"Why!? Why won't he just let us help him!?" Celestia sobbed as she rode in the passenger seat of Fredrick's Jeep. "He doesn't deserve to live out here all alone like this! He deserves to come home and see his friends and family again!"

"Uh, Princess, I hate being the bearer of bad news but..." Fredrick began as he drove Celestia back to the base camp. "...Dymitri and I found the last missing worker. He was in the same state as the other two."

"Do you really think...?"

"After what we just overheard, what am I supposed to think? If that thing you were talking to is the one responsible for disemboweling three innocent people, it needs to be dealt with...and if that's what that Radius guy has become, then putting him out of his misery would be the best thing anyone's ever done for him."

"He doesn't even know for sure if he did it! You don't know him like I d...did."

"It's not looking good either way. Look, we're here. Go get some sleep, alright? I'm gonna go contact Prime Minister and find out what we need to do from here."

"F-Fredrick, I know we don't know each other well and heaven knows you don't really like us that much but...I'm asking you, please try to see this from my perspective. He's spent thirty miserable years here and he was so good and decent and kind and...he *hic* he deserves so much better than thiiihihiisss!"

Fredrick was a very battle hardened man with not much of a heart left over from the hell he had been through in his past but as he looked into the tear soaked eyes of the tired, bruised, and dirty Princess that sat next to him, he felt actual pain. The proud, majestic, and regal royal alicorn had been reduced to a sobbing mess who was desperate to save and better the life of a terribly ailing subject and for Fredrick, she was truly painful to look at. For the first time in many years, he would agree to make an attempt to pull some strings in her favor.

"I'll be talking to Groysman tomorrow." Frederick sighed. "I'll tell him your side of story but I can't make promises, okay?"

"That's all I ask." Celestia said as she opened the door and stepped out of Fredrick's Jeep. "Thank you so much."

"Okay, okay, just don't tell anybody I said I'd do that for you, alright? That'd ruin my rep around here. Now just go and get some sleep and I'll let you know what we gotta do from there."

With that, Fredrick shut the door of his Jeep, shifted into gear and headed South towards the checkpoint and entrance to the exclusion zone. Celestia stood and watched as the bulky, square taillights faded away in the distance and once they were gone, she made her way back into the building that the team used as a safe house where she would then make her trek up the stairs. Once she reached the top floor where everypony was sound asleep, she quietly entered the room and laid down on her sleeping bag.

It would turn out however, that a certain somepony was still awake as Twilight Sparkle lay on her own sleeping bag and painfully listened to her mentor whom she greatly admired and respected cry herself to sleep. To the young Princess, it was difficult enough to listen to the sobbing of her elder let alone see her in such a state as she did not dare turn over to look. With her eyes wide open, Twilight continued to listen to Celestia try with all the will she could muster to muffle her emotional breakdown with her pillow as to not disturb everypony else. If Twilight was determined before, she was now more than ever to see her own mission through to the end. She simply could not; would not stand to see Equestria's kind and caring ruler go through such pain and even possibly months if not, years of depression like before.

The next morning came and everypony slowly awoke upon the rise of Earth's sun of which their Princess had no control over. Said Princess however was still sound asleep as she had gone out around the city and stayed up much later than the rest. To add to all of that, the amount of weeping she had done would also make one all the more exhausted as her pillow was soaked with her tears and Twilight Sparkle was the only one aware of Celestia's pain. She knew she would need to bring it to everypony else's attention once the time was right but alas she would have to wait for now as the familiar thumping sound of a pair of combat boots coming up the stairs came closer and closer still.

Once the source of the sound reached the top of the stairs, the door to the room everypony was occupying slowly opened revealing Fredrick who said he would indeed be back to share whatever news he had. After glancing at the still sleeping Celestia, he shrugged his shoulders as he looked over at Twilight making it clear that he was not in the mood to be the one to wake her.

"I'll get her up." Twilight sighed as she trotted over to gently wake her mentor.

Within moments, the weary Princess slowly rose to her hooves and opened her tired eyes. She remembered Fredrick telling her that he would be back in the morning to discuss the Prime Minister's decision on the next course of action. Though she was desperate to simply get it over with and hear the news good or bad, she would find that she would have to wait longer still. The suspense actually felt like someone squeezing her heart but Fredrick was about to unwittingly prolong that feeling.

"I talked to Prime Minister." Fredrick said. "I told him what Dymitri and I heard and I told him about what you had to say."

"Yes?" Celestia asked. "What did he say?"

"He wants to talk to you before he makes decision. I have to bring you back to checkpoint where we call him."

"He wants to...? O-okay, I guess we'd better get going then."

"What are your orders for us, Your Majesty?" Spitfire asked.

"I think...you should all just stay here for now. Just wait until I get back and then we can go from there."

Without another word, Celestia followed Fredrick out of the room and down the stairs. Everypony watched from the window of the upper floor of the building as their Princess hopped into the passenger seat of Fredrick's Jeep before taking off and heading South back to the zone entrance. All but Twilight Sparkle were aware of the dire severity of the situation and what could happen to Radius if she and the team did not do something about it. She would soon make it well known that she would rather surrender her wings and crown before allowing Celestia to be dealt another blow to her happiness and even her sanity.

"You all know that we're not just gonna sit on our rumps all day, right?" Twilight Sparkle asked out loud.

"Huh?" Everypony else said in unison.

"You heard me! You're all going to tell me you didn't hear Celestia sobbing last night?"

Everypony else then looked down at their hooves on the floor in shame as they had all completely forgotten how much pain and stress their Princess had been through as of late.

"Look, I don't know about the rest of you but I don't plan on staying here when there's a pony out there somewhere who needs our help!" Twilight continued. "Try to imagine spending thirty years here all alone! Always in pain from your body being constantly poisoned! Always battling two different states of mind! That would make anypony crazy!"

"Good to see that somepony understands!" Rainbow Dash agreed.

"Right! Now look, I haven't exactly been filling you guys in on quite everything I've been up to but since there's not much more time before they send soldiers in here to take him out...I guess now it can't be helped."

"Twiley are you...?" Shining Armor began. "Are you sure you wanna give it away now?"

"Yes, Shining. I can't keep it under wraps anymore. Everypony, I've got some scientists from Russia working on what we think is a cure for Radius's problem. A drug that's supposed to purge all radiation from his body and restore his DNA back to normal."

"I found out later but I promised I would keep it a secret. I trust my sister and her judgment, everypony."

"So what do you guys think we should do about this?" Soarin asked.

"Only thing Ah can think of is goin' by what we know and where he hangs around and go find 'im like any other day." Big Macintosh suggested. "Hey, that big buildin' where that plum crazy beam came from! The one that Ah saw chop that catfish's head off!"

"That just might be it!" Daring Do agreed. "From what we've found before, it looks like over time, he's moved closer and closer to the reactor!"

"So if his body has become dependent on absorbing radiation..." Spitfire began. "...and that beam came from that tower by the cooling pond, then...his home must be..."

"Directly above reactor number four..." Twilight finished. "So listen, anypony who wants to join me in finding Radius, speak up now. We need to stall our departure as long as possible until those guys I talked to are finished with the drug."

"You really think something like that will work?" Soarin asked. "After thirty years of soaking up radiation, I'd think he'd be too far gone."

"There's...there's no guarantee so it's more like that I'm hoping it will work. Nonetheless, we've got to at least try. Anyway, whoever wants to count out and stay here, tuck your tail between your legs and puss out now."

"I like this new tude of your's, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash said.

"Anypony who wants to do what we came here to do and go home knowing you had the balls to do it..."

"Whoa!" Shining Armor gasped as he was not used to the idea of his little sister cursing.

"...raise a hoof in the air and say you'll be there for the Princess who's always been there for us."

Before Twilight was quite finished with her sentence, her elder brother did not so much as hesitate to raise his a fore hoof as he had previously promised that he would stand by his sister and trust her judgement to the end. Immediately after, Rainbow Dash's hoof shot up in the air quickly followed by Daring Do and Big Macintosh. Though Rainbow Dash was quite new to the Wonderbolts, she had earned the trust and respect of Spitfire and Soarin whom both promptly raised their hooves as they too were determined to see their operation through to the end.

"Alright, looks like we all still have some fight left in us." Twilight said. "Everypony...pack your hazmat suits. We're gonna jump into something dangerous."

The entire ride back to the checkpoint had been completely silent thus far as Celestia nor Fredrick were in the mood to say much if anything. As the latter's offroad Jeep drove and bounced around at a fairly slow pace on the trail that used to be a road, still the two were silent. The checkpoint however was a mere few miles away from the city of Pripyat so there would not be much further to go. As they came even closer still, Celestia observed a much larger offroad vehicle coming towards the two in what would have been the opposite lane until it passed them by. The vehicle in question was clearly one belonging to the Ukrainian Military so Celestia was now worried more than before.

"Uh, Fredrick?" Celestia asked.

"Da?" Fredrick said.

"What um...what's the army doing here?"

"I tried to tell Prime Minister your side of things, I really did."

"What!? What did you do!?"

"Just, calm yourself okay? You don't even know what's happening. Look, as far as I know, he's pulling you all out and getting the army in there to uh..."

"Tell me! Why are they here!?"

"Ugh, this is why I usually keep my fucking mouth shut! They need to make sure it's safe for the rest of the workers who are building the containment arch to return! That's all he told me so we find out details when we get there!"

The silence once again returned but not without serious tension for both Celestia and Fredrick whom was torn between doing his job and helping the ponies achieve the results that would be best for them. As the two continued on and passed by a cluster of thick foliage that skirted the side of the road, unbeknownst to them, someone else had plans of their own that were about to be put in place. As soon as the back of Fredrick's Jeep was out of sight, two mutated wolves poked their heads of from their hiding place and looked both ways ensuring that they had the all clear to put their plan into action.

"Shit!" The slightly smaller wolf cursed as he noticed the lone army truck that had gotten past them heading North. "One of those trucks is heading right into the city! Bolnoyvolk's gonna be pissed!"

"Then just start digging you eediot!" The larger wolf with a thicker accent barked as he slapped his comrade. "Come on, we can't let any more humans get in! They'll just get in our way!"

Fredrick and Celestia finally made it back to the gate of the South checkpoint and stopped at the exit. Once the security guard who stood in the phone booth sized guard post lifted the gate and allowed them through, Fredrick drove over to the small office where she and the team filled out obscene amounts of paperwork a week before. Finally, the short trip that seemed as though it took days was over and Fredrick parked his Jeep, hopped out and escorted Celestia into the small building.

After entering the tiny office that was not much larger than a camping trailer, Celestia took a seat at a table in the middle of the room while she waited for Fredrick to retrieve a telephone. In no time, he had returned with a cordless handset, sat down at the opposite side of the table and began punching in the number to Ukraine's capital. After a brief moment of pausing, Fredrick uttered a short sentence in his native tongue which Celestia was able to translate to him identifying himself and asking for the Prime Minister. Finally, after another moment of awkward silence, Fredrick spoke again.

"Mister Groysman." Fredrick said. "I have Equestrian Princess here with m-huh? No, she's not hurt she's fine, I assure you...Da all the other ponies are alright too...okay, she's ready to talk to you."

Fredrick then handed the phone over to the anxious Princess who eagerly grasped it with her aura and held it up to her ear. At last, her fears would be put to rest and the anxiety of not knowing what was to happen would end. Celestia would have appreciated such a thing but sadly, it may not have ended up being the case.

"Please tell me you have some good news, sir." Celestia said to the politician on the other line.

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid I may not have such news." Volodymyr Groysman regretfully replied. "First things first though. I absolutely have to pull you and your subjects out post haste. You've all already spent too much time there as it is and I will not allow citizens and a leader from one of our closest allies to endanger their health any longer."

"Is there any way at all we could just get...any more time? Any at all? We even managed to find Radius!"

I know...and I wish it could have been under more pleasant circumstances. Your Majesty, now that we have all the missing workers accounted for and their bodies being released back to their families, we must eliminate whatever is responsible. I can't let the construction crew back in until I know that it's safe for them."

"Yes, I understand that but it just couldn't have been Radius!"

"I wish we could be completely sure but judging by what Fredrick and Dmitry told me, it's not looking good for him. Yes, there are many other creatures out there that are certainly capable of such killings but to hear something of a...it was pretty much a confession!"

"He doesn't even know for sure if he did it!"

"And in my opinion, that's the saddest part. He's clearly not mentally well. No one would be after living there as long as he has. Look, Your Majesty you must understand, what's left of the concrete sarcophagus is crumbling fast and that containment arch has to be finished before that happens!"

"With all due respect, Mister Prime Minister, I wish I would have known that before."

"I know. I wish I would have told you that and I'm sorry."

"Alright, so what about those soldiers I saw heading into the exclusion zone?"

"Those men are going in there to neutralize anything that could be dangerous to the workers. If all the concrete collapses back into the reactor, it could expose more radioactive waste and endanger people from Kiev all the way up to Belarus!"

"So that's it huh? You're sending in those guys to wipe out a sick and frightened Equestrian citizen just based on nothing more than a half assed confession while in a mentally compromised state!?"

"No. I sent them in to await orders from me. I haven't given them the orders yet. That's why I needed to talk to you."

"Mister Groysman, what are you getting at?"

After a pause on the other line, Celestia began to get even more anxious as Groysman continued to stall. Celestia would soon find out that a mutual understanding would result from their conversation as Groysman was easily as stressed as she was.

"Your Majesty, I'm sorry it's just that..." Groysman finally spoke up. "I've always admired you as a leader and I've only been in this office for three weeks! I just started this job! I have a massive decision to make that could impact our nations' diplomatic relationships forever!"

"Well I...you don't need to worry about us not being allies. That, and I had no idea that you felt that way."

"Your Majesty, as a man just starting a job running a large country...I ask for your advice. I don't know what I should do. What would you do?"

"I uh...well, when you say 'neutralize' what do you mean by that?"

"I mean simply make sure a threat is no longer such. I haven't told the exactly how yet but I...wait, maybe..."

"If you want to enact a plan that works for everyone, I say they shouldn't have to kill Radius. That way, he's out of there and we can get to the bottom of what really happened."

"Of course! It's settled then! I'll send in the army on a mission to capture and not kill him!"

"See? That's perfect!"

"Excellent! And if he's willing to cooperate, we can hopefully send him back to Equestria for medical treatment and-"

"Cooperate? Oh...I didn't think about that."

"Well, of course. If he stands down and shows that he's willing to go quietly, everything should work out fine. The soldiers are trained and authorized to open fire upon anything that shows aggression or charges after them."

"Oh shit."

Author's Notes:

I'm back and this time, I ain't fking around!
Oh and from now on, the chapters will slowly start featuring images. Some of them may be by different artists and the one you see above was made by my dear friend who goes by little-tweenframes on this site.