dragged on Equestria's army split into numerous groups creating their own weapons and tactics, some of these groups would dedicate themselves to fighting in the air, in the cold blistering snow, in the swamps, in the deserts, from the highest mountains to the darkness depths underground.

One such force called The 501st specialised in trench warfare, if a position ever needed to be held at all costs they were called, if they ever needed an army to be pinned down they were called. Unlike the other forces and certain individuals in the Equestrian army who had reputations for bragging about themselves, some soldiers would claim they met one of the members of the Ministry in person boasting and joking that they had close ties with them, but such comments were dismissed as lies, stories to lift up moral within the ranks.

Whether it was true or false was considered irrelevant to most ponies especially the 501st, they weren't the best, they weren't the worst, they were just normal ponies trying to survive, they didn't ask for this war nopony did, so all they could do was their best, wasn't that expected from everpony?, they weren't fighting for fame or glory they were fighting because their families, their homes, their country was at stake. And the leading officers were always honest with their troops, never to romanticise the image of war for it was a nasty job where you had to kill others who were no different than yourself, they had families and loved ones too back at home, they respected their enemy for they both shared the same fate dreading their imminent demise. An officer expressed his opinion on the media after seeing the propaganda poster for Ministry of peace displaying Fluttershy in front of two zebras on either side with demonic eyes, to which he quoted to a wartime reporter.

If we view the enemy as monsters, when their just like you, then what does that make us? - General Kite

The Stallion shook his head for his mind had started wondering away, the unicorn got back on his hooves as he trotted his way back to the last outpost held by the 501st just below Shattered Hoof Ridge.

The outpost is riddled with bullet holes and surrounded by the bodies of fallen ponies.

"Any...sign of the Zebras Dove?"

He looks up into the dark sky as the rain drops soaked his coat and bounced off his helmet, the stallion then looked back at the white pegasus as he heard no reply.

Corporal Dovefly had fallen asleep at her post next to her scoped bolt action rifle. Much to the unicorn's annoyance as he gently kicks her awake.

"Hey wake up."

"Bwa! what!...who...are we being attacked?!" As she looked up her eyes met the unicorn's, he had an orange coat with a navy mane and a firework for a cutiemark.

Flare sighs, "Just stay focused will you...I asked is there any sign of another attack?"

"Uh no sir." She readjusts her helmet properly and blushes. " So how was your trip?...sir."

"You can drop the formalities Dove." He smiles and checks the turrets ammunition. "It's just us now after all...we're all thats left to hold this post and we're friends after all, and no sign of Zebra activity at our rear, looks like they're just focusing on the front."

"Yes sir." She shook her head. "I mean Flare."

"Dove...do you remember our first day of basic training five years ago?" He smirked at the memory. "You dragged me into enlisting."

Her eyes derped as her muzzle scrunched up. "I did?"

"Oh yeah quite literally dragged me by the tail to the recruitment office, I was so scared."

"Now that I can believe." Letting out a chuckle.

Flare smiled and chuckled with her. "If we die today Dove, I want to tell you that well...thanks for being my friend since we were foals and that it's an honour to die with a friend."

"Now now Flare Flare i have no intentions of us dying here." she smirked at the nickname. "Although." She removes her reading glasses, "If we do then perhaps I should make you more," The mare rubs her side against his and whispers into his ear. "comfortable."

Flare chuckles as he uses his magic to gently push her away. "Sorry you know I'm into earth ponies." He sticks his tongue out teasing the pegasus.

"Hehe fair enough buts it's your loss." The tip of her wing caresses his side. "It's too bad pegasi can make great lovers." She winks at him before giving her flank and tail a little dance for him before returning to her post.

Flare shakes his head, when suddenly a bullet grazes his helmet. "Shit!, Zebras!" He gets on the turret as he unloads heavy rounds onto the hill.

Zebras charge up the slope shooting as they ran.

"On it!" Dovefly reloads her rifle and looks down her scope and picks off three Zebras before reloading. "They're more aggressive today!" The muzzle of her rifle goes off with another bang.

Flare sprays the front line with hot piecing rounds. "That's cause they know it's just us now, they want to overwhelm us!"

She picks off four more before hearing a sound she dreaded. "Damn." she tries to unjam her rifle, "Come on." The pegasus desperately pulls on the bolt.

A sniper takes aim and shoots at Dovefly's position but not before Flare see's the flash from the gun muzzle.

"Dove!" He pushes her out of the way and takes the bullet to the shoulder, "Oh buck!" falls off the ledge and lands on his back in the mud below."

"Flare!" Her eyes widen, but then realised she needed to stay calm in order to survive as she took deep breaths, with another hard pull she fixes her rifle to working order and removes her helmet and places it on the top of her rifle, she slowly leans it into view.

The sniper takes the bait and shoots hitting the helmet off.

"Gotcha," She exposes herself, takes aim and fires at his position.

The sniper falls to the ground.

Flare manages to get up in the mud bleeding from his shoulder. "Dove...there are too many we need to fall back to the store room!" He limps slowly back to the store room within the trench.

Dovefly empties her clip before grabbing her helmet and jumps off the ledge and helps Flare to the store room.

Flare bolts the door shut with his magic and leans against the wall on his haunches. "ha..ha," Dove puts her stuff down and hits his good side. "You idiot!" Her eyes watered as her body shook. "You stupid..stupid..stupid pony! I could of lost you!"

"Ha...sorry, just wanted to be your hero...for a change." He lifts his helmet off and sets it on the ground, Galloping could be heard from outside followed by shouting.

In the heat of the moment Dovefly suddenly grabs his coat and firmly kisses him on the lips lasting a minute before breaking away. "Well stop trying to be one...I don't want to lose my best friend." She was panting as her tears streamed down her white cheeks.

The Stallion cups her cheek and smiles warmly at her. "Then how about I stop being your best friend...and be something more, something I should have been for years."

The mare blushes, "But I thought you preferred earth ponies?...and more?" At this point she was becoming a stammering mess. "I'm sorry I stole your first kiss it's just I wanted to know how it felt before we..."

"I lied." He interrupted her in mid sentence. "I love Pegasi...especially a certain white one with a grey mane," Flare strokes her mane lovingly. "And I'm glad my first kiss was with her." Banging could be heard against the locked door.

Dovefly blushes and she breaks away from him and reloads her rifle. "last clip if I'm lucky I can take five down."

Flare smiles and kisses her cheek. "Good luck." The banging got louder as the door almost came off its hinges.

"You too." She takes a deep before taking aim at the door, Flare brings out his pistol and aims.

The door finally breaks off its hinges, but instead of a Zebra standing at the door before them was a cyan pegasus in armour.

"Easy there soldiers we're friendlies."

"Director Dash?" she lowers her rifle and tries to verify that this was indeed the Element of Loyalty herself.

"What happened to the Zebras?" Flare asked.

"My shadow bolts send them running, you two all that's left of the platoon posted here?" Her uncovered eye scanned the room to see it was in fact just the two of them.

"Yes ma'am." Dovefly replied.

"How long have you two been defending this position?"

Dovefly blushes for some reason. "6...months ma'am."

Rainbow Dash was taken by this information."What you two have done here is impressive and considered impossible." She turns to the ponies behind her and calls for a medic. "I see a couple of medals and promotions for you both."

"T-thank you ma'am." He winces as the medic treats his wound.

"But i don't want..mmph." Flare immediately silences his friend by using his magic to keep Dovefly's mouth shut. "Ignore her ma'am she accepts too."

This got a smirk from Rainbow. "Good I'll see to it you two get some shore leave." After nodding at them she turns away and trots out the door.

Flare's magic ceased as he let go of his friend, gaining a dangerous frown from her. "Don't ever do that again."

"Sorry...but i was not letting you down this promotion, like all the others." The unicorn gets back up on his hooves and moves his shoulder a bit. "Especially when you deserve it."

"Well excuse me for now wanting to get promoted for killing others."

Flare sighed. "I'm sorry," He nuzzles the pegasus in order to comfort her. "I meant what i said...about being your coltfriend...and is your offer still open?"

"Well your doing a terrible job at it, a coltfriend should support his mare's decision...I'm thinking about it."

"Then i'll have to find a way to make it up to you." He hooks his short tail over hers. Dovefly blushes, but then smiles and nuzzles him.

-7 Days later-

At Flare's foalhood home in the Manehattan suburbs the pair had been rather unsuccessful in keeping their hooves to themselves, engaging in acts of intimate love.

Flare pants as he lies on his back. "Oh...Celestia."

Dovefly was catching her breath as Flare wrapped his forehooves around her as the pegasus lay on top of him. "That was amazing Dove...." He nuzzles her neck.

Dovefly brushes her grey mane out of the way. "No you were." She smiled as she looked into his adoring eyes. "I never knew you could be so wild."

Flare chuckled at her compliment. "Why thank you." he pecks her on the lips.

"Aw you can be so sweet."

"Up for another round?"

Dovefly turns red. "Another....round?" She stammered as her heart drummed within her chest.

Flare nods and strokes her mane. "Or have you no energy left?"

She smiles and kisses him. "Does that answer your question?"

Flare chuckles and kisses her deeply. Suddenly the ground shook and a bright light is seen in the distance creating a shock wave causing the windows to shatter, causing Dovefly to scream in Flare's embrace, until the shaking ceased.

" What in Celestia?" He gets out from under Dovefly and looks out the shattered remains of glass, with his mind and widened eyes unable to process the horror before him. "No....oh sweet Luna no."

Dovefly looks out the window in disbelief. "What in Celestia just happened!"

A large green mushroom cloud towers above Manehattan as the city was engulfed in balefire, Flare could only stare and listen to the sirens wailing and the ponies screaming in the distance. "Th..this is...I don't..."

"Flare we have to go...now."

Flare shook out of his stupor. "Right." The Unicorn levitated their pip bucks onto their respected hooves. "We need to get to the stable, they'll be sending out a signal any moment now."

"Then let's not waste anytime."

Flare nods and ignites his magic teleporting them both to the Stable they were assigned to.

- 30 minutes later -

Flare was wearing his Stable 55 baring, he gave the Cryo chamber and good look, still feeling rather uncertain, It atmosphere didn't help either considering the amount of paranoia that surrounded the survivors. "So we just head in there and wake up when the radiation is gone...that's it?" He look at the scientist for some sense of comfort in hoping they knew what they were doing. The scientist nodded "That is correct yes."

The Unicorn took in a deep breath and trotted into the chamber as the door closes, he could see Dovefly in Cryo opposite him and mouths the word "I love you.", to which the pegasus responded in kind.

As time past by, the eerie silence was broken from the voice of a computer. "Now opening Cryo 5."

Dovefly unfreezes and opens up, the mare groans as her eyes slowly open up. The stable had remained in the same condition that they had left it in accept for the skeleton wearing a white coat lying beneath her, the mares eyes widened as she let out a gasp.

"Alert failure in 99% of Cryo tubes, life signs 2 in Cryo 5 and 4, all other residents deceased." The computer warned.

Dovefly quickly runs over to Flare's cryo tube and opens it, Flare falls out and lands on the floor. "uhhh."

"Flare you need to wake up, somethings seriously gone."

"huh..." He opens his eyes and yawns before getting up. "what do you mean? Everypony should be waking up right now."

"They're all dead!"

Flare's eyes widened from the shocking news. "What? that...that can't be true." He looks behind her and notices the dead scientist. "No....h-how but they said we would be save...h-how long have we been asleep? He then heads to a cryo tube and opens it as a mummified mare falls out, the sight was too much for him to bare as he threw up on the floor.

Dovefly cringes at the sight. "you'd think after all those years of fighting he would of gotten used to seeing corpses, but nope." She trots over to the console and checks the date. "Wait....this isn't right...no no that's crazy."

Flare wipes his muzzle as he trots over. "what is it?"

"According to this it says we've been in cryo for over 150 years."

Flare falls on his haunches, hearing the those words almost felt like dying. "Mom....pop...everypony..they're..all gone." Tears started to form.

"I'm so sorry Flare." She pulls him close to embrace the distraught unicorn.

Flare bites his trembling lips together and hugs her back. "W..what do we do now?"

"First...we'll gather supplies and suit up, then we'll go searching for survivors."

Flare nods and wipes his eyes. "Right they should have an armoury here."

-20 minutes later-

Flare checks the magazines of his 10mm pistols, a lucky find on his part. "We hardly found any food supplies, the stable must have been looted while we slept. He cocks his pistols and hostlers them.

"If that's true then why would they leave us asleep after all this time." She asked behind her gas mask.

"They must have just assumed that everypony was dead." He trots over and raises his brow, "And is the mask really necessary?"

Dovefly trots right in front of him. "You think i'm wearing this trench coat that can protect me from most biological and chemical agents and all this gear just to look pretty, look after all those megaspell attacks that happened i'm not taking any chances." The pegasus gives her helmet a good smack to insure its sturdiness.

"Alright I see your point." He starts trotting to the exit in the leather armour he managed to find, he flips the switch as the huge metal door starts to open, making a loud screeching sound as it rolled aside. "I wonder what Equestria looks like now."

Dovefly's unsettled breathing could be heard through the mask. "Nothing pretty I bet."

As they trotted through the door dozens of skeletons line the cave leading to the stable 55. "Poor souls." Flared declared at the scene.

"They shut them out." She observed her surroundings. "I can't imagine the scene that took place here."

"Come on the exit is coming up." No longer comfortable dwelling on the subject Flare totted out of the cave entrance with Dovefly at his side.

Before them lay the Equestrian wasteland, no trees, no grass, and no sun. Just dark clouds and the howling wind.

"Reminds me of the battlefield at Shattered Hoof."

"Except it's now all of Equestria." Flare looks to the north. "We'll head to Manehattan." Trots down the slope with the pegasus not far behind. "Shouldn't take long maybe an hour or two, see if any pony is alive after all this, I rather not be the last stallion."

"Or me the last mare." She shuddered at the thought.

"That's a scary thought." He looks ahead, but he couldn't get his bearings since the landscaped looked unrecognisable. "Hey Dove can you see if that's a road up ahead."

"Sure." She stretches her wings and does a few spins in the air as she ascended higher.

"What do you see?!"

"I can just about see Manehattan!, it's in ruins!"

"How bad?!"

"Not too bad, I mean most of the buildings appear to be standing just ARGHH!" A bullet clips her wing sending her spiralling down to the ground.

"Dovefly!" The unicorn teleports into the sky and grabs her and teleports back to the ground with a thud, Dovefly winces in pain, only to be interrupted by a megaspell rocket impacting the ground not far from where they were.

"Oh buck!" He quickly drags her behind a rock before it detonated and starts firing back with his pistols. "Who the buck are these ponies and are you alright?"

"Agh I'm fine it just stings, ah buck!"

"Easy now." Levitates out a healing potion. "Here drink, it should heal the wound."

Dovefly drinks the potion. "Ah thank you."

"Please tell me you grabbed a weapon for yourself before we left." He peeks over slightly to get a better view only to duck straight back down as another bullet hits the rock.

The brings out a bolt-action rifle from under her coat. "I brought this?"

"That will do nicely, hey whoever you are why are you shooting at us we don't mean you any harm!" But the shots kept coming with every millisecond.

"Celestia damn it." The unicorn grits his teeth. "I'll provide cover fire, think you can fly up and take them out, but don't shoot to kill only wound them."

Dovefly tries to move her wing and winces. "No good my wings busted, but if we split up he'll have to refocus his fire, plus i'm not a bad sprinter on the ground."

"Alright then, on 3, 1...2...3!" He gallops out in the open towards the enemy position, shooting as he went. Meanwhile Dovefly sprinted the other way keeping low.

Flare ducks from the bullets but he couldn't keep this up for long. "Anytime now Dove." He then rolled behind another boulder to safely reload his weapons.

"Surprise!" The eager pegasus pounces the gunner into a tackle, she failed to spot the other ponies who were moving into assist they're comrade.

Flare looks from behind the boulder and managed to spot the danger. "Oh buck." He instantly teleported next to Dovefly and places his pistol against the shooters head. "Move and I will pull the trigger!"

The other ponies stopped in their tracks.

"Ok which one of you is in charge?!"

A pony in steel armour marches forth.

"A steel ranger...holy elements." He quickly shook his head. "Your name and rank soldier?"

"My name is Ironhoof, I'm the sergeant commanding this front and you?"

"I'm commander Flare and this is corporal Dovefly of the Equestrian 501st."

Ironhoof looked at the others. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me sergeant and would you mind telling us why the Steel Rangers started shooting at two ponies without so much as a warning or to see if they were dangerous or not."

"We have had received word that there were enemy spies in the vicinity, and what do you mean your members of the 501st?, it died over 150 years ago."

"We're not spies."

"It may be hard to believe but we're from Stable 55." He removes his pistol and Dovefly let's him go. "We were frozen in cryo stasis and only just woken up 50 minutes ago."

"You're one of those Stable ponies huh, then explain to me how the two of you managed to acquire all this military gear."

"We found it in the Stable after we learned that we were the only ones who survived and if you still don't believe us." He levitates out their war tags which had been untouched by time. "We kept these and were on shore leave when Manehattan was hit by the Balefire-bomb."

"Well i'll be...I guess you were telling the truth....that's a rare trait especially out here...well welcome back to Equestria...what's left of it any way."

Flare looks around after feeling more at ease now that both sides were on good terms. "what happened?, was there more then one balefire and why isn't the sun out?" The unicorn places the war tags back in their pockets.

"Legends say it rained in balefire, as for the sun its because of those damn pegasi, they closed up the entire sky to keep themselves safe, I can't really blame them, but damn them."

"Wait what, the pegasi closed up the sky. The Director must have been against that decision surely, have they tried to help at all or have you tried reaching out."

"Whether she was for or against, it doesn't matter, ever since they closed that sky up nothing, not so much as a peep. And I don't know why we haven't reached out to them, i'm no expert on the matter."

"I see, Sergeant Ironhoof we're not in the world we know anymore. I ask that we come with you back to base and that the Steel Rangers scribes tell us everything about what happened after the balefire bombing and about this wasteland."

"I'm sorry Commander but our orders are to stay here no matter what, but if you cross the main bridge into the city you'll find it no problem, and take your friend here to a hospital before that wound becomes infected."

"Very well then, we wish you luck with your mission."

"And to you."

Dovefly follows Flare out of ears reach of the other ponies. "Phew that was close." She sighed in relief.

"No kidding...I'm just glad you're ok they'll probably have a medic at the base."

"I just hope the doctor isn't an amateur."

-1 hour later in the medway at the Steel Ranger base-

"Stop wincing you're worse than a foal."

Dovefly scowls at the medic. "hmmm."

"You're lucky that your coltfriend here gave you that healing potion." He takes a drag on his cigarette.

"Only had to give her a sip Cutter."

Dovefly sighed and rests her head on the pillow. "So why do they call you Cutter?"

"Cause I'm a battle medic sweet heart, been doing it for 20 years and never lost a single patient." He sits in his chair. "Your wing will be fine just no flying for a day."

"Shouldn't be too hard." Dovefly shrugged.

"So you two are from the 501st huh....gotta say I never expected to treat the defenders of Shattered Hoof." He puts his cigarette out and leans back. "Thought you guys were a myth."

"Yeah well we didn't expect to wake up to all of this."

"Ditto." The pegasus agreed.

"Well i'm no scribe but I can tell you some things about the wasteland like, what you'll encounter and such."

Dovefly raises an eye brow. "like what?"

"Well for one thing bloatsprites, parasprites mutated by the zebra taint and then there are the raiders."

"Raiders?" The unicorn tilted his head.

"Yeah all nasty pieces of work, love to kill, capture, torture and rape ponies so watch out for them they'll kill anything even foals." Dovefly's ears flinched at his horrific words.

"There are also feral ghouls near the sites of the balefire bombs. Survivors of the blast who were mutated but went insane, there are some though who still have there minds intact."

Flared sighed. "What has Equestria become."

"Sounds like Tartarus made itself at home."

"Oh you have no idea, the last ponies you will encounter are slavers."

This caught the unicorns attention. "Wait...are you telling me that ponies are being sold into slavery."

"Slavery...but there's no such thing in Equestria."

"This isn't the Equestria of old sweet heart, it's the Equestrian wasteland." He lights up a new cigarette.

"This is...I mean this is horrible...to hear how far Equestria has sunk." Flare sits on his haunches.

"If it's so bad here then why doesn't anypony leave the country?"

"If you can find out where we can go that was not affected by that damn war then we'll throw you a parade. Like it or not this is Equestria now, and it won't change anytime soon."

"You mean there's nothing left?"

Cutter nodded at the pegasus. "All that's left of the old Equestria are in ruins, ghouls and the mistakes of that war you both fought in." The stallion blows out some smoke.

"W-what was the point of it all." The unicorn said with a hint of anger.

"Then all our fighting was just delaying the inevitable."

"I don't know...but what I do know is that this may be a second chance for you both, we need ponies like you two, good ponies, decent ponies."

"I...I'll be in the room you gave us." Flare trotted out the door.

Dovefly looked over to the doctor. "Am I aloud to leave?"

Cutter nodded. "Go on."

Dovefly gets off the bed and trots off to catch up with Flare.

Flare paces in the room, gritting his teeth.

Dovefly enters the room, as soon as she stepped inside all her strength left her body. "This is all too much."

"AHH!" Flare bucks the locker till its dented in. "What was the bucking point of it all!"

The pegasus lies beside him on the floor. "All we've done."

Flare levitates out his war tag and throws it across the room. "And Equestria still turned into a living nightmare." He sits on his haunches.

"So what do we do now?" Her voice sounded defeated.

Flare looks at her and lies down next to her unable to find the words. "I don't know...we're out of our element here and what's worse is that the waste landers hate pegasi." This caused Dovefly to shudder.

Flare nuzzles her reassuringly. "Nopony will touch you Dove, I promise."

Dovefly leans into him. "Thank you."

The unicorn smiles and strokes her mane. "come on...let's get some sleep." He levitates his baring off. " We can figure out what to do tomorrow."

Dovefly nodded in agreement as she watched Flare climb into the bed. "Come here...it's been exactly 150 years since we slept together. He gave her a cheeky smirk. Dovefly rolled her eyes, luckily the pegasus had already removed her garments prior to the operation as she made herself comfortable next to her unicorn lover.

Flare smiles and wraps his hooves around her. "Much better...than a Cryo chamber and warmer too."

"I agree." She snuggles against him.

"Tomorrow is a new day."