Now my introduction won’t be as long because I am nowhere near as gifted at the complicated art of speech.

So as I was saying... Unlike my travelling companion I was not born and raised in a stable. As a young colt I had to endure all of the tortures the wasteland could send my way.

At the age of six I remember walking along a trail with a group of merchants. My father had hired us an escort so we could reach Manehattan safely. It had cost us all of our possessions minus one a .32 caliber pistol and a box of bullets.

(Shocker right.)

We were about half way to Manehattan when a group of raiders attacked. My dad held the line against the raiders as long as he could.

He gave us enough time to get away from the raiders.

I turned around once and as I did I regretted my choice. I had spun around to see my father the brave stallion I always looked up to had been decapitated and the raiders were defiling his corpse.

My mother turned to me and told me to run.

Anger took control of my body. A surge of magic hit me as the revolver was lifted into the air and killed three raiders. I remember looking to my mother to see if she was the one controlling the gun.

Her horn was not glowing and I knew immediately that I was the one in control. I turned back to the raiders to see them galloping towards us.

A new emotion hit me. I realise now what I had felt was fear. The fear not of me dying or worse but of my mother being captured, killed, and raped by these monsters who called themselves ponies.

A second glow surrounded my horn. A shield formed around the raiders. I felt strained at the effort it took to keep the shield from falling as we ran for our lives.

We had managed to get a 30 minute head start on the raiders before my body finally gave out from exhaustion. My mother picked me up with her telekinesis and put me on her back.

I woke from a deep sleep that I had fallen into 12 hours later. I tried to rapidly sit up after I woke up. I had a nightmare of watching my father be killed over and over again. I smacked my horn into the ceiling of what I’m going to guess was a crawl space.

As my vision returned I saw slivers of light pour in from tiny cracks in the wood. I heard my mother screaming. I knew the sound all too well. My mother was screaming in pain and fear. I knew that the raiders had caught us. I was unable to move for most of a day. All the while my mother was screaming.

After I could walk again I checked over my body to see if I had been injured in any way. I was surprised as I looked to my flank and saw I had a Shield as a cutie mark. I had always asked my parents when I would get my own cutie mark. They said it might take many years before I found what I was good at. At the age of six my destiny had been laid before me.

I walked forward a few more steps before one of the boards I stood upon creaked. The sounds stopped. My mother screamed again but this time not in pain. I looked around but I could not see her. Then I heard her right below me.

“Keeping moving forward.” She said “Get out of here before they catch you. I’ll be fine honey just go.”

The emotions in her voice betrayed her. I knew that I would never see her again.

I ran towards the wall in front of me. A hole had been cut in the crawl space big enough that I could fit through with no problem. Any other pony would be stopped before they could wriggle through the crawl space.

My father had always tried to teach me how to fly. I was new to being able to support myself but I knew with his guidance I would be able to fly faster than any pony could gallop. I shot out of the hole at top speed and spread my wings. I fell for a few seconds before my wings finally supported my weight.

I turned my head and watched as three raiders burst through the door of the building aiming small weapons in my general direction. I was lucky enough to escape the encounter unscathed.

I flew for about 30 minutes before I had to land out of fear that my wings would fail and I would fall to my death. As soon as I landed I was greeted by an unfriendly looking face.

The ghoulish figure stood before me like she had been waiting for me. I had seen too much today. The last thing I saw was the the creature slowly moving toward me before everything faded to black.

I grew used to the sight of the ghoul-pony who had adopted me. She didn’t talk to me and I assumed it was something to do with the damaging alterations they suffered.

We lived happily until I turned 21.5 years old. Looking back on that day, I now know that was the same day that Miss Midnight decided to leave her stable.

I remember it so well. It was the first time my adoptive mother ever spoke to me. Her words still rattle around in my head all too clearly.

“I love you. Though I may not be your real mother, I love you with all the love that is left in this world.”

I did not know what she meant until she took a pistol out and slid it across the table to me.

“Words cannot describe the joy I have experienced raising you from a young colt to the strong stallion you are now. But I can no longer hide the truth from you. You and I have both seen what eventually happens to ghouls when the wasteland finally claims them.”

Somehow I knew this day would come, but I could never have prepared for this moment. I was too stunned to reply.

“I just don’t want to become another one of those undead freaks.”

Tears were welling in both of our eyes. I had lost all my family and now I had to kill the only companion I had in this world.

“Just please before you leave this place, make sure I can’t harm anypony.” She broke down into tears, and neither of us moved.

I was completely petrified, I just couldn’t think nor fathom what would happen after I killed her. There was no real time to wait and find out, as I noticed her movements becoming somewhat sporadic. She uttered no more sounds of sadness, rather slow guttural coughs.

She slumped over the table, all while I watched in horror as her transformation took place. She raised her head bearing an expression on her face that changed from sadness to a desire to rip the flesh off of anypony

I felt that now was the time to do as she told me, and not let her inflict a terrible fate upon anypony.

I hated seeing her this way, so weak, vulnerable, but I had to take advantage to complete her wish. Heavy heartedly, I levitated the gun and tried to point it at her head. It was hard see through the tears now pouring out of my eyes, but I focused on her eyes, watching them staring back at me with possibly the last bit of sanity left inside of her.

“I’m sorry” I whispered before pulling the trigger. She fell from her chair.

I broke down and sobbed before she hit the ground. I was once again alone.

From that day on, I knew I would never be the same pony again.