The further the bus went into the boundaries of the thirty kilometer exclusion zone, the more broken up and crumbling the road seemed to get. Since it lead into a town that has been completely uninhabited for three decades however, there was little to no reason that it should be maintained. Upon first passing through the gate, thick forest covered both sides of the road and being that the month of May just began, the leaves on the trees were almost completely developed.

There were only a few short miles to go before the team would arrive on the Northernmost side of Pripyat where they would set up a base and begin their search for Radius. Even though they weren't necessarily responsible for locating the three missing men who were working on the reactor's containment arch, the volunteers were more than willing to help search for them too. After several minutes of riding down the bumpy, unkempt road in the rickety old bus, the forest around the sides of the roads began to get thinner and thinner. The plants and trees appeared to be healthy, the team was merely nearing a more open area.

A few hundred more yards later, the forest completely gave way to a massive industrial yard full of massive steel power poles with thousands of cables attaching them all together. As Denys glanced over at the poles, he stroked his mustache as he started to think that perhaps he was forgetting something until it suddenly hit him.

"Oh drat, I forgot something!" Denys gasped. "Erm, Miss Dash, can you do me huge favor please?"

"Sure, dude, whatcha need?" Rainbow Dash replied.

"See that compartment behind my seat? I need you to pull out the little grey metal box. It looks sort of like a toaster and has some wires coming out of it."

"You mean this thing?"

"Da, that's it! Will you plug that cord into this outlet and set it on dashboard for me, please?"

"Sure, bud, no problem."

"Thank you, comrade. That's a Geiger counter. It lets us know if radiation gets too high."

"Cool."

As the bus exited the forest area, the sky and road ahead of them could now be seen more easily. Approximately a mile and a half up ahead, another dense wooded area could be seen with the faint skyline of several tall buildings coming in clearer the closer they got to it. To the right was the massive Pripyat River which quickly seemed to move further and further away until a large lake came into view blocking the river from sight. It was what the ponies saw coming up next near the Northernmost end of the lake that caused emotional tension for a certain white alicorn.

"Is that what I think it is?" Spitfire asked.

"Whatcha looking at?" Daring do asked.

"See that big building with the smoke stack? Correct me if I'm wrong but I think th-whoa! Okay that big gaping hole there gives it away!"

"My god...that's..." Twilight began.

"The reactor." Celestia finished.

"You gonna be okay, Yer Majesty?" Big Macintosh asked.

"Y-yes, I'm fine, it's just...wow. I've never actually see it in person before, only in photos and video footage. Hard to believe Radius may have survived an explosion big enough to take out that big of a chunk of that building.

"Sorry to interrupt but I need the windows shut until we pass it!" Denys announced as he pointed to the Geiger counter on the dash board. "This area is hot and the sooner they're closed, the better."

Without hesitation, Celestia used her aura to shut every single window on the bus. Still, the machine that sat in front of Denys as he continued past the destroyed building proceeded to make a repetitive ticking sound. A minute or so later, the constant ticking turned into a loud crackle as the device's needle suddenly spiked up. The bus must have just entered a hot zone so in order to keep exposure to a minimum, Denys shifted the transmission into a higher gear and sped up in order to move out of the dangerous area as quickly as possible.

"So when that thing goes 'tick tick tick' that's bad, right?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Da, very bad." Denys replied. "That's why you need to have yours on and working at all times and when it goes off, move out of area until it stops. That little machine could save your life."

"Okay, Geiger counter equals very important. Thanks, Denys, I'll keep that in mind."

As the bus driven by Denys and carrying the Equestrian volunteers continued to drive past the building that housed the reactor, a shadowy figure lurking in the darkness of the unlit room observed them out a window through a telescope. The optical device was more of a makeshift one as it was crudely made and appeared to be compiled of random pieces of scrap metals, plastics, and glass. As the unknown being zoomed in to get a closer look, what he saw next would be the biggest surprise he would laid his eyes on in many years.

"Equestrians?" Said a raspy voice. "But how? They heard the signal?"

As the creature continued to observe each passenger on the bus, he proceeded to sweep his focus from the front of the moving vehicle to the back. If it was a surprise to him to see ponies coming into the exclusion zone, seeing a certain white alicorn Princess was enough to make him drop the thick cigar out of his large, pointed teeth.

"What!?" The strange being cried as he fumbled with the telescope in order to double take. After bringing it up to a glowing green eye with slit-like pupils, he soon found that his eyes had not deceived him as he focused in on Princess Celestia sitting in the very back of the bus. "My god...How did she...shit. I didn't know she would be here. I-I can't...I can't let her see me like this."

Without another thought, the mysterious being quickly withdrew his telescope and retreated further into the decaying building, disappearing into the pitch black abyss.

Denys and Rainbow Dash whom the former had affectionately dubbed his co-pilot continued to keep a close watch on the needle of the Geiger counter that sat atop the dashboard just above the bus's oil pressure gauge. At this point, the bus had just passed by the building of reactor number four and the needle was steadily dropping, indicating that they were exiting the more highly contaminated area. As the needle finally went back to the lowest level it could go and the ticking sound only occurring once every few seconds, they were relieved to be out of the immediate hazard and into the outskirts of the city. The city that was once home to nearly fifty thousand people, most of them workers of the Chernobyl Nuclear Facility and their families. At long last, the group had finally entered the city of Pripyat.

Pripyat was a truly amazing sight to behold. All of the ponies had previously heard of the disaster that forced all the residents to evacuate but none of them, even Celestia had expected it to look the way it did. After a nuclear explosion that produced an intense toxic cloud so massive that several other nations in Europe could feel the effects, nopony expected it to look so beautiful. Most of the them would picture a gray, desolate, lifeless wasteland but were instead driving into what nearly looked like a forest, just with buildings scattered about. After thirty years the city's plant life had made a remarkable recovery though to the naked eye, was still unsafe to be inhabited for any extended periods of time.

Underneath all the foliage were the makings of a fully functioning city complete with many buildings of all types, shapes, and sizes, street signs, a few amusement park rides and even some playgrounds in the back yards of buildings that were once schools. Old rusted out cars sat where they had been parked thirty years ago and some even had grass and moss growing out of the rotting, flattened tires as they sat and decayed. To think that the small fleet of rust covered buses that sat in a lot behind the kindergarten building were used to bring the city's children to and from their schools was depressing to say the least.

"Wow, this is amazing!" Spitfire said.

"Incredible!" Soarin added.

"I didn't see this coming." Daring Do said. "This looks just like any other ancient ruins I've explored except it's just more modern."

"A city completely frozen in time." Twilight Sparkle said. "Just a reminder of the Soviet Union's dream that they hoped to achieve with a communist government but alas, failed to do so. Though Ukraine is its own independent nation now, right before our very eyes is the remains of a time that was so much different from today...and not very long ago either."

"Well said, Miss Twilight." Big Mac said. "Well said."

Due to the lack of maintenance to the roads, the crumbling remains of the pavement made for a bumpy ride so Denys had to slow the bus down significantly. After making a few turns on some of the streets, the bus was now heading Northwest and ultimately bound for the side of Pripyat furthest away from the power plant. Though the area the group had in mind was mush less contaminated with radiation, by no means was it truly safe as there were plenty other dangers hiding in the shadows. Everypony needed to constantly keep their guard up during this mission and they were all well aware of that. Getting cocky could lead to getting killed.

Finally, Denys and the team had reached the Northwestern-most point of the outskirts of Pripyat where they would start out by choosing a building to use as a base camp and commence their search for Radius Hoofenschtov and help locate the missing construction workers as well. There were several buildings to choose from in the form of apartment high-rises to use as their temporary home away from home. It was when the only thing in ahead was nothing but a thick, dark forest that Denys brought the bus to a stop, the box truck behind them following suit before the two man crew exited and began unloading the supplies.

Everypony was ready to get to their task and arose from their seats as did Denys. The short, stout, and usually cheerful security guard's demeanor changed to a more serious one as he had a few parting words for whom he felt were his new friends.

"Now, before I leave you all here..." Denys began. "I just want to say that it's been a pleasure driving you all today. I also need to reiterate that you all need to be extremely careful here and never travel about alone. If and when you find the ones you're looking for, I'd like to come back to get all of you in one piece. Work together as a team and look out for each other, okay?"

"Don't you worry about a think, friend." Daring do said as she extended her hoof for a hoof bump. "I've done this before, We'll all do just fine."

"We appreciate your kind concern, Denys." Celestia said as she did the same. "When you come back to get us, we'll all be here unharmed and waiting for you."

"Hey, thanks for everything, man." Shining Armor said with a salute.

One by one, each pony gave Denys a hoof bump before hopping off the bus with their luggage. With everypony now off the bus and their supplies provided by Prime Minister Groysman unloaded from the van, it was now time to select a suitable building and form a precise plan on where to begin searching. Before Denys shut the Slatebuster's door however, he decided to present his co-pilot with a small parting gift.

"Oh, Miss Dash!" Denys called out.

"What's up?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Catch!"

The cheery old man then removed his dark green security cap and tossed it out the door which Rainbow Dash caught with an extended wing before placing it atop her head.

"Hey, thanks, pal!" Rainbow Dash said with a salute.

"Godspeed!" Denys called out returning the salute with his now hatless, shiny bald head. His job was done as was that of the two men with the cargo van who had just finished unloading several boxes and a few pallets of survival gear. With a final wave goodbye, Denys shut the door of the bus, backed up a few yards back onto the crumbling pavement and with a couple toots of the horn, he was heading back to his post at the checkpoint. As the bus drove further and further away, the taillights faded away in a cloud of black smoke off in the distance until he was completely out of sight. Other than the two guides whom Groysman mentioned before, the team was all alone in the abyss that was the Pripyat Exclusion Zone.

"Well..." Celestia began as she looked around at the tall buildings. "Here we are."

"Eeyup." Big Mac said.

"So, uh, I guess we just get to it then, huh?" Soarin asked.

"Which one of these buildings do you think we oughtta use, Your Majesty?" Spitfire asked.

Though Celestia was well prepared for whatever the team may come across, one thing she had not thought about was what criteria they should go by when choosing a building to use as their base. Most of the apartment complexes looked nearly identical and seemed to be of similar height. It seemed that any of these old buildings would do just fine. Feeling that at this point she may as well just close her eyes and point at any random building, an unfamiliar voice spoke up to offer his input.

"That one over there." Said a male voice behind the team. "The big windows will help you get your supplies through when you levitate with magic. No point in carrying all that shit up there. Maybe try using your brains?"

Everypony turned around to see their somewhat rude source of advice in the form of man in his early thirties with bright red hair. The man in question stood there with a slightly bemused expression and wore a Eastern European style military outfit complete with urban camo, brown combat boots, a belt full of ammo and a pistol and an assault rifle slung over his shoulder.

"Oh, you must be one of our guides." Celestia said ignoring the man's rude tone.

"Yeah, I'm one of your guides alright." The man sarcastically repeated before lighting up a cigarette. "The Prime Minister's paying me some damn good money to keep you all alive so don't do anything stupid and get yourselves killed out here."

Again, Celestia decided to take the man's impolite attitude with a grain of salt, brushing it off as him possibly just being stressed out. After all, he was also putting himself at risk by being there so one is bound to have a moment where they are in a bad mood once in a while.

"Oh, we've been through it all, trust me." Celestia chuckled. "So, what's your name, sir?"

"I don't feel like getting attached to anybody." The man replied. "But if you feel so compelled to know, it's Frederick Schultz. Now why don't you all quit standing around all clustered together like that and get that building prepared? You're all sitting ducks right now."

"Oookay then. Alright everypony, we'll be using that building over there. Shining and Twilight, would you two help me get those pallets up to the top floor, please?"

"Try searching the building first. I'd check each room and make sure the place isn't crawling with mutant creatures if I were you."

"Ah. That's actually a good idea. Okay, everypony, we'll need to secure the building first and then we'll load our supplied up into one of the windows."

"Anything else I have to help you figure out?"

"Uh, no Frederick, I think you've helped us out plenty already."

"Well in that case, I'm going back to my Jeep. Groysman's gonna have to pay me a hell of a lot more if I gotta stand here and babysit you guys and I've got a big bottle of Bols with my name on it."

"Alright, thanks for your help, jerk."

Without another word, Frederick walked away into a dark alleyway between two buildings. After a few seconds, the sound of an engine starting could be heard before Frederick reappeared from the darkness but inside a late nineties, dark green Jeep Wrangler. Just as he drove past the team, he flicked his spent cigarette butt out his window and proceeded to light another while he sped away and disappeared into the foliage that took over the city.

"What flew up his ass?" Celestia said.

"D-did you just say?..." Twilight gasped.

"Yes, Twilight, I said 'ass'. I'm a pony with emotions like everypony else so get used to it while we're here."

"Sorry, I've just never seen this side of you before."

"I don't know about you guys but I like this side of her!" Spitfire said.

"Look, I think we should get to securing this building." Daring do suggested. "By the time we're done with that, it'll be dark so we should get moving."

"She's right." Celestia said. "I have no control over the sun in this universe so we are now all at the mercy of this solar system. Split up into teams of two, everypony. Let's get our camp set up so we can do what we came to do."

Everypony took a moment to choose their partner for the task of securing the building that would be used as a safe house and promptly commenced the operation. Celestia searched the rooms with Twilight by her side, Shining Armor teamed up with Rainbow Dash, Spitfire with Soarin, and Big Macintosh with Daring Do. Room by room, floor by floor, the vacant building was combed through by everypony. Some of the apartment flats were empty but most had been left in such a hurry that several of the former residents' belongings were left behind. Items ranging from beds and children's toys to large appliances such as kitchen stoves and air conditioners littered the dusty rooms.

It took the group a few hours to search the twelve floor apartment building but they were finally done and regrouped at their pre-planned rendezvous point on the very top floor. Each room was searched and nothing dangerous was found. In order for the winged teammates to be able to simply fly in and out without having to use the stairs, they chose a room with windows to the outdoors. Now that the building was proven safe, the supplies could be loaded into it by Twilight, Shining Armor and Celestia, all of them using their magical auras to levitate every box and pallet up to the top floor and through the window.

Getting the equipment up and through the window did not take very long but now that it was just past six o'clock in the evening, it would prove nearly pointless to start searching with as little daylight as there was left. Aside from the fact that the sun would be setting in less than two hours, the team could not start their search until they first devised a precise plan on how and where they would go about doing so. Not only that, but they would need to check through their new gear and discuss what would need to be done in the event of an emergency.

In total, there were three loaded pallets and twelve crates of supplies that were delivered by the two man crew with the van whom tailed behind the ponies while they were on the bus. One pallet was loaded entirely with bottles of clean water while another was stacked with half water and the other half ready to eat military food rations. Groysman even went out of his way especially saw to it that the food supplies were composed of vegetarian meals only. The third and final pallet was loaded with things such as first aid supplies, lead lined athletic cups for the stallions, saddlebags for them to be carried in, and several various sized lead lined hazmat suits made especially for ponies.

Now it was the crates' turn to be pried open and their contents inspected. Each wooden box was labeled by name, one for each pony and four more to be divided up by the group in its entirety. Each teammate received a pair of binoculars, a map of the area, a compass, a distress whistle, a package of iodine tablets, a smaller personal sized first aid kit, an electronic Geiger counter, a flare gun with six extra flares, a powerful aluminum flashlight, and several replacement batteries. One of other crates contained urban camouflage vests made to fit a pony's torso. The vests were all in various sizes and were even embroidered with a few bright orange reflective stripes so the wearer could be easily spotted by others in the event of an emergency. Two of the other crates were filled with eight two way radios, extra batteries, eight sleeping bags, and eight complimentary bottles of vodka. It was what was inside the final and largest crate that caught the team by surprise.

"Hot damn, Check these out!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she pulled a pump action shotgun out of the box. There were a few more various other firearms inside the crate that were modified so that a pony may fit their hoof over the trigger. There were also several smaller boxes of ammunition packed in along with the guns.

"Uh, are you sure we really need those?" A nervous Twilight Sparkle asked. "How many of you even know how to use one?"

"Ah can't say if Ah've ever done it but Ah'd sure like to learn." Big Macintosh said as he admired a semiautomatic rifle he held in his hooves.

"Besides that, don't you remember?" Spitfire asked Twilight. "Everybody who knows the area has told us how dangerous it is and unicorn magic is a lot weaker here. I think I speak for the rest of us when I say we should take their word for it."

"Though I do agree with that for the most part..." Celestia began. "...I think we should reserve them as a last resort. We won't be travelling alone and we'll meet back here before nightfall anyway. So now that we have an idea of what we have to work with, let's discuss a few things. From now on, this will be where we stay during our time here. Though our magic is indeed a lot weaker here, I was able to come up with a decontamination spell that will effect the whole building. Unfortunately, we won't be able to take it with us but we at least don't have to be poisoned in our sleep. Are you all with me so far?"

Everypony nodded as Celestia proceeded to unfold a map of the exclusion zone.

"Excellent." She continued as she lowered the map to everypony's eye level. "Okay, you'll all be sweeping the city in teams of two. You can stick with whoever you searched this building with or you can swap at any time. Any winged ponies can conduct an areal search but if your partner is without wings, please keep them in your sight for safety. Alright, let's see...we are right here on this map. We will start North and sweep the city towards the South. If Radius is here, I doubt he'll be very close to the power plant. Also, I would like to remind you to help look for the missing construction workers as well. If you find any of them, Radius, or any trace of them, alert the rest of us and shoot a flare up into the sky to give your location. Lastly, work as a team and be safe."

"Radius and those other guys are as good as found!" Daring Do Said. "Right everypony?"

"Right!" Everypony said in unison.

"I feel so lucky to have friends like all of you!" Celestia sniffled as she stifled a few tears. "So look, we're here for the night and we've got some time to just relax before we go to sleep tonight so let's take advantage of that vodka they packed for us."

"Uh, Princess?" Twilight asked. "You know what you just said, right?"

"I'm very well aware of what I said, Twilight. Again, get used to it."

Author's Notes:

Taking a bit of a gamble here but the new character has been added as a gift to my readers whom are fans of "Roadside Picnic". I truly hope it is received well. Idea for the Character similar to Redrick Schuart courtesy of heavy weapons brony.