Fallout Equestria: Omega
Author: Cooperdawg

{One quick note before this story gets started: I have yet to find a standard of date or time of the pony universe. As such, I will be using the Roman Calendar in terms of months and days, but with the years set at Year 0 being the rise of Nightmare Moon (so the first episode of the show equates to Year 1000). From there, I’m pretty much just making some broad assumptions based on age, rough timelines, and whatnot to fit some other pieces together. Okay, background done. On to the story!}

Entry One: October 23rd, 1047

The alarm started buzzing in my ear, as insistent as any rooster had ever been back in my hometown, forcing me from the comforts of sleep. I groaned, shifting in bed and reaching out with a hoof to shut the damn thing up. It felt like it was far too early. The last week had felt like it was far too early.

My hoof finally connected with the clock, and it fell silent, finally letting me lie back and relax again. I was just starting to drift back into the sweet embrace of sleep when somepony shifted next to me.

“Shouldn’t you be getting up?” a soft, sweet voice asked, making my heart melt as it did every time I heard it on waking. I still couldn’t believe I was so lucky as to have won her heart.

“Soon,” I grumbled, extending a wing and wrapping it around her and dragging her warm body over to me, nuzzling her neck while she giggled and pushed weakly at me with her hooves.

“Cirrus, come on! You have work to get to!” she giggled, gasping for breath and pressing against my chest. She finally managed to open a small space between us, and catch her breath. “Your boss won’t be happy if you’re late again.”

Lofted Breeze, my boss. He’d already yelled at me four times in the last month for showing up a few minutes past the hour. Bastard could go hang for all I cared. It was as if he didn’t know how much newlyweds wanted to be around each other.

“Thanks for reminding me,” I grumbled, finally rolling out of bed and stretching. I could feel it in my bones: it was going to be another one of those days. I looked over my shoulder at her, my wife. A beautiful golden hide topped with an even more perfect light rose mane that framed a slim face with the most wonderful green eyes I had ever laid eyes on. I truly was the luckiest stallion in all of Equestria. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Cirrus, now go get ready! Lofted Breeze will be beating down our door if you’re late again!” she laughed, waving me away with a hoof before turning over and burying herself under the covers again.

I smiled at the lump that she became, then turned and started to pull on my uniform. It was a simple vest that had enough pockets for me to carry my tools, as well as a few personal items, and wouldn’t restrict my movement too much. Lofted Breeze was the head of the aerial division of RobCo, and was contracted to a lot of very interesting work with the M.A.S., M.W.T., and some even said the M.O.A. Even if that last wasn’t true, it was an important enough division that he drove all of us under him, a grand total of one hundred and five Pegasi, to what essentially amounted to slave labor.

In my left breast pocket went our wedding picture. It was absolutely perfect: a snapshot of the very moment we had been told to kiss. It was by far my most treasured possession. I made my way downstairs, grabbed an apple out of the ice box, slapped my hard hat on my head, and walked out the door of our small Manehattan apartment. At the end of the hall was the window I used as my usual exit.

The wind felt wonderful as it whipped through my mane, sweeping the dark blue strands away from my face. My forelegs were stretched out before me, the white fur on them tinged with red in the early morning sunlight. It was only a ten minute flight to the factory, far too short for my tastes.

All around me, the city was beginning to come to life, or at least to come out of the momentary rest it fell into during the night. The sky was beginning to fill with the morning work rush, and I was able to pick out a few of my colleagues here and there.

Before long, I was alighting on the ground in front of the massive granite edifice that was the local RobCo construction site. Inside was the project we had spent so long working on, and it was finally nearing completion. Lofted Breeze said that it was entirely possible we could be finished by the end of next month, if progress continued as it had been.

I walked inside and was instantly greeted by the cheery Earth pony mare that was at the front desk. If I wasn’t mistaken, this one was a recent hire. I couldn’t remember seeing her around before my honeymoon only four weeks ago.

“Good morning, Cirrus Swirl! Lofted Breeze was looking for you! He’ll be happy to know you’re on time this morning!” she said cheerfully, looking up from the stack of paperwork.

With a quick glance I spotted the logo of the Ministry of Wartime Technology. Seemed like they were hounding us again on this project. Every other week they’d been changing the specifications for this damn thing, and they couldn’t leave well enough alone and just let us finish the project.

“Morning, Raindrop. Thanks for the heads up. I’ll go see him as soon as I get clocked in,” I responded, putting as much fake joy into my voice as I could manage. I really did not want to have another one-on-one conversation with Lofted Breeze.

A row of other Pegasi were already in line at the clock-in station, so I had to stand in line for almost five minutes while they punched themselves in, every possible scenario of what Lofted Breeze wanted going through my mind. Granted, the chances of him praising me and giving me a raise, as well as a corporate job offer were almost nil, but a stallion could dream, right?

By the time it was finally my turn to clock in, I could clearly hear the sound of machinery being warmed up in the main work floor, not to mention the all-too-familiar sounds of workplace chatter. I swear, no group was more full of gossip than a team of a hundred construction workers that knew each other far too well.

Lucky for me, I got to miss the juiciest rumors and wander down the cramped hallways to Lofted Breeze’s oh-so-comfortable corporate office, complete with cushioned chair. Bastard was working us to the bone, and spent the whole day sitting in his office sipping a glass of two decade old whiskey. Probably had one of the half-dozen secretaries come up and ‘help him with business’ every day. And the bastard got paid the big bits for it.

I finally reached his door and knocked loudly. A muffled “Enter” responded. Bastard was even trying to sound corporate. I pushed the door open, and there he was, seated on his chair as if it were some sort of throne.

Lofted Breeze was a severely overweight grey Pegasus with a greasy green mane. There was not a single redeeming quality about him. Or, if there was, I had yet to discover it. “Raindrop said you wanted to see me, sir,” I said, standing just inside the doorway.

“Ah, Cirrus Swirl, just the Pegasus I wanted to see! Please, sit! We have a lot to discuss. I trust you’re already clocked in?” he asked me, his voice absolutely laden with fake enthusiasm. He liked me just about as much as I liked him.

“Of course I am. It’s company policy, sir,” I answered dutifully as I sat down. As if the bastard didn’t know.

“Wonderful, wonderful. Well, Cirrus, we have just received a wonderful offer from the corporate office in Fillydelphia. They need a few of our staff to head over there and give them a rundown on our progress. It seems that Applejack is starting to crawl down her Ministry’s throat about this project, and the Board wants somepony who’s been closely involved since the beginning to make the report. I think you are the perfect pony for the job!” Lofted Breeze exclaimed, clapping his hooves together as a smile spread across his features.

I felt like the floor had fallen out from under me. Sunrise and I had just managed to confirm the loan for our apartment, and had actually managed to make a few advance payments, and now this bastard was trying to transfer me! He knew exactly what situation I was in!

“Sir, are you sure? There are a lot of others that know the project better than me. I’m just a work grunt,” I protested, waving a hoof at the door, “How about Thunderclap, or Morning Shower? They’re both floor managers! They deserve this far more than I do!”

“Maybe, but I need them here to oversee the last bit of work. Their experience is invaluable, and I fear what will happen to our efficiency if one of them were to leave. You wouldn’t want to make this division lose any efficiency, would you, Cirrus?” Lofted Breeze asked me, his tone clearly indicating what would happen if I answered wrong.

“Sir, can I be honest?” I asked, leaning forward so I was looking over his desk. He sat back, his gaze showing surprised, but also holding a hint of superiority. He had me by the balls, and he knew it. After he nodded, I continued, “Sir, you know I just got married. Sunrise and I just got the loan from the bank, and we finally started making payments on our home. I can’t afford a relocation, not unless you pay me the bonus for this project now, since I won’t be a member of this team anymore. Sure, it sounds like a promotion, but I can’t afford the move. Please, pick somepony else. Blazewing has worked at least as hard as I have, and he’s admittedly been more punctual too. He deserves this far more than I do.”

“But that is just it, Cirrus,” Lofted Breeze said, his grin now spreading from ear to ear, “He does deserve it more, which is why you are getting it. You’ve been taking this job for granted, and don’t think I’m the only pony that’s noticed. Now, I told them to expect you in two days. You have today to clear out your things and make the arrangements. Good day, and good luck.”

With that, he reached out with a hoof, grabbed that damn glass of whiskey, and took a sip. I rose to my hooves, feeling my entire world falling out from under me. In only two minutes, this self-important mule had destroyed my entire life! Crawling back to my parents for help now would be an admission of defeat, something I could never do. Unfortunately, the only other option was enlistment, and I wasn’t the type of pony that had the stomach for the front lines.

Something inside me snapped, and I reached out, taking the glass from Lofted Breeze’s grasp, and drained it. The whiskey burned as it went down, but it felt good. It made me feel like I could do anything. The jackass had a suitably surprised look on his face. “You know what, Breezy,” I drawled coldly, leaning in close and putting the glass back down on the table, “You can take your offer and shove it up your ass. I’m through working for a self-serving, greedy, conniving little bastard like you. You can tell corporate to fly down here and suck your cock like those secretaries do. I quit.”

I turned and marched out of the room, savoring the image of that fat bastards expression of shock and surprise, slamming the door behind me. Part of me was terrified that I had just burned the only bridge that could get me out of this mess in one piece; Sunrise certainly wasn’t going to be happy. But another part of me, the one being reinforced by the whiskey, was proud of what I had done. For the first time with months I had managed to stand up for myself. I felt damn good, too.

I made it to the end of the hallway before the door opened behind me. “Cirrus, get back here! You can’t just quit!” Lofted Breeze shouted, “What the hell are you going to do without me? You need me!”

If I turned around to answer, I was sure that he would convince me to follow along with whatever he wanted. I knew I was making a stupid decision, but I was just so fed up with all of bullshit, so I just kept walking, turning the corner and making my way back to the main entrance.

Raindrop looked at me cheerfully as I came back into the main lobby. “So how did it go?” she asked with a smile.

I shrugged, walking past her to the door. “Fat bastard tried to manipulate me, so I quit. Have a good day, Raindrop. Sorry if he makes your life hell.”

She didn’t get a chance to respond as I kicked the door open and took off into the sky, making my way back home. The sound of the air raid sirens started from downtown, probably just another drill. I was so absorbed in thinking about what I was going to say to Sunrise that I didn’t notice the contrails streaking across the sky, arcing towards Manehattan and the surrounding area.

What finally got my attention was the flash off to my left and above me. I turned to look in surprise, but the bright light made it near impossible to see anything. It was like trying to stare into the sun. Cloudesdale was a few hours flight in that direction, but all I could see as the light faded was a massive mushroom cloud towering over everything.

“No… This can’t be happening…” I breathed, barely able to believe my eyes. In the distance, another flash split the horizon, then another, and another. Contrails started streaking up from the horizon in front of me as Equestria responded, sending her own missiles streaking towards the Zebra lands.

This couldn’t be happening. Nothing we had heard gave any possibility of any of this happening. We were winning, every report agreed on that. We had more resources, more soldiers, better training, better equipment. I was working on the fucking project that would guarantee our victory, and now this. It simply couldn’t be real. I had to be dreaming.

But I didn’t wake up as another megaspell went off, this one in the direction of Fillydelphia. It was far enough away that I was certain it was hitting the surrounding area, but the bomb was still large enough for me to see the effects all the way from here. No matter what I believed, or wanted to believe, the end had arrived.

Fear gripped my heart, almost making my wings freeze in mid-flight, and I did plummet a dozen feet as I struggled to regain control of myself, my hard hat slipping from my head to tumble to the ground below. I didn’t even notice. I wouldn’t help anypony by collapsing here. I put all of my strength into flying, ignoring the sirens, ignoring the mushroom clouds, ignoring everything that wasn’t ‘Get Home Now.’

It was a ten minute flight to Manehattan. I’d be lucky if I could make it there and still have time to get to a shelter. Sunrise and I didn’t have any Stable passes, we were too pressed for money to apply to the program, but we did have a spot in one of the dozen fallout shelters in Manehattan. It would have to be enough.

The city skyline grew steadily larger as I approached, but not fast enough. I strained even harder, the wind whipping at my face and bringing tears to my eyes as I tried to push past the limits imposed on me by a lifetime of complacency and laziness. I was a hard worker when I had a reason for it, but had never seen the point in working out. Why do that when I could hang out with my friends? Now, I was paying the price.

I was just coming up on our apartment when the first shockwave hit me, slamming into my back and throwing me against the unyielding brick wall of the apartment building. The wave of heat that followed tore the breath from my lungs, leaving my gasping and crying. It felt like my feathers were going to catch on fire as I struggled to reach a window, just to get inside out of the heat.

Just as suddenly, the wind and heat were gone, and I started falling. I recovered, but not before I was already two floors below where I needed to be. I launched myself upwards, hoping to reach the window before the next shockwave hit. I was barely in time as another blast of wind and heat hit me, launching me inside to careen off the walls and land in an untidy heap in the hall.

I dragged myself to my hooves, limping along until I was standing in front of our door. To my horror, it was already open. I ran inside, casting about and looking for any sign of her, my Sunrise. Everything was in disarray, dishes left on the counter, milk spilled across the floor, already evaporating in the intense heat.

Every room was the same scene: complete destruction. It was like some great whirlwind had passed through my home, tossing everything about like a giant on a temper tantrum, then left, leaving it all where it fell. I couldn’t find a sign of Sunrise anywhere, except for the missing portrait of us from her nightstand. It had been a match to the one I kept in my breast pocket.

Seeing that picture missing told me that she was gone, probably already to our shelter. Our neighbors must have taken her, told her it was too late for me. Part of me wanted to believe that she wouldn’t leave without me, but the logical part of my mind told me that we had learned not to wait for anypony in the case of an emergency. We had to get to safety first. That meant I didn’t have much time.

I ran to the bathroom and ripped open the medicine cabinet, then started tossing bottles about, looking for one very specific one. Finally finding it, I tore the cap off and swallowed a pair of pills, grimacing at the sour taste of fake lemon. I replaced the cap and shoved the bottle into one of my pockets. Rad-X was going to be invaluable, and I had made sure that we had a good stock of medications, just in case. My next stop was my dresser, which I carelessly pulled away from the wall, revealing a safe.

The one point of contention that Sunrise and I had was the fact that I wanted to own a firearm, just in case. She would have none of it. This had been our compromise. I pulled the key out of my pocket and stuck it into the lock, opening the safe. Inside was my simple nine millimeter. I was careful to keep it in good condition and went down to the firing range twice a week. It was the only time it ever came out of the safe.

I pulled the gun out and loaded it, stuffing it into my vest. I only had two extra magazines of ammunition and didn’t have time to grab the box of unloaded ammo. Hopefully, I wouldn’t need them. I turned away from the safe and started running. Flying wasn’t an option anymore, not with all the bombs falling and the shockwaves. I would have to run to the shelter.

On the streets, it was chaos. Ponies were everywhere, pushing against each other in their panic. It was almost impossible to see what was going on. Somewhere, somepony was screaming. It was a sound of utter despair, the kind you hear from a cornered animal on a hunt that knew all hope was lost.

Smoke was starting to fill the streets as well, though I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. I didn’t think Manehattan had been hit yet. At least, I hadn’t seen any megaspells come down. I was sure that I wouldn’t be alive if the city had been hit.

I pushed my way through the throng of ponies, fighting against them to get through. All I needed to do was make it to the train station on 34th. The fallout shelter was right across the street. It was only four blocks, dammit, but I couldn’t push through this panicked mass.

There was only one way I was going to get there in time. I lifted off, pushing myself into the air and flapping my wings. The smoke was thick and choking, and I could barely see as it made my eyes tear up, but I pushed on. I could endure a little pain if it meant I would see my Sunrise.

Ahead of me I could see the train station emerge out of the smoke. Sitting on the tracks was a train with hundreds of ponies pushing against each other, all of them screaming, as they tried to board. In the distance, hanging in the air like some symbol of fate, was a mushroom cloud. The megaspells were finally hitting us.

I immediately landed, and turned away from the train station. The shelter was right… there! I ran forward, hoping to beat the shockwave, and pounded on the door, shouting to be let in, that I had a pass.

For a full fifteen seconds, I thought nopony would answer. Then, against all hope, the door slid open, hooves grabbed me and dragged me inside, and the door closed behind me again, sealing us in darkness.

I was dragged downwards, underground. The smell of unwashed bodies and fear filled the air, making me want to gag, but I was alive. If nothing else, I was alive. We finally came to a stop in a small room that was lit by a dim red emergency light and I was faced with three large, and buff, Earth Ponies dressed in uniform.

“Show us your pass,” the one in the center demanded, a dirty grey Earth pony with a stark expression. Underneath that tough exterior, I could see his fear. This pony was close to the edge, and I was terrified at what a wrong answer might get me.

I dug through my pockets, searching for the small slip of paper that could very well mean my life. It took far longer than I wanted, since it wasn’t in my right breast pocket, or my left side pocket, or even my right side pocket. I grinned nervously, opening the vest somewhat so I could reach inside and check the few pockets that were on the inside.

The Earth pony’s frown deepened and I saw his leg lift, bringing a sidearm close enough for him to grasp. My hoof finally brushed against something that felt like paper and I grasped it, pulling it out and thrusting it towards him. “Here! This is it!” I shouted, my voice wavering, praying to the Princesses that it actually was.

The officer reached out and grabbed the slip of paper out of my grasp and looked at it critically. “Cirrus Swirl, work for RobCo?” he asked, arching an eyebrow at me.

“Yeah, that’s right,” I confirmed with a nervous nod, a weak grin tweaking the corners of my mouth. I was starting to sweat under the glare of these three severe ponies.

“You have a photo ID? I want proof that you are who you say you are,” the officer snapped, holding out his hoof.

For the second time that day, I felt my world fall out from under me. I didn’t have any IDs on me, I didn’t need them. Everypony at the office knew who I was. I started going through my pockets again, searching for anything that might work. My hoof finally came to rest on the picture in my left breast pocket, my wedding picture.

Slowly, I pulled it out, looking at it as tears formed in my eye. If this officer wanted to keep it, I didn’t know what I would do. My hoof shaking, I held it out, looking at the office with a worried expression. “This… It’s all I have,” I admitted, “She’s my wife.”

The guard took the picture and examined it, looking from it to me several times before handing it back. “Good enough,” he muttered, “It’s not like we could throw you out anymore anyway. Officer Tart, did we have a Sunrise Swirl come through earlier?”

“I… think so, sergeant. I think I know where we left her. Follow me, Cirrus,” the dark red pony to my left answered, gesturing to me with a hoof.

He led me out of the small room and back into the main area of the shelter. By now, my eyes had adjusted to the darkness and I could make out the mass of frightened ponies that were crowded into the room. I recognized a lot of them. It would have been hard not to, since we had done emergency drills every other week for the last two years. The only break I had gotten from them was my honeymoon.

Tart led me to a corner of the room where a small mass of ponies I recognized as being from my apartment complex were huddled together. As we approached, I saw them shift and a flash of golden hide tinted by red caught my eye.

“Sunrise!” I shouted, leaping forward past the officer. I was met halfway by her reaching hooves and fell into her embrace. Our lips met in a desperate kiss filled with the relief that we had found each other and the fear that we might not have.

“I thought you were dead,” she breathed, hardly daring herself to speak, when we finally separated, “I heard the sirens, then saw the first one hit… I thought I would never see you again.”

“It’s fine, I’m fine,” I answered, crying openly as I held her, “I made it back. I’m okay.”

Somewhere in the desperation of our reunion, Tart had disappeared. I didn’t even notice. All I had eyes for was Sunrise. She was crying with me, holding me close and running her muzzle through my mane. Underneath the overpowering smell of smoke, fire, and sweat, I could barely make out her sweet scent. It smelled like a garden of fresh herbs on a summer morning. Inside my chest, my heart melted. Despite everything, I still had her.

“How did you make it?” she finally asked me, letting me go so we could retreat to the corner and give the ponies around us a little more space.

“I was already on my way home,” I admitted, no longer caring about the events of the morning, “Lofted Breeze tried to transfer me to Fillydelphia. He used the excuse that the Board members out there wanted somepony who had been with the project to fly out there and give a report. I would have lost the bonus from working on the project if I accepted, so I told him to shove his offer and quit.”

“Cirrus… You didn’t,” she protested, placing a hoof on my chest, “Why?”

“It didn’t matter. We don’t have the money to move, so we were screwed whether or not I accepted. The company doesn’t have the money to finance moving its employees. Every spare bit was going to the war effort,” I answered, “And I was done with letting that self-important mule run my life. I’d wanted to quit for a long time, Sunrise. I didn’t because I needed the job, because we needed the job.”

She looked at me quietly for a long time, her gaze holding a disappointment I had never wanted to see from her. Finally, her gaze softened and she embraced me, leaning her head against my chest and wrapping her legs around me. I unconsciously unfurled my wings and wrapped them around her in return. “I guess it doesn’t matter anymore. Everything is gone. What are we going to do, Cirrus? I’m so scared.”

“I don’t know…” I admitted. To be honest, I was just as scared as she was. What was happening up there changed everything on the most fundamental level. “We’ll just take it as it comes, together. Like we promised.” I lowered my head and kissed her, trying to make her feel safe again. It didn’t help that I felt so inadequate to the task.

The sound of the bombs dropping lasted for hours. Several of the detonations were so loud and powerful they actually shook the shelter we were in, causing bits of dust and crumbs of rock to drift from the ceiling and cover us. There was no question that those bombs were hitting the city above us, destroying the place we all called home.

When the pounding finally faded to silence, it was echoed in our shelter. Somehow, the power was still connected, leaving us with the weak red emergency lighting. For another two hours, nopony said a word. Sunrise and I simply sat in our corner, holding each other close, finding solace in the fact that, if this was the end, we would meet it together.

The first words to be spoken after the silence were by a mare who asked a simple question. “What do we do now?” Her voice was shaking with fear when she said it, as if she was afraid the barrage that had lasted for so long would start up again at the mere breaking of the silence.

Nopony answered her. I don’t think anypony knew how to. Everything we had known was gone: Our jobs, our lives, even our homes. We had lost the security of the knowledge that the front lines were hundreds of miles away, and we could go about our lives peacefully.

Then, an idea struck me. It was something I vaguely remembered seeing in a survival class Sunrise had convinced me to take a few months ago. It was a sort of worst case scenario class that tried to teach us what to do should the city we lived in be attacked by a megaspell. The class had never addressed the issue of an apocalyptic attack, but a lot of the principles should still hold true.

“What have we got in the way of supplies?” I asked, looking around at the ponies closest to me, “How much food, water, and medicine? We need to take stock of what we have.”

It felt odd, taking charge like I was, but at least I had an idea of what I was doing. Nopony else seemed to know, so how bad could I screw it up?

After a few minutes, somepony finally answered me. “There are maybe four crates of preserved food, a couple cases of water and a couple first aid kits, mostly made up of radiation drugs,” they answered. The voice sounded vaguely like the Earth pony that had interrogated me when I had arrived.

“All right… um... distribute what you can to everypony. Try to keep the food and water equal. We’ll need to ration what we have. Does anypony here have medical training?” I asked, standing up and facing the crowd. They were starting to turn to face me as they realized who was speaking.

A few hooves shot into the air, but there were far fewer than I had been hoping for. “Okay, give the medicine to them. They’ll know best how to use it. For now, let’s just focus on getting the supplies distributed. If we can, everpony should be carrying at least one bottle of water and a couple of days’ worth of rations. Once that is done, we’ll think about the next step.”

The truth was, I barely knew what I was doing. I was running on half-remembered lessons and complete bullshit that happened to sound intelligent. If I was lucky, it would work, but I needed the time to think about what we would do next.

In the time it was taking for all the supplies to be distributed, a pony came up to our corner, pushing his way through the thick mass to approach me. As he neared, I could make out that it was the police sergeant that had questioned me on my arrival. “You seem to have an idea of what’s going on,” he stated. I could see the questioning look in his eyes. He wanted to be brave, and looked up to, but he was way out of his depth. The worst thing he’d probably ever had to deal with was the occasional robbery.

I shrugged, using the gesture to hide my own trembling. I wasn’t a brave pony. I was only on my hooves still due to a combination of adrenaline and relief. “I remember a couple of things from a class I took a while back,” I said, looking back at Sunrise and the rest of the ponies from my apartment, “I need to look out for my family.”

“Well, it’s better than everything else we’ve got. At least you’re giving these ponies something to do. But what do you think we can do? Those megaspells… Shit, everything is going to be gone,” he muttered, his ears drooping and his voice losing its hard edge. In that moment he became just another terrified pony, floundering in a world he knew nothing about.

“We need to be careful,” I said, reaching out and putting a supporting hoof on his shoulder, “If I remember properly, megaspells put out an incredible amount of radiation in a short time. We should be safe down here, but there really aren’t any guarantees. In a few days, the levels should fall enough so that we can at least get out. From there… We should head to the country. If the cities were the targets of the attacks, then the radiation will be much lower in the countryside.”

The buck nodded solemnly. “Then that’s what we’ll do. I’ll set up a rationing schedule for us down here. In thirty-six hours, we’ll head up to the surface and make for the suburbs. I know a few places where we should be able to get some supplies.”

“Ok. Thank you,” I said, nodding. It was all I could think to do. My mind was too terrified to consider any other possibilities. At least now we had a plan.

The hours passed slowly, and in almost complete silence, excepting the occasional cough or sneeze. Some ponies cried, but they did so quietly and in the comforting arms of their friends and family. Part of me had the bad feeling that many of these ponies weren’t going to survive the week.

The only reason I kept my sanity was because Sunrise was there with me, holding me. She kept insisting that I was doing the right thing, that I was right to give us a purpose, but I was less sure. I was just a construction grunt and knew nothing about leadership, but now all of these ponies were looking to me, simply because I had been stupid enough to open my mouth.

We spent most of those thirty-six hours wrapped in each other’s legs, simply trying to remind ourselves that we were still together, and indulging in the fantasy that somewhere, somehow, our families were safe, but I knew just how worthless those fantasies were.

I had been raised in the suburbs outside of Canterlot, in the shadow of the mountain that beautiful was built on, but my parents had told me of their intentions to move back to Cloudesdale after I moved out. That had been four years ago. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the image of that first explosion, and I knew in my heart that my parents were dead, along with the other thousands of ponies that had called that city home.

But my time to grieve drew short as the few police officers that were in our shelter started to rouse everyone. Time was up, and it was time to go outside and face whatever world was left in the aftermath. The child in me was convinced that we would find nothing but fire and ash on the other side of that door.

“Cirrus Swirl, I need you at the front!” the police sergeant, Just Heart, called out.

I smiled at Sunrise, gave her one last quick kiss, then pushed my way to the front. “What do you need, officer?” I asked as I arrived.

“I figured you should be one of the first out, since you have an idea of what to do once we get out there. I know I never learned what to do if Manehattan got attacked,” he stated, stepping to the side so I could make my way to the stairs.

I nodded solemnly and made my way towards them. At the base of the stairs were the few medically trained ponies that had taken shelter with us: one doctor, three nurses, and a veterinarian. They were each holding a bottle of Rad-X pills that would hopefully boost our systems enough to get us out of the city before radiation sickness set in. Barring that, we had a very small supply of Rad-Away.

The doctor gave me a few of the pills, as well as an approving nod, then let me walk by, Just Heart a step behind me. We made our way up to the heavy steel door that would open onto the square facing what had been the train station. In my mind’s eye, I could still see the mushroom cloud rising up in the distance.

I took a deep breath and hit the opening mechanism. With an anemic grinding sound, the door slowly slid open. The first thing that hit me was the smell of fire, smoke, and ash, followed immediately by a hot wind that made me cough and clutch my chest for breath. The air simply smelled… wrong.

With tentative steps I emerged out into the open, eyes casting about for a familiar landmark, but everything was hidden behind a thick haze. Before me, the train station was a twisted wreckage of metal and ash. Anything that had been wooden had burned down in the intense heat of the megaspells. The train itself sat canted on its side, the wheels completely off the tracks, some of them still spinning weakly in the wind. It was like a scene out of a horror movie.

“Goddesses above,” Just Heart swore as he emerged, “There’s nothing left…”

I nodded speechlessly, looking for any indication of where we should go. Something caught my eye, on the ground near the train. I approached it warily, curious. Once I was within a few feet, it was easy to make out the very clear outline of a pony. If I was right, it looked like a shadow, but there was nothing around to cast it. The megaspells had been so powerful, that they had incinerated anypony caught in the open, flash-burning their shadows into the pavement. I shuddered violently, tearing my gaze away and looking back at the train.

Looking at it I remembered riding it out to the country to visit Sunrise’s parents. If memory served me well, they lived far enough out that it should be safe from the worst of the radiation, and I knew how to get there from their station.

“We should follow the tracks,” I said, pointing, “I know how to get to a few places out in the countryside from some of the stations. If we stick to those, we’ll at least have a reference. Those bombs probably changed a lot of the countryside, so we can’t rely on our memory of how things looked.”

Just Heart nodded, then looked over his shoulder at the ponies that were now emerging behind us. “Sounds like a plan. Let’s get moving. I don’t want to stay here any longer than necessary.”

With that, we set out, walking along the ruined tracks out into whatever was left of the Equestrian countryside. Everything we had ever known was gone, but at least we were still alive. It was more than a lot of ponies could say.

{Well, here is the end of the first entry of Cirrus Swirl’s attempts to survive in the aftermath of the Great War. So many stories that I have seen have been about Stable Ponies, or soldiers in the military, or other experienced ponies (in some senses) being faced with the horrors of a wasteland long in existence (my other story included) and I wanted to see what an average pony would do in a wasteland that had just been created. I hope this was as fun for all of you to read as it was for me to write. Thanks go to Kkat for the original Fallout Equestria, and to Barrobroadcaster and Supergumgum for pre-reading and editing!}

Author's Note

Edits: I put this up before my second editor went through it (a combination of impatience and thoughtlessness.) So, many apologies to Supergumgum for jumping the gun on this, but I had a lot of stuff going on, and just wanted to start getting feedback on the story. The edits were mostly just small spelling, grammar, or clarity issues, so nothing major or story-related was changed.