Chapter One

Fallout Equestria: Songs of Hope

Chapter One: Awakening

I remember little.
Glimpses.

Distorted memories.

I remembered sounds of laughter that soon, turned to screams and sorrow
I remember seeing flashes of green fill up the sky, torn asunder as the land shook with rage.

Then....nothing.

The world had turned to darkness and I was alone, lost in an endless dream.

I couldn't even remember who I was. All that I had were a few memories and this endless expanse of darkness I was trapped in. I couldn't even remember how long it had been. Not like I haven’t tried to understand or remember more, but the more I try, the more frustrated I became. It’s as if the memories were there, but just out of hooves reach. Was this death? If so, I’d wish it'd at least had some scenery...or light for that matter. I couldn’t even see my own hooves and talking to yourself only entertains one for so long. The time finally came however for this dream to end...

My eyes opened to darkness, but it was not like the darkness from before. Here there was moonlight, shining with an eerie beauty through a small window. I appeared to be in a classroom of sorts, and everywhere was this light, pink mist. There wasn't much to see from where I was, so I tried to get up, but my entire body ached and was still asleep, it seemed. With great effort, I was able to lift my head. Observing the room more clearly, it was very old and resembled a classroom. Over time, my body eventually regained its strength, so slowly, I got to my hooves and began to walk around. There were a bunch of old and rotted desks, small enough for a filly to use. I decided to head towards the window to see if I could get more of a clue of where I was. What lay outside was a scene of utter devastation. One that would stay in my mind forever.

Outside lay a world that was eerie and foul. It was night, but there were no stars or a moon to be seen, the sky darkened with clouds that stretched across the entire horizon. Strands of moonlight filtered through cracks in the clouds, giving just enough light to give me a view of what was on the ground. I must’ve been a few stories up because the ground was quite a ways down. Closer to me though were piles of rubble and some destroyed buildings. I was able to make out what looked to be a sidewalk coming from the building, my gaze following it to a warped gate. The gate was the only entrance, with low stone walls jutting from each side and iron fences atop them. It wrapped around the building into a square of sorts. Outside the gate lay a twisted, gnarled forest with trees that were dark and covered in thorns and underbrush. The only path out of it was a small dirt road that extended from the gate.

Shock started to kick in, making me step backwards in hopes to escape what lay outside the window, "Where in Equestria...?"

Crunch!

Looking down to see what I had stepped on, I wasn't able to determine what it was, but I noticed a brown, semi-crushed object under my hoof. Alas, the pink mist made it a little hazy and hard to make out, so I leaned down a little closer. By the time I got close enough, I'd wished I hadn’t and fell back, startled. It was a small, pony skull. Sweet Luna, I had just stepped on the bones of a filly! I felt sick and went to the open window, but as I did, a breeze came in and I was filled with horror. The pink mist had cleared just enough to reveal dozens upon dozens of skeletons of young fillies.

".... No... No, no no...Luna, please no.."

Dropping to the floor, I tried to take in everything that was happening. Where the fuck was I?! What was going on?! As I lay there, dazed and confused in the dark, dead room, unearthly groans could be heard coming from somewhere outside the door. Was somepony still alive? Cautiously, I went towards the door and slowly cracked it open. It made a deafening creak and I immediately stopped.

The groaning also stopped.

A sense of dread and unease began to wash over me as everything became silent. Within moments, a hoofstep could be heard. Then another. Whoever was out there was heading towards the door. As they got closer, I started to step back, and a thought crossed my mind. What if they were the one who killed the ponies in this room?

As the hoofsteps could be heard right outside the door, I turned to look for somewhere to hide. Behind me sat a desk large enough for me to crawl under. In an instant, I was underneath the desk and keeping myself unnaturally still as the door opened up further. The footsteps stopped…

There was a small hole in the side of the desk, just next to my face. Slowly, I moved to peek through it. What I saw almost made me scream in fear and I had to bite down hard to suppress it. It wasn’t a pony.

Standing in the doorway was a creature that resembled a pony, but it was decomposed, with sharpened teeth and a hungry look on its face. It was horrifying. The creature looked around, sniffing the air with ferocity. Without realizing it, my back hoof knocked over a bottle. Instantly, it tensed up and turned its head to look in my direction, growling as it made its way towards the desk.

Panic set in at the realization of being trapped under the desk, with nowhere to run. If I jumped out now, it would catch me in a heartbeat. It was now right next to the hole, and I could smell its rancid breath. Within moments, its head began poking around the corner, sniffing the air more intently, its growling turning into a snarl. Just when I thought it was the end, there was a loud clanging sound outside the door, forcing the creature to immediately snap its body towards the sound, giving off a hellish roar. I could just make out a voice saying, “Oh, fuck me…” right before the creature dashed out of the room to give chase.

After a few tense moments, it dawned on me that I was holding my breath the whole time and let it all out at once. That was way too close. What was that thing? I decided that was a question for another time. For now, I needed to get out of this building and somewhere safe. No sound could be heard outside the door, so I slowly walked towards it and peeked into a hallway. Looking around, there was no sign of either the creature or the unfortunate soul that it was now chasing. Not wanting to stay here in case the creature decided to return, I entered the hallway and walked towards the right end, away from the direction in which they went. Carefully creeping through the hall, I could hear footsteps above me, so going up was not an option, which only left going down. Reaching the end of the hallway, I saw an open doorway with set of stairs to my left. The stairwell was dark and gloomy. Without a second thought, I walked down the stairs. Didn’t want to risk that thing coming down here for seconds. As I exited the stairwell to the floor below, I was surprised at how different it was.

The first thing I noticed was, unlike on the previous floor, the pinkish mist was now a fog. It was a lot thicker and a little harder to breath in. Second thing I noticed, was that the walls appeared to be melted. That was all I was able to see before I started hearing hoofsteps coming from stairwell above me. Panicking, I ran through the hallway and turned into the first room that was open and shut the door behind me. Locking the door, I backed myself into a desk across from the door and slid down, praying the door would hold. My heart beat louder and faster as the hoofsteps drew nearer and nearer. To my surprise, they didn’t stop at the door, but continued into the hallway until, eventually, the steps faded into silence. Sighing in relief, I looked around to see I was in another classroom, but unlike the one I awoke in, this one was devoid of skeletons.

With the moonlight trickling in through broken windows, the place felt oddly serene. Even with the faint moonlight, it was hard to make out everything in the room, but it was quiet enough for me to try and gather my thoughts. After taking one last look around, sensing no danger, I slumped my head back up against the desk. My mind was everywhere, trying to comprehend everything that had happened so far. Tilting my head back, I found myself looking up at another one of those creatures. It just smiled.

“Hello there!”

Fucking Nope! I bolted as fast as I could, but my legs were quite uncoordinated and I ended up ramming headfirst into the door, instantly blacking out.

...

I awoke later in a bed, wrapped up in sheets. “Well at least I'm dry now. What just happened?" Oh, my head was pounding, as if the Princesses themselves decided to have a rave on my head. I turned over to see the same creature from before sitting there watching and said, "Oh, you're awake!". I did what came as the bravest response I could come up with. I screamed.

"No! No! Not you again!"

It just looked at me in amusement. "Would you quit your panicking before you run into another door?"

Too late, I was already running, but this time I chose to hit a table.

For the third time in one day, I woke up. Seriously, could this day get any worse? This time, I was strapped down and there it was, with an annoyed expression. "You know, you’re a lot of trouble for a Pegasus. At least you didn't try flying out the window."

"Uuughhhhh," I was now having a really bad headache, but I was able to manage a few words, "…What is going on here....Where am I?"

It looked around a little bit, "I know it’s a little beat down, but this is the Nurse's office. I was in the middle of a lovely rest before you woke me up in the Science lab and went all nuts before deciding to try breaking a door down."

Ok, now I had a headache and was confused. Really bad combination. "...Nurse's Office.... Science lab?..." Oh, my head was just getting worse.

The creature's expression seemed to soften a little bit. “I’ll explain later, it seems your about to pass out again."

Damn thing was right. I could feel my eyes begin to haze and darken. As I drifted off into unconsciousness, it was saying, "I come here scavenging for clues and find an odd job. Amazing job, Silver Song."

…

It was around the afternoon when I woke up again. My headache was still there, but it wasn’t as bad as before. Good news is I finally got over waking up to see the creature watching me. After getting a better look, it seemed to resemble some sort of undead pony, although I couldn’t tell if it was actually undead or just really unlucky. Even though it was rotting, its coat shone with a faint silver color and that it was about my size. The one thing I couldn’t do was tell if it was a he or she. I tried to see what its cutie mark was, but the decomposition of the body seemed to have deformed it. It must’ve noticed me staring and asked, “I take it you’ve never seen a Ghoul before?”

Ghoul? Well, not much worse than calling it undead pony, I guess. “Not until now. Silver...Song, right? What’s a Ghoul? And more importantly, where am I?”

With a big sigh, Silver Song explained, “Never thought I’d ever have to explain this. Well, ponies like me are all over the wasteland of Equestria. After the Megaspells hit, any pony that couldn’t get to a Stable were either instantly killed, or managed to survive by hiding underground. Of those that survived, many became tainted by the radiation." He lifted one of his front hoofs up, looking at it in contemplation. "We don’t know why it happens, but we seem to be immortal at the cost of our physical appearance and for most, our sanity. There are two types of ghouls. The ones like me who still remember who we were and can accept our reality, and then there are Ferals who gave up, went insane or just couldn’t take it anymore. Their minds are practically gone, and they attack and eat any living creature that isn’t a Feral. Sometimes even us, for all the similarities we have. A lot of ponies out there will shoot us thinking we're all the same, but there are a few who accept us for who we are.”

Leaning back in the chair, it continued, “As for where you are, you are in the ruins of Luna’s Academy for Gifted Unicorns. Back before the war got real intense, this place was Luna’s prized possession, as little fillies would come all over Equestria to learn magic. There were more little unicorns here than there were at Celestia’s School.” Its face went dark as it continued, “That is, until the day a zebra convoy came by and set off a Pink Cloud bomb. Massacred the whole damn place!! I don’t know myself why the sons-a-bitches would do such a thing and I could care less, but you saw the skeletons around this place?” I nodded, shivering at the memory. “Well those are the poor fillies that were killed here. You are at the place that fully escalated the great war between Equestria and The Zebra Nation.” It nodded towards a window next to me. "Take a look for yourself". I turned my head to see a courtyard with two other buildings that were falling to ruin.

As I looked to the courtyard, a scene flashed through my head.

...

It was now cold. Even colder than the darkness I was suspended in. It was a clear day, with a mild wind. The ground was blanketed in snow and in the distance, mountain peaks stretched across the north. I was hiding in a forest outside the academy, but it wasn’t in ruins. The place was in perfect condition and an amazing sight to behold. It was divided into three rectangular buildings and were all in the shape of a ‘U’. Each building was constructed of white stone and were each four stories high. The central building though had a fifth floor near the center, that only seemed to be big enough for an office. Surrounding the academy was a brick wall that covered the southeast section, while a small hill range circled around the rest of it. In the center of the wall was an ornamental iron gate with an image of Princess Luna emblazoned on each side. Laying right in front of the gate was a stone walkway that went straight out for a mile or two through the forest, then later split into two dirt roads with one facing to the far north and one heading south towards Canterlot.

I was outside the gate watching the entrance when I heard something to my left along the road and turned to see a small convoy of two covered wagons rolling up. They looked beat up and had bullet holes all over the sides. It wasn’t a big convoy, but it wasn’t their size or bullet holes that worried me most. It was the fact they were all zebras. I had a memory about knowing of the fights within the Zebra Nation and the border skirmishes, but that they’ve never been this close before.

Before I could open my mouth, I heard a voice from the gate shout, “Halt! Identify yourself!”

I turned to see an older security guard accompanied by a younger guard. Don’t know how I knew, but I could tell he was a new recruit. While I couldn’t see the new recruits vest, on the lead stallion's vest, he had a name tag that said, “Black Stone". He had this hostile look on his face, which worried me. Did he know something about this or was he just more concerned? Either way, the convoy halted and one of the leading zebras, a stallion, approached.

As he began to approach, I noticed that he was limping a little. His entire front left leg was covered in blood-soaked gauze and he had a bandage wrapped around his head, covering his right eye. There were a few other wounds, but they seemed to have begun healing.

“Stop right there. Identify yourself and state your business!”

The zebra halted and began speaking, “I am Nuru. I speak for our tribe. We come seeking aid and shelter. Our village was attacked by the Caesar’s Elite guards, and we are all that managed to escape. Our chief is dead, and we have many injured. We ask you to please help us!”

I felt sorry for Nuru and his people, but it didn’t seem to change the look on Black Stone's face. He was still hostile as he stated, “I am afraid I cannot grant your request. We have an academy full of colts and fillies and I will not allow any possible conflict to occur within our walls. You need to turn around and leave.” As he said this, him and the newbie raised their rifles towards the convoy.

Ok, wait what? This needed to stop and fast. Both sides were shocked and surprised as I walked out in front of them. “Hey! Do you not see their wounds? These zebras can’t just turn back. They just said their village was destroyed and they are obviously exhausted from the trip. Lower your weapons now!”

Black Stone seemed to be slightly surprised at my sudden appearance, then became annoyed. “Don’t presume to tell me what to do! I don’t care if you're one of them damn Rangers, the safety of this academy is under my command. They need to turn around. We can’t risk them bringing any possible diseases or fights onto these grounds.”

I gave him a hard look as frustration and desperation kicked in. “Don’t forget that while the academy may be under your protection, all of Little Horn Valley lies under my authority. Which means I have just as much authority, if not more, over what goes on within these grounds as you do. They don’t have to go inside the campus grounds. They can set up their convoy outside the gates while they rest and take care of their wounded. I know you have plenty of medical supplies inside and plenty of food. I will not have them sent back, especially with winter approaching.”

Black Stone was unmoved. “Which is exactly why we can’t just be giving them out. During the winter, it’s not as easy getting supplies up here, so all of our medical supplies and food storage are what is needed to last the winter.”

I looked to Nuru. “How many of you are there and how many of you are wounded?”

Angry, Black Stone barked, “Hey! Don’t you ignore me! I said they…”

“Silence your blubbering idiocy right now or I will go straight up Goldenblood’s office and drag him out here to handle this! I know for certain that he will be very displeased with your unwarranted aggression and have you removed from your post. Do not speak out of turn again.”

That seemed to have some effect on Black Stone, as he instantly shut up. Although, the hostility on his face was still there.

Nervously, Nuru began to tell me about his convoy's status, “There are a total of fifteen of us. All of us bear wounds. Four of our mares and two of our stallions are on the verge of death. We have a few colts and fillies as well that need food and medical attention. We are almost out of food and won’t survive the trip back, let alone find a safe place to return to.” He was in tears at this point. “I beg of you! Please help what remains of my tribe!”

Concerned for the welfare of Nuru and his tribe, I turned to Black Stone. “This is worse than I thought. Go and get Goldenblood now. Quickly while there is still some time left to help their wounded! Even you would not condemn colts and fillies to the harsh winter without aid."

With his rifle slowly lowering, his expression softened. “No, I wouldn’t. However, I don’t know if we will have enough…"

Out of nowhere, a young zebra colt jumped out from the lead wagon with a knife in his mouth screaming, “You will help my mother now! I will not let her die out here!"

Surprised, Nuru turned to the young colt and yelled, “Akinyi, stop! Do not provoke th…” Before he could finish, there was a loud bang! and then silence. Right before our eyes, the filly stopped in his tracks. His look of defiance went to confusion as he looked down to see his chest start to turn red. As he looked back up to me, there was fear in his eyes, and he collapsed.

Nuru ran to the young colt screaming, “Akinyi!!”

Horrified, I turned to see the new recruit shaking with smoke coming from his rifle. I screamed at him, “You fool! What have you done?!” Black Stone immediately tackled him to the ground as I turned to see some of the zebras aiming their rifles at me and the guards…

…

As the memory began to fade, I could see Silver Song staring at me with a look of concern. “Are you ok? You’re not gonna pass out on me again, are you?”

Not wanting to worry him…her…I really needed to figure out what it is before I embarrassed myself, I shook my head and said, “No, no I’m ok for now.” What was that horrifying memory? What happened between now and then?

Softening it's gaze a little bit, it continued, “Good. Now it’s my turn to ask you some things. Since you now know this old stallion’s...” Thank you! “...name, why don’t you tell me who you are?”

“Oh right! My name is….” Wait? What was my name again? I tried to remember. “Uh… It’s... um...” Silver Song just sat there staring at me, waiting, “my name is…I can’t remember. I don’t know who I am! Why can’t I remember?! Who am I?!” I started to panic, and he got up, trotted over and tried to help me calm down.

“Whoa, whoa there now. Look, your head is probably still a little scrambled after all your games of High-Hooves with the furniture. Just relax and it’ll come back to you later.” After a few seconds, I believed him and started to relax. Maybe he’s right and it’ll come back later. But what if it didn’t? Shaking my head, I quickly dismissed the thought. I will remember!

Then he asked, “Ok, how about we change topics for now. Why don’t you tell me what you were doing in the Science Lab?”

“I…don’t know.” Great! I was nameless and clueless. Might as well be the lost cause of Equestria! “The only things I remember are some memories, or at least fragments of them, being trapped in total darkness before waking up in one of the rooms, trying not to get eaten and then knocking myself out after running from you earlier. I can’t remember anything else." After revisiting my past events, I felt lost. I didn’t know my name or what I was doing here. The only thing I had right now was that scene from earlier, but I kept it a secret. No need to make myself look crazier than I already am.

A worried look crossed his face. “Well, I'll take a look into that and see if I can come up with anything on why you are here. The thing that’s really bugging me is why you aren't dead yet or suffering the side effects of the Pink Cloud? Obviously, you’re not a ghoul like me, yet you are in perfect health, head trauma aside. Normally, anypony would be melting, having trouble breathing, losing unconsciousness or some other thing within minutes of breathing it in.”

Well, that sort of explains the pink mist everywhere. “I’m sorry, but I really don’t know anything. I wish I could tell you, but I’m still trying to figure out who I am, let alone what the Pink Cloud is.”

Silver Song seemed to be in deep thought as he stood there for a few moments before walking to the bed and taking off the straps around my legs. Sitting up, I stretched my legs and wings, while he turned and walked toward the door. Right before he walked out into the hallway, he turned back to me. “I'm going to go check on something in the main building, so just sit there and relax. I’ll be back around in a few hours. Don’t go wandering around the lower levels, it’s not safe down there.” Pointing to the hallway, he went on, “There’s a bathroom right across the hallway two doors to the left, if you need to wash up. This building seems to still have some water running. Since you seem to be doing fine with the Cloud, I figure some radiated water won’t do any harm.” A few seconds after he entered the hallway, he popped his head back in. “Oh, and please don’t go running into anything else. Or flying for that matter.”

I smiled a little. Ha-ha, very cute. Make fun of the clueless pegasus. As I heard him going down the stairs, I couldn’t help but think, what if I can’t remember who I was or what I was doing here? What if I can’t remember anything? I had too many questions and the one with any hope of having answers just left the room.

After a while, I began looking around the room. In the back of the room, there was an old picture of Princess Luna, along with a bunch of other ponies. For some reason, I figured it was a staff photo. They looked so happy. I had only a fraction of a memory, but it seemed I was there when this place was attacked. Yet, looking around me, that shouldn’t have been possible. The ruins alone look like they’ve been abandoned for at least a century. It didn’t make any sense! Now I was even more frustrated, but I had to calm down because it only made my headache worse. So, I decided to go across the hall and wash up. Upon entering the hallway, I noticed that it was really distorted. All the photos seemed to be melted into the wall and ruined beyond recognition. The stone walls seemed to be one big rock, even though it looks like they were once separate stones. I looked at the floor and thought that I would have melted into it, but it seemed sturdy.

I guess it became solid enough to walk on after all this time. As I entered the bathroom, I found a mirror and finally got a good look at myself. I had a dark red coat, and my mane and tail were a mix black and red. My ears were ripped, as the tops of them were missing. My wings seemed to have some tan, metallic edging along the span of the wing. It looked like it was once ornamental, but was now fused together. Good news is, it didn’t seem to cause any damage or affect the movement. I wondered if I could still fly. Figured I’d find out later once I felt better. On my flanks were my Cutie mark. It was 4 poker cards, all Jacks of each suite. Was I some sort of gambler? If so, boy did I suck.

Looking closer, I was surprised to notice my entire body was covered in tan stripes. Huh. I wonder why I had all these stripes painted on me. I looked like a zebra, except I had wings. “I should wash these off as soon as possible. Would be nice if there was a shower in here.”

After washing up, I looked out a thin window and could see some bright spots in the dark clouds above, so I figured it must have been daytime now.

“I wonder what's on the rest of the floor?”

As I started to wander the halls, I noticed all the doors seemed to be locked. They each had a glass panel that you could’ve been able to look into before, but I guess because of the Pink Cloud, the glass was distorted to the point it was like trying to look through a pinkish rock crystal. One door near the end of the hallway was cracked open. Above the door was a sign that read “Stairwell”.

Remembering Silver Song’s warning, I hesitated by the door. I wanted to just turn around and head back to the Nurse’s office, but something urged me to open the door the rest of the way. It made a soft groan as I nudged through the door into the stairwell. It seemed I was on the third floor of this building due to the stairs only leading down. That and there was a big, green “3” next to the door. As I started to head down, the steps seemed to compact every time I put my hoof down. It felt weird and like I might get sucked in, so I moved a little faster. When I got to the door on the second floor, I turned to see that the stairwell leading to the first floor was unnaturally dark.

“Yeah, screw that, this pony knows a death trap when he sees one.”

I thought I could hear some soft moaning down at the bottom, so I decided it’d be safer to avoid going any further down. I immediately opened the door and stepped into the second-floor hallway.

“Oh wow. And here I thought the third floor was bad.”

Greeting me in the hallway was a much weirder scene than up above. The walls seemed to be oozing pink gas from out of nowhere and looked like they would just melt into a puddle at any moment. If there were any pictures on the walls, they were now part of the wall and showed almost no trace of them ever being there. And the floor was just a little bit worse than the stairwell, but I didn’t seem to sink through to the first floor, so it seemed promising. Seriously, how in the name of Celestia was this building still standing? I noticed that unlike the floor above, most of the doors here were open and even though the doors were part of the floor and the ceiling, there were gaps big enough for me to fit through.

“I bet Silver Song is somewhere on this floor. I wonder which room he…” I stopped halfway through as I began to stare at a huge lump along the wall. "Oh, please don't let it be some pink gas bubble." As I looked closer, my curiosity changed to horror. The lump in the wall was a little filly melted into the wall, looking towards the end of the hall with fear in her eyes and a hoof stretched out as if calling to someone to help her.

Obviously, the help never came. I was beginning to feel sick, when suddenly I saw its eyes turn towards me. Dear Goddesses, this filly was still alive! I immediately heaved out anything that I had in my stomach all over the floor.

Crying, I yelled out, “WHY?! What the fuck is this? This can’t be happening. No, this is, it's just a dream.” I curled up on the floor, closed my eyes and put my hooves over my head repeating over and over, “It's just a dream, it's just a dream, it's just a dream…” when out of nowhere I heard Silver Song's voice.

“Hey! Are you ok? I told you not to come down here, you idiot!”

With tears still pouring from my eyes, I looked up to see him running over to me and I felt so grateful that he was there. “How? How can this world be so cruel?! This poor filly…” I couldn’t even finish, so I just kept crying. Silver Song just stood there with a sad look in his eyes. He stood there and waited until I could cry no more. Very carefully, he sat next to me. “This is just a small fraction of how fucked up Equestria has become. I didn’t want you to see this yet.”

Slowly, I looked at him as he continued, “This filly is just one of many who tried to escape the effects of the Pink Cloud. She’s not the only one like this in the academy either. There are a few more in the other buildings and there is one filly I can never bring myself to go near. I wish I had a gun on me right now so I could end their suffering. And trust me, it’s worse in Canterlot. There are hundreds of ponies who share the same fate. Most ponies today don’t even know about these poor souls because they can’t survive in the Pink Cloud. Even for ghouls like me, we try to avoid Canterlot. Its way thicker there than it is here.”

“And no pony has ever tried to help them?!”

“As I said, most ponies don’t even know they exist. Even if they did, you won't find any of them willing to help. They’re either too busy trying to survive on their own or because they will die within moments. Out here in the wasteland of Equestria, there is no kindness, no mercy and very little on helpful ponies.”

As I lay there, exhausted, I couldn’t help but look up into the poor filly’s eyes. They had a look of desperation and a deep sadness. It had been there a long time, unable to die and just wanted to finally find some peace.

“I promise you, I will find a way to end your suffering.”

As I looked up back towards Silver Song, I thought I caught a quick hint of regret in his eyes as he too, stared at the poor filly. As quickly as it appeared, it was gone and then something dawned on him. "Come with me". Slowly, I took one last glance at the poor filly. I could've sworn that it was looking at me with hope in its eyes, as if it heard me. Turning to follow Silver Song, I thought to myself, "If nobody else wants to help these fillies, then I will!" As I followed him into the stairwell, he started walking down towards the lower level. "Uuumm, I thought you said not to go down there because it was dangerous".

He just chuckled softly, which if you add the pink, ominous fog and the dark stairwell, was insanely creepy. "For you, yes. For me, it's different. However, you should be fine so long as you stick close to me and step very carefully. If you make any sudden moves or sounds, we will be in some really deep shit. And I mean ferocious, bloodthirsty, painfully agonizing shit." He looked straight into my eyes as he spoke, and his voice became serious, "You remember my talk about there being two different types of ghouls?" After nodding my head, he continued, "Well you haven't really gotten to know the other kind yet and down below are dozens of them. And fortunately for us, these ghouls can't smell fleshies, like you..." I felt both odd and insulted at the term "fleshies” but kept my thoughts to myself "...and so as long as we keep quiet, they won't notice us, even if they accidently bump into us. However, if you touch them first or make any sudden sounds, they will swarm over us until there's nothing left but our bones."

While I was listening, I began to sweat as the scene he described played out in my mind. A thought came to me. "Wait, you said they're extremely sensitive to sound, yet how come none of them came up here when I was...you know…” Now I was really embarrassed as I realized what I must've looked like earlier.

He had a big smirk on his face, or at least I think it was a smirk. His mouth was a little rotted, so I couldn't really tell what expression he was using. "You mean when you were all curled up like a little filly and screaming your feathery little head off.” I flinched and just wanted to die right there. “That was thanks to my quick thinking and because we were both lucky, I had a can next to me. As soon as I heard your yell, I noticed the ferals beginning to stir, so I kicked a nearby can in the opposite direction and managed to keep them busy until I got to you." Huh. So, these ferals really don't think at all.

"Still, I have a really bad feeling about this. What are we going to see?"

"Look, I don't know if you've realized it yet, but as I have said, this is the Wasteland. And I’m not planning on protecting you for long. You need to learn how to take care of yourself. If what I'm about to show you is what I think it is, you're going to need to learn fast. And you'll need to start taking risks. Otherwise, you'll end up some raider’s plaything before they hang you up as a decoration." Great, now I was more scared and even more confused.

"Raiders...what are raiders?"

As he lowered his head, he let out a small sigh of frustration. "Oh dear Celestia, it's like talking to a stable pony...Look, I’ll explain everything later, but we need to go now, or we will miss our chance."

Reluctantly, I gave in. "Fine, let's go." I had to admit, even though I was scared out of my wits as to what awaited us below, my curiosity was even stronger.

As we exited the stairway onto the first floor, I was surprised in what good shape it was in. The walls were still pink, but they seemed to have compacted under the pressure from the upper floors and appeared very sturdy. Though the hallway also seemed a few feet shorter as well. The Pink Cloud was a lot thicker here and it was hard to make out the end of the hallway because of how dense it was. Unlike the previous floors, there were no decorations. All the doors to the rooms were shattered and the entrances were just gaping holes. All except for one at the end of the hall. As we quietly walked through the hallway, I looked into one of the rooms where I could hear some shuffling noises. There were almost a dozen ghouls just wandering around aimlessly. I held my breath as I watched. I turned my head away from it and ended up staring right into the eyes of another ghoul! I froze, my body refusing to move even an inch. It just stood there, staring at me. I found it hard keeping my eyes locked on its eyes. Moments passed by and Silver Song could only just stand there and watch. I was getting to the point where I couldn’t hold my breath any longer, when it looked away and started moving past me.

I waited for Silver Song to give me the signal that it was safe to move. After a few more seconds, he nodded his head and silently mouthed, "You're good. Let's go"

I was so happy that I forgot I was holding my breath and without thinking, let out a loud "Whoo". My heart skipped a beat when all the shuffling around us stopped, and Silver Song looked past me in alarm. I turned around to see the previous feral stop and turn towards us. Suddenly, it let out this horrifying screech and began to charge towards me from the other end of the hall. I could hear other ferals joining in and coming out of the classrooms. Next thing that happened was Silver Song yelling, "Shit! Quickly, this way!" As I charged towards him, I could hear even more waking up and entering the hallway. Sweet Celestia, there must've been at least a hundred of them! Silver Song had the door open and was waiting for me.

"Hurry, they're almost upon you!"

I was just a few feet from the door when suddenly I was halted and felt a sharp pain in my leg. I turned swiftly to see a feral had sunk its teeth into one of my hind legs. Instinctively, I swiped my wing to the left and knocked the ghoul off, and letting it also take a good chunk out of my leg. As I turned around, I flapped my wings hard and used the momentum to do flip backwards, my other leg kicking out and snapping its head. As soon as I landed on my hooves, I winced in pain and buckled where the ghoul bit me. I looked up to see the other ferals only a few feet away and in an instant, I twisted my body, ignoring the pain and just flew right over Silver Song. As soon as I was in the room, he slammed the door shut and locked it. A second later, the door was being pounded by the many ferals trying to get in. It started to buckle under the weight of all the ferals and we both backed away, just waiting for it to break. Yet the door held. With a sigh of relief, we both fell to the ground, too shocked and exhausted to speak. So, we just sat there… waiting.

After a while, they gave up and the pounding stopped. We waited a little longer to make sure they were gone. After a few minutes, Silver Song was the first to speak. His voice was exasperated as he flopped on his side and looked right at me. “Do you have any idea how close I've come to dying today because of you? I count this as the third time today and I don't think my old heart can take a fourth.”

I started to apologize, but he raised his hoof to my face indicating that he didn't want to hear it. He slowly stood up and looked around the room before looking back to me and speaking again, “Look, I know this is all new to you, but you need to seriously get a grip and quickly learn about your surroundings." Slowly, his tone became serious and dark. He looked dead in my eyes as he continued, "We were lucky this time, in fact we were very fucking lucky that both of us came out of that unscathed. I have seen ponies ripped to pieces, friends fall around me like flies when we walked into a raider trap, and creatures so merciless you’ll think these ghouls were CUTE, FUZZY PETS!!" He practically screamed at that point. I just sat there dumbfounded. He was right, I almost got us killed. As it all began to sink in, he spoke more calmly, "You seem to understand now. This world isn’t like the one you’re used to. Not anymore."

"Wait. What? What do you mean it's not like I'm used to?” What he just said made no sense and the fact that I couldn't even recall anything of my past wasn’t helping at all. Did he know something about why I was here? I asked him.

"Hm. I don't know why you're here, but I did find something...both disturbing and amazing. I honestly don’t know how else to describe it and it still seems impossible. Remember how you were saying you woke up with fragmented memories?" I nodded. "Well, I think I might be able to explain a part of that, but I will need you to come into the next room..." Feeling dread at the thought of walking back out into that nightmare, he saw my look and quickly put my fears to rest. “Don't worry, we're not going back out into the hallway. There’s a door in here that leads straight into the old security room. And there’s no ferals in there either. C'mon! I’m starting to get antsy with my angry brethren just outside the door." He said that with a smile and I couldn’t help but smile with him. As I started to stand up, a sharp pain hit me and I remembered that I had a chunk of my leg missing from the earlier attack. "Gah! oooohh Celestia be damned!"

Sitting back down, Silver Song looked at me sympathetically. "I take back what I said being unscathed. How 'bout we fix that up before you bleed out?"

After applying some bandages he had from the Nurse’s office, I was able to stand up and walk a little easier. "Now it's gonna take a few days for that to fully heal, but you should be fine walking so long as you don’t go running or do anything excessive. C'mon..." he then pointed towards the left side of the room where a metal door stood cracked wide open, just big enough for a pony to squeeze in.

"That’s where we need to go." As we walked across the room, I looked around and saw that this used to be a meeting room. There was a large table in the center of the room surrounded by chairs. Hanging above the table were the remains of a crystal chandelier. I could just imagine what it once looked like and ponies sitting down discussing the day-to-day business of the academy. And I'd be standing in the corner of the room just listening as they would drone on. I stopped momentarily, feeling like it was more than just my imagination, then quickly brushed the thought away and continued following Silver Song. As we got to the door, he went inside stating, "Careful. Try not to get the bandages caught in the doorway. The metal is a little jagged in some places, so it might catch." He was right. I could feel the metal scraping against me, but it wasn’t sharp enough to penetrate the skin.

After getting to the other side, I noticed that this room was a lot bigger than the previous one. I saw two rows of metal lockers, back-to-back, in the center of the room. To the right, on the other side of the locker room, in the corner, was another door that had an exit sign above it. That one must lead outside. Along the rest of the wall were eight shower stalls. On the left side of the room was a wall with pictures and posters. In the corner opposite of us was a caged armory. It seemed in good condition, but the door had an electronic keypad lock, so I doubt we would be able to open it unless we found the key code. In the back of the room was the banner of Equestria, proudly displaying the two princesses and completely untouched by the pink mist and wear of time. The fabric shone as if it were alive, and I couldn't suppress my wonder. "Wow. It’s so beautiful." Silver Song looked from me to the banner and nodded his head in agreement. "That it is. They say that these banners were made from a rare fabric that used to exist thousands of years ago and that they can last forever. Only five banners of this quality were ever made. The rest were made by normal means." I stood there looking at it, taking in every detail. I didn't know if I would ever see this again. After a few moments, Silver Song tapped me on the shoulder and gestured his head towards one of the pictures next to the armory. "Over here."

As we got closer to the picture, he pointed at it saying, "Fourth row, seven from the left." As I looked closer, I saw that it was a photo of ponies all lined up. It must’ve been a staff photo because I could see Princess Luna in the middle. Ignoring that for the moment, I followed Silver Song's directions to find…

...Me?

Chapter Two

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Chapter 2: Beginning of a Song

After standing there speechless for a few minutes, Silver Song nudged me. "Hey. Snap out of it."

Shaking my head, I looked to him, confused. "Why am I in this picture? It must be at least a hundred years old! It can't possibly be me!"

Silver Song started hushing me and trying to calm me down. "Look, I can try to explain it, but first, I need you to look very carefully into this picture one more time and make sure that it’s you." Taking a deep breath, I calmed down and looked at the picture again. Perhaps it was just a coincidence, and it might’ve been some other pony in the picture. Yet, when I looked at it again, I couldn’t see any difference between the pony in the picture and me. Putting my hoof on the picture, I turned back to Silver Song. "That’s me alright. Same hairstyle, same cutie mark, and same painted stripes."

At the mention of my stripes, he looked me up and down. "Yeah, by the way, we should wash those off of you as soon as possible. Luckily, the showers still got water left and you aren’t affected by the mist, so we'll take care of that after we open up your locker."

"My what? I have a locker? Wait, you still haven’t explained what you know about me."

Rubbing his head, he looked at me and began to explain, "Your right. My bad. Since you are without a doubt the pony in this picture, that tells us you were born before the war and that you have some ties to this academy. However, that also raises more questions that I can’t even begin to answer. Like, how are you still alive, why exactly are you here, why do you have amnesia and how come you are the only living being I know that isn’t affected by the Pink Cloud or radiation for that matter? You, my friend, are not supposed to be here, yet you are.”

Sitting down against the wall, I tried to take it all in. While I continued to process all of this, a thought came to me. "Hey, can I ask you a question?" He tilted his head a little before nodding. "Sure, but I’m afraid I don't know any more about you then what I just told you, so don’t be disappointed if I’m short of information."

I shook my head. "No, no. You've told me quite a bit already and given me a lot to think about. I’m just wondering how you know so much about these things. The academy, the past, and everything else?"

He seemed a little surprised at the question, but quickly regained his composure before answering. "Because I, like you, was born before the war. I was an archeologist as well as a part-time journalist. I had a passion for learning all about the going-on's in Equestria and its past as well. Trust me, you haven’t seen anything until you've been inside the Canterlot Catacombs." He suddenly smiled and laughed a little. "I was a young, stupid colt once and tried sneaking into the catacombs. I managed to get all the way to Starswirl the Bearded's ancient library. I was looking through a book that was made by Starswirl's teacher and just when I was about to discover his teacher's name, I felt a tap on my shoulder and saw three of the royal guard standing behind me. After a failed attempt to escape, I ended up in prison for a few months." Then slowly, his smile faded a little until all that remained was a wistful grin. "Too bad Canterlot is now filled with the Pink Mist. It’s way too strong for any pony to survive there. And if we ghouls stay too long in it, we will go insane and become like the feral ghouls that attacked us earlier. For most though, it's a painful reminder of what we lost, so we just avoid it all in general."

We both sat there for an hour, just lost in our own thoughts. He seemed to be remembering all the things he did before the war, and I was just filled with questions. Why couldn’t I remember anything of my previous life, yet know what a lot of stuff was? Did I have a family? And most importantly, who was I? These were only some of the questions, but not one of them did I have an answer too. Silver Song was the first to recover.

"C'mon now. We can’t spend all day just pondering the past. I plan to leave by tomorrow, because there is nothing else for me here. I don’t know about you, but I’d highly recommend you do the same." As we both got up, he led me towards a locker and pointed at it. "Here ya go! Your locker." As I looked at it, there was an electronic scanner in the middle. What's with the high-tech stuff? Not knowing what to do, I asked Silver Song what made him think it was my locker. In response, he just looked up to the top of the locker. I followed his gaze and saw my Cutie Mark painted on the locker.

Oh. Yeah, there was no doubt about it. It was my locker alright. As I looked along the lockers, I noticed that they all had Cutie Marks painted on them, but mine was the only one with an electronic scanner for a lock. All the other lockers had a normal lock on them. Who in the world was I? Remembering my flashback, I recalled being called a ranger. I decided to ask Silver Song if he knew anything about them.

"Rangers? Where'd you hear that from?"

I decided it was time to tell him about my flashback. As I told him everything, he just stood there and listened. After telling him the part about the zebra convoy and the attack, his eyes grew large. As soon as I finished telling him about the flashback, he suddenly got real close to me and started asking questions frantically, "Wait, you were a Ranger? You were there during the Littlehorn Massacre?”

Nervously, I began to back up. He noticed and started to apologize, "I'm sorry about that, but you have no idea what you just told me. We thought that the zebras started the attack and that they had dozens of soldiers. To think it was only two caravans with wounded zebras and we were the ones to shoot first. Not to mention, you were a bloody Ranger! A member of the most elite force in all of Equestria!"

Seeing him start to get worked up again, I decided to divert back to my first question. "Could you please tell me about Luna's Rangers? And perhaps why they were so important as to have an electronic scanner on a mere locker?"

He looked at me excited, and I had the feeling that I just opened a talking storybook as he began to explain, "A few years before the war, tensions were beginning to rise between the Zebra Nation and Equestria. While the Princesses each had their own royal guards to safeguard the realm, their numbers were stretched thin, and they weren’t on the same fighting capabilities as the Caesar's legion. The princesses then decided to create two elite groups of warriors, one for each princess. They were Celestia's Rangers and Luna's Rangers. They were trained in many forms of martial arts, weaponry, terrain association, combat spells and more. The training was very rigorous and only six made it through to become rangers. However, those that became Rangers were able to access the ancient libraries to better themselves and become the most powerful warriors in Equestria. There were only three ever chosen for each group of rangers, so six in total. A unicorn, an earth pony and a pegasus. Two to represent each pony race..." He noticed my look and became a little less excited as he decided to lessen his story. "To cut it short, they were the most skilled and elite warriors in all of Equestria. Now while it’s true there were two groups, in reality, there was only one that stood out before the war. Due to the dangers and terrors in the night that Luna had her rangers help her fight, they were able to sharpen their skills and become the real guardians of Equestria. As for Celestia's Rangers, they were strong too, but nowhere near as skilled as Luna's Rangers were. So, they spent more time in the catacombs learning the ancient arts, becoming the more knowledgeable of the two."

Upon hearing the story, I suddenly became more self-conscious of myself. If what he said was true, I must've been the pegasi for Luna's Rangers. After hearing that, I started to really wonder what was in that locker. Perhaps it would have the answers to all of my questions. If I was truly that strong, I could probably just kick in the locker door. Except as soon as I lifted my legs to kick, Silver Song immediately smacked me in the back of the head and pointed towards my leg.

Oooohh Yeah. I forgot about the chunk-less leg. So kicking was a no-go.

It seemed that Silver Song had some more depressing news about the door. "These doors aren’t your average metal either. If you had let me finish, I would’ve told you that their personal lockers were made with onyx and steel fused together. That and they had the highest protection spells placed on them, ones that only a princess could break. So, the door was pretty much unbreakable and lockpick-proof." He stood there proud of the old Equestrian technology, completely forgetting the fact we were trying to open it. I coughed loudly and that seemed to bring him off Cloudsdale Nine. "There was only one way to open the lockers, but they kept it a really tight secret. I honestly have no idea how to open them."

Now distraught and mentally exhausted, that was the last thing I wanted to hear. I couldn't kick it, couldn't lock pick, shit, couldn't even shoot or blow the damn thing open. It was all just too much and I had to lean against the locker just to keep myself from stressing out too much. After a few moments, we both heard a click come from it and we moved back from it. After a few more clicks, the cutie mark symbol on the door glowed and opened. We just looked at each other in awe.

“How did?...”

“I have no idea.”

Inside were several books, some old and one that looked really ancient, a journal, a brown dual-sided saddle bag, some cola bottles and a beautiful set of light-blue leather armor with the resemblance of a crescent moon in multiple places around the armor. They all caught my interest and I wanted to look at them all, especially the books, but I decided to investigate the journal first. If there were any answers to be found about my past, they would be inside it. As I opened the book, on the first seven pages were a set of lyrics. All the pages after that were totally blank.

Seriously?! I created a journal just to write sets of lyrics?! I suddenly wished I could go back in time and kick myself. Silver Song must’ve noticed my frustration because soon he was looking over my shoulder. "Huh, these are some good lyrics. Did you write these?" I just looked at him and he smiled back apologetically. "Sorry, you were probably hoping to find some answers." I just groaned in response and decided to look through this stuff later after I got a good shower. I felt that it would help to relieve all the frustration I've built up until now. That and I was really starting to smell. Closing up the locker, I walked over to the last shower stall. Before I could step in, Silver Song patted me on the back. "Try to relax. I know you've been through a lot today." I looked at him in surprise. How did he know what I was thinking? He responded with a wink, "I know the old shower trick. Back in the day, I used to do it a lot too. And don't worry about getting the bandages wet. I got some more to replace them when you get out. I'll be sitting out here on the bench." He then pointed towards my side. "And make sure you scrub hard to wash those stripes off. While I don’t know why you had them painted on, if you wear them out there, you'll only draw more attention to yourself. And not the good kind of attention either." Nodding in agreement, I then stepped in the shower.

When I turned the shower knob, nothing happened. "Hey. I thought you said the..." when all of a sudden the shower head shook and I was instantly greeted by pink, icy cold water. "SHIT!" I immediately jumped out of the shower and ended up sliding into the lockers. I looked around to see him staring at me in surprise, then he just busted out laughing.

"It's not funny! You told me they worked fine!" That just made him laugh even harder. After a while, he started to calm down.

"Oh, sweet Celestia! That was just too good. All I heard was this "Shit!" and I looked up to see you sliding out the stall, right into a locker." He snorted a little bit before continuing, "Oh that was just perfect. You made my day a whole lot better"

I just looked at him in contempt "Well I'm glad someone's happy. Now would you care to explain what is wrong with the showers?" With a big grin still on his face, he apologized, "I'm sorry. I should have mentioned that the showers down here haven’t been used for over a hundred years. I’m used to using the ones upstairs. Let it run for a few minutes, then it should be fine. Though normally I try to make it brief as possible because of the pink discoloration, but I believe you should be fine. For some unknown reason, you seem to have an immunity to the Pink Cloud.. Oh! and if you want hot water, just turn the knob to the left. Though it will probably take a while longer to warm up." I just shook my head. "No need. I prefer cooler showers anyway."

I waited a few minutes outside the shower and sure enough, when I walked in, it was nice and cool. Closing my eyes, I let the water wash over me, all my frustrations slowly ebbing away. Outside the stall, I could hear Silver Song muttering to himself. I asked him if everything was alright. "Huh? Yeah, I was just thinking about what you said earlier about your flashback. I began to think back to before the war and I realized that you aren’t the one of the pegasi I remember. One was a very cute, grey mare and she was stationed up in Cloudsdale with the Celestia Ranger Pegasus, who died right before the bombs fell. In fact, the six Rangers were paired off in their respective cities and I noticed that your locker is the only one here." Now really confused, I asked him, "Then why do I have all those books and that Ranger armor in my locker, that only I can access?"

I could just imagine him scratching his head. "That’s where I'm lost. There were only six rangers, yet clearly you seem to be one of them. Unless you walk out of that stall a cute mare, I have no idea how to explain this."

Though he meant it as a joke, I started to check myself all over. Great. Now he’s got me second guessing my own gender. Yet because of that, I noticed something else. The stripes that were all over my body weren't washing off. "Hey Silver… these stripes aren’t coming off. What should I do?" I was greeted by silence for a while before he finally spoke, "What do you mean they aren't coming off? The water is infused with the Pink Cloud, so they should just...Don't tell me... Dry off and step out here quick! I need to see!" He sounded urgent, so I immediately dried off and stepped out of the stall. Within seconds he was next to me, looking me up and down. Then he backed up with a look of worry and confusion on his face…and a little scared as well. Concerned, I asked him what was wrong. He just sat down and after a few moments, he finally mustered up the strength to speak, "You're...a Zony...half pony, half zebra. I've heard rumors about one back before the war, but never have I met one before. And you've even got wings! This is...I don't know what to feel about this. Part of me wants to run away and another part is making me insanely curious." However his curiosity started to turn darker as he became angry. "Wait, how do I know you didn’t make all that stuff up? About your memory, being a Ranger, that ponies triggered the massacre? Explain yourself!"

I was now backing up, scared that the first person I met now looked like he might kill me. "Hold on sec! I wasn’t lying about before. I really don't remember who I am, and I told you the flashback just like I remembered it. I don’t know what else to tell you!" With all the courage I could muster, I looked him right in the eye and began explaining the best I could, "Look. I know that you were there for the war and that you have a right to hate zebras. But I really don't know who I am! Believe me, I wish I could remember. I'm just as scared and confused as you are. I find it impossible that I'm from the past, but that staff photo shows I was there. I wish I could tell you why I have that armor, if that flashback was real or why I have these stripes and wings, but I can't!" I just let out all my frustration and as I went on, I could see Silver Song begin to get taken aback. He looked away for a bit, unable to meet my gaze. When I finally finished, he looked back up and our gazes held for what seemed like ages. As always, he was the first to break the silence.

"Look, I'm sorry. It’s just everything about you is just… impossible. The story, you being a Ranger… and a zony! It's just all too much to take in at once. There's no way what you can be saying is true..." as I started to interject, he raised his hoof to stop me. "...But maybe it's just because I don't want to believe it. While all the facts are here, in this room, telling me that what you are saying is true, there is just a part of me that can't accept it. So, for now, I will believe you."

I let out a big sigh of relief. I couldn’t bear the thought of having a fight with him, especially after all that has happened today. Unsure of where to go from here, I asked, "So what now?" He closed his eyes for a second, then shook his head and was back to being his normal, cheerful self. "For now, let’s see if there are any clues in your locker. Perhaps reading those books or wearing that armor might reveal something. Let's go ahead and lay your stuff out."

Without a second thought, I went and opened it up and laid out everything. This time I paid more attention to each item. First, I focused on the armor. The leather seemed very durable and strong, but was also very light. It was light blue and bore a crescent moon on the chest piece and a decorated pauldron for the right shoulder. There were also two holes for my wings to go through. The armor itself had leather straps around it, so it seemed I would have to attach the pieces together. I put it aside for later. Next up were the books. There were five in total, "Fallen Caesar Style fundamentals", "Equestria's Lost Combat and Tactics", "Terrain Association for New Rangers", my journal and the one ancient book "Bards of Equestria." After reading the title of that last one, I realized that it felt out of place. I must've had a thing for music. First the lyrics in my journal and now this ancient book on bards. I looked up from the books to ask Silver Song a question, but he already had an answer. "No, I do not recall any singer in Equestria, or in the Zebra Nation for that matter, that looked anything like you. Trust me, I would remember that. It was my area of expertise as a journalist. I had sources all over the world that would tell me of any notable singers. You’re not one of them." Feeling a little disappointed and insulted, I snorted back in response.

Going back to the equipment, I moved on to the saddle bag. It was a regular old saddle bag, except one side had a large pouch and the other side had a rifle holster. I figured the rifle must be in the Arms Room. The cola bottles were covered in dust, but I wondered if they would still be any good or not. And finally, the journal. It was just an ordinary journal. After flipping through the pages hoping to find more than just a set of lyrics, a small sticky note fell out. I looked at it and it had a combination written on it. Perhaps it was the one to the Arms Room! "Hey. Look at this! I think I found the combination to the Arms Room." As he craned his head to look at the sticky note, a spark lit up in his eyes. He started to get a little excited. "It just might be. Let’s go ahead and try it out!" I packed everything up into the bag and put it next to the locker. As we walked over to the Arms Room, right before I got to the keypad, Silver stopped moving and whispered, "Don't move!" I looked back at him. "Look, I promise, I'm not gonna sho..." I stopped as I noticed he wasn’t looking at me, but directly behind us. And there was a lot of fear in his eyes.

I slowly followed to where his gaze went to see the exit door was wide open and standing in the doorway was this huge Feral. It must've been three times the size of a regular full-grown stallion. It wore an old, padded security outfit and a nameplate that had the first part of its name scratched out, but the second part "Heart" was still there. Although the second letter was scratched out, so it looked more like "Hart". As we stood there, too afraid to move, it looked around the room before finally settling its gaze upon us. It let out this huge roar that shook the room and charged towards us. We hauled ass as we bolted towards the door we came in from, rounding the corner of some lockers before making a straight beeline to the door. Right as it was about to turn the corner, it slid and fell against the wall. That was all we needed. In an instant, we were both at the door back into the office. As Silver Song tried to squeeze in, I looked back to see the giant ghoul barreling towards us. I immediately turned and kicked my first friend through the doorway and slid through just a second before there was a huge Whomp! behind me. We both turned to see that the door was now slammed shut and a huge dent in the middle of the door. There was no way we were gonna be able to use that door again.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me! How could I forget about Hart?!" Silver Song was practically screaming at this point. All he got in response was loud banging from the ferals out in the hallway. "Oh, shut the hell up out there!" That just seemed to make them more frantic. He was about to go nuts when I yelled out to him, "Silver! Just stop! Yelling at them will just make them even more agitated. Anyway, you mentioned that you forgot about that huge ass feral earlier. You're saying you knew about that thing?"

When he turned to answer me, there was still anger in his eyes, but it wasn’t directed at me. "Yes, I knew about him. He's a real pain in my ass! I've been here for weeks and once in a while, I will run into him. And he’s all brawn, little brain. Like a regular feral, except he's a whole lot bigger. I call him Hart on account of the fact that’s what his name tag says. Every time I would see the giant fucker, he would spot me and start charging at me. It's like he knew I didn’t belong here." He sat down in frustration as he continued, "Now with him in there, there is no way we will be able to get to the Arms Room, let alone your equipment. And we are also trapped in here. That door won’t open now, and the other door has close to a hundred smaller ferals just waiting for us to step out." His face went from angry to exhausted and he seemed to give up as he lay down on the floor. "Out of all the shit I've been through, this is what gets me?"

I was thinking about giving up too and looked to the heavens for guidance. After staring up for a while, I found my guidance. "Silver, I know a way out of here!" He just snorted, "Unless you found a secret passage beneath our feet, we ain't going nowhere." A little tired of his attitude, I kicked a rock directly at his head. "Ow! What’s the big idea, you..." He stopped as I pointed up towards the ceiling. "...Or perhaps you could find one above us instead.”

Soon we were crawling through a ventilation shaft back to the Security Room. As we got to the grate overlooking the room, we could still see Hart walking around the room as if still searching for us. Behind me I could hear the cranky ghoul whisper, "So did you have a plan or we gonna watch to see if he leaves?" I did have a plan, but I wasn’t going to like it one bit. So I told him the plan and he just sat there speechless for a moment before angrily whispering back, "Are you out of you bloody mind? That’s probably the fastest way you can kill us. There has to be a better way to kill the overgrown thing?" The look in my eyes as I turned to face him told him that it was the only way. Before he could say another word, I interrupted him, "Look, I know you want to get out of here, but the only answers to my past lay right next to my locker. I'm not leaving until I get that bag. Also, we need those weapons. Just do your part and we'll be fine. Trust me."

Before he could get a chance to argue, I kicked open the grate and jumped onto one of the lockers. Not a moment after I landed, Hart turned his gaze right to me and charged in my direction. Right before he could get to the locker, I quickly jumped onto the ground on the other side and ran to the showers while hollering up to Silver Song, "Go! Go now!" Without turning to look to see if he had heard me, I quickly started turning on all the showers, aiming the shower heads outside the stalls. Halfway through, I heard a loud thud! and turned to see Hart was already here and already barreling towards me. I waited until just the last second before leaping out of the way. The big oaf tried to turn, but ended up sliding on the water, right past me. It slammed straight into the wall, and I could hear its neck snap upon impact.

I figured that there was no way it could be alive now, so I walked towards the showers to start turning them off. As soon as I reached the stall closest to the ghoul, I saw it twitch. With no time for me to react, it turned around with insane speed and slammed me hard with one of its forehooves. The force sent me flying right across the room and straight into the wall. I could feel most of my ribs break on impact and blood run down my forehead as it got up and charged towards me. My vision was becoming blurry. I felt the ground tremble as it was almost upon me. It was about to slam into me when out of nowhere, there was a large Bang!. Next thing I knew, the great behemoth fell to its side with a huge gaping hole in its head, followed by a, "Alright! I finally got you, you son-of-a-bitch!". I turned to see Silver Song wielding a shotgun, a triumphant look in his eyes. I wanted to congratulate him when my vision began to fade. I could just make out Silver Song saying, "Hey! Hang in there buddy! I won't let you die on me that easily." That was the last thing I remember before going unconscious.

…

I awoke later, unable to move. My whole body was sore and aching. I couldn’t even move my head. As my vision began to clear, I noticed that I was still in the locker room. Across from me, I saw Silver Song looking down and reading one of my books. It was the Bards of Equestria book. He seemed to be fascinated as his eyes were lit up and a smirk on his face. I tried to talk to him and let him know I was awake, but I couldn’t get any words out. I felt the weakness take over me and faded back into darkness.

…

The next time I awoke, I was feeling a lot better and found I was able to move my legs. Although they were still very sore, so I was slow getting up. After managing to stand up, I looked around and noticed my friend wasn’t nearby. Huh? Must’ve gone exploring again. Figured it'd be best to leave him to it for now. "Might as well do my own little exploration." As I looked around the locker room, I saw Hart, laying on the opposite side of the room with a gaping hole in his head. Sweet Celestia, what kind of shotgun did he find in there? Suddenly, an idea came to me, and I walked towards the arms room to see what else was in there.

As I entered the cage, I noticed that it was way bigger than what it seemed. From the outside, it appeared to be a small cage, but there was a door in the back that led to another room with more weapons. In the room I was in, there were a lot of small arms and ammo, but over the course of time, most of them were corroded and lost to time. It seemed that all the weapons here were unusable. Although the same couldn’t be said for the ammo. Most of the rounds survived the test of time, but most of the rounds belonged to the handguns, which also made them useless at this time. After getting a good look at the first room, I walked into the second room and saw that it was in much better condition than the previous one. In here, there were a few various weapons and they all seemed in good condition. To my right, I saw an empty locker and figured that’s where Silver got the rifle from. Yet as I made a closer inspection upon the other lockers, they all had a more secure lock. And to my dismay, they were all locked. There was no way they would open without the right key, or some incredible lockpicking skills.

In the far back, there was a light blue locker with a crescent moon on it. Upon closer inspection, the lock was the same as the one on my locker. "Huh. So, this must be mine. Wonder what's inside." Anticipation began to overtake me until I remembered I still don’t know how I opened the last one. I recall it opened after a I leaned against….no way. A weird thought occurred and I pressed my cutie mark up against it. After a few seconds, I heard a click. As I opened the locker, what lay before me was unreal. It was a sniper rifle.

I took hold of the rifle and began to examine it in awe. It was black, with gold decorated edging. It had a very advanced scope that could zoom in and out. On the buttstock was my cutie mark, so it must’ve been made specifically for me. As I looked all over it, I could not find where the ammo went and the barrel seemed to be that of a laser rifle, but different than the other ones in the Arms Room. Was this weapon corroded as well or is there something I'm just not getting? I decided to look at it more later and took it out to put it next to my locker. Silver Song had yet to arrive still, so I decided to read through one of my books "Terrain Association for New Rangers". After reading through it a few times, I felt exhausted and decided to take a nap.

I felt a few nudges before awaking to see Silver Song standing above me. "Rise and shine you little wanderer. It’s time we left this place and I, for one, am not keen on saving your sorry butt a fourth time." I could see him grinning a little bit, but I knew he wasn’t joking either. We'd almost died twice because of my carelessness and as grateful as I was for him taking care of me and helping me learn a bit about who I was, I could tell that he wanted to get out of here, still in one piece.

I was still a little stiff from yesterday, so it took me a while to get up. I kinda wanted to go back to sleep a little bit longer, but I remembered that we still weren’t alone. Out in the hallway, there were still ferals wandering around. I could barely hear their shuffling, but we both knew they were there. So, I went into my locker and started to put on my armor. It took a few minutes, but once I had it on, I was shocked. The leather felt so smooth against my body, and it was super light. It was hard to believe that this would protect me. While I was finishing getting my saddlebag packed, Silver Song was loading a handgun he managed to find. Luckily for him, there seemed to be plenty of 9mm ammunition.

As he was loading, he looked at the rifle I was holding and whistled, “Now that is a beauty. You got any ammo for it?”

I shook my head. “I wish. I don’t even know what ammo it takes or if it takes ammo for that matter.”

Chuckling, he gestured for me to hand it over. “I got you, let me take a look and I can tell you what you need.” After handing it over, he rotated the rifle around, his grin soon turning to confusion. “What the hell…” Confusion then turned to annoyance as he started looking even closer and inspecting every detail about it. After a good minute, he just snorted and handed it back to me. “I give. That is a weapon beyond me. I’d say it was a really cool prop, but it's not. It’s weighted and balanced too well. For sure, I can tell you it’s a laser rifle, it’s very advanced and that it has no entry port for any magazines or cell cartridges, or even signs of one even existing.”

Noticing my disappointment, he tried to cheer me up. “Look, no need to get down, I didn’t say it was hopeless. Just that I’ve never seen a weapon like this before, so there’s probably something I’m not seeing. Now I know of an old tech expert up near Manehatten. Goes by the name Tech Chrome. Tell him I sent ya and he will get you squared away. You’ll want to head to Ponyville first. It’s a little town, so you might be able to find some supplies there, though you should find a way to hide your stripes first. Then head northeast, going around Canterlot. The place is infested with way more ghouls and ferals than you can count. Finally you’ll come to the tracks that will take you to Manehatten. Stay in cover and away from the tracks, but keep them in your sight until you reach Manehatten. Finally you’ll look for Tenpony Tower. It’s a huge damn building, so you can’t miss it. You got all that?”

After going over it in my head a few times, I nodded. “Yeah I got it.”

Seeming satisfied, he continued, “Good. Now I want you to understand something. I’ve told you a few times now about how the wasteland works out here and that you’re lucky I’m not an asshole. Don’t go immediately trusting anypony, no matter how nice they seem. There are many out there who will do anything to rob you blind, capture you to sell to raiders or slavers, or just straight up kill you. Even in Manehatten, there are a few ponies who will try to take advantage of you, so be very careful to trust any pony.” Pointing to my saddlebag, he continued, “Now there’s too many supplies here for me to carry and it’d be a crying shame to just waste them by leaving them here, so we're sharing medical and food. There is food there for roughly four to five days, enough to last you until you get to Manehatten. If there wasn’t only one working gun in here, I’d also set you up with that. I’ll walk with you up to the gate and then we will go our separate ways. So, if you’re ready, let's head out while the coast is still clear.”

“Gotcha, let me just double-check that I got everything real quick and I’ll be set.” Dropping my saddlebag, I went over my inventory. I had my books, medical and food supplies, the cola bottles and my rifle. After making sure my armor was fitted, I loaded the saddlebag onto my back and nodded to him.

“Ok…Let’s go”

Without any hesitation, he led the way to the back door and carefully opened it. Poking his head outside, he looked around for a bit before giving me the signal it was safe. Moving as quickly and silently as we could, we wove our way through the courtyard, avoiding the skeletons that lay scattered around the campus. A few minutes later, we reached the gate, when Silver Song turned to me.

“This is where we go our separate ways. From here on out, you’re on your own. So long as you don’t forget what I’ve told you, you ought to live a little longer. Remember, head straight to Manehatten and don’t stop there until you reach Tenpony Tower. Maybe one day our paths will cross again.”

I started to feel sad since he was my first and only friend and I wanted to ask to go with him, but I needed answers and Manehatten was the best place to start. “Thanks Silver, I won’t forget what you’ve done for me.”

Nodding back, he turned his head towards the road. “Now get going. Time for you to go wander and survive the wasteland.” He paused, then chuckled to himself. “You know what? That suits you. I’m gonna call you Wanderer from now on.” Wanderer, eh? I liked it. “I will be heading south from here. Not sure where I’ll end up yet.” As we headed out our separate ways, I looked back at the academy one last time and remembered the poor fillies that were trapped in there.

“I’ll come back for yall when I can, I promise.”

…..

It had been two days since then and I was getting more accustomed to life in the wasteland. Whenever I stopped to eat or sleep, I would pour over my books and practice the fighting techniques within, occasionally humming tunes to the lyrics in my journal. I learned quickly to stay off the main road and hidden from view after being chased by a group of raiders not too long after I left Little Horn valley, losing most of my medical supplies in the process. Also, to camp even further away and to never have a campfire after dark, as well as what wood to use so as not to produce a lot of smoke. Thanks to the Terrain Association book, I was able to get a better idea of the surrounding area and how far I had left to go. Finally, Silver Song was right. Flying was a bad idea, as I would get shot at almost every time I did, by either slavers or raiders. So, for now, I decided it would be best to just walk there.

Currently, I was in a large patch of woods following the main trail to Ponyville, far off and out of view as usual. The woods made me feel at ease and I had a knack for sensing if anything was nearby. I had travelled more than halfway so far and noticed it would soon be night. As I got ready to find a place to sleep, I noticed the faint glow of a campfire further into the woods. I didn’t know if they were friendly or not, and it was too risky to travel any further as it began to get dark. Dropping my armor and gear, I decided to investigate. As I got closer, I could hear multiple voices and dropped low, slowly creeping through the shadows until I was able to see them more clearly. In the outline of the campfire, I was able to make out a small caravan full of supplies and four ponies huddled around the fire. There were two mares, one older and one younger, around my age, a young filly and an older stallion. There didn’t seem to be any indications of them being raiders or slavers in disguise, so I figured it would be safe to sleep somewhere nearby tonight. Deciding it was time to head back, I crept backwards, unaware of the twig behind me.

Snap!

The family went silent, and the older stallion got up, levelling a shotgun in my direction. “Who’s there? Show yourself!”

Cursing to myself, I stepped out into the clearing. “Don’t shoot, I mean you no harm.”
He looked at me in disbelief. “Oh yeah, and I bet you were just hiding in the bushes like any good neighbor. Nah…you give me a reason why I should believe a damn zebra...pegasus... what the hell are you?”

I decided my best course of action was to just tell him the truth, “First off, I’m a Zony, half pegasus, half zebra and I’m a traveler heading to Manehatten. I decided to stop for the night and saw your campfire. I wasn’t sure if you were a threat or not, so I snuck up here to try and get a good look to see if it was safe to sleep nearby or not.” I couldn’t tell if I had convinced him or not, so I went on, “Look I’m not one of them raiders or slavers, I swear. I don’t want any trouble and will move on if it bothers you.” The older stallion still looked unconvinced, and as we both stood there waiting to see who would break the tense silence first, the young mare got up and walked from behind him and slowly towards me. As she got closer, I was able to see more of her and was surprised. She was a beautiful pegasus, with a pure white coat and a long blue mane, with an ice flower for a cutie mark. I was under the impression that pegasi were a rare sight to find under the clouds. The older stallion got worried and called out to her.

“Lily, what are you doing!? Get back here!”

She ignored him and soon was right in front of me, sniffing the air. Then looking right into my eyes, my heart skipped a beat. Damn me if she didn’t have such deep, beautiful eyes. I felt myself start to flush a little and she gently smiled before turning back to the others. “It’s ok, I don’t smell any blood on him or sense any intent to cause harm to us.” They all sighed with relief and the older stallion lowered his shotgun.

“Sorry ‘bout that, but we had to make sure you weren’t a threat to us. I’m sure you understand.”

Relieved that I could live another night, I nodded. “I understand, I’m glad to know you’re also friendly.”

Lily looked to the older mare. “Can he spend the night with us, Ma? I want to see if he has any stories for us.”

Still a bit uncertain, she hesitated to give an answer, “Well…”

Soon the little filly was bouncing around, all excited. “Stories! Stories! Stories!”

Chuckling, the father looked to me. “Hold on now. It’s up to this young one if he wants to stay or move on. What do ya say, stranger? Care to stay with us for the night?”

Looking to each of them, I bowed my head and smiled. “Sure, why not.”

The little filly got even more excited and began to jump around me. “Yay, more stories!” She ran around and began nuzzling herself under one of my wings. “Wooow, you have wings just like Miss Lily!” She poked her head out to look at me and I couldn’t help but smile and laugh a little.

I looked back to the rest. “If y'all don’t mind, let me go grab my gear nearby and bring it over.” Looking back down to the little one, I leaned in and whispered loud enough for the others to hear, “and then I’ll tell you all the stories you want to hear.” She was beaming and I looked up to see the mother smiling in defeat.

“I can’t say no to that, now, can I? Lily, get supper ready and Jesse dear, help our guest with his gear please?”

Jesse dipped his head and turned to me. “Lead the way.”

After we got my gear, I sat down by the campfire and introduced myself. After that, they introduced themselves. The parents were Jesse and Darlene, and the adorable, bouncing filly was Blossom. As Lily distributed the bowls of soup, I started to tell my story, and her and Blossom settled themselves on either side of me, with Blossom snuggling herself under a wing, her head poking out and listening intently to every word. They all seemed to enjoy my tale, even though I could tell they didn’t believe the part about me being immune to the Pink Cloud and radiation in general or that I was from the past, but it didn’t matter to me. It was a peaceful night, and they were a friendly group of ponies. As everyone started to turn it for the night, they put out the fire. When everyone else was asleep, Lily walked over to me and nuzzled herself up next to me, snuggling under my wing. She was warm and I felt comforted by her presence. Soon, we too fell asleep.

…..

Morning had now come, and I awoke to see everyone was still asleep. Lily was still curled up and I didn’t want to wake her. Nor the others for that matter just yet. It didn’t seem like these folks get the chance to sleep in peace like this very often, so I just kept watch. Took a while for me to notice my back was a little heavier than usual and I turned my head to see Blossom all curled up into a ball on it. Smiling to myself, I waited. A good hour or two later, Jesse was the first to wake. He stretched for a bit before looking around, his eyes settling on me and smiled with sympathy as he saw my situation. He woke Darlene and when she too saw us, she gave such a warm smile.

“They seem to like you, Wanderer. I’m glad we made the right choice in trusting you last night. Poor girls have been through so much lately, especially dear Lily.”

I was now curious to hear more. “I take it your daughters have been through some rough times recently?” She shook her head.

“Daughter. Although I wish I could take credit, Lily joined us a few years back when we found her on the outskirts of Fillydelphia and has been like family ever since, especially with Blossom. The Enclave had been after her ever since she escaped Thunderhead. She never talks about what happened there and we don’t ask. It seems to bring painful memories and to be honest, I was surprised to see her reaction with you yesterday. We thought you were here to take her back and were prepared to defend her.” We both looked at her as she went on. “This is the first time I have ever seen her like this, and it makes me happy she could find some peace in these hellish times.” Looking back to me, she softly pleaded, “I know it’s too much to ask, but won’t you consider travelling with us? I know you said you were going to Manehatten, but the kids seem to like you and you seem like a good sort.” Even as she said that, I had already thought about it earlier. I felt a connection with this family, even if I only knew them briefly. But I knew that I couldn’t, and so sadly shook my head.

Smiling sadly now, she dipped her head. “I understand, but I had to try. They’ll miss you, especially little Blossom here.” She walked over and gently nudged her awake.

Giving of a huge yawn, Blossom got up and in a second, all traces of tiredness had disappeared. “Morning mister…” she looked around until her eyes lay on Lily, then followed down until her gaze settled on her tail and got a mischievous look in her eyes. She aimed and pounced on it.

Lily’s eyes went wide open and with a squeak, bolted headfirst into the bushes. We all looked, as moments later, she emerged covered in twigs and dirt and, oh, was she mad. I looked back to see Blossom giggling at her small victory. “Miss Lily, why you look like you need a bath…” but never got to finish as Lily flew right on to her and just sat on her.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of her trying to free herself as she pleaded, “OK, OK, I’m sorry. Get your huge flank off of me!” Lily just looked around and smiled. “Oh wow, did I sure find such a wonderful cushion out here! Wanderer, what do you think? Isn’t it just amazing?” I couldn’t help but go along with it.

“Oh yeah, I mean what are the odds of someone throwing out such a perfectly good cushion into the middle of the woods?” Blossom just looked at me in shock.

“Traitor! You’re supposed to be on my side!” We were now all laughing at the plight she brought upon herself before Lily finally released her. As we all packed up our gear, it was time to say our farewells. And I was really sad to do so because I had taken a liking to them and the offer to go with them was really tempting. However, it also meant I might never find the answers to my past and I needed those more than anything right now.

As we said our goodbyes, Lily and Blossom came to me. Blossom was the first to speak, “Do you really have to leave? You’re really fun.” Leaning down, I put my forehead to hers.

“Yes, I need to find out who I am, or I might never know.”

She nodded and gave me a big hug before heading back to her parents. Now it was Lily’s turn and the one I was the saddest to leave behind. However, she was smiled with a look of understanding. “I knew you couldn’t stay with us, and I hope you find the answers you're looking for in Manehatten. Promise you’ll come visit us in Appleloosa one day?” Trying to hold back tears, I promised.

“Good. I’ll be waiting for you then. Stay safe out there, alright?” I promised again and she gave me a hug as well, but for a little longer this time. We then went our separate ways and thoughts of them stayed on my mind.

I started to head towards a hill Jesse told me about last night and within an hour, I was there, and the sight was absolutely breathtaking. I could see the end of the forest was not too far and further out in the distance was Ponyville and Canterlot. Outside Ponyville, I noticed a small village that had some activity. Darlene mentioned it and warned me to be careful of it. Not because it belonged to raiders, slavers or the Enclave, but because it was home to thieves and swindlers. And all my gear would be very enticing to sell or steal. So, it would probably be best to skirt around it for now. As I was getting ready to put my armor back on, the air was pierced by gunshots and screams. I perked my ears to get a better idea where it was coming from and pinpointed it to the direction I just came from. “Oh no, that’s the way the family went!” Without hesitation, I started to turn, but remembered that I had a rifle I didn’t know how to use and not sure if it was a battle I could win. Then my thoughts went dark as I imagined them being hurt and I started flying through the woods.

I had to do something!

Eventually the sounds of gunfire and shouting grew louder as I got closer, when I saw a pony limping away towards me. It was Lily! I rushed to her, and my blood froze. She was covered red with blood, and I could see multiple wounds. Her eyes were full of fear, but were soon overflowing with tears when she saw me.

“Wanderer!! Thank the stars I found you. I beg of you, please save us!” Before I could reach her, she collapsed, and I was scared it was too late. When I reached her, I noticed she was still breathing, but in really bad shape. As I started to reach for a potion, I heard another scream further near the fight, but this time it was from a filly. Blossom! Quickly, I lifted Lily’s head and helped her swallow the potion. Laying her head back down, I swore to come back, dropped my gear and rushed to where the others were, ignoring the branches and thorns cutting into me as I tore through the forest. The noise was starting to fade when suddenly, I broke into a clearing and stopped. The clearing I had rushed into was a part of the main trail and on the other side was a sheer drop. There was a precipice jutting out from the cliff and had a single tree. Below that tree were two raiders laughing and cheering, but that wasn’t the reason I stopped. They had a rope swung over a lower branch and were hoisting something up. The reason why I stopped was because that something was Blossom. She was cut up bad and could barely struggle to free herself from the rope. Further to the side were the bodies of Jesse and Darlene. They were cut and carved into and their last expressions were of fear. My heart was pounding like crazy, too shocked to pick which emotion to feel the most right now. I was racked with grief, pain and rage. It wasn’t long before one of the raiders noticed me behind them and looked to me with a vicious smile. His voice was like blades, “Look. Look! Another toy to play with. HAHAHAHA, I call dibs on his wings. They would look great on my wall.” The other raider, a mare, cut him off.

“Hell no! You got to play with those two meat sacks and all I got was this little thing. I want him!” She started looking me up and down. “Besides, he looks like he could satisfy me a little before I carve his hide for my wall. I’ve never felt a zebra before!” Her words cut me from the shock.

“You were the one who did that…to Blossom…?” She gave off a maniacal laugh.

“Oh yes! I’ll tell you what, she was definitely a screamer. I took great pains to make it last, but the little ones always bleed out quicker. Soon she’ll be dead, but I’m so fucking happy you came along! Now I can satisfy two pleasures tonight!” Her face started to contort with psychotic lust as she walked toward me, the other raider jumping around, waiting for the show to start.

I broke. Rage welled up inside of me as I charged in. I aimed for the mare first and she was surprised at my sudden reaction. I didn’t give her the chance to recover. In an instant, I was in front of her and spun low, kicking out hard to sweep her legs out from under her and then crushing her throat under my hoof as she landed, leaving her to slowly die, gasping for air. The other raider wasted no time however and was soon upon me, swinging a spiked club down towards my head, but I saw it coming. Ducking backwards, the raider ended up bashing in the head of his partner, turning it into bloody pulp. While he was trying to pull the club back out, I charged hard right into him and kept pushing, knocking him right off the cliff. I stood there and watched as he plummeted to his death, hoofs flailing and screaming until the rocks below cut him off. Shaking with rage, I stood there for a moment before remembering Blossom and ran to get her down. She was in bad shape, but she was still breathing.

“Hold on Blossom, I got you! Your gonna be alright…”

There was a rustle in the bushes behind me. Spinning around, there was another raider, but this one was much bigger and had spiked metal armor on him. He looked at me, then the dead raider and spoke with a collected, rough voice.

“Where is the other one? I left two here.”

With satisfaction, I told him, “Oh, your friend decided to go skydiving. Want to try?”

He just smirked. “Nice offer, but you’re out of your league. I commend you on killing them and you don’t seem to be suffering from a single blow. Tell you what, I'll overlook this loss if you submit to me. It's not easy finding good fighters out here in the shit, but you will do nicely. My master would reward you well for your services. I’ll even let you keep that little useless clump as a pet.”

I was surprised by his sudden offer, but as I remembered what they did to Lily and her family, I spat at him, “Go to Tartarus!”

Sighing in frustration, he crouched down. “If that’s your answer, so be it.” With surprising speed, he charged straight at me, swiping at my head with a spiked hoof. It was too fast to dodge, and I was just barely able to block it. The force behind the blow was too great and as it connected, I felt myself being lifted from the ground. Soon, I was flying and hit a tree with such impact, the ribs I broke before cracked again and my left foreleg broke. Struggling to get back up, I was pushed back down hard and looked up to see the huge raider there, with one hoof holding me down. He was grinning.

“I must say, that was very disappointing. I actually took you seriously for a second and you were actually this weak? Seems the ponies I recruit nowadays are just worthless trash. Any last words?”

A voice rang out, “Yeah. Fuck You!”

Before the raider could turn to see who spoke, a white and red blur knocked into him hard, making him stagger, right to the edge of the cliff. It was Lily! He turned and looked with pleasure.

“So that’s where you went, you little bitch. Thanks for saving me the trouble of finding you!”

As he raised up onto his hindlegs to deliver a deadly blow, I used all my energy to get up and charge into him as hard as I could at his chest. It was just enough to make him lose his footing and he tumbled down over the cliffside, cursing in rage until there was silence. I looked over to see his body mangled and unmoving. Turning back to check on Lily, I saw her staring at Blossom and my heart broke for her. She was too shocked to move or speak. As I hobbled over to hold them, slowly, Lily lifter her head to me, scared and unsure.

“She’s gonna be ok, right…. you can save her…can’t you?” Her body was shaking and her eyes were begging to hear any hope of saving her little sister.

I nodded to her. “It’s not too late. Quickly, let’s see if there are any medical supplies left.” Immediately, she brightened up a little and we looked around to see what we could find. Luckily, the medical supplies weren’t damaged, and we did what we could. Finally, we carefully moved her to a covered area not too far in the woods and gently laid her down. Now only time would tell.

Looking to Lily, I could see the tears were finally starting to come out. She began to wail in grief and…I didn’t have any words, so I held her close. This was the only comfort I could give. We stayed like that for a long time, until she ran out of tears and stopped shaking. I backed up and her eyes were red, her mouth moving, but no words coming out. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how she must be feeling and decided to tend to her wounds. Knowing she wouldn’t go anywhere, I quickly went to work. She didn’t fight or move as I worked to remove the bullets, sew up her wounds and bandage her up, making sure not to miss anything. Eventually, she exhausted herself and fell asleep. I felt so bad for her. Sure, I really liked the family, but she had been with them for years. I would need to be there for her when she woke up. I looked back and knew they should at least be given a proper funeral. After collecting the bodies, I took them to a nearby creek to wash off all the dirt and dried blood. There was no shovel to bury them, and the ground was too hard to dig by hoof, so I began to create a pyre. It took longer due to my injuries, but I ignored the pain as best I could. As I was almost finished with the pyre, I felt a nudge in the side of my flank and turned to see Lily looking up at me. “I want to help.” Giving her a gentle smile, I led her over to the Jesse and Darlene and we lifted them one by one onto the pyre. After they were both on the pyre, I lit it up and we stood there, saying our thanks and goodbyes, waiting until the last ember went out. Turning to Lily, I asked what she planned to do next.

She just stood there for a while in a daze, before looking to the ground. “I don’t know…they…they were my purpose…my family…now all that’s left are me and Blossom. I have to take care of her now… but I don’t know what to do.” As she trailed off, my heart ached for her, and I knew I couldn’t leave her like this.

“You have me.”

She turned to me in surprise. Flushing in embarrassment, I went on, “Look, I don’t know what it’s like to have a family, but you were the first ponies I’ve met that made me feel like I could be a part of one. I know I can’t replace Jesse or Darlene, but I promise I would never leave you or Blossom alone. I’ll be your family…if you think that’s ok…” I was starting to get nervous, when she wrapped me up in her hooves and cried.

“If you really mean that, then I’ll stay with you. I don’t want to be alone again.” We held each other tight for some time. Night began to fall, so I let go and tried to compose myself. “We’ll need to find a safer place to sleep, but before that, I need you to check on Blossom as I go and grab my gear further up the hill. While I’m gone, go ahead and see if there is anything you want to take to remember them by, as well as any supplies you can carry. We will head to Ponyville in the morning and should arrive there in the next day or two. You going to be ok for now?"

She nodded her head, wiping away tears from her face. “Yeah I’ll be ok. We can use the clearing from the night before. I’ll get Blossom and meet you there.” Taking off towards the hill, I was hit with sharp pains, reminding me I had cracked ribs and a broken leg. Once I had all my gear, I drank a potion to help with the pain and quickly walked back down to where Lily and Blossom were waiting for me…

Soon it was morning, and we could smell rain coming our way. Lily was beginning to look nervously at the sky, and I tried to cheer her up, “Don’t worry, we won't be flying to Ponyville. Besides, we're still recovering from our injuries, so it wouldn’t be safe anyway.”

“It’s not flying I’m worried about.” Shaking her head, she continued, “It's the rain. Notice how the clouds are greener than usual. It’s going to be filled with radiation and I’m not really fond of what follows…” I realized she must have been referring to thunder and lightning. That and she wasn’t immune to the radiation like I was.

“You got a point…we will have to take shelter in the ruins just outside of the trading town. Darlene warned me about the ponies there and we’re in no condition to defend ourselves.” Turning back towards Blossom, she looked even more worried. “And we need to get her real help quick. She was weak and feverish when I checked on her this morning and we should refit the small cart to carry her and our supplies, as well as provide them some cover.”

So we set to it and once we were ready, we left. Soon we were outside the forest and could see some of the ruins in the distance. Lily pointed towards an abandoned building on the outskirts of the ruins “Let's head there for now.” Looking towards the forest one more time, we turned around and headed for the outskirts of Ponyville...

Chapter Three

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Chapter 3: A Bird’s Cage

“In another part of Equestria, deep within the confines of Tenpony Tower, there was another pony who lived day-to-day, looking for her break. Her name is Midnight Sonata. She’s had a hard and unforgiving life, starting from her childhood. Growing up in an orphanage, she was viewed as unwanted since the beginning. Making friends was difficult for her and so she only had a few. Apart from her friends, her only solace was the radio and her hero on the air, PON3. She grew up listening to songs of ponies past and hoping one day to make her name known across the land as well…”

“…and let the magic in my heart stay true..”

I could still hear the song playing as I awoke. It was one of my favorites. I would have loved to sing alongside her on stage. Sitting on the couch, I looked around the room, once again reminded of my depressing reality. All around me the walls were cracked, chipped paint littered around the floor. Across from me was a broken table that I used to eat from and write songs on. It wasn’t always broken though. A few weeks ago, a couple of ponies came in and trashed it. They were never caught, and security didn’t care to investigate. To the back of the room was a small window and the bathroom. The bathroom was fine, so long as you didn’t mind the occasional radroach or the fact that it only had cold water. The window however was my one break from the going-on's of Tenpony Tower. Day after day, I would look outside and dream of adventures, imagining distant lands and towns that I would hear so much about from the occasional traveler.

“What I wouldn’t do to get out of this place. Even if just for a day.”

As I said that, I was reminded that, unfortunately, only select ponies were allowed in or outside the tower. Ever since an unexpected, devastating raid ten years ago from a group of raiders, the Tenpony Council has been extremely strict on what goes on involving any dealings with the outside world. Security is also tight, heavily monitored and guards the only two entrances, the higher-level entrance by the Celestia line and the ground floor entrance. Though sometimes, they would let me take a little peek outside if I sang for them. It seemed to brighten their days a little.

Eventually, reality kicked in. “Welp, time to go to work. Hopefully Amy isn’t asleep on her desk again or I’ll never get inside.” Quickly freshening up, I took one last look out the window before heading out the door. On the way, I thought about Amy, my closest friend.

Amy is another pegasus like me, a sweet gentle filly with a yellow pelt and a beautiful green mane who runs a nursery she made from the ground up. If there was a plant, she knew about it. Over the years, she would purchase seeds from travelers and grow them with absolute love and care. She is, however, very shy, and it took me months to finally become friends with her. I was her first friend and since then, she has come to welcome a few others into her life. She always has a lot of customers, but because of her shyness, I am usually the one who works behind the counter and opens the doors.

Eventually, I arrived to find the door unlocked. Even though I was sighing in relief, I was also slightly confused. “Odd, she’s usually not awake until I start knocking on the door.” As I walked in, a yellow blur flew right by, almost knocking me over.

“Amy. I’m here…what are you doing?”

“Sonata! Save me! There’s a giant radroach trying to eat me!!”

I had to put a hoof out to stop her before she ran into something. A little exasperated, I pointed out, “Amy dearest, you’re not being chased by a radroach…you dipped your tail in the fluorescent paint again. Look.” I picked up her tail where she could see the paint and glowing trail left behind in her wake.

Embarrassment flooded her face. “Oh…oh dear. I’m so sorry, Sony…”

How can anyone get mad at her when she’s this adorable? I had to fight to suppress myself from bursting out laughing. “It’s no biggie. Now we got 30 minutes until opening time, so we should get this cleaned up.” She looked relieved that I didn’t make fun of her. I learned that she is very sensitive. Hopefully, one day, she would become more independent. Suddenly, she gasped and ran to the back screaming, “I forgot to water the petunias!”

It’s always her petunias. Chuckling to myself, I went to set up the register and the signs. Once it was time, I raised both the shutters and, to my surprise, very few ponies were there waiting. Usually there were ten to twenty, but I only saw two. They were both Uppities, what we call the ponies who live on the upper, nicer floors.

The first was Ms. Dahlia. She was a kind unicorn with a white pelt and a luxurious hairstyle that started out in a charcoal color from the top and midway through turning a bright yellow. She loved to rock the hipster look and was the most popular Hairstylist in the tower. She noticed my confused stare, looked behind her and immediately knew what I was thinking, turning back to me with a sad, understanding smile. “Don’t you remember, darling? Last night we had that dreadful room collapse.”

I shook my head. A room had collapsed? I asked her about it and the pony behind her snorted in contempt, “Oh Ms. Dahlia, she’s a lowly worker pony, of course she would have no idea…” he was immediately cut off by a hard glare from Ms. Dahlia. He coughed into his hoof and changed topics, “I’m just gonna squeeze past here and grab what I came for.” As he squeezed by, Ms. Dahlia spoke up again with an apologetic smile, “While I do apologize for his rude behavior, he had a point. I sometimes forget you live on the lower levels, so you most likely wouldn’t have heard about it.”

I was so glad there were ponies like her that see past social standings. “Your fine, Ms. Dahlia, I’m used to it. I am sorry to hear about those who died.” Gesturing towards the shop, “Would you like to see what we have in today?”

She nodded and as she was walking by, I felt a nudge, turning to see a huge grin on her face. “So, last time I was here, you said you were working on another song. Come, tell me all about it.”

Instantly, I perked up and went right into it. Walking through the store and talking, it felt like I was with a big sister. In a sense, she kind of was and always wanted to see how I was doing, asking about my plans or songs. An hour or so later after she left, more customers began to trickle in and soon it was mid-day. Right on cue, Amy walked out from the back, immediately turning shy again and avoiding meeting any gazes until she got to me and relaxed a little. “Ready for lunch with Mint and Kiwi?” Her eyes were practically gleaming.

Kiwi and Mint Mint, aka Mint, owned some stores next to us. Kiwi was a lovely earth pony mare with a deep green mane, with some patches along her back and neck, dappled with dark brown spots. She ran the only grocery store on the lower levels and so was constantly filled with hungry ponies looking for cheap, good food. Quite contrary to her own cheap prices, she has her own small, elaborate greenhouse in the back she uses to grow fruits and vegetables and treats them with enough care to rival Amy. She also only shares it with Mint and Amy. Originally, she lived on a small settlement to the north outside the fallout zone and so had deep, rich soil for farming. She lived there most of her life until a group of raiders pillaged it a few years back. She was one of the few survivors and left her home for Manehatten. Rumor has it she went back and brought a lot of soil from her home to grow fresh and delicious crops that she sells to this day. Oh, and she’s also the most sought-after mare of the lower levels, but has yet to fall in love herself.

Mint Mint is another young pegasus mare, pure white with a mane mixed of sky blue and white. She owns an herbal stall right outside, between our flower shop and Kiwi’s grocery store. She usually has a good number of ponies willing to pay out of pocket for her herbal concoctions, but almost all the money goes to paying willing merchants for any rare or new herbs, medicinal books, vials, equipment and to local charity for the orphanage. Like me, she grew up here as an orphan in the tower and is very well loved by the children from there and treats any of the orphan’s injuries or illnesses for free.

All four of us have been close friends for a few years now and always enjoy having lunch together in Kiwi’s greenhouse, where we have a little picnic area in a small corner, decorated with some of Amy’s flowers and scented with Mint’s personal infusions. It was a slice of paradise and probably one of the best kept secrets of the tower, one we aimed to keep. Amy and I closed the shop for lunch break and headed to the back hallway towards the greenhouse. As we were walking in, the other two were in the middle of another discussion/argument. “…It’s super long and confusing. I can’t tell who’s who sometimes. You can’t tell me you don’t notice, Kiwi.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Horseshit, you know exactly what I’m talking about!” Mint then noticed us walking in and look relieved. “Amy, Sony, thank the Goddesses you’re here! Please, tell her you’ve noticed the chaos outside almost every day?!”

Amy and I just looked at each other for a few seconds. “What chaos?”

“Her line of adoring suitors that wind up going in and out of my stall, practicing how to say hello to her or pick-up lines. I’m about to start charging them for loitering around. She needs to either turn them down, accept one or make a separate line.”

“You know I can’t do either of those, Mint. I’m not in love with any of them and I don’t want to hurt their feelings. As for the going in and out of your stall, some of them are buying herbal perfumes, aren’t they?”

“Aha! So, you admit you know about them!”

“Minty, calm down.” Chuckling to myself, I sat on the grass and tried to ease her up. “You know Kiwi doesn’t want to hurt their feelings and as she said, they do help your business as well sometimes.”

“Uuughhhhh, this is why I love the little fillies. At least they aren’t always dumb or lovestruck. I mean seriously, just practicing how to say hello to a girl?! Boys!!!” Exasperated, she sat down as well.

Amy was just coming around to sit down and teased Mint, “Really now? This coming from the same mare I saw staring at Sinbad’s flank for a while at the diner yesterday. I could’ve painted a portrait of you, it was that long of a stare.”

Immediately, Mint’s face flushed pink and she started to get flustered. “I wasn’t staring that long…” She noticed us all raising our eyebrows and gave in, “…Ok fine, I like the boy. But he's different! He’s handsome, knows how to cook the most amazing meals and he treats me like a princess whenever I order. I swear if he wasn’t such a blockhead with flirting, I’d have kissed him already.” She went off into one of her daydreams and shortly realized it when she noticed us staring at her with wicked smiles.

Quickly trying to change topics, she looked to me. “Ahem…uh, so what about you Sony? We know Amy is working on getting over her shyness, no offense…” Amy shook her head, taking no offense, while biting into her salad. “…You on the other hand must have your sights set on a special somepony?”

It was Kiwi that spoke up first, “Yeah, he’s called adventure or music. She’s either always thinking about exploring the outside world or working on some new lyrics she will never sing.” She noticed my look of contempt. “Don’t give me that hun, you know it's true. No matter what I tell you about how cruel it is out there, you’re always daydreaming about it. As for your music, you’ve been writing songs for the past few years, and you have an insanely beautiful voice that you hide away.”

“I agree!” Amy looked up from her plate and got excited. “In the mornings before we open up the shop, I can always hear her singing and I always get distracted cause it’s so lovely. You should be on the radio, Sony!”

Now it was my turn to flush. “Oh c’mon girls, my voice ain’t that goo…” They were all staring at me in disbelief. “…d. No, seriously, I’m not that good! There are tons of other ponies who can sing better than I ever could…there’s no way I could be on the radio. Besides, I don’t even have my cutie mark…” It’s true, I did dream of singing on the radio for PON3, but I was scared other ponies would laugh at me. I couldn’t tell my friends that or they’d think I was being ridiculous. I noticed Mint was staring at me with interest and I couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

As I was starting to get nervous, suddenly she broke off and smiled. “That’s ok. We’ll just keep you for ourselves and you can sing for us! As for your cutie mark, you’ll get it one day, sweetie, don't you worry.” Her gaze softened as she continued, “I know it’s been hard for you trying to find your purpose, but I promise you will one day, and it will be glorious.”

That seemed to make me feel a little bit better. “Thanks Minty. I’m sure it will.” I remembered something and excitement flooded over me. “Oh, by the way, we’re still on for the rooftop hangout two nights from now, right?!”

Minty raised her eyebrows. “You mean our escapade to sneak out onto the rooftop to celebrate your 21st birthday without being caught by the guards?” Amy looked up a little scared, but thankfully Kiwi caught it before she could freak out.

“Don’t worry, we’re not going to get caught or seen. Remember, Sony and I found that abandoned stairwell in the back of my shop? It’ll be safe and totally fine.” She was right, of course. Just a few weeks ago, I was helping Kiwi clear out all the junk in one of her store’s closets and found a door hidden behind an old cabinet. Inside was a spiral staircase that led to an old lobby connecting to a closed off part of the hotel that we still, to this day, haven’t fully explored. One of the doors led to another stairwell that went all the way up to the rooftop. We didn’t go outside due to the door being locked and after multiple attempts to open it, Kiwi finally managed to break the lock a few days ago. “Besides, if we don’t all go, little miss star-voice here will end up going out by herself and leaving us for an adventure.” She looked at me playfully and said it as a joke, but Amy didn’t catch the joke and looked to me, worried.

“You wouldn’t really leave us, would you?”

“No, I wouldn’t leave you, I promise. Besides, if I left, who would wake you up from your morning naps behind the counter?” I barely dodged a swipe to the head.

She seemed to relax though. “I know…I just don’t want you to leave yet. You, Kiwi and Mint are the only friends I have, and I wouldn’t know what to do if you suddenly left...” She started to look sad, and I nuzzled up to her to comfort her.

“I promise, I won’t abandon you, Amy. I just really want to see a bit of the outside world and feel the wind beneath my wings. That’s all I’m going to do.”

Mint and Kiwi both spoke up in a heartbeat,

“And you promised to sing for us!”

“Don’t forget your song for us.”

They looked at each other and smiled. With a small smile to myself, I agreed, “I know, I know, I promised to sing my new song for you all in exchange for helping me finally go outside. It will be totally worth it, I swear!”

Kiwi’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “Oh, we are all well aware. I finally got my recording device fixed, so I can listen to you whenever I want to.” I almost choked on my food.

“Wait, what?! That wasn’t part of the deal!”

“Too late, no take-backsies!”

“Oh no you won’t!”

I jumped on her playfully and she squeaked in surprise, but she was laughing while we tussled. Amy and Mint looked at each other before they also started laughing. After that, we finished up lunch, before heading back to work. The rest of the day was pretty average, not too fast, not too slow. However, the only thing on my mind were dreams of flying. It was soon time to close up, and afterwards we went and said goodnight to the girls and headed on home. On the way back, I stopped by Security at the main entrance and said my hellos. They must’ve had a really boring or hard day, because they got really excited when I came around and greeted me with heartfelt waves. I sang for them a little as I walked by, but that was more than enough to make their day it seemed. They looked a little happier and I felt a little bit better about myself. While most of Security in Tenpony Tower can be really uptight, the guards down at the entrance were nice to me and I knew they had a tough job.

Upon arriving back to my room, I was greeted with a gloomy atmosphere that just wanted to suck out the joy from my day. Thankfully it wasn’t successful, and I took a quick shower before heading back to my couch. Looking out the window, I watched the rain and lightning. Sleep began to kick in and soon I was dreaming of flying over Tenpony Tower.

…

Morning came and I was unsure of what to do for today. Today was the one day of the week where the nursery was closed, and the girls all had plans for today. I sat on the couch thinking of what to do. After a long while, I decided to go and see if I could go and get another sneak peek outside the main entrance. While I was freshening up, I started singing my new song. I may not have been as nervous at the thought of singing it for my friends tomorrow night, but I certainly wanted to make sure I had it down good. As I opened the door, I felt it hit something and heard a big thump shortly after, followed by an “Ouch!”. I looked to see a mare rubbing her nose.

“Oh dear, I am so sorry! Are you ok?”

She raised a hoof up and waved it. “yeah, m fine. ‘ose ot o uch.”

“What?”

As I helped her up, she tried again, “Yeah, I’m fine. Nose, not so much.”

“Oh. I got some ointment inside that can help, if you don’t mind.”

Shaking her head, she smiled. “Thank you kindly, but I should've seen it coming. My fault, not yours.” As we spoke, I managed to get a better look at her. She was a very fetching, mature pegasus, one you would never forget. She had a dark gray pelt with long black and red hair, with a line of red hair both on her mane and tail that ended in white with a white circular hair clip featuring two sideways triangles on both. Her wings were half gray and red. What was most striking was her eyes. They were like a warm fire and the light danced off them like embers.

I saw her lips move, but I wasn’t paying attention, so I shook my head to bring me back to reality. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

Chuckling to herself, she asked again, “I said, was that you singing in there? I was taking a detour through the tower and chanced by to hear a beautiful voice coming from this room. I never heard anything like it before.” Now flustered, I immediately went to denial.

“What? No, no, no that was…the radio!...yeah, I like to listen to the songs PON3 plays while I’m in the shower and that was one of them. Sorry, I can’t exactly remember what the name of the song was.” I was praying she wouldn’t press any further, as I was already embarrassed. Only about a dozen ponies in the tower knew I liked to sing, and it took me years to build up just enough courage to sing for them. Luckily for me, she didn’t question it and just smiled.

“Must be a new song. Hopefully, I’ll get to hear it again someday. Oh, I’m Ruby by the way. Sorry for listening in, I was just so awestruck that I had to stop and listen.”

“I’m Midnight Sonata. And no worries, I would probably do the same thing.” We both laughed for a bit, before she had to leave. As I watched her walk away, I wanted to see her again. She seemed really nice, and I felt bad for lying to her about me singing. Sometimes I wished I wasn't so damn embarrassed with new ponies. Remembering I was going to head down to the main entrance, I locked my door and headed for the stairs. By the time I reached it, they were changing out the shifts and I waited to see if a specific guard was coming on for the day shift and luckily, I saw him walking down. He was a young unicorn they called Sarge, wearing his usual black hoodie and spiked hoof bands and was one of the lead supervisors for Security on the lower floors. He didn't ever wear his uniform outside cause he says it makes him stick out like a sore thumb when he was out on patrol or scouting the city. He was also one of the most helpful and was the one who would escort me out the front entrance occasionally. My smile started to fade when I saw his face, and he was not happy. Worried, I went to go check and see what was wrong.

“Hey Sarge, everything alright?”

Shaking his head, he started to become a little agitated. “No, it’s not. We’ve been hearing more and more reports of a large gang operating just outside the city. And the council is trying to decide if we should lock the tower down and hope they move on or if we should enlist the aid of those greedy Steel Rangers. Right now, we are starting to double up the horsepower on the gates and…” Seeing the worry in my eyes, he calmed down a bit. “…Look, it’s just been a rough morning. The Council members know what they’re doing, and the gang hasn’t shown any signs of entering the city, so best bet is they will move on. I take it you want to take a little peek outside again?” I nodded and he nudged my shoulder. “Well, you’re in luck. This morning I have to inspect the building and I could use a little featherbrain to check places I can’t reach. Think you can help me out real quick?”

My heart was basically racing at the offer. “You mean it?! Of course, I’d be willing to…wait, did you just call me a featherbrain, you big oaf?!” I playfully nudged him back hard and he just chuckled. As we walked outside, I stopped to feel the warm breeze coming in from the streets before running to catch up with Sarge. There was a small, fortified checkpoint right outside the entrance that was used to inspect travelers and goods coming in and out of the tower. Normally, I was never allowed past this point, but Sarge covered for me, and we walked out past the checkpoint. The view was totally different compared to behind the checkpoint. I was able to see the streets, the buildings across, the highway above and more. Sarge noticed my excitement growing and reeled me back in. “Don’t go any further, alright? I’m already taking a huge risk letting you past the checkpoint, I can’t allow you to go out into the streets. The gang I mentioned earlier may be outside the city, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some lone raiders, slavers or worse out there. Just stay by me, ok?”

“I understand, I’ll stay by you.” As we started walking around the checkpoint, I asked him what he needed me to check. He gestured to the building. “I need you to fly up around the entrance and just around the general area of it and see if you notice any huge cracks or if something looks out of place. After the room collapsing two nights ago, I want to make sure it doesn’t happen here.”

“Gotcha, I’ll take a look for ya.” As I took off, I turned back to the entrance and looked in the spots he mentioned. Not seeing anything wrong, I took a quick look around the outside and spotted something moving at the end of the street. Worried, I was about to call out to Sarge and let him know when I saw him running back to the checkpoint entrance shouting, “Sony, get back here, now!” Immediately, I flew back down inside the checkpoint as the gate closed behind us. As I looked through the gate, we watched as a ghoul was walking down the street. I had heard about them, but it was my first time seeing one. Sarge signaled for everyone to stay quiet, and we watched as the ghoul walked right up to the gate. As everyone started to tense up, it spoke.

“Any chance I could get some supplies? I got caps…”

My jaw dropped. I didn’t know they could talk or that they were even intelligent. From what I was told, they were vicious and ravenous beasts. A look of surprise was on Sarge’s face. “Ethan, is that you? Damn, did you get uglier.”

Ethan snorted in disgust, “And you seem to still have that wet-behind-the-ears look on your face.”

Silence hung in the air as they stared each other down and the tension was starting to become unbearable.

Then they smiled and laughed.

“Ahhahaaha, Sarge it's good to see you again old friend, it’s been months. I got bored without your bantering.”

“Same here you, you old coot. I thought things were getting to be too peaceful around here.” He signaled the guard to open the gate. As Ethan walked in, they gave each other a brief hug. “By the way, this here is Midnight Sonata, she’s a good friend of mine. Sony, you can come out, he’s alright.”

Nervously, I stepped out from behind him. “He…hello there. It's nice to meet you, Ethan.”

“Oho, ain't she polite. Don’t worry, I know what they teach you young n’s and I promise, I ain't gonna eat or harm ya. These stuck-up ponies don’t like to deal with our kind and see all ghouls as a plague. Luckily, Sarge here knows the difference between us and ferals.”

Listening to him, I grew even more curious about him, when Sarge spoke up, “You’re here for the usual, right? Just give me the caps and a few minutes and I’ll have your supplies for you. Sony, why don’t you keep our friend here company while I go and get his stuff? I know he can tell you plenty about the wasteland and answer almost any question you might have.”

As he headed back inside, I turned back to Ethan, getting excited. “Can you really tell me about the outside world?! I have so many questions.”

Ethan began chuckling and gestured for me to sit down. “I can’t promise to answer everything, but I can most certainly try. What do you want to know, little miss?”

Taking a deep breath to collect myself I asked him a short series of questions, “You mentioned earlier that there were different types of ghouls. What did you mean? Also, I’ve been told by fellow travelers that pegasi were quite rare below the clouds. Why is that? Have you seen anyplace that isn’t irradiated or covered by clouds? And finally, what’s it like being a ghoul? I don’t mean to sound disrespectful, but you’re the first one I’ve ever met and until now, I didn’t even know ya’ll could talk.” Ethan just chuckled even more.

“My, my, you are quite the inquisitive one, aintcha? Let’s see now… There are two types of ghouls, those like me and ferals. Ghouls like me can remember who we were and ain't lost our marbles. Ferals on the other hand, can’t remember who they were and are just mindless beasts that will pretty much attack anything on site. As for what it’s like to be a ghoul, it's hard. We remember what it was like before the bombs fell and had to watch as we and our friends either died or began to rot away into the ponies you see today. Most of us have come to accept our circumstances and learn to live on as long as we can, others not so much and that’s where ferals come from. We’re pretty much immortal for now and aren’t affected by radiation.” Taking a deep breath, he went on.

“As for your pegasi question, there are two terms you need to know. Dashites and the Grand Pegasus Enclave. When the Megaspells fell on the Last Day, the pegasi capital Cloudsdale was hit and pretty much evaporated shortly over time. Nothing remains of it. Devastated, the pegasi that remained decided to close off the sky. However, there was one who dared to abandon her own kind to help those below. Her name was Rainbow Dash and her noble act soon inspired other pegasi to do the same, and so they earned the term Dashite. The pegasi who remained above the clouds soon became the Grand Pegasus Enclave, or Enclave for short. Nobody has seen their city above the clouds, but they do have a fortified settlement far to the west they call Thunderhead and you will never catch me going anywhere near that place. To us, they are worse than the Steel Rangers. I’d tell you more, but our time seems to be about up. Sarge is back and that means it's time for me to go. Rules and whatnot, you know.” As he said that, Sarge was walking towards us carrying a small cart of supplies.

“I made sure you got your usual stuff and that it was decent quality. I wish you could stay here longer, but I can only bend the rules so much for you, Ethan. You make sure to take care of yourself out there, alright?”

As Ethan said his goodbyes and headed off, I secretly hoped to meet him again one day. He was a nice ghoul. Sarge noticed me hesitating and nudged me. “Don’t worry about old Ethan, he knows how to survive better than I ever will. So, what did you ask him about?” Still excited from the conversation, I told him.

“Well, he is right about the Enclave. I’d rather deal with Steel Rangers than them any day. The rangers were always the more reasonable of the two. Although the Enclave are way more advanced and stronger than the Rangers are, they also demand a lot more in return for their services and rarely deal with anyone that isn’t a pegasus. If you’re lucky, you will never have to deal with them.”

“You’ve met them before?”

“Yeah, only once. The Council has some sort of agreement with them, and they came to our aide during the Great Raid ten years ago. They really saved our hides, but there is something about them I just don’t trust, aside from their snotty attitudes. You’d find it hard to believe, but they put the Uppities's attitudes to shame.”

“You’re right, I do find that hard to believe.”

As we walked back into the Tower, we looked up to see a council member and some higher-level security guards beckoning him over. Sighing, he looked to me, trying to crack a smile. “Well either they’re here to ask me about you, Ethan or talk about something related to the gang activity. If I’m really unlucky, it's all of the above. You’d best head on now before they try to rope you into their little scoldings.” Turning to give me a quick nudge. “And thanks for your help earlier today and being nice to Ethan. It really meant a lot to him and me.” As he headed off towards the group, I took his advice and left the area. Last thing I need is to be on the Council’s bad side right before my birthday. I literally had no other plans for the day, so I decided to just call it a day and sleep in.

…

Finally, it was the day I had been waiting for. My birthday! Today, me and the girls were only going to be working until lunch and then use the rest of the day to make sure we had everything ready for our hangout on the rooftop tonight. The day went by fairly quick and as lunch came, we closed up shop and went to meet Mint and Kiwi in the greenhouse. As we walked in, Mint saw me and came bounding right up to me all worried. “I heard a rumor you went outside and saw a ghoul! That must have been horrifying. Are you alright, Sony?” Kiwi and Amy also looked worried now and I tried to put their fears at rest.

“Girls, it’s ok, nothing happened. In fact, he was very nice, and he told me more about the outside world.” This only confused Mint and Amy. Kiwi on the other hand just nodded her head and seemed to understand.

“Ah, so you met Ethan then.”

Mint just flipped around. “Wait, Ethan? Hold up, more importantly Sony, you talked to it? And it talked back? Are we sure we're talking about the same thing when I say ghoul?” Chuckling a bit at Mints frantic face, I gestured for everyone to take a seat and told them all about the encounter. After I was done, Mint was speechless. Amy, oddly enough, was the first to speak.

“I had no idea. So, there are good ghouls and then there are bad ones. How do you tell the difference?” I paused as I forgot to ask Ethan about that. Kiwi noticed my hesitation and answered for me.

“Honestly, you don’t, until the last minute sometimes. Unless you are travelling with them or can recognize them from a distance, most times you learn when it’s too late. That’s the main reason why Ghouls get such a bad reputation and are lopped in with the Ferals. I have met a few good ones before I arrived here, and I’ve talked to Ethan a few times when he drops by. I feel bad for them.”

Mint finally found her voice again, but it was more relieved. “Well I’ll be honest, I learned something new about ghouls today. I’m just glad that you’re alright, Sony. You may not have been as lucky. I’m surprised they let you out past the checkpoint at all with the news of the large gang just outside of Manehatten.” My ears suddenly perked up at the mention of the gang.

“How did you hear about that? I heard it from Sarge yesterday, but by the sounds of it, they didn’t want the news to spread.” Mint just smiled back wickedly.

“Oh, you can get any stallion to talk when you buy them a drink or two. I noticed a few guards whispering all secret-like at Lunar’s bar last night and decided to pay for their next round. Then I just sat at the table behind them and listened in.” Kiwi just shook her head.

“Remind me to be careful around you and drinks.” Amy nodded her head in agreement. Mint just looked at them in dismay.

“I wouldn’t do it to yall! Besides, your secrets are old and boring. I like fresh and juicy gossip. Especially the ones about Sony here. Sweet Celestia, are those sexy ones!” I damn near choked.

“What?!”

Mint just fell on her sides laughing.

“Gotcha! Don’t worry, aside from yesterday's incident and you singing for the guards every day, there ain't no secrets. The look on your face was worth it though.”

My face turning pink, I pounced on her. We spent the rest of lunch talking about our plan for tonight and making sure we had everything. After closing early for the day, we all went our separate ways to get what we needed. Once the tower clock hit six, we all headed down to the closet and went up the stairs. Mint and Amy were slightly nervous since it was their first time here, so we quickly moved to the other stairwell and made our way up to the top. As we opened the doors, I was in shock. I was expecting to come out onto a bland, regular old rooftop like last time, but what lay before my eyes was the exact opposite. There were lights strung up between the poles around the rooftop. In the center lay some blankets and a cooler. The air was warm and all in all, it felt amazing. The others jumped in front of me, turned around and in sync shouted

“Happy Birthday, Sony!!”

My eyes started to water as I tried to take it all in. I couldn’t manage any words, so I just went and hugged them all. Kiwi had a huge grin on her face and gestured to the cooler.

“Now, I didn’t lug that up here for nothing. Lunar sends his regards and birthday wishes in the form of his own hard cider.

The night turned out to be just what I needed. We drank, sang and danced together for hours. It was as if all the tension from before just eased away, and I was happy. We even flew into the sky, and I got to see the world for the first time. So many different sights on the horizon. Eventually it got late, and the girls were either too drunk or too tired. I wanted to stay out for just a little longer, so I hugged them and wished them a good night.

As they went back inside, I turned around and took in the night for all its splendor. The lights that the girls strung up looked like the starry nights our elders told us stories about. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine a clear night sky with countless, tiny flickering lights as far as the eye could see. As I stood there, lost in my imagination, a breeze wrapped around me and the feeling of it going underneath my wings was incredible. I wanted to just jump off and fly once again, going wherever the wind would take me. Opening my eyes, I jumped to the center of the roof and felt my body tremble with inspiration. Remembering my song, I took a deep breath and began crooning...

“...Now life is such a wondrous thing
From the first moment to the last.
And the time with your friends is precious,
So don’t live life too fast.
We can’t always see our fate
Or know what we're meant to do.
But I can promise you my friend
Your heart will guide you true.
Because we…

Shine like the beauty of Luna’s moon,
Burn as bright as Celestia’s rising sun,
Dance with the cadence in our hearts,
And let the magic of friendship guide you home…”

I could feel the wind lifting me up, and I let it. Soon I was hovering high over the rooftop and singing as if the whole town was my stage.

“...So when your world starts crumbling down
And your spirits feeling weak.
Your future seems dark and clouded
You lose sight of what you seek.
That’s when your dreams begin losing the light
And the pain is too much to bear.
Just remember your friends stand by you
And forever they will always be there.

To help you…

Shine like the beauty of Luna’s moon,
Burn as bright Celestia’s rising sun,
Dance with the cadence in our hearts,
And let the magic of friendship guide you home…”

The wind began to calm, and I slowly let myself float down.

“...Now go and give others Kindness
Show them your loyalty.
Ease their hearts with the sound of Laughter
And give them your honesty.
Cause all the Magic in the world
Is displayed with Generosity.
With all of these things together
It’s why I love being a pony.

So show the world we…

Shine like beauty of Luna’s moon,
Burn as bright as Celestia’s rising sun,
Dance with the cadence in our hearts.
And let the magic of friendship,
Let the magic of friendship,
Oh let the magic of friendship...guide...you home”

As I settled on the ground and opened my eyes, I now yearned even more to just take off. My heart was still pounding from the rush and taste of freedom.

“So, it was your voice I heard yesterday.”

Startled, I turned to see a pony sitting up on the small roof above the stairs, watching me from the shadows. Before I could act, they stood up and jumped down, walking briskly towards me. As they stepped into the light, my jaw dropped. It was that beautiful, grey pegasus from yesterday. By the time I could regain my senses, she was already right in front of me and looking at me with warm interest.

“You can’t say it was the radio this time, little one.” She smoothly inched her face closer to mine. “I was watching you all night long. And I must say…I’m really glad I did.”

I could feel myself blushing. “Uh...eh…you see…oh my.” Oh come on girl, get yourself together!

She just smiled and gently laughed, “Sorry if I startled you. I just couldn’t resist teasing you. You looked so cute at the moment. Don’t worry, I won’t bite.” As she slowly backed up, I realized my face must be completely red and I shook my head.

“What are you doing up here?... Did you follow me and my friends up here?!”

She sat down on the blanket and gestured for me to join her. Seeing as she meant no harm, I moved to sit in front to her.

"You see, I have a very important job and a lot of ponies depend on me, so I like to come up here often to get away from the reality of this tower. Until now, no one has ever come up here. Not until you and your friends showed up." Seeing my discomfort, she just smiled and nudged me.

"Don't worry, I enjoyed watching you all. It felt...wonderful to see ponies come together to celebrate. You all looked so happy, and I didn’t want to interrupt that. So, I just sat up there and watched. As I saw everyone else head on inside, I noticed you stayed behind. And then I watched you sing, and I couldn't move. I was so transfixed on your voice, it just felt like everything else was unreal. You have a gift, Sonata…”

I could feel my face begin to blush. “Aww...you really think so?”

“You're damn right I do.” Happiness and excitement began to swell up in me. “You should sing on the radio! I bet you’d become famous!”

And it went away as soon as it began. I could feel anxiety and doubt creeping up on me as I stood up. “Thank you, but my voice isn’t that good. I’m very happy you like my singing, but I’m nowhere near good enough to be on the radio. I’m sure there are others out there who can sing better than I ever could…”

She just looked at me for a while, deep in thought with curiosity and intrigue. “You don’t really believe much in yourself, do you? I haven't heard any pony sing like you can for a long time, and trust me, I've heard them all. I can see you in your element when you sing, and it looks like something you really enjoy doing.”

I wanted to believe her words so much and just go for it. She was right, I never felt more alive than when I sing and I always dreamed of being on the radio. I wanted to look her in the eye and tell her I could out-sing any pony in Equestria...but I couldn't. Thoughts of trying and failing, being laughed at plagued my mind and stopped me telling her how I truly felt. In the end, I just couldn't beat myself again.

Standing back up, I looked at her with appreciation and sorrow. “I really am happy to hear that. Truly I am... but I can’t do it no matter how much I wanted to. Anyway, I’m starting to feel a bit drowsy, so I’m going to call it a night. It was really lovely to talk with you, Ruby.”

She seemed to want to say more, but gave it a second thought and just nodded her head, smiling. “It was nice to talk to you as well Sonata. Maybe one day you will find the strength and opportunity to sing on the air. Until we meet again, dear.”

As I walked back into the stairwell, a lingering feeling of regret began to take root in the corners of my mind. I felt as if I had just missed that opportunity...

Chapter Four

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Chapter Four: A Risky Venture

Heading back to my room, my mind was still reeling a bit from earlier. Aside from the unexpected encounter with Ruby, tonight was incredible. I could still remember the wind beneath my wings, the endless horizons, the sounds of the girls laughing and singing with me. This night couldn’t have been better. As I walked into my room, there was a light. The skies had parted just enough for a moonbeam to poke through and provide a gentle light across the room. Not wanting to miss the moment, I hopped on the couch and was soon asleep.

The morning greeted me with a dark, cloudy sky outside my window. A storm was on its way, and it looked massive. Welp, I’m glad it wasn’t there yesterday. While freshening up, I listened to the radio to hear PON3 giving the morning news.

“Good morning everypony, this is PON3 coming at you with a special announcement today. It’s officially been 100 years since the first ponies settled into Tenpony Tower. So, in just a couple of hours, I will be sharing some exciting news that is sure to commemorate this anniversary like never before! So, stay tuned all my special little ponies, cause what I’m about to do will change everything…”

Has it really been a hundred years since the world ended? I wonder what the exciting news will be. Shaking my head, I recalled the girls mentioning meeting up for breakfast at Sinbad’s Diner. The thought of some delicious, fresh, hot oatcakes soon cleared my mind, and I left my room in a better mood.

Upon arriving at the diner, I stopped outside for a moment to take in the welcoming air of the place. This diner was special, as it had two floors to it. One for the Uppities and one for the lower-level dwellers. It was a very casual setup with the lower floor having a diner counter fitting up to eight ponies and a row of cozy benches lined up on the other side. Wasn’t sure what was on the upper floor as we weren't really allowed up there unless we lived on the upper floors or were invited to eat up there, which only happens once in a blue moon. From the outside, you could smell all the delicious aromas coming from the kitchen.

Walking in, I looked around until I found my friends all settled in at a bench halfway into the diner, and could see them talking to Sinbad. He was a very handsome earth pony with a pure white coat, his mane and tail a mixture of yellow and orange. He always wore an orange bandana over his head and had a couple pieces of metal bands around each of his legs. He was also the owner of the diner and the best chef you’ll ever find in the tower. While usually also the busiest pony in the diner, he could always magically spare time for our group. As I got closer, I could hear Mint Mint attempting to woo him once again.

“Oh Sinbad, you know just how to treat a girl. I swear, it’s like you always know just what I need.”

“Why, of course! I can’t very run this place and not know what my customers need.”

“Mmm, true, but surely, I’m more than just a customer to you, right?” She winked at him, while also inching a little closer.

He didn’t seem to catch the hint whatsoever and gave an innocent smile. “Hmmm, yeah your right! Were more like friends now, aren’t we?”

But she wasn’t about to give up so easily “Maybe we could be friends…with benefits?” She was now right next to his face and before anything else could happen, a loud timer from the kitchen interrupted them, causing Sinbad to blink and turn towards the kitchen.

“Woops, that’s my call to head on back in.” As he began to trot off towards the kitchen, he turned to Mint, “I’ll give you a discount from now on.”

As he was heading back to the kitchen, Mint stretched out her hoof in frustration. “Dammit Sinbad, that’s not what I meant by benefits!” Alas, it was too late as he was already out of hearing range, and she just slumped onto the table. “Uughhh, why is he so damn dense?”

Amy and Kiwi just sat there smiling and trying not to laugh, until I walked up to join them. “Another failed attempt to seduce your little, delicious honey-pony, Minty?” Now the other two were just snorting and chuckling. Mint just looked up to me with annoyance.

“Oh, shut up Sony, it’s not my fault. I’m trying my best here to get his attention.” Sitting down next to her, I started to feel a little bad for her. I liked teasing her, but I also knew she has been trying for almost a year to get Sinbad to see her as more than just a friend and has been very patient in the process. I gave her a little nudge and tried to lift her spirits.

“One day Minty, one day. You are an incredibly beautiful, caring pony. He will see that. Tell you what, we will help you out once we come up with a good plan. What do you say?”

That seemed to cheer her up a little bit. “You mean it? You’ll all help me?”

Amy was the first to respond, “Of course! I don’t know much about getting anypony’s attention, but I will gladly help out one of my best friends.”

Kiwi gave her a gentle smile. “As amusing as it is to watch, I also agree, he needs to know how you really feel about him and give you an answer. It’s been long enough. You can count on me.”

Mint looked up at all of us, really happy. “Awww, thanks girls. No pony could have better friends than you.” We started to go over ideas and plans for how to make his work, occasionally coming up with a hare-brained scheme that got us all laughing.

While we were enjoying the moment, I noticed a lot of ponies were quieting down, most walking closer to the radio. Now curious, we also quieted down and start to listen in…

“…That’s right, all my special little ponies out there, I am not just sending this message to only the residents of Tenpony Tower, but to all the corners of Equestria. From the highest reaches of the Grand Pegasus Enclave, to the valiant knights of the Steel Rangers across the Wasteland, to the Stable Dwellers holed up underground, as well as anypony else out there trying to survive, PON3 is here, with a message about something that will blow you away. But first, let me introduce a very lovely and special guest onto the air.”

“Hello everypony…” I near damn spit my drink out. I knew that voice! “…I am Ruby. I’m sure many of you in Tenpony Tower have seen me around lately. For those who don’t know, I help out PON3 occasionally and today, I’ve been told we have some news to help try and bring hope back into the wasteland. Isn’t that right, PON3?”

“That’s right, Ruby! It has been a hundred years since the fateful day our beautiful land of Equestria was devastated my Megaspells, creating the world of carnage, suffering and death we know today. Yet, for a hundred years, we have persisted. We have fought to stay alive and have endured many a hardship, as well as many a loss. And to pay tribute to those hundred years we have endured and survived, I, PON3, have reached out to the Tenpony Council, The Enclave, and The Rangers to try something new, something daring…something musical.”

“Well, I'm sure it must be...wait…I’m sorry, did you just say musical?”

“Yes. For the first time ever, Tenpony Tower is hosting auditions for a chance to have your voice and songs, permanently on the air. What’s so important about this, you might ask? Look, I’m not gonna lie to you, these are hard times, and for once, I want to see ponies come together and show the Wasteland how we can do more, than just survive.”

“But…music auditions…surely there is something else you’re hiding? All ponies out there listening to this have enough to deal with as is...Is there, perhaps, anything they might get out of this?”

“Well…let me think…yes, actually! Not only will you have your songs played on the air, but there are also a few rewards one can choose from. I’m personally offering the winner ten thousand caps, or their own guaranteed room in the upper floors of Tenpony Tower! Winners’ choice!”

“Ten thou...you…have ten thousand caps? That is a lot of caps…”

At this point, every pony was gasping in surprise and looking to each other in a mixture of awe and excitement.

“Of course I have ten thousand caps, I’m PON3! Been saving this up for at least a decade now, but I want to see ponies come together through music and show every other creature out there in the Wasteland that we can be so much more!”

“Wow…that’s quite a lot to take in. By the way, when is this all going down? Surely, you don’t expect ponies to just drop everything and be here within a day or two?”

“Of course not, Ruby. That’d be asking too much. No, the auditions will be held exactly two weeks from now. There will be more news to follow then, but now to talk about the rules for when coming here…”

The rest was drowned out amongst all the commotion. Every pony was now talking about the announcement. I could just barely make out parts of different conversations going on around us.

“Did you hear that?! Ten thousand caps! That’s more than I could make in a lifetime.”

“She said that every pony across the wasteland. Including the Enclave and Rangers. Isn’t that gonna cause trouble? *gasp* What if raiders or slavers try to sneak their way in?!”

“I never thought much about singing or playing an instrument, but maybe it’s worth a shot…”

Soon the whole diner was filled with talks about the announcement. We just looked at each other, still surprised at what we just heard. Mint was the first of us to react and she was grinning from ear to ear.

“You heard that, right?! Ten thousand caps for the one who wins a music contest?! Sign me up!” She was practically beaming.

Kiwi, on the other hand was approaching this news in a more calm manner. She was smiling as well, but it was with more reservation. “It does sound…well amazing. I don’t even know where to begin with all of it.”

“Yes, that does sound interesting. Though I don’t think I could ever get in front of other ponies like that…I still find it hard talking to the ponies that come in my shop every day.” Amy wasn’t entirely excited about the news, but she was a little happy from watching Mint’s excitement.

As fast as the excitement came though, it began to settle down as Kiwi thought more about it.

“Well, it would be fun to try, but I’m not entirely sure I’d have the time to participate. All the free time I can get is spent with you girls. I’d rather spend that time with you all then on an audition. And if it’s true that ponies from around the wasteland will be coming to participate, my store will be even busier than ever.”

Even Mint started sighing a bit as the same realization dawned on her, “Your right. I would love to try, but I also can’t afford to be away from my business now. It would honestly depend on how the auditions are set up. It would be nice if they made time for all of us who own a business.” As the excitement in the air began to settle, a smile began to coyly creep upon her face as she looked up to me. “Although…there is a very talented singer amongst us with no responsibilities whatsoever.”

The oatcake that was about enter my mouth stopped midair as I slowly looked up to see all three of them turning towards me. “Oh…ah hehe, yeah…what?”

Kiwi also took the opportunity to chime in, “Your absolutely right, Mint. It would be an absolute shame if such talent stayed hidden in the shadows. Wouldn’t you agree, Amy?” I looked to Amy with a pleading look, hoping she would catch it, but alas, she misunderstood my expression and began chuckling to herself.

“Yes, I think it would be a shame. Why not give it a shot, Sony? You have such a wonderful voice.” Her expression was just too gentle that I found myself unable to respond.

Stammering, I was caught in a mixture of excitement, nervousness and…a little fear. I tried to come up with a reason, but Mint jumped back in before I could, “You’ve always been talking about one day being on the air and you’ve been making such wonderful lyrics over the past few years. This is the moment you have been dreaming about.”

At the mention of dreaming, I was reminded of something and what little excitement I had, soon disappeared as I let my oatcake fall back onto the plate. “I’m…I’m sorry, but I don’t think I should. It’s just…I’m not ready yet.”

Kiwi could sense I was trying to undermine myself again and tried to encourage me, “Sweetie, opportunities like this don’t come every day. You might not get a chance like this ever again. Why not just give it a try?”

Mint took this moment to press further, “She’s right Sony! This is a once in a lifetime chance! You should at least give it a shot. Who knows, you will most likely win. I bet all the ponies in Equestria have just been waiting for a voice like yours to be in their lives.”

A wave of repressed emotions began to surface. At the beginning of the conversation, I had managed to keep them under control, but now they were overflowing. As their voices were drowned out by the waves, I held myself together as best as I could, but it was too much. I slammed my hooves onto the table in frustration, my eyes starting to tear up. “You don’t understand! I just can’t, alright!” Without giving them a moment to say anything else, I got out of the booth and stormed off, almost knocking down a few ponies along the way.

…

They just sat there, dumbfounded, completely unaware of why she was so upset. Mint and Kiwi just looked at each other.

“Wait, what did I say?” I knew she was nervous about singing, but I didn’t know she would get mad over it. You know anything about this, Kiwi?”

“No I…I thought the same thing as you. What about you, Amy...Where’d she go?”

While Mint and Kiwi were still sitting there in shock, Amy had already left the booth to go after her. While she may not have known the reason for behind Midnight Sonata’s outburst, she knew her best friend always seemed to be hiding something whenever her singing was brought up… and that she needed to be there for her. She knew exactly where to go next.

…

Upon reaching my room, tears were already streaming down my face. Shutting the door hard behind me, I jumped onto the couch and curled up tight, just trying to block out the rest of the world. As I tried to calm down and process everything, I was hit by a flashback to when I was a filly back in school.

…

I was around eight years old and on my way from the orphanage for another day of school. Today, however, was a special day. Today we were instructed to give a brief, and a small demonstration, on what we wanted to do when we grew up. Back then I was a totally different pony and a lot more optimistic, with a bubbly personality. I was excited because this was the day I had worked so hard for, practicing a song of mine in the orphanage and now ready to show my classmates what I could do. My lyrics were written out and secured in my bag. I had always wanted to grow up to sing on stage for others and maybe even have my songs air on the Tenpony Tower radio. And finally, I would be able to show every pony what I was capable of.

Walking in, I noticed all the other ponies were double checking their projects and chatting amongst themselves. Shortly after seating myself, our teacher walked in and began to take roll call. Once she had finished, she then gave a quick rundown on today’s brief and demonstration.

“Okay class, today is a very special day. I hope you all have what you need to demonstrate what it is you want to do when you grow up. Now remember, no dream is too big, but make sure to keep it realistic. Wanting to grow up to end world hunger or get rid of the radiation outside is noble and all, but you need to go into more details and how you would go about doing so. Now, without further ado, I’m gonna announce the order you will go in.”

I was the fifth one on the list and was doing my best to keep my excitement in check. Listening to the first three ponies, their briefs were fairly simple. The first pony wanted to grow up and start a clothing business, the second wanted to become a nurse and help other ponies in need, while the third wanted to join the Tenpony Council. This elicited some chuckles from a group near the front. Looking to see who was making light of the third pony, I noticed it was Doppel Herz and his group of Uppities. Usually, some of the Uppities in our class were nice or non-chalant around us lower-level dwellers, but this group was the opposite. Under Doppel Herz, they loved to pick on other classmates and gloat about their superiority and better living conditions. After catching a quick stern glare from the teacher, they went silent for a moment, but shortly after, started looking to each other with mocking smiles.

Eventually it was the fourth pony’s turn, and knowing I was next, I started to grab my lyrics and prepare myself for my turn. As I glanced over my lyrics, I briefly began to daydream about singing on a stage before a live audience. The sounds reverberating across the room, the audience captivated by the melody. My daydream was broken as the teacher started calling my name.

“Midnight Sonata…. Midnight Sonata, stop daydreaming! It’s your turn.” Breaking out of my trance, I looked around to see all the students smiling or laughing at me. It was quite often I would do this and blushed in embarrassment as I grabbed my lyrics, heading up to the front of the class. I shook my head and gathered myself as I started my introduction, excitement back on my mind.

“Hello everypony! I’m Midnight Sonata and when I grow up, I want to be a singer! I want to one day perform on stage for every pony in the tower and help spread hope and cheer. And then one day, I would also like to perform my songs on the radio, so that, maybe, every pony out in the wasteland can hear my songs and help brighten their days. I even wrote a special song that I would like to share with you all!” Holding my lyrics up, I started to sing, but I was quickly interrupted.

“You?! A singer?! Hahahaha, that’s gotta be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!”

Looking up, I saw Doppel Herz just laughing and pointing at me, the rest of his group laughing with him.

“Shut up, Doppel! It’s not stupid!”

The teacher was now up from her desk “Doppel Herz, be quiet! It’s Midnight Sonata’s turn and she has the floor.”

But this did not deter him. “Oh, come on now teach, I’m just letting her know how stupid her dream is. It’s not like she can do it anyway. Might as well let her know now rather than embarrass herself later.”

“That’s enough! Apologize to her this instant.”

“Apologize? To this stupid little orphan?”

“Doppel Herz, I am warning you…”

He was already walking up to me at this point, completely ignoring the teacher. I tried to back away, but ended up tripping over myself. He was now right up in my face. “You will never be a singer. You’re just a low-down orphan, with no friends and always daydreaming about things you will never have. You haven’t even gotten your cutie mark yet, while everyone else here has theirs.” Before I could react, he grabbed my lyrics from out of my hooves. “No pony will want to listen to any song you come up with. It’s probably just garbage anyway.”

Tears were starting to form in my eyes as I tried to grab back my lyrics back from him. “That’s not true, give it back!” I was unable to grab them as he pushed me back down.

“Oh, but it is. Go ahead and look around. No pony here is gonna back you up.”

“That’s not true! Right?...” As I looked around, some of the Uppities were laughing or smiling at my misfortune, while the others and the lower-level dwellers just looked away, either too nervous or scared to speak up.

“…right?...”

Doppel Herz just smiled wickedly before grabbing my lyrics with both hooves and shredding it right before my eyes. As the pieces of paper fell in front of me, I broke. Tears were streaming down my face as I watched my dream just get torn apart, the sounds of other ponies still chuckling in the background. The lyrics I had worked so hard on were now scattered on the floor in front me, now blurry pieces of paper as my eyes hazed up with tears. Why did no pony stand up for me? Was I really so unwanted?

The teacher had now wedged herself between me and Doppel Herz, but I barely noticed. I couldn’t hear anything now. All I could do was lay there, crying. While they were arguing, I tried to grab up what I could of the pieces of paper, hoping to salvage them, but they were wet from all my tears and now unreadable, crumbling at my every attempt to pick them up. Unable to save my lyrics, I got up and ran out the door.

I could just hear the teacher calling out to me, “Sonata wait! Come back.” But it was too late. I ran as fast as I could back to the orphanage and just curled up in my bed, crying uncontrollably.

…

My flashback was abruptly interrupted by a knock at my door, followed by a soft, concerned voice.

“Sony, may I come in?” It was Amy. The memory still playing out in my mind, I didn’t want to talk to any pony. I wanted to just scream and tell her to go away. But this was Amy, the closest friend I ever had and the one who was always there for me and who never pushed or pressured me into singing. Remembering that, I slowly got up and went to open the door. She stood there and was silent for a moment as she looked at me. It dawned on me that I must look like an emotional wreck and started to instinctively close the door before it was stopped by a yellow hoof. Looking back at her face, she had a warm smile and walked up to embrace me.

“Shhhh, it’s ok Sony. I’m here for you. I got you.”

I started to break down again as she let me go, gently guiding me back to the couch. For a while, we just sat there until eventually, I ran out of tears. She patiently waited the whole time and once I was done, she asked what was wrong. Slowly looking up to her, I tried not to remember, but I couldn’t ever say no to her. Because I knew she would never judge me. As I told her about my past and why I didn’t want to sing, she sat their transfixed. She didn’t speak once, all the while nodding for me to continue, allowing me to get it all out. As I finished, she finally spoke up.

“Sony…I’m sorry. We shouldn’t have pushed you so hard to try, but we had no idea that you felt so strongly about this. What happened to you was incredibly wrong and they were wrong to do that to you. You are a light in our lives Sony, and we want you to know that. If you don’t want to go to the audition, we won’t force you.”

Sniffling just a bit, I was feeling a little relieved. “You really mean that, Amy?”

She smiled at me as she gently rested a wing over me. “Of course I do. You are the most precious friend I have in this world. I’m more than satisfied having your songs just to our little group. You don’t have to force yourself to perform.” She now spoke with concern as she asked, “Although, are you absolutely sure you want to give up on your dream like this?...It’s just that it sounds like you have been working up your courage over the years, waiting for a moment like this. I know the memories and feelings of what they did to you still haunt you, but surely there is still a part of you that wants to break free from it?”

After spending a few moments to contemplate, I looked to my hooves nervously. “It’s not that I don’t want to…it’s just that…I fear that once I go on that stage, I’ll be judged before I can even begin. That, what happened before will just repeat itself. I don’t want to build up my hopes, just for them to be destroyed again…is it really alright for me to try one more time?”

Amy pulled me close and wrapped her arms around me, placing her head over mine. As my head buried itself in her chest, her voice was soothing, “That’s for you to decide, dear. No matter what, the girls and I will be there for you. I’m not sure what would happen if you tried, but what I am sure of is that you are incredible Sony, and you have the most beautiful voice I have ever heard.” Closing my eyes, I felt grateful for Amy being there. She truly is the best friend a pony could ever hope for. As she slowly let go, I began to think that maybe it was worth trying to dream, maybe just one more time.

“Maybe…I could give it a shot…but I don’t know if I’m ready for it yet.”

“There’s still two weeks before it starts. Just...think it over in the meantime and any time you feel down, you can always come find me. You going to be alright, Sony?”

Nodding my head, I rubbed my eyes a little. “Yeah…yeah I’ll be alright. I just want to go to sleep and think about it some more.”

Amy jumped off the couch, heading towards the door. As she reached it, she slowly opened it and turned back towards me. “Take the day off tomorrow. Just get some rest and then we can work through this…together.” I ran up to give her another hug before she left. Soon it was just me and my thoughts. For once, I was happy for the exhaustion and let myself slip away into a deep slumber.

…

“Good morning all my tower residents, this is PON3 coming at you with a weather warning to start the day off. It appears we have an intense storm coming in hot and it looks pretty bad out there folks. So please make sure to stay away from your windows just in case. Now, to begin the day with some nice calming jams…”

As orchestral jazz music filled the room, I slowly raised my head and looked around. It was dimly lit from the dark clouds outside and the loud patter of rain on the window made the room feel gloomy. Well, more than usual. Curious about how bad the storm would be today, I got up and walked over to look outside. Honestly, I was glad for once that I was inside. As bad as it was now, there was even heavier rain and lightning moving in from outside the city and at a fast pace. Remembering PON3’s warning, I started backing away from the window, when a huge lightning bolt struck just across the block. It was quickly followed by more lightning and soon the world outside became a world of flashing lights and hard rain. In the midst of it all, something caught my eye. In the distance, I could just make out some red lights blinking in and out between the flashes. As they got closer, I could only sit there in shock. Those red lights were energy beams and were coming from the silhouettes of a couple of pegasi. And they were all aiming at a lone pegasus. They were trying to shoot down them down!

I could only watch as the pegasus tried to escape, barely dodging the beams. As the lone pegasus descended towards the street level, dozens of bright little flashes lit up from the nearby buildings as bullets now flew towards them from below. Caught unawares, the pegasus tried to pull away, only to be clipped by the sudden barrage. Veering towards the tower, the pegasus crashed in one the alleys. Horrified, I was unable to look away as the pegasus tried to get up, only to collapse again. Whoever was shooting from the buildings was now contending with the group of pegasi in the sky as bullets and energy beams were exchanged furiously between them. As I looked back to the pegasus in the alley, I could see they were lying still next to some rubble, obscuring them from their assailants. Scared for the wounded pegasus, I bolted to my door and ran out, heading to security downstairs. Thoughts of that wounded pony filled my mind as I practically flew towards the main gate.

Arriving at the front gate, I saw Sarge talking to a council member and called out to him. He turned to see me and waved in greeting, a calm look on his face that soon turned to concern as he saw mine. Stopping just short from crashing into him, I slid to a halt immediately trying to tell him what I saw between breaths.

“Sarge! Pegasi outside…shot down...laying in alley…please help…” Sarge and the council member exchanged confused looks before the council member looked back to me.

“Calm down, resident. Take a deep breath.” After taking a few deep breaths, Sarge spoke.

“It’s alright Sony. Now, tell us what’s going on.”

Starting from the beginning, I quickly explained what I everything I saw. As my story unfolded, both Sarge and the council member had worried expressions and looked to each other as I finished.

“Please Sarge, you have to help them!”

Looking around, Sarge cursed to himself, “Shit. We don’t have enough guards to send out a patrol and its going to take awhile to get more back down here and ready. What do you think, sir?

Looking up to the council member, he replied flatly, “There is nothing we can do.”

What?! He can’t be serious. As I was about to speak up, he held out a hoof and continued.

“From what you described, it seems that the pegasi you mentioned are a group of Enclave soldiers chasing after one of their own. For all we know, they were hunting down a criminal and we have no right to interfere in the matter. Not only that, but the gang of raiders appear to be even closer now than before. We need to lockdown both entrances until the council can convene and evaluate the situation.”

I could see Sarge was not happy with that decision. “Sir, with all due respect, we don’t know if the wounded pegasus is a criminal or not. You know as well as I do about Dashites and the incredible hatred The Enclave has for them. For all we know, this could be an innocent pony who needs medical attention. And there is no way they will survive in this weather. I could assemble a small team and go get them before…”

The council member stood firm. “You will do no such thing. We cannot afford to risk the lives of any of our own based on a guess. You will call in the guards from the main entrance and lock it down. You have your orders.” Without waiting to hear anything else, the council member turned away and headed off.

Sarge and I could only sit there, shocked, as the council member disappeared up a flight of stairs. Sarge was the first to recover and shook his head in frustration. “That damned fool. If only it was Cubik here instead.” He looked to me with regret before continuing, “I’m sorry Sony, but my hooves are tied. You should head on back now.”

Shaking my head, I refused to give up. “No. No, we can’t just leave them out there to die! Please Sarge, don’t leave them out there…”

But I could see that he was also angry about the decision and just stared at his hooves before looking up to tell the guards to lock down the entrance. As the guards began closing the main doors, I decided to do the stupidest thing I could. I spread out my wings and flew right through the gap between the doors. Behind me I could just make out Sarge yelling out to me.

“Dammit Sony! Come back here now!” I ignored him and as I landed outside by the street, the rain was falling harder than before and for a moment, I froze. I’ve never been in a storm before, and I was frightened. Lightning flashed furiously around me, the booming sounds of thunder ringing throughout the city. I remembered the wounded pegasus, bleeding out in the alley, and gathered up what little courage I had, before dashing towards the alley. Upon reaching the corner, I could just make out a white clump next to some rubble, halfway through the alley. Moving closer, I was able to make out the pegasus and called out to them, hoping they were still alive. Through the rain, I was able to see that it was a mare, with a pure white coat, blue hair and had a number of bullet wounds around her body. She was bleeding a lot, but still breathing. Without hesitation, I worked to lift her onto my back. As I got ready to head back to the tower, lightning struck the other end of the alley, creating a couple of silhouettes. From the corner of my eye, I could make out a small group of raiders walking into the alley. They stopped after spotting us, and aimed their weapons right at us. Bullets were now flying right past my face, one tearing through the upper part of my right ear. I fell back behind the rubble, frightened. Unsure of what to do now, I could only wait as they closed in towards where we were hiding. I’ve never been in a fight before and my mind was racing, until the bullets stopped.

Looking up, standing atop the rubble was a huge raider, aiming a shotgun right at us. They were smiling, relishing the moment. I scuttled towards the wall behind me, eyes wide as I saw them slowly pull the trigger.

Bang!

The raider stood still for a moment before falling backwards over the rubble, and I turned to see Sarge and two other security guards at the end of the alley. The security guards were now laying down fire on the raiders as Sarge made his way over to me.

“Sony! Are you alright?!” Nodding my head slowly, Sarge was relieved for a moment before helping me back up. “C’mon, we need to get back inside now!”

As he pulled me away from the rubble, I remembered the other pegasus and shook his hoof off. “I’m not leaving without her!” He looked like he was about to argue with me, but stopped himself and helped me to get her on my back, before helping his security guards lay cover fire. We soon made our way back around the corner of the alley, before making a run to the main entrance. We just managed to get through the doors safely. Sarge was the last to get in and with the help of the security guards, quickly locked down the entrance. As they slumped against the door, we all just tried to catch our breath. There were nearby ponies who looked at us from afar, talking amongst themselves.

Sarge was the first to recover and walked over to us, with a worried expression. As he got over to me, I could only sit there, body shaking until he finally spoke.

“Are you alright? Are you injured anywhere else, aside from your ear?” Shaking my head slowly, his worry turned to anger. “What the hell were you thinking?! Do you have any idea how stupid that was?! You could have died, had we not gotten there in time! And we’re only so lucky that none of us were injured. If these two hadn’t come with me, there would be two dead pegasi out in the streets and I would have lost a friend! Do you realize at all what you did?”

I could only look down in shame. He was right, I didn’t think at all. I wasn’t sorry about going to rescue her, but I had no idea how close I was to being killed. As I looked back up to Sarge, he was still mad, but not as much as before. He looked from me to the pegasus and after looking her over, looked back to me.

“You will have to take responsibility for her now. I have to take care of these two here and make sure the main entrance is properly locked down. Afterwards, I don’t even know how I’m gonna explain this to council…you need to take her to the infirmary immediately. We will talk later.” As he turned and headed back to the entrance, I looked over to see that she was still bleeding out. After getting her on to my back again, it took a little bit for my legs to stop shaking as I moved as fast as I can towards the infirmary. There were more residents nearby now, but they parted to make room for us. I caught a glimpse of Amy, Mint Mint and Kiwi along the way and as they saw me, they just stood there in disbelief before pushing their way through to my side. Silently, they gathered around me and helped me take her to the infirmary.

...

We arrived to find the front desk was empty. Looking around, there didn’t seem to be any pony around and most of the hallways were dark or dimly lit. I was on the verge of panicking when a pegasus stepped out into the light from around a corner, yawning as they walked out and stopping once they saw us. From here I could see they were also a white mare, but something was way off about her. She looked normal up until the wings and legs. They both looked like somepony splashed a mixture of light blue, dark blue, purple, and pink all over and added spots along them. While slightly mesmerizing in color, it didn’t look natural at all, and we just stood there for a moment with our eyes locked. Her purple eyes were brimming with curiosity as she looked at me, soon changing to concern as she noticed the wounded pegasus on my back.

“Oh dear, she looks bad. Are…are those bullet wounds?” Shaking her head, she now was completely focused. “Come, we need to get her treated right away. Hurry now!”

As we got her into a nearby room and laid her on the table, she shooed us out, but I refused. “I’m not leaving her.” She looked as if she was about to push me out and stopped short, looking back at the patient again. Turning back to me, she nodded, pointing to Kiwi and me. “Alright, you and you can stay and help me hold her down while I remove the bullets and stitch her up. The rest of you wait outside.”

As Amy and Mint went outside, Amy stopped short before turning to me. “We will be just outside if you need us.” Smiling, I gave her a quick hug and turned to help.

“Alright, how can I help miss…?”

She looked up briefly as she washed her hoofs and readied a scalpel and tweezers. “Aurora. You can call me Aurora. And there are at least five bullet wounds, as well as multiple severe injuries to her legs and wings. This probably gonna hurt her a lot and we need to be quick to stop her from losing any more blood.” Her eyes were now gazing deep into mine. “We don’t have any time for straps or major anesthetics, so you need to hold her still in case she moves.” Switching her gaze quickly to Kiwi, she went on, “And I need you to hand me any tools, gauze, and suturing needles I’m gonna need.” Kiwi nodded and moved to the other side of the table.

The wounded pegasus struggled in the begining, but didn't fight for long as Aurora worked quickly to remove the bullets. Her skill was unbelievable and had me mesmerized at the speed and precision she used as each bullet was removed minutes apart. Once the bullets were removed, she proceeded to suture the wounds shut and place the gauze over the wounds, before smoothly wrapping bandages around them. By the time she had finished, I looked up at the clock in shock. Only twenty minutes had passed. Looking at the pegasus, she was breathing deeply and didn’t seem to be in much pain. I felt a slight nudge and looked up to see Kiwi standing next to me. “Let’s let her rest. You’ve done all you can, hun.”

Aurora walked up to us, agreeing, “Don’t worry. She’s going to be just fine. After a good night’s rest, she should be awake, and you can come see her then. Alright?” Smiling a bit to myself, I let Kiwi lead me out. As we opened the door, we found it to be blocked by ponies I didn’t recognize. There were two ponies in front of us, surrounded by what seemed to be a small security detail. Looking back to the two in front, the one on the left was an earth pony stallion with a white coat and yellow-brown dots spread around his body, light blue eyes, as well as a brown mane and some small spectacles. On the right was an earth pony mare with a lavender coat, a mane mixed with different shades of blue, lavender eyes, and half a golden laurel on the right side of her head. The stallion was the first to speak up.

“Not so fast. I’m afraid we need to speak with miss Sonata here. Miss Kiwi, would you be so kind as to give us the room? Miss Aurora, you should probably stay as well.”

Before I could even ask who they were, I saw Kiwi gently dip her head before and walk past them. I could hear Aurora speak up behind me, “Well, if it isn’t our esteemed council members, Serene and Dapple. To what do we owe the visit? We can use my office if you need to speak privately.”

Council members! Oh no, they must be here about me and everything that happened earlier! Or what if they were here about the pegasus and was gonna have her leave?! Starting to panic, I backed up frantically to the table, putting myself between them and the pegasus. Seeing my reaction, Serene calmly stepped up and spoke to me gently.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of, Miss Sonata. Were not here to arrest you or do anything harmful to your new friend. We just both came by here to talk to you and hear your side of the story…and to talk to you both about a situation that involves all three of you, along with two of your friends out there.” Both Aurora and I exchanged confused glances as they gestured for us to relax and directed the security guards to lead the others away. As the girls waved goodbye and headed off, Serene made sure they were all gone before closing the door.

“So, before we begin anything, we're gonna need you to go over everything that led up the incident, during the incident and after. Do not spare any details.”

Taking a deep breath, I described how I awoke to watch the storm outside before seeing the pegasus getting attacked. As the story unfolded, Aurora was absolutely floored, while as Serene and Dapple were instead concerned. Once I had finished, there was silence. Aurora was still processing everything that she just heard, while the other two exchanged a knowing glance before Dapple spoke up.

“This…this is more than we feared. We had heard that there was a wounded pony and that you barely survived a raider attack, but we had no idea that The Enclave was also involved. This changes things. Tell me, both of you, what do you know about Dashites?”

Aurora didn’t seem to know, and I had only recently heard the term from Ethan and Sarge. Seeing our lack of forwardness, Serene decided to explain, “A Dashite is a pegasus who leaves their brethren above to live on the surface. They are branded as traitors and usually left alone, never allowed to rejoin their fellow pegasi above the clouds. There are very few who choose this life and can sometimes be recognized by a branding made in the image of the cutie mark of the most noble pegasus of all, Rainbow Dash, who did not agree to closing off the pegasi from the rest of the world. She was seen as a hero to some and those who deign to live below the clouds are called Dashites from that moment on. So, as you may guess, finding a pegasus below the clouds that isn’t wearing Enclave armor is incredibly rare. Yet here, within our tower, dwell close to a dozen pegasi, all of whom are descendants of former Dashites, and now including one that was being hunted by The Enclave. Now, while we don’t know why she was being hunted down or if she is guilty of any of their crimes, we now have to deal with a major security risk and possible issues with The Enclave.” She took a small break, gesturing for Dapple to continue.

“The problem now is what to do with this new pegasus. We're not so cold-hearted as to kick her out before she has fully healed, but if The Enclave discovers she is here, we don’t know what they will do. In two weeks, there will be ponies from below, and above, the clouds coming here for the music auditions PON3 is hosting. So, we need to ask you to do something very important, Miss Sonata.”

Aurora and I both looked at each other before being approached by Serene. “Can you keep eyes on her and take care of her until her wounds have fully healed, until we can reconvene with the other council members?”

Nervously, I spoke up, “She’s not in danger, is she?”

She shook her head, unsure. “We don’t know. Only she can tell us, and she is currently in a deep slumber. There are some members on the council who would be more than happy to see her sent right back out immediately, while others would let her stay or are still undecided. We will do our best to convince them otherwise, but we can’t make any promises. We don’t even have a place to house her, and she can’t live in the infirmary.”

Aurora just looked insulted. “Why not? I do.”

Dapple chuckled to himself. “Yes, but not everypony is special, like you.” Aurora just shrugged before he went on, “She needs a proper place to sleep and recover, and we don’t have any rooms that can do that, at the moment. All the other rooms on the upper and lower floors are taken and the rest are being prepared for our guests that will be arriving within the following weeks.”

“I can put her in my room.”

All three were looking right at me. Clearing my throat, I continued, “I may not have a bed or the best room in the tower, but the couch I use to sleep on is cozy enough for her to recover on and I can sleep on the floor for a while, until a room becomes available. And my friends and I can make sure she gets enough food and exercise while she recuperates…if that’s alright?...”

Serene was now staring curiously at me, making me nervous again. Finally, she smiled and nodded to Dapple, who was now also smiling. “I think that should be fine. But she is not sleeping on a couch while you are on the floor.”

As I started to open my mouth, she held up a hoof and went on, “No, I think what we will do is deliver a single bed to your room for her to rest on. That way she will get the proper rest she needs, and you can as well.”

I was relieved and surprised to hear that. “You mean it? So, she can stay?!”

Chuckling to themselves a little, I relaxed some more as they went on, “Yes, she can stay. We will have a bed sent to your room first thing tomorrow for her and hopefully, she will be awake by then to be moved there. Aurora, the decision will be up to you when its safe for her to leave the infirmary and we will need you to let us know how she is doing daily. Miss Sonata, once she is awake and feels safe, we want you to keep her company. Learn who she is and see if you can glean any information as to why she was being chased by The Enclave. We will come to talk to her in a week. That will give us enough time to let her rest and talk with the other members of the council. For now, take our leave. You should all do the same.” As they bowed their heads, they turned and walked out the door, leaving Aurora and I alone in the room.

Looking back to the pegasus on the table, I was able to get a better look at her. She was a delicate thing. Her mane was a dark blue, but there were now some light blue stripes mixed in as well. I could make out most of her cutie mark as well, which was a light blue violin, with flower petals appearing to fall around it. Hearing hoofsteps, I looked up to see Aurora now awkwardly close to me and staring at the top right of my head. Startled a bit, I took a step back and it took her a second to realize her awkwardness.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I just now noticed the injury to your ear. It’s not too bad, but the tip of your ear is now missing. And most of the bleeding seems to have stopped. Is it alright if I cleaned it up for you?” I had completely forgotten about my ear and as soon as she mentioned it, I could now consciously feel it. Nodding for her to go ahead, she directed for me to take a seat in a nearby chair and it stung a bit as she worked to clean it up. Once she was finished, she brought up a small mirror to let me see. It wasn’t really bad, but there definitely was a noticeable chunk of my ear missing at the very tip. Afterwards, I said good night to her and headed out. The girls were waiting for me at the entrance and were now all over me, asking me questions and saying they were sorry for yesterday. We stood outside for a while, talking as Mint looked behind me to see a pony walking up. Turning around, I recognized Sarge, and he wasn’t angry anymore, which helped me relax.

“Hey girls, I know you all have a lot to talk about with Sony here, but I need to borrow her for a moment. Alone.” Glancing at me, they all hesitated a bit until Kiwi spoke up.

“C’mon, let’s give them some space. We can talk to her more tomorrow.” As they all walked past Sarge, Kiwi slowed and locked eyes with him, speaking to him in a smooth voice, “Be gentle with her alright, or you’ll have me to answer to.”

Nodding his head, I caught a quick flash of warmth in his eyes. “Yes ma’am.”

Mint must have caught it too, as she immediately started walking next to Kiwi. “No way…are you two…?” Kiwi shushed her, but I could tell she wasn’t gonna hear the end of it as they got further away. Once they were far enough out of earshot, Sarge gestured for me to sit down on a nearby bench with him. For a few moments, we were both silent and then he spoke up.

“Look…I’m glad you’re alright and that the rescue was successful. How is she by the way?”

“She’s alright. Aurora did an amazing job and said she should be awake by tomorrow hopefully.”

I could see Sarge was relieved at the news and a lot of tension left his body. “That’s good to hear. I…I don’t know what I would’ve done had I lost you. You’re a good friend, Sony and we were lucky today.” His voice was now serious as he continued. “However, I have to tell you that you are no longer allowed to go outside the entrance anymore. What you did was incredibly dangerous and a huge violation. Some on the council are currently investigating whether or not they should pursue it any further. You can still stop by the entrance once in a while, but that’s it. The rest of the guards are under strict orders to never let you go any further than the inner gate. You understand, right?”

As sad as I was to hear that, I could not be mad at the decision. He was right and what I did was very stupid and dangerous. There was no doubt in my mind that I would have done the same thing all over again, but I also knew that they risked their lives for me. They went against orders to lock it down and save me. For that I was eternally grateful and surprised Sarge with a big hug. He was quite surprised and not sure what to do. He definitely wasn’t expecting that and as I moved back, his facial expression was so weird, I couldn’t help but giggle a little. He managed to compose himself again as we said our farewells. Looking up at the main tower clock, it was now early in the evening, and I decided to head back to my room. As soon as I arrived, all the adrenaline from today was now gone and I snuggled into the corner of the couch, letting myself fall into another deep slumber…

Chapter Five

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Chapter Five: Prelude to Disaster

As we approached an abandoned house on the outskirts of Ponyville, I felt something wet hit my nose and looked up to see that rain was beginning to fall. It was still a slight drizzle, but Lily did not seem to want to risk it and increased her pace. By the time we arrived, the rain was falling harder now and she beckoned to me to follow her inside. Upon reaching the door, Lily helped me to unhook the cart and put Blossom carefully onto my back. Leaving the cart outside, we walked in the door, and I was surprised at the condition of the place. From the outside, it appeared to be just a simple one-story home and seemed to be in terrible condition. But as we moved inside, the interior was surprisingly the opposite. Along the walls were remnants of paintings, a family portrait, and a cozy little couch, with a broken tv right across from it. In the opposite corner was a small kitchen, though it was definitely not in any condition to make anything in. Finally, in the back was a small bed, next to a broken dresser and window.

Lily was gesturing her head towards the small bed. “Let’s put her over there.” Moving to the bed, we gently slid her off my back. She was still asleep and occasionally her whole body twitched. Lily and I just stood there next to her, unsure of what to do next. The poor little filly was in bad shape. After a few minutes, she stopped twitching and started to mutter something. Leaning in a little closers, I tried to make out what she was saying.

“Mommy, daddy…no, leave them alone…stop…please, you’re hurting them…”

My heart sank for her. She was reliving the final moments with them in her head before…before they were murdered. Turning to Lily, I could see she wasn’t taking this well either. Her entire body was shaking as she could only watch her little sister suffer the memories alone. I pressed my body next to her, and she looked up for a moment in fright, forgetting I was there. Meeting my gaze, however, she relaxed and looked back to Blossom.

“I don’t know how I’m gonna break it to her once she wakes up. I may be like a sister to her, but she just lost her parents, the only real family she had. She didn’t even get to say goodbye as…as they dragged them away. I tried to take Blossom away to somewhere safe, but they grabbed her from me…and then…and then they…” She couldn’t even finish as she just stared down at the floor, lost in fear. She was now reliving the attack in her head as well, and I tried to come up with something to console her, but nothing would come to mind. I’d never been in a situation like this, and I only knew them for a couple of days. Closing my eyes, I started humming a tune. I don’t know why I was humming or what the tune actually was. I just didn’t know what else to do. Halfway through the tune, she closed her eyes and leaned her neck into mine. After a couple of minutes, she wasn’t shaking anymore. Once I stopped humming, she looked up and the fear in her eyes seemed to have died down.

“Thanks… I needed that.” She continued to stare into my eyes for at least a couple of minutes before coming back to her senses. Her face flushing, she pulled herself together and stepped away, looking over Blossom. “It seems I’ll need to replace some of the gauze. And we only have a few rolls left. We will need to try the local market in Ponyville and get more in the morning, along with other supplies for the trip to Manehatten.” She looked back to me with a soft, tired gaze. “You should go ahead and get some rest. I want to be with my sister.”

“Of course. I’m just gonna go crash out on the couch. Just…holler if you need anything, alright?”

Leaving them to each other, I headed over to the couch and after taking time to get comfortable, I went over what happened in the last couple of days in my head. As I recalled the screams, the deaths and the fights, it was clear that we were very damn lucky to have survived. While the first raiders were pretty stupid and weak, their leader was a whole another story. He was cunning and incredibly strong. If Lily hadn’t come in when she did, I wouldn’t be alive now…I needed to be stronger. For Lily and Blossom, I needed to be a lot stronger. Not to mention, were not even halfway to our destination. And then what about after Manehatten? What if I didn’t get the answers I was looking for? And finally, what would happen if I did? Laying across the bed, I tried to dismiss my worries and the thoughts of my weakness, but to no avail. Eventually, I was able to fall asleep.

We had a long day ahead of us.

.....

Morning had now come, and I awoke to find Lily and Blossom still asleep in the bed. They looked so peaceful, so I decided not to wake them. After what they just went through, they needed the rest. I decided to go and do an inventory of our supplies in the cart outside. Opening the door, I was greeted with a damp smell, but It was no longer raining. Scattered around the house were a bunch of puddles. Well, at least it would be a fair day for the trip to the market, albeit a muddy one. Looking in the cart, I was dismayed to find that we only had enough food and water to last us one more day. Our medical supplies were also very low, and we only had my rifle to defend ourselves with. Which meant we had nothing to defend ourselves with. If the rifle didn’t keep piquing my interest, I’d have tossed the bloody thing out days ago. Remembering the kitchen, I trotted back in the house and went over to see if I could salvage anything out of it. Most of the cupboards and pantries were opened and emptied. Between the fridge and the sink was a small, unopened cabinet. There were two small drawers and a door below them. Starting from the top, there was nothing really out of the ordinary. Some old, rusted utensils, a couple of plates, moldy magazines and a lighter. The lighter seemed to still have some fluid left in it, so I took that out and placed it on the counter. Moving down to the cabinet door, I tried to open it, but it would not budge . There wasn’t a lock on it that I could see either. After a couple more attempts, I took a knife from the top drawer and tried to wedge it in. After getting it halfway in, I bit down on the knife handle and pulled it. I could hear the door cracking and groaning, but the damn thing was still resisting. I placed my hooves against the surrounding area of the cabinet and gave a mighty heave.

Snap! I fell hard on the floor as the knife broke in half. Thankfully though, the door was cracked open, and I could finally see what was inside. Opening the door, I was greeted by a damp and musky odor. Inside were the remains of pre-war foods, covered in mold. A couple of Fancy Buck Cake boxes, a bag of feed and two cans of beans. The cans were the only things that weren’t moldy, but they were also far in the back. Kneeling down, I reached out to grab a can. As I grabbed one of the cans, there was a voice behind me “Oh, you managed to get it open.”

“Shit!” Startled by the sudden voice, I banged my head hard on the roof of the cabinet and could hear some snorting behind me. Rubbing my head, I turned to see Lily with a hoof over her mouth, trying to suppress a laugh. I gave her the dirtiest look I could muster, which just made her burst into laughter.

“Ahhahaaha. Ahhh, I’m sorry, Wanderer. I didn’t mean to startle you. It’s just that I awoke to hear the sounds of somepony rummaging around the place and arrived in the kitchen to see you halfway into the cabinet.” She smiled innocently as I continued to rub my head.

“Could you have waited until after I had grabbed the beans? This is like the fourth or fifth time I’ve hit my head in a week. I already have amnesia, I don’t need any more brain damage to go along with it.” Eventually she stopped laughing and looked more apologetic now, but not completely. There was still quite a bit of amusement in her eyes.

“Sorry, sorry. But hey, good news is you managed to get it open. Before me met you, we laid low here once after we passed through Ponyville and no matter what, it wouldn’t budge…So what’d you find?”

I could only sigh in defeat as I reached for the cans again. “Sorry to say not much. Most of the food that was in here is inedible and only things that survived were some beans.” Handing her the cans, I remembered she said something last night about heading into town. “We can probably find some more supplies in town. There’s bound to be food, ammo, and medical items. I’ll go down and check it out.”

Heading back to the couch, I grabbed my satchel and threw it over my back. Once it was secured, I went towards the door, but was suddenly halted by Lily jumping in front of me and raising a hoof to my chest, looking at me with disbelief. “Are you out of your damn mind?! Please tell me you weren’t thinking of going into town looking like that?”

Confused, I looked around, wondering if I was filthy or if I was bleeding somewhere. She started groaning and I looked back up to see her face hoofing herself. “Just how have you survived this long on your own? Seriously?” Looking back up to me, she motioned at all of me with her hoof “Your stripes!”

Realization slowly dawned on me as I remembered that I was half zebra. I was still getting used to the whole zony thing and remembering Silver Song’s reaction to me being part zebra kicked in. I could only imagine how all the other ponies might react.

“Well, what can I do about it? I can’t just magically make them disappear.”

“Uhm, shit…wait, I think I got something…give me a sec.” Gesturing for me to wait a moment, she went to the cart outside and started rummaging around until her face lit up and she pulled out a tattered cloak. “This should fit you well enough for now. Put this on.”

As I put on the cloak, it felt very rough, but it managed to cover up most of my body and my stripes. As she looked me over, she seemed quite content. “Yeah, this will do just fine. Now they won’t know your part zebra unless you took off the cloak.”

I was still a bit uncomfortable with the idea. Was I gonna have to do this every time I went to town? Cause I don’t like the idea of hiding who I am, regardless of the reason. I know there was still a lot of animosity between ponies and zebras, but surely not all zebras were bad. Right…?

Lily seemed to sense my discomfort and gave me a gently nudge “I know your not happy with this, but a lot of ponies still hold a strong hatred for zebras, and I don’t want you to get hurt because of that. It’s just for now until we get back on the road. One day, they will see you for who you are the inside instead of what’s on the outside.”

That didn’t really make me feel any less uncomfortable, but I conceded for now. She seemed to mean well, and she didn’t hate me for being part zebra. It was only for now, Wanderer. Only for now and then we’d be back on the road to Manehatten once Blossom had recovered enough to travel. “Alright, for now I’ll wear the cloak. So, what do you need me to get?”

She was smiling a bit more now. “So last time we went through here, there was an old pharmaceutical store on the outskirts of town, mixed in with a bunch of other old stores. The place is in ruins and already salvaged, but I remember seeing a cellar door that looked like it may have led to a basement. I need you to check and see if there are any painkillers, bandages, or healing potions…oh, maybe some Rad-away if there is any! Whatever you can find. We will need all the supplies we can fit in the cart.” She gave me a small bag. “After that, take these bits and see what food and other supplies you can get down at the market. There should be enough to get at least a few days’ worth of food.”

“Ok. I’ll head over there and see what I can scrounge up. What will you do in the meantime?”

She turned her head back in the direction where Blossom was “I’m gonna keep an eye on her and see if I can do anything else to help with the pain. Someone also needs to keep an eye on the place and the little supplies we got left. We may be a little ways from town, but that doesn’t mean were the only ones who know about this place.”

Fair enough. I needed to make this trip as successful and quick as possible then. Shouldn’t be too hard, right? I was about to head out when a concern popped into my head. Turning back, I asked her “What if somepony were to come by here while I’m gone? I don’t remember us bringing anything to defend ourselves with.”

She just grinned, walked over to the cart and opened a hidden compartment, revealing a side holster with a very well-made pistol. “Who said I was ever unarmed?”

…

The walk towards the outskirts of Ponyville was pretty uneventful. Though looking around, I started to really take in the landscape around me. To the west was the forest we came out from, and it ended a few hundred feet from the house we were in now, and the term “Wasteland” really made sense now. Out past Ponyville, it was a barren land from there to Canterlot and beyond. Sure, there were some scattered trees and small wooded areas, but nothing like the land to the west of us. The only exception to that was a huge, dark, thorny forest just southeast of Ponyville. It was still quite a ways away, but there was something was really off about it. Seemed best to just avoid that area. Further past that to the east was more wasteland and mountains. Looking south to southwest, the land looked more like it used to be farmland. It was an open expanse of land, that appeared to be a mixture of dessert, rock, and ruin. Swiveling my head to the north, it resembled the lands to the west, but it was heavily clouded. Not even stormy, just thick clouds that seemed like they were always there. Deciding to leave that mystery alone for now, I had just arrived at the collection of buildings Lily was mentioning. Though these were more ruins than buildings. Honestly, I’m surprised some were still intact. The place made me think of a shopping district, as most of the places held resemblances of sale advertisements. From what I could gather, there was a clothing store, a bakery, a general store, and a florist. Though nothing in any of those ruins were in any shape to be used.

Making my way further down the street, I was able to find the pharmaceutical store I was told to find and this one still had walls and a roof. Looking through the broken windows, it was mostly empty, with many of the shelves on their side. Scattered around the floor were piles of rubble from where the ceiling had fallen through. The counter where Lily said I’d find the door to the basement was in the far-left corner. Getting across all the rubble and fallen shelves to it was gonna take some time. Halfway through, something on the wall caught my attention. It was a large poster. It was blue and grey, in the middle a silhouette of a yellow pegasus with a pink mane. While most of the wording was scratched or torn off, in big letters were the words “The Ministry of Peace”. I vaguely recalled Silver Song mentioning the ministries and that this one was headed by a pegasus named Fluttershy, but that’s about all I could remember. To be honest, I didn’t pay too much attention to what he said about them. All I knew was that they were each headed by six ponies who once prided themselves on the power of friendship. Which sounds lovely, but obviously didn’t turn out so well from the looks of it.

Finally, I reached the back of the store and found the door to the basement. It was slightly ajar and as I opened it up further, I was able to get a good look inside. Well, if stairs leading into absolute darkness counted as a good look. Hoping there was a light switch, I looked around inside around the door and sure enough, there was one and I flipped it.

Nothing.

I gave it a little while thinking maybe it just needed some time to start up. But as nothing continued to happen, I gave up.

Not sure why I expected that to work, but it was worth a shot. Looking around the counter area, there appeared to be enough wood and cloth to create a small makeshift torch. After making one and laying it on the ground, I pulled out the lighter from earlier and lit the cloth. It took quite a few times to finally get it burning, but once it started, I quickly grabbed the other end and started to make my way down. The light from the fire helped a lot and I was able to get a better view of the stairs. There was a lot of cobwebs. Like, a shit ton of cobwebs to the point you could barely see the bottom of the steps. And the last thing I wanted to do was set them all on fire and risk the basement burning. So, it left me with only one, really horrible option…

As I began to part the webs and weave my way through, I could feel them sticking to hooves and cloak, as well as something crawling around my legs. They weren’t biting thankfully, but as soon as one fell on my face, I tried to swipe it off, forgot the torch was in that hoof, and ended up losing my balance trying to get the spider off without burning, tumbling down the remaining steps onto the floor.

“…ooowww…damn eight-legged little shits.” After getting back on my hooves, I picked up the torch I dropped and was happy to say that there were significantly less cobwebs in the rest of the room… except for a large hole in the wall on the other side of the room that was just pure cobwebs. I felt it would be a very good idea to just not go near it. And I also prayed to the Princesses nothing would come out. The basement was in better condition than upstairs, with a lot of storage shelves full of boxes of different types of medicine. Or at least boxes that once held medicine. While they looked like they weren’t opened from afar, upon closer inspection, most of them were carefully cut open and emptied of contents. Some were still closed, but none of them were what we needed. As I kept going through the boxes, I froze. I could hear voices from above.

“…are ya sure ya saw someone walk in here? Aint a fuckin living thing here and aint nothing worth grabbing anyway. Was probably a radroach.”

“I told you for the sixth damn time already, aint no radroach that big. I saw a hooded pony walk in here and they’re here somewhere. Look, there’s an open door in the back! Told you I wasn’t crazy.”

“Oh, your definitely fucked in the head, Troy. Just don’t want to admit it.”

“Say that again and I’ll break your legs. See how the boss likes your crippled ass then.”

“Oh, I dare you to try…”

Whoever it was, they would be down here any minute. Moving quickly, I hid on the other side of some storage shelves. I was about to put out the torch when I managed to catch sight of the words on the boxes I was hiding behind. What dumb luck! It was a box of painkillers and right next to it was a couple of rolls of bandages and a health potion. They were still arguing upstairs, so I took this time to grab whatever I could and stuff it into the satchel. Halfway through, I heard hoofsteps at the top of the stairs and stomped out the torch. They were still talking as they made their way down.

“Fucking cobwebs! I fucking hate spiders. Give me the machete, I’m not touching a single web.”

“You’re telling me you will beat the shit out of ponies twice your size, but you can’t deal with little spiders? What a pathetic excuse of a raider you are.”

“One more word and I’ll shove this blade right up your ass instead. You better pray there actually is somepony down here. Only reason I’m going along with this is cause the boss needs bodies.”

Bodies?

“Yeah, yeah. That’s why we gathered up all these other gangs to raid Ponyville. Lots of fresh meat there for the taking. Should be almost a hundred we can take for our pleasure, hehehe. Boss has been planning this score for months and I ain't never seen so many raiders and slavers come together before.”

Not good. I needed to get out of here fast and get back to Lily, but first I had to get past these two first. They had cleared all the cobwebs from the stairwell and were at the bottom now. From between the shelves, I could make out an orb of light and the two ponies underneath it. One was a black unicorn stallion, floating a shotgun by his side and also, the source of the light. The other was a yellow earth pony mare, wielding a machete in her mouth. They appeared to be raiders, but they were decked out in leather armor and…dark, wooden spiked shoulder and knee pads. Emblazoned on their chest was some strange, bright red symbol of a head with horns.

“Yeah, I ain't ever seen this many before either. Usually, I could give less than two shits for the slavers and their so-called standards, but the boss says we need them for this job. They get half of those we capture to sell off and we get the other half for whatever we want. Ooooh, I’m already getting antsy. Tonight, is gonna be fun!”

“You damn right it is! By the way, you heard what happened to Bruiser?”

“Vaguely. The rest of his gang said they found him lying at the bottom of a cliff, all mangled and broken. Fell about a hundred or something feet and was a bloody mess.”

“Yeah, but what they didn’t tell you was that he was still alive. He was snarling and going on about some winged zebra and a pegasus that done killed two of his raiders before knocking him off a cliff…”

Oh crap. They were talking about him and Lily.

“A winged what now? Zebras don’t have wings, you stupid shit. Everyone knows that…”

“I know that! But that’s what they said. He’s probably delusional from the fall. They say they took him back to…the shop to get fixed.”

The earth pony shivered at the mention of the name. “I’ve heard horrible screaming from any pony that was sent there. And I’ve heard a lot of screaming in my life, most of it caused by me. But the screams that come from there are just…unnatural. If he survives, I’ll get him all the booze he can drink. But first, we need to get the one down here. Come on out, meat! We knoooww your heeerrre…”

They were starting to get closer to my position and I started getting nervous. I was completely unarmed and in no condition to fight. All that was around me was the extinguished torch and some small pieces of rubble. The light from the unicorn was getting closer and an idea formed in my head, but it was a longshot. As they were about to round the corner, I kicked a piece of rubble at the hole in the wall and it made a large echoing sound. They both spun around towards the hole.

“Gotcha now, meat! I promise if you come quietly, we won’t hurt you too much. Just carve you up a little until later. That’s when the real fun begins.”

Now was my chance as they started approaching the hole. I burst out towards the stairs, but as soon as made it around the corner, the mare turned around instantly and charged into me, knocking me into the wall. She was incredibly strong and had me pinned down within seconds. Trying to escape, I stopped upon feeling the cold steel of the machete right on my throat. Her eyes were filled with mad delight.

“Did you really think we were that stupid? What idiot would be making sounds in a spider’s den?! Any pony caught in there would be already dead, or worse! Now let’s take a look at we got going on under that cloak. Tony?”

The unicorn had moved around to the side and flipped back my hood and parted my cloak to get a good look at me. He whistled in awe. The mare’s mouth had dropped in complete shock.

“Well, what do we have here, Lilith? A zebra…with wings?! You got to be shitting me...so Bruiser wasn’t delusional after all. Which means that the pegasus won’t be too far away. We just hit the jackpot! The boss will want to see him for sure…but not after we have a little fun with him first. After that, you’re gonna take us to your pretty, little winged friend. Anything to say before we begin, meat?”

Looking straight at him, I grinned. “Yeah, you should’ve kept your eyes on the hole.”

Before he could even move, he was grabbed by large, long, spindly legs and dragged screaming back towards the hole. “The fuck?! Lilith, help!”

She froze up as she turned to see a large spider, twice the size of a regular pony, trying to pull the struggling unicorn into its den. It was all I needed as I shoved her off and ran up the stairs. I could hear them both screaming, then the sound of the shotgun going off as I slammed the door behind me and locked it. Not wanting to see who would win, I bolted out and kept running until I got back to the house. Crashing through the door, Lily was on the bed with Blossom and looked up to see me rushing in. At first, she was smiling for my return, but quickly turned to worry as she saw my face. By then, I had already closed the door and was moving stuff to block it.

“Wanderer, what’s wrong?! Did the ponies at the market see your stripes?”

Ignoring her, I was now looking out the window to see if the raiders had followed me. I couldn’t see or hear anything. I was so focused that I didn’t notice Lily was standing right next me, worried and waiting. She must have asked me a question, but I was so focused I didn’t hear her.

“What?”

“I said, what’s wrong? Did they see your stripes at the market and chase you out?”

Oh, I wish that was all that happened. “No, I didn’t even make it to the market. We need to get Blossom and leave. Now.”

“We can’t. She’s not well enough to travel. She will need another day at least…”

Shaking my head, I moved from the window and offloaded the satchel. “We don’t have that much time. We need to do what we can and be out of here quick.”

I only managed to take a few steps before she slammed her hoof on the floor and was now shouting. “Wanderer! What the hell happened?! You come running in here like a mad pony and won’t even tell me what’s got you so scared? Is somepony following you? Are we in danger?! Tell me!”

She was fuming and scared. And also, she was right. I owed her an explanation. I was about to tell her, but was stopped by a small, feeble voice from the other side of the room.

“Mommy…Daddy?”

We both turned to see Blossom awake and looking around confused. Lily was already rushing to her side, and I wasn’t too far behind.

“Hey sweetie. It’s your big sister, Lily. Everything is gonna be alright. How are you feeling?”

She was still weak, and it was obvious she had no idea what was going on. “I feel…weird and it hurts a little bit everywhere…where are we? Where is mommy…and daddy? I saw those scary ponies take them away and then…”

Lily’s eyes were brimming with tears, and she hugged her close. She looked up to me. “Could you give us the room for a while?”

Nodding to her, I turned around and headed outside. Carefully opening the door, I looked around to see if those raiders, or anypony for that matter, was nearby. After determining we were the only ones here, I walked outside and closed the door behind me. I couldn’t imagine how Blossom was going to feel once Lily broke the news to her. I also knew though that we couldn’t stay here for long. Yeah, Blossom still needed some time to recover, I mean, we were all in rough shape still from yesterday, but if those raiders managed to find this place, it wouldn’t matter. We needed to leave and soon. My train of thought was broken by the sounds of screaming and loud crying coming from within. She must’ve just told Blossom about what happened. I needed to distract myself, so I set to the task of getting the cart ready. About an hour later, as I was finishing up, Lily walked out very somber and red-eyed. She looked absent minded and just sat there on the porch, staring off into the distance. Carefully approaching her, I tried to get her to talk.

“Everything alright, Lil? How is Blossom?”

At the sound of my voice, she broke from her concentration and just looked down to the porch. “Not good. She cried herself to sleep and it wasn’t long before she started having nightmares again. I did all I could, but…I just want her to be happy. Jesse and Darlene were the only real family she had. And for her to have that ripped away from her in front her very eyes…”

I moved over to wrap my wing over her for comfort, but she shrugged it off. “I know you mean well, but I just…want to be alone right now…I need to think on things.” Shaking her head a little, she looked up to me a bit more serious now. “Now tell me, why were you acting so shook up before?”

“Nothing good, of course. As I said, I wasn’t able to make it to the market. I found the pharmaceutical store and as I went down to gather whatever I could find, a couple of raiders showed up. They must’ve noticed me going in as they were looking specifically for me…”

Her face was filled with worry as she cut me off “Sweet Celestia, are you alright?! Did they hurt you anywhere?!” She began to search around my body for any new injuries, but I stopped her halfway through.

“I’m fine. They caught me, but I managed to get away thanks to a giant spider…”

“A GIANT WH...?!” I put my hoof over her mouth.

“Let me finish. Before they caught me, I overheard them talking about a huge raid on Ponyville. They allied themselves with slavers and have hundreds of raiders and slavers going there tonight to capture everyone. They mentioned something about a boss, but no other details. However, these raiders were a lot stronger and a lot smarter than the raiders from…yesterday. They had leather armor all over, spiked wooden pauldrons and a red symbol on their chest of a pony head, with horns. You ever hear about these raiders before?”

She was still trying to take this all in, but after a few moments, she was able to respond “…no…no no, I’ve never come across any raiders like the ones you described. But you said they mentioned hundreds? All the raider gangs I’ve ever heard of have, at most, a couple of dozen in their ranks. There has never been a group of raiders that large before, as they all tend to fight with each other as much as they do with every other living creature in the Wasteland…and you said they were working with slavers?”

After nodding my head in agreement, she went on “Now I know why you were so scared before…wait, what about all those poor folk down in Ponyville? We have to warn them somehow!” She was about to take off in flight when I stopped her.

“We can’t! No matter how badly I want to myself, we could get caught. I just told you there are hundreds of raiders and slavers on their way. And we don’t know from where they’re coming from. For all we know, they could have it surrounded already…”

She was extremely upset as she tried to shove me off “We have to at least try! This isn’t just some group of random travelers, this is an entire town full of families. I don’t want to see other kids separated from their parents or have them murdered in front of their eyes like Blossoms’ did. They deserve a chance to escape!”

She was relentless, but she was also still weak from the day before. “And how do you plan on warning them? By flying through the sky where you will be shot down within moments? Or perhaps by running there and possibly right into a raider ambush?” She didn’t seem to be listening as she struggled even more to get away from me, so I overpowered her and pinned her down, getting right into her face. “Do you want Blossom to lose another part of her family?!”

She stopped struggling and was in shock. Tears were now streaming down her face as she realized what she was about to do. Not sensing any more signs to leave, I gently got off of her and let her slowly get up. She was incredibly frustrated, but was resigned to stay. I felt her pain and her desire to help all those in Ponyville, but she was all that Blossom had left and I didn’t want to lose her either. She also struck a nerve in me and now I also wanted to go and try to warn the residents of Ponyville. So, I did something stupid.

I made a deal.

“Look…how about this? You get Blossom and everything ready to leave. I will head down to Ponyville to try and warn them, if I can. I am better at staying low and have a better chance of sneaking in. If they haven’t surrounded the place yet, I will find a way to warn them of the incoming danger. If I can’t, I’ll head straight back here so we can leave. Alright?”

She was still upset, but walked up to me and wrapped her hooves around me tight. “Thank you, Wanderer…please come back to us safely. I’ll have everything ready to leave, just…please let them know. For me…”

Wrapping her in my hooves, I hugged her tight. I could feel her trembling all over. “Don’t worry, I’ll let them know.”

We held each other for a few more moments before Lily let go and stepped to the side. Hoping to give her some comfort, I gave her hair a little tussle before stepping off the porch and running towards Ponyville. In the distance, I saw a three-story ruin not too far away from the town and stopped real quick to look around. There was no commotion or sounds of anyone nearby, so without a moment else to spare, I quickly flew up to the top of the building and crouched down behind the remains of a wall, bringing myself as close to the floor and the wall as possible. I stayed still for a few minutes to see if I was seen and took a few quick peeks around the wall for any signs of life. Aside from a radroach scuttling across the street, there was no one else around. In the distance I could hear the commotion of the town and looked around the wall to get a better look at it.

So far it seemed pretty normal. Around the main part of the town were checkpoints and parts of makeshift walls. Not enough to fully encircle the town and most of the wall was still incomplete. Inside the wall, I was able to locate the source of the commotion. It was the market Lily told me about and it was bustling with life. Mostly earth ponies, with a few unicorns here and there, were either checking out the merchants’ wares, haggling or just wandering around. The rest of the town was bustling with street life of ponies greeting each other or having conversations. All in all, it was like a town that was in a whole different world from what I’ve seen so far. Just outside of town, from the southeast to east was the creepy forest I saw before. It lay just a few feet from the outside of the town. Aside from it just looking wrong, there were no signs of life coming from it. Looking back west from the way I came from, there also were no signs of an amassed force of raiders and slavers. The south was barren and there was no way to cross it without being seen. The nearest hill or structure large enough to hide a large group of ponies was at least a two-day journey away. Which only left the north and northeast. So, I still had a chance, and it was only midday. I remember them saying they would hit the town at night.

If there was any time, it was now.

Gliding back down to the ground, I carefully made my way to the market. Within a few minutes, I had arrived behind an old store right outside the edge of the market. I had to move quick and find a town guard or someone with authority. There appeared to be a makeshift checkpoint near the entrance with a couple of armed guards. Perfect! I could just let them know of the approaching danger and leave with enough time. I readjusted my cloak to cover my head and body before quickly making my way over to them. As I approached, they noticed me and went to bar my way from entering the town. The guard on the right, a brown earth pony stallion, was the first to speak up.

“Woah there! State your business here, traveler.”

“I came here to warn you. You are all in danger and need to leave. Hundreds of raiders and slavers are coming here tonight to capture as many of you as possible.”

Both the guards looked at each other for a few moments before grinning and cackling. The guard on the left turned to me this time. “Oh, that’s a good joke there. Hundreds of raiders and slavers? Coming here? That’s rich. You really think we’d fall for that?”

I was confused now and upset. Here I am sticking my neck out for these ponies I don’t even know, and they just laugh it off. “I’m not making this up. I overheard it from a couple of raiders. They’re coming here tonight.”

The guard on the right spoke up again “You sure it wasn’t just some strangers that had pumped a bit too much Psycho?”

Psycho? I’m guessing it was a drug of some sort from the sounds of it. “No, these were well armored raiders. Just at those ruins over there.” I pointed back to the area where the pharmaceutical store was. One of them took a quick look to see where I was pointing and scoffed.

“Look now. Everyone knows that raiders hate each other just as much as they hate every other living creature. Having even more than ten in the same area without them carving out each other’s guts is rare enough. But hundreds? And working with slavers? That’s impossible. You’d best move along now.”

At this point I was in utter disbelief at these ponies. I tried pleading with them one more time “Look, I’m trying to help you and the ponies who live here. You won’t stand a chance. Can I please just at least talk to your leader or someone in charge?” I tried to move past them, but they took out their rifles and pointed them at me, stopping me right in my tracks.

“We told you to move on. And there is no way were gonna just let you go and start a panic off some bullshit…In fact, how do we know your not a raider or slaver yourself? I’m gonna need you to pull off the cloak for us there, nice and slow.”

I started to panic. I can’t let them know I’m part zebra. Welp, I tried my best to warn them. They were on their own now. “I will just head out. Just…forget it.”

“I said remove your cloak. Now.” The rifle was leveled right at my head and as I tried backing away, the other guard fired a warning shot that grazed my cheek. I staggered from it and could feel blood dripping from my face. Everypony was now looking this way.

“I won’t tell you again. Remove. Your. Cloak.”

These assholes really meant to kill me. Cursing to myself, I unpinned the cloak and let it fall. As it fell away, everyone was in shock and gasps and mutterings could be heard from everypony. I couldn’t tell what shocked them more, the stripes or the wings. I could make out some of the talk from the crowd.

“It’s a filthy zebra. How dare they show their face here!”

“It has wings. I aint ever heard of one with wings ‘afore.”

“What kind of dark practices did they perform to create such a monster.”

The guards were stunned momentarily, but eventually the earth pony managed to come to their senses and leveled their rifle right at my head

“So…a fuckin zebra like you dares to show their face in these lands. And an abomination at that. Oh, you definitely got a death wish pal and I am more than happy to oblige.”

Abomination. Those words cut me deep. I kinda figured I wasn’t normal, but to be called an abomination and a monster. Was I really such a thing? Was this what it would be like if went to Manehatten? If I went anywhere? I lost focus and just fell back to the ground, sitting there. I completely drowned out the crowd. I barely noticed one of the guards walking up to me until the barrel was right in my face. Looking past the barrel, their face was full of disgust and anger.

“Don’t worry. I’ll make this quick. It’s more than your kind deserves, but I ain’t the type to torture someone. It’d be a waste of bullets. Don’t worry though, you won’t be missed.”

That’s where he was wrong. An image flashed in my mind of Lily and Blossom. I promised I wouldn’t leave them alone in this world and they didn’t care I was part zebra. I could see him pulling th trigger and I was focused now. Before he could get the shot off, I dashed my head to the side and slapped the barrel of the rifle the other way. Pushing myself off the ground, I rammed into the guard as hard as I could, knocking him straight into the other guard.

I was already flying away by the time the guards came to their senses and started shooting. Lead was flying all around me and as I dived and weaved in different directions to throw them off. Within a few moments, I was out of their range and sight. My cheek still burned, but I didn’t care. I needed to get back to Lily and Blossom before it was too late. I could soon see the house and landed roughly in front of the porch, almost stumbling into it. Not a moment too soon after I got my footing, there was Lily rushing out to me. She must’ve been really worried, and I was about to fill her in on what happened as she stopped right in front of me. She was in incredible distress. The next words that came out of her mouth shocked me

“Blossom is gone!”

Chapter Six

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Fallout Equestria: Songs of Hope

Chapter Six: Out of the Ashes

“What?! Gone…what…where…when?!”

My emotions were already all over the place from Ponyville and now I return to learn Blossom, still weak and covered with unhealed wounds, was now gone. As I was attempting to process what I was just told, there was a sharp tug on my shoulder. Lily’s face practically screamed her distress, her fearful eyes wide and red with tears. She was looking up at me, trying to tell me something, but the words wouldn’t come out. She was frantic and her legs were wobbling quite a bit, covered with splotches of wet mud. She must have been searching for Blossom for a while now.

Resting a wing gently on her shoulder, I tried to muster all the confidence that I could. “We will find her, I promise. Tell me everything you remember before she disappeared.”

She was still distressed, but was able to focus as she relayed what she remembered. “Uh…Uhm…I was checking in on her shortly after you left. She was still very upset and told me to go away.” Her expression seemed to get sadder as she went on. “I’ve been with her for a few years now, but I’ve never seen her like this. I didn’t know what to do to help her, so I went outside to try and clear my head. A few minutes later, I went to check in on her again. Her bed was empty, the window next to it was open, and she was gone.” She stopped, sniffling and rubbing away some tears from her eyes.

I encouraged her to continue. “Go on. What happened next?”

Mustering up her voice, she went on. “I panicked and ran to the window, hoping to see where she went, but there was no sign of her. I ran outside to look for her, but there was nothing. I couldn’t find her anywhere. Even flying above the house, there was no sign of her. I called out to her as loud as I could…She’s just a little filly, Wanderer. She can’t survive all on her own.” Walking over to me, she just dropped her head into my chest, and seemed utterly defeated.

Putting a hoof under her chin, I raised her head up. “And she won’t have to. We will find her, I promise. I won’t let anything happen to her. I swear this to you. We will bring her back, safe and sound.”

A brief glimmer of hope resurged in her eyes. Nodding her head, she smiled a little bit and asked what we were gonna do next.

Gesturing for her to follow, I went over the area. “Luckily the ground is still wet from the rain. Which means there is probably a trail left behind we can follow. Let’s start at the window.” Heading to the window, I made a quick guesstimate of how far a bandaged filly would get from the window to the ground and was able to spot a few small hoofprints rather quickly. Following the general direction of the trail, they appeared to curve off towards the southeast. Gesturing for Lily to follow, we took off in pursuit, moving as fast as we could while following the hoofprints. With still no sign of Blossom, even after minutes of searching, I began to worry. The raiders and slavers were planning to attack today, and we still had no idea where they might be holding up. A brief scene of Blossom being held captured by them flashed through my mind and I picked up the pace. Out of my peripheral vision I could see we were now closing in on the outskirts of the town, but I paid it no mind. My sole focus was on the trail and finding Blossom. So much, that I was completely caught off guard by somepony jumping on me and bringing me down. Right as I was about to buck them off, I heard Lily’s voice right next to my ear.

“Are you out of your damn mind? You were about to run right into the forest!” There was surprise and…fear…in her voice. I was just about to tell her it was just another forest, but caught myself as I looked up.

This was no ordinary forest.

From the outside, it appeared twisted and wrong. The trees stood tall and dark, with long, sharp branches jutting out from everywhere about halfway up. The leaves were an unnatural combination of black and brown, and were so dense that it was impossible to see the treetops. Beneath the branches, a dense fog was formed and just pouring out of the forest. Looking closer, there were large vines and brambles that were absolutely everywhere, giving just barely enough room for a single pony to fit through. I was getting some very uncomfortable vibes of malice, death and…longing? It was like the forest was trying to lure me in, but telling me that to do so may cost my life. It was hard to explain it, but I don’t think it mattered how I felt about it. Because that’s where Blossom’s trail led and my concern for her far outweighed the ominous feeling. What could have possessed her to go into this place?

I wasn’t alone in that sentiment as Lily got off of me and began backing away from the forest edge. “Blossom…” She just kept backing away until I snapped her out of it.

“What’s wrong? Is there something wrong with this place?”

The look of incredulity she gave me had to be the most expressful I’ve ever seen from her. And she’s gone through a lot of emotions from all the shits that happened over the last few days. “Are you shitting me right now? This is Everfree Forest!” I could only shrug and I guess my confusion didn’t help to calm her down. “Its Everfree Forest! There is absolutely no way you haven’t heard anything about this wretched place. Even raiders and slavers aren’t crazy enough to go near here. Any pony that has gone in, never came back out.” As she looked back towards the forest, I noticed now that I have never seen her this afraid before. The only reason she probably hasn’t run off yet was because her sister was in those woods. Time was against us and from the sounds of it, the longer Blossom was in those woods, the more danger she was in. I needed to try and convince Lily to come with me to help, and quick.

Moving right in front of her, I put myself right between her and the forest. Looking deep into her eyes, I tried to appear as confident as I could be. “Lily, I can see this place frightens you. And while I may not know why, I do know that Blossom is in there all alone and probably just as terrified as you are.” At the mention of her name, Lily’s attention shot to me. “I promised you that I wouldn’t let anything happen to her… or to you. And I am true to my word. We will find her, and all three of us will leave out of these woods alive and well.” I raised my hoof in front of her, causing her to look down at it.

“Do you trust me?”

Looking back up, it was clear her mind was in a battle between giving into her fear and her feelings for her sister. It was a short battle though and as she put her hoof in mine, her eyes were filled with gratitude, and a brief flash of something else, but she was already nuzzling her head into my neck.

“Oh Wanderer…Thank you. I don’t know where I would be now if it wasn’t for you.” Picking her head back up, she gave me a quick kiss on the cheek which caught me by surprise. Shortly realizing what she did, she quickly turned away from me, face flushed completely red.

“C’mon. Let’s go find my sister.” She started heading into the forest, but stopped short before turning back to me, her face flushed with nervousness. “Um, would you mind taking the lead…?” Giving her a quick nod, I took the lead, and we took our first steps into the mists of Everfree Forest.

…

It felt like hours had passed since we first entered the forest. There was no way to tell what time of day it was. Fortunately, we were still able to follow the trail and tried to call out to Blossom occasionally along the way. The fog was still heavy, but not as much as it was before. I could see up to at least two yards away. However, the eerie silence was what got to me the most. There was no wind, no critters, not even a rustle of leaves. The only sounds came from our hoofsteps and our breathing. There were some times we even lost the trail before eventually stumbling back onto it. With no other trace of Blossom, the only thing we could do was continue our trek. Looking back to see how Lily was faring, it was plain she was still nervous. Her eyes kept darting back and forth around us, looking for any possible traces of her sister, as well as from nervousness about what lie in these woods. No pony knew what exactly was in here, after all.

Eventually, the fog lessened into a mist and the trees were starting to thin out. Looking back, I could only look on in astonishment. Both the trees and the brush were almost completely covered by snaking, thorny vines. There was a slight movement among them, and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It appeared that the vines were slowing moving, as if to cut off our way out. Unable to tear my eyes away for a moment, I reached my hoof out to tap Lily’s shoulder, who was facing the other direction.

No response.

After tapping a little harder, I forced myself to break away and turned to see her staring ahead, her eyes wide. Tears were running down her cheeks, and she was smiling. Following her gaze, I was absolutely speechless. There were two ponies just a few hoofs away from us, bloodied and heavily wounded. Although that wasn’t why I was speechless.

It was because those two ponies were Jesse and Darlene.

We all just stood still, silently looking at each other. There was no way they were alive. We burned their bodies until there was naught left but ash. The silence was finally broken by Lily as she reached a hoof out towards them.

“Ma…Pa…Is that really you?”

There was no response. They just stood there, with warm expressions. But I could tell that it was a false warmth. I knew for certain they were dead and that there was no way they were here now. Something was wrong. Taking a few steps, I put myself between them and Lily.

“Who…what are you? I know you’re not Jesse and Darlene…”

Lily was now trying to move around me, but I stopped her. “Wanderer, what do you mean? They’re standing right there!”

Still holding her back, I kept my gaze upon them and asked again, this time more demanding. “Tell us what you are now! I will not fall for your trickery…Answer me!!”

They both smiled and they began to change. Their bodies started to become translucent, mixing in with the fog. Within a matter of seconds, there wasn’t any trace they were ever there. Lily walked right past me, her hoof reaching out to where the illusions were, as if they would come back if she could just touch them. I started to reach out to Lily myself to bring her back, but stopped just short of touching her.

I knew they were just illusions, but Lily had to come to terms with their deaths on her own. However, any chance for that was not going to happen anytime soon. There was a voice in the air that made us both snap to attention. It was Blossom!

“Blossom! Were here, sweetie! Where are you?!” Lily was darting around, turning in different directions, trying to locate where her voice was coming from. “Blossom, please answer me!”

Trying to pinpoint where the sound was coming from was proving to be difficult. Even as I strained my ears towards each direction, it all sounded the same. Lily stopped moving and took off. “Blossom, I’m coming!”

“Damnit Lily, wait!” It was too late, and I had to sprint to catch up to her before she disappeared into the fog completely. It wasn’t long before the fog began to dissipate, and we arrived in a clearing. Above us stretched an irradiated, cloudy night sky.

In the center of the clearing was a large pond, with some mist spots hovering over the surface. Right across from us, by the lakeside was Blossom. She was scanning around the pond, searching for something. Lily had halted some distance away, looking out towards the pond. And for once, she stopped me from moving any further.

Pointing out towards the pond, her hoof was shaking as she asked. “Wanderer…what is that?

Following the direction of her hoof, I now noticed a large object moving from the center of the pond. As it silently breached the surface, I saw a monstrous creature with a scaly hide and a long snout, with sharpened teeth protruding form its mouth. And it was heading straight to where Blossom was.

Rushing towards Blossom, I called out to her. Stopping in her tracks, she turned towards me and waved. She had no idea what was behind her. A monstrous, long snout was seen poking out of the water, jaws smoothly unhinging. The fangs alone were the size of a filly, and sharpened to a fine point. Blossom was only a few hoofs away from me as the creature lunged forward to snap down on her.

“NOOO! BLOSSOM!!” Lily was screaming at the top of her lungs.

An image of Blossom being hung from a tree, left to bleed out, resurfaced in my mind and I used every ounce of strength I had to push off from the ground, spread my wings and lunge towards her.

Snap!

It’s jaws slammed shut, with a sickening crunch. For a few seconds, there was darkness for a while, until I realized I had shut my eyes. Upon slowly opening them, I discovered that I was by the pondside, with Blossom safely in my hoofs, tightly holding onto me. I had landed on the other side of the monster, just hoofs away from its jaws. Sighing with relief that I made it in time, the moment was very short lived as the monster gave off a loud bellow, propelling me to take to the sky. A second later, the space I was just standing in was filled with the snapping of its large jaw. After flying high enough, I turned to look down at the beast. The thing was absolutely enormous. It was the size of a train cart and was long enough to take up two blocks, at least. As it turned back to look at us, it stared for a few minutes before looking towards Lily. Without hesitation, she also spread her wings and took to the sky to join us. It must’ve realized that we were out of its reach, as it let out one final roar before diving into the deep, murky center of the pond. Fearful that it might be come back, we hovered in the air for a while.

The whole time, Blossom just clung on tightly. I could feel my chest getting wet from her tears and she was apologizing. “I’m so sorry…I just wanted my mom and dad. I saw them and they waved at me, telling me to come home…I didn’t know…” The rest I couldn’t make out, but I didn’t need to. The poor kid must be absolutely heartbroken. Looking to Lily, I could see she wanted to cry as well, but I don’t think she had any more to spare for now. These last few days had been a nightmare for them, and I don’t think they could take any more right now.

…

About five minutes had passed now. With no sign of the creature resurfacing, we felt it was time to leave this place. After landing a safe distance from the pond, Blossom let go and just looked around. She looked lost and confused. Lily ran up and hugged her, but she didn’t seem to really notice. Her eyes were focused on our surroundings, as if waiting for something. She must still be hoping that her parents would appear from the fog. Though thanks to that, I was able to notice the fog was starting to get dense again and we needed to get out of there. After locating our tracks, I motioned to Lily. Nodding her head in a solemn, silent manner, she nudged Blossom and we headed back. Before we entered the tree line, I took one look back to make sure that monster wasn’t behind us.

I froze.

Standing by the lakeshore, I could make out the silhouette of a pony through the fog. There was no other pony that was here with us and for a moment I thought it was another illusion of their parents, but this pony was different. Because I had no recollection of ever seeing this pony before. It had horns on it’s head. And it was staring directly at me. However, almost as soon as it appeared, it also disappeared, turning towards the pond and fading into the fog. I was about to call out to it, but was interrupted by a tug on shoulder. It was Lily.

“Is everything alright?”

Shaking my head, I gave Lily a reassuring grin. Whatever it was, it was gone now. “Yeah…yeah, everything is good. Just wanted to make sure we weren’t being followed by that beast.”

Taking the lead, I located the trail and walked back into the forest.

…

A few hours had passed and the silence in the air was about as heavy as the fog. Every pony was quiet the whole way. I mean, what was there to say or talk about? What comforting words or actions could I possibly use to help them, after all that’s happened to them? Fortunately, it seemed we were about to leave the forest as a faint glow could be made out ahead and the fog began to clear up. Relief began to wash over me as we could get our of here and put this whole ordeal behind us.

Then I heard it…

The screams.

And it wasn’t coming from Lily or Blossom. They were coming from up ahead, outside the forest. And they were getting closer.

Looking back to the girls, I motioned for them to get down and they dropped down without hesitation. Carefully moving forward, I arrived just behind some bushes and slowly poked my head out. The scene that lay before me was one of horror and flames.

Ponyville was ablaze, its flames and plumes of smoke blocking out any remnants of the sky above. Earth ponies and unicorns alike were running around in attempts to escape the suffocating smoke that seemed to come from every direction. Yet, that wasn’t the only thing they were running from. Within mere moments, shots were heard, and I turned to see two of the town guard behind some boxes and barrels, firing toward the center of town where I couldn’t see. It wasn’t long before some well-placed shots were returned, dropping both guards dead. Shortly after they fell, dozens of armored ponies were running around, laughing with a deranged glee that bordered along the psychotic. They were Raiders. Mixed in among them were other ponies with leather armor, chasing after any poor residents that were nearby. The armor was the exact same as the two I had a run in with earlier today.

There was a frightened gasp behind me and I turned to see Lily, eyes widened and mouth agape. She only uttered a single word, but it was enough to confirm how bad this was.

“Slavers.”

Her gaze was fixed ahead, unable to look away. As more screams could be heard, I turned back towards the carnage. As more raiders and slavers came into view, it looked hopeless for the town’s folk. At least a dozen more raiders came into view, but one of them caught my immediate attention.

There was a small, black unicorn centered amongst them, walking with an air of command and fear, giving me the impression that they were the one in charge. They wore leather armor, but attached to each leg were single, long, curved blades that were about as half as long as their actual legs. They just seemed to watch calmly as the raiders and slavers either captured or killed any pony that crossed their path. They halted and said a few words to the ones closest to them. Shortly after, those raiders and slavers turned around, heading back the way they came from. The leader was now walking closer towards the edge of town and gazing out into the woods, as if searching for something. I froze as they stopped, staring right in the same direction of where we were hiding. Not sure if they could see me or not, I didn’t dare move. As he continued to stare in our direction, I was able to get a better look at them as well. He was a young stallion. There was an eyepatch covering his right eye and I could see there was a huge scar along that same half of his face. His remaining eye was a piercing amber. The fire behind him gleamed and danced off the blades around his legs, showing an impossible sharpness. Fortunately, I don’t think he saw me and turned his attention back towards the town.

There were still about a dozen raiders and slavers left, rounding up the remaining town’s folk. They were blocked in from all sides and one even tried to run into a building that wasn’t burning just yet. Any hope that poor soul may have had was gone fast, as a few slavers caught up to them right as they were about to get inside. Kicking and screaming, they were dragged out and beaten into submission. At the same time this was happening, other slavers were doing similar things to any other pony that attempted to flee. In an alleyway, there were two raiders doing the opposite and dragging a unicorn mare by her hind legs into another home. She was gagged, clawing at the dirt in attempts to escape.

A sickening feeling hit me as I knew what they were going to do. Tensing up, I was about ready to leave all sense behind and fly over there, but just as I was about to, multiple shots rang out from further down the alley and the raiders dropped dead. Not sparing a second, the terrified mare got up and took off towards the direction the shots came from. Rushing from the alley were three more town guards, one unicorn with a sledgehammer and two earth ponies with pistols. Catching the raiders by surprise, they unloaded all their rounds, managing to take out a couple more before swiftly dropping their pistols and switching to combat knifes. The unicorn guard was still floating their sledgehammer. All three began charging at the leader.

As they bore down on him, his body began to tremble, forcing him to back away, turning his head to look behind him for any means of escape. I started to feel hope as they were now almost upon him, and then this would all be over. Watching his final moments, my excitement turned to confusion as he instantly stopped trembling and any trace of fear he had was gone. Instead, a wicked grin quickly creeped across his face and my stomach lurched as I realized. He was faking it to lure them in. And the guards had no idea as they were just a few hoofsteps away from him now. He turned back to face them, their horn vibrating with raw, yellow energy.

As the unicorn guard brought down the sledgehammer with all their might at the leader’s head, all they caught was earth as the leader smoothly sidestepped their attack. The second guard was stopped in their tracks and now floating upwards. The third guard however was right on top of them and bringing down the knife to slash the leader down. With an impossible burst of speed, the leader leaped forward with one leg out. As they landed, the third guard stopped in their tracks, confused. As they turned back to face the leader, he saw the blood dripping from their blade, took one step and then collapsed. As blood poured from their neck, the first guard shouted in rage. Bringing up their sledgehammer, they started swinging it at the leader with great precision.

But this meant nothing to them as they continuously dodged every swing in a calm manner. After a while, they sighed as if bored.

“You are not worthy of my time.” He then lunged past the guard, slicing off one of their legs.

As the guard stumbled onto their side, the leader was already on top of them and slammed their hoof down on the guards neck. A loud snap could be heard and then only one guard remained. He was still being levitated, wildly swinging their legs in the air. The leader perked up their ears and turned back to the second guard, walking calmly and stopping just below him.

“Oh right…I almost forgot about you. Are you perhaps worthy of my time?” He sat down and waited for the guard to respond.

“Fuck you! I’ll kill all you filthy fuckin raiders, every last…” Before he could finish, his head snapped as it was forcefully twisted to the side.

Sighing again, the leader released his magic and let the body dropped. “Such a foul mouth. You are just like my subordinates.” Looking around what remained of the burning town, he turned to the nearest group of slavers, who just sat back and watched the whole time.

“Let’s wrap this up. It won’t do to keep him waiting. And tell my subordinates if they kill any more prizes, I will personally carve the cost we lose out of their hides. Please?” The slavers looked at each other and then nodded, heading out in different directions. All that remained was the leader and about three or four raiders.

We needed to leave. There was nothing we could do, and that unicorn was too powerful. As I turned to tell the girls, there was a rustle from the bushes behind us as a raider stepped out. Our eyes met and I recognized it was Lilith, one of the raiders from the ruins.

“You!” Without any warning, she tackled me, and we rolled out of the forest, right into town. Eventually I was able to throw her off, but she was able to recover quickly. Staring each other down, I broke my gaze away to notice the leader was right behind her and rested a hoof on her shoulder. Surprised by the sudden hoof on her shoulder, she turned and looked about ready to attack him, but as soon as she saw who it was, she quickly calmed down and lowered her head, backing away in submission.

Turning to address me, his voice was unnaturally calm and polite, which given him being a raider just made his presence very unsettling. His gaze felt like he could pierce through to your very soul. “My, my, what have we here? A zebra that has wings. So, you’re the one that’s been rumored about amongst my raiders. I guess Bruiser wasn’t full of it after all.” Walking closer to me, yet keeping a safe distance, he appeared to be studying me, a hint of fascination in his eye.

“Seeing a zebra is rare enough these days and can fetch a hefty price, depending on the buyer. But you…you’re not natural.”

I snorted back sarcastically. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m an abomination, what of it?”

Cracking a smile, he had now come full circle and faced me with interest. “To all the other ponies, yes. However, they don’t see the value in your kind. I could care less about the past and their war with zebras. That was before my time and not my problem. In my experience, zebras are often stronger, faster and have an incredible knack for martial arts. Add wings to that…hoo…now that’s something else.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the four raiders, all earth ponies, circling around me. In front of me, next to their leader was a grey stallion wielding a spiked club. To my right was Lilith, crouched down and just waiting to pounce on me again and to my left was a yellow stallion with a rope. Finally, to my rear was a muscular white stallion with a long wooden plank.

“But as you can see, I have a quota to fill, and your presence alone will increase the reward by at least a hundredfold. Nothing personal, kid, just business.”

He turned and nodded to the raiders. “Don’t damage him too much. We need him in good condition for the auction.”

Slowly, they closed in on me. I wanted to just fly out, then I remembered how quickly that one guard was caught by the leader’s magic. But even if I was able to beat all these raiders, how was I going to escape him?

“Your mine now, zebra!” Hearing Lilith yell and charge at me from the side, I figured that question would have to wait.

Fortunately for me, these raiders seemed pretty straightforward and as Lilith tried to tackle me again, I was ready and waited till the last moment to move back and twist my body around. As she landed in front of me, I was already turned around and had my back hooves raised. The anger in her eyes quickly turned to confusion as I used all my strength to buck her right in the neck. There was the sound of cracking bones as she fell. Struggling to breathe, she twitched a little bit and then went cold. The other three raiders stopped moving and seemed to be carefully considering their plan of attack. Moving together, they were starting to close in and any ideas for escape were pretty much gone.

The distance between us was now a few wings’ length away. The stallion behind me was the first to break the silence.

“Now!”

Him and another raider swung at the same time. Using my wings to propel myself backwards, I managed to backflip over the first raider. However, I didn’t time it right and one of my hooves got clipped by the second raider’s club, making me tumble as I landed. Seeing a chance to escape, I tried to make a dash for the woods, but felt a sharp tug on my other hind leg and looked to see that the third raider had managed to loop the rope tight around it. Attempting to remove it quickly, the first raider noticed, and I felt a sharp pain as he slammed into my chest, knocking me down. After sliding a few hooves away, I saw the second raider already about to swing the club down on me. Rolling away as best as I could, I inadvertently rolled under the first raider, making him trip over me and tumble into the second raider.

However, I got pulled back again and knew I couldn’t do anything while I still had this rope on my leg. The first raider was the first to recover and now really angry. Charging again at me, I was able to move to move to the side and use the rope to trip him once again. After a nasty tumble, he got up and was now screaming angrily at the third raider.

“Dammit Fizzy, you had better get him under control, or I swear the next time it happens, I’m going shove this plank so far up your ass, you’ll be the next to go on my wall!”

Fizzy must’ve taken that to heart because he was now pulling hard on the rope, forcing me to be dragged. The second raider was starting to come to by now and I managed to get up and charge over to him. The first raider was coming up from behind, ready to swing down with the plank. The second raider got up just in time to face me, but I had a different plan in mind. Right as I got up next to him, the first raider was right behind me and swinging hard. As I ducked, I could feel the force alone from the swing and then blood as he took the other raiders head clean off. We both stopped to see the headless raider move around a bit before falling over. Looking back up to the first raider, he was red with rage and as the rope pulled tight, I knew that there was no avoiding this one. Looking back to the forest, I could see Lily standing there in shock and I was sorry that I couldn’t keep my promise. Closing my eyes, I prepared for the worst.

“HOLD!”

I opened my eyes to see both raiders freeze immediately and turned to see their leader walking up towards us. He had a genuine look of annoyance as he stared down the large raider that was right above me. “How can you be so utterly incompetent? It was four of you against one of him and he managed to kill two of you, with his leg roped down!” With a flash of his horn, he sent the huge raider flying into some crates across the way, smashing them to bits. The other raider was already running away by the time he turned towards him. Snorting in irritation, he turned back to me, floating me into air.

“I bet you think you’re real clever. I’ll admit, you have my respect for taking out two of my subordinates like that. But I’m on a tight schedule and I. Hate. Wasting. Time.” He shrugged his head and sent me crashing through the wall of a burning house. The impact alone knocked the wind out of me, rendering me unable to get up. I heard a loud creaking sound above me I looked up to see a cabinet leaning forward. Forcing myself to move, I was able to move a few hooves away as it came crashing down.

“Aaaghhh!” I could feel it fall right on the other half of my body, pinning me down. Intense pain was coursing throughout my body, along with the rising heat from the surrounding flames. Trying to fight through the pain, I looked around for anything. Everything was either burning or too far away. Everything outside the home was blocked by a wall of smoke.

I had no strength left and it wasn’t long before he walked through the huge hole, using his magic to part the smoke around him. Walking slowly towards me, he levitated the dresser off of me with ease and cast it aside. He gave me a quick look over and seemed to be…concerned?

“Damnit, look what you made me do. Now I will have to pay to fix you up. But you know what, that’s ok. Because you are no longer going to be going up for auction.” Something floated up from behind him and it appeared to be a metal collar. It had some strange device attached to it and he floated it up right in front of my face. “You are going to be my own personal slave. You should be grateful. Despite leading a bunch of raiders and slavers myself, I never really cared for a slave of my own. Until you came along, that is. I’m gonna break and mold you until you become the perfect slave. Beholden only to me, Ashen Scar.”

As he unlatched the collar, an angry voice shouted behind him.

“No you won’t!!!”

Turning in surprise, he was suddenly smacked hard on the side of the head with a wooden plank, forcing him to stagger sideways. Standing there was a very angry and singed white pegasus.

“Lily!”

Turning to me, she dropped the plank and was soon by my side, trying to help me stand up. I could barely feel my body, and my legs buckled. She tried to put me onto her back, but we both stopped as we heard Ashen Scar shout. “That really hurt, damnit!” As his horn glowed again, I felt Lily being levitated away, causing me to fall down. I could only watch in horror as he floated her right to his face.

“A pegasus now? What are you doing down below the clouds? Never mind, I’ll find out later. You definitely caught me by surprise there.” As blood trickled down from his head, he calmy wiped it away and studied it, as if he had never seen his own blood before. Grinning, he looked back up to Lily. “Now let’s see how you like it.”

He sent her hurtling into a wall, but then immediately flung her into another one. Bringing her back in front of him, he started to laugh. She was hurt and fighting to free herself from his magic, but there was nothing she could do. He finally threw her into a beam with such speed and ferocity that I could hear cracking of bones from the impact. As he released his magic, she crumpled to the floor. I could see from here that one of her wings was bent in an odd way. She tried to get up, but was forced down once again by his magic.

“Damn. It’s been so long since I laid eyes upon any pegasi, that I forgot how fragile you were. And the last thing I need is the Enclave on my ass, so I will have to fix this before selling you back to them.” At the mention, of the Enclave, Lily’s entire body froze, and her eyes went wide with fear.

I had to do something. Giving everything I had, I tried to force myself back up, but my body would not respond. Shutting my eyes, I cursed to myself for being so weak, I begged in my thoughts for something, anything to come save us.

“Rise…”

There was a voice. Opening my eyes, I looked around. There was no sign of where the voice had come from. All that was around me were the rising flames and smoke. And then it came again.

“Rise…Like a flame...”

It was a broken voice, coming from inside my head. Not knowing what else to do, I tried one last time to get up. I had to save Lily. I promised to never leave her side and to be her family. As those thoughts filled my head, I felt my body move and heat up. A burning sensation swept throughout my entire body, but it didn’t feel painful. In fact, it felt…welcoming, as if natural. Around us, the flames stopped rising and started to die down. Noticing this, Ashen Scar stopped in his tracks and looked around in confusion, before resting his eyes upon me. For the first time, he looked…frightened. Stepping back away from us, he stammered.

“What...what are you…how are you?” Tripping over some burned debris, he fell back right towards the entrance.

I no longer felt any pain as I stepped towards him. Stopping a few hooves away from him, I stared him down. His mouth was moving, but no sound came out. From above, a loud cracking sound made us both look up. A small part of the ceiling just above us was caving in fast. Ashen released his magic off of Lily, but he wasn’t fast enough. Burning timber rained down, right on top of him. As the last piece fell, I felt my body begin to cool down and the pain from before returning. Before I could collapse, I felt something warm and soft lean up against me. It was Lily.

She looked up to me and moved around to squeeze me tight. I was immediately groaning from the pain of the hug, but she didn’t care. She just squeezed harder.

“I thought I was going to lose you…”

There was more she wanted to say, but she was cut off from the sound of cracking above us. The whole place was about to come down. Letting go, she quickly moved around to help me walk out. About a few minutes had passed and we were just outside of the town, as we heard a deafening sound and turned to see the building we escaped, collapse in on itself. There was no way Ashen could’ve survived that. As the sounds of raiders and slavers shouting in the distance started to close in, we picked up the pace and managed to make it to the spot where Blossom was still there waiting for us. Instantly, she was upon us and holding both of us tight. We were both still in pain, but we decided to hold it back for her.

“I…I saw you get thrown in the building…I thought you were gone…” She squeezed even harder, which got a loud groan out of me. I didn’t think she could squeeze that hard. She immediately let go and apologized.

Shaking my head, I knew she only meant well. “It’s alright, Blossom. Today has just been very rough…We need to get away from this place…”

Something wet hit my nose. Looking up, I noticed as rain began to trickle down through the tree cover. Turning back to the town, it was now raining heavily as both raiders and slavers could be seen running around the area, probably looking for their leader. The fires around town were starting to die out. Ponyville was a mess. A once great town now reduced to ruins and burned-out shells. Blossom was the first to break us out of trance.

“Can we go home now?...”

Surprised, I looked back to see her staring at the ground. I wanted to ask her what home she meant, but Lily stopped me. Silently, she mouthed the words to me “The house where our stuff is”.

Ah. I guess after all that’s happened, even that little broken down place felt oddly comforting. Deciding not to press further, I used my only good hoof to bring her close and she looked up to me. Her eyes were showed just how lost she was and how much she just needed to be comforted. Something we all felt right now.

“Yeah. Let’s go home.”

By the time we arrived back at the house, we were completely soaked and exhausted. We had been limping the whole way back, praying that no raiders or slavers would catch us. As we stumbled through the house, no words were spoken. Shortly after we entered the doorway, Blossom was already heading towards the bed. Jumping into the bed, she jumped under the covers, and we could see her shaking from here. Lily and I headed to the bed as well and placed ourselves on each side of Blossom. Poking her head out, she was trembling a lot more now and in tears. My heart ached for her. She had been bottling up all her emotions since we escaped the huge monster inside the forest, and it was all coming out just now. Lily was already wrapping her up with her good wing and cooing to her. She broke out into a lullaby.

Once Blossom had calmed down and closed her eyes, Lily continued to hum the lullaby for a little longer. Eventually, Blossom fell asleep and turned to me. It was clear to see that she is just barely holding it all together.

"Lily..." She stops me.

"I thought I was going to lose you...and I...I can't bear to lose anyone else. I lost ma and pa, I almost lost Blossom and then you come into my life. When you said you'd be my family, I was so happy...you, a complete stranger, offered to be there for me and Blossom, when other ponies would have just left us..." She was beginning to tear up now and he wanted nothing more than to comfort her.

"I am just barely holding myself together for Blossom. I don’t know how much more I can take. These past few days have been the worst days in my life, even worse than when I was…" She stopped herself. Whatever she wanted to say, she couldn’t bring herself to utter it. I assumed it was about her days before she met Jesse, Darlene and Blossom. So, I just kept quiet. Eventually they were both asleep and curled up around me. The exhaustion from everything up until now was hitting them. I, however, could not fall asleep yet.

Looking out through one of the broken windows, thoughts began to plague my mind. Thoughts of my forgotten past, our journey to Manehatten, of Lily and Blossom. Would we even make it that far? And how was I going to protect them when I was so helpless against one unicorn?

Eventually, I was able to fall asleep, but I was soon haunted by these same thoughts and questions…

…

Amidst the ruins of Ponyville, the last of the remaining embers had died out. Amongst the ruins, a slight trembling could be seen coming from a collapsed building. As a slight yellow glow could be made coming out from beneath burnt timber, a bladed hoof erupted forth. As a small, black and bloodied body, crawled out from beneath the rubble, a wave of rage emanated forth throughout Ponyville. Basked in a yellow glow, a scarred, dead eye looked around, searching for the source of its new hatred.

Fallout Equestria: Songs of Hope

by Equestrian Wastelander

Introduction

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six