Bunker 333, Under The Streets of Manehattan, Equestria. One Year After Nightmare Moon Incident:

"But what if it doesn't work?!?!" The mare's words echoing off of the dark, concrete walls.

"It has to work!” I nearly screamed in reply “We’ve come too far, worked too hard for it not to!” I slowly lowered myself into the cramped space inside the large metal pod.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked, fear finding its way into her voice

“You already know the answer.” I replied “Do it.”. The large metal door began closing, the hinge squeaking as it moved.

“I hope this works.” I muttered as metal met metal and the pod was sealed.
Bunker 333, Manehattan, Equestria. 300 Years Later:

"LIFE SUPPORT MALFUNCTIONING! LOCK RELEASING!" I awoke with a start as the loud, metallic voice interrupted my sleep. I slowly rubbed my head as my memories came flooding back. "I can't believe the life support malfunctioned one day in," I muttered, “looks like we’ll have to start over… And we were so close too.” I stood up, stretched, and slowly walked over to the large, glowing, green-tinted screen of the pod’s terminal. The display showed that only five hours had passed since the test had begun. ‘That can't be right...’ I thought as I quickly checked the statistics of the pod. The words leapt onto the screen and I felt numbness slowly creeping over my body. The screen read: **STATISTICAL ERROR**Chronograph System Failure*EMERGENCY POD LOCKDOWN***STATISTICAL ERROR**. Underneath that, the data showed that the failure had occurred only five hours after the test began. What I saw next horrified me even more. Hundreds of notifications of an attempted override: Manual Override Requested......Key Accepted.......Request... DENIED *POD LOCKDOWN*. The notices went on for pages and pages. At the very end of the list sat a lone text file. I opened it.

Bones,

This will be both my first and final note on this terminal. I’ve been attempting to override the terminal’s lock function for 65 years. I organized a team 5 years after the incident, CRS. That’s what we called ourselves. We’ve been working on the terminal with little to no success. It’s been 60 years since then. The only thing we’ve been able to do is corrupt the internal life support functions to release the lock early. The machine is very resilient. The life support functions could last anywhere from 200 to 300 years longer. We’ve done the best we can. Not even the MoAS or MOA could help us. I hope it worked and I hope you’ll be okay. Goodbye, Bones.
Signing off, K.

I sat down. Hard. I felt like crying. Why hadn’t the pod opened? Why hadn’t the codes worked?!?!?!? They should have worked!!! And the failure of the chronograph system… How long have I been in that pod?!?!? I galloped for the exit door, slamming into it with my full body and continuing down the familiar hallway. I reached the stairs and didn't even hesitate as I rushed onward. I pushed at the door at the top of the stairs and ran out, but suddenly stopped. My eyes widened at the sight in front of me. The large streets of the city were cracked and covered with potholes. Buildings were crumbling and collapsed everywhere.The once great city was now in ruins.

I heard a noise, the quiet, almost invisible sound of white noise. I turned and saw a small radio, a lone survivor in this post-apocalyptic hell. I picked it up, my magical energy surrounding it, popped it open, and began to adjust the internal wiring a bit. My tech skills helped with that. Soon enough, a voice began to leak from the speakers. I set it down and listened.

“...can you believe that, children? Well that’s all for today, bringing you news from all over the wasteland, this has been DJ PON3. Bringing the truth, no matter how bad it hurts.” I sat in silence for a few minutes. There was a lot to take in. One: there were other surviving ponies. They seemed civilized...I hoped. Maybe Equestrians had repopulated this “wasteland” as the DJ had called it. Two: A wasteland. That’s what this is. It’s a wasteland. A country so great reduced to a pile of dust and ashes in… however long it’s been since I got in that pod. I had to find out what had happened. Three: I was stuck in the future, in the middle of a wasteland, with no food, no water, and no weapons. My entire family was probably gone. All of my friends…gone. Who knows what could await me in this new hellhole. I couldn’t just give up though. I had to survive. For her.

I set out on my journey. I had no idea where I was headed nor did I care. I sighed and shook my head. Could it get any worse than this? Was it possible? I couldn’t stop thinking. So many thoughts popping into my head simultaneously. What dangers were there? How in Equestria... did Equestria become a wasteland? I couldn’t ignore the thoughts, but I could look for answers. So that’s what I would do. Find answers. All of them. First things first. I couldn’t travel alone. I needed companions. I needed...I needed friends. Next? Next I needed… directions! Right, I need to know where I’m going to get there. Most importantly though, most importantly I needed supplies. Weapons, food, anything. I didn’t know exactly what I would need, but ‘wasteland’ wasn’t really a term that made me feel comfortable at all. In the distance I could see a building. A very large building. It appeared to be mostly intact. I could make out large letters along the top of the building. ‘Manehattan Weapons Inc.’ I didn’t remember that being there. It didn’t matter though. Weapons would probably be helpful to me. I remembered there being a grocery store on the block nearby the building. I could stop there too. “That’s two things off the list…” I muttered to myself. I began my slow walk towards the building. When I arrived, I couldn’t do anything but stop and stare upwards… The building was much taller than it had looked from farther away. I stepped inside and slowly brought my head back down… What I saw was horrible. Simply horrible.