All over Equestria, the sirens became to wail as the megaspells and the balefire bombs homed in on the cities and major population centres. The last direct rays of the sun vanished from sight as the pegusi pulled the clouds into a solid mass to prevent taint and radiation from leaking into the sky and affecting them. On the ground, those earth ponies and unicorns who were lucky enough (or unlucky enough, some would say) were hearded into the Stables, special underground shelters where they would have to hide, perhaps for a very long time indeed. Many could not find places in the stables;some of them selected ponies on the basis of their cutie mark. Those without a cutie mark that showed a talent that would be useful underground, unless they were young blank flanks, were turned away. Others, those who were too far away from a stable, and a few who feared the new world to the point of not wanting to live, stayed in the open.

Applejack stood speaking with Pinkie Pie, Scootaloo by her side. "Ah don't think Ah could spent my whole life in a Stable, never being able to go outside, never feeling the open air on my flacks or being able to buck the apples on my farm. And Ah don't think Scootaloo deserves such a fate either. A'm surprised that you are not in a Stable yourself by now. That cutie mark of yours marks you out as somebody who could help with morale. Those ponies down there would love to have you and your parties to take their mind off the world outside."

Pinkie replied "I thought this might happen from when the war began;those zebras-it's just the sort of thing they would do;and I have my own shelter under my home, stacked high with all my favourite cupcakes and all sorts of other food. You can shelter with...holy Celestia!" A megaspell was arcing in, crackling like fireworks as it did so. Pinky scurried into her shelter, and Scootaloo followed, screaming "Wait, I don't want to die, then I'll never get my cutie mark..." Pinkie slammed the hatch down, too scared to let anypony into her shelter in case everypony nearby tries to get in and jammed the hatch open when the megaspell hit. The shelter shook with the effects of the blast wave and then there was silence from outside.

On day seven, the power generator of Pinkie's shelter cut out and she was plunged into darkness, the only light she had coming from her torch, that she could not use for long.

On day ten something inside her mind snapped, and she decided that all the horror did not exist and everypony was fine out there, so she climbed up to the surface and found Scootaloo lying there, bloated and swolen with rot. "Hi Scootaloo, you shoulden't be asleep, it's the middle of the day! And you need a bath, you really need a bath." She shook Scootaloo to wake her and a cloud of flies rose up with a loud buzzing, and then she noticed Applejack lying under an apple tree, her neck twisted strangely.

"Hello Applejack, look at all the hard work that you've done. This must be your best applebucking session ever. A whole field of trees, and you did it all by yourself." Applejack was silent. "No wonder you are lying there, you have a right to rest after all that hard work." A fly landed on Applejack's cheek, walked across her muzzle and crawled up her nostril. Applejack ignored it. "I'm going to give Scootaloo a cupcake and then go and find the rest of my friends." Pinky Pie produced one of the last of her cupcakes and opened Scootaloo's mouth with her hoof, pushing the cake inside and shutting it, before starting her search for the rest of her friends. "I should find them soon enough. Nothing's wrong."