Rainbow Dash and Shining Armor continued their trot around the large open area of land in between several massive buildings that was once an industrial lot at the Chernobyl Nuclear Facility. Until the unfortunate events that took place thirty years ago, the huge concrete yard that was now overgrown with weeds would have been brimming with activity. Buses would be carrying workers to and from their shifts while vans and trucks would delivering loads of cargo to meet the everyday needs of the residents of Pripyat. Hundreds of people just going about their day to day lives being brought to an abrupt halt in April of 1986. Just like the rest of the city the ponies were unfortunate enough to see, it was yet another depressing sight.

The two ponies pressed on further for another several minutes until the two had forgotten where they were. Shining Armor then used his aura to pull his map out of his saddlebag where the two then paused for a moment to try to find their location.

"I think we're right about..." Rainbow Dash began as she pointed at an area on the map. "Here."

"Well, that's..." Shining Armor began. "...not good. If this is right where we are then that means we're only about...one, two, three...five hundred yards from the reactor."

Just that simple seven letter word that began with an "r" was enough to send chills down the spines of the two brave explorers. If the very idea of being so close to a destroyed building with a crumbling concrete shell housing seventeen tons of exposed nuclear waste was eerie, to see it right in front of them as they lowered the map was nightmare fuel. Fortunately, the two ponies were currently standing upwind from it as a slight breeze was blowing away from them and towards the building.

"Okay, this is fucking spooky." Rainbow Dash said.

"Wow. To think we're staring right at the power plant where the smartest pony in Equestria was though to have been lost."

As eerie as the sight of reactor building number four was, it was also incredibly humbling to look at. It was a big reminder of the limitations of man and pony and that a seemingly safe operation can turn deadly for so many in the blink of an eye. In the minds of the two Valiant ponies, it was truly the most astonishing spectacle they had ever laid eyes on. Just as Rainbow Dash and Shining Armor kept staring however, the wind suddenly shifted, putting the duo downwind of the reactor and the exposed nuclear waste within. Within seconds, the two were about to find out just how much trouble they were about to be in.

"Dude, we better move." Rainbow Dash said. "My Geiger counter's not liking where we're at."

"Same here." Shining Armor replied. "Alright let's get outta here."

For their safety, well being, and the health of Shining Armor's reproductive system, both ponies made the wise decision of turning directly away from the building that held reactor number four and gallop away until their devices indicated it was safe. With the wind shifting directions several times within less than a minute, they knew that they just could not take any chances by getting any closer or staying in the area for any longer. As the distance between the team of two and the reactor continued to increase, the frequency and intensity of the beeps and chirps of the Geiger counters decreased until finally, it stopped completely.

"Shit." Shining Armor cursed under his breath. "We should have brought those lead lined suits. There's no way we're getting any closer without those."

"No kidding." Rainbow Dash agreed. "But hey, we haven't looked around this part of the yard much. Before we call it a day, why don't we just take a look around the west side of the lot."

"Sounds good to me."

"Oh hey, I've noticed something."

"Hm?"

"You've gone all day without a cigarette. Good job."

"Ugh! Now I want one!"

"I just had to open my mouth, didn't I?"

With the two rescuers out of the wind that made their devices go berserk, they decided to further ensure their safety by ducking behind the nearest building. Just as Rainbow Dash reluctantly hoofed one of Shining Armor's cigarettes over to the craving unicorn however, they would quickly find that their plan to leave the reactor out of sight was about to backfire. The moment they turned the corner, they were greeted with a sight familiar to Shining Armor that Rainbow Dash would soon get acquainted with.

Almost seeming to have been waiting there for the two brave explorers was three local mutated wolves much like the others that attacked Shining Armor before. These grotesque creatures were leaning up against an old, rusty van all smoking a cigarette of their own and turned their attention over to their new found guests as they skidded to a halt before them.

"Bad timing." One of the monstrous wolves said as he flicked his cigarette butt.

"I'll say." Another said as he cracked the knuckles on his paws.

"Rainbow..." Shining Armor whispered to his friend. "Get yourself out of here and get the others..."

"I'm not leaving you here, man." Rainbow replied. "A wonderbolt doesn't fly away from danger and leave a friend to get killed. That's an official code and I'm not about to break it."

"You know..." The third wolf said as they all stepped towards the two ponies. "The boss doesn't like it when he tells somebody to get the fuck out of town and they not listen. He also doesn't like it when that gets a bunch of our pack members gunned down."

"And neither do we." A fourth wolf said as he came up behind the two ponies seemingly out of nowhere. "Get 'em!"

Before either of the two ponies could so much a twitch a muscle, two of the wolves each grabbed themselves a pony and held them up by their forelegs while the other two stood in front of them and balled their paws up into fists. Like a group of vicious gangsters who caught someone lost in their part of town, the two wolves that stood in front of ponies began punching their victims in their stomachs as hard as they could.

Just like the ones Shining Armor encountered before, these wolves were easily twice the size of the ponies and had the sheer strength in their blows to match. For mere moments that seemed like hours, the wolves relentlessly knocked every last bit of air out of their victims' lungs and still continued to send their clenched paws sailing into their stomachs at a break neck speed. Just when it seemed that the wolves were going to slow down and allow them to catch their breaths, they began to direct their blows to their faces. Over and over, the ruthless monsters punched the ponies, leaving cuts and bruises on their lips, muzzles, and under their eyes.

With one final blow to his jaw from the largest of the four wolves, Shining Armor was knocked out stone cold and was dropped to the ground where he would soon be finished off. Soon, Rainbow Dash received a paw being slammed across her face as well and was also pushed to the crumbling pavement where she too would surely be either torn to pieces or kicked and punched even more until she was turned to liquid. The young father and proud husband that was Shining Armor and his rookie wonderbolt companion would soon become yet another statistic of Chernobly.

"Get away from them!!" An unfamiliar male voice shouted from several yards away.

"Who said that!?" The largest wolf asked. "Nobody tells me what to do!"

"Aw Christ, it's that nerd again!" Another wolf groaned.

The voice of the male being that had seemingly stepped in to intervene was a gruff and raspy one and sounded as if it came from a very battle hardened individual. Try as she might, Rainbow Dash could not see anything as her own blood covered her eyes and as such, could not identify the source of the voice. The only thing she could think to do was to try crawling away now that her attackers' attention was drawn to something else. Other than that, she was completely helpless in her badly battered state.

"Didn't you hear me!?" Said the mysterious voice. "I said get the fuck away from those ponies!"

"Oh fuck off, Comrade, this doesn't involve you!" One of the wolves retorted. "Mind your own business!"

"I'm making it my business!"

"Uh, I don't think he's fucking around, Oleg." The smallest wolf said. "This is the guy who kicked Bolnoyvolk's ass."

"What, this fucking geek?" The larger wolf chuckled, getting a laugh from the other two. "Ooohh, better not piss off mister bow tie over here! Don't wanna make him fog up his glasses! Bahahaha!"

"Typical of a simple minded brute such as yourself." The voice said. "You're judging my ability to inflict bodily harm on an opponent based on my wardrobe choice and the thickness of these lenses meant for enhancing my optical capabilities? In the time it took you to just blink your eyes there, I've already calculated your exact distance from me and in precisely what order I'm going to kill you all if you don't turn around and abscond the vicinity."

"What the...? What the fuck are you trying to say!?"

"Oleg, I'm telling you!" The smaller but seeming smarter wolf spoke up. "That's the guy! He's gonna fucking slaughter us if we don't do what he says! I don't know about you guys but I'm outta here!"

Without another word and much to the frustration of the other three, the smaller wolf of the group turned around and bolted away and disappeared into a cluster of overgrown foliage on the edge of the lot.

"Your comrade just made a wise decision." The mysterious voice said. "Now I've been more than generous with you. You'll either follow suit and get out of here unharmed...or die."

"Boys?" The larger wolf named Oleg said as he cracked the knuckles of his paws. "Let's make this punk suffer!"

"Shame...I gave you more than enough chances."

At this point, Rainbow Dash had lost the last bit of strength she had left and as she lay on the cold, hard ground facing away from the commotion, she could soon hear the blood curdling sounds of a brutal attack unfolding behind her. Though her eyes were too bloody to see, Rainbow Dash could still make out the bright green flashes of light followed by the sounds of gasping from the wolves, ultimately followed by the solid thud of something hitting the ground. The fight seemed to end as quickly as it began as the sound of someone or something seeming to regurgitate a large amount of liquid leading up to the blood curdling shrieks of another one of the wolves.

"Gaaaaahhhhh!!! He spits acid! Fucking acid!!!" The wolf screamed as the sizzling sound of his flesh being melted away could be plainly heard.

After two more intense green flashes and one last loud thud on the ground, it all seemed to be over. The wolves apparently having been dealt with brought an unnerving silence. As Rainbow Dash shuffled her hooves around, she poked what felt like large, furry object but still she could not see what she was crawling into. With one last attempt to make sense of what just happened, she wiped the blood from her eyes to see that the fuzzy object she had come across was the severed head of one of the wolves. The sight of the wolf's head was the final nudge she needed that pushed her over the edge where she finally lost all consciousness and passed out just like Shining Armor.

One by one, each team of two entered the room of the apartment building that acted as their base came as the sun slowly disappeared over the horizon. The first two to arrive were Princess Celestia and Twilight Sparkle and much to their awkward surprise, the first thing they saw was Big Macintosh and Daring Do spooning on top of a sleeping bag as they slept soundly together. Soon, Soarin and Spitfire joined the rest of them and as the sleeping couple woke up to the noise of everypony shuffling about in the room, Princess Celestia had to really take a good look at what she and her subjects were doing there. They had searched the entire city once and were about to make yet another pass with still no results and the stressed out alicorn was becoming worried. If that was not enough, she now had a new problem as she made a head count and noticed that there were two more ponies unaccounted for.

"Um, what...where...?" Celestia fumbled with her words as she frantically looked around the room. "Where are Shining Armor and Rainbow Dash!?"

"Ugh...what the...?" Rainbow Dash groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. "Where...where am I?"

It would take several minutes for Rainbow Dash to make sense of the recent ordeal as she would fade in and out of consciousness several times until at long last, her daze began to subside and she arose from where she lay. As she sat up, an ice pack fell off her head and landed in front of her hooves and upon further observation, she found that was covered in bandages and her larger wounds neatly wrapped in gauze with utmost care. Looking around further, she noticed that she had was sitting on a mattress in a dusty room that appeared to be flat in one of the many apartment buildings. This room in particular looked especially familiar as she knew that she had recently seen it before. But where?

A sudden realization had struck Rainbow Dash as she could not help but notice the lack of her partner but her worries were soon put to rest as she noticed Shining Armor fast asleep on a sofa on the other side of the room. Just like her, his wounds were also carefully dressed and an ice pack of his own sat upon his head. Now that it seemed that the two were safe, Rainbow Dash Felt compelled to find out where they were, how they got there and who the kind hearted mysterious being who had so selflessly stepped in to save them was. The voice that shouted at the wolves before Rainbow Dash passed out was not one that she had heard before so at this point, she simply had no clue.

As she proceeded to look around the room more, Rainbow Dash could see the familiar sofa that Shining Armor lay upon along with an oil drum containing smoldering embers that heated the room to a comfortable warmth. The next object that caught her attention was the book case that she knew she had seen before and lastly, the small wastebasket filled with rodent bones in the very corner. After another moment of thought, the realization finally hit her like her recent blunt force trauma.

"Radius's old home?" Rainbow Dash asked herself. "How did I...the fuck's going on?"

Taking care not to strain herself, Rainbow Dash then slowly returned to her hooves and limped over to her unconscious friend to attempt to wake him up. Once she reached the sofa where he lay, she gently poked him with her hoof a few times while she tried to speak to him but he was still out cold. In this case, Rainbow Dash knew that the only sensible thing to do was to wait for her comrade to wake up so they could then attempt to find out what happened and reunite with the others whom were most likely worried sick by now.

There was no telling how long it would be before Shining Armor woke up but judging by the extent of his injuries, Rainbow Dash decided it would be best to simply let him sleep as much as he needed. Weather she liked it or not, she knew that she too could use the rest as her entire body, especially her wings which were set and wrapped with some sort of splint ached terribly. As she hobbled back over to the mattress she had been sleeping on, she noticed their saddlebags in another corner of the room so she decided to try sending a radio signal to the others and give them her location. When she pulled her two-way unit out of her bag however, she saw nothing but a useless piece of plastic with broken wires jutting out of it as it had apparently been smashed during the attack prior. The radio that came from Shining Armor's bag had fared just as badly so it seemed that they would be stuck there until they regained the strength to travel or somepony found them.

Rainbow Dash truly still felt exhausted and and very sore all over so finally she slowly limped her way back over to where she had woken up where she would try to get some more sleep in order to expedite her recovery. Once she made it back to her mattress, she very slowly and carefully laid herself back down, found a comfortable position and shut her eyes. Much to the battered pegasus's annoyance however, it seemed that someone was interested in listening to music while she tried to sleep as the faint sound of a radio playing could be heard outside the room and was coming closer.

"Ugh! Could you keep it dow-" Rainbow Dash groaned before realizing what she was actually saying. "Wait, is that...eighties music?"

As the music slowly came closer, Rainbow Dash could hear it more clearly and could identify the song as "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake. Soon, she could even hear what sounded like a male voice singing along with it that reminded her of that of the mysterious being that must have saved her and her partner and even patched them up. Though it sounded much like the male figure, it was not as raspy as it sounded before and actually sounded quite passionate as it sang along with whatever device it was carrying. As badly as Rainbow Dash wanted to get her share of sleep, she could not and would not pass up the nearest opportunity to identify the one who saved her and express her gratitude.

The sound of the music was getting closer still so with all of her strength, Rainbow Dash lifted herself off the mattress and painfully limped over towards the closed door. Finally, she reached the door and just as the music seemed to be just on the other side, it suddenly stopped. Curious as to what was about to happen next, she placed her ear up to the door where she then heard what confirmed her suspicions.

"Okay, get a grip on yourself." The familiar voice said, sounding as if he was giving himself a pep talk. "You haven't talked to anypony in a very long time but you can do this. Just act as nonthreatening as you can and they'll be just fine. Okay, okay, here it goes."

Just after finishing his sentence, the handle on the door slowly turned and once it reached its opening position it made a soft click and the door was pushed open just a crack. Rainbow Dash took a couple steps away from the door and stood in front of it as she waited to greet her and Shining Armor's hero with a wide smile and find out who exactly he was. After a moment's pause, the door finally slowly pushed open the rest of the way revealing a creature that Rainbow Dash would not wish to be in the nightmares of her worst enemy.

Standing before Rainbow Dash was a green, glowing four legged creature that resembled a devolved form of an equine. The monster was nearly, if not as tall as Princess Celestia and had a jagged, gnarled horn atop its head much like a changeling, had large, sharp fangs jutting out of its top jaw and thick glasses over glowing green eyes with slit-like pupils. There was also a wire attached to the creature's horn leading to an old, worn out radio that stuck out of a saddlebag of its own which explained where the music was coming from. If the wolves were frightening enough, the creature that gasped at the sight of Rainbow Dash and took a few steps back was enough to make hear heart jump up into her throat.

"Holy fucking Christ!!" Rainbow Dash screamed as she took a few steps back.

"W-wait! I'm not gonna hurt you!" The creature gasped as he took a step back to appear less threatening. "I won't hurt you, I swear!"

"Shining Armor! Get up! For fucks sake, wake the hell uuup!!"

"Wait! Miss! J-just hear me out! Please! I'm not *sniff* I won't...*hic*...please don't...I just wanna talk...I j-just wanna talk, that's all..."

Seeing such a strange creature was odd enough but what Rainbow Dash never expected to see was said being to start sobbing as it folded its ears back and looked away from her. This huge monster with the means to kill those with weak hearts with the sight of it alone was proving to be quite the emotional creature which helped Rainbow Dash calm down slightly. After a minute or two, the hairs on the back of her neck began to lay flat again and the creature wiped its tears away before finally speaking again.

"It's been...thirty years..." The creature sobbed. "Thirty long...agonizing years...since I've talked to one of my own kind."

"Wha-what are you even..." Rainbow Dash stuttered. "What do you mean? Thirty years of...w-wait, what do you mean your own kind? Are you a p-pony?"

"Yes I...I used to be..."

Things were starting to make more sense now while other things made no sense at all. Now that she was calm enough to think rationally and the creature that stood at the door day quivering was now looking her in the eye again, Rainbow Dash could take a moment to observe more of the creature's features and try to make sense of what he was saying. The first thing that she took into account was that he too was a pony and he stated that he has had no contact with others for thirty years. Next was the large pair of glasses that sat upon the bridge of his muzzle which reminded her of the ones her primary search target wore in all the photographs she saw. Lastly was the symbol on his flank. The creature had a cutie mark of the circular black and yellow universal radiation caution symbol. As crazy as everything that was happening was, the signs all pointed to one simple conclusion.

"Uh hey, guy?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Y-yes?" The creature asked as he again wiped his tears away.

"I got a couple questions for ya. Okay?"

"O-okay."

"Did you...a-are you the one who saved me and my friend here?"

Instead of giving a verbal answer, the strange being simply nodded in response.

"Alright. Uh, thank you. Are you also the one who saved that other mare and the red stallion from the giant fish the other day?"

Again, the creature nodded as his entire body trembled, failing miserably to stifle more oncoming waterworks.

"Wow, you're...really awesome. Uh, one more question."

"Yes?"

"Are you Rad-"

"Radius Hoofenschtov? Yes I a-er...I was."

"Oh my god..."