"Hey, Big Mac!" Daring Do called down to her grounded search partner. "I think I can see the power plant from here! There's not much more area to go!"

"Ya'd think we woulda found 'im by now!" Big Macintosh called up. "It's almost like he's hidin' from us!"

So the two ponies did not have to shout in order to communicate anymore, Daring Do swooped back down and landed next to the big, red stallion.

"Kinda defeats the purpose of calling for help if you ask me." Daring do said. "Hmm...well, whatcha think about getting a closer look by the power plant, big guy?"

"Ah think we can handle it just fine." Big Macintosh replied. "In yer line of work, Ah'm sure you've seen everything a place could throw at ya."

"Oh, stop it, you. You're making me blush."

"Heh. Lucky fer me, nopony can tell when Ah am. Alright then, Miss Yearling, let's head on over yonder and Ah'll check ya out."

"What was that?"

"Er, uh...Ah said let's head on over yonder and check it out."

"Heheheh. You're alright, you know that?"

Daring Do and Big Macintosh had never met before until they volunteered to take part in their mission but the two were beginning to become good friends and even started to feel comfortable joking around with each other. As the two trotted onward, the buildings became more and more sparse and they could see that they had no need to search them as the other teams of two were seen exiting and moving on to their next target. At this point, it seemed that every single building had been searched quite literally from top to bottom and vise versa but for some reason, Radius Hoofenschtov was still unaccounted for.

Still, the two teammates pressed onward and once they reached the Southeastern outskirts of Pripyat, it became official. The ponies had searched the entire city. From every apartment building to every store and school, every street to alleyway, they had just finished covering the abandoned city in its entirety. Most would lose hope at a time like this but after coming so far, they were not about to simply give up. The fact that there was still the power plant and the massive industrial yard to go through meant that there was still hope.

The wind was blowing towards the South throughout the day so Big Macintosh and Daring Do both agreed that it would be wise to keep North of the reactor. After trotting a bit further, they could now just see a large body of water that was much too wide to have been the Pripyat River. After checking her map, Daring Do and Big Macintosh realized that what they were looking at was the massive cooling pond that acted as the reactor's water supply. After taking a moment to ponder their next move, Daring Do suddenly came up with an idea in which she would put into play to get a better view.

"Hey, Mac, I think I got an idea." Daring Do said. "I'm gonna try hovering around above that cooling reservoir to see if I can spot anypony around the bank. Sound good?"

"Eeyup." Big Macintosh replied.

After trotting another hundred or so yards, the pair of explorers approached the shore of the pond that appeared to be more of a lake due to its size. Daring Do and her big red companion proceeded to get a good look at the body of water to get a better idea of how large it actually was and after another brief glance at the map to learn their exact location, the brave pegasus put her plan into action.

"Just be careful out there, Miss Yearling." Big Macintosh said as his winged partner spread her wings.

"You big softy." Daring Do chuckled she she gave the farm pony a playful punch on the shoulder. "You get attached to ponies too quick, you know that?"

"Well, Ah'd just rather ya didn't end up like them other folks we found is all."

"Heheh, I know, buddy, I know. I'll be fine. Remember all that stuff I go through in my books?"

"Eeyup."

"So just park that flank of yours right here and I'll be back before you can come up with one of those 'countryisms' you're so good at."

Daring do then bolted up into the air and flew out over the cooling pond where she would hover above the water and use her binoculars in attempt to spot any movement along the shorelines. Big Macintosh made it a point to keep a close eye on her for safety the entire time while watching his own back as well. As Daring Do continued to fly further out over the water, little did the two friends know that while they watched out for each other, they too were being watched.

Several hundred yards to the East of where Big Macintosh and Daring Do had decided to scope out, a dark figure on an upper floor of the power plant was eyeing them through a scope of his own. This strange being had seen the ponies arrive in the exclusion zone by bus several days ago and since the first thing he chose to do was hide, it was quite clear that he did not want to be found. The creature that lurked about in the dark abandoned buildings did not fear that the ponies that arrived would harm him or any such thing but he truly had his reasons though precisely what was unclear.

"Shit." The dimly glowing creature muttered under his breath with a raspy voice. "They're just not giving up. For their sake, I can't let them find me. If they catch me when I'm low on my rads...oh god, I don't even wanna think about what I'd end up doing to them."

As the mysterious figure continued to shift his makeshift telescope back and forth between Big Macintosh on the bank and Daring Do over the water, he attempted to think, really logically think of the proper course of action to take in the event that anypony should get too close. As hard as he tried to ponder a solution to his conundrum, he would soon find that there was yet another issue below the surface of the water that would force him to make the most difficult decision he had ever had to make.

Even though the duo least expected it, it seemed that they were being watched from every angle as another hungrier creature spied up at the hovering pegasus with its tiny yellow eyes spaced very far apart on its massive, wide head. Most of its body was submerged in the toxic mud that coated the floor of the lake with only its eyes poking up. The massive creature continued to watch from its hiding spot twenty feet below the surface of the water in hopes that the bite sized pony would stop darting around and hover in place. The long, slimy monster did not have to wait long and soon saw its chance to ambush and ultimately make a meal out of the unsuspecting pegasus that dangled above like the tempting piece of meat that it saw in her.

Once the large aquatic creature could see that Daring Do had herself preoccupied with her binoculars and made herself a stationary target, the long, dark creature with a fat head and body but tapered down much thinner towards the tail slowly rose from the radioactive muck. As it sluggishly made its way out of its hiding spot and slithered towards the surface, it revealed just how massive of a behemoth it truly was and the grave danger its unwary prey was in. Much to its fortune, Daring Do continued to busy herself and was still unaware of the deadly adversary that stalked her below as it finally reached the surface at a slug's pace.

The underwater monster that sought to make the unwary pegasus its next meal stopped and sat just beneath the surface motionlessly and silently and stared up at its target as if it were taking aim. Ever so slowly and quietly, the creature then proceeded to open its huge, wide mouth full of thousands of tiny teeth comparable in size to the tips of a ball point pen. With its mouth wide open and a sizable gulp of water having filled its gullet, the massive monster locked on to the hovering pony and slammed its mouth shut fast enough to send out a jet stream of water powerful enough to knock a car off the road.

"Guhh!" Daring Do yelped as she was knocked out of the air by what seemed like a liquid cannonball.

The pulse of water that somehow gushed out of the surface of the pond was so intense that it knocked the wind out of Daring Do before she tumbled through the air and fell into the contaminated water. The Geiger counter that hung around her neck on a cord immediately began to beep and flash as it sensed a dangerous amount of radiation from its new wet surroundings. Big Macintosh and the mysterious creature that observed the scene from the nearby tower were now on high alert as they had just witnessed an attack on the pegasus who just fell in. The difference however was that the red farm stallion had no idea what really just happened wheres the figure in the dark building was fully aware of what was about to unfold.

"What!?" the being in the tower gasped as it observed the pond monster slithering towards the stunned pony. "Oh shit, its a wels catfish! That thing's at least a fifteen footer!"

Daring Do was a good hundred or so yards out in the pond so Big Macintosh quickly grabbed his own pair of binoculars out of his saddlebag and brought them up to his eyes. What he saw though the glass swimming towards his partner and quickly picking up speed made his heart pound and every hair on his body stand on end. If there was any danger he had ever faced before in his life, having a friend out in a lake far away from him with a giant fish trying to swallow them topped everything.

"Wha-what the fuck was that!?" Daring do asked herself as she shook out of her daze.

"Miss Yearling!!" Big Macintosh screamed from the shoreline. "Behind you! Ya gotta get outta there!"

"What? What did you sa-aaahhhhhh!!"

Before Big Macintosh could even think to repeat himself, the strong jaws of the massive catfish tightly latched onto Daring Do's leg and sunk its many small teeth into her skin. Big Macintosh and the strange being in the tower watched in horror as the overgrown fish pulled the frantically screaming mare around the surface. As helpless as the farm pony felt, he refused to sit idly by as his new friend got dragged around and eaten by this monster. The first thing he knew he had to do was to alert the others so he hastily pulled his flare gun out of his saddlebag and fired it into the air. As soon as the projectile left the short barrel of the gun and hurled itself towards the sky, Big Macintosh grabbed a large knife from his bag, placed it between his teeth, threw his saddle bag off and jumped into the water.

With a weapon in his mouth and the rest of the team hopefully on their way to help, Big Macintosh put his muscles and swimming experience to work as he frantically swam over towards the fish that carried his friend in its jaws in a desperate attempt to save her. The huge fish continued to swim at a sluggish pace which allowed Big Macintosh to close a lot of distance but what occurred next made his heart sink lower than it ever had before in his life. While Daring Do continued to scream in both pain and fear, the monster fish that had her in its death grip pulled her under, seeming to disappear into the pitch black abyss that was the dark depths of reactor four's cooling pond.

The dark figure that watched the events unfold from the tower felt a pain in his heart as he saw a now panicking Big Macintosh flailing around and starting to lose what little composure he had left. Though he felt that being found was something he needed to avoid at all costs, he knew in his heart that he had a choice to make and he had to make it now or never. He was to either do nothing and allow one or both of those ponies to die or save their lives and risk giving away his location. Sweat poured down the creature's face and onto his telescope as the two options he had rushed though his mind until he finally made his choice. He knew he had to do the right thing.

With much haste, the creature darted back in the dark room he was in and fumbled around with an arrangement of various tools and retrieved what appeared to be another telescope. Unlike the scope he used to observe from the tower however, this particular device had a few various strange attachments on it and the glass had cross hairs like a scope that would be used with a rifle. As he placed the scope up to his big, glowing, catlike eye, he flipped up a small metal strap with a ring on the end of it from the side of his device and placed the ring around a long, gnarled up horn that jutted out of his head.

The mysterious being was now fully prepared to put his plan into action but there was still a great chance that it may not work as it was now completely dependent on the monstrous catfish breaking the surface. Unless the fish resurfaced leaving itself exposed, the creature that wished to help could not carry out his attack and Daring Do would soon be forever lost in the pit of the fifteen foot fish's stomach. The mere thought alone was more than enough to put the distraught farm stallion over the edge as he began wailing in pure anguish.

Unbeknownst to Big Macintosh whom was now frantically looking around for any sign of his friend, a fierce battle was occurring under water just ten feet directly beneath him. Though Daring Do was at a grave size and strength disadvantage against the behemoth fish, she was a feisty and tenacious pony and as long as she had her lungs full of air and three free hooves, she was going to put up the fight of her life before she went down to her grave. With the strong jaws of the catfish tightly clamped onto her left back leg, Daring Do kicked and bucked with her right leg with all her strength. Doing so, she was not able to get quite enough leverage in order to land any hard enough blows so she used her front hooves to savagely punch at the fish. As hard as she tried however, she could not quite get a good hit onto the catfish's tiny, beady little eyes which would have been of great help if she could.

With her attempts at getting the stubborn giant fish to budge falling flat and the air in her lungs quickly growing stale, Daring Do spotted her last and only chance in the form of one of the long, thin, fleshy barbels that jutted from the sides of the fish's mouth. If there was anything useful that she knew about aquatic creatures was that the whiskers of a catfish were the most sensitive part of its body. With nothing else to lose and everything to gain, Daring Do grabbed the long, fleshy appendage, brought it between her teeth and sank them into it as far as the strength of her own jaws would physically allow. Unlike the kicks and punches that seemingly had no affect on the catfish, having its sensitive barbel bitten nearly to the point of being severed was enough to send it into a flailing frenzy as it promptly bolted back towards the surface.

With Daring Do's leg still firmly within the fish's clutch and its whisker still in the pony's teeth, the two foes broke the surface and continued their fight. Now that they were at the surface, this gave Daring Do a chance to gasp for a breath of fresh air and the strange being in the building his chance to save the lives of the two ponies he spied on. As soon as he saw his first opportunity for a clean shot, his gnarled up horn began to glow with a bright green aura and emitted a loud, high pitched squeal that sounded much like a radio signal being tampered with. As the fish continued to thrash about on the surface and breached like a whale, the creature aimed the cross hairs of his scope directly under its gills and took his shot.

Big Macintosh was both relieved that his friend was still alive but at the same time horrified as he helplessly watched the catfish mercilessly thrash her about. As it violently swung its head around with Daring Do still in its grasp, the catfish leaped out of the water and as it sailed through the air, the loud, high pitched metallic screech could be heard coming from the East. Still, the desperate Big Macintosh felt that he had more important things to worry about than a strange noise coming from far away but he would soon find out that it would have more significance to his goal than he originally thought.

With his adrenaline pumping through his blood at full bore, the scene that played out before Big Macintosh seemed to do so in slow motion as a thin, bright green beam of light shot out from the direction the odd squeal was coming from and sizzled as it hit the water. The strange beam appeared to be extremely hot as it caused the water around it to boil and steam to burst from the pond as it danced along the surface. Seeming to have a mind of its own, the beam of energy quickly made its way over to the air born catfish and just as the monster came crashing back down into the water, the beam could be seen in the path of the fish's fall.

Big Macintosh experienced a great deal of mixed emotions as he watched the intense battle disappear into a newly forming cloud of steam. As he heard the massive fish crash back into the water, he watched in shock, confusion, and awe in the direction of the beam as it crackled for a moment and disappeared as quickly as it appeared. For several seconds, the red stallion just floated there with his mouth hanging wide open as the massive cloud of steam began to thin out until it finally dissipated revealing the final outcome of the deadly encounter. Floating on the surface just ten yards in front of Big Macintosh was a gasping and wheezing Daring Do with the giant fish floating motionlessly a mere few feet away from her. Just in front of the wels catfish that nearly claimed the life of the brave explorer and possibly that of her valiant teammate was its big, fat severed head floating in a pool of blood that stained the water around it.

As shocked as Big Macintosh was at the sudden decapitation of the massive fish that almost swallowed his friend, he knew that he would have to worry about it later as his first priority was to get himself and the injured mare back to shore and out of the water post haste. Each and every second the two ponies were in the pond was more radiation their bodies would absorb from it so Big Macintosh knew he would need to put his years of farm labor to work as he wrapped a big, muscular arm around Daring Do's chest and used the rest of his legs to swim them both back to dry land.

"There they are!" A familiar voice cried out from the shore of the pond.

Upon hearing that somepony he knew had found them, Big Macintosh paused for a moment and lifted his head up to see Shining Armor pointing out towards them from the bank of the lake. Looking up just a bit further, he could see four familiar winged ponies descending down towards him and the injured mare in his grasp. The mere sight of the two Princesses and their wonderbolt comrades coming to pull them out of the water was enough to shed tears of joy as he had never been so happy to see somepony in all his life.

Princess Celestia wrapped her arms around Big Macintosh as he was the heaviest of the two while Soarin and Spitfire quickly grabbed Daring Do and hoisted her up together. Within seconds, the two distressed ponies were placed back onto dry land where they could finally catch their breath and explain to their friends what happened. With a massive floating fish with its severed head in the water next to it however, it was quite plain to see the general premise of what just took place. As Twilight finished up snapping several photographs of the remains of the giant fish, Daring Do tightly hugged her savior after slowly coming out of her daze.

"Big Mac!" Daring Do exclaimed. "I'd fucking be dead if it wasn't you!"

"B-but, Miss Yearling..." Big Macintosh stuttered. "Ah ain't the pony wh-"

"Dude, you're a hero!" Rainbow Dash cheered."

"You saved her life, bro!" Soarin cheered.

"Man, if you had a set of wings, you'd take my job as wonderbolt captain any day!" Spitfire complimented.

"Can everypony just shut up fer a minute and listen to me!?" Big Macintosh yelled.

"What? What's the problem?" Shining Armor asked.

"Look, all ah did was swim out there to try to git her back. Y'all ain't seen what Ah saw."

"And what exactly did you see?" Celestia asked.

"When that big 'ol fish jumped, Ah saw some kinda...light beam er somethin'! It came from over by the power plant over yonder and sliced that thing's head clean off!"

"Oh, come on, just take the credit already!" The creature that saved the two ponies in distress said as he observed Big Macintosh pointing almost directly at him through his telescope. "They already think you saved her, just go along with it! Fuck, I'm as good as found...and they're as good as dead if they do. If I end up hurting them, I'll never forgive myself."

Once again, the strange being that spied on the search team withdrew his telescope and retreated into the dark abandoned building. As he ran through the pitch black hallways and and down the stairwells towards the basement floor, he though a lot about what he had just done could lead to. He refused to let two complete strangers he had never met before die and because of his act of kindness, there was now a chance that he could soon be discovered much to his dismay. As important that he felt keeping himself hidden was, still he did not regret the choice he made and he could make his way down to the lowest corridor knowing that he had done the right thing.

"Ah'm tellin' yas, Ah couldn't have cut that thing's head off with this knife!" Big Macintosh hollered as he tried to convince everypony of what he saw. "Ah saw some plum crazy lookin' green laser beam shoot down and burn through the water and then right through that catfish!"

"You said it came from one of those buildings over there?" Twilight asked.

"Eeyup, that's right! Ah ain't goin' crazy! Everypony, we ain't alone 'round here...somepony er something is watching us."

"Well either way, guys, we've got something more important to worry about right now." Shining Armor said as he held his Geiger counter up to Daring Do before switching it over to Big Macintosh. "Everypony, we need to get these two decontaminated...NOW!!"

Author's Notes:

The addition of this chapter breaks my own personal record officially making this my longest story...and it's still far from over! This is the point where from here on out, things start to fall perfectly into place. Enjoy.

Added August 25th, 2017: The image above was made by AquaticSun.