In the days I’ve spent without my voice, I have thought on some things I have never thought of before. The question currently on my mind was when did snow last fall. There were many days in that cave back at the raider camp where I sometimes thought I would freeze to death. It was near the beginning of December if I was correct and I had never seen a single spot of snow in my life. I knew why it never appeared, it was because of the radiation from the mega spells.

That wasn’t the main thing I was wondering at the moment, in truth what I wanted to know was when snow last touched the ground. I had never seen snow in my life, and I had the time to wonder about what it may have been like. I imagined something like ash, but colder and maybe even edible. Maybe it glistened like a new piece of metal, I really didn’t know. It was a mystery, and one I wish would be able to see one day.

As we entered the Misty Moon apartment building I took a glimpse behind me as I saw the ground literally light on fire. Sharpshot wasn’t kidding when he said that it would burn you alive, one of these small pieces could probably burn down any wooden building with ease. I closed the door behind me as I saw more and more ash fall to the ground and burst into flames. It was kinda pretty in it’s own unique way.

I took one step forward, accidentally bumping into White Light in the process and falling to the ground. She held out a hoof and I grabbed it as she pulled off of the floor and she walked into the next room. I went to go follow her but then looked behind me to see Stitch simply laying down in the hallway. Her face turned away from me, but yet I could somehow see the sadness that was plaguing her.

She looked at me to see me staring, hiding her sadness under a weak smile. “I'm fine,” I looked at her completely unconvinced by those words. “I just need some time to think. Sorry to act rude but, if you wouldn't mind going somewhere else,”

I could tell there wasn’t anything I would be able to do in order to make this better, but that did make me feel bad for not being able to cheer her up. Things were really tough for her right now, two of the ponies she is closest to have died, and she learns that one of them had killed her parents and taken her. It sounded like something out of a really depressing story book in many ways… Don’t ask.

I’m gotta say, this building was definitely in better shape than any of the others around. The wallpaper may have been peeling sure, but other then that it was in terrific shape. I walked into the room that White Light had entered earlier to see her put down a shutter on a nearby window. The glass had completely blown out, and from what I know it’s probably from that Nebula One mega spell that Zoey had told us about earlier. Then again this entire city could have been leveled by that thing.

Then again, what wasn’t there that the mega spell didn’t do. It destroyed a functioning country, killed thousands of ponies, brought down once great cities such as Manehattan, and ruined the culture we had. In my heart I had always wanted to see what so many of the things in pre-war Equestria was like. I would have loved to meet Celestia, Luna, and other members of the royal family. I would have loved to meet the ministry mares and work with them. Maybe, if I was there I could have prevented this.

During the walk Dead Hooves had told me about something called the Butterfly effect. I had never heard of it before, but I found it an incredible thing, I feel like I heard it before. I believe I remember her saying that it was when one small change led to even greater changes down the line. That was what I remember at least. There was also something else about teenagers in a cabin in the Mountains but I hadn’t listen to that part.

Still, what if I was born before the war. Maybe that wouldn’t count as part of the Butterfly effect but it sure seemed like it to me. Could I have maybe stopped it. Could Dead Hooves have stopped it? Maybe I was thinking a little too much into this, but thinking that the world could have been so different is a hard thing to think of. The enemies that could have been friends, the ponies that wouldn’t have to die, the terrifying killing machines that we wouldn’t have had to make. It all came to mind.

The biggest reason though is that during this time of the year, in two weeks, there was a pre-war festivity called Hearth's Warming day that I had heard about. It celebrated the day that Earth pony, Pegasi, and Unicorn came together. I remember my parents telling me the day before they were killed all about it.

“Hey Willow Wisp,” I was snapped back to reality by White Light, “Is everything okay, you haven’t talked since you got here,”

White Light didn’t know that I had lost my voice. I thought for a second how to show her, but Stitch luckily answered it for me. “She can’t talk. Why?”

“Because I remember her being a big talker is all,” White Light said walking over to the door. “Are you sure you wanna sleep there? There’s a nice comfy couch in her with your name on it,”

I look at the couch in the room to see a spring poking out of it. Comfy my ass. “It’s okay,” Stitch said, “But how do you know she could talk, did you meet her sometime?”

I knew exactly where this was going, and I walked over to the two pegasi sisters. White Light looks at me, not sure whether or not she should tell her or not. As I approached, both turned their attention toward me. I turned to White Light who was looking at me with eyes wanting approval to speak. I nodded my head to her in response.

“You gotta promise you won’t tell Dead Hooves when we back get from this, alright,” Stitch nodded, even though I knew she had no idea what she was in for. “Well, in that case, Willow Wisp knows Dread as well. She travel with him,”

I watch as Stitch quickly rose to her hooves “Wait you mean-”

“She’s responsible for some of those ponies deaths,” White Light finished what her sister had said, Stitch look at me in shock. “Yes, she is,”

“Willow Wisp,” Stitch looked to me, probably hoping that it wasn’t true. “Is that really the case? Did you kill some of those innocent ponies,”

I nodded my head yes, but if there was one thing I could tell you about the ponies that me and Dread had killed it was that they were not innocent. It seemed like they always had something about them that broke Dreads rule. He lived by many of the rules of old Equestria, and anyone who had so much as stolen a bobble head was on his bad side. The simplest of crimes were unacceptable, but yet he somehow praised the bigger crimes. I tried to call him out about that but each time he would alway have the same response.

“Tell that to minister Twilight Sparkle,” Is what he would always say to me. “If she praises smart criminals and is the apprentice of Celestia I can’t see what’s so bad about it,”

That kind of gave me chills when I heard it for the first time. I guess he must have had a reason on the inside, maybe he was trying to prove to Celestia the errors she let slip by, but I don’t really know. Could that be the reason he was specifically targeting the children of members of the Ministry of Arcane Science? No, there had to be more to it than that, I’m sure of it.

Stitch was staring at me for what felt like minutes when in truth it was probably only fifteen seconds. She couldn’t believe what I had just admitted. She slowly slid down the wall, a look of terror on her face.

“So, I’m surrounded by the friends of the most wanted criminal in the wasteland,” She said. “And my own sister is one of them,”

“We’ll I wouldn’t say Willow had a choice of whether to be with him or not,” White Light said, “He is the one that bought her after all, she really didn’t have a choice on what to do,”

“That doesn’t change anything,” Stitch replied. “She still killed them,”

“She was also the one that buried them,”

“That isn’t very surprising,” Stitch said. “She did the same thing to my Granny when she died, she didn’t deserve it for what she really did,” I stepped forward, wanting to comfort her but White Light held a hoof up in front of me. “Are you here to kill me?” I look to see Stitch directing the question at me. “Do I have any ties to that list he has?”

I shook my head in response. Dread never sent me away to kill anyone, that would be going against what he always. If I was to kill anyone, it would have been me or him that killed Granny instead of Zoey. Even then we never really worked together anymore. He told me I was free when I ate the poison joke.

“Willow Wisp isn’t that kind of pony,” White Light said. “Wouldn't I be dead if he wanted to kill you. Besides, the fact that she lost her voice doesn’t add up. Why would Dread do something like that?”

I knew why, so the raiders couldn’t get out of me that he was the Bloody Angel. It would make him an even bigger target, and he knew that doing something like that to a master was something a slaver would very likely do. He treated me more equally than most slaves I have met, but even with how much nicer he was he still used me as a tool.

“Yeah right,” Stitch was still in denial that I was on her side. “Tell me the truth, what really are you here for? Didn’t minister Applejack always say to be honest? I know something about this is off from the very moment you said I was your sister. So I’m asking you right now White Light, are you really my sister and why are you bringing me and Willow Wisp to Ponyville?”

White Light let out a sigh at her sister's denial. I could see why this was all so hard for Stitch to take in. In three days the two ponies she knew the most dyed, joined a group that most of the wasteland take as enemies, and had just found a sister she never knew about. I know it sounds stupid, but I believed what White Light had said about them being sisters.

“Fine then,” White Light said, her voice sounding more angry then I had ever remembered it being. “I still stand by most of what I said, but there is a bigger reason I’m busting you,” She looks at me, I saw a fire in her eyes. Not the kind when you are excited about something, it was one I hadn’t ever seen. “Or more specifically Willow Wisp out of there. I saw Dread a day before you all arrived, and he warned me about a insider for Twister working with the Angel Hunters,”

“Who is it?” Stitch asked. “And what about it is so important you’d help a killer esca-”

She was interrupted as White Light hit her hard with her hoof, slamming her head against the wall. It wasn’t enough to cause her skull to be damaged, but she was shut up from the pain she was experiencing. I had no logical idea as to why White Light would do that, it didn’t seem to make that much since. It seemed like she was punishing her for a reason she wasn’t even responsible for. Honestly, I felt like it should have been me on the receiving end of that.

White Light lifted Stitches up, who was on the floor groaning in pain, and they looked each other in the eyes. “I want you right now to do something for me,” She said coldness in her voice just peaking through. She was the White Light, but yet different from what I remember her like. “I want you to look Willow Wisp in the eyes and tell me the pony you see. Forget all about you just heard and say what you think about her based on your own experience,”

“Why?”

“Just do it,”

Without a word, Stitch did as she was told and looked at me. I was to embarrassed to look back at her, and she would never understand why. I occasionally looked up to see the look of anger upon Stitch’s face slowly disappear and be replaced by one of regret, sadness, and understanding. Tears started to fall down her face as she looked at me.

“I see a pony who has gone through some of the worst days of her life,” She says. “Who was forced to murder ponies she didn’t want to, and was brought to the brink of death,”

My body was still covered in the stitching that she had from how badly beaten I was beaten back at the raider camp. The thoughts of their torture still plagued my mind. It’s what I have been fallen asleep to, and it’s what I wake up from. There’s only one difference, in my dreams I end up dead. Shock, beaten, the methods they had used on me seemed limitless. I never asked how they had the stuff, it was something I’d rather not think about.

“Do you think she deserve to be treated like a murderous criminal with all she went through?” White Light asked, in my head I thought I did deserve it. “Sharpshot told me how you saved Willow’s life. You saw her as equal, or more then that even. You want to change that because of a past she had no control over?”

I could see the regret as it seemed to take control over her emotions. She was trying to act so tough, but yet at the same time she had simply broken apart. I remember all the times I had ended up broken like this. My first kill was especially… Gut wrenching let's say. I spent a good amount of time puking into a old toilet in the apartment where it happened trying to convince myself I didn’t do it. It was awful, the worst experience of my life probably.

“I guess you're right,” Stitch said, I could still hear a small amount of anger in her voice. “Sorry Willow, I guess I may have been a little too harsh. I should have known better then to think of you as someone wants murder. You were so sweet to me when Granny died, even if she didn’t deserve it. Just promise not to ever kill me, and break Dreads neck for me if possible,”

I was surprised at the hostility, but considering what he is known as I wouldn’t put it against her. He deserved it in many ways, sure he may have had a reason but even that was still a stupid excuse for killing ponies. None of the members as far as I know are still alive. Most of them are probably dead and Twilight Sparkle just simply… Vanished.

It was weird, and just unnatural for the minister to disappear. I would like to learn what happened, but I’ve read all the old newspapers that Dread had given me (one of the few actions of kindness he constantly kept over the course of our time together) and they never found evidence of it. Then again, only one or two of the ones we obtained ever mentioned the event. It’s weird, you think all the only Equestria Daily newspapers would have talked about it, even some of the earlier Wasteland Journal. Yes, we have a newspaper, and yes no one reads it.

The door suddenly burst open from the outside, and pushed White Light out of the way to see who they were. I was in shock when I saw who and what the two ponies in front of me were. One was a familiar looking clothes covered unicorn with a rusty zebra rifle on his back. Sharpshot had followed us out here in an ash storm and survived? How was that possible, didn’t Dread say the flames also damage magic shields and barriers?

That being said, it was the pony he was carrying on his back that surprised me the most. It was an alicorn, and for what I know probably not either of the two alicorns that Zoey had mentioned. She was had silver coat and red mane, she seemed to be pretty young by the looks of it. If I was to guess her age, I would say probably thirteen. Still, what was an alicorn doing all the way out here?

“Sharpshot,” Stitch exclaimed, “How in the world did yo-”

“I’ll explain everything later,” He said, “Is there anywhere I can but this pony down, she’s killing my back,”

“Of course that’s the thing about this that worries you,” White Light says, rolling her eyes. “We have a couch in here, lay her down in there,”

In a rushing manner, he placed the young alicorn down on the couch in the room. I heard Stitch mutter something about how she had been lied to earlier, but that wasn’t my main concern. I took another look at the alicorn, her face had small specks of some sort of rainbow colored liquid. If I was correct, that must have been the taint stuff that Sharpshot had mentioned while talking to Dead Hooves and Zoey back in Manechester.

“What the hell’s an alicorn doing out here?” White Light mumbled to herself before looking at Sharpshot “Where did you find her?”

“She was just laying in the streets unconscious,” He explains to us “From the taint on her face I think it’s fair to assume that she turned into an alicorn not to long ago. That being said, where the fuck did she find taint in Las Pegasus, much less enough to have this happen?”

“I couldn’t answer that question even if I tried,” White Light respond “My best bet is that it could have been one of the buildings in the irradiated part of the city where we haven’t ever tried going to, but even that is a far fetch considering she isn’t a ghoul,”

“And I thought Willow here was the biggest mystery,” Sharpshot said impressed. “Do you know if there are any side effects to this, most notably anything dangerous,”

“I don’t know,” White Light responded almost frustratedly “I’ve never seen it before, and this is my first experience with an Alicorn,”

Stitch pushed her way up in front of all of us and put her hoof on the alicorn. She sighed after a small moment of time, taking for hoof of the pony. “She just seems unconscious,” She explains. “No fever by the looks of it, and without proper equipment I can’t tell if anything else is wrong. I just hope she wakes up soon,” Stitch stepped away and looked at Sharpshot. “Look I’m sorry to ask but how did you get through the ash storm? You seem completely fine by the looks of it,”

“It’s because your friend Icecap here is actually halfway to being a ghoul,” That was the second time I had heard Someone refer to him by his real name. I look at White Light confused. “Icecap old buddy, would you please explain to your companions what I mean,”

“Ghoul?” Stitch said confused “I thought you were a completely normal pony. I mean, you still have your fur coat and everything. Please tell me this is wrong Shar-”

“Stitch,” He says, “Remember how I had told you that we all had to wear clothes and cover our body so no part of it was showing,” Stitch nodded her head in understand. “That was because this clothes is specially design by the vault to keep out radiation. Something happened when the vault was being made, and because of that radiation lingered during the Last Day and caused some of the inhabitants to die,”

“Thankfully, they knew about this fault, and couldn’t fix it because of how high risk it was to mess with the water filter, and even the air filter. In the end they ask the head of the ministry of image, miss fashion galore as the foals called her in the stable, more normally known as minister Rarity,”

“Rarity?” Stitch said surprised “I have one of the statuettes of her in my saddle bag,” She pulled out a small figurine of a white unicorn with a purple mane, the base of it bearing the words “Be Unwavering” on it. “I kind of saw her as an idol, she’s the reason I wanted to become a doctor. I had no idea she was a fashionista,”

“Honestly I hate her the least out of all the stupid fucking Ministers,” Sharpshot explained. “And don’t say anything about Fluttershy okay, she was founded the minister of peace during a time of war. If that is the definition of “absolutely fucking retarded” then I don’t know what does,”

“Anyways,” Sharpshot continued on with his explanation from earlier. “This was a reasonably good idea, and Minister Rarity seemed to had succeeded in making outfits that covered the entire body, protected you from radiation, and seemed like normal everyday clothing at the same time. There was only one drawback to this,”

“The “suits” I guess you can say, were allowed to be taken off for certain reasons. One of the biggest ones was that you were allowed to take the suit off if you were going to take part in repopulate the stables, in other word if you were going to have sex it was allowed. Don’t ask me how I know, that’s a thirty-five minutes of my childhood I would like to forget about,”

“Of course you could see the problem in this since you are therefore being exposed to radiation for long periods of time. It was the only thing that wasn’t checked for because of obvious reason, you can’t check and clean radiation of a pony who wouldn’t have had radiation before. Everything else from food to water and even tools and weapons were check for signs of radiation. However you couldn’t check ponies without taking the radiation protection suits off, which was already dangerous as you expect since that means no pony is checked for radiation after entering the stable,”

“My mother got radiation while having sex and that affected me from birth. For the first few years of my life it was relatively normal, but even then you aren’t born with clothes. So for the first couple days of my life I was left exposed to the elements, and I was one of only four foals to have survived the radiation exposure. That being said it affected me in a different way than the others. They weren’t immune to radiation like I was, and when I was five my coat started falling off my body. I’m still not fully a ghoul, but I expect that in due time I will be. The least I can do is be thankful that I haven’t lost my fucking mind… At least not yet,”

He looked at Stitch, who wasn’t convinced by his story. Yet I somehow knew he once again he was telling the truth. He was a ghoul, or at least becoming one at that. It was weird, and at the same time I knew why he wanted to keep it a secret. He didn’t seem bothered telling anypony, but considering what Dead Hooves’ experience with them had been it was probably for the best to keep it secret.

“Still not convinced?” He asked Stitch, who nodded her head in response. “The allow me to show you something that will,”

He took off the neck warmer and face mask to reveal his face. What we saw was a stallion with a red coat and black mane going down in front of his right eye. However, there was many spots on his face that the red fur of his body simply disappeared, replaced by unhealthy looking skin underneath it. His mane seemed to still be fully intact by the look of it. He next took off the rest of his clothes to see most of the same result. Patches of his natural coat seemed to disappear with the same rough, dead looking skin that was on his face.

“Oh my…” Stitch started seeing that he was right. “Sharpshot, I’m so sorry I shouldn’t have asked. Please do hurt me,”

“It’s okay,” Sharpshot says reassuringly. “Honestly being a ghoul isn’t that bad once you get use it even with all the ponies who want to shoot your fucking head off. It happens more then you would expect. White Light almost did that to me when I told her about this, thank Celestia she didn’t,”

“Only four baby foals survived the radiation exposure?” Sharpshot nodded his head to Stitches question. “How many ponies were there in stable fifteen,”

“Not many, probably around thirty to twenty-five, almost all of them adults,” The half ghoul answered. “Including the other foals in the stable there was only around ten to seven foals that managed to survive the days after their birth. The stable would have to come to the conclusion that they would soon have to leave there home to survive out here. It all just came a little too soon, no one was prepared for the Ursa Major attack,”

“In that case I guess those goggles of your really are safe to keep attached to your face,” Stitch said, a bit of laughter in her voice as she spoke. Sharpshot rolled his eyes at this, and if I could laugh trust me I would. That being said I still didn’t see what was funny about this.

We were interrupted by the sound of groaning next to us, finding that the alicorn that Sharpshot had arrived with was waking up. Sharpshot and Stitch stopped their conversation to take care of the strange pony. I watched as her eyes opened, appearing to have a strange grey colored iris. It wasn’t normal, that was for sure, no ponies eyes should be that color.

“What the,” She spoke out, looking at me with her grey eyes. “Where am I?”

“Misty Moon apartments in Las Pegasus,” Stitch says in a calm and angelic voice, it was the same one she used on me. “I’m Stitch. Sharpshot here found you passed out in the middle of the street. Do you remember what happened,”

She laid there thinking for a second before responding. “No,” She said. “I don’t remember anything,”

“Your name perhaps?” Stitch asked hopeful. The alicorn shook her head, Stitch’s ears laying flat as she saw. this. “I see, amnesia. I was hoping you it was just short term memory loss or something along those lines. Truthfully I haven’t study enough into this in order to know what to do. Is there anything we can call you?”

The alicorn looked around in thought at what we could call her. She seemed to go into a trance as she looked out the window at something. I followed her gaze outside to see the collection of ash falling to the ground. The flames lighting the street looked as if they were dancing, I closer and swore I could see the spirits of dead controlling the flames. These weren’t just flames, they were left over magic from the Nebula one megaspell that wasn’t irradiated. That was why it didn’t affect Sharpshot like it would have me.

“Flame Dancer,” The alicorn said waking from her trance. “Something about the name feels… I don’t know, right,”

“Flame Dancer it is then,” Stitch said. “I guess it would be kinda bad leaving you out here with amnesia, but I have to ask you real quickly if you remember anything not limited to your memory,”

Flame Dancer closed her eyes, sitting up on the couch. “I remember names,” She said to me. “Alicorn, taint, overmare, Tea Leaf. I remember what looked like so sort of giant bomb… A megaspell! That’s what it told me. A number… Three, or was it the word free? I’m not sure. Something I’m suppose to keep a secret, but I don’t remember what it is. A time of day and a size as well. Twilight and little,” She opened her eyes. “I heard them in a dream before I woke up. That’s all I know,”

“Great,” White Light said sarcastically. “A fucking riddle, I absolutely looove riddles,”

“We know what a few of the words mean,” Sharpshot pointed out. “So let's start there. Alicorn probably is referring to the fact that your are know an alicorn, and the reason I say now is because of the taint on you muzzle,” As Flame Dancer here's this she puts a hoof across the sides of her mouth and scraped some of the rainbow onto her hoof. She looked at it curiously. “Taints a mystery to me, something I would like to research when we get to Manehattan. Overmare is the name of a female leader in a stable. Tea Leaf must be referring to the name of somepony, whether they are alive or not is a mystery”

“The megaspell thing is a slight mystery, but it’s possible that it could be connected to the secret,” Stitch added in. “As for the words twilight and little, I can’t think of anything they would be relating to. The only thing that twilight could mean besides a time of day is that it’s talking about minister Twilight Sparkle but she's dead as far as the wasteland knows,”

“How do we even know this means anything?” White Light asked. “Isn’t this just a dream,”

“The reason I had gone to Canterlot was because a friend of mine in Manehattan wanted to know about the pink cloud,” Sharpshot explained “Since he knows I’m immune to radiation he asked me to help and I agreed. I learned some interesting things there, such as the fact that there are ghouls who haven’t had their brain microwaved living in it. I found a memory orb while in there that put me in the body of Princess Celestia,”

Stitch was opening her mouth to talk before Sharpshot answered it for her. “Yes, it felt weird, off, and every bit as perverted as it sounds,” Stitch closed her mouth before opening again. “Trust me, you do not want to know what exactly was going on in the memory. Hell, why the fuck did Celestia record that, it’s the last thing a virgin wants to see,”

“Are you saying you lost your virginity to a memory orb?” White Light looked at Sharpshot in confusion. The look on his face told us all exactly what we needed to know. “Right, sorry I asked,”

“Anyways,” Sharpshot said, trying to get back on topic. “After the idea of vomiting got on out of my head I learned something interesting. Apparently Alicorn dreams are more like visions, they’re vague but lead to events in the possible future that could happen if things are done correctly. While the one Celestia had never came true, it might be possible to make this future possible,”

“What if it’s a bad future though?” White Light asked in concern.

“The only one that knows is the Alicorn who has it,” Sharpshot explain. “Since Flame Dancer here must have gained a side effect of the taint she lost her memory, but the dream she has she will keep on having until it is either fulfilled or the time it is suppose to happen passes. I am kinda worried about the mega spells part, but if we can find out what it means we can piece together whether it’s good or not,”

“Well we don’t seem to be getting anywhere with what she’s told us,” White Light examined from Sharpshot and Stitch’s earlier conversation. “Is there anything else you can remember off the top of your head,”

“Sorry,” Flame Dancer said, her ears falling back in embarrassment. “I wish I could be more helpful now that I know what this is but I don’t,”

“We have a chance tomorrow night,” Sharpshot announces. “I’m going to go on and explore the upper levels a bit. Anyone want to come with me,”

“I think I’ll stay down here,” Stitch said. “I want to ask a few questions to Flame Dancer here, but if you find anything that could be remotely useful bring it to me okay,”

“I know how to craft and modify weapons,” White Light says. “I would like to come along and see if there is anything that could be useful for enhancing our current weaponry. No doubt it’s all we’ll have for some time,”

“Willow Wisp?” Sharpshot looked at me for his approval. The sheer fact that he even acknowledged my existence was enough to make me nod my head in approval. “Well in that case we will bid the two of you farewell for the time being,”

“Ha ha very funny,” Stitch said, seeing how out of character it seemed for the half ghoul. “Next time you want to do that make sure it’s before you tell us you fucked in Celestia’s body,”

“Two things,” Sharpshot said, wanting the last word. “You were going to ask about it, and it was a fucking memory orb,”

“Still happened,” Stitch mumbled, and Sharpshot didn’t care do say anything about it.

We made our way out of the ground floor apartment and up the stairs. I quickly looked off into the distance, it was like the ground of the city was on fire. I couldn’t see that much, the smoke from the flames obscured my vision. What I did see down below me was the sound of an agonizing howl. I look to see a hellhound burning alive on the streets. The ash storm, it was so beautiful but deadly at the same time.

We walked up two flights of stairs before seeing a door on the my left closed. In front of it was the skeleton of a pony, half it’s bones burned off by the initial explosion of the Nebula One mega spell. What a bad way to go, I’m glad I wasn’t here twenty years ago. Then again I wasn’t alive twenty years ago.

Sharpshot pushed the body of the dead pony aside and used his magic to try and open the door. He got frustrated when all he heard was the sound of the door locked. He swore to himself silently before looking to us.

“I wouldn’t suppose you two would have brought something to open this door right?” He asked the two of us,

White Light stepped up and walked to Sharpshots’ side to open the door. I watched from a distance as she pulled out a screw and a sewing pin and placed the two into the door’s lock. I watched as she carefully moved the two around, using the sewing pin to find something in the lock while the screw slowly tried turning the doorknob. After a minute or two I heard a click and watched as White Light slowly removed the screw and sewing pin from the doorknob.

“Most ponies use a screwdriver and bobby pin,” She said. “I however have found that screws are more common around the city then screwdrivers and that a sewing needle is less frail and about the same size as a bobby pin,”

Sharpshot didn’t care to respond, opening the door. I followed him with White Light taking up the rear. The apartment looked like the one downstairs. We entered to a sad looking living room with a old coach and what might have been one of those TV things Dread told me about. The walls had holes in them, showing something, desperation maybe. Was someone trapped in here? I look behind myself to see that there was no way to lock the door from the inside. If anyone was left in here and the door locked on them, then they were long dead.

At the far edge of the room was what looked like an end table with a drawer in it, but nothing really stuck out about the apartment. It felt so normal, so quite and serene. The wasteland was sometimes strange when it came to beauty, what might have looked like a shit material back then was seen as beautiful. Anything that shined was almost otherworldly.

I walked down the hallway and into the kitchen, there was marks of burning all around the stove. Was somepony cooking here when Nebula One went off? The tile floor was covered in black from the possible burning that must have ended this ponies life. The kitchen looked like many from before the Last Day. If anyplace had supplies it would be right here.

“Willow,” I looked to see White Light toss a screwdriver and sew needle at me. I caught them in my hooves and looked to her in confusion. “Dread told me about how good of a lock picker you are, take them. I don’t need anymore then I already have,”

I nodded and put them in my saddlebag before going into my new Pip Buck for the first time. It must have been an unused model, as I saw lines of code go across the screen as I turned it on. Once the lines of code disappeared I was met by a start up screen, a cartoonish Pegasus wink at me as it finished. It was then I was met by the normal PipBuck screen. I watch as it calculated the conditions of my health. Everything seemed perfectly fine, but there was another message that came into my vision not long afterward.

Poison Joke detected in body

So it was Poison Joke that made me lose my voice. There wasn’t really any plants I know too much about that could do this, but I was so grateful it wasn’t Killing Joke. Then again, I don’t want to remember what I said that could have made it worse then losing my voice, probably good that I don’t. What it confirmed was that there was some possibility of me getting my voice back that Dread might have known about.

I switch over to the tab marked “INV” on the Pipbuck and put check to make sure it got the two items I just got. I scrolled over to the miscellaneous section of it to see both already sorted in. I put them at the top of my inventory, not expecting the need to fight in the upcoming future.

Before backing on out I check one last thing, switch back to stat screen. I changed the sub menu from status to SPECIAL and read what it said on it.

Strength: 5

Perception: 6

Endurance: 5

Charisma: 2

Intelligence: 4

Agility: 3

Luck: 3

I had to honestly agree with what it said. I wasn’t the biggest and most well fit pony in the wasteland by far. I had to roll my eyes though at the charisma thing, it was most likely based on the fact I couldn’t talk. I was a very sociable pony when I did have my voice, even if Dread was constantly annoyed by it. Hopefully I could somehow calibrate it once, or if, I manage to get my voice back. It was a strange goal of mine but a goal none the less.

Turning my head away from the PipBuck, I walked over to the fridge and opened it. Most of the food in there was rotten, flies crowding around it like an old political convention. Yes, it was really that bad, I was almost afraid to stick my hoof in there until I saw a bottle of Sparkle-cola sitting in the back of the fridge. I reach my hoof through the disgusting piles of mush that use to be food and grabbed it. I brought it out and put it in the saddlebag, If there was anything stranger than Twilight Sparkles disappearance it is the fact that Sparkle-cola stays good for who knows how long. It was as if the drink somehow managed to preserve itself, maybe some sort of strange magic protecting but I’m a Pegasus, what do I know about magic.

I look to the line of cabinet's on my right and see a holotape on the counter. Curious, I pick it up and study it closely for a second. I looked back at the PipBuck, and realized that it was able to play holotapes. I wasn’t sure whether I should listen to it or not. I didn’t want to listen to something overly private to a pony, I always had sympathy and respect for the dead. Then again, it could also lead to something like treasure. I mouthed the word “sorry” into the holotape before putting it into my PipBuck and listening.

“She’s acting crazier as the day goes on. Ever since those three ponies with that weird rainbow liquid came things have been weird. The landlord has gotten completely insane, we had no choice but to shoot her. I didn’t believe what I had just done, I shot another pony. Coco said it was what we would have to do if it happened to any of us as well,”

“They said it would let us live longer, and it indeed did. I still have my youth somehow, fifty-four years after the war ended and the world went away. The only reason I’m alive was because of Las Pegasus. It was a haven to anyone who left the comforts of their old homes. I’m not sure about it anymore,”

“I don’t have a lot more room on this but if you found this recording, then I am probably dead. My name is Amethyst Star, and something is very wrong with the ponies here. Some seem to be losing reason, and I think it’s because of that weird liquid. You got to leave, I am about to do the same. So please, save yourself,”

“So somepony has been distributing taint as some kinda drug?” I look behind me to see that White Light had been listening to the entire thing. “Why would they do it though? I don’t think they would be after money. I’ve barely spent a cap out here in the wasteland and have managed to survived,”

I look to the left of White Light to see a door open next to her. It seemed to be a bedroom, a queen size bed in the middle of it with blood covered flower blanket. There was a dresser to the left of it with a light knocked onto the floor. The bulb looked like it had been broken. On the right side of the bed was the skeleton of a pony. It was only one, meaning that either the Coco pony or Amethyst Star pony had escaped.

“She wasn’t killed by Nebula One,” White Light noted. “The blood on the bed as well as the skeleton meant that something killed her. Sweet Celestia, is this what taint does to some ponies,”

“Everything okay in here?” Sharpshot yells to us from behind. “Never mind, it obviously isn’t okay. Skeleton, bloody bed, seems like something out of a horror book. Anyways I say we keep moving on up, nothing of main interest down here,”

I take a look at the dead pony, I knew that whatever had killed her must still be alive in here. I knew this pony wouldn’t rest easily knowing the creature that did this was still alive. Even if I only had this knife, I at least had something to kill it. What if it attack someone else in the future? I couldn’t stand thinking that might happen.

With this in mind I nod my head to Sharpshot watching a smile grow on his face. “Glad to see you’re up for this, in that case let's get moving,”

I take one last glimpse at the skeleton, feeling horrible for what happened to this pony. The worst part about it was that I wasn’t alive to save her, or that she didn’t survive in general. I silently promised to find her friend, whichever of the two ponies had managed to escape. They were still alive, I somehow knew it.

“You can bury her later when the storms over,” White Light said before heading out the door. “We have something to do know,”

I followed her and Sharpshot out of the room and up the next flight of stairs. Most of the floor seemed to be in worse shape than the others. I watched as Sharpshot walked to the window on the far side of the hallway. I followed him over and looked out to see a gigantic chasm in the middle of all the tall buildings. It was obviously not natural.

“They say this was what Nebula One caused,” Sharpshot explains. “An entire half of the city destroyed by a single megaspell, leaving nothing but magic radiation and dead land where it fell. Imagine, this thing could wipe out all of friendship city in an instant and no pony would live to tell the tale,”

“The main question is how?” White Light asked “There is always some sort of trigger spell or something that causes up to seventy percent of the damage caused, the next thirty is after effect. How could a normal unicorn or even a group cause an entire half of a city to disintegrate in the matter of a second?”

Sharpshot seemed to ignore the question. “We have to head in that direction, the most irradiated area in the entire wasteland. It would take two whole days to go around,” He turned to us as he continued. “Even then it’s about a day’s trip thru the area, enough time to easily kill a pony. The only hope is that you turn into a ghoul, and that you still have a brain,”

Two whole days! That’s how big that area was, and I couldn’t imagine how bad the radiation was in the center. Did Equestria really build something that big and keep it a secret from the press? It seemed horrifying, the princesses we so treasured building something so destructive. What could have been going through there heads to build something that caused this.

“If we’re out here for two days then they will come find us,” White Light tells us. “They will most likely bring us all back, and right into Twisters hands,”

“Then we have no choice but to head through No Mare’s Land,” Sharpshot replies. “I’ll take Willow Wisp with me, the rest of you head around and meet up with us at the railroad,”

I took a step back at Sharpshot suggested me going into that area. Was he insane, I would die before we made it all the way through. I wanted to believe he was joking, but he wasn’t that was his actual plan. Why did I have to go with him?

“Are you insane?” White Light shouted at him, eyes wide with shock. “Icecap, she won’t survive out there, she isn’t like you,”

“Do you see any other option,” Sharpshot said rather calmly. “If Willow Wisp goes around they will find her just like you said, but what pony in there right mind would go through deep radiation. My blood is immune, and with some medical help from Stitch I could hopefully transfer it into her body to make her immune to,”

“You know what else that will do though,” White Light continued “She’ll turn into a ghoul just like you. The blood will become part of her system. She’ll live as long, lose her coat and mane, and will be seen as an outcast from society. Do you want to that to happen to her,”

I placed a hoof on White Lights shoulder, her gaze shifting from Sharpshot to me. I gave a soft smile to her as she looked like she was wanting to protest. After a second she closed her eyes and let out a sigh. She then put a hoof on my back she removed mine from hers.

“You are one crazy pony,” She says as she begins to walk away from us and over to one of the doors.

“Thanks Willow,” Sharpshot said with a smile on his face. “It’s going to be nice having somepony to hopefully stay with me over the centuries,” He came over and gave me a hug, in which I felt just how rough the skin under his coat was.

No one would understand why I wanted to do this, I still don’t think they do. In truth, I was afraid of dieing. That’s something understandable, as a species the last thing you want to do is to close your eyes and never wake up again. To me, I wanted to make up for all the bad things I’ve done, and that’s something I can’t do in one lifetime. Even if scars won't heal, I want to try and make them disappear.

My ears perked up at the sound of something down the hallway… Something slushy sounding. Whatever it was, it sounded like it was coming downstairs. I wasn’t the only one to hear it, Sharpshot took out Flash Fire as he heard the sound coming from the stairs. He held his hoof out in front of me and I stepped back behind him.

“If this fucking thing grabs ahold of me and does anything I want you to kill both me and it,” He told me. “Got that?”

I nodded my head as the the thing came closer into view. I saw what looked like a hoof hit the stairs, but something about it was wrong. It didn’t seem completely solid, in fact it looked like it was dripping down the stairs a bit. Then came something else, what looked like a tentacle of some sort come out of nowhere. That’s not the only thing, there was several of the from the looks of it, all squirming uncontrollably.

My eyes dilated when the things head came into view and with that the rest of it’s body as well. Before I could get a perfect glance at it Sharpshot let a bullet loose, going straight through the creature's eyes and through its brain. The eyes in question were bright red and looked like something you saw on a fruit fly, a hole now going through where the bullet had entered. It fell to the ground, and I could see that it’s entire body was enveloped in some kind of strange goo.

Sharpshot lowered the rifle and flung it onto his back. “The pony you found,” Sharpshot started looking at the creature as he moved over to the room where White Light was. “I didn’t want to mention this but her waist and pelvis was broken,”

I didn’t understand what he meant, and something told me I didn’t want to know. I followed him into the room White Light was in. She was actually making her way to the door, her face showing worry.

“I heard a shot fired,” She said as she looked at us. “Is everything oka-” Her voice trailed off as she saw the body of the creature on the stairway. “Holy shit. What the hell is that?”

“I don’t know what to call them,” Sharpshot said, rather calm considering what was going on. “But just be glad it’s dead. That seemed to be whatever killed that pony in the room downstairs,” He turned his direction from the room to the stairs leading downward. “This place isn’t safe, we leave as soon as the storm is over,”

I had no objections, and it was clear White Light didn’t either. She looked as if she was paralyzed in fear at the sight of whatever it was. I didn’t want to stick around if there was more of those things. I made my way of to the stairs, looking back to see White Light slowly make her way over, her eyes not leaving the creature's body.

Author's Notes:

Poor Sharpshot. Poor poor Sharpshot. That has to be the most I've crossed the line yet in this entire story, but I have no regrets for that. It was a lot of fun writing the scene. Also:

Hospital Horror = Hentai Creatures

And now you can never unsee it. Like, Comment, and follow to keep up to date on False Guilt and all me other stories. With that, I will see you guys later.