Ashes

by Craterfist

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Sad, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 2623

A scientist is caught inside a nuclear reactor during a meltdown. He survives, but emerges as something horrid and inequine.

In an attempt by Germaneigh to harness the power of the sun inside a fusion reactor, disaster struck, and a town was left buried in fire, ash, and radiation. The only one who stayed behind was left to crawl from the rubble, mutated and changed.

Published 2013-08-28 21:20:03 UTC
Last updated 2013-08-28 21:20:03 UTC

Dust

Nopony was really sure about what happened. Not a single resident would talk about it in public, only in hushed whispers around trusted collegaues. Speading rumors and ideas around the country of Germaneigh like a virus. It was a stain on the proud contry's reputation, and to talk about it publicly would be seen as controversial, even traitorous to the more patriotic members of society. Ideas and speculations and opinions all flew across the country, whether by word of mouth, or the written word, the facts began to get lost in all the opinions.

Around a year ago, Germaneigh had conducted a team of scientists to create the world's first nuclear reactor, using a new, element mined from deep within the the ground called Uranium. It was a revolution in technology; the same energy that powered the sun, now harnessed to power the industrious country. It would have placed Germaneigh years ahead of Equestria and Stalliongrad, and at the time, it did. As a test for the reactor, it was hooked up to power a surrounding town named Chernobyl. That much was common knowledge. How could it not be? The president of Germaneigh flaunted his country's success to everyone he could. The city of Chernobyl saw a major increase in tourism; species of all kinds from surrounding lands came to see this marvel of science and innovation. The amount of energy it produced boggled the minds of Equestrian and Gryohonian professors, and countries were scrambling to match Germaneigh's achievement.

Of course, the group of scientists behind the nuclear reactor were never named, but they were where everyone expected them to be: inside the reactor, monitoring their creation and improving upon the fruits of their efforts. The team took shifts, monitoring the energy output of the reactor and the heat levels around the clock from the central control room. It was one such evening, a Wednesday in June, that everything went suddenly, horribly wrong. The plant exploded violently, releasing a cloud of radiation and ash and nuclear fire across the town of Chernobyl. The citizens who survived fled their homes, screaming and crying in terror. Very few took time to pack; if you put on a radiation suit and went into the town today, everything would be still and silent. It be as if the town was frozen in time, preserved in ashes, and left to become a breeding ground of whatever twisted perversion of nature the radiation has turned the local flora and fauna into.

Granted, you wouldn't actually be able to do that; the Germane government immediately quarantined the area within five days. and it is still under military quarantine today. Within thirteen days, all forms of media were purged of the name "Chernobyl" and any articles about the town and power plant. The president of Germaneigh refused to speak of the prototype power plant. After a month of silence, the newspaper was given a single brief article to publish.

Tragedy At Prototype Power Plant

On June 16th of this year, at 6:12 in the evening a horrible tragedy occurred in the town of Chernobyl. The nearby nuclear power plant malfunctioned, releasing deadly levels of radiation into the area. There are over 100 confirmed deaths, most due to cancer and radiation poisoning, and at least 20 more still unconfirmed.

The article only added to the plague of ideas, some ranging from a government weapons test to an act of war from a foreign country to even aliens by a few less-than-sane individuals. The true story would be the only cure to this virus of rumors and ideas, and it is forever buried in the ashes..... Or so some think. There was one survivor from the disaster: the chief scientist of the project. He remembers the event each and every day.....

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June 16th, 5:57 PM

Chernobyl Power Plant Offices, Lounge Room

"Alright, everypony! We have successfully increased safe energy output by another four percent!" The voice came from an earth stallion wearing a white lab coat, which went well with his peach fur and contrasted nicely with his short, shaggy neon green mane and brown eyes. Around him were several mares and stallions all dressed in lab coats as well. At the stallion's announcement, a round of cheers and praises to one another went around the room. Most of the ponies began hanging their lab coats on coat racks, sitting down on the couches surrounding a large, low-sitting wood table and unpacking some lunches. The peach-colored stallion shed his coat as well, revealing his cutie mark of an atom and a test beaker.

As the stallion sat down, one of the mares lifted her carton of milk, looking at him happily. "To Cold Fusion, our chief scientist!" A round of applause went around the room, and Cold Fusion found his cheeks turning red in an instant. He ruffled his mane and let his brown eyes dart between his co-workers. The group had evolved into friends a long time ago; perhaps that was why they worked with such efficiency and got such results. "D'awww, you guys..... I couldn't have done all this on my own. You all are what keep me, and this project, going. Now, how about we-" Fusion's sentence was cut off by a blaring alarm, one that sounded across the whole facility. However, the alarm was not heard through the thick walls, and thus, the surrounding town of Chernobyl remianed silent.

Cold Fusion raced through the halls, followe by a few of his co-workers, skidding to a stop in front of one of the monitors in the main control room. Said main control room was a sort of circular room with large windows sealed with thick glass. the windows looked out into the actual heart of the reactor, allowing any user inside to see the reactor for themselves. There were also several computer terminals around the room, each accessing safety systems and output readings of all kinds.

Fusion's eyes widened, and the stallions face seemed to lose its color. The screen showed a massive spike in energy and heat, causing several safety systems to malfunction and several metal structures to warp and melt. Radiation would begin to leak very soon. "The r-reactor...." He stuttered. "It's.... melting...." At the last word, he turned to his friends and began shouting, giving them frantic shoves towards the exit. "OUT! EVERYPONY OUT!" Cold Fusion turned back to the controls and began typing furiously, getting some of the safety systems to partially engage. "GO! NOW! I'LL BE FINE!"

The team was hesitant to leave. They knew he wouldn't be fine, but they knew their chief; once he decided he was going to do something, nothing in Tartarus could stop him. As the group ran down the winding halls, the facility was wracked with several small explosions, caused by several electrical systems overloading. The town outside began evacuating at the sight if the fires and the sounds of muffled explosions. Ponies ran screaming into the streets, leaving their belongings and dragging, sometimes carrying, family members with them.

The scientists scrambled out the front door, galloping, flying for those with wings, as fast as they could away from the power plant. Meanwhile, Cold Fusion was still in the main control room, typing furiously away at several of the computers. Another round of explosions wracked the facility, and a new alarm came on the loudspeaker.

"Warning, high levels of radiation detected in main control hub. Evacuate immediately. Repeat. Warning, high amounts of radiation detected in main control hub. Evacuate immediately. Repeat...."

The scientist looked up to the cracked windows, coughing as he felt the leaking radiation permeate his body, damaging his cells and killing his organs. Fusion still kept fighting on, working to delay the explosion for as long as possible. He didn't care that he was coughing up blood. He fought through the intense pains in his body. He was going to make sure everyone was as far away as possible. However, it wasn't long before Cold Fusion found himself collapsing onto the floor, his vision blurring and his ears ringing. Blood leaked from his nose and mouth, pooling around his head. Despite it all, the stallion only gave on last thought as his organs began bleeding and dying.

I'm sorry, guys..... I hope you're all okay.....

The reactor finally exploded, shooting fire and ash and radiation into the sky. The resulting sound could be heard for miles around. The force of the blast caused the main control hub to compact like a soda can, sealing the irradiated scientist inside like a coffin. The facility crumbled to the ground, burying Fusion's coffin in a tomb of rubble and ashes. The rest of the scientists, along with many citizens of the town, watched the ash cloud rise into the sky, then fall back down onto the town. They had to wrench themselves away, many of the scientists with tears in their eyes.

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June 19th, 1:07 AM

Chernobyl Power Plant

Inside of Cold Fusion's irradiated coffin of stone and metal, something extraordinary happened. The stallion inside opened his eyes. His vision was blurred in the darkness, his ears rang, and his insides hurt. But he was alive. The scientist looked up with a pained cough, and though his eyes stung, he saw something that lifted his spirits.

Light.

There was a faint light, just above him.

Cold Fusion began trying to climb out, but as soon as he took his first step on the rubble, he almost collapsed. He could feel it. His whole body felt weak. Frail. Again, with much more care and patience, Fusion began his slow trek up the rubble towards the light, determined to escape what could have been his tomb. Slowly, very slowly, he took a shaking step. Then another, then another. His muscles burned and his body ached, but pain wouldn't stop him. It was only a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity. Fusion slowy placed his forehooves on the ledge, and with a yell of pain and effort, hauled himself up and out of his tomb.

He found himself tumbling down a slanted slab of stone, landing at the bottom in a poof of dust. The scientist weakly coughed and started to stand up again. Then, he realized: it wasn't dust. It was white, crumbly, and tasted like something burnt. He looked up and around to see something truly eerie, and at the same time, realized what the dust really was.

It was ash. The town of Chernobyl that surrounded the facility was blanketed in ashes. There were still some ash particles floating lazily on the almost nonexistent winds. He looked straight up to see the moon and stars, their light muffled by a thick cloud of grey ashes, a could that shadowed over the dead town ominously. The buildings closest to the reactor were burned or blackened from the explosion, and a few charred skeletons lay buried in the ashes.

The stallion slowly moved through the streets, taking his time and taking in all that he saw around him. Suitcases were left half-packed on the street. Foals' toys lay scattered across the ground, some in pieces. And then, in a half-open doorway of a house, he saw a glint of light. It was a mirror. Fusion slowly made his way over through the door, up to the mirror and placed himself in front of it. What he saw made his heart sink.

Where Cold Fusion expected to see himself, he saw something far different. A slim, almost skeletal figure, with tightly stretched skin that lacked any sort of fur or mane. No wonder he felt so weak; his muscles had atrophied, making him look like a walk starved corpse. He half-expected himself to start rotting soon. His eyes were a blank white. He couldn't see his pupil or irises. He could see fine, but his simple brown eyes were taken from him. He looked at the thing he had become, and he felt salty tears roll down his cheeks onto the ash-covered wood floor. He slowly made his way back out of the house, making a slow walk over to a metal suitcase on the ground, this one marked with a radiation symbol. The name written on it was Energy Spectrum, one of Fusion's friends and co-workers.

Clumsy Spectrum. You gotta stop dropping things. He thought with a soft chuckle. He tried to chuckle, that is, but it only irritated his dry throat. Ow.... Okay, water, then talking. The stallion sifted through the suitcase, finding a hazmat suit and a small geiger counter. The hazmat suit was a bright hazard yellow, with a black tinted visor and a built-in rebreathing system and filter. A pony could practically live inside the suit. He was probably already so irradiated that he would get some random kind of cancer soon, but he might as well try. Besides, the suit would make him look a world better than the thing he was now. The scientist slipped into the suit and clipped the geiger counter to his waist, then turned it on. The device emitted a moderately fast clicking sound, sensing the radiation permeating the area.

Slowly, Cold Fusion made his way through the dead town, his hooves sifting through the ashes while he listened to the sounds of his own muffled breathing and the fervent clicking of the geiger counter. He kept slowly walking, making sure to save what little strength he had left; he was thankful to survive at all. He could get some surgery done. He could grow back his fur and fix his eyes, get some vitamin supplements and some exercise to get back to a healthy weight. Everything was going to be alright. Soon, the stallion heard the clicking of his geiger counter slow down as he walked, and then eventually stop altogether. Thankful to be away from that town, he climbed out of the suit. Then he stopped.

Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.

The geiger counter was clicking like mad, as if it had been placed on top a block of uranium. Confused, Fusion set the device down on the ground next to his suit and stepped back a good ten meters. The clicking died down the further he went, and the slowly stopped. He walked back to his stuff, and the geiger counter began clicking again, faster and faster as he approached. It hit him, and it hit him like a freight train. He was the one giving off the radiation. He saw his friends, his family, everyone he ever cared about. They could get hurt if he got near them without the suit on. They could die. He would have washed himself down in a stream somewhere, but he didn't want to irradiate anything further, nor did he think that would help. In his professional opinion as a nuclear physicist, he was royally bucked.

Slowly, the stallion slipped into his suit, keeping the geiger counter on. If his suit leaked, he could endanger anything around him. He slowly began trudging forward into the wilderness, feeling another piece of his equinity die. He wasn't Cold Fusion anymore. He didn't think so, at least.

Chernobyl.

Yes, he would call himself Chernobyl, after the town that died along with his former self. Cold Fusion was gone in his opinion, and he would stay that way until he could find a way to bring him back.

Author's Note

Just me entering something for a contest. I'm not dead. And yes, I realize Chernobyl is in the Ukraine. I have the creative liscence to move the city into Germaneigh. Until they make a pony parody of Chernobyl somewhere in the actual show, I'm fine.