"Coming in at number nine on the countdown for the sixth consecutive week..." The DJ on the radio began while Dr. Radius prepared for a shift at the Chernobyl Nuclear Facility. "That was 'Adult Education' by Hall and Oates! I know plenty of people who could use some education in the form of a swift kick in the rear, that's for sure! Well, don't let the locker slam on your plans for tonight! More coming up in just a moment. I'm Casey Kasem...and now, on with the countdown."

"Hey Radius." Vladimir Shashenok, one of Radius's shift partners said as he switched off the radio which sat on a table in the staff break room. "Ever since you brought that American music here, everybody seems to be a lot more productive. Can't beat going to work in a good mood for once, eh comrade?"

"Well duh." Radius replied with mock rudeness to his colleague and friend. "It's a lot better than that depressing Stalin propaganda you commie bastards listen to. I'm telling you guys, those Americans know how to make some good music!"

"Whoa, we got ourselves a wiseguy here!" Radius's other colleague Valeriy Khodemchuk joked as he lifted the seventy-four pound equine up and began messing up his mane.

That was the kind of relationship Doctor Radius had with most of his working partners. They could all clock in for their shift, laugh and joke with each other the entire time but still have the professionalism to get their job done quickly and efficiently. Afterwards, they would often go out to the nearest bar but as of late they have not done so quite as much as Radius now had more of a reason to go home sooner in the form of the mare he loved so dearly.

Radius was a very well known and highly respected physicist throughout both Equestria and Earth alike so power plants from every corner of the globe often asked for his help and expertise with important procedures. The Chernobyl Nuclear Facility in Pripyat, Ukraine was no exception as the head director and the rest of the staff were preparing for an extremely delicate test on reactor number four's ability to perform under the pressures of a surge. The plan would be for Radius to review and approve parameters set for the test and guide control room staff to ensure safe and efficient operations. Tonight unlike other nights however, the individual in charge of the shift, Deputy Chief Engineer Anatoly Stepanovich Dyatlov had other plans in mind for both Radius and the test parameters.

Much like any other shift asked of him by a fellow nuclear facility, tonight upon his arrival, he received a small stack of papers explaining his assignment and just like any other, he read it over down to the last letter. What Radius found to be rather amiss however was that his papers revealed that he was to work down in the steam pipe room to simply monitor and record pressure meters. On the last page of the papers stapled together would be the name of the shift's on duty supervisor and had it been the reasonable Aleksandr Akemov, what was most likely a simple mistake would be promptly corrected. Regardless, Radius sent the foreman who handed him the packet with a message for the shift's decision maker and a much less polite one than usual. Any moment, Radius fully expected to be called to the control room to be shouted at and the way he was feeling, he was not about to nod politely and pretend to agree.

The nerdy Radius was once a very shy and meek pony who simply wished to avoid confrontations so he would be rather quick to give in but his relationship with Celestia had changed him. For the entirety of his life, he had been pushed around by others and could not find the courage to stand up for himself. When he and Celestia began seeing each other however, he quickly developed more confidence and self esteem, both from his marefriend's encouragement and the mere fact that a Princess saw something special in him to begin with. Until they would reveal it to the public, their love for each other could not possibly be more plain to see but Radius had plans of his own to take it to the next level and proclaim his love for in in front of all of Equestria.

"So Radius, how's it going with Celestia?" Vladimir asked.

"Yeah, did you ask her yet?" Valeriy asked as well.

"Not yet..." Radius began. "But I plan on asking her on our next date tomorrow night. I've got a ring picked out and everything."

"Congrats, buddy! You nervous?"

"To be completely honest with you...I've never been more nervous in my entire life. I love her to no end but I mean...my God, I'm about to ask her to spend the rest of my life with me."

"Just relax, comrade." Valeriy assured. "By what you've told us, it sounds like she loves you just as much."

"I know, it's just...like, we've gotten past the fact that she's royalty and I'm not but it's still something that's kinda hard to ignore. Especially since we're about to announce our relationship to the public."

"Well man, they say love has no bounds. If the public or those stuck up nobles have a problem with that, they can shove it. Fuck what they think. If you two make each other happy, then go ahead and be with each other."

"You're right! Still, I can't help but be nervous but I've already decided that I'm going thro-"

"Attention, Doctor Radius Hoofenschtov!" A voice on the facility's intercom called out. "Anatoly Dyatlov would like to speak with you immediately! Please report to control room number four!"

"Aw jeez, what is it this time?" Vladimir asked. "You two seem to butt heads a lot lately."

"And now, I plan on giving him a piece of my mind." Radius replied. "He's got some nerve sticking us down here for this shift and I sent a him a message telling him what I think. Plus, he's nuts! His methods scare the hell out of me and his hotheaded temper on the job is not cool. You need to keep your wits together while working with a reactor like this one and he's proven to me that he's not fit to do it. Wish me luck, fellas."

Radius and the plant's vice chief engineer, Anatoly Dyatlov were enemies from the time they first met two years ago and showed no signs of getting along ever since. Radius strongly disliked Dyatlov because of his reckless methods and short temper and Dyatlov hated Radius even more because he reported his behavior to the plant's main supervisor. That report cost Dyatlov a promotion and a written disciplinary action was taken against him as well. Of all the things he could despise the good doctor for, what Dyatlov hated most of all was the fact that he was put in hot water by a pony of all creatures whom he deemed a lesser being than him.

Radius quickly made his way to the control room where he was to speak to the head of tonight's operations and hopefully convince him to see things his way. He did not get his hopes up but he could still at least try to come to an understanding. Unlike Anatoly Dyatlov, Radius was always willing to set differences aside just as long as the other was willing to do the same. Just as always, Radius approached the door to the control room in a calm manner hoping for a compromise but expecting an argument.

"You wanted to see me, Mr. Dyatlov?" Radius said politely as he pushed the door open.

"Yeah and you better keep your fucking mouth shut, glue!" A gray haired, mustached man in his late fifties retorted.

An argument was indeed what Radius was about to get but this time, he was in no mood to back down and allow himself to be spoken to in such a rude manner. With confidence and poise, the normally meek pony who stood no higher than a man's waist held his head high and stood his ground. This was the day he would finally, preserve his dignity and demand the respect he felt he deserved weather he knew he was going to get it or not.

"Quit calling me 'glue'!" Radius shouted, taking Dyatlov by surprise. "For the last time, my name is Doctor Radius Hoofenschtov and from now on, you'll address me as such! Now just tell me why you needed me up here and get it over with! I'm getting tired of you!"

As soon as those words came out of Radius' mouth, a hush fell over all the other workers on the control room. The other employees simply could not believe their ears as they stared in shock at the two enemies. Talking to the vice chief engineer in the way that Radius just did would normally call for automatic termination of one's job and expulsion from the company owned town of Pripyat. Radius however was merely a borrowed worker and therefore not a resident of Pripyat so this was a problem that he did not need to worry about. To the rest of the crew, it was a breath of fresh air to finally see someone or somepony stand up and treat Dyatlov with the same respect that he had always treated the other workers with...or rather his complete lack thereof.

"You...insolent little fuck!" Anatoly Dyatlov screamed, his face reaching the same shade of red as Radius's mane. "I ought to break your legs for that!"

"Did you not hear a word I said?" Radius retorted, refusing to tolerate any more nonsense. "What did you want? I've got shit to do and you're wasting my time."

"I was going to be generous and just tell you to stay out of my way as we're doing an important test on the reactor! Now that you've displayed such insubordinate behavior, consider yours-"

"Have you forgotten that I'm not actually employed here? If you want to sack me, I couldn't care less. I still have my job in Equestria and plenty of other plants that operate the right way. Just keep in mind that when I leave, your job will follow suit."

"Shut your fucking mouth, glue! I've been working here too hard for too long to be told off by an animal!"

"Hey, let me ask you something. Why did you stick me and the other two on pressure watch duty furthest away from the control room and closest to the reactor? I'll be honest, that freaks me out a little, especially since you're in charge of this whole thing."

"Just get the fuck out of my sight and get to your assignment! After tonight, I'll see to it that you never set hoof in this plant again!"

"Oh trust me, I'll be glad to see the last of the half-assed operations in this dump!"

"I said fuck off!"

"Bite me, prick!"

With his head held high, Radius strutted out the door of the control room after finally telling off someone who needed to learn a lesson in respect. Radius had first started taking the occasional shift at Chernobyl a year before he and Celestia started dating and at the time, he was too meek to talk back. Time went by, life events ensued, and attitudes changed. Radius was a different pony from what he was before he met Celestia who would often encourage him to be more upstanding. Not only did the direct encouragement help him but just having a special somepony in his life boosted his self confidence tremendously.

"You said 'bite me' to the boss!?" Vladimir Shasenok gasped in disbelief after Radius told them how the discussion went.

"And you told him he was wasting your time!?" Valeriy Khodemchuk asked, also aghast at Radius's new attitude.

"Yes I did, guys." Radius beamed with pride. "And it felt fucking amazing! I finally told that prick where to shove it! Woohoo!"

"Damn! How're you feeling?"

"Like I'm on top of the world! I feel like I could do anything!"

"Good for you, comrade!" Vladimir cheered. "I've been wanting somebody to knock that prick down a peg for years! I just hope you kno-"

"Wow, fellas I just...I feel like I'm walking on air! I just told off somebody who needed it for a long time and I'm about to propose to my love tomorrow night! I just have this feeling that nothing could go wrong! Somebody gimme a cigarette will you?"

"Here, let's all have one and take our good moods back down to the reactor room. As glad as we all are about you telling Dyatlov where to shove it, we still got some work to do."

"Man, Vlad, you're a damn buzzkill, you know that?" Valeriy said jokingly.

"Hahaha! And my foot's about to get acquainted with your ass if you don't take that back, comrade!"

"I can't believe that shit walker has the balls to tell me what's what around here..." Anatoly Dyatlov huffed as he prepared to resume the test on the reactor. "I swear, if I could, I'd open the lid on that reactor and drop him in. That little fucker. Hell, he doesn't even stand as high as my waist, I bet I could pick him right and and throw him off the top of the bui-"

"Mr. Dyatlov sir?" Shift Foreman Aleksandr Akimov said. "Waiting on your orders to commence the test."

During the typical shift at this time of night, Akimov would be the one in charge of operations but tonight he was outranked by Dyatlov. Although he was indeed glad to see someone or somepony stand up to Dyatlov for a change, Akimov had a lot to lose if he were to be fired from his job at the plant unlike Doctor Radius. Radius only worked there on occasions when extra staff was needed but the very livelihood of Aleksandr and his family depended on keeping his boss happy and refraining from back talk was a good way to do so.

"Ah, right." Dyatlov replied as he remembered the task at hand. "Continue decreasing power to the reactor. We need to get it down lower in order for the test to work."

"But we're already nearing five hundred megawatts!" Reactor engineer Leonid Toptunov spoke up. "In my training, I was told we're not to let it drop below seven hundred!"

"Gah, I'm surrounded by morons! It's not your job to think, kid, your job is to follow orders! That goes for all of you here!"

One thing the workers of the control room had in common with Akimov was that they too had a nice home and every thing their families could ever need provided for them through their employment at the Chernobyl plant. The only thing Radius lost was a few night shifts per year and he could still see his work time chums and catch up with them outside of the plant. Dyatlov had the power to fire any one of them and being in the mood he was in after the exchange with Dr. Radius, the rest of the staff did not feel that it would be wise to test his patience any further.

"We hear you loud and clear, sir." Akimov said calmly as he stepped between Dyatlov and Toptunov to quell the argument. "I'm sure that you...know what you're doing."

"Damn right I do!" Dyatlov replied. "Now get to it!"

Despite the risks the team was taking by following Dyatlov's instructions, the risk of losing their jobs for insubordination was enough incentive to go through with it nonetheless. There was just too much to lose no matter what angle one could look at it. The reckless behavior of the supervisor could cause a catastrophe but failure to follow orders from superiors could cost them dearly. Their homes, their premium health care, and their handsomely paid vacation time they worked so hard for could all be stripped away if they angered their boss any further. The pressure on the entirety of the control room staff was unreal and the only thing they could do was keep their wits about them and their fingers crossed.

"Aleksandr, are you sure this is a good idea?" Leonid whispered to the more reasonable but lower ranking of the two bosses. "This can't be safe."

"I-I don't know." Aleksandr replied. "I mean, yeah we're really not supposed to let the power drop that low but...Oh Christ, I'm really stuck between a rock and a hard place. I just don't know what to tell you."

"I've got a bad feeling about this. Well, here goes...everything."

Leonid then slowly pushed forward a lever on the control panel thus commencing the decrease in power to the reactor. The goal of the test being performed was to find out if the reactor could properly handle a rapid surge in power in the event of an emergency. The team was already behind schedule due to numerous setbacks and as a result, Dyatlov and the plant's head director whom was currently at home sleeping were determined to have the test finished tonight.

The time was now 12:35 am and so far, things were off to a decent start. The power was dropping at a slow and steady pace and was approaching four hundred megawatts. Just another hundred and the test could continue to go as planned. Once the level hit three hundred and ninety megawatts however, is when a new problem would arise. The power level suddenly began to plummet and it did so far too quickly to not be a matter of concern.

"Mr. Dyatlov!" Leonid called over to his supervisor. "The power is still dropping and it's getting faster by the second!"

"What?! How the hell did you manage to fuck this up?!" Dyatlov yelled as he read the meter that was mounted on the wall. "Shit, now it's at one hundred and sixty! Akimov, get over there and help him pull his head out of his ass, the damn idiot!"

Unlike Anatoly Dyatlov, Aleksandr Akimov was more understanding in the fact that Leonid Toptunov was newly promoted to his position and was undergoing an unfair amount of pressure. In truth, they all were dealing with a lot. Every major decision was being made from that very control room and the future of the Chernobyl plant and the entire city of Pripyat was in their hands. Despite the massive amount of stress, the wisest thing to do would be to remain calm so the decisions being made would be safe and smart ones. This was something Akimov was particularly good at.

"Okay, Leonid, let's just try this again." Aleksandr said calmly as he stepped over to assist Toptunov. "Don't worry, you'll do just fine."

"Hey Radius." Valeriy Khodemchuk said after a nervous gulp. "You might wanna come take a look at this."

"What's wrong?" Radius asked as he trotted over to a pressure gauge that Valeriy was staring at. "Hmm...wait, this can't be right. How did...no! Oh, no no no no no, this is not good! Thanks for pointing this out Valeriy, I'm gonna phone the control room about this immediately!"

Without any hesitation, Radius levitated a telephone off the wall, dialed the extension number that connected to control room number four and waited for an answer on the other end. While it was ringing, Radius hoped so badly that he would end up talking to someone who was level headed and willing to listen to others. Once he received an answer however, he found that he was not about to be so lucky.

"Yes, what is it?" Dyatlov answered on the other line.

"Look, man..." Radius began. "I know you don't like me and honestly, I don't really care for you all that much but for safety's sake, I really need you to listen to me just this one time."

"Aside from your very existence, what's the problem?"

"Ah, very funny you commie asshole. The water pressure in the reactor's cooling reserves is way too low so we need to take it very slo-"

"That's what you called to tell me? There's not enough water? Ha! And for a second I thought you were calling to tell me about some kind of problem. Quit wasting my time, glue."

Click!

"Mother fucker! Okay, guys, we'll have to perform a manual override to get some water flowing before the reactor overheats."

"And Dyatlov?" Vladimir asked.

"He's worked his last shift here as far as I'm concerned. Come on, we gotta cool this thing down."

In the large room that Radius and his two colleagues were working, there were several large steel pipes on the walls that came from the lower basement level of the plant, went through the ceiling, bent back down and ended just under the reactor. These pipes were used to direct water flow from the massive cooling pond outside and bring it to the underside of the reactor to keep it at a safe operating temperature. The warmed water that would no longer be useful until cooled again would then be pumped back out to the pond to make way for cooler water to come in again. The only problem was that this system was not working properly and someone needed to quickly remedy the situation.

Radius quickly went to work and opened the valves on the spare water pipes. After that part of the task was done, Radius quickly booted up a wall mounted computer system and once it was turned on and the program loaded, he used his pass code to initiate the emergency pump sequence. Doing so would activate the extra water pump forcing more water into the cooling drums thus keeping the reactor at a safe operating temperature. With the preparations made for this to take place, the best thing the trio could do now was watch the pressure and temperature gauges very closely and be ready to take the next course of action if that did not work. Much to the team's misfortune, they were about to find out that things were not going to be easy on them.

"Hey Raddy, it's still heating up!" Valeriy warned.

"There's more water going through but it's still not enough!" Vladimir called over, his voice beginning to shake. "It just gets vaporized as soon as it gets to the reactor! It's getting hot very fast!"

"Looks like I'm gonna have to swallow my pride for now." Radius sighed as he picked up the phone to call the control room again.

"Control room four, go ahead." Anatoly Dyatlov answered on the other end.

"Anatoly, look man, you seem like a pretty reasonable guy. I'm telling you, there's something very very wrong here. Please, let's just put our differences aside for now and work toget-"

"As much as I really hate to say this...you may be right. Okay, I'll have it taken care of. Thanks."

Click!

"Well, what'd he say?" Vladimir asked. "What happened?"

"Progress." Radius replied. "He actually listened to me...and he thanked me! There's hope for that jerk after all!"

"Glad to hear that, comrade." Valeriy said. "Just thought I'd mention this though, If you knew more about what happened to him in the past, you'd understand why he acts the way he does."

"Really? What happened to him?"

"Many years ago, he had a son." Vladimir began. "He was exposed to radiation and later died of leukemia. Dyatlov was never the same after that. His life has been all about conquering all that is nuclear power since then."

"And just why the hell have you guys never told me that before?!"

"You never asked." Valeriy replied with a shrug.

"Well, If I would have known before, then maybe I would have been more understanding with him! Fuck!"

The time was now 12:42 am and not only was Anatoly Dyatlov needed to do something about the water shortage and power the now stalled reactor back up, he was dead set on carrying out the test tonight without any more delays. Even he knew that a situation like this was one that required careful planning and rational thinking in order to properly deal with. After a few minutes of pacing the control room and pondering his next course of action over a cigarette, Dyatlov finally had an idea that was a long shot but could work to cool the reactor and resume the test.

"Pull the control rods up." Dyatlov ordered Toptunov.

"Are you mad?!" Toptunov gasped. "That gives us even less control over the reactor!"

"He's right!" Akimov added before Dyatlov could respond. "This could be extremely dangerous! We should shut the reactor down and allow it to cool off before we do anything else!"

"For the last time, the test gets finished tonight!" Dyatlov retorted. "No more hold ups! If you don't do as you're told then you may as well start packing when you get back to your flat later!"

Once again, Dyatlov reminded the entire staff that failure to follow orders would result in losing everything. Refusing to put the comfortable lives they had provided for their families at risk Akimov and Toptunov decided to simply cross their fingers and hope everything would somehow work out. Sweat started forming on the faces of everyone working the control room as Leonid Toptunov slowly pulled the lever that would remove the boron control rods from the core of the reactor. At this point, there was no going back.

After approximately ten minutes, the power level begins to rise back up and within another five minutes, it reaches two hundred megawatts. Now that the level is where Dyatlov wants it for the test, the final preparations were being made. The test that should have been done before the plant even opened was about to go underway and Dyatlov was not about to let anything get in the way with as far as they all have come.

"Damn it!" Radius cursed as he read the pressure gauges. "He said he was going to fix that water shortage! I give up!"

"I knew he was all talk, man, I figured it was too good to be true." Valeriy Khodemchuck groaned. "He never thanks anyone for anything."

"So what do we do now?" Vladimir Shashenok asked.

For the first time in his entire career as a nuclear physicist, Dr. Radius Hoofenschtov was completely stumped. As long as he could remember, he always had a solution to any problem he had come across even when he was fresh out of college. As he continued to think of anything he could do about the continuing water shortage and dangerously high temperature of the reactor, he became increasingly worried as he simply had no idea how to stop it.

"I don't know, guys." Radius sighed. "I'm only as good as the guy in charge. If he's gonna be reckless and operate the way he does, it's his ass if something goes wrong!"

"Well, at least we have that going for us." Valeriy said.

"Hey! They just shut the turbines down!" Vladimir shouted. "The reactor could go completely dry if the generators don't turn on!"

"You're shitting me!" Radius shrieked as he read the out of control steam pressure gauge. "The generators don't start up fast enough! We gotta get down to them and manually switch them on! Hurry!"

Radius galloped down the steel deck above the reactor as fast he could with his shift partners close behind. Valeriy and Vladimir knew that Radius was very well educated in his profession and therefore knew very well what he was doing and what needed to be done. The fact that he was a four legged equine that stood no higher than up to their waists made no difference to them.

After the brief sprint, the trio ran down the steel staircase and bolted to the backup generators where they would switch them on in order to keep what little water was left flowing through to cool the reactor. After the turbines shut off, the diesel generators were set to automatically turn on approximately one minute later. These were sixty seconds that could not go by without water being pumped through. Radius and his friends needed to take the safety of the people in the plant and the entire city of Pripyat in their own hands and hooves.

Once the team reached the generators, they wasted no time using the emergency keys that all plant workers were given to crank the ignitions of the diesel powered machines. Even Radius who was a "borrowed" employee had a set of his own keys and quickly levitated them out of the pocket of his lab coat and started one of the generators. Within seconds, all of the generators were started and were soon powering the water pumps. Though the vital task of starting the machines up was done, it still may have proved to be too late as an intense tremor began and the floor shook so violently that it nearly knocked the two human plant workers off their feet.

"What the hell was that!?" Vladimir asked as the team climbed back up the stairs.

"I don't know, fellas..." Radius began. "But as long as I've worked in plants like this, I have never felt the floor shake or heard a whacky rumbling sound coming from the rea-hey Valeriy! You alright!? What's going on up there!?"

Valeriy was in fact not alright and Radius could plainly tell. Valeriy was always a one to get ahead of a group and the other two watched him standing at the top of the stairs, his body shaking and every last bit of color draining from his face. Valeriy was petrified with fear by what he was seeing and Radius and Vladimir were about to find out what it was as they climbed the stairs to join their comrade.

"Ohmiguhh! Issgonna bl-th-the c-c-caps are!..." Valeriy frantically babbled incoherently as he pointed a trembling finger down at the nuclear reactor.

"Calm down, man, out with it!" Radius said as he and vladimir reached the top of the deck to see what was literally scaring the pigment out of their distressed colleague. What they saw happening down below was enough to make every hair on their bodies stand on end as they quickly understood why Valeriy was so petrified.

"Oh...my...GOD!!!" Vladimir screamed as he observed some of the control rod caps popping off the top of the reactor.

"For fuck's sake, hit the alarm!" Radius screamed. "Abandon ship! Let's get the fuck out of hereee!!!"

Wasting absolutely no time, Vladimir opened up a clear plastic case on the wall revealing a large red button and then pressed that button down with the palm of his hand, sounding an alarm throughout the entire facility. Radius had to shake Valeriy around to snap him out of his trance and before they knew it, they were all bolting to the other side of the steel deck. Nothing could be done except to find the nearest exit and get themselves as far away from the building as they possibly could as the reactor was at the point of no return and could not be helped.

The team of three was sprinting and galloping down the deck directly above the five hundred ton concrete lid of the reactor which they would all agree was not a position they felt safe being in. The pony and the two men kept running as fast as their legs could carry them. They were just about to reach the halfway point of the long steel deck until a hitch in their escape plan would ultimately be the signature on their death warrants.

"Raddy, look out!" Vladimir shouted as he grabbed Radius by the collar of his lab coat.

Just ahead of Radius, a small pipe had burst causing a bolt to shoot out like a bullet narrowly missing his throat as Vladimir yanked him out of its path. Vladimir's brave action then caused him to lose his footing and before he and Radius hit the steel deck, Valeriy ran into them and joined them on the floor.

"Hey, thanks, Vladdy." Radius said as the trio got back to their hooves and feet. "I owe you o-"

BAM! FSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHH!

Just before the team of three could make a break for it, a much larger pipe burst directly in front of them sending hot steam in every direction. As they struggled to stay on their hooves and feet, they tried their best to shield their faces from the burning water vapor. There was not much radius could do as raising his fore hooves would just send him falling back down on his back where he would be even more defenseless. After just mere agonizing seconds that seemed like decades, the hot steam rushing into his face subsided and was replaced by a feeling of falling, not to the floor of the deck but from a substantial height that could severely injure most creatures. His fear was confirmed when he felt a sharp, intense pain as he had landed on something hard with a loud thud at least twenty feet below the deck he was standing on moments before.

"Gaahhh! My leg!" Radius screamed just after landing.

"Ahh! Where are you guys!" Valeriy, who was also clearly in pain asked.

"Oh fuck, man!" Vladimir screamed from a few feet away. "My back! I landed on my back!"

The two men and pony could only lay there and wait for their eyesight to return where they would then try to figure out how to escape but still, it was looking very bleak. As Radius crawled around with a broken rear leg and the other badly sprained, he frantically looked around while the blur that he was seeing slowly came into focus. The ground under the trio was violently shaking and the rumbling that was coming from the reactor before sounded as if it were right under them. They quickly found out that it indeed was and that they were all laying a few feet apart from one-another on the top of an unstable nuclear reactor that was about to destroy and entire massive building within moments.

Two men and one pony lay crippled and helpless on the five hundred ton lid of reactor number four of the Chernobyl Nuclear Facility. At a time such as this, every event that ever occurred in their entire lives went rushing through the minds of the three working partners. From their very own births to their first words and steps, their graduation of high school then college, their first dates and births of younger loved ones all went shooting through their minds as they lay on a cauldron of death and destruction. Being that they were crippled on top of a giant radioactive powder keg along with their lives being replayed right before them could only mean one thing. They all had seconds to live and they knew it.

"G-guys?" Radius whimpered. "I just want to let you know that...it was an absolute pleasure working with you two."

"Likewise, comrade." Vladimir said. "It's been a great run!"

"Fellas, I don't...*sniff* I don't think there's anyone else I'd rather die next to!" Valeriy said as he began to weep.

Vladimir Shashenok, Valeriy Khodemchuk and Dr. Radius Hoofenschtov each crawled over to each other so they could all have that final moment with their friends. Radius pulled a small picture of his one true love Princess Celestia that he always kept with him out of his pocket and stared at it for the mere few seconds it took for him to start sobbing. With all the strength the three could muster, they all joined each other in a tight group embrace and held each other as firmly as they could until the lid of the reactor shot up into the air carrying the three friends with it.

"Jesus Christ! Whoaaa!!" Anatoly Dyatlov screamed as the floor of the control room shook violently. As the lights of the room flickered on and off rapidly and the tremors intensified, everyone working in the control room was thrown to the floor. The commotion sent the room into such disarray that the piercing sound of the emergency alarm could not be heard. Finally, after several seconds of being tossed around, the quaking suddenly ceased and the lights cut out leaving the room pitch black save for a strange, orange glow flickering outside the windows of the control room. Slowly, all of the disoriented workers returned to their feet to see the source of illumination coming from the housing of reactor number four a few hundred feet away.

"Oh my god!!" One of the workers shouted as he and the others huddled around the window.

"We're gonna die!!" Another screamed. "We're all gonna die!!"

"Call the fire department! Tell them what happened!" Aleksandr Akimov ordered as the crew went into a panicked frenzy.

"What!? What's going on!?" Anatoly asked as he pushed his way towards the window through the group of workers.

The massive hole blown into the roof of the side of the building that housed the reactor and the massive flames bursting out of it were terrifying sights to behold. To see thick smoke billowing from the raging inferno that engulfed that side of the building was nightmare inducing for everyone but the sudden realization hit the trembling fifty-five year old man that he was mostly responsible. As he stared out the window at the aftermath of the massive explosion, his pupils fully dilated and he struggled to find words suitable for the situation he witnessed save for the only ones he could force from his mouth.

"...What have I done?..."

Author's Notes:

As long as I have been writing, this is my longest chapter to date. The real names of actual people involved in the Chernobyl accident were used. I truly, genuinely hope this story is received well by my readers. I wanted to try writing something much more serious than my previous ones and I have always found a fascination with real life events such as this. My hat comes off to the victims, their friends and families, the brave members of the crews who risked and even gave their lives to save countless others and the survivors who still deal with the sicknesses caused by the radiation. Though this tragedy was thirty years ago, let it never be forgotten.

I came back to this spot later on and felt that it would be rather fitting to add this video of the song "Chernobyl" by Crucifix. Think of it as sort of a way to kick off the beginning of the story. I feel that it does a good job of setting that kind of darkish vibe I intend on this story giving out for the most part. Anyway, I do not own the video, the song, or any of the lyrics from the song and if I am asked to remove it, I will promptly do so. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtJqREcef7Q