In front of me was a young pony in a cage. I couldn't see what she looked like because she was wearing a raggedy cloak and hoodie, but I could tell she was scared. Her blue eyes were quivering in fear. I sat down in front of her cage in the cold snow. I smiled at her and she flinched back for a moment before looking closely at me.

"Hello," I said in a calm and peaceful voice, trying not to scare her. She slowly inched closer until she was sitting just before the bars. She looked at an object in her hooves then back at me.

"Broken. It's broken," she said in a quiet, shy voice.

She looked down at the object and lifted it up to show me, it was a little metal music box. I went to touch it, but she pulled it back quickly. "No, it's the only thing that they let me keep… As long as I promise not to resist," she said, her voice fading away as her mind trailed off to a different time.

I waited for her to come back from her memory. She smiled a little, a tear falling on her cold iron cell floor, then another and another. The young filly in the cage was sobbing. My smile faded as I looked down, not knowing what to say. Eventually I got an idea.

"Want me to fix your music box?" I said smiling at her again, feeling bad for her.

She looked up at me in surprise, as if she had just got a cake on her birthday. I think she even started to crack a smile. She lowered her hood and I finally saw her face. She was a young filly with a light pink coat with a brilliant rose red, yellow and light blue striped mane that ended in a spiral.

"My name is Candy Fluff, what's your name?" Her voice was young and squeaky, but then again she was less than half my sister's age.

"My name is Star Shot, nice to meet you." I sat there smiling, my hooves still out in front of me so I could grab the music box. She was just about to give it to me when she pulled it back again. Obviously, she had some trust issues.

"What do you want from me?" Her sweet voice gone, replaced with one filled with skepticism. She looked me over closely before frowning. "You just want to use me, like all the other ponies!" She started sniffing and her blue eyes glazed over.

I smiled worryingly, not wanting her to cry. "No, no, no, I don't want anything, I'm just trying to be nice," I said nervously. She sniffled and wiped her face.

"Nopony does something for nothing." She said under her breath as she blubbered a bit before continuing. "No pony is that nice in the wasteland," she said as her mind seemed to go somewhere else again.

I waited patiently for her to come back again. She seemed to snap out of her daydream and shook her head, blushing as she remembered I was there. "Sorry, I was thinking of better times." I waved her off with my hoof.

"It's ok," I said, I was usually the one daydreaming. She tilted her head staring at me as if I wore a clown’s outfit. I tilted my head as she giggled a little, I just smiled, glad to see she was happy again.

"A storm is coming, I can see it in the sky. You're not from here are you?" She was looking at the clouds in the distance when she gave me that cryptic warning, and was it that obvious? Did I really look that out of place?

"What do you mean?" I asked taken aback.

She smiled and said. "You're too nice to be from around here, I can see it in the way you act. Where are you from?"

It was true, my life before was not the true wasteland. It was a protective world that was so different from the real wasteland that it was funny to a slave filly. I must admit that now that somepony pointed out the differences between my world and the real world, I'm not sure I liked the real world, thinking back to the raiders and slavers, not to mention the shadow pony in my dreams.

Okay maybe the last one was just me, but he only showed up after I entered this wasteland for the first time. It was around this time I realized there was a young filly in a cage waiting for my answer and now I was the one daydreaming. I rubbed my chin and took a deep breath, thinking how to shorten my story while the filly leaned in close in anticipation. It was then that I was forced to recall all the bad stuff that had happened to me in the past two days. My smile melted into a frown as I stared into the white snowy ground.

"Mr. Star, why are you crying?" she asked, tilting her head.

Those words snapped me out of my memories. I looked up at the filly in surprise. It was then that I noticed the tears running down my cheeks. I quickly wiped away my tears and put on a big smile for the filly, but she wasn't buying it. She smiled back at me, her smile seemed bittersweet as she looked past my smiling face and into the sadness hiding behind it. Eventually she broke the awkward moment.

"I'll go first. I was from the sky, I lived with my mommy and daddy. They were really nice. But one day mommy left and daddy became sad… mommy had gone to the surface world, so I... I came down here to find mommy, to make daddy happy again... But bad ponies caught me before I could find mommy." I watched closely as her mood shifted with the story.First, it was happy and she seemed excited but the more she went on the sadder and harder it was for her to tell it.

There was a long moment of silence between us as I smiled and was now ready to tell my story. "One day evil ponies took my sister away and… my parents. BUT, I saved my sister and beat the bad ponies. Now I'm on my way to beat more bad ponies and save the wasteland!" I got so excited telling the story that I jumped up and spread my wings in a heroic pose.

Candy Fluff gasped, and I froze in embarrassment and stupidity. I quickly landed and hid my wings again, and my head as well. I waited for her to yell to some pony, ‘Hey over here, I found a pegasus!’

But nothing happened. I eventually looked up, and to my surprise she was giggling. I tilted my head in confusion and out came a pair of pink wings. "You’re a pegasus too?" I was quite surprised. She giggled and nodded. I didn't know why I was so surprised, she did just say she was from the sky. Suddenly we were interrupted as some pony yelled at me.

"Hey you! Get away from the merchandise!" Said a loud raspy voice. Candy Fluff shrieked and moved to the far corner of her cell. She was shaking in fear, the mere voice of the approaching pony terrifying her.

I heard her whimper under her breath. "Please save me."

The pony walked closer and looked at Candy Fluff with lustful evil eyes. By the expression on his face and fear in Candy Fluffs eyes I could see what he was going to do, what he had done multiple times before.

The voice in my head whispered to me. "You want to be a hero, don't you? This world needs a hero. You can fight the evil of it all."

The voice of the shadow pony was right, the wasteland was fucked up, evil, and cruel. But I could do something about it, even if it meant being an outlaw. I pulled down my hoodie and pulled out the Mare's Leg. Sister still had all my other weapons, as well as their ammo. I looked up at the big earth pony stallion, his gray cold eyes looking away from Candy to meet my cold blue stare.

He ignored the gun in my muzzle and instead asked. "Why are you smiling? Get out of here you little shit." I merely giggled, knowing I was smiling this time. Before I had unwillingly smiled when I killed bad ponies, but this time I accepted the fact that I was smiling, that it was fun, that I enjoyed it.

The voice in my head and I simultaneously said, "I'm going to enjoy this."

I jumped at the stallion, tackling him onto his back.He went to lift his head to headbutt me, but I shoved the barrel of my gun in his eye and pushed it in deep. He howled in pain and thrashed around, the whole time screaming. "Fuck you! This is illegal! You son of a bitch!"

With the gun in my mouth, I mumbled. "I don't care."

He looked up at me with his good, fear filled eye as I slowly pulled the trigger, the grin on my muzzle growing.

He sniffled and moaned in pain and fear, snot and tears of blood and sweat ran down his face. I laughed as he blubbered "I'm sorry." I let go of my gun's handle and put my forehoof on the mouth grip, smirking as I stared into his one eye.

"I don’t forgive you." I pushed my body weight on the gun and with a pop and a crack, the gun pushed through his eye socket and into his brain. Blood, and gray matter squirted over my face, and a deathly last breath wheezed out of him as his body twitched. I looked into his cold dead eye and saw my grinning bloodied face. My smile faded as his eye rolled to the side and I looked at Candy Fluff. In my rage I had completely forgotten about her. She was in the corner, facing away from me, crying.

I bowed my head before saying. "I'm sorry." She was still sniveling, shaking and facing away from me.

"Thank you," she said.

I know what I did was wrong, but killing him wasn't wrong. Killing him in front of Candy Fluff was wrong. This world is broken, that pony was broken, and I’m broken. But right now I had bigger problems than my or Candy Fluff's mental health. I would be wanted for murdering a slaver on safe ground and Candy Fluff would be stuck in slavery again if we got caught.

I flew as fast as I could, well as fast as I could carrying a heavy sack with an army of slavers and security ponies after me. Bullets whizzed past me, luckily no one in this town was a good shot. Some shots came close, grazing and tattering my jacket, but, luckily, nothing hit the bag. I flew down the street as fast as I could. Ahead of me I saw my sister, and she was walking with some bags of stuff.

"Run!" I yelled at her, panic filling my voice.

She had some bags in her mouth so she couldn't reply, she just tilted her head in confusion.

"Run, damn it!" I yelled again, flying closer.

Her eyes widened as the ground shook and she saw the climbing dust cloud as a stampede of angry ponies chased me. At this point she was running next to me, bags afloat behind her.

"What the fuck did you do!" She screamed at me, ducking bullets and lasers.

I thought of some excuse that wouldn't have got me neutered, then immediately shivered at the idea.

The little pony in my head screamed. "Lie!" over and over again.

I wondered where he'd been for the past two days, I lost focus and forgot the original question.

Somehow we managed to outrun a stampede of angry ponies. Well, a blizzard might have helped. Luckily we managed to find a building to hide in. It was an old concrete post office with a thick metal door. The windows were blown in and there was snow on the floor as a part of the roof was caved in. It was completely empty and rather small. The whole thing was one room with the remains of a wooden desk splitting it in half and long empty mail slots along the back wall. We shook off the snow, as I put down the bag.

"Well, that was intense," I said checking my jacket and myself over for bullet holes. To my surprise there were none. I must be really lucky.

Sister glared at me, knife afloat next to her. I knew she was pissed but that wasn't the scary thing. No, the scary thing was that she looked calm. That just freaked me out. I cringed and gave her my best “don't kill me” face. A long silence broke out, but it eventually ended with a ruffling noise coming from the bag.

"What's in the bag…" Sister asked, glaring at me, the knife floating dangerously close to my face.

The bag rustled a bit more before a pony head popped out. It was Candy Fluff. She blinked at the sight of us before slowly ducking back into the bag.

Sister just looked at the bag, confused.

"Explain. Now," sister said in a calm, demanding voice.

I smiled at her, gesturing for her to put down the knife, which at this point was very close to my throat. She eventually did, after staring at me intensely. I never knew she could be so scary. I sat up and walked over to the bag.

"Candy, it's okay to come out, she's my little sis," I said in my calmest and sweetest voice.

She slowly poked her head out of the bag and looked at my sister and me. I smiled at her and she smiled back before hopping out of the duffle bag.

"Hello, Miss. My name is Candy Fluff," she said in a sweet but shy voice.

Sister face-hoofed as she put away her knife and chucked me my bag.

"You kidnapped a filly…" She grumbled, scrunching up her face in confusion.

"What?! No! I freed a slave," I quickly replied, waving my hooves around frantically to express my point.

Sister groaned as she started pacing. At this point, Candy Fluff sat next to me and spread her wings out refreshingly. Sister froze in place and looked at Candy's wings sourly. At that point Candy stopped stretching them and looked down, pouting as if she did something wrong.

"I also killed a slaver and got a new gun," I said in a monotone voice, knowing I'd get in trouble for it, the killing part, not the gun part.

Sister's eyes darted to me as she stood there, staring me down. I tried to look away at the roof, and then the floor. I heard the crunching of snow as sister walked closer to me. My eyes moved to look at something else. Eventually, an old faded poster on the wall caught my eye.

'We are watching you, FOREVER!'

The poster was yellowed and cracked but I could clearly make out those words, they were written in bright pink. In the middle of the poster was an earth pony with a light brilliant gamboge coat, a fluffy dark brown mane that ended in a curl and brilliant chartreuse green eyes.

I had gotten a multi-colour book for my birthday once, I like reading but there aren't a lot of books in the wasteland. Looking back at the poster, the pony seemed to be jumping out of the it, despite the fact he looked kind of old, a gray line in his mane and some wrinkles around his eyes. I focused on his big, happy smile.

Then I felt a cold tingle run down my spine as a warm breath hit my neck. I deadpanned as I remembered I wasn't alone, and that my sister was mad at me.

"He's a hero, he saved me from the bad ponies!" Shouted Candy Fluff, puffing up her cheeks and angrily staring at my sister. Well, as angry as a marshmallow could look.

Sister looked at her with a straight face, the two of them had a stare down, But in the end, my sister broke down into laughter; Candy Fluff's face was too funny. Eventually, I broke into laughter and Candy Fluff pouted even harder, pressing her lips closed tight, her face turning red.

But then bits of laughter broke out of her mouth, and by the end of it we were all on the floor laughing. Eventually, we all stopped and sat up, smiling at each other.

"Hehe, you are a hero," my sister said, with a smile on her face and pride in her voice.

I was surprised, I wasn't a hero. I was just doing what should have been done, no big deal. I blushed, rubbing my mane.

"I'm no hero," I replied sheepishly.

"You saved me from the bad pony and saved your sister from the bad ponies too," Candy said.

"But I killed ponies, in front of you," I said slowly, my mood dipping low.

To my surprise, both of them hugged me into a warm embrace.

"You saved me from raiders,” sister said sympathetically.

"Actually, you did, and how did you get free anyway?" I asked, realizing it had slipped my mind.

"Magic," she replied flatly.

"You saved me from a monster,” Candy said as well.

"You saved me from the wasteland," I said sadly, hugging them back tight.

So far I had seen what I assumed was the worst of the wasteland: murder, mutilation, rape, slavery, sickness and death. I at least I hoped that was the worst. I couldn't handle anymore, not alone at least, but luckily I wasn't alone. I almost had a nice moment, then I heard the voice in my head chuckle quietly.

"Welcome to the wasteland," it said, in my voice.

Sharp pulled out some cookies and gave them to Candy Fluff. She nibbled on the rock hard treat, like a dog with a bone. I, on the other hoof, was sorting out the new ammo sister had bought in town, all standard rounds, some for my 10 millimeter SMG and some for the 9-millimeter pistol we got at the raider camp.

But there was none for Sharp's hunting rifle. I looked through the bag for her hunting rifle but couldn't find any, however, I did find some energy cells.

"Hey sis, where's your rifle?" I asked her curiously, tilting my head.

She was checking out my new gun, the Mare's Leg, and she didn't even look up at me.

"Oh, that old thing? I sold it," she replied, and then held up her new gun.

She’d bought a magic laser musket. By the looks of it, it was a two crank, short barreled, stock laser musket. Not too bad if I say so myself. But that old rifle was from dad. It's the gun she trained with, grew up with. To just sell it without a second thought... But then again I'd not even bothered looking for my rifle. To be honest, I’d completely forgotten about it until now.

After sorting through a low amount of ammo I sat down with Sharp and Candy Fluff and I began roasting a bag of frozen wieners when Candy looked at me funnily.

"What is that?" she asked questionably.

"This? It's a sausage." I held it up out of the fire so she could see it better.

"Meat," my sister said, seeing that Candy was still confused.

"Meat?" Candy said pondering the word.

I ,on the other hoof, shivered. I was still creeped out by the word as it reminded me of the raiders.

"Aren't we meat?!" she asked with a shocked expression on her face.

Sister and I looked at each other before laughing.

"It’s not pony meat," I said, catching a breath as I sat up.

"But, don’t ponies eat plants, not meat?" she still seemed confused.

"Hmm, yeah, but you can survive off meat. Just not forever," I replied, pulling the sausage out of the fire, as it was burnt to a nice brown crisp.

"Plus it's hard to get vegetables and fruit down here," sister said as she popped open a bottle of Sparkle-Cola and handed it to the filly.

She drank the whole bottle down in under ten seconds. It was quite impressive. Candy then burped loudly as she blushed sheepishly, putting the bottle down. We stared at her before laughing.

"Hmm, tastes like carrots and bubbles." Candy smiled, licking her lips.

"Wait? How have you been down here for so long and never eaten meat before?"

"The slaves would feed me scraps of leftover food, aside from…other things…."

"Why?"

"They thought giving a pegasus meat would cause it to turn into a cannibal hungry monster, said that it was biology."

“That’s just stupid.” Sharp added, ending the topic.

"So Candy, what was life like up in the clouds?" I asked, curious to know more about sky pegasi life.

She pondered the question before answering, "Well it's different. The Enclave tell us what to do and what to eat, and they give us food and water they make in the clouds near them towers. But they keep the sky closed. They say the ponies down here aren't ready."

"Towers? Ready?" I inquired.

"You know, the tall towers. You could see one from where we used to live," sister said.

I thought about it, I do remember a tall thin mountain that went into the sky.

"You mean the mountain?" I said, still thinking about it.

"That’s not a mountain, Star. That's a tower, made by ponies."

How ponies managed to build a tower into the sky was beyond me, but how it had managed to survive time and the end of the world was just astonishing.

"So what do you mean by ready?" I asked, tilting my head.

"I don't know. I think that they may think ground ponies aren't civilized enough." She rubbed her chin, thinking about it.

At this point I went back to my bag and pulled out the radio, trying to get a signal. BAM! Vinyl Scratch's single, full volume, right in my ear. I jumped back and was about to get up when Candy used me as a springboard and dived for the radio. She started dancing wildly, forgetting we were even there. Me and sister giggled and started dancing with her. By the end of the song we all fell down, exhausted.

"I. Love. Vinyl Scratch!" she panted and yelled, as we all chuckled. A voice appeared on the radio.

"Hello again, this is Kindly of Kindly Radio, introducing myself. Would you kindly listen to what I have to say? Slavery is wrong, hurting ponies is wrong and being mean is wrong. Every pony could do better if they just tried. So I'm asking, would you kindly do better? Anyway, here's a song about love and fire. 'Ring of fire.'" Her voice broke through the static of the radio and for a second I thought I heard the voice of a goddess. Her voice was so soft and comforting, like a hug from a parent. Yet it still broke through the air with a tone that demanded attention in the way I imagined a lover would whisper into your ear. It was a voice that wanted to be heard and needed to be heard by all. Not to was simply a sin.

When the song stopped she started to speak again.

"Would you kindly lend me your ears and listen to what I have to say? Well, we got something interesting here guys and gals, seems like this 'Blue Bird' decided to completely destroy the Raider camp in the kindergarten, Oakey Oaks kindergarten to be precise. Last we heard up here they were heading up towards Slave Town. Well, I don't know about you, but I'ma give them ALL the cheering I can muster! And to the Blue Bird, if you’re listening, good luck."

I turned down the music as I handed the radio to Candy Fluff. She started dancing in the corner as I sat with my sister.

"Who is she anyway, sis?"

"I have no clue? How did she know all that?" She pondered as we scratched our heads before taking a long disappointed sigh.

Sister and I were so confused. Dad wouldn't let us listen to the radio. He said the radio pony would mess with our heads. At least he'd record the songs and play them back for us.

"So what's the deal with unlocking the pip-buck, sis?" I asked, changing topics.

"Apparently, we can get an override key from an Old Stable-Tec building. Before you ask, they are the ones that built the stables that dad came out of." She said while dead-panning me.

"…thank you, carry on," I said sheepishly.

"But it's dangerous, we can't take Candy with us, we should leave her with Doc."

"No, it's a two-day journey and I'm not going to leave her, I'll keep her safe, I promise."

The music died down and Candy Fluff waddled back over to us, exhausted.

She plopped down next to us and giggled. "Hehe, that was fun!"

"Who was that on the radio, Candy?" Sister asked, tilting her head.

"What? Kindly? She's the northern DJ."

"Tell us about her please?" I asked.

"When I lived in the clouds I'd sneak out with my friends and we'd fly over to the old rainbow factory. There we'd play games like tag and hide and go seek, hehe I'd hide in the chimney and get all dirty, daddy hated that, mommy liked my free spirit," she said remorsefully.

Sis gave her a nudge on the shoulder and she snapped out of her memory, she blushed and continued.

"Anyway we'd listen to Kindly and DJ-Pon3 if we could get a signal. They're wasteland DJs and they play the best music, not the boring old stuff the Enclave wants us to listen to. They also talk about what's happening in the world below; DJ-Pon3 would cover Equestria and Kindly would talk about the Crystal Empire."

"Why weren't you allowed to listen to them?" I asked, not seeing the danger in it.

"Because they'd bag on the Enclave for not helping, for keeping the sky shut, and I think they're right. Daddy blamed them for mommy leaving. Mommy always wanted to help ponies. I wanted to go with her but she said I was too young. After that mommy left and daddy was very sad, he'd work later and later every day, our family was broken. So I decided to come down here and find Mommy to ask her to fix it, but you know the rest…" Yet again Candy was sad.

"Why don't you just go home?" Sis asked dryly.

"Because I haven't found mommy! I'm not going home without her!" Candy yelled, angered by the question.

Sister backed away a little, embarrassed for asking a stupid question.

"Ok then, tomorrow we're going to an old building to look for some codes to unlock my Pip-buck. Stay close to Star and you'll be safe," sister said, changing the subject.

"Ok." Candy said, still a little grumpy from the last question.

"Do you know where it is, sis?"

"Yeah, I got some directions, it's northeast. After we get what we need we'll come back here."

"Ok then," I said with a sigh, annoyed we have to head in the wrong direction.

"We should all get some sleep, we have a long walk tomorrow."

"Hehe, you walk. We're flying," Candy said, cheering up a bit.

Candy and I fluttered our wings and my sister glared at us before laying down. Candy walked over to her and laid with her back towards the warm fire. I stood up and made my way to the bags and pulled out some work tools, then walked back to the light of the fire.

"You should sleep, Star."

"I will. Don't worry, sis."

"Good night everypony," Candy said.

"Good night," sister replied.

"Hehe, good night." I giggled.

I pulled out Candy's music box from my pocket and began tinkering with the gears, seeing if I could fix it, it was then that I saw the name of the song on it.

I tried changing the old worn out gears with some new ones, but that wasn't easy. I ended up spending an hour on it with no luck. I was about to give up on it, but then I looked over to Candy in her raggedy clothes. She was shivering, the fire was but a smolder and a few embers. I sat up and took off my jacket, placing it over Candy and sister, as I got closer I realized Candy was crying and mumbling in her sleep.

"M~…Mommy~"

A string of sympathy ran in my heart, as sadness washed over me. I looked at the sad sleeping filly, then walked over to the music box, determined to make it work. I ignored the cold midnight air as I changed the gears over and over, until.

The song from the music box started playing. It started slow and steady, the notes seeming quiet and uplifting, I listened to it note for note as it began to resonate with me. I felt all my emotions of the past come flooding back, all the darkness, anger, and sadness seemed to melt away with every note.

Tears formed in my eyes as I felt hollow inside. Slowly as the music box kept playing the hollow feeling began to fill with hope and serenity, the music moved me and cleansed my soul. I was never moved by music like that before, it felt like it touched my soul.

I looked over to Candy Fluff, her frown turned into a smile and she stopped whimpering and shivering as the music brought her happiness. I wiped my eyes and looked at the little box, then back at Candy Fluff.

"How could such a small thing bring me so much happiness."

I looked out the broken window, into the white out of the storm, then back at Candy Fluff. This is what the world should be like, sweet and kind, innocent as this child. But instead the world was cold and rotten. There was no one left to blame for the end of the world, they all died two hundred years ago with the old world.

How a world that was built upon friendship and kindness could lead to this I did not know, but I was going to find out.

We had been told stories of the old world, when war broke out between two lands and neither won. As for the Crystal Empire, it was just dragged down with Equestria. But it played its part, it was just as guilty. But those were the stories, they missed important details like how and why everything happened.

That was the past and no one can be blamed for other’s past. But they could be blamed for not fixing mistakes made by those ponies two hundred years ago. It's said only by knowing the history will you not repeat your mistakes, but we didn't know our history, not all of it anyway. Mysteries buried by snow and time, were just waiting to be discovered out there.

I mumbled under my breath as I laid down. "I'm going to find the truth."

Before all this, I never really thought about what happened two hundred years ago, or why the world was like this. But I also didn't need to, I had a family and a home. “Why would the past matter?” I thought. But now my family was killed for something on an ancient piece of technology that was most likely connected to the past.

I slept terribly. I kept thinking about the past and all the mysteries, like why Blood Rose wanted this Pip-Buck , or how bomb collars are made. Candy's facial expression when I showed her the now fixed music box was priceless. I don't think I'd ever see someone happier, she literally flew in circles.

Eventually, it was time for us to leave. Outside was a nice and calm day. With no blizzards or snow falling, we trotted through the fresh layer of powder, and by we, I mean my sister, as me and Candy flew behind her. Candy kept playing her music box over and over, I swayed my head with the nice tune, smiling as Sister just groaned.

"It's going to be a long walk." She mumbled under her breath.

She was right. A few hours later we arrived at the huge multi-story building, its windows were blown out and concrete cracked, but it still held. By the looks of it, the first two floors were snowed in.

"You and Candy take the top floor, I'll start with this one and work down."

I nodded, and Candy and I flew up to the top floor as Sharp entered through the third-floor window. The room was dark and lifeless. Broken and flipped tables laid on the floor as long dead terminal monitors sat lifeless above them. Candy stepped closer to me as we walked in, shaking a little.

"I- I don't like the dark," she said fearfully, hugging my leg.

I dug through my bags to find a torch for her to hold on to, before pulling one out for myself.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you," I said, smiling at her.

She nodded and smiled back before letting go of my leg. We checked the room for anything of value but we couldn't find anything. We checked the next room and the one after that. The only thing we found out was that all the rooms had the same horrible checkered floor styling. Eventually, we did manage to find some stairs leading down.

There was a thud as we walked down the stairs. Candy jumped with a little squeak, as a noise had come from the floor below. We proceeded slowly, the hallway too dark to see in, shining our lights across the floor until we found an empty soda bottle pointing to the stairs going down.

I assumed it was from Sharp and proceeded down to the subterranean floor. I glanced in the rooms as we passed them in the hall, they looked the same as the floor above.

The first two floors that we had checked had some outside illumination but the ones down here were pitch black, and we could only see what our torches illuminated. Candy was close to my leg again, even I was starting to get scared, and this place was getting creepier the further we went in.

We froze on the spot, as so many things went through my head. A monster? I quickly looked around, then back to Candy Fluff, she was blushing as she avoided eye contact.

"Hehe... sorry, my stomach," she said, embarrassed by the whole thing.

I fell on my side laughing, she just blushed harder before pouting. Suddenly sis's head popped out of a corner with a gun at the ready.

"I heard a monster, are you two ok?!"

We looked at her with blank faces, I then proceeded to go into a laughing fit. Candy was starting to get mad, and she pouted at me as her face turned red. I on the other hoof was on the floor laughing my ass off, and I even started to tear up.

Sister just looked at us with confusion.

"What's going on?" She asked over the top of my laughter.

At this point, my sides began to hurt and I struggled to breathe. I banged my hoof on the floor as I tried to stop. At that point Candy was too embarrassed to even make eye contact, let alone reply, but eventually she managed to mumble out.

"I... um... My stomach...”

At that point I was coughing and gasping for air. I managed to look my Sister in the eye, well at least my left eye, the other one was still clamped shut.

"Her...Monster…ha-ha...Stomach!"

It took a few seconds for my Sister to piece it together, but when she did she fell over and joined my laughing festival. Candy pouted harder and harder, her face turning from reddish pink to full red, eventually she yelled.

"Stop laughing!" We might have listened if she wasn't so cute, or the fact that her voice was so squeaky.

We stared at her for a few seconds before laughter yet again filled the hallway. Candy dead-panned and sat there, waiting for us to calm down. After a few minutes, the laughter did indeed stop, me and sis stood up, giggling a little as we looked at the annoyed Candy Fluff.

"Hehe, let's go find some food." I rubbed her mane, messing it up.

She proceeded to fix it and then the three of us began to search the rooms on this floor. A supply room held a surprise, a stick of dynamite. What dynamite was doing in a supply closet I had no clue. A male and female bathroom had locked medical boxes. They didn't look too hard but we didn't have any bobby pins to try to unlock them with. Why you’d lock medical boxes in the first place was beyond me.

Eventually, we found it, well my sis did. It was the building recreation room. It had a long table for many ponies and a big kitchen behind that. At the fridge, we found a package of still frozen hotdogs Well considering this whole building was like a freezer that wasn't very surprising. Luckily we had winter wear on.

What I was confused about was the fact that ponies would stock meat products, considering ponies didn't usually eat meat. But either way, it was free food and I wasn't complaining. Sister started a small fire on the floor, using some scrap wood and a fire starter spell mom taught her. We proceeded to defrost the wieners.

"Where is every pony?" I said as I roasted my hard sausage in the flames.

The two of them shrugged as Candy charred her hotdog to a crisp black before biting into it. We all finished eating and were now huddling around the fire, Candy sat under my jacket.

"Candy you should stay here, Star and I will keep going," sister said firmly as she grabbed her gun.

Candy and I were both about to argue when Sister gave us a, ‘don't complain and just do it’ look. I stood up and smiled and nodded at Candy.

"Don't worry we'll be right back," I said, before handing her the stick of dynamite.

"What the hell?!" Sis screeched as she looked at me as if I was crazy.

I tilted my head in confusion. "I wasn't going to give her a gun." Candy gripped it in her mouth and smiled. Sis's eye twitched as I was clearly missing the point, before facehoofing herself and moving on.

"Don't use it if you don't have to," I said to Candy before walking behind sis. Candy gave me a nod and with that, we were off.

Eventually, we got to the stairway that led to the ground floor level. Sister stopped before it and turned to face me, shining the light in my face.

"All the dead are down there. I didn't want Candy to see it."

I swallowed my fear before nodding back at her. Slowly we walked down the cold tile steps, the only noise being our hooves clattering and our heartbeats in our chest. I stepped next to sister as we got to the base of the stairs. I slowly shined my light up the hallway, seeing the centuries-old blood stains that led to the bones of ponies scattered all over the hall.

I froze at the sight of it all. Sister nudged me and I nearly jumped. We started walking past the bones of the dead. Some had clothing on, old and worn. I wasn't watching my step and ended up almost tripping over a teddy bear. I then looked next to the bear to see a small skeleton that could only be from a child, the same size as Candy.

I looked back down the hall we just came from, now worried about Candy. I was about to start walking back when sis whispered.

"Over here."

I caught up with her. She had found the lobby of the building. The doors were all snowed in as the whole entrance was blocked off. Sis checked behind the front desk as I looked around. I saw a crystal chandelier hanging from the roof, frozen in place with icicles next to it.

I focused on a poster on the wall. This one different from the last one I found.

This one said.’Ministry of Science, Advancing the Empire.’ in purple text, a lightning bolt running through the letter O. In the middle was a unicorn mare with a light yellowish-gray coat, a brilliant amaranth mane, a tail with moderate purple and grayish violet highlights, dark purple eyes and a cutie mark of a crescent moon and three stars.

She was wearing a black turtle neck jumper with two pink buttons on them, and she was trotting to the side. Behind her in pinks and purples was lightning and magical energy weapons being shot, as well as spells going off, it seemed a bit overwhelming but powerful.

Sis poked me to get my attention before shaking her head in disappointment, not finding anything. I took the poster and we proceeded to check around before finding a set of metal stairs leading down to what appeared to be a basement.

The stairs creaked as we walked down, there were some boxes in what appeared to be a storage room. Unfortunately, inside were an old water damaged and frozen books and pamphlets, as well as computer monitors and scrap.

I got bored and proceeded to read the front of the best-looking pamphlet.

"Stable Tech Vault Pamphlet, Everything you need to know about stables."

I tried opening it but it was no use so I threw it away. Sis called me over to what appeared to be a security room. There was a dead unicorn skeleton in security armor in a swivel chair. In front of him were long dead monitors. Sis shined a light on a generator next to the desk.

"Think you can fix it?" She asked questionably.

I looked at it and back at her before giving a shrug. With that I went over to see what I could do. Sis in the meantime began to strip the guard of his armor and weapons, before looking at a locked gun locker and swearing under her breath for not having any pins to try to unlock it.

I in the meantime began to tinker with the almost two centuries old generator. It appeared to still have oil, and it must have had antifreeze in it because the pipes appeared to be fine as well.

After a bit of tinkering, I managed to fix the problem. Sis on the other hoof, had found a few bobby pins and gave the locker a crack, failing repeatedly. She was down to one pin and wasn't willing to risk it. In her defense, it was a very hard lock.

I proceeded to start the generator with a good few pulls. The old machine stuttered to life as so did the lights and monitors. The screens displayed green text before starting up.

What, wait?! The voice in my head shouted, I just bolted out of the room. There was a thud behind me as I flew down the skeleton filled hallway. I looked back to see a turret fire a red beam from the basement and I kept flying. Another one popped down from the ceiling at the end of the hallway, but I was already past it and entering the stairway before it could even take aim.

The only thing I could think about was Candy as I dashed up the stairway, galloping along the side of the staircase walls as I couldn't slow down for the turns. I pulled out my SMG as I came up out of the staircase, noticing a turret was already down at the end of the T-intersection hallway.

I ignored it as it shot green plasma bolts at me. I jumped off the wall and down the long hallway, the turret shooting a few holes in my jacket. I flew full speed down the hallway, the door to the lunchroom where Candy in sight. Another thud as another turret popped down at the end of the hallway, I opened fire with my SMG.

The gun rattled in my teeth as the SMG sent a blizzard of bullets flying straight at the turret. Green and yellow flashes illuminated the hallway, along with the sound of automatic gunfire. Plasma bolts grazed all over my body, a few hitting me, but I was too focused to care.

My bullets just dented and bounced off the turret, but I still flew forward. There was a bang that washed away the sound of bullets and plasma flying through the air.

The turret exploded in a ball of fire. I assumed in the rain of bullets I must have got a critical hit on it. The thought didn't slow me down as I crashed into the door frame of the lunch room. There was Candy, next to the smoldering fire, hugging the stick of dynamite as a bigger ceiling turret was charging its weapon.

A sickly green light emitted from the end of the turret’s claw-like barrel, a ball of plasma and electricity building up as it aimed at Candy. The turret shot its ball of death with a loud thump sound. I bolted for Candy as she stared in fear at the turret.

I turned my back to it as I tackled Candy aside, shutting my eyes as the ball of plasma vaporized everything in its path. Unfortunately, that was part of my jacket and my side. The death ball flew into the wall at the end of the room and exploded in a green flash of light and splatter of plasma.

I crashed to the ground and slid forward with Candy. I gripped her with my hooves and shielded her as we smashed into the wall. Luckily we were beside the fridge so the turret couldn't target us. Unfortunately, the pain of having a chunk of my side vaporized caught up with me.

I laid against the wall in pain, but Candy was still petrified with fear. She then looked down at my injury then back up at me with an expression of horror. I just gave her my best smile as I held back the tears and screams. Her eyes watered up as she gave me a shaky smile that was as far from ok as it could be.

I probably would have bled to death there and then if it wasn't for the fact that the plasma ball had cauterized my wound. Besides my side, the ball also narrowly missed my wing. Some of my feathers were burnt or had the ends vaporized in a semicircle.

I rested there for a moment, panting and sweating profusely from shock. It was then that I remembered my sister. The thought of her being vaporized played through my head. I grabbed the stick of dynamite from Candy's hooves and thought of a way to light it. I then got an idea, I twisted to light the fuse with the embers of the bowling ball sized hole in my jacket.

Pure pain ripped through my body as my freshly burnt wound began to rip open. I bit down hard on the stick as I struggled to get it to light, and eventually, it did. I waited down the fuse, roughly estimating when to throw it based on the fuse burn speed and how far the turret was.

I turned my body in pain then with a fast twist back I threw the stick. Oh goddess fucking a mountain did it hurt, as my wound tore wide open and blood came pouring out.

Both the dynamite and turret exploded as I fell on the floor. I was in so much pain that I couldn't even swear, all I could do was give a blood curtailing scream. I looked down at the hole in my side. I could see what I assumed was my kidney fall out of my body. In no way did that seem right. Luckily, it was still attached to my innards which were now becoming my outwards.

Candy screamed in shock before panicking, then eventually helping. She grabbed my jacket and tried to apply pressure to the wound and push my organs back inside me. At this point my body thankfully went numb, and noise turned into muffled sound as Candy screamed something at the doorway.

I could, however, feel myself smile as I looked at the hole in my jacket already start to close. I actually felt jealous of a jacket, and then there was a low boom down the hallway.

My head felt lighter as my vision turned from color into black and white, then eventually, it grew darker as I began to tunnel vision. At this point, my head fell to the side and I had no will to move it. I saw a pair of hooves at the doorway before blacking out. The last thing I remembered was somepony yelling out. "This is bad."

Author's Notes:

Last update: 19/7/17

Level up, level 3.

13 points added. plus 5 lock pick, medicine and plus 3 unarmed.

Level 1 Heroic rush, plus 15% sprint/flight speed during crusal moments.

Achivement unlocked - Filly Saver (Rescued a filly from a life of slavery)

Candy's music box song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j2FKslif-E

Thanks again to my awesome editors http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Noble+Balance https://www.fimfiction.net/user/230688/Fair+Play https://www.fimfiction.net/user/275628/EverfreePony and http://www.fimfiction.net/user/WeaponPrime for taking the time to make this readable, it's still subject to improvement but it wouldn't be anything big.