The sun beat down on the Commonwealth, the brown patches of grass flowed freely in the soft morning breeze, the remaining orange leaves on the trees provided little shelter from the harsh sun, any other trees were either bare or dead. Nearby a small river flowed with the soft relaxing sound of rushing water. Along the gravel path two figures walked the wasteland, this place, destroyed by the nuclear radiation which had faded over the two hundred years that had passed since the worlds governments fired every nuclear bomb at their disposal.

This is not the world you know, no, it is a little different. You see, hundreds of years ago humanity discovered the ponies, unlike their horses, these ponies were intelligent, could communicate with humans and were just overall adorable. And no, there were no powerful alicorns that controlled the sun and moon. Alicorns were classified as a birth defect, a foal was either born with a fully developed horn and underdeveloped wings or vice versa, to avoid any medical problems the underdeveloped limbs had to be treated with care until they could catch up with the rest of the body.

Pegasui did not control the weather at will, but instead specialised in making sure that things such as tornadoes and storms didn't become too powerful to the point where extreme levels of damage would be caused. In the wasteland however they now had the advantage of being able to fly above any hostiles and were extremely hard to take out in combat.

Unicorns could not use high level spells as the magical energy in this world was very limited. They were kept to basic telekinesis, low level spells and in some cases teleportation, however they could only teleport to places they had been. Before the war they were mainly used in scientific studies, able to manipulate certain chemicals and nuclear materials without worry of extreme levels of radiation proved useful for researchers of the modern day. In the wasteland they faired well, able to walk through radiated areas without worry for long periods of time without a hazard suit allowed many groups to hide out in areas most surface dwellers would not dare enter without the proper protection, which was hard to come by.

Earth ponies were generally used for hard manual labour, with their enhanced strength and endurance they were perfect for doing jobs that required a lot of heavy lifting and long hours. They were also mainly found around farms, due to their strange ability to allow plants and crops to grow at a greater pace. They fared better than the other two subspecies of ponies, as their natural toughness and abilities with plants were unaffected by the nuclear apocalypse, in fact over the years they had become even more resilient due to the harsh conditions.

In pre-war society they were not treated like animals, far from it, they were treated with equal rights as humans, in some cases you would find a human and pony in a romantic relationship. The idea of interspecies romance did make people uncomfortable, but over time it became part of daily society.

These two figures wandered this dead world, each of them looking for something. There were still survivors in this world, although most of them turned to violence and formed gangs of raiders as a way to survive, others worked together in small settlements or movements such as The Minutemen or The Railroad. Then there were the Vault Dwellers, people born and raised in underground bomb shelters made before the Great War by a company known as Vault-Tec, who had advertised these Vaults as safe, friendly environments to help prepare for the future. In truth, most of these Vaults had sick, twisted purposes. Places where the survivors of Vault-Tec could study the dwellers that were placed in inhuman experiments that tested their mentality, responses to certain situations and their very humanity.

In a particular Vault, Vault 111, the experiment was to see the effects of humans put in long-term cryo sleep, but those that had been assigned to monitor this Vault had soon perished due to unknown reasons. With no one to monitor the cryo pods, the pods began to malfunction, killing all of the subjects by freezing them to death. There was however three survivors of this Vault, the two figures walking along the gravel path and an infant that was stolen from one of the pods.

One of the figures, a mare with pink fur and a mane consisting of purple, light red and yellow with large bouncy curls at the ends, with a unicorn horn on her head and Pegasus wings on her back which had a shade of purple along the feathers. She wore a blue bodysuit with yellow numbers on the back '111,' there was also added pieces of armour like steel shoulderpads and a combat armour chest plate. This was Mi Amore Cadenza, or Cadence.

The second figure was a young human male, about seventeen years old in looks but in reality he was nineteen. His medium long white hair slightly blew with the breeze. His eyes were purple, piercing as they were focused. He was about six foot two with a slightly over medium build, but his muscles were still noticeable. He two wore the blue bodysuit, with the addition of metal pads on his left arm while his right arm had a heavier set of pads, with the shoulderpad being spiked and the gauntlet on his forearm having a blade that faced forward. He also wore a combat armour chest plate as well as knee pads and brown armoured boots. This was Neo Rayleigh, or Symbol as he preferred to be called.

These two figures had built up a reputation through the Commonwealth, travellers speaking of the two Vault Dwellers that helped anyone they could on their journey. In most cases the people of the wasteland believe that offering help to others outside of their own circles will get you killed, so the two of them quickly achieved their nickname, The Damned Duo.

The mare carried a modified pistol in a soft light blue aura, with her horn covered in the same aura, which had added glowing sights and a longer barrel for increased accuracy. The human carried a modified combat rifle in his arms, with a small holographic sight, larger stock and extended magazine. These two had shared many adventures and witnessed a lot, now, you get to read their journal entries of these conflicts and adventures.

...

{Cadences Journal: Entry 1}

These past few weeks have been...interesting...to say the least. Who would have known that my life would go from happy, peaceful and just perfect to a life where you could be killed at any moment in a wasteland riddled with monsters and only a fragment of humanity and ponies left to rebuild society...doesn't help that most of the time they're trying to kill each other for the silliest things. I've been able to hold my own out here, with the combat training that my...late husband...had me go through in case of another war starting back before the bombs fell.

It takes a lot, but I manage to keep on going despite my situation and location, I have to, for my own sake and for Shining Armours. It helps that I'm not traveling alone though. I've got my new friend by my side all the way through, and to be honest, I wouldn't have anyone else with me at the moment. We occasionally travel with a third member, like my robot butler Codsworth or one of our allies like Preston Garvey, leader of the Commonwealth Minutemen and Minutemares.

Symbol, he has a certain sense to him, like he knows what he's doing out here, he told me that his parents made him do survival training, combat training and made sure that he knew what to do in a life or death situation. Yet...I had never seen him before the bombs fell, he didn't live in Sanctuary Hills or any nearby towns, plus he wasn't with us when we went down to Vault 111 where we were tricked by Vault-Tec and frozen in a sort of cryo stasis. His pod definitely wasn't there when we entered and it was separated from the others in a locked room. It's lucky I found him when I did, because I needed all the help I could get. But, he wasn't wearing a vault suit.

When he had saw me for the first time he looked confused, questioned if I was real and if he was really in that room. He looked like he had never seen anything like me before, and something about him felt...wrong, like he was misplaced. We sat in the room for awhile, to let him get a grip on things. After he calmed himself down he found a vault suit of his size and put it on, claiming it would provide better protection than his clothing. We then proceeded down through the vault where we came across giant roaches, which Symbol had informed me that they were Radroaches. Strange, he seems confused about being in the place but yet knows about the creatures, strange indeed.

The bugs were quickly dealt with, as we continued Symbol took another break to clear his head, saying he'd meet me at the vault entrance after he thought about a few things and looked around for any leftover supplies. When I tried to refuse as I didn't feel comfortable leaving him there he reassured me, saying that we would only leave the vault together, he just needed a minute and that I might as well clear the way to save time.

As I ventured further into the vault I came across a 10mm pistol and a few ammo magazines. Figuring it would be useful I took it and held it in my magic, in the room I had found the pistol there was also a strange looking gun locked in a case that I couldn't break. Deciding to come back for it later I pressed onward. Using a terminal to open a locked security door I used my new gun to pick off the Radroaches in the tunnels.

I passed multiple tools and various other pieces of junk along the way, something told me that I should pick them up but I had nothing to carry them in at that moment so it presses onward, maybe Symbol would find some kind of use for them if he passed them. As I had fought a few more Radroaches I had gained a few injuries but nothing that would stop my progress.

I finally reached the vault entrance where I found a Pip-Boy on a skeleton that I could wear on my left foreleg. Placing it on I began to get myself accustomed to its controls and functions, one of which was watching my vitals. There was a small bar at the bottom of the screen, it seemed to be half green, a part black which separated the green bar from a small red one. I then saw that it had an inventory system, showing how much I could currently carry and displayed my weapons, appeal and various other stats.

Symbol walked in through a different door, he too had managed to find a Pip-Boy and held a pistol in his right hand. He walked over to me and asked about my vitals, pointing to his own Pip-Boy and the little bar at the bottom of the screen. Understanding what he was asking I showed him my own bar. He squinted his eyes to look at it and his eyes widened. He then tapped something on his Pip-Boy and a syringe-like object appeared in his hand which he stabbed into my back. It hurt at first but I suddenly felt replenished, I looked to my 'HP bar' where I saw the black had disappeared and the green now dominated the display, but the little bit of red still remained.

When I asked Symbol about it he said that he didn't have an item capable of fixing that, and told me not to worry about it for now. He walked up to the main console of the vault entrance, connected his Pip-Boy to it and pressed a large red button, resulting in the vault door beginning to open. Once we were on the surface again, I would ask him how he knew so much but still seemed confused about his current situation.

As we were about to board the lift to the surface I found two books, all with blank pages and a strange symbol on the covers as well as two pens. I then suggested the idea of keeping journals of our journeys, I'm not stupid, I know that the bombs would have made the surface a wasteland. Symbol shrugged and took one of the books and pen.

I could tell that this was the start of a lasting friendship. That was good, I would need someone with me on my journey...

A journey to find the man who took my son and killed my husband.

As the large elevator reached the surface we were both blinded by the light of the sun after being underground for awhile. As our vision returned we looked out at the ruins of my old home, Sanctuary Hills. Everywhere the grass was brown or grey, the trees were bare and tha buildings lay either in shambles or were only just holding together. As I looked out in sadness I felt a hand be placed on the spot just above my wings. Looking back I saw that Symbol was looking down at my apologetically, asking if I was alright.

I told him I was fine, he didn't look convinced, so in an effort to cheer me up he began scratching my right ear, earning a satisfied purr from me. We began looking around the vault site trying to find some more supplies, finding a few medical supplies and some more ammo for our pistols. As we were searching we came across multiple skeletons of humans and ponies that hadn't been able to reach shelter in time.

We walked across an old wooden bridge into my old street, hoping to find someone that could help us. As I looked around I frowned as I found my home in such a state, I never thought I'd see the world fall to this. I remember when the children and goals would play in the street, how the lovely couple at the bottom of the street would come by to visit every so often with their adopted pony child.

As I started shaking from the sadness I felt Symbol place his hand on my back again, he pointed up the street telling me to look around there while he looked around the lower part of the neighbourhood and to keep a lookout for anyone that may have made this place their home.

I nodded and we split up, as I walked up the street I saw Symbol walking over to some kind of workbench under the porch of a damaged house, he placed his pistol on it and began to place various pieces of junk onto the table. I couldn't focus on what he was doing for long as I saw someone very familiar to me floating about.

Author's Notes:

Hope you like this folks, more to come soon