Nuke awoke to a sudden jolt. He jumped, yelping in surprise, then saw that there was a wooden tray beneath his muzzle that had a bowl of horse feed. Nuke gagged in disgust, but then figured it was better than nothing. He looked on the edges of the tray and saw metal connectors clasped to the bottom edge of the door, holding the tray in place. He looked around and saw that all the other ponies had feeding trays, too. Nuke figured that there was probably a feeding time in the Factory.

He watched as the ponies forced themselves to eat the feed, gagging all the while. Nuke looked down at his untouched bowl. He took a deep breath, moistened his chops, and took a bite of feed. It was hard and crunchy, and really didn’t taste like anything except for a faint bitterness. Nuke felt like he was chewing cardboard. He struggled to force it down his throat, but he managed. He then took another bite, then another, then another. Before he knew it, he’d eaten all of his feed. He looked down at the empty bowl, proud of himself. He licked his chops, desperate for water.

About half an hour later, workers came in, took the feed bowls, and replaced them with water bowls. Nuke immediately dunked his whole face into it, lapping furiously to get as much water into his body as possible. It wasn’t the best-tasting water, but Nuke would take anything now. In a span of thirty seconds he’d drank every single drop of the precious liquid. Nuke let out a heavy breath. He felt like he was going to vomit from drinking so fast, but then he told his stomach to suck it up and move on. His stomach slightly disagreed and let out an acidic belch, but other than that everything was okay.

Nuke saw a worker stroll by and he nudged his bowl to the edge of his tray, signaling to the man that he was done with everything. The worker didn’t even acknowledge him as he walked into the stall opposite of Nuke’s. The green pony saw a very depressed mare in there. She had a beautiful magenta coat with a dark, rose-colored mane. She had pink-violent eyes that were dimmed with sadness and anxiety. Nuke could tell she’d been here a long time. The mare stared up at the worker, cowering in fear. Nuke suddenly realized it was Berry Punch, a pony from Ponyville.

He watched as the worker lifted his hand to slap her across the muzzle. It angered Nuke that he was forced to watch the whole thing and he couldn’t buck or hurt the man. So he tried an alternative.

“HEY!!” he shouted threateningly.

The man turned his head and saw Nuke growling.

“Don’t you lay a FINGER on her!!” snarled the mutant pony, his pupils reduced to slits.

“What are you gonna do about it, Baldy?” hissed the worker.

“SHUT YOUR MOUTH, YOU WORTHLESS BASTARD!!” roared Nuke. “YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW I GOT THIS WAY!!!”

“Oh yeah? How?”

“I WAS IN A NUCLEAR BOMB EXPLOSION!!!”

For once the man actually seemed stunned. He eyed Nuke in a way that said, “You win this round.” He then stormed off, muttering swears. Berry was left staring at Nuke, tears brimming in her eyes. “Oh, thank you! Thank you!” she cried.

“Don’t mention it.” said the green equine. He watched silently as Berry continued crying out thanks and praise. When she finally came to a stop, Nuke grinned at her. Berry grinned back.

“My name’s Berry Punch.” she said.

“My name’s Nuke.” replied Nuke.

“I like you, Nuke.” said Berry, blushing lightly. “I wish we could stay like this longer, but I don’t have much time.”

“What? Wh-Why?” stammered the mutant pony, worry visible in his eyes.

“They’re gonna take me away tomorrow. I overheard two workers talking about it. They say I’m gonna be made into a shawl.” sighed Berry, hanging her head in sadness.

Nuke looked sympathetically at her, his ears pressed against his head. “Well, at...at least you don’t have to suffer here anymore.” he whispered.

“Yeah, I know, but still.” replied Berry softly. “I’ve made a couple friends here. I’m gonna miss them.”

Nuke looked down. “I...I’m so sorry...” he whimpered.

Berry grinned at him warmly, tears falling from her eyes. “I’m gonna miss you, Nuke.” she said.

“I’m gonna miss you, too, Berry.” replied Nuke.

They stared at each other for a while until Berry spoke up. “Well, it...it was nice talking to you, Nuke.”

“You too, Berry.”

Both ponies then looked away. Nuke watched as workers then took away the water bowls and the trays. He hung his head and closed his eyes, sighing. Humans sucked. Everything they did sucked. Princess Celestia should have never allowed the ponies to travel through the portal. She should have told them it was not safe and ordered them to stay in Equestria. But then again, how was she supposed to know that the ponies were going to get mutilated in a giant factory?

Nuke shook his head to clear his thoughts, his tagged ear twitching. The wound there was still incredibly itchy, but he forced himself not to focus on it. He instead looked around at all the other equines, most of which were either rocking from side to side, crying, sleeping, or getting beat up by workers. Some ponies actually looked crazy. They laughed, banged their sides against their stalls, passed out constantly, and twitched uncontrollably. Nuke gasped as he realized they had been driven to insanity by how bored they were. Nuke did NOT want to end up like that. He tried to think of something to do. He couldn’t just stand there. So, he did the only thing he could do.

He sang. “Hush now, quiet now,”

Berry looked up.

“It’s time to lay your sleepy head,”

The magenta mare gasped, eyes wide. “Hush now, quiet now,” Berry sang along.

“It’s time to go to bed...”

Nuke and Berry both started singing. “Drift, drift, off to sleep, exciting day behind you. Drift, drift, off to sleep, and let the joys of dreams find you...”

They kept repeating that song, over and over, until they found themselves starting to drift off themselves. They looked around and saw that they had actually put some others to sleep. The green mutant felt his eyelids drooping. He was about to say something to Berry when he saw she was completely limp, snoring softly. Nuke smiled. He shuffled his hooves into a somewhat comfortable position, since he couldn’t lie down, and hung his head, closing his eyes.

That’s when he gasped, his eyes snapping back open. There was a certain feeling in his stomach and lower hips, and he shuffled frantically. Where the hell was the bathroom?! Was he supposed to just go where he was standing?

The pony to his left looked at him. “I’m sorry, bro.” he said. “In this place, you crap where you stand.”

Nuke sighed, blushing lightly. “So...I have to take a shit in front of everypony?” he whispered. The other equine nodded. The green pony sighed again. He squeezed his eyes shut, held his breath, and let it out. After the deed was done, he slowly opened his eyes, embarrassment clearly visible on his face. He scraped his hooves on the floor, trying to get the waste off of them. He then cringed and shivered.

The other pony gave him a sympathetic look. “It’s okay. We all do it here.” he stated.

Nuke turned his head to look at him. His jaw nearly hit the floor. The other pony was bald, just like him. He had slit pupils, just like him. He had fangs, JUST. LIKE. HIM.

“Heh, I get those expressions a lot.” he said. “But I’ve never seen another pony like me in this place.”

Nuke was in too much shock to form a word.

“You see, there was this nuclear bomb explosion, and the radiation spread for miles. I, unfortunately, got mutated, just like you. Were you there when it happened?” asked the equine.

Nuke cleaned his chops and cleared his throat. “I-I...I...was...in that explosion...” he stuttered. “It...n-nearly killed me and...took both my p-p-parents. I’m lucky m-my siblings didn’t g-get mutated like u-us.”

“WOW. The explosion happened when you were on the site?” asked the other mutant.

“Yeah; my parents and I didn’t know it was a bomb site until we all saw this bright light, and then a huge exploding sound, and then I was knocked out and I woke up like this.” explained Nuke. “I looked to my left and saw my parent’s skeletons. They were completely cleaned of flesh and any evidence of tissue.”

“Wow, I’m sorry to hear that.” replied the other pony. “My family got mutated, also. They’re all just like us.”

“R-Really? I thought...I was the only one...”

“No, of course not! Radiation doesn’t affect just ONE pony! It goes around for miles.”

“So...there are more like me?”

“Yes, of course!”

Nuke felt a huge bout of relief sweep over him. He’d always felt like the odd one out, with no mane or tail. He giggled a little. Then he laughed. Before he knew it, both of them were laughing uncontrollably, tears forming in their eyes.

After their moments of hysteria were finally over, Nuke shook his head to get the tears out of his eyes and said, “My name’s Nuke. What’s yours?”

“Nuke? That’s pretty funny, because my name is Nuke, too!” cried the other mutant.

Nuke’s jaw fell open. “WHAT?!” he screamed.

“My name was originally Luke, but after I got mutated my family renamed me Nuke.” explained the other Nuke.

“Wow...I was named Nuke at birth. I was gonna be named Duke, but my dad said Nuke would sound cooler.” replied Nuke.

“Well, this is an interesting conversation.” said the other Nuke.

Nuke saw that the other mutant was red. “How about this? To get rid of confusion, can I call you Red Nuke?” he asked.

“I prefer Blood Nuke.” answered the other Nuke, grinning broadly. Nuke grinned back.

“Can I call you Toxic Nuke?” asked Blood.

“One hell of a name, but go ahead!” exclaimed Nuke.

“I SHALL CALL THIS NEWFOUND FRIENDSHIP...TOXIC BLOOD!!” shrieked Blood at the top of his lungs. That made him and Nuke burst out laughing all over again.

Author's Note

I know things are going a little fast, but gimme a break, okay?