S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Last Hope
Prologue: The End of Loyalty
Author: Draconis187

I sat with my back against a small, broken concrete wall on the outskirts of Stalliongrad. We were maybe about three or four clicks from the nuclear plant where Twilight had most likely run off to. It made my blood boil that she'd just up and run in the middle of the night. I looked over and saw Applejack busy reloading her shotgun with those Dart shells she found a while back. We needed some radiation treatment since we were forced to run through a radiation heavy area to get out of a firefight we weren't going to win. Luckily the worst we got was a lingering migraine.

Her prized hat was riddled with holes and looked like it was falling apart but she refused to leave the thing behind, saying it was too precious to her. Whatever in my opinion, it just made her an easier target. Her coat was matted, dirty and covered in blood, even under the dark green stalker armour we got from some sleazy merchant although it had seen some wear and tear. Her ponytails were gone, her mane was singed and frayed to the point that you would be forgiven for not recognising her straight away.

Me? Well, my rainbow mane and tail were dull, full with dirt and I had a few knots in my tail but I didn't have time to worry about my appearance as I cleared the jam from my AKM-74/2U and reloaded the clip. I couldn't believe how long this thing lasted with all the crawling and fighting in the dirt I had to do. My wings were hidden under red and grey Honour armour we got from these Griffons some while back. Not too bad to deal with but they had their own problems with Liberation who operated over two clicks from them.

My blue coat was simply a mess. Rarity would have had a field day if she had seen the pair of us like this. I had a few cuts under my left cheek and across my jawline, compliments of a Bloodsucker before I blew its mutated face to oblivion with my back-up Big Ben pistol. AJ, Twilight and I were the only ones left to go find the sarcophagus in the nuclear plant and find out how everything here turned out the way it did.

I bit into an old piece of bread, hoping it would sate my hunger before we made the last push to the plant by going through the city. I was tired, hungry despite I was currently trying to fix that and the memories of this place just kept haunting me to the point I could barely sleep unless I was extremely tired.

I offered Applejack half of the bread. She looked at it with the same disgust I had for it but ate them all the same. We weren't in Ponyville or Sweet Apple Acres and even if we were, any regular food would probably be jacked up with enough radiation to kill us if we took a single bite.

I offered Applejack half of the bread. She looked at it with the same disgust I had for it but ate them all the same. We weren't in Ponyville or Sweet Apple Acres and even if we were, any regular food would probably be jacked up with enough radiation to kill us if we took a single bite.

I got up and slung my rifle over my neck using the strap, looking over the wall. "We'd best get moving. We're too exposed out here."

AJ nodded and slung that Chaser-13 over her shoulder as she got to her hooves. "Ah know that. Not hard ta ferget ya know."

"I wish I could forget this. I wish I could wake up back at home, next to my bed in a cold sweat with this being nothing but a horrible, twisted nightmare," I said. I'm sure my voice sounded like I was already half-dead and I was close to that far too many times.

She looked behind us to make sure there weren't anything waiting for us there before we made for a freestanding building that used to be some restaurant. Hopefully there was food there but I wasn't holding my breath as it was most likely looted by another stalker. Still, AJ looked optimistic as our armoured hooves were too loud for my tastes as we bolted for it.

As we ran, an incessant beeping rang in my ear, forcing me to slow down considerably and look around. Applejack must have heard it as well as well as she slowed down too. It meant only one thing: an anomaly.

Anomalies: the Zone's gift to the world when the radiation was not enough. With radiation, all we needed to do was eat these funny blue and red pills which helped deal with the rads which could either kill or mutate us. I sure as buck did not want to wind up like any of the local population so I made sure to carry at least ten of them which were stored in packs under my wings. Although now even I ran out of them so we had to be very careful about where we walked.

No, what anomalies do varies on the type but nine out of ten of them will kill you painfully the other one won't give you a chance to feel pain, it kills that quickly. There was a list of them on a PDA we brought along, all documented and detailed - a little too detailed in some cases - by our resident egghead. Sadly thinking about her made me angry again as I began speaking to AJ in a very harsh but hush tone.

"The nerve of Twi! Leaving us in the middle of the night like that, I thought we were in this together?!" My eyes continued to scan the area as we walked, trying to find the signs of an anomaly. I kept walking slowly, the beeping was stagnant so it didn't help me much.

Applejack was close by, about three steps away if I wasn't wrong, looking around as carefully as I was. "Dunno, sugarcube. She must'a had her reasons. Ah know she don't run off like that without reason."

"Well, there were no signs of a struggle and if it were Bloodsuckers or those mind monster things, we'd all be dead," I argued as I spotted the air being distorted to our right. My suspicions were confirmed when a rat got caught in the anomaly.

The rat was whisked up into the air when there was a crack like a whip and the rat became nothing more than a bloodstain as the anomaly tore it apart, kicking up a gust of wind as a result, blowing our manes back.

We walked around the anomaly, thankful for the rat's unwitting sacrifice. We kept our eyes peeled, our ears open and our minds sharp despite how tired we felt. You let your guard down for a second in the Zone and you were likely to wind up very dead very quickly.

The restaurant was old and seemed like it had been abandoned years ago, long before the Zone appeared. The metal, stylised finishes were rusted and broken, the red paint was faded, cracked and peeling off the building. The sign was broken with multiple lights missing from it and I could barely see it say Dawn's End above the door. My heart sank as all that told me was that there was more likely nothing worth our time inside.

Still, holding onto a small glimmer of hope, we treaded inside and our hearts soared for one of the few times ever since we got into the Zone. Amongst the broken furniture, grimy tiled floors and shattered windows, somepony had set up camp here. Possibly Twilight but I wasn't too sure.

"We got lucky this time, Dash," Applejack said as she walked up to an aging, metal trunk and opened it.

She pulled out some buckshot shells for her shotgun and some .45 calibre ACP rounds for her UCP Compact pistol. Thing had a kick to it but so could she so I guess they suited each other. My ears swivelled as I thought I heard something, making me duck under one of the broken tables for cover.

I heard a shuffling noise and turned my head to see Applejack hiding closer to the door, pumping the shotgun in her hooves. Our armour had these little spikes pointing inward on our right foreleg so we could work the trigger mechanism and all we needed to do to fire was to make a small movement with our fetlock. For lefties it was easily take off and swapped, provided you had a unicorn nearby to do it for you.

There was also a magnet on the butt stock of my rifle, on the handles of our pistols and on the shotgun Applejack had on her. We had another magnet on our left foreleg, near our hoof so we could ‘grip' the gun to provide more stability. It was also what Applejack used to pump her shotgun, that and the pump was indented a bit on the side for additional leverage.

I held my breath, praying to Celestia whoever it was on the other side of the window would just walk off out of our lives so we could carry on. I made zero movement, my ears doing the seeing for me as I heard heavy steps on the ground outside.

I let out a small sigh as I heard a deep moan come from outside. It was only one of the Zone's infamous Monolith zealots. It was either a griffon, minotaur or one of us ponies that succumbed to whatever was brainwashing these losers. Pretty pathetic to look at as the only thing on their one-track minds was killing everything that was not one of them. Too bad for us they were just as good at shooting as any other normal, free-thinking pony.

But we could not afford a needless gunfight at the moment. I had three and two clips left for my assault rifle and pistol respectively. I also had a smoke grenade in my possession so if we had to run, we were covered. I had no clue how much ammo Applejack still carried but I doubted she was better off than I, although I knew she had two grenades on her so they would help in a pinch.

We waited for what may as well have been an eternity, just so this bozo could either walk off or come in. I would have preferred the former but things rarely go your way in these conditions. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end as I heard the steps get louder until they made contact with the broken, tiled floor that was the diner we were holed up in.

I cursed under my breath and slowly peered around cover with my body as close to the floor as I dared without making a noise. I gritted my teeth as what I saw was worse than bad news.

There were two of those morons: a mare with a tattered, dull and scorched tan coat while the other zealot was a minotaur and a very skinny one at that. It was as if he had never eaten in his life.

They had vapid, vacant expressions on their faces but I doubted I was going to see one of these fanatics give Twilight a run for her bits in math. I took a quick look at Applejack's hiding spot and I could see she and they were less than two metres away from each other. She had her Chaser 13 in her hooves, ready to fire and looked at me as if waiting to see what was going to do. The closest to her would be the Minotaur which would leave the mare for me.

I gave Applejack a small nod as I ‘gripped' the assault rifle and reared up, getting out of cover as I shouted. "Hey, meatheads!"

I fired and my shots tore through the mare's chest, each round making the rifle kick back against my shoulder, hard but I managed to stay on target as I used three round bursts. A resounding series of loud bangs came from the business end of Applejack's weapon as she fired until she was about to run out.

The minotaur's wiry chest got the full Dart treatment as his chest was torn to shreds, sending blood in all directions like an artist who decided to throw their can of paint around in a fit of rage or frustration.

But none of us took cover or stopped firing as the bloodbath continued. I fired about half of my current clip into the mare before she decided to collapse to the ground and I counted five Dart rounds that tore into the minotaur's chest cavity before a dull thud announced his death.

"That's done…" I muttered under my breath as I placed the gun over my neck again before looting the mare for anything useful.

"Think any of them other fanatics heard us?" Applejack asked me, concerned that our firefight caused a big enough ruckus to attract more Monolith zealots.

"I seriously don't know but I say we don't stick around to find out and hoof it out of here," I replied as I found a smoke grenade on the mare's body as well as a few 5.45mm BP rounds. These were good armour-piercing rounds for my assault rifle and should come in handy later on.

"You get anything, AJ?" I asked as I saw Applejack rummage through the minotaur's armour.

"Jus' them 9mm rounds. Useless," She replied with an agitated tone that I recognised quite quickly.

"Didn't it have any rounds in the gun?" I asked as I pointed to the sawn-off nearby.

"Odd thin' is, it's empty," She replied as she began walking to the door.

"That is odd… they usually have a shell or two…" I muttered under my breath as I followed suit.

It seemed like we didn't attract any unwanted attention, thanks to the building's rather isolated location but that didn't mean we weren't erring on the side of caution. I kept my head on a swivel as the pair of us left the Dawn's End and made our way towards a housing complex that was on the way to the plant.

All we could see was broken… everything. Walls were crumbling, some sections of roofing were missing and the buildings had entire sections lying strewn on the floor in large, discoloured, broken heaps. The roads were cracked and some of it seemed like it was hit by some form of high explosive.

Granted I've seen a griffon packing a Bulldog grenade launcher so it was entirely possible that there were mortars somewhere. Or at least some form of heavy firepower capable of creating such holes but it looked like a small war happened here.

As we kept walking, we kept our eyes and ears open as usual, especially since we were entering a more confined area with multiple areas to hole up and take us out from. I would have preferred to be up in the air, observing everything from above and act like a lookout but I couldn't since the air above us was more unstable than Twilight's potions.

Then there was the fact I would be leaving Applejack hanging here on the ground and I would be a more tempting target on my own in the air anyway.

~~*****~~

We decided to hole up in an abandoned hotel on the other side of the complex so we could plan our route to the power plant. The hotel had six floors and we managed to find a route to the fifth but we couldn't go higher thanks to the fact that every staircase leading to it had collapsed. We had to go up three separate staircases just to reach the fifth floor, it was that bad.

If anything our exhaustion was really taking its toll on us. I could see the bags under my eyes in the shattered fragment of what used to be a full-length mirror. Applejack looked just as bad, if not worse. Neither of us had been this tired in our lives.

Luckily we had a large window which allowed us to see the remainder of the city of Stalliongrad with the power plant's immense cooling towers looming in the distance, as if mocking us, teasing us.

Down below I could make out several of these brainwashed creatures aimlessly walking around, barely holding their weapons in their claws, hands or hooves. I observed the area past them which lead to the main road that had the most direct route to the power plant.

I could see the main courtyard from here, or at least most of it as there were high walls surrounding the plant. Quite a lot of the plant's exterior was intact, surprising since Stalliongrad was more glorified rubble than a city.

"Think we'll make it?" I heard Applejack ask, making me turn to look at her. Her tone of voice made me pause slightly, she sounded more tired than I thought she was.

I saw her laid with her back in a corner, looking to the doorway we came in. She looked like she was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion. Her eyes were half-lidded, her breathing was slower than normal and she looked at me with some forlorn expression.

"Hey…" I walked up to her and looked her straight in the eyes, "We haven't come this far to just give up okay? This Zone has thrown so much at us already and we're still standing. We are going to get through this then head home for some well deserved rest."

"Ah'd like that…" Applejack replied, smiling faintly. It looked forced, pained and weak. If I did not know any better I would say she was losing her will to move at all… as if she were dying.

"Look. Just… rest up okay? I'll keep watch. Just lay back and rest a bit and we'll go once you feel up to it," I said, looking to the door, sitting on my rump and aiming at the door.

"Okay then, Dash. Thanks," I heard her say before I heard her shuffle and lie down.

Please Celestia… let her be safe…

~~*****~~

Applejack is dead… passed away in her sleep about an hour and a half after she laid down. I spent another half hour trying to get her to wake but she was long gone. I couldn't believe I lost my friend and when I searched her body for an explanation, I found out why.

She took a shot from a previous firefight and seemed to have been hiding it all this time, fighting to stay awake. Amongst the usual smells, I failed to realise she was bleeding out. She was hit in the side of her abdomen so it wasn't fatal yet.

It pained me but I had to keep moving, I had to leave her behind. If I carried her body with me I would have wound up as dead as she was. I planned on getting into the plant, finding Twilight, beating her over the head then berate her for leaving us behind and causing Applejack's death. After that I promised myself and Applejack's corpse that I would take her and carry her back home to bury her with her folks on the farm's northeast side.

I had already managed to get through the courtyard relatively unnoticed. There were more guards here than the Princesses' personal vault. They even had a tank. A bucking tank. I kept to the walls and shadows, moving slowly and as close to the ground as possible.

The inside of the plant was a cornucopia of rubble and sealed off doors. I felt like I was being herded in a specific direction like they knew I was here. I met more Monolith zealots and we engaged in some shotgun diplomacy. The enclosed spaces worked for me as it gave me plenty to take cover behind.

Sadly it worked both ways as concrete got shaved off by bullets. I must have cursed Celestia and Luna under my breath so many times that would have made my folks very disappointed in me.

I shook in fear as I heard the shots fly past whatever I was using for cover at the time. I was hungry, tired, cold and all alone for the first time since I set hoof in the Zone. In more than one encounter I had to use one of the grenades I took off Applejack's body. It pained me to loot her body as if she were one of the other bodies we looted in our journey.

The explosion was deafening but the silence that soon followed once the ringing stopped was music to my ears. There were body parts all over the place or, luckily, the shockwave was enough to kill them. I looted them once I knew I had the chance to.

I must have reached the main reactor about an hour after I got into the plant. I finally managed to see the monolith that was also called the Wish Granter by many of the ponies, griffons and minotaurs that lived in the Zone.

It was maybe four metres tall, about a metre wide and three quarters of a metre thick. The thing had a blue-white glow to it, humming softly as if it were alive. The area around the Wish Granter was nothing other than a ruin.

Girders had fallen, walls were as high as my withers in some areas and the main reactor was clearly visible, the control rods were broken and laid strewn on the floor in some places or still attached to the apparatus that held them.

"Twilight?!" I shouted, looking around. "Twilight you have some explaining to do and if you don't come out I'll put a bullet in you when you do!"

My shouting was met with complete silence as my voice echoed through the empty room. Guess the Zealots deemed the place too sacred to step hoof, foot or claw in it. Which meant I had a chance to lay back and take stock of my situation.

I had one clip left for my pistol and my rifle was completely empty. I had no clue in Tartarus as to how I was going to make it out. Doubt I can with just a pistol. Applejack is gone, Twilight vanished and I have no bucking clue if the others are okay or even made it out the Zone. It they are still here I pray they never venture this far into the Zone.

I left the PDA on Applejack's body should somepony sane come across her. All that is on it is Twilight's notes, the contact list of other stalkers we met and got into good graces with and lastly, a voice recording of me asking whoever finds her body to take it back to Ponyville and bury her on the off chance I died before doing it myself.

At the time of the recording I was confident that I would make it there and back with Twilight. Now that plan is long gone.

I looked at the Wish Granter and scoffed. I could not see what made stalkers fight into the heart of the Zone, fighting these motherbuckers only to find the thing they were fighting for is nothing more than a hunk of glowing rock in the middle off a broken room.

I could feel my breath was ragged and heavy, pain finally setting as the adrenaline wore off. The effects last longer in Pegasi due to our rather dangerous lifestyle. Now that I was calming down I could feel I got shot in at least three times. I felt around and winced as I located one in my right flank, my left shoulder and the last one that I could find was in my left foreleg.

I just sat there, still looking at the monolith of stone with tired eyes. Maybe I could take a rest and look for Twilight later. Nopony is coming in by the looks of it and don't seem to even want to. I slowly drifted off and my thoughts soon went back home.

I could see it now, my nice, warm, comforting cloud bed, everypony waiting to greet me and ask about my adventures. Scoots being one of them without a doubt, wanting to know everything in as much detail as possible, expecting some form of heroics.

Boy would she be surprised if she knew everything that happened. The things the six of us went through and barely survived. The arguments we had... us nearly shooting ourselves and breaking up. Not the kind of tale one could ever call 'inspirational'.

I kept a firm grip as I slowly let myself drift off completely. Sorry Scoots but I think I'm going to be a little late for your birthday this year…

Author's Note

You'll have to forgive any spelling errors as I could not use my computer to upload this until I get it sorted. So if you see any errors please feel free to point them out.
As the title points out this just a prologue. Knowledge of the game is not required and everything will be explained as the story progresses.