All that remained of a long abandoned gymnasium of a North Pripyat youth activity center was little more than the building's foundation covered with the smoldering rubble that Spazz set ablaze hours before. The back of the massive charred corpse of Bolnoyvolk the wolf lay exposed in the very center of the floor, the rest of his body under a blanket of burned concrete and twisted steel. It seemed as though there existed no sign of life in the area as the despicable monster who had torched the structure had set out hunting for Frederick and the team of ponies as they frantically sought the aid of the military. Radius Hoofenschtov's evil alter ago wished for nothing more than to lay waste to everyone and everypony who was unfortunate to have caught his glance of death and now, there was no one who could stop him. There was however, somepony who was going to try.

Princess Celestia coughed and wheezed as she pulled herself out of the ashes of the burnt building, her body battered and bloody, barely protected by her weak shield spell. She would sooner forfeit her immortality and die before allowing her Earth stranded subjects to be caught by Spazz and succumb to whatever sick plans he had in mind for them. The only problem was that she did not stand much of a chance against the monster that controlled the body of her former lover as was plainly evident by her swollen, black eye and blood dripping from her nose. She was able to land a few strikes but he needed to put forth very little effort and tossed her aside as he could chase after the others.

Celestia's body shivered as she was in horrible pain with burns, cuts, and bruises riddling every inch of her. The only thing keeping her from passing out from shock and fatigue was the thought of her subjects being pursued by a creature whom was not capable of empathy or compassion in any form whatsoever. Spazz was nothing but a being born from Radius's repressed feelings of anger and hatred and as such all he knew was to torture, maim, rape, and kill. The only thing that was on his mind now that he had total control over his host was blood and he was now after the Princess's subjects with full intent to spill theirs. He almost seemed to get off to the idea of causing others terrible pain and suffering and there was little that could be done about it of which Celestia refused to accept.

With the lives of her friends and many more in danger, the battered and broken Princess trembled as she rose to her hooves and limped her way due South where she had last seen everypony run off to with Frederick. Even while in perfect health, she could not so much as come close to bringing the monster down let alone now in her badly wounded state. The situation seemed all too bleak and any efforts a lost cause but still she pressed on. Her wings were broken and bent in ways that would make the toughest cringe just to look at and each and every step she took sent a burning pain through her legs as her hooves touched the ground. Still, she hobbled and limped her broken body along the trail of hoof prints she discovered with little hope of catching up with anypony as she traveled at a slug's pace.

"Ohhh, it's hopeless..." Celestia sobbed as she nearly collapsed to the ground. "I got them all in-*hic* into th-this and now everypony's going to die!"

It seemed that all was lost and even Celestia who had always pulled through with the help of her friends, her sister, her guards or Twilight and her friends was ready to give up as nopony was there to help. The only thing she could do was allow shock from her ever building pain to set in and put her to sleep. She knew all too well however, that once she awoke even though she may end up in the hands of local authorities rendering aid, she would never forgive herself should harm come to her subjects. Every muscle in her body trembled and shivered as she struggled to simply stand and slowly, her legs, no longer able to support her slim figure gave out, introducing her bloodied muzzle to the cold, hard ground.

It was a new low for the once regal Princess of Equestria who was reduced to a weak and battered pony covered in blood and soot, completely unable to perform her most basic of duties that is protecting her subjects. She had seen her share of combat and losses in the past but never before was she defeated so easily and rendered so helpless. Never before had she felt so pathetic in her thousands of years of existence. This was the day that she had long dreaded and so badly hope would never come; the day Princess Celestia of Equestria failed. while she lay on her stomach struggling to so much as hold her head up however, a sparkling structure caught her attention off in the distance as the red and white striped glossy paint shimmered in the sunlight a mile away.

The smokestack of Chernobyl's fourth nuclear reactor stood tall and proud despite its purpose and functionality had been brought to an unexpected halt thirty years ago. Much resembling the red and white pole perched outside a barber shop, the sight of the smoke tower that glistened in the sunlight on this beautiful May afternoon provided just the small push needed to start turning the wheels in Celestia's head. Though her train of thought had to start at the very beginning and get to the bare basics of the situation, it was a start.

Before Radius, an Equestrian unicorn with natural magical capabilities had never been involved in a nuclear accident, causing such substantial radiation absorption. As a result of Radius being exposed to such normally lethal quantities of rem, his body had become much stronger and developed unique characteristics that proved beneficial to his survival. Who was to say that Celestia could do the same, and her being an alicorn with more powerful magic than a unicorn, if her theory was correct, could mean the difference between life and death for many ponies and humans alike. It was a longshot but if she could find the strength within herself to get herself to the destroyed reactor, she may be able to test her theory and give her comrades a fighting chance.

With a new idea in mind that just might possibly work, Celestia's pupils fully dilated and filled her eyes entirely as she painfully strained to lift herself off the ground. Every muscle in her body tensed up and burned with fatigue as she slowly stood up so she could put her next plan into action. The only problem however that despite her sudden new burst of strength from her adrenaline starting to flow, she had a mile to go and surely would burn herself out well before reaching her destination. In order to conserve what little physical energy she had left, she knew that she could teleport herself much closer to the power plant but in order to do that, she would need to picture in her mind a specific spot where she was before.

"Okay, where was I that was closest to the plant?" Celestia asked herself as she scrambled to think. "Let's see, I was...ah, that two headed turtle. If that doesn't make one remember a spot, nothing would."

Celestia then tightly shut her eyes as she concentrated on the specific details of the last spot she could remember in order to be able to teleport back. Doing so, she could save a great deal of time and physical energy along with having a much better chance at testing her theory and ultimately saving her friends and if she planned it carefully, Radius as well. For another minute or so, Celestia concentrated intently as she pictured the spot on the ground where the mutated turtle basked in the sun. She remembered even the most minute of the details down to the position and sizes of nearby pebbles on the ground and a small cluster of stunted trees a few feet to her right.

It took slightly longer than usual as she had exhausted much of her magic by using her shield spell but with her aura enveloping her horn, the remainder of her body glowed white for a fraction of a second before disappearing in a flash. As soon as she popped out of sight, she snapped back in and held her eyes shut for a moment longer until the blinding flash dissipated and revealed that her efforts were successful much to her relief. She badly needed to make her one and only attempt count as she had drained the last of her magic in doing so and from here on out, she would have no other choice but to travel the rest of the way to the power plant on hoof. Fortunately however, she could see the emissions tower right from where she stood and it was much closer than before.

With the lives of her subjects in dire risk being her motivation she needed to keep going, the wounded Princess placed one shaking hoof in front of the other and proceeded to make her painful trek to her destination. She had her mind made up and nothing could change it. She would either rescue her friends including Radius as well or go down with them trying as her immortality was rendered null and void in this world.

Frederick and the others had put a decent amount of distance between themselves and the maniac who was out for their blood as far as they could tell but were still nowhere near in a safe area as long as he was out there. Very carefully and quietly, they all hid within a cluster of overgrown foliage and bushes as they intently looked around for any sign of their adversary. Frederick, Shining Armor and Spitfire were scouting the area through their binoculars in search of an area with cover nearby where they could all bolt into and avoid being seen.

"I think we lost him..." Frederick whispered to his equine comrades. "For now..."

"Fred, are you absolutely positive, our Princess will be alright?" Spitfire whispered as she held the shivering Rainbow Dash in her arms in attempt to comfort the traumatized wonderbolt rookie.

"You guys just gotta trust me. I'm an asshole but when I've got a job to do, I see it through to the end. You're all getting out of here just fine on my watch, including the Princess."

"He's right, guys." Shining Armor reassured. "He's not gonna let anypony get hurt out here."

Frederick continued to scope out an area of overgrown foliage that he felt would make for good cover approximately fifty yards away from the patch he and everypony was hiding in. After deciding that he and his hoofed companions would make a break for it, giving them one more step closer to safety, he paused for a moment to decide precisely how they would go about it. After forming his plan, he turned to everypony to discuss their exact move.

"Okay, listen up." Frederick whispered. "That patch over there is about...eh, fifty or so meters away. We're on my signal, we're all gonna make a run for it. No teleporting because it'll draw attention. Shining, take this pistol and stay to the left of the group and keep your eyes on that side."

"Got it." Shining Armor replied with a salute.

"Alright, Backfire, you, Sore Loser, and A.K. Forty-Seven stay in th-"

"Yearling." Daring Do corrected.

"I'm not a loser..." Soarin pouted.

"Backfire is my brother." Spitfire replied with a raised eyebrow. "You know him?"

"Okay, okay, I learn all your names later but now, we've got more important shit to think about." Frederick said as he palmed his face out of frustration. "Now listen, you three need to go in a straight line up into that tree once me and the rest of us on the ground get halfway there."

The two wonderbolts and the brave explorer then gave a salute.

"Excellent. Ok, Rainbow here will run next to me in the middle of the group. She's been though enough bullshit so we're gonna have her back on this one."

"Thanks Fred." Rainbow Dash sighed in relief. "I have a question though."

"Okay, shoot."

"Wasn't there a magazine in your rifle? I could have sworn there was but it's gone."

"Hey, this pistol is missing a mag too." A perplexed Shining Armor said.

"What the..." Frederick's pupils shrank as he looked down at his rifle to see that sure enough, the thirty round magazine was no longer there. For safety, he had made it a habit to wait until he needed to fire to cock his gun which would mean that the chamber was also empty. Frederick then began to sweat as he frantically searched his pockets for any of the several spare magazines with not so much as a single cartridge casing to be found which worried he and everypony else immensely. It was when they found out precisely where the shells had gone that all hope had seemed lost.

"Looking for these?" A sinister, raspy voice chuckled from above.

Instantly, everypony's pupils shrank to pin pricks and their gazes all shot over to the large tree where the dreaded voice came from. Sure enough, much to the horror of the entire group, Frederick included, there lay Radius controlled by Spazz in a seductive pose on a thick limb just a mere few feet over their human guide's head. In the monster's aura floated four large magazines meant for Frederick's assault rifle and three more that went to his pistol. Just to mock his victims and remind them that he intended do to them what he had tried with Rainbow Dash, he clenched a bright red rose that he had plucked from a nearby bush in his pointed, glistening fangs as he stared down at them with half lidded bedroom eyes.

"RUUUN!!!" Frederick screamed as he threw his rifle at Spazz in hopes of dazing the enemy and buying some time.

"Oooh, I'll give you a head start!" Spazz beamed as Frederick's gun sailed through the air mere inches over his head. As he counted the seconds while he watched the group he saw as mere play things he menacingly rubbed his hooves together and began to drool. He did not simply wish to quickly slaughter everypony and end up having too little fun but instead planned to slowly work them into exhaustion and rape and torture them all one by one as he watched the color drain from their eyes. After ten seconds of allowing them to gain some distance, he then jumped from the tree and prepared to give chase. He would soon however find his playtime interrupted by a loud crack coming from above followed by a blinding, purple flash of light.

"Gahh!" Spazz yelled as a lavender aura suddenly hit him directly between the eyes, knocking Radius's glasses off of his face. "Who the fuck did that!?"

"Enjoy your last second of freedom, you bastard!" Twilight Sparkle shouted as she hovered in the air above an infuriated Spazz. "You're going down!"

Before Twilight Sparkle could so much as think of taking aim with the tranquilizer rifle the scientists had given her, Spazz began blindly firing thermal beams from Radius's horn in a murderous frenzy. The startled alicorn ducked and dodged as several shots came within inches or less of hitting her and she was with only one round of her own ammunition which she simply could not afford to waste. If she was to have a chance at landing her dart right on target, Twilight had no choice but to retreat for the time being and rejoin with the others. She would need to catch Spazz by surprise and while standing still but she refused to risk allowing him to catch up to her friends and do who knows what to them so knocking his glasses off and waiting for a better opportunity would have to suffice.

"Son of a bitch..." Spazz angrily huffed as he blindly pawed at the ground in search of Radius's glasses which he needed if he wished to see anything. "Of all the fucking kick-ass mutations this geek got...he couldn't get better eyes!?"

The Princess was now just a few hundred yards away from the entrance to the building that housed the remains of Chernobyl's Reactor number four and the pain her body had to endure nearly put her out right then and there. As she struggled to hold her tender, broken wings against her sides, the sharp ends of some of the bones began to tear through her skin and expose themselves through her feathers. She then fell to her stomach once more and her mind began to drift until her ears perked up to another reminder of why she was doing all of this to begin with.

"RUUUN!" A familiar voice screamed from off in the distance.

"You're going down!"Shouted another from far away.

The ailing alicorn glanced over towards the general direction the voices were coming from and no sooner, a barrage of bright green beams shot up into the sky followed by the blood curdling screams of her subjects. Celestia's pupils filled her eyes as she watched the seemingly endless attack with the use of lethal energy that sliced a giant fish clean in half the other day. The very thought of her own and even Frederick needlessly being subjected such a fate or whatever it was that Spazz had in mind for them gave her the boost she needed and just enough of an adrenaline surge. The pain was numbed by her body's natural fight or flight response and she found the strength within her to return to her hooves and continue her trek towards the power plant that created the very entity she set out to stop.

With saving the lives of her friends the only thing on her mind, one by one, Celestia put one hoof in front of the other, picking up the pace with each and every step. Sweat poured down her furrowed brow as the muscles in her legs burned worse and worse still each time her hoof came in contact with the ground and supported the weight of her body. She was getting so close that she could nearly kick a stone through the open door of the building and with every inch of progress she made, the more intense the strange, bitter, metallic taste in the air became. It was what happened next where she knew for sure she was on the right track.

Beep!...beep!...

"Huh?" Celestia panted as she noticed that the safety meter that still hung around her neck began to go haywire.

Beep!...beep!...beep!...

"Just what I...was looking for."

Celestia panted heavily as the device loudly warned her of the presence of harmful levels of radiation, its red and yellow lights joining the ghastly screeching and chirping. Still she pressed on until she finally found herself going through the door, the device's warning growing even louder and more head splitting with each and every step. The only thing that could light the Princess's way through the dark hallways were the small led lights that dotted the device she wore and the only compass she had were the horrific squeals emitting from it. Once she dragged herself one way, the beeping would decrease in frequency ever so slightly to which she would respond by taking a step back and going the other way. Once the noise picked up again, she knew that she was heading in the right direction. Her means of navigation however were short lived as she could no longer differentiate the beeping of her device because she was that much closer to the source of the gamma.

Through the dark hallways and corridors she continued as did the screaming her entire body had to endure. To make matters worse, the safety device she used as a guide began bringing about a migraine coupled with the higher levels of rem she was soaking into her body with every second she was there. If the Princess was putting up with enough hardship as it was, the gurgling and sudden pressure in the pit of her stomach was about to make things even worse still. The intense battle occurring within her gastric system was so agonizing that she quickly found herself leaning up against the wall as she began to hyperventilate which then ultimately turned the shallow breaths into heaves.

Before Celestia could even so much as recoup her thoughts, the contents of her stomach were shooting back up her throat and onto the floor with enough force to knock her down onto her rump. The ill Princess power-vomited and even with her stomach rendered entirely empty, she continued to involuntarily heave until small amounts of blood started to trickle from her gums and down her chin. At this point, she knew that the radiation she was absorbing was inflicting major damage on her body and with what little mental coherency she had left, with what she saw, or rather thought she saw next, she knew she was not well.

"Hey. You're almost there." Squeaked a voice from what sounded like a small creature just to the Princess's left.

The startled Princess then turned glanced to her left to see a regretfully familiar sight and the source of the voice in the form of a local mouse. This creature however was walking upright on two legs, appeared to have had it body flattened much resembling a pancake and was covered in blood with several inches of its intestines hanging out of various open wounds. Celestia gasped and then stifled yet another gag at the rodent she and Twilight witnessed jumping out a window and falling to its death a few days earlier. The ancient Princess had bore witness to some of the most twisted things imaginable in her day but to have the bloody mouse she saw get splattered with her own eyes now casually staring up at her made her jaw hang open in shock.

"What's the matter?" The mouse asked as blood dripped from its body, forming a puddle where it stood. "You're so close. Don't give up now."

"Th-th-there is...no way I'm actually seeing this." Celestia stuttered as she double took.

"Well, of course you're seeing this, not that it means I'm actually here."

"Great, so I'm hallucinating. Just fucking great."

"Language, my dear. You're a Princess aren't you?"

"Look, I don't have time for this! I need to...why the hell am I even bothering!? You're just an illusion!"

"Yeah, we've established that but nonetheless you're being awfully rude to this illusion who's just trying to help."

The mouse then turned around and began walking back in the direction from which Celestia came, leaving tiny paw prints of crimson with each and every step. Its intestines dragged on the floor, leaving lines on blood in its path as well.

"Wait!" Celestia cried as she struggled to stand. "You said you could help?"

"Sure did!" The mouse squeaked as it turned back around to face the Princess. "I know what you're looking for. This part of the building is kind of a chore to navigate so I've got it marked for you. see?"

The seemingly zombified rodent then pointed with a tiny paw down the next hallway, revealing that he had indeed marked a trail with his own blood for the Princess much to both her gratitude and disgust. She had seen all sorts of incredibly hard to believe things during her thousands of years and here mere week in the exclusion zone so at this point she was willing to believe nearly anything and even managed to forget that she was not actually seeing this. She would soon be reminded of that chilling fact once she turned back to the mangled rodent.

"Thank you!" The princess beamed as she turned to see that the mouse was no longer there. The bloody prints on the floor where it once stood were gone as well however save for the ones that still marked that path that Celestia needed to take in order to reach her next destination. With no more time to waste, the sickly alicorn pushed herself away from the wall and back onto her hooves and painfully continued her trek, eternally grateful that she was the only being to have witnessed herself babbling in her radiation induced hallucinations.

"Nopony..." Celestia huffed as she took a series of painful steps. "...can ever...find out about this."

The pain was so intense and her heavy breathing so pronounced that the beeping and wailing of the Geiger counter that hung around Celestia's neck became easy to tune out. For several long, agonizing minutes, she followed the trail of blood that disappeared before her very eyes as she trotted past the tiny paw prints of crimson. Down the dark hallways she went at a slug's pace, her stomach fairing much of the same as the rest of her until finally, she reached a staircase heading down into a pitch black corridor. The disemboweled rodent's paw prints lead down the steps to a room directly underneath the infamous reactor number four and Celestia now had to climb down.

After reaching out her hoof and grabbing on to the stair railing, Celestia held on tight as she carefully took her first step down. With her rear left hoof securely on the step, she then placed her left front followed by her right rear, her right front hanging on to the rail. Slowly and steadily, step by step she descended, using the flash of her warning device as her only means of lighting the way as to not trip. Though she could see her path well enough, the Princess was dizzy and extremely nauseous which made it immensely difficult to keep solid hoofing on the steps. Right before her very eyes, the bloody paw prints the mouse had left for her began to glow and shift between many different colors as her hallucinations grew worse.

Finally, after what seemed to take hours but in reality only a few minutes, Princess Celestia reached the bottom and from here on out, it the path to her destination would be a straight shot. Still, her trek would not be easy and coupled with the pain and nausea, the intense buzzing and beeping of her device was getting more difficult to tune out and began to simply add more to her migraine. After all that, everything she had to endure, still she pressed onward down the dark hallway and at this point, the smell of burning plastic filled the air as smoke began wafting out of her Geiger counter much to her confusion. Her confusion however would be short lived however, as she was now face to face with the very monstrosity of radioactive death she sought after.

With the last little bit of magic she could manage to get from her horn, Celestia lit the dead end in front of her as the lights on her device began to fizzle out from the overload of rem. Sparks flew and crackled from the meter as smoke poured out from its speaker until with one final snap, it ceased all function and died out completely. This was the least of what Celestia paid attention to as she stared mesmerized at the huge, gray mass of stone that appeared to have poured from the ceiling in a molten state before coming to rest and cooling on the floor before her. What Celestia was staring at and standing ten feet away from was the most toxic and deadly object known to human and ponykind alike; the infamous elephant's foot.

The sight of it was surreal. The massive blob of uranium mixed with other highly radioactive substances had in a way become almost legendary and now Princess Celestia was staring directly at it as the air appeared to wave. Knowing that she would soon pass out cold if she did not act quickly so she prepared to put her plan into action. Buckets of sweat poured down every inch of her body and the air seemed to burn more and more with each and every step she took towards the deadly stone. All the while, Princess Celestia was well aware that by doing what she was about to do, she was taking a huge gamble as it would either give her the means to take Spazz down and save her subjects or completely destroy her. At this point there was no going back. It was do or die.

With nothing left to lose and her whole world to gain, Princess Celestia went for it and plunged her horn down onto the elephant's foot to absorb all the radiation her magical body could possibly take in. For the first several seconds of soaking in massive quantities of gamma seemed to be no better or worse than the rest of her time within the dark corridor but only because her senses were being badly dulled. If the pain her entire body was in was bad before, what was about to happen would top everything she had endured in the past tenfold and she was in for a rude awakening.

Every muscle in the Princess's body tensed up as smoke began to pour from where she held her horn in contact with the mass of poisonous rock. Soon, sparks began to fly, lighting up the dark room but blinding her in the process and as the foot crackled away, a cherry red glow started to form around Celestia's horn. The pain was like absolutely nothing she had ever been subjected to in all her thousands of years and if she could think clearly, she would never wish such a thing on even the worst of her very worst of enemies. Just when she felt that it could not possibly get worse however, the red glow heated up even more and became bright orange and seemed to have welded her horn into place so now she could not remove it even if she tried.

"Hnnnggg...aaahhhhhh!!" Celestia strained before screaming in agony as every cell in her body began to cook.

There was nothing quite like it. The pain was much like a burning sensation but comparable to the feeling of every inch of her body being tightly squeezed to a point where she could barely breathe. To put her body through such magnitude of trauma, she regretted every moment of it as she pulled with what little strength she could muster in attempt to free her horn from the clutches of the stone of death. Never before had the Princess felt so foolish as she was the one who had done this to her own self but momentarily, she would be in no condition to even think at all. As the sparks continued to fly and smoke billowed from her horn, the powder keg of magic and gamma radiation being combined could no longer contain itself and erupted with a boom that shook the entire building to its foundations.

The explosion that sent Celestia flying until her back hit the wall, leaving a sizable dent behind rendered her blinded and deafened, a painful ring lingering in her ears for what seemed like an eternity. Bricks and chunks of plaster from the walls and ceiling began to crumble and fall from their places as the helpless alicorn lay disoriented on her stomach. After laying there for a few minutes to catch her breath and recoup her thoughts, her eyesight slowly returned and she noticed that the elephant's foot was now glowing a bright orange and lighting the entire room.

The next thing that Celestia noticed is that her entire body had gone completely numb and it seemed almost as if she was totally paralyzed save for her neck and above. As the minutes ticked by, her sense of touch very slowly made its unwelcome return however as did her ability to move and as she gradually lifted herself off the floor, she would find that it now required less effort and brought about less pain. Finally, stood back up on all fours still attempting to gather her own mind. As the glow of the heated stone began to die out however, she would soon find herself seeming back to square one as the shooting pain returned and knocked her back to the floor like a shockwave.

"Aaaaahhh! Aaauuugghhh!" Celestia shrieked in pure agony as she writhed on the floor, the veins in her body beginning to emit an orange glow.

The dimming light from the blob of uranium had now fizzled out, rendering the room pitch dark with no light to speak of save for the Celestia's veins and the occasional flash from her horn. She continued to squirm about on the dirty, dusty floor and scream as her horrific pain that would kill or send most into shock spiked with seemingly no end in sight. Much like Radius before her, she emitted all kinds of squeaks and screams that would induce weeping in even the most hardened of soldiers and as the echoed through the building and out through the door she had entered, still no one could hear her scream. The minutes ticked by and still, the Princess let out her blood curdling shrieks but at this point, her wailing was now quickly growing weaker by the second until finally, silence.

The deafening silence that now took over the building would have been more concerning than Celestia's screaming had there been someone rushing to her aid. She was completely on her own and no one knew even her general location and if she lay in the dark basement dying, it could be months or even years before she would be found. After several more minutes still, the silence remained and to anyone who would have been standing nearby outside the building's entrance, it would be rather clear to them that Equestria had just lost a Princess and in such an undignified manner to boot. However, the insane laughter in place of the screaming that erupted from the dark, cavernous depths of the building would indicate otherwise and that death was not an option for the Princess but rather madness instead.

From first thing in the morning until late afternoon, after getting Denys and the slatebuster pulled out of the trench in the road, the Ukrainian Army worked tirelessly to fill in the gap in order to get their trucks into Pripyat. After so many hours and truckload after truckload of gravel dumped into the hole, finally it would appear that they had just enough of it filled in to be safely driven over without falling in. The highest ranking officer present who was in charge of the operation and the safety of their Equestrian diplomats then gestured the first truck in line to drive over the mostly filled in hole as they had little time to finish. The large wheels on the front axle rolled over with a thump followed by the rear wheels. Upon seeing that the filling was still well intact, he then motioned for the next truck followed by a third and fourth. It was time.

"Alright, let's move!" The leading officer ordered as he hopped into the nearest truck.

Finally, the Ukrainian Army was headed towards the abandoned city at full speed and as per the orders of Prime Minister Groysman, nothing would stand in their way and live to tell the tale. He was not about to allow his nation to become the death place of the Princess of Equestria and several of her subjects and upon hearing of Radius's earlier attack on the other group of soldiers, he was to be shot is he were to show any signs of aggression. But would they arrive in time, or would it be too little, too late?

"Comrades, we're low on fuel." Said the worried driver of the first truck to arrive in Pripyat hours earlier.

"We might not have any other choice but to park it until the others get here." The highest ranking soldier among them replied. "Let's pull over there and keep a look ou-Jesus Christ!"

Just as the men prepared to stop to give their truck a break and conserve their fuel until backup arrived to help, all four men inside the vehicle were knocked from their seats by a sudden jolt. After taking a moment to gather themselves, and assess the new and rather unwelcome situation, they looked out their windows to see that their dreaded nightmare they were attempting to avoid for hours was coming true. The ground beneath them was now twenty feet below the still turning wheels and a strange, glowing, green aura surrounded the entire truck as it hovered up in the air. As suddenly as the aura enveloped them, it spun the truck around to face the culprit who had gone from being a desperate, tormented soul to sadistic monster who wanted little more than to toy with everyone unlucky enough to catch his eye.

"Hoohoo, could this possibly be more fun!?" Spazz giggled as he instilled fear into the hearts of them men he had just captured. "Who wants to go flying!?"

Knowing what Spazz was planning to do, the men frantically waved their hands in protest, hoping that their pleading and shouting would have some sort of emotional impact on their assailant. Much to their misfortune however, they were completely unaware as quite who they were dealing with and the fact that reasoning with him not to harm others was a lost cause. Spazz then begun a trot down the crumbling road as the men in the truck continued to plead for him to spare them and even started pulling out pictures of their families and children from their wallets of which Spazz was completely unphased by. Still the men screamed and hollered out the windows of the truck as Spazz picked up the pace of his trot until he was barreling down the road in a full gallop, the truck he had in his clutch hovering above.

Finally, what the helpless soldiers in the truck had feared all along had come true as their merciless adversary hurled their vehicle through the air with little effort. Unbeknownst to the four men and the search team that had come to retrieve Radius to begin with, Spazz's throw was anything but random as he knew exactly where they were, just a mere hundred yards away. Frederick and his equine comrades had stopped in the center of an intersection for a much needed breather and as such, they were all tired, sore, dirty, and growing sick from being in a hazard zone for as long as they had. They had nowhere else to go and the Army seemed so near yet so far away and now the stranded group had a six ton truck about to crush each and every one of them. With no more strength left in their tired, battered bodies, Frederick and everypony fell to their knees as the truck plummeted down towards them like a meteor with an engine and a tank containing combustible fuel. As Frederick and the terrified men in the truck made eye contact, they each gave a salute as they all closed their eyes and awaited the fiery explosion that would be their untimely fate.

SLAM!

The vehicle had sailed through the air and hit its mark with a loud, metallic crunch, its victims on the ground grateful that they were crushed quickly and painlessly. With their eyes still closed and their hooves still over their ears, they awaited the bright white light that would ultimately bring them to the afterlife. As far as Frederick was concerned, it meant nothing more than that he had failed in his mission to escort his diplomatic friends to safety. To Shining Armor, it was the heart wrenching realization that his loving wife Cadence was now a widow and their precious daughter Flurry Heart would now have to grow up without her father. Rainbow Dash, whom had just begun to see her dream of becoming a wonderbolt through just had her promising career cut short and Twilight Sparkle was now the first alicorn Princess to have been killed. The only thing they could do now was wait for themselves to be whisked away to whatever paradise they were destined for by whatever the massive set of wings above them were attached to.

Upon opening their eyes expecting to see their maker, what they saw instead was the truck that allegedly crushed them hovering in the air ten feet over them, them men inside embracing each other for what would have been their last moments. Sure enough, the whooshing sound of two massive wings was coming from a pair of yellowish feathered wings that emitted a strange glow. Whatever or whoever it was who owned those wings was holding onto the truck from the other side and had caught it from the air just in time. Frederick and the ponies stared up in awe as the strange being slowly descended from the air and gently set the truck back down onto the ground. Curious as to what or who it was who the strange wings belonged to and ultimately who saved their lives, everypony slowly stepped around the truck to see none other than their very own Princess they were forced to leave behind at the burning building.

Though she was still recognizable, Princess Celestia looked nothing like she did before and appeared to now be standing two feet taller than before and her muscles more pronounced and toned. Her entire coat and her tattered wings were an unsightly and unhealthy yellow and glowed a bright green. Covering those hardened muscles were her glowing, orange veins and looking down further, they could all see that her hooves were cloven much like those of ancient equine ancestors. Looking back up, everypony could see her horn which had nearly become two as it untwisted and forked at the end. Even her ethernal mane and tail had gone through drastic changes as it flickered and whipped about through the air like a neon green flame. Of all of these horrifying changes that their beloved Princess had endured, the most frightening of all was the look of pure rage and fury in her red, highly bloodshot eyes. As Spazz Stood from several yards away with his jaw agape and his eyes open wide, the new Celestia turned to face him and snorted through her nostrils, indicating that she was now out for his blood.

"P-P-Princess?" A flabbergasted Twilight Sparkle stuttered as she dropped her rifle from her trembling hooves. "You, uh...h-how are you feeling?"

"Pretty goddamn good, Twilight." The now much larger and stronger Princess replied with a raspy voice and affirmative tone. "Now why don't you all step back so I can take care of this prick?"

Frederick and everypony else stared in absolute shock at what Princess Celestia had done to herself to have a better chance at taking down the evil Spazz as she stepped forward to face him. For the first time since they have ever seen him, the monster that had taken over Radius's body had his eyes fully open and the crooked, sick grin had turned into a nervous and unsure frown. It was then when a single bead of sweat formed just under his horn, rolled down and came to a rest on his brow, Celestia knew that she had him. Still, he stood rooted to the spot as the enraged and irradiated alicorn angrily stomped her way over to him and as he gathered his thoughts, he made a desperate attempt to appear completely unafraid as before but failing miserably to do so.

"Hot damn!" Spazz catcalled, his voice clearly trembling. "Yeah, come on over, sexy! Y-y'know, I happen to have a thing for chicks who uh...who c-can take control."

Celestia picked up the pace, turning her trot towards Spazz into a full on gallop, her eyes locked onto his as she charged him. The type of Pony she remembered that Radius was, she knew that if taking down a deadly killer who was capable of destroying the lives of hundreds if not thousands meant destroying him as well, it was what he would have wanted. As far as Celestia was concerned, she just may very well have to though only as a last resort should Twilight's dart fail to hit its mark. As the furious Princess brought the distance between herself and her adversary to a close, the latter had no choice but to stand his ground and fight with all he had.

With a solid thud, Celestia and Spazz locked their horns together just as before but this time, Celestia who now stood two feet taller and possessed much muscle mass was pushing her enemy along with little effort. His back hooves dug into the ground leaving trenches behind as his front hooves pushed against those of the alicorn who sought to bring about the end of his reign of terror. The normally calm Spazz could no longer even so much as attempt to hide his fear of being taken down now that he faced somepony much stronger than himself and before he could so much as think to strike first, Celestia made the first move.

Knowing very well that the battle that had just begun could cause unnecessary collateral damage if they stood where they were, Frederick, his four Army colleagues and the ponies, rushed to find cover behind the nearest building. All the while, Celestia had laid one of her rock hard, devolved hooves across Spazz's face with every ounce of her new found strength, sending the monster flying through the side of an apartment complex. Dust filled the air as Spazz disappeared into the side of the crumbling highrise and Celestia flew close behind and followed suit, refusing to allow her opponent any time to recover. Window frames and bricks flew from the side of the damaged structure as Celestia tossed Spazz back out through, creating another gaping hole in the process.

Expecting him to hit the ground, the team watched in shock as Spazz enveloped himself in his own aura and hovered in place, staring up at Celestia while she prepared to pursue him through the air. In order to gain some distance and a better chance to fire a shot at the enraged alicorn, Spazz rocketed through the air with the use of his unicorn aura but when he looked back, he found Celestia hot on his hooves. For the first time in days, everypony could have a shred of hope as they could plainly see that for the first time ever, they had finally witnessed true fear in the monster's eyes.

"Ahh! Wait, you dated this guy, right?" Spazz hollered back at his pursuer as he dodged shots from her horn. "If you take me out, you'll destroy him too! Oh shit!"

Spazz would find out that Celestia's first several shots were mere warnings as the next few grazed Spazz's legs and back, burning through the fur and drawing blood. His glowing red pupils shrank to pin pricks as he winced from the pain before trying once more to put charisma to work for him.

"Yoww! Ahh, okay just calm the fuck down for a second!" Spazz yelped as he and Celestia weaved back and forth past tall buildings all around Pripyat. "Look, I'm sorry, can't we just sit down and tal-"

"LIES!" Celestia boomed with her and her sister's trademark ancient Canterlot Royalty voice. "YOU'RE NEVER SORRY FOR ANYTHING YOU'VE DONE!!"

"Whoa! Okay, I'm not but just lemme-oww! Fuck!"

"RADIUS WOULD SOONER DIE AND TAKE YOU WITH HIM THAN ALLOW YOU TO HARM ANOTHER SOUL!! YOU HEAR ME?! HE'S THE STRONGER ONE OF YOU TWO!!"

Princess Celestia fully intended on punishing Spazz for his atrocities and quickly gained on him as she relentlessly chased him through the skyline of the god forsaken city. The predator turned prey was fully aware that he had few if any other options by means of defending himself and reestablishing himself as the atrocious killing machine with full control of everyone and everything he could possibly destroy. As Celestia snapped her newly formed fangs at the rear hooves of the serial killer she sought to bring down, the latter put the only choice he had into play and twisted himself around to strike back at his pursuer. Much to his misfortune however, instead of landing a blow unto his adversary, he was met with a solid hoof to the muzzle, several of his teeth flying out of his mouth from the impact.

Princess Celestia did not stop there and proceeded to wrap her arms around the dazed and disoriented Spazz and fly downward towards the ground at what seemed like mach two velocity. Everyone who bore witness to the amazing spectacle cheered as the two combatants plummeted to the ground in a rapid spinning motion as if Celestia planned to drill Spazz into the cold, hard asphalt below. With a loud bang that shook the ground, Celestia and Spazz hit the ground and disappeared in a cloud of dust that filled the air as a crater was created in the middle of a street.

Though they were all exhausted from their week of trekking a radioactive city and sleeping on a cold floor but still, everypony refused to let the two fighters out of their sight. The group sprinted towards the scene as the dust began to clear and once they skidded to a halt before the crater, they were delighted to find their favored party the victor. Standing over the battered and bloody Spazz in the crumbling indentation in the asphalt was the newly mutated Princess Celestia, her hoof pressed firmly on his chest in effort to keep him subdued.

Spazz was panting and struggling to breath as his host's blood trickled down his throat and his eyes were just as covered and were swelling and bruised around the sockets. Celestia whom had just pummeled him senselessly appeared to be free of any major wounds but did not appear to be faring any better emotionally, for she knew very well that she could have easily killed the very pony she sought to rescue. However, Radius still had a chance as Twilight was now preparing the drug and Frederick's army colleagues had finally arrived, their trucks screeching to a stop as he flagged them down.

Dozens of men and women whom donned full military attire and each armed with a Kalashnikov rifle poured out of their trucks with intent on taking the Spazz-controlled Radius into custody as he lay twitching in the dent. As eerie of a creature he was to behold, to see the ruler of their ally Equestria to have mutated into a glowing version of herself and nearly twice her original size was a spectacle in itself but what would occur next would top everything they had seen. Even Twilight who had paused from readying her own rifle could not believe her eyes as her mentor's body began to shrink right before them as her glow fizzled out.

Spazz lay badly battered and dazed in the crater and watched his adversary whom had just put him there quickly shrink back to her original size as her illuminated veins went dim. He shifted his eyes to his left where he observed Twilight Sparkle staring in shock as she was distracted from her task at hoof and to his right were dozens of soldiers in much of the same state. It occurred to him that due to Celestia having been exposed to radiation for several minutes as opposed to Radius having thirty years worth, she could more easily slip out of her mutations. As a result of Radius having weaker magic than his former alicorn lover and having taken the brunt of the wrath of reactor number four, Spazz's host was forever bound to his ghastly form. That is when Spazz began to think that perhaps the fact that Celestia was not locked into hers could be just what he would need to take advantage of once the time was right.

"Princess!" Everypony gasped in unison as they rushed to catch their dizzy ruler before she fell to the ground.

"Wha? I-I..." Celestia panted as the last of her radiation induced mutations wore out, returning her body back to her normal form.

"Come on. Let's get these guys out of here." Frederick called over to his bewildered group of colleagues as he lit up a smoke. "Our work here is done. Anybody have one of those rings? You know, so the guy in the ground can't slice us in half?"

"I've got a few in the truck!" Said a soldier as he ran back to retrieve the item meant to restrain a rouge unicorn's magic.

Though his glowing red eyes were closed as to feign unconsciousness, Spazz could hear every move that everyone and everypony made around him. Every foot or hoof step, every click of Twilight preparing her rifle, the opening and closing of a truck door followed by the soldier jogging back over to render him defenseless, he could hear it. Most importantly, he could pinpoint precisely how far away from him and in what direction Celestia was. If he wished to retain the freedom he had gained mere hours ago, he needed to act quickly. Celestia was weakened and as far as he was concerned, everyone thought they had him and surely could not foresee his final attempt at wreaking his perverse pleasures brought by the spillage of blood. At this point, he had nothing to lose.

"Surprise, sweet cheeks!!" Spazz shouted as he sprang up and threw himself at Celestia, tackling her to the ground before tightly pressing his hooves against her throat.

No one saw it coming. They all thought they finally had Spazz taken down and that they could at long last go home and with Radius alive to boot. Now, with the life of a world leader at stake and the hooves of a demented monster violently strangling her, the armed soldiers had no other option but to use lethal force and end Spazz once and for all.

"FIRE!!!" The highest ranking soldier yelled without even a second thought.

A hail of bullets was about to rain down on Spazz and his innocent host, putting an end to both of them. Since being deployed to the exclusion zone, the Ukrainian Army had strict orders from the Prime minister to protect Celestia and her subjects and bring them to safety by any means necessary. Being part of Radius however, Spazz had his host's intelligence and thus had a plan of his own to ensure that he would not only survive but make his sickest of fantasies a reality now that he had dozens of toys nearby to call his own. Just in the nick of time before being filled with holes, Spazz surrounded himself in a shield bubble that rendered the bullets useless. Still, the soldiers continued to empty their magazines into the impenetrable barrier until their rifles made no more than dry clicks. Spazz's ears twitched excitedly at the sound as he put his final plan into action.

Much like before when the search team attempted to thwart his last attempt to take advantage of Rainbow Dash, Spazz turned his protective shield into a shockwave, knocking everyone down and stunning them. With no one else standing in his way, Celestia was now at the mercy of the demon that wrapped the hooves of her former lover firmly around her neck. Spazz drooled and his body began to take on a reddish glow of intense arousal as he seemed to get off at the sight of the eyes of his victim rolling back into her head as the color slowly drained from her irises.

"Remember what I told you, Raddy!?" Spazz asked his host with a laugh. "Remember!? I told you I'd destroy everything and everypony you've ever loved! I'm starting with this one and I'm gonna make you watch! I want you to look into her dying eyes! Look at them!! GAHAHAHAHAHAAAH!!!"

"Twiley!!" A desperate Shining Armor screamed as he struggled to lift himself back onto his hooves. "Twiley, take the shot! Take the shot!!"

Spazz was sure that he had won and was about to indulge in all the violent sex and bloody disembowelment he could possibly want and as such, he had allowed his arousal distract him from the Lavender alicorn with the tranq rifle. This was the moment that could save her mentor, all her friends and even Radius or act as the final nail in the coffin for all of them. It was all in her hooves and though this was not the first time such was the case, the very idea of failure made her shiver as she struggled to take aim. There was too much to lose, too much at stake and this was unlike any other adversary she had ever dealt with in her young life.

Despite all that made her shudder, Twilight Sparkle knew that allowing her anxiety to get the better of her would lead to the deaths of everypony and everyone within Ukraine and beyond. With every last ounce of strength and willpower she could muster, Twilight Sparkle lined up the sights with a large vein that bulged from Radius's neck and slowly exhaled as she squeezed the trigger. Her adrenaline was surging through her bloodstream at full bore and the dart seemed to float through the air towards its target. The closer it flew towards its mark however, the less accurate of a shot it would appear to be. For the devastated alicorn behind the trigger, it was the painful realization that the barrel had been bent in the scuffle and she would learn the hard way.

"NOOOOOO!!!" Twilight Sparkle screamed at the top of her lungs as the dart sailed over Radius's head and came to a stop in the dirt a mere twenty feet away.

Twilight's heart sank to a low it had never hit before as did those of the search team whom of which had began to weep as they watched their beloved Princess be choked before their very eyes. In their exhausted states, they struggled to so much as even lift themselves off the ground and Twilight Sparkle herself was ready to faint as she had failed to save everypony who would all soon meet the same if not, worse fate than Celestia. Even the soldiers would surely not be able to help as they still lay stunned on the asphalt. It was all over. Spazz had won.

"OOF!" Spazz grunted after a right hoof that belonged to his host laid a firm smack to his lower lip, knocking him back thus freeing Celestia. "What...the fuck...was that?...That's me doing what I should have done thirty years ago, you sick fuck!...WHAT!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? YOU'RE MINE, YOU HEAR ME!? MINE!!"

Everypony stared in shock with their mouths agape as Spazz returned to his hooves and opened his eyes, revealing that his left emitted the same evil red glow and the right, a glossy green that only the purest of hearts could possess. Spazz and Radius were undergoing a full fledged war over control of the body they shared and that rightfully belonged to the caring physicist. The bodily interloper shut both eyes and violently shook his head back and forth in attempt to put Radius back into what he felt was his rightful place in the back of his own mind. Once he opened them, much to his dismay, he could only see through the left eye which meant, his host had regained the other half of the body the fought for control of.

"Do you remember what Celestia said!?" Radius's mouth hollered before the right hoof laid another punch to his own face, knocking him back to the ground. "Ahh! She's right! I would rather die and take you with me!"

Suddenly, Radius's two right legs, both front and back pulled himself along the ground away from Celestia, her Equestrian subjects and the Ukrainian soldiers who were just coming to. As quickly as his journey to his destination began, the left half of his body began to resist which Radius responded to stomping on his own left rear leg with his right. He was able to crawl several more feet towards where the dart had landed in the dirt. There were only a mere few yards to go and he could nearly taste the strange serum inside the tiny vial that he just knew was meant for him. Still however, Spazz used Radius left front arm to make one final protest against the rightful owner of the body he encroached upon.

"Gahh!" Spazz Yelped as Radius sunk his teeth into his own left front leg, forcing it to release its grip on the ground. "You're shooting yourself in the foot! You'll never see your home or anyone you love again! The light of day! All gone just because you think of others! You could have gone along for the ride, but nooo, you had to put others first! You're pathetic! I can't fucking believe I'm getting taken out by the likes of you!!"

Celestia gasped and wheezed for air as she could feel her throat having been freed from Spazz's clutch. Just as her equine subjects crawled to her aid as quickly as their sick and tired bodies would allow, the battered Princess looked over to see the raging battle between Spazz and Radius. He was almost there. Only three more drags across the ground...two...one. With his right front hoof that he controlled, Radius plucked the dart from the soil it rested in and held it high pointed directly at his jugular vein before offering his last farewell to the monster who tormented him for so long.

"I won't be seeing you in Tartarus..." Radius said with a smirk on the right side of his lips while Spazz gasped in horror on his left. "...because I'm going to a better place than you...goodbye, asshole!"

With one final self inflicted blow, Radius plunged the needle of the dart as deeply as it would go into the large vein on his neck. With his eyes tightly shut, he took several slow, deep breaths as if he were meditating but what followed next indicated that it was not the case. Much to the dismay of everyone and everypony who watched, the mutated unicorn rolled onto his back before every muscle and limb on his body proceeded to violently twitch. Soon, his eyes rolled back into his head as they flickered back and forth between Spazz's red and Radius's natural green. Everyone winced as he then began to hack and cough foam from his mouth as his body continued to violently convulse. To add to the incredibly pitiful and disturbing scene that played before them all, the strange squeaks and yelps that came from his mouth were simply horrifying to listen to.

The eyes of the ailing mutant flickered between the two entities faster and faster still until finally, they stopped on red for a brief moment and with one final high pitched shriek, they faded to green. Radius rolled from his back onto his side as the last lingering breath escaped his lungs followed by his body going limp. A deafening silence filled the air and having been subjected to the torment the ponies had spent the last several hours enduring, it was welcome and yet not something they were used to.

Celestia had caught her breath and recovered from her near asphyxiation and now that the drug had finally been administered, she wanted nothing more than to see what would become of Radius. The soldiers were also anxious as they too were aware of the circumstances and knew that the limp mutated body they were cautiously approaching was a long lost Chernobyl victim. Frederick, being the one who had spent most of his time going out of his way to yield results from the search had pushed his way through the group of armed men and women as he simply wanted closure.

With the help Of Shining Armor and Big Macintosh, Princess Celestia arose to her hooves as the two stallions limped along with her over to the seemingly lifeless body. Twilight Sparkle and Spitfire did the same for Rainbow Dash whom had fared the worst out of the three and then Soarin followed suit. The large group of soldiers parted as their diplomatic guests slowly limped their ways through towards Radius whom was still lying motionless on his side. Very carefully, Frederick slowly knelt down to to mutant and gently placed his thumb, index and middle finder around the equine's wrist. He felt no pulse. As everyone and everypony anxiously watched, Frederick then placed his index and middle finger over Radius's neck. There was nothing.

It seemed that everyone else was now safe but things were not looking good for Radius whom had just stuck a syringe filled with a strange, unknown serum into his neck but that still did not confirm or debunk any their concerns. The cold, hard truth would soon tug at the hearts of everyone watching as Frederick placed his hand around Radius's left front leg and rolled him to his other side and facing towards the group. His eyes were open and his natural green had been replaced by a dull, lifeless gray and good measure, Frederick hovered his hand over the mutant's muzzle with not a single breath of air to speak of.

The cold, hard reality slowly sank in for everypony whom had worked so tirelessly for every hour of every day for over a week just to get the worst possible sleep at night. The Equestrians simply did not know what to say and as every soldier in the group somberly removed their helmets out of respect, their was not a single dry eye to be seen. Even the battle toughened Frederick was not immune to the devastating outcome and the heart wrenching fact that Radius had sacrificed himself to save everypony else and also finally achieve peace of his own. Thirty long, lonely, agonizing years of constant pain and torment at long last had come to an end. The poor soul to have endured the struggles of battling with his own self on a daily basis could now rest in peace. After three decades of his seemingly never ending nightmare within Chernobyl's radioactive exclusion zone, Radius Circumfrancis Hoofenschtov was finally free.

Author's Notes:

This again breaks my own personal record for my longest chapter. Also, just a fair warning, there is a spoiler underneath these black text boxes here and should you so choose to hover over them, you only have your self to blame please DO NOT jump to any conclusions or withdraw your like and replace with with a dislike as I am not killing Radius off. The ending will be a happy one. That's all I will be saying about that for now. A big thanks to mix-up for the amazing image of her royal radioactiveness and little-tweenframes for giving her the name.