Hello reader, I am moving over to deviant art because I plan on writing non-pony submissions in the future and like everything in one place.

http://theproviant.deviantart.com/ - Thats the link. go to it.

A large stallion galloped up to the railings and shouted out to all of us, "right! Door 1 goes to the 1v1 fight to the death tourney!" More doors? Great. "Door 2 goes to the 1v1 match tourney!" "Door 3 goes to the 2v2 tourney!" "Make your pick, most of you will die anyway."

While door 2 seemed very inviting, I remembered what I was told. I walked up to door 3. Somepony else would go through this door without a already picked partner, right? I walked in the room, where about 7 other competitors were gathered. A 8th tried to come in, but was stopped by the guards. "Go to another door. this room has reached its max." I was right on time. "My foal is in there!" The stallion tried to push his way in, "I'm all he has!" but, screaming wouldn't save him. The click of a gun sent his hooves straight up. "You're foal will die alone then." and a BANG went off as the gun shot sent the father sprawling across the floor, dead. "Take him to the butcher." And 2 guards picked up the body and carried him away.

The guard, now finished with his confrontation, looked at the colt and pointed his gun at him. "Anyone who wishes to take him as a partner may do so now." I looked around the room. Nopony seemed willing to take the foal on, and another click of the gun set me off. I wanted to find someone who could actually help me survive this and get away, but no, im about to save a crying colt. "I will take him." The guard wheeled around to face me. It didn't seem like he actually expected anypony to save him. "Well, congratulations, your life has been saved by a monster. Have fun with whatever awaits you in the future."

The guard stalked off, and the colt started to stop crying a little, but when he looked up and saw me, started bawling again. I guess he didn't actually expect a monster to save him. I heard a very loud "ahem" and looked up at "unimportant". "Now that that's all over and done with, the rest of you need to find your partners. I'll leave you to that, you have 10 minutes. Begin." I walked over to the colt and sat down next to him. "You don't need to be scared of me, I did just save your life." He wasn't crying anymore, his tears seemed to have ran out. He looked up at me with eyes that told me he was lost in the sea of emotions.

"Hi, my name is Rhythm, and don't worry, ill get us out of here, somehow...." "Why'd you do it mister?" I looked down at him. First thing he says, and its a question I didn't have a answer to. "I don't know." "Oh." he started looking at me, squishing his face together, finally asking the question that I had been waiting for. "What happened to you?" An easy question, I repeated it like I had thousands of times before. "Too much balefire radiation caused this to happen to me" the colt nodded his head, but I could tell he still didn't understand.

I looked at him and asked the lingering question. " Can you fight?" "Basic hoof-to-hoof combat. My father... he trailed off, and then continued to cry, but this time, he cried into me. Definitely a awkward experience. I was never one that was good with kids, never wanted any of my own, and now I was going to have to fight along side one with brand-new emotional problems. Great.

"Ghoul!" I looked up to see, what-da-ya-know, Mr.Unimportant himself, waving over to me to go over to him with the barrel of an SMG. I got up and walked over to him as he ushered me into a room. He put the gun down, and looked at me. "If your wondering why I called you in here, its not because you did anything wrong, well, not anything to make me have to kill you, but..." "It'll take more than an SMG to kill a ghoul." ":Yes, well, I will just ignore that one, next time I wont be so benevolent about your interruptions." "I called you in here because whenever we get a new set of ponies to join the club im allowed to help one group. I have decided to help you, because I admire your bravery, or possible stupidity."

"I like how you saved the colt. his father did not deserve to die, but I am in no position to make that call out-loud." I just stared at him in stunned shock, the mere fact that he will be helping my and the foal, I just realized I never got his name! That's a little embarrassing. "What kind of help will we be receiving?" I barley got that out, still in a trance. We may win after all! "Combat help. I will teach you how to fight, and you will receive combat spells. "

"Wow, that's actually pretty nice." We both wheeled around to see the colt looking at us. "Umm.. " He looked at me with a look that said really? After a while, he turned to a dress me directly. "Goldheart" so that was his name, seemed cool. "Oh... okay, well um, Goldheart, maybe you should go back to the other room... or something?" "Why? Does this not concern me to?" He had a point. Unimportant looked at both of us and said "Well, i'll wake you up myself to get you both into training. Please exit the room."

When we both left, I heard a sigh of relief coming from inside the room, but I didn't know why. What did he have to be relived about? He could kill us within a second if he wanted to. I suddenly thought that winning your freedom and becoming a guard wasn't the best thing that could happen. But then again, I thought about Goldheart's father and realized there are worse things in life.

Author's Note

this is a MLP story based loosely off of Fallout Equestria, a story by kkat.
Thanks for writing the original story, kkat.