A short one shot. Written for the Fallout Equestria writing competition and came in first place. A simple, sad fic about a soldier alone in no mare's land during the pony-zebra war, 200 years before the events of Fallout Equestria.

Growing up in the ruins of Fillydelphia, the orphan Spike is abducted by a group of six of the most dangerous mercenaries, bounty hunters, assassins, and roundabout crazy people in Badworld. The six have little interest in working with eachother, but a blackmailing Celesticorp and rival Luna Industries can make the life of any Badworld survivor tenuous at best.
Spike is stuck relying on his would-be captors if he wants to avoid Luna Industrie's subversive grasp.
Fortunately, Gilda always has an ace up her sleeves, or in this case a horse in her dreams.
A ragtag bunch of 'friends' is more than many have in the Badworld, but it's not always enough.

Image graciously provided by Fembot13 on deviant art.
Pre read by a variety of people including:
-AlicornPriest
-OrphiusOlyandra
-Timefather64
-PiquoPie

Twenty years before the Summer Sun Celebration that would set Nightmare moon free, Princess Celestia and thousands of other ponies simply slumped over dead with no explanation. A new lavender Alicorn with a magenta colored starburst cutie mark appears suddenly and takes the throne on virtue of her being the only one who can now raise and set the sun. Twilight, now calling herself Penumbra, is the only one who remembers the normal history of Equestria and her friends from Ponyville. Accompanying her are a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane, known as Spectra, and an orange earthpony with a blonde mane called Malus - her daughters who appear to be some mix of their mother Alicorn and two unidentified regular ponies.
Now, on the longest night of the thousandth year, Luna has returned to Equestria, free of the Nightmare and her own powers mysteriously drained.
Soon Pinkie Pie, the Element of Laughter, and Vinyl Scratch, a down on her luck DJ, find themselves on a quest to assemble the Elements of Harmony while being forced to evade Penumbra and her children.

Special thanks to:
-Timefather64 for helping me make this idea not a bad one.
-Jonshine for writing the line in his own story that in the end inspired this idea.
-OrphiusOlyandra for pre-reading and helping me be a less awful writer.
-AlicornPriest for pre-reading and giving me pointers on grammar.
-Slayerdarkcross on deviantart for letting me use his image. You should check out his other stuff.