It was amazing, really. For the thousandth time I glanced up at the cloud cover far above me, a small part of me marveling at how I survived the fall. Not watching where I was going, I promptly tripped over something and landed face first in front of the horrified expression of another dead pegasus. I felt my stomach heave, but after the last three frozen corpses I had nothing left to vomit.

It occurred to me that maybe flying would prevent me from suffering the horror of my dead neighbors, but the thought of it terrified me. I knew that stopping Downpour wouldn’t stop the Enclave military. I probably had hunting squads gearing up to come after me right now, especially after I…

“Committed mass murder…” I whispered as I stumbled past another husk. Needless to say, I didn’t feel comfortable getting closer to the clouds. I noticed the dimming of light and glanced up to the sky again. The hole where my home had once stood was buzzing with activity, a swarm of pegasi arranging themselves around the edges of the breach. All at once they began flying towards opposite ends of the holes, trailing clouds behind them. Like a vast quilt being knit, the Enclave ponies repaired the damage I caused.

I felt my skin crawl as I watched them, felling incredibly vulnerable. What if one of them saw me? Were there soldiers there? As I watched them work I became painfully aware of how large the Enclave’s reach was. All somepony had to do was glance down and I’d have a death squad up my tail. Paranoid? Maybe, but considering the situation I was in I felt paranoia was appropriate. I scurried faster out of the ice field, the scope of the damage baffled me. “How the hell did I do this?” I gasped as I slipped and slid to the edge of the devastation.

Finally I slid out of the icy ruins. I gasped as I looked around me, trying to get my bearings. The area around me was also in ruin, though it wasn’t frozen over. I leaned against a collapsed wall, trying to slow my breathing. My body and mind still felt strained, the effects of the power drain catching up with me as the adrenaline wore off. My brain still felt like somepony had run a wire brush over it, and my legs were as responsive as lead pipes. I slowly slid down the wall, thankful that I was in its shadow. I would just rest here until I felt up to moving…

I jerked at the sounds of gunfire. I felt stiff and cold, curled up next to the wall. I lay there stunned for several seconds until the sounds rang out again. I scrambled to my hooves, my stiff limbs protesting the sudden movement. I looked around at the darkened ruins and cursed myself, I had fallen asleep! Alone and lost in some probably irradiated ruins with Celestia-knows-what mutated horrors and ponies with guns lurking around and I had fallen asleep! When I stood I felt my rear hooves slip out from under me and I fell onto something colder than concrete. I glanced behind me at the ice of my ruined home, feeling incredible guilt well up in me. “Oh Goddesses, I killed them! I…” My panicked whispers were cut off by more gunfire. I pulled myself with my forehooves to get away from the ice while trying to center my thoughts. True, I had killed everypony I had known since I was a foal as well as some I hadn’t, but because of that I was alive. Alive and armed with the knowledge that the rest of the Enclave would be coming down from the sky to murder everypony on the surface. There would be time enough to mourn later, now I had to do something, namely get out of these ruins and warn the surface! As my guilt and panic slowly receded in the face of my resolve I heard what I assumed to be the wielder of the gun screaming.

“Get away! Get away!” I heard the voice echo over the ruins. Over the screams and the shots I could hear an unearthly growling, a sort of gurgling noise that made my skin crawl just from hearing it. “Get away from me you freaks!”

I took a deep breath before getting to my hooves and heading towards the sounds of the gunfire. Though I was still uncomfortable with flying, I used my wings to flutter over the larger mounds of rubble that blocked my path. The majority of the old world city had been annihilated, walls and buildings reduced to mounds of debris that littered the streets. The dark of night made it very difficult to see, which made the sounds all the more terrifying. As I got closer to the sounds of fighting the gurgling cries became louder and more frequent, each one sending a shiver up my spine. I severely hoped that whatever was making that noise was not too common.

I was finally near the fight when the sounds stopped. The quiet came so suddenly I was disoriented by the sound of my own hoof steps. I came to a halt, trying to quiet my breathing so I could listen for signs of the desperate pony. There hadn’t been any gut wrenching death screams, so perhaps they were still alive…

I could hear faint breathing on the other side of the rubble heap next to me. Though it was quick and panicked it wasn’t the terrible gurgling rasp I had heard earlier. I flitted to the top of the heap and glanced down. A young earth pony buck was pressed tightly to the mound, a rusted pistol clenched between his teeth. From this angle and the almost nonexistent light I couldn’t see his face or Cutie Mark, but I could tell that he was scared for his life. He must have heard me land on a rock, because he slowly turned to look up at me, his movements jerky and tense. “Are you okay?” I asked, or at least started to.

Upon seeing me the buck screamed around the handle of his weapon and fired at me. I felt a line of fiery pain cross my left foreleg and shoulder as the bullet grazed me. I gasped in pain, stumbling backwards off the mound. In the half a second before I fell down the mound, I saw down the alley it blocked. The hunched figure of a pony limped past the opening, but after hearing the scream and shot its head turned to look down the alley. All I could make out were its glowing eyes before I fell out of sight.

An inequine scream echoed off of the walls, and the sound of uneven hooves clattered towards the mound. I slid halfway down the rubble before regaining my footing. I could hear the buck crying and shooting as the steps grew louder and louder, the other terrible screams starting up again from every direction. I flapped my wings, leaping back to the top of the mound and moved to rush down it. At least that’s what I meant to do, what I saw made me freeze as if I had blasted myself with winter air.

The hobbling figure moved with surprising speed, rushing the young buck. The earth pony panicked, firing rapidly at his attacker and screaming the whole while. In the intermittent muzzle flash I could see bits of the terrible monster as it continued its charge. Its flesh looked horribly burned, as if it had been left to cook for too long. It had no mane beyond scraggly remains of hair and its hooves were cracked and infested. The worst part was its face, the monster’s flesh had been so mutilated I could almost see the stretching muscle of its manic grin. Its mouth was open in a feral scream with broken and jagged teeth showing between desiccated gums. I could hear meaty thumps as the bullets impacted its flesh, but the creature seemed not to care as it closed in on the frightened colt.

Me? I was terrified. The past day had been hideous beyond anything I had ever seen before, but I could never have imagined such a repulsive creature. I stood frozen, my mind blank with fear as the beast closed on the buck and tackled him. In the flash of his final desperate shot I could see the jagged fangs sink into his flesh. I had seen a disproportionate amount of dead ponies in the past few hours, but I hadn’t heard any of them scream. The wail that escaped the buck cut through the nothingness of my thoughts, adrenaline jumpstarting my body.

I ran like hell, the sounds of the feral beast ripping the poor buck apart receding behind me. I charged down one of the ruined streets despite the pain of my wound, the crumbling buildings flashing by me. My heart was thundering in my chest, a primal fear shooting through me. The terrible howling wouldn’t stop! It sounded like it was getting closer and closer and…

I felt an immense weight slam into me, the disgusting feeling of rotted flesh rubbing against my own. The piercing cry rung in my ears as the zombie pony flailed on top of me, the cracked and broken hooves raking my side. I screamed back, lashing out with my wing. The sickening feeling of my wing smacking the rotted jaw nearly made me heave, but even though it didn’t seem to harm the beast it knocked it off balance long enough for me to shove myself out from under it. I clambered to my hooves just as the zombie struck me again. I screamed in pain as the broken teeth sank into my flank, blood running down my hind legs. I bucked out on reflex, hearing flesh rip from the monster as my hooves shot back. I wasn’t strong by any stretch of the imagination, but I was apparently enough to tear apart a rotted walking corpse.

I looked back at the zombie, freezing in fear as I saw the monster’s head still stuck in my flank, its twitching body on the ground behind me. I snapped my hips to the side, trying to dislodge the severed head. I screamed as it came loose, the broken teeth dislodging with an agonizing tearing feeling. Before I had time to collect myself I heard more cries as the other beasts awoke. I shuddered, bracing against the pain throbbing in my flank, and began limping away as quickly as I could.

“What the hell is going on?” I whispered as the growling and screaming drew closer. My breathing was halting as I cried, from the pain, from fear, and from hopelessness. “Oh Goddesses, please help me!” But there was no divine help on the way, I could hear the demonic chorus growing louder behind me. I looked over my shoulder watching the limping, rotted horde rushing towards me. My mind rushed though different ideas, each more desperate than the last. I had to do something, anything…

I spotted it, something that gave me an idea. It was probably a terrible idea, and I had no idea if I could pull it off. I wasn’t sure I wanted to pull it off, but as the scarily swift masses of shambling corpses drew closer, I was left with little choice. I glanced once more at the moonlight glinting off the icy ruins of my neighborhood from Coltarado Heights, the ice still somehow frozen despite it being several hours after the incident. “I’m sorry.” I said, even though the murdered ponies could not hear me. “I just wanted to be useful, never this.” I turned to face the horde, spreading my wings. I felt my power building, an icy chill spreading over me and a faint crackling coming from my feathers as they frosted over. As the power built, flashes from earlier sped past my mind’s eye, Downpour’s energy rifle pointing at me, Mother staring at the floor unable to look at the daughter she was throwing out, Mother’s terrified expression as that daughter killed her with snow and ice. I shut out those images, I couldn’t afford doubt. I sucked in a deep breath, and held it as the horde shambled close enough for me to see the moonlight glint off of their broken teeth and glowing eyes. “Stay away from me, you rotting, mutated mother fuckers!” The oath built into a scream as I let the spell go.

I flapped my wings in one powerful gust, sending a wave of cold at the horde. Though I didn’t freeze them, what I had done earlier was nothing short of a miracle I wasn’t sure I could replicate, I could see their unnatural muscles tensing from the cold, their bodies slowing down. By the time the wind petered out, the zombies had slowed to a fraction of their former speed, icicles hanging heavily from sinew and flesh. I felt a wave of weariness hit me, but I pushed through it and ran as fast as I could. They wouldn’t be chilled forever. As I limped out of the cursed ruin I saw a street sign, surprisingly legible despite its age and the lack of light. “Welcome to Coltarado Springs! Home of Equestria’s Bravest!”

Incredible pain shot through my wings, originating from the hooks lodged in them. The rest of my body hung limp, causing even more agony in my shoulders from my own weight bearing down on them. This all did little to block out the hungry screams of the zombie ponies, a rotting crush of them writhing beneath me. I was lowered in a slow, jerky fashion, each sudden stop making my shoulders flare in pain. I couldn’t move, couldn’t even struggle as the first zombie jumped and bit into my dangling hoof…

My eyes shot open as I sucked in air, my mind spinning with the remnants of the nightmare. For a few seconds I could hear the zombies growling and tried to sit up to run. Before I could make any progress a hoof was laid on my chest and gently pushed me down. “Whoa there honey! Settle down, you’re alright!”

“Wha- I…” I blinked rapidly, looking around the room. I was in a relatively clean room that had several unoccupied beds in it, sans the one I was in. One stretch of wall was taken up by shelves that housed seemingly random things in no particular order. One shelf held equal parts books and medicinal supplies while another had toys next to stacks of ammunition. The walls were covered in paper that I assumed had once been pink, but were now faded to a sickly gray. Standing at the foot of my bed was a middle-aged unicorn mare that looked more like a ghost than flesh and blood. Everything from the tip of her horn to the bottoms of her hooves was pure white, making her seem to glow even in the dim light of the dirty windows. The only part of her that wasn’t white was her Cutie Mark, which was what appeared to be a family portrait, though I couldn’t make out the ponies in the picture itself. “Where am I? Am I dead?”

The mare chuckled at my confusion. “No you aren’t dead, thank Celestia! You almost were though, gave me some right good scares! I was worried the infection would get you, even after I healed the bite.”

Bite? I looked down the bed at the flank that had been attacked by the zombie. The coat around the bite looked new and I could see some pink flesh beneath it, but other than that I was completely healed. “You healed me?”

“Sure as shooting I did! Lemme tell you I’ve seen some nasty ghoul bites, and yours looked to be the nastiest! Luckily most of the damage was superficial, just really ugly.” As she spoke she busied herself readying something on the bedside table. She talked with a motherly affection that made me distinctly uncomfortable. After all, the last time I had dealt with a mother figure I had nearly been disintegrated.

I closed my eyes against the resurging memory, asking more questions to keep from breaking down over it. “Who are you? And where am I?”

“Well where you are is St. Ponysburg. New St. Ponysburg I suppose, seeing as the old St. Ponysburg was destroyed by the megaspells.” She used her magic to levitate over a coffee mug filled with a strangely colored liquid. “Here, drink this.” At my doubtful expression she reprimanded me. “Now look here, I did not go through all the trouble of saving your life just to poison you! This is a healing potion mixed with an herbal tea, just to make sure we nipped that infection in the bud.” I carefully took the mug in my hooves and sipped the concoction. It tasted surprisingly good and sent a wave of revitalizing energy through me. I eagerly began drinking the rest as she continued. “As for who I am, folks around here call me Sister, which is silly because I’m not part of any nunnery or the like. I guess it’s the whole being all white thing and me being the local doc. I’ve had ponies say I’m angel from Celestia! Can you believe that?”

“Actually yes, I can.” I said, looking up from my mug.

Sister gave me a look that made me feel like a filly who just said the moon was made of cheese. “That’s just silly! I’m about as angel as I am pegasus! And speaking of pegasus.” She gave me a scrutinizing look that made me feel distinctly vulnerable. “Who are you? And what are you doing down here on the surface? I haven’t seen one of you outside of a medical book.”

“My name is Sleet Gray and I…” I paused and looked down at the dregs of the healing concoction, pondering the question. Why was I down here? For the first time since waking up in the mass grave I unintentionally created I had time to sit and think about my actions. Why did all those other pegasi have to die? It was just because I lost control, right? I was staring death in the face and panicked, anypony would.

But I couldn’t tell those dead ponies that. I couldn’t tell them it was a mistake, a mistake that they were killed, a mistake that I found that Goddesses damned file. I couldn’t tell them why I was forced to lash out, about how their government was planning genocide. And I couldn’t tell them how it was all because I was some useless nobody who wanted to be special.

“I made a mistake.” I muttered, not looking up. As the enormity of the situation washed over me I felt like I was falling with no wings, like I was about to die and could not for the life of me figure out what to do about it. I’d hacked a secure government database! “A mistake that I can’t fix.” I had killed so many ponies! I dropped the mug, heedless of the dregs splashing onto me, and grabbed my head in my hooves. I’d killed military personnel; I’d killed my own family! “Oh Goddesses I can’t fix this!” I began hyperventilating, my mind spinning with images of dead ponies and zombies and ice. A thousand things I could do flittered through my thoughts and none of them stuck.

“Sleet Gray, get ahold of yourself!” Sister cried, her concerned voice cutting through my spiraling panic. The pure white mare grabbed my shoulders and forced me to look her in the eye. “Calm down now! Calm down and tell me what happened, slowly.” I stared into Sister’s concerned eyes, I had no idea why she cared about me. I was some random stranger that quite literally dropped out of the sky. But not knowing why didn’t stop the effect her concern had on me, I felt myself slowly settling down; maybe I wasn’t calm but I wasn’t coming apart at the seams anymore. I closed my eyes and nodded, recounting the story from the beginning. I started slowly at first, speaking hesitantly as I tried to keep from freaking out again. However the more I talked the more the various emotions I had shoved aside in favor of surviving over the past few hours came to the surface; and the faster the emotions came the faster I spoke. By the time I got to retelling Radiant Dawn’s betrayal I nearly unintelligible through my tearful babbling. I didn’t notice it while I talked, but I had been steadily crunching myself into a ball, holding my hooves over my head and my wings in front of my face. I was crying so badly when I told her about waking up surrounded by dead ponies that I couldn’t continue.

I laid there, curled in a little ball on the bed of somepony I hardly knew stuck on the surface after living my whole life in the clouds and sobbed my eyes out, but unlike a few minutes ago I wasn’t panicking. I was just sad, horribly numbingly sad, and all I could do at that moment was cry. All the times I had felt useless or unwanted in the Enclave and wanted to do something about it had become laced with regret since now that I knew what would become of them. Much to my surprise I felt Sister wrap her forelegs around me in a warm hug.

For several minutes we sat there together as I bawled into her shoulder. I slowly calmed as I cried myself out, getting to the point where I could hiccup out a question. “W-why? Why did you help m-me?” Silently I added When I don’t deserve it.

“Because helping ponies is what I do.” Sister said as if t where the most obvious thing in the world. “Everypony needs somepony there for them sometimes, and that what I’m here for.”

“Then how do I fix this?” I asked, desperation creeping into my voice. “How do I make this better?”

“You don’t.” She said, and I felt my heart sink. “You can never make it better.” At that point she let me go and took a step back. “You can’t fix the past, Sleet Gray. Believe me I know. Everypony in the Wastes has regrets and I’m no exception. You’ll wake up every morning wishing you could take it all back.” She shook her head, her calm demeanor giving away to sadness for a moment. “But you can’t, which is why you do that next best thing, and try and make up for it. You try every day hoping one more good deed will make you square.” Just as quickly, she gave me a warm smile. “You are kinda lucky though, you have something you can do to make this all worthwhile.”

I blinked several times, at a complete loss. “I do?”

“Well yeah! You know about that Cauterize thingy, don’t you?” My eyes widened and Sister laughed. “Now I’m not one to tell ponies what to do, but I think it would be awfully rude if you let us humble surface folk save your flank and then just let us all be killed!” Her smile grew and she nudged my shoulder with a hoof. “Maybe you can do something about that, huh?”

“Maybe…” That’s what I had said to myself in old Coltarado right? Survive and warn the surface about Cauterize. But how could I warn them all? And once I had, what then? Could the surface ponies even hope to fight against the entire Enclave army? “But what could I do?”

“Don’t ask me! I’m just a doctor!” Sister laughed. “But as the doctor I know you still aren’t 100% after that bite. You need to rest before you go saving us.” She gently pushed me back onto the bed. “Get some sleep.”

I nodded, my mind wandering. Even if I got the word out, what could I do? The Enclave was massive, even the most optimistic prediction had the surface ponies putting up a stiff resistance before dying. Still, despite the enormity of the task and the improbability of success, I fell asleep trying to come up with a plan.

I woke up from a dreamless sleep some hours later. I had no idea how long I was out, but the fact that the light outside was dimming made me think it was sometime in the afternoon. “I’m going to become nocturnal at this rate.” I muttered, sliding out of bed. I experimentally put weight on my hurt leg and felt no twinge of pain, whatever Sister had done had been very effective. I had half expected to wake up in tears but instead I felt surprisingly calm, maybe it was thanks to the first natural sleep I had had in several days.

I contemplated looking for Sister, but decided instead to look around the infirmary. In my limited Wasteland experience, this was the nicest place I had found and I wanted to know more about it. Sister had mentioned medical books earlier, but I didn’t expect to find that she had so many, especially in the Wasteland. While most of the shelves were covered with seemingly random stuff, one was dedicated to med books and was more than half full. On a whim I picked you up and began paging through it, though my very basic knowledge of medicine prevented me from understanding most of it. As I examined the room I began to see a pattern to the seeming disorganization, everything was in the place where it would be the most helpful. I found a number of weapons hear the door and windows, with fewer weapons near the beds. The beds mostly had various things I assumed were used to make the patients feel better, teddy bears and toys mixed with painkillers and antibiotics. The shelf dedicated to the medical books stood next to a curtained off area that emitted a sterile smell, probably what passed for the surgery area.

I heard the door open and turned to see Sister entering the room. The white unicorn smiled when she saw me standing. “Ah, so you’re on your hooves! That’s good, I was worried when you were brought in you wouldn’t be moving at all.” She levitated in a plate of food behind her, the sight of which sent my stomach growling. I realized I hadn’t eaten since the morning when I had hacked Cauterize and was starving.

She set the food down on a table and I eagerly began eating. Between bites I managed to ask. “I was wondering about that, how did I get here?”

“Well, anypony who doesn’t settle down is probably a prospector, which is just a polite word for scavenger. I make it known to all prospectors in the Stalliongrad area that I will take anything they find in return for medical treatment, especially scavenged food and medical supplies.”

I froze, my mouth half way to another bite. “Wait, scavenged?” I looked up at her, severely hoping I was wrong. “As in, before the war scavenged?”

“Well yes, what did you expect?”

I felt my stomach churn. “But the war was 200 years ago! How can any of this be safe to eat?!”

Sister gave me a stern look. “Honey, you’re in the Wasteland now. You saw the dirt out there, how do you expect us to grow crops? Oh sure, it’s possible but it is nowhere near enough to feed everypony trying to survive out here! Before everything got blown to hell, ponies really started building things to last and that included the food. There are enough preservatives in there to fossilize your crap as it comes out, but it’s still food!”

I groaned along with my stomach, she was right. There was no way I could return to the Enclave, so I was now devoid of the cloud-seeded crops we had. If I was going to survive to stop Cauterize I needed to make some sacrifices. My palate would have to be the first. I continued eating with less vigor. “So, how I got here?”

“Ah yes, well it turned out that a prospector was on his way to old Coltarado and happened across you. He decided to bring you back here so I could fix you up. You’re really lucky that he did, most ponies worry too much about themselves to help random strangers passed out and bleeding on the road. He could have left you for dead, or worse.”

I painfully swallowed my two century old cereal. “Worse than dead?”

I was getting used to the “you poor naïve filly” look. “Honey, you have no idea.”

I shuddered, I was liking the Wasteland less and less the more I heard. “About the pony who saved me, who was he?”

Sister’s lips pursed at the question. “He was one of those Stable ponies, lived his whole life in a whole in the ground. I don’t know why he came to the surface, didn’t want to ask. From the look of him he was a prospector.”

“Was?”

She shook her head. “If he’s not dead by now he wishes he was. He went to Stalliongrad.”

I had heard of the pre-war settlement. It was the city that had produced the most soldiers for the war effort, nearly doubling the amount of recruits from Manehattan or Hoofington. The city had always been more militaristic then the rest of Equestria, and had accepted the war better than most. I also knew it had been one of the targets for a direct strike from the balefire bombs, most pegasi just assumed it was a glowing crater. “I didn’t even know it was still standing.”

“Probably better if it wasn’t. The whole place was taken over by a small army of raiders. Anypony who goes in there ends up tortured and dead, or is crazy enough to become one of them.” She spat the word “them” as if it left a bad taste in her mouth.

I had no idea what a raider was, but they sounded about as nice as the ghouls. “Why would he go there then?”

“Salvage he said. The ruins are practically bursting with valuable stuff, anything not melted by the balefire anyway. I tried to warn him that it wasn’t worth it, that he was just gonna get himself killed. Poor fool wouldn’t listen.”

I looked down at my food, my appetite completely gone. The pony who, by their own good will, had saved my life was probably dead or about to be. After what I had done I wasn’t sure I deserved to be saved, but so long as I was alive I was going to make use of it. It was like Sister said, I had to try. “I’m going after him.”

Sister gave me a stunned look. “Excuse me?”

“I’m going after him. If he’s in trouble maybe I can help.”

Now she looked at me like I was crazy. “Didn’t I just get done saying he’s probably dead? The raiders would have torn him apart.”

“No.” I said, determination filling my voice. “No. You said I’m going to live with this guilt the rest of my life. If that’s the case I’m not going to let it get worse by sitting here while the pony who saved my life goes and dies.”

“Sleet Gray.” Sister said in a stern voice. “I did not go through the trouble of saving you to let you go on some foolhardy rescue mission for some buck you don’t even know! He left almost as soon as he dropped you off, that was over a day ago. He is either dead or close to it.”

“Because openly opposing the Enclave is so much safer and more likely to succeed.” I snapped.

“I didn’t say you should stomp your hooves and make them go away! That sort of thing would take time and planning, this isn’t planned at all! You want to rush like an idiot into a giant nest of raiders!”

I set my jaw, I wasn’t letting this one go. If I was going to save the surface I’d start by helping the pony who saved me. “No, I’m going after him whether you like it or not.”

“And how do you plan to do that? You don’t know where Stalliongrad is, you don’t even know what he looks like!”

“You’re not the only one in St. Ponysburg are you?” I asked sarcastically. “I’ll ask around, somepony is bound to know.” Judging from the angry expression on Sister’s face she knew I had her on that. I felt bad for angering her; especially after all she had done for me, but I just couldn’t let this one go.

“Fine.” She said, keeping her tone carefully even. She grabbed one of the pistols and a box of ammo off of a shelf and flung them at me. I fumbled the weapon, not expecting the throw, but managed to catch it before it hit the ground. The box of bullets clattered where it landed. “May as well go armed. Stalliongrad is to the northeast, you’re looking for a green earth pony buck with a brown mane and a minicomputer on his right leg. Called himself Scout. His Cutie Mark is one of those multi-purpose army knife things.” She shook her head at me as she levitated over a roll of gauze. “Magical bandages, they may help keep you alive, it’s all I can spare.”

“Thank you.” I said, earnestly. “How will I know when I’ve found Stalliongrad?”

“Oh that’ll be easy. It’s the big ruin with the corpses hanging from the walls.”

Sister had not been kidding. I stared at the grisly decorated walls of Stalliongrad with much less determination than I had earlier. Ponies in various states of rot and dismemberment hung from ropes and chains all along the walls. The parts not coated in dead pony were painted with what looked like blood, telling all comers to leave in the most vulgar language possible. “Who in their right mind would go in there?” I muttered, shivering. I had learned quickly after leaving Sister’s that the area around Stalliongrad and St. Ponysburg was significantly colder on the surface. Not living above the clouds and in direct sunlight probably had something to do with that, just another reason to dislike the Wasteland. “What good are winter powers if I still feel cold?”

I was still a good distance away from the city, not taking Sister’s warning lightly. The last thing I wanted to do was bum rush a city of highly aggressive psychopaths with only a single pistol. Though I was still worried about flying I hadn’t seen any Enclave patrols in the area, and in all likelihood they were still searching the area around old Coltarado. I still took to the air cautiously, constantly checking for swooping death squads.

By this point the sun had begun to set, and while that meant it was colder is also meant I was less likely to be spotted as I soared towards Stalliongrad. From the air I got a scope of just how large the city was. I had read that it was slightly smaller than Manehattan, but that still meant it covered a huge area. Even from my high vantage point I couldn’t see the wall on the other side of the ruin. The city was a complete mess, nearly every building had crumbled and what was still standing was on its last legs. The destruction seemed to be less severe near the center of the city, which was confusing since that was where the balefire missile had struck. As I passed over though I could see that the new occupants had created a large shanty town of scrap metal and other debris. There were a number of large bonfires burning in spots, revealing shadowy figures. I tilted my wings, dropping slightly to get a closer look at the shanty town.

I flew through a column of smoke from a fire when the smell hit me. It smelled terribly of cooking meat and burning rubber, striking me so suddenly that I nearly dropped out of the sky. I flapped my wings a fast as I could, getting into the higher crosswinds that drove away the smell. I chocked back a wave of nausea and flew back towards the wall where I started. Provided that Scout hadn’t made unusually fast progress, he should be somewhere around there.

I swooped lower over the ruined streets and buildings. The smell here was different but equally atrocious, this meat was rotting and diseased. Much as I wanted to climb out of the stink again I couldn’t afford to spend the whole scouting mission at high altitude, otherwise I’d never find Scout. It was already unlikely that I’d find him, since the sun had nearly fully set and the city was being plunged into night. As I scanned the streets I came across the sight of a massacre. Bodies were scattered over the street, most of them around the entrance to one of the ruined buildings. I landed on the edge of the bodies and had to immediately cover my nose, these bodies were ripe!

Keeping one wing over my nose I inched around the corpses, trying to determine what had happened. The bodies were a mix of stallions and mares, earth ponies and unicorns, and all of them were wearing black, spiked barding. The bodies didn’t look decomposed, and yet they were still diseased, most of them were missing huge chunks of their discolored coats and had horribly jaundiced eyes. My front hoof bumped against something, I glanced down to see one of the dead ponies looking up at me with a manic grin. Her teeth had been sharpened to deadly points and I could see bits of rotting meat sticking out between them.

I felt my stomach heave, but managed to choke back the wave of sick. Now was certainly not the time to be squeamish. “First zombies, now crazy-looking meat eater ponies. I’m really starting to hate the surface.” I stepped over the bodies clustered around the door and noticed that they had multiple bullet holes while the ones farther away had one in a vital area. Either somepony wasn’t very consistent with their aim, or they hadn’t expected so many raiders. Of course I wasn’t one to criticize aim, I had never even shot before which made the pistol Sister gave me nearly useless.

I heard a resounding crack come from the other side of the door leading into the ruined building. I flinched away from the door at first, which made me notice the blood. Blood was splattered on door near the ground, with a trail of it leading inside. My heart bean racing as I recalled the pony with the sharpened teeth. “Oh no.” I whispered. “No, no, no. Nopony is that messed up…” Sister had given me a holster for the pistol before I had left. I reached back and took the grip in my teeth. The grip felt awkward and I wondered how I’d be able to aim the thing. I slipped my tongue into place on the trigger (which was gross in its own way) and inched towards the door.

I pushed it open with a wing, picking the blood trail out of the debris covering the floor. Now that I was inside I could hear a gut-turning ripping and crunching noise that, thanks to the bare stone walls, was hard to pin down. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I had the trail of blood to follow and did so as quietly as possible. I wasn’t a particularly stealthy pony, but bumping things with your hooves wasn’t much a problem when you could flutter over the ground. It still required delicate work to maintain lift without making sound, and I was worried that the downdraft of my wings would rustle something, but the whatever-it-was was making enough noise to cover me.

The blood trail rounded a corner into a room, the terrible ripping and crunching sounds growing louder. My teeth began to hurt as my jaw clenched tighter and tighter on the grip of the gun. I heard something crack and for a horrible second I thought it was one of my teeth. Slowly, I peeked around the corner, what I saw made me freeze and drop to the ground. I made a strained noise of terror, no longer caring about stealth.

In the center of the room lay a pony with a diseased yellow coat and no mane to speak of. Her Cutie Mark was a skull with a dagger through the eye sockets and a large, bloodied hatchet lay at her side. In front of her was a dead pony, which she was eating. She must have heard my scream, because she was pulling her blood-soaked muzzle from the belly of the slain pony who, from the deranged look on his face in death, looked to be another raider. She turned her head to look at me, the motion twitchy and wrong, her pupils shrunk to pin points. When she saw me her lips pulled back from her teeth, filed to points, and screamed “YUMMY!”

Without even grabbing the hatchet she charged me, howling literally for my blood. For a few seconds I forgot I had the gun, to busy screaming and backpedaling to shoot. Terror sent my heart racing, what the hell was wrong with these ponies?! She had been eating that other raider! Was this what they were reduced to? I would get no answers from the crazed mare attacking me, she lunged close enough to snap her pointed teeth at me. Only the gun barrel kept her away from tearing my nose off, and that’s when I remembered I had the gun.

I tightened my tongue on the trigger and fired. Her rotten yellow teeth bounced off of the barrel when she bit at me, meaning that my already deplorable aim was throw off even more. Still, I landed a hit, the bullet grazing her cheek and drawing blood. She apparently was too busy trying to eat me to care, since she kept right on coming.

I tripped over something behind me and I fell on my rump. The raider tackled me, teeth gnashing at my throat. I could feel the points of her teeth cut into my neck, making me scream again, this time in pain. They felt like tiny lines of fire being run over my throat, making me spasmodically twitch to put my head between my neck and my attacker. The motion caused the gun barrel to slam into the raider’s head, not stopping her but stunning her for an instant.

Adrenaline shot through me as I used that instant, I got my hooves under her and shoved with all my strength. I scrambled to my hooves, the sight of my own blood dripping onto the ground only further encouraging me. I looked for the raider, but couldn’t find her! I felt the clarity adrenaline gave me turning into panic, where the hell was she!? I whirled around just in time to see her rushing back out of the room with her grisly hatchet ready. I screamed around the gun grip and started firing as fast as my tongue could pull the trigger. Most of the shots missed, but enough hit to slow her down. I continued to try and fire, but a clicking noise announced that I was out of ammo. I dropped the gun, fumbling for the replacement ammo with my hooves. The box hung from a leather strap on the holster that I couldn’t get open! I could hear her getting closer! Her ragged breathing so close I could feel it! I got the ammo box out of the strap and turned. Her manic eyes were inches from my own.

I ducked the swing of the hatchet, grabbing the gun off of the floor. Without thinking I rushed forward, body slamming the off-balance raider aside. When she fell I took the time it gave me to load a clip into the damn gun, just in time for her to lash out from the floor and chop at my ankles. A dull throbbing pain erupted just above my right front hoof and I went down on one knee. Throughout it all I didn’t drop the gun, and now I was at the perfect angle. I pulled the trigger, the gun jerked in my mouth, and the thrashing raider stilled, a neat hole in one of her manic eyes.

I knelt there for a long time, shivering. I wasn’t sure how long, second, minutes, an hour, all I was aware of the hole where the raider’s eye had once been. I had killed ponies before, but that hadn’t been intentional. I had just wanted to escape, I hadn’t meant to kill them. I had meant to kill this pony, otherwise she was would have killed me. Even though she had been completely insane, I have consciously ended her life. I wouldn’t mourn the dead raider, I was fairly certain no sane pony would, but the mere fact that I had done it chilled me. The last thing I wanted was for me killing ponies in order to survive being a common occurrence.

I reached up with a hoof and touched my neck, it came away with my own blood on it. I tried not to let that get to me, it wasn’t a lot of blood, the cut was shallow and I could still breathe. An image of the partially eaten pony in the other room flashed through my mind and I wanted to vomit again, the same teeth that had been devouring him had cut me.

Fortunately I had the bandages that Sister had given me. “I hope ‘magic’ also means ‘disinfectant’.” I muttered, pulling out the roll of gauze. Appling the bandages to my own neck and ankle was tricky, especially since my mind kept wandering to my fight with the raider. It was the third time in the past few days that I nearly died, compared to the reasonably safe life I had lead before it was a miracle I was still breathing. Of course I was only still alive thanks to Scout, a pony I wasn’t even sure was still alive and yet was risking my flank in a city of cannibals to save. I swallowed hard, feeling the bandages press against my throat, and asked myself, not for the last time, what the hell I was doing.

I could feel the healing magic going to work on my wounds as I continued my search. It caused an unpleasant itch, but that was far more preferable than pain and death. The area around where I had fought the raider was devoid of anything that seemed remotely valuable, which meant that whoever had killed the ones outside had passed through. I could only hope that it had been Scout and not another Wasteland resident without good intentions towards poor lost pegasi. No matter which it was I now had a trail to follow. I would have liked to explore the upper floors of the building I was in, but since I was trying to follow an earth pony I had to move like an earth pony and since the stairs going up were blocked by rubble that meant it was a no-go. However, with a wounded leg I decided to continue hovering rather than walking.

Fortunately the trail continued out the back door of the building, which opened into an alleyway blocked by yet more rubble at one end. “It’s like the megaspells were designed to make mazes instead of destroy us.” I muttered. The rubble would have been easy to traverse if I was flying, but on hoof it would have been treacherous with all the rusted metal so I set towards the opening. I floated cautiously out into the street, scanning the area for anything that may want to kill me.

I had barely gotten my head out of the alley when bullets started flying. I felt one barely miss my nose as I ducked back into the alley, cursing the shooters. If it wasn’t monsters it was ponies with guns! I had only been in the Wasteland a few days and I felt that it had a personal vendetta against me! The bullets continued to fly, keeping me pinned down in the alley. I tried to peek around to see who was shooting, but there was too much flying ammunition to get a good look without being shot. Not to mention my wings were getting tired from keeping me just above the…

I looked back at my wings, resisting the urge to facehoof. “Damnit Sleet, you’re supposed to be smart!” Still staying in cover I pumped my wings to fly up to the roof of the ruined building. While most of the roof had caved in, there was enough for me to land on. Landing made my leg throb painfully, but it was better than being pinned down by gunfire. I crept to the edge of the roof, staying low so as not to tip off my attackers that I was above them now.

As I might have expected, it was a group of raiders that was firing on the alleyway. One of them, a huge unicorn stallion, seemed to be leading the group. I couldn’t tell what color his coat or mane was, since he wore a full body suit of metal armor. The armor was streaked in what I really hoped was red paint, but knowing the raiders it could just as easily have been blood. Behind him was a pack of raiders numbering about ten in total, all of them carrying some kind of firearm. Three of them continued to lay fire on the alley I had poked out of, while the rest closed in on a remarkably intact building.

As the raiders approached I noticed movement on an upper floor that they didn’t, another pony leaning out of a third story window. He had a bolt-action rifle connected to a battle-saddle that he aimed at the raiders. With speed and accuracy that no mortal pony should have, he planted three precise shots on the heads of three attacking raiders. As he retreated back into the building I saw a glow emitting from something attached to his right foreleg, bathing him in green light. I had already noticed his coloration, green coat and brown mane, and the device on his leg banished further doubt. I had found Scout, and just in time!

I wasn’t sure what I could do about the attacking raiders, even with their numbers reduced they continued to try advance. They entered the door one after another, the giant metal pony leading the way. I pulled out my pistol, taking aim as best I could at the raiders still outside. The plan was to divide their attention so Scout could more easily take them out.

I had no idea what magic Scout was using for his super-accurate shots, but my aim was nowhere near as good. I took several shots at the trailing raider and by some miracle I managed to hit him. It wasn’t a terribly good shot, all I did was graze his leg, but it certainly got their attention. The raider I shot whirled around, looking for me. The ones who had been shooting the empty alley had heard the shots and turned to fire on the roof. I had no idea how they still had ammo, but it forced me to back away from the lip and hide. I could still see Scout and though he seemed surprised by the unexpected help he took advantage of it, however this volley was much less accurate. Though I couldn’t see, I only heard one of the raiders scream from being shot even though he fired three times.

I was about to peek over the lip again when I heard a terrible roar. I froze at the sound, and judging from the sudden lack of gunfire so did the raiders. I waited several seconds, but nothing happened. “This is a stupid idea…” I muttered as I poked my head over the lip. “They probably are waiting for me to show myself and blast my head off or something.” It turned out I was only partially correct. The massive unicorn had gone back onto the street and stood in front of the building I was hiding on top of. His metal-plated horn was glowing with deep red light as he aimed at the building.

I had little understanding of unicorn magic, but I could only assume anything that put out that much light was something I did not want to be in the way of. I scrambled back, preparing to take off when with a bright vermillion flash the metal monster released the spell. I felt the impact as the spell destroyed the lower floors of the building, which also made the roof crumble under me. I leapt into the air, but without much holding up the roof I was jumping off of I barely got into the air. I rapidly pumped my wings, managing to stay aloft over the collapsing structure; unfortunately this meant I was in full view of the angry raiders. I dodged most of the bullets through luck and the fact that I was hard to see through the cloud of dust.

However, I couldn’t dodge all of them. I tried to get to another rooftop in hopes that the monster unicorn couldn’t do that twice so quickly, but felt a searing pain in my wing as a bullet went through it. I screamed as my right wing gave out, making me fall from the sky at a sharp angle. I did my best to angle away from the raiders, and ended up crashing through one of the windows of the building Scout had been sniping from. I rolled across the floor, being showered with broken glass along the way. I came to a stop not far from the window, lying on my back. “That could have gone worse.” I groaned from the floor.

“What the hell was that!?” I heard a voice yell nearby. Scout came into my field of vision, his angry expression melted into recognition and then confusion. “Wait, what the hell? You’re that pegasus! What are you doing here!?”

“Sister told me how terrible Stalliongrad is. I figured you needed help.” I violently coughed up dust as I picked myself up, careful not to cut myself on the glass.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t, but if Sister told you about this place why didn’t you stay away?”

“You saved my life, the least I can do is make sure you don’t get yours taken.”

Before he could respond the building shook. “Damnit, he’s gonna tear this place down too!”

“What is that thing anyway?”

“I don’t know, but I do not want to be in the thing he’s knocking down.” Scout scrambled over to a duffle bag, pulling out a bottle full of purple liquid. “Here, drink this.”

He threw the bottle at me, which I barely manage to catch. “Why? What is this?”

“Healing potion. We’re flying out of here.”

I looked at him like her was crazy. “We’re WHAT!? I can’t fly both of us out of here, even with two working wings!”

“Either you do or we get buried!” The building rumbled again as if on cue.

I made a frustrated noise and I worked the cork of the bottle open with my teeth and glugged the concoction. I felt healing magic going to work on my various wounds, including several cuts from the glass I hadn’t had time to notice. I flapped my wing again, still sore but workable. “Okay, I think this can work. You realize this is crazy right?”

“Do you see a better option?”

A large chunk of concrete crashed down next to me. “No, let’s go.” Scout flung the duffel bag over his shoulder as we galloped to the far side of the room. My earth pony companion turned and bucked out a window just as the floor we had been standing on moments before collapsed. Snorting like some sort of demented dragon the metal plated unicorn raider stomped his way up the incline of rubble, just in time to watch us leap from the window. I could hear him roar in frustration, but had little time to be concerned as I dove to catch Scout. Wrapping my forelegs around the earth pony’s midriff, I pumped my wings for all I was worth. I wasn’t near strong enough to fly us completely out of Stalliongrad, but I could at least angle myself towards where I had entered the city. I settled into a glide, taking what turns I could to try and confuse any pursuit.

Eventually I couldn’t hold us up anymore. At least the landing I pulled off was more graceful than tumbling through a window. After setting Scout on the ground I rolled onto my back, panting. Even with magical healing my wing was far from 100% and even that easy glide had strained it. I knew we couldn’t stay out in the open, nevertheless I needed to rest…

I felt a hoof nudging my side. “C’mon, we need to get going.” Scout said, already moving.

I groaned, rolling onto my stomach. “Going where?”

“To find shelter.”

“Shelter? Wait, you don’t mean to have us stay here during the night, do you?”

“Most of the outer suburbs are abandoned, you actually landed us in a pretty desolate area from what I can tell. We can’t make it back to St. Ponysburg at this time of night though; the Wastes get even worse after dark.”

I felt a chill run down my spine as echoes of ghoul screams played in my mind. “Okay, shelter sounds good.” I managed to get to my hooves and follow Scout. Now that there was relative peace I could feel the effects of the past few chaotic hours catching up to me. A number of minor wounds the healing potion hadn’t fixed made themselves known, and even my (mostly) healed injuries ached. I was also exhausted, my mind wandering to thoughts of sleep as we made our way through the streets. Clearly Scout was more skilled at this than I was, since he knew almost instantly which buildings would not be suitable, but by this point I’d settle for anything.

Eventually Scout declared one of the building suitable for shelter. Apparently it was far enough away from any other buildings that had shown recent signs of intrusion that it made an unlikely candidate for midnight raiding. While any other time I’d have liked to know more about his method of survival, in my current exhausted state I really couldn’t care less if I tried. Our refuge for the night may have once been an apartment building, most of the rooms had some kind of furnishing. I was ready to collapse anywhere, but Scout insisted we go to the top floor. “That way you have a good launch pad if we need a quick exit.” He wasn’t joking.

Unfortunately the top floor had been used for storage instead of housing, there was no bed just lots of rotten boxes. Scout seemed delighted at the chance to rummage around, I simply fell down to sleep. Sure the floor was uncomfortable concrete but for my exhausted body it may as well have been cloud. I fell asleep almost as soon as I hit the floor.

I was hanging again, though this time it was from shackles clamped to my ankles instead of hooks. I pulled against the chains to no avail, the dull clanking being swallowed by the darkness around me. I feel more than hear a great thrumming noise, like a dragon growling. I don’t know how long I hung in the darkness, but it ended abruptly when a line of light appeared under me, stretching beyond my sight range. The light grew in width, accompanied by a thunderous whirring noise, and as light flooded by prison I was what I shared the darkness with. A massive ball of swirling evil green fire hung next to me, and I was shackled to it! I looked down into the light and saw the Wasteland spread out below me, St. Ponysburg directly beneath. A loud thump signaled the clamp holding the balefire bomb opening and I was dragged down by the weight, down to annihilate the city…

I woke up screaming. I rolled onto my hooves, my panic only slightly receding when I saw my ankles were unfettered. I closed my eyes, panting as the nightmare slowly faded away. “Are you okay?” I heard Scout’s voice ask, laced with concern.

I nodded numbly. “Yeah.” I gasped. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a nightmare.” My breathing and heart rate was returning to normal. I managed to open my eyes and saw Scout staring at me, brow furrowed.

“Well I hate to break it to you, but you woke up in the Wasteland. The nightmare never ends here.”

“Thanks for the comfort.” I said, voice dripping with sarcasm. I sat with a sigh. “Did anything exciting happen?”

“Other than your screaming, no.”

“Good.” I was glad I wasn’t waking up with a raider gnawing on my wings. “Do we have a plan to get out of here?”

Scout was pulling boxes of salvaged food out of his duffel bag. “First we eat, then we make a break for the exit, staying low on the way. I got in here through busted grate over an old drainage ditch, we should be able to get out there too.”

I was apprehensive enough about the two hundred year old food, crawling through sewage that was just as old was repulsive. “I’ll try and fly over the wall, thanks.”

“So long as you don’t get caught and don’t leave me for dead, I don’t care.” He passed me a box of cereal, one of the surprisingly large haul he had.

“How did you get so much stuff with all the raiders around?”

“Honestly, raiders are stupid. Crazy, murderous, and cannibalistic, but stupid. Most of them are too tweaked out on chems to notice when I take one of them out.” He motioned to the battle-saddle with the hunting rifle attached lying next to the duffel bag. “Once I take them down its simple to go and loot the area.” He chuckled. “Unless something goes wrong, which was the mess you pulled me out of. Thanks for that, by the way.”

“You saved my life, just wanted to return the favor.”

“I won’t argue with that. It was stupid and reckless, but it worked.” He gave me the same questioning look he had when I had woken up screaming, only this time without implying I was crazy. “What happened to you anyway? Knocked out and half-eaten on the side of the road?”

I sighed, I had a feeling this question was going to be asked a lot. “I was attacked by ghouls.”

“Obviously, but what is a pegasus doing on the ground anyway? From what I’ve heard pegasi spend all their time in the clouds.”

“I was running.” I hoped my terse tone would deflect any more questions.

No such luck. “Running from what?”

“A mistake I made, one that nearly got me killed.” He continued to give me that questioning look. Even when I ducked my head to eat I could feel his gaze boring into me. Finally, I sighed and relented. “I hacked a top secret government file by mistake. The file was a plan to slaughter the entire surface world so the Enclave could take over. Somepony noticed I had gotten into the database and sent my brother to summarily execute me. I freaked out, froze everything in a five block radius of my house, the ice fell into the Wasteland and now I’m here.” I huffed, eating my food without further comment.

Scout was silent for several minutes. I spent the time trying not to cry, I really couldn’t afford to break down every time I thought about home. Finally, he spoke up. “So what are you going to do now?”

“Sister said I should fight the Enclave, try and stop them from killing everypony.” The room had a small window, which I gazed out of pensively. “And don’t get me wrong, I want to try and stop them, but I just don’t see how. The strain of freezing my home town nearly killed me, and there were only five Enclave agents there. I can’t stop an army, I could barely stop my own brother.”

“But you did stop him. Maybe you could do something.”

I laughed bitterly. “Yeah right. Is everypony down here an idealist?” Before Scout could respond I noticed something, a tiny black dot against the solid gray sky. I leaned towards the window, squinting. It looked like a… My eyes widened when I recognized what the dot was.

“GET DOWN!” I flung myself towards Scout a second too late, a bolt of green magic energy searing through the window and slamming into his side. I recoiled instinctively as Scout was thrown to the ground by the blow, the smell of burning hair and flesh coming off of him. “Damnit, no.” I growled. I rushed forward, shoving Scout with my shoulder as another bolt of energy came through the window. I screamed through my clenched teeth as the bolt grazed my back, a line of burning pain erupting just behind my wing joints.

I managed to bull us behind some boxes out of sight of the window. I felt my shoulders loosen somewhat when I heard Scout groan in pain, at least he wasn’t dead. The duffel bag had been spilled by my hasty movement, one of the purple healing potions thankfully rolling near us. I uncorked the bottle, propped Scout up on a box, and poured some of the potion down his throat. “C’mon, c’mon…”

The earth pony coughed, spitting up some of the liquid before swallowing. He took the bottle in his own hooves and glugged the potion, the terrible burn on his side starting to shrink. About half of the burn healed before the potion wore off, and even the healed part looked damaged. Magical energy weapons did a lot more than mere bullets. “What’s going on?” Scout said, his voice strained.

“The Enclave, they’ve found me, I…” I was cut off as a voice yelled from outside.

“Sleet Gray! You have been charged with mass murder, terrorism, and assaulting Enclave officers! You are hereby sentenced to immediate execution!” I felt my heart stop as I recognized the voice, even the burn wound on my back seeming to fade away as I went cold.

Scout must have noticed my expression. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

My voice was barely above a whisper. “That’s my brother.”
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Footnote: Level up!
New Perk, Educated: +3 additional skill points to allocate per level up.