Fallout Equestria: The Secret Fallout

Chapter 3: Roaming The Wastes

The large city buildings grew only larger as I walked down the long abandoned, or so I thought they were abandoned, roads. As the city grew nearer the overhangs keeping the roof up became more clear and the windows of the buildings became a little more visible. Many of the windows smashed or tinted far too dark to see through from the outside. Some of the street lamps flickered and died or just didn’t work at all.

“This place has seen better days.” I thought to myself. “Why am I even wandering around this city anyways?” I walked slowly down the long street that seemed to run throughout the whole city, not really knowing why I was wandering anyways. The thought of my parents being dead weighed heavily on my mind, but I tried to keep the thought distant.

I picked one of the buildings on the block and took a turn at opening the door. It swung open without anything more than a nudge. The first floor had little lighting but was bright enough to look into. The floor was littered with several broken objects. The small reception desk at the front of the room had a broken terminal in it and the glass had scattered around the room covering the floor from the terminal to the door. I leaned down to notice something red and dry on the glass shards littering the floor.

“I wonder what happened here? I don’t think I want to know.” I walked around the glass shards in the doorway and walked to the terminal at the reception desk. “Yep. Its broken alright.” I looked into the black behind the screen of the terminal. A few tins and some random bags sat in the cubbies hidden in the desk. I picked up the tin with my magic and looked to the name. “Mentals” Was the title. “What the hell is this? whatever” I dropped the tin, not interested. I picked up the bag and found some random medical supplies.

“Guhhh. How boring can this stuff be? Why can’t I find something cool?” I didn’t care to think it, I was too fed up with how boring this was. I wandered to the elevator. The up elevator worked but the down didn’t.

“Well. What else do I have to do?” I decided on going up the elevator to the top floor.

The elevator creaked as it went up, likely way too old and underused to be working perfectly, as the numbers on the screen above the door slowly ticked up. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5… 44. 45. 46. 47.

The numbers stopped at 48. Two floors lower than the top floor. I pressed the button labeled 50 again hoping it would work, but it didn’t, so I waited for a minute and the doors opened onto floor 48.

A low growl met me as I walked from the door. “Who’s there?!” I jumped and was truly scared because I hadn’t heard anyone or anything alive and moving except for me until now. I looked both ways down the hallways, the elevator being in the middle of the hallway. I didn’t see anything on the left but I did see the figure of a pony on the right.

“Who’s there?” I repeated. The lights in the room flickered once more than went out, the only lights coming into the room were from the other building’s lights that were shining through the window. It left a very ominous shadow on the walls.

The groaning of the creature somewhere in the room was only getting louder as I walked down the dark dank halls.

A creature about the same size as me jumped on top of me, it smelled of rotten flesh and death. “Gah! Get off me!” The creature paused for just a moment and then tried to bite me.

“What the hell are you!?” I tried the throw the monster off me but it had a crazy strong grip. I frantically looked around for something to use as a weapon, all while trying not to get bit in the face. I couldn’t find a single thing in the room. Damn! I wish I had that medical bag right now, a syringe to the face could of got this thing off me. I frantically tried to squirm out from under the fleshy monster but it wouldn’t let me get anywhere so I could move it out from atop me. The dim lights of the room only made it harder for me to find something to use as a weapon.

Then, almost shining in the light of day, was a half broken crowbar. I tried to grab it with my magic but I couldn’t get a good enough grip because of the monster blocking off my way of picking it up. I tried to reach out and pick it up but I couldn’t. In the frantic attempt to pick up the crowbar I had neglected to notice that the monster was preparing for another attempt at biting my face. I didn’t have any way of blocking it before it bit me right in the nose. I was bleeding but still had my nose attached.

A loud boom resounded through the room. All at once the monster stopped squirming and I had blood and chunks all over my face. Another figure about the same size as me walked up to me, not enough to be seen in color but just in shadow. I braced for another one to tackle me. Nothing came towards me.

“Pfft. Why don’t you come kill me right now. I ain't got much to live for.” I called out to the shadow in the hallway.

“You shouldn’t be here.” The pony in the hallway walked towards me into the light so I could see him. He was in a cloak that completely covered his body.

“Whats wrong? Should I even ask you why I shouldn’t be here?” I didn’t dare take a step towards the pony standing in front of me. I noticed that the pony in front of me had something in his magic, He slowly pulled a gun out from behind him, Not pointing it at me but holding it just in case I tried something.

“I don’t think you should be here.” The pony draped in a cloak stated once again.

“Are you sure, it seemed quite nice here before that ‘thing’ attacked me.” I looked into the eyes of the pony standing in front of me.

The pony in front of me, much to my surprise, walked further into the light and took off his cloak. What stood in front of me was a white pony with a blue and white striped mane. I couldn’t quite make out his cutiemark but it looked to be a shield with a star in the middle. Sadly the side of him that I could see the mark on was covered in a huge scar, ruining the nice design.

“My name is Star Shield. and by Luna’s name, you have to leave.” He looked into my eyes with those of resignation. He clearly had fared far worse than I and knew that I shouldn’t be here.

“Ok. Ok. You want me gone, but why? I can tell you’ve been through hell and back but why?” I didn't know what kind of look I was giving but I think it was one of confusion, Because thats how I felt.

“You don't seem to talk with much sense do you?” I could tell the look I was giving was that of questioning now. “35” Star muttered. “What? what about 35?” Star looked up to me. “Its nothing. I just count all the kills I have, I have to repent to them at one time or another.” He looked on with a look of regret. “Why?”

Instead of talking anymore Star tore a piece of his cloak off and wrapped it around my nose, which in the confusion I had forgotten was bleeding and really hurt. I sat down against the wall in the middle of two broken windows, looking at the dead body of a pony without a head sitting in front of me, still covering most of my face. He helped me clean up the guts and continued by sitting down on the wall opposite me. I didn't know what he had planned or why he decided to change his mind and stay next to me for. “You know, You are really childish and ignorant, have you ever been told that before?” Star looked towards me waiting for me to respond, hopefully not hurting my feelings I presumed.

“I have been told that by my parents, I never thought anything of it, but I think its starting to show now more than ever with all this stress.” I wiped a single tear from my cheek, trying once again not to think of my parents.

A laugh was heard from the other side of the wall, Star was laughing just a bit. “You think you’ve been through things and felt stress? You don't even know.” He laughed slightly throughout the whole exchange and I couldn’t help but laugh to. It was almost contagious.

“Yea. I suppose I haven’t been through all that much have I?” I laughed slightly and stopped to get down to more serious matters. “How did you get that scar by the way?” I wanted to stand up and sit next to him, but still slightly feared that shotgun he carried around.

“I really don't want to talk about it.” He tried to stray from the answer, I had done it many a time, and I wasn’t going to let anyone do it to me.

“Come on! you know you want to tell me!” I sat beside him and leaned against his shoulder.

“Ugghh. Fine. Well. Its really not all that crazy, I just fell out of that waterfall thing, same as you, There just so happened to be a sharp rock of sorts on the bottom, I was lucky to have only hit my flank and not somewhere like my heart.” He looked on, a smile on his face, clearly happy to have gotten it off his chest.

I stood once again and looked down to see Star standing as well, he stood a bit taller than I, and I asked, once again, another question. “Why did you want me to leave? and what made you change your mind?”

“I didn't change my mind, I still don't want you here hurting yourself, I just thought that being nice would prompt you to leave. But it seems it hasn’t, and the more I think about it, there really isn’t a way out of this hell hole.” He once again looked on, something he seemed to trademark, and walked towards the elevator.

“Come, I want to show you the top of the building, as that was most likely what you were after.” He continued his walk to the elevator not looking back to see me running up to walk beside him.

“Well alright! something fun!” I almost jumped with glee, but didn't because my nose was keeping me from feeling up to something like jumping in fear of landing on my face, something I did a lot. We stepped into the elevator and I used my magic to push the button labeled 50. The elevator doors closed and the elevator started moving up.

The elevator dinged the last time and the doors opened up to the roof of the building. We both walked out to a camp fire that wasn’t lit and some random supplies, food, not so clean water, a sleeping bag, and a single lantern. Star looked towards me with an huge smile on his face, obviously proud. “This! Is my humble abode, welcome!”

I looked on, not all that amused, but I did live in a cave so this setup was pretty similar to mine and my families. “Well. This is an interesting little place you have up here, why don't you live down there?” I gestured to the elevator with another one of my questioning looks.

“Hell, you think i'm going to live down there!? there’s more shit down there that would kill me in my sleep than the cold air up here would.” He sat down on his sleeping bag and was looking a little pissed.

“Hey! I’m just saying! I quite like it up here, even though its a bit cold. How is there a wind up here anyways?”

“I don't really know.” He looked over the building to the giant spire sticking into the roof on the building to our left. “I think these towers are made to simulate clouds and winds, but the whole cloud part is broken, just a theory though.”

“Thats quite a theory don't you think?” I sat down next to the sleeping bag currently sat on by Star and looked to the spire thingy as well. “They sure do look stupid don't they?” I couldn’t help but look at them in wonder, not sure what to think of them. “I wonder what it was like when they worked.” We both looked at the spire, probably both with our own theories as to why they were broke and what it was like when they worked.

I noticed that the spires made a huge square in the city, a lot easier to see from the roof of a building, and that there was a single larger spire in what I assumed was the center of the city. “I wanna go there.” I pointed to the spire at the center of the city. “that would be a cool place to go.”

“You do realize that is the worst place in this whole goddesses damned place right? All of the most evil creatures live there, almost as if drawn to it.”

“Whatever! Who cares what lives there? That looks fun. And anyways, if we get attacked again I can be a meat shield and you can shoot them with that gun of yours!" I looked to the center of the city with glee. He was looking at me questioningly and was almost worried for me, or so I had expected he would be.

"I don't know what drives you to this, and if you were anyone else, I wouldn't be going with you. But you have a certain quality that I think will suit me well." He may be taking a liking to me. I pushed the thought from my head as soon as it arrived and turned to sit on the floor once again. "Should we hang around here? Or should we head out? I kinda want to stay here and sleep a bit, I've been through a but more than I would like to have."

"Alright. I could use some sleep as well." Star was willing to give up his sleeping bag and offered to sleep on the floor, I turned down the offer, despite that sleeping bag looking really good right now. I didn't want to make someone I barely knew give up their sleeping quarters for me.

The night was colder than I had expected, Star already fast asleep. I was really tired but couldn't sleep with the cold winds. I don't know when I had fallen asleep, telling as we were underground and my Pipbuck didn't tell time. I would usually look to the sky to see if the sun was up or not and go from there, but I didn't know when that actually was when I didn't have a way to look, and was awoken sometime later being held halfway over the building.

"Gah! Don't you drop me you fucker!" I screamed at whatever was holding me, I couldn't see what or who it was. Star leaned his head over the edge. "Silly fool, you almost sleepwalked right off the building. You're glad I sleep with one eye open." He gave a wink and pulled me up with both his magic and his hooves. As soon as I was planted firmly, all hooves on the floor of the roof, I calmed myself and tried not to hyperventilate.

"So. How do you expect me to fall asleep when I could fall off the building at any second?" I looked at Star, worried about sleeping.

"I’m going to stay here and make sure you don't hurt yourself." He gave a smile.

The thought of being watched all night while I slept was both terrifying and comforting, I let the feeling of comfort overcome my mind and I sat and snuggled into the sleeping bag given to me. "Alright. Make sure I don't get shot in the face!" I gave a wink to Star and took my leave into the world of my dreams.

~|oooOOOooo|~

The roof of the building was covered in grass, I was not sure why. I looked to the streets below and saw that the cracked asphalt roads were grass as well. The roof showed multiple clouds and everything else was sky blue, a color I loved regardless of its rarity. I wasn’t certain of the things I was going to run into but I was certain that I wasn’t actually seeing this. I tried to head towards the elevator and there was nothing there, just solid grass flooring. The air was not as cold as I had remembered when I had fallen asleep. I spun around in a circle to see that the whole building holding the spire to the left of us was almost as grassy as this one. I turned myself to the right roof to see if it was empty of anything. Before I could turn full circle I noticed a pony silhouette sitting on the spire building.

I turned my head to see a white and blue haired pony, standing up to meet who was looking at him. “Star? What the hell are you doing here? Where the hell is here!?” I could bet that the look on my face was that of complete and utter bafflement.

“I’m here to show you the true meaning of Love.” The look on his face was scaring me but also making me a bit aroused. He walked to the edge of the building and then completely off the building. I expected him to fall off the building but he was just floating to the building that I was currently residing on. The look on my face must of been so priceless when he managed to float all the way over to my building without falling somehow.

“What in Celestia and Luna’s name is going on and why must I endure this horse shit?” I looked to Star once again as if he had the answers to everything, as he seemed to already have shown he does.

“So Star. Whatcha doing? Because last time I heard from you, you were saying something about love. wanna explain that a bit?” I looked at Star with a more serious look, something I didn’t give often, “I really don’t know what I should be thinking.” I was worried as to what would happen telling as this was clearly a dream. My marehood was doing things I didn’t like. I tried to keep these things to myself, but this was just too stupid of an experience to not mention the details.

“Looks like somepony is having some issues with their hormones.” Star was sporting a huge smirk. Yep. Definitely scaring me. I told myself mentally to never ever within my lifetime tell Star about this or anything pertaining to it. Star was now standing right in front of my face, our noses almost touching. “I don't know. What are you doing?” Star was starting to really creep me out with this constant sexual attitude.

Before I could open my mouth to protest why the hell or what the hell he was talking about. He attempted to kiss me, earning a slap in the face for it.

~|oooOOOooo|~

I was awoken by the gentle pushing on my right foreleg. I leaned up and eventually stood up halfway from the warm sleeping bag I was sleeping in. I looked to see that Star was looking at me with a gentle smile, earning, once again, a slap to the face. Star fell flat on his ass and looked at me with shock.

“What the hell was that for?” Star protested, clearly not happy with my reaction to his smile. I realized I had just slapped somepony in the face for something he didn’t even do.

“Oh! Im sorry!” I yelped, helping him to his hooves. When he was standing he finished his initial thought, “I was gonna say that you must have had a wonderful nap, because that whole sleeping bag is ruined.” He looked at the sleeping bag for a split second with a sad look upon his face. “I’m going to miss sleeping in that.” He almost looked more sad for the sleeping bag than for me for a second.

I looked to the sleeping bag, wondering why it was ruined and slowly my mind put the pieces together. The sounds that came from my mouth was not what even I had expected when I finally realized what had happened.

“Well. Lets just pretend that didn’t happen.” I looked to Star with an unsteady smile. He returned one, but a lot more steady.

“Don’t worry about it, its not the worst thing that could of happened, if anything we should be glad we didn’t get shot in our sleep.” Star was clearly more stable with things like this, as if he had experienced them a lot more than I had within his lifetime.

“Whatever you say. I’m ready whenever you want to go.” I walked towards the elevator and was stopped by words I had not heard in a while.

“Don’t you want to eat breakfast first? It took me a while to get this.” He levitated out two eggs. “I found them on the spire building, I tried to keep the chickens up there but I couldn’t get enough materials to make a coop, gladly they wouldn’t jump from the building.” I had a flashback to the dream I had just had to experience and cringed. Star sat down by the makeshift campfire and lit it when a lighter he kept around. He cracked the eggs into a pot sitting above the fire.

The smell of cooking food and a warm fire welcomed me to sit by Star and await the breakfast that started this whole adventure. Thinking again of my parents, I didn’t cry this time, I told myself not to dwell on the past. After five or so minutes Star removed the eggs cooked Sunny Side Up and put them on a cracked china plate. He was lucky enough to have two plates, not in the best shape but nice to have regardless. As if it couldn’t get any better, he also happened to have a few forks. “I found these in the kitchen of the buildings over there.” He pointed to the buildings far past the city. I didn’t even notice them until he had pointed them out. I enjoyed the egg that was cooked for me, I was highly pleased with being able to finally eat. The eggs were phenomenal, something I very rarely obtained.

“This is great!” I mumbled through a full mouth, having eaten the egg in two bites. “Woah! woah! slow down there! Swallow first!” Star was laughing and I almost laughed, if I hadn’t had eggs in my mouth. I swallowed the last of the egg and laughed myself.

“Its kinda what happens when you haven’t eaten in almost a week.” I smiled a extremely bright smile, If I could glow I would be glowing brighter than the campfire. “I think its about time we head out, We have no idea how much time we have left in ‘Day’.” Star went from laughing to dead serious, always ready to get to work.

I stood up and headed for the elevator. Star extinguished the fire and followed behind, shotgun in tow. We headed to the elevator and before we set out Star gave me some advice, “Every building here has one or two floors used completely for food and medical bays. If you want to snag some food or healing potions you could, but. The bulk of those floors are the mostly infested with ghouls.”

“Ghouls?” I asked Star, not knowing what he was talking about. “That thing that attacked you was a ghoul.” I imagined being dog piled by several dozen ghouls and cringed. “Its a risk, but if we need it, it would be worth it. I could use some more ammo for this anyways.” Star lifted out his shotgun and stroked a single hoof across it.

“If we can find an armory of sorts, I bet that would be where we could find some ammo.” I had only guessed and had no idea if those even existed down here. “Yea, I suppose we could. That would also be good to look into.” Star pressed the floor labeled ‘1’ and the elevator started to beep as it went down. “Here we go.” That was the only words Star said as we traveled down the elevator and into the street.

The large buildings seemed only larger as we walked down the streets. “Do you have any idea whats going on with this huge underground city? Because I surely don't.” I took a second to look to Star and tripped in a pothole.

“If I knew what was going on then I would be telling you.” Star took to helping me up and we continued across the street down to the middle of the city, somewhere Star told me to fear. “You know, I don't know quite why I want to go over there, I just want to see what there is to see to be honest.” Star looked at me with a questioning look beyond all else. “I certainly hope you don’t plan to get me killed, I haven’t lived a long enough life yet.” Star gave a quick smile and a slight nod and we, once again, continued to the center of town.

“This place is bigger than I thought.” I looked up to the tallest of buildings and wondered what it was like when it was all in top condition and filled with thousands upon thousands of ponies doing their daily business. “Do you know anything of this place’s past?” I looked to Star once again for answers. “No. I’ve been holed up there on that roof since I got here, thought if I could stay there then theres no need to go out there.” Star was beginning to have a good point. I kept to agreeing but we still headed onward.

The City was full of broken windows and large skyscrapers, literally scraping the sky, and beyond the large buildings was a small, but still pretty big, town filled with housing units instead of work units like the skyscrapers. The skyscraper in the middle of the city was clearly the largest. It was thin on the bottom and wider on the top and being held up but huge stone pillars. The doors were locked.

“Why the hell would the doors to a huge building be locked? don’t you think they would be open? for ponies to go in and out easily?” I couldn’t stress enough how many questions I asked Star. I think he’s starting to go insane already. “I don’t rightly know. maybe its because they wanted it protected before, whatever happened to them.” I looked to Star to see if he could open the doors to the building. We were lucky enough to have picked up a few bobby pins that were on the floor on the way here.

Star picked up his screwdriver and bobby pin in his magic and without a second thought open the door with a resounding click. “Simple.” We headed into the building.

What greeted us was the stench of death, death beyond all else. At closer inspection, the main floor was filled with intestines held up with knifes and railroad spikes. the walls were covered in blood and some ponies had scribbled profound messages in blood along the walls and roof, some even on the floor. I ran outside and threw up my breakfast and Star stood still as a statue, an unmovable look on his face, he was cringing.

“What's up Star? Need some help?” Star stood still as a statue, A little more still than I thought was good. After looking harder, He was the color of the stones of the sidewalks we walked across to get here. My god he had turned to stone! “Star! Star!” I yelled in his face, he didn’t even react. I didn’t know what to do so I picked up his shotgun and levitated Star behind me.

“How do I use this thing?” I asked to myself as I looked at the shotgun Star used. I noticed the end of the gun and the back, I suspected that the little movable lever was the thing that fired it. “Nows a better time to test it than any.” Before I could think otherwise I pulled the trigger and the gun made a huge BOOM as it exploded out shrapnel, hitting the wall opposite us.

“Well then.” I gave a laugh. “I’m gonna like this.” I took Star with me and trotted past all the blood and profanity and headed toward the stairs. “Why must this building have stairs and not an elevator!?” My legs and my levitation were screaming as I reached the second floor. I sat Star down and sat down myself.

The screech of something most definitely unhuman was yelling at the top of its lungs, I hadn’t heard it over the effort I was giving to get up the stairs with the stone pony being dragged up the stairs behind me. I thought about what would have attracted the beast to us, I had suspected that it was the firing of the gun, It wasn’t the most quiet thing in the world.

I moved as quietly as my non-quiet body could move me, leaving Star on the same floor, but not dragging him directly behind me. The yelling was getting louder and I supposed that it was heading towards the doors, I moved to the stairs and headed downstairs. The doors were closed. Not what I expected the doors to be, telling as I had left the doors open when I walked in,

The yelling stopped, abruptly at best, and I was worried for what had become of Star. I sprinted up the stairs to see that Star was being dragged out the second story window. “Star!” I yelled, which made the pony carrying him, which looked like Star but had a mark of a knife and was covered in severed body parts. I jumped to see if I could get a good angle, pulled up the shotgun and turned on S.A.T.S, something I never thought I’d actually use, and aimed for the ponies head. I had a 70% chance. I hit the pony right in the head exploding in into bloody chunks. Sadly, the shrapnel didn’t do much good to Star either. He had a few nicks and some small pieces of his stone face missing. I didn’t know what to do so I hoped to Luna that it wouldn’t do anything terrible to him if I found a way to un-stone him. After this exchange, I can tell that this City wasn’t as abandoned as I had expected. I sat down once again and the cold air from the broken second story window was chilling me to the bone. I picked up Star and worked my way to the third floor. I sat Star down and sat down, looking more closely at the room we were in. The third floor, unlike the first and second floor, didn’t have any blood or body parts hanging around. There was a few cages the size of ponies in the corner opposite the stairs. The walls were filled with posters. all the same. They all showed a purple unicorn with books in magic boasting ‘Read! Its good for you!” other posters with the same pony were scattered around the place, I had became curious and walked to the fourth floor and back down to the second and first floor, they were also filled with posters, All boasting that purple unicorn.

“This girl must be really important if she had posters of herself all over the place.” The more I thought about it, I realized that I had passed by quite a few of them in the other building I was in as well, not paying them much attention until now. I took my leave back up to the third floor where Star lay, set in stone, literally.  I didn't know what to think of the posters but I decided I’d learn later. I sat down next to star and looked through Star's bags, looking for some water or food. I was sadly out of luck.  I took to wandering around a little longer. I noticed the small sound of a crying pony in the cage farthest from the stairs, the cage door, which I just now noticed, was the only one locked.

I took the screwdriver and bobby pins from Star’s bags and headed to the locked cage. I sat down next to the cage and pulled the bobby pin and screwdriver up to the lock, The only time I’ve ever seen somepony opening a lock was a few minutes ago when Star open the door to this building. The inside of the cage was huge and whatever was making that sound was inside far enough back that I couldn’t see it.

I shakily put the bobby pin and and the screwdriver into the keyhole and attempted to open the cage, I almost broke six bobby pins, but on the seventh I heard a resounding ‘Click’ and the cage opened wide. The cage looked like it could have held two or three Star’s in it. I thought what it would of been used for but continued with my plans. “Hello? Anypony back there? If so, im not here to hurt you.”

The skittering of something in the cage caught me off guard. A filly came running out from the cage and wrapped her front legs around my legs, only reaching up to the knees. The look I gave was that of confusion and understanding. I knew that something small was in the cage, but I didn't expect a filly to run out. “Oh thank you thank you thank you!” The filly screeched with joy. “I was stuck in there forever!”

A string somewhere in my heart was being pulled at the sheer thought of a little filly being shoved violently into a cage and left there to die. I couldn’t leave her here. “Alright. Alright.” I patted the filly in the back softly, I noticed she hadn’t had food in ages, she was skinnier than I was. “I’m going to help you alright?” I looked to the filly with the most sympathetic look I could give and most likely have ever given.

I moved to let the filly jump on my back and I walked over to Star. A grumble erupted from the filly and I looked back to see what was wrong, I suspected I already knew. “I'm hungry.” The filly was going crazy with hunger and she looked like she was going to kneel over and die anytime soon. I checked once again in Star’s bags and was once again greeted with no food or water.

I headed to the fourth floor and then to the fifth, carrying the filly on the back the whole way. We made it to the fifth floor and was greeted with what looked like a kitchen. The filly was not happy with me staying on this floor for some reason. She was shaking and was clearly not pleased with this floor, I asked her why and she only told me that she had some back experiences here. I had to tell her that food is more important than bad memories and she sadly agreed.

There wasn’t much in the kitchen here, but the cabinets held some dried cereal and the fridge some dirty water. The dirty water may have been, well, dirty, But the filly and I took turns having some and left half a bottle for Star.  I almost tore open one of the two boxes of cereal, eager to eat something. I refrained from eating a lot and gave the most of it to the little filly riding on my back like a carnival ride. I decided to keep a spare box for later, and for Star.

I refrained from opening the fridge, but curiosity was not on my side, and I decided to give a peek. The fridge, much to my surprise, was empty.  I moved down to the third floor to grab Star' saddlebags. I put the filly down and put the bags on, and then letting the filly back up, headed up. The sixth and seventh floors held nothing but boxes upon boxes of posters of the purple unicorn. "oo! oo! That's Twilight Sparkle!" The filly piped up, clearly knowing more of this place and that 'Twilight Sparkle than I.

"Who is Twilight Sparkle? This unicorn here?" I pointed to the posters and got a small nod 'yes' in reply. "Do you know anything about her?" I asked the little filly.

"She's really really smart!" Was all the filly had to say about her. "Great." I continued, Twilight Sparkle's story was going to have to wait for another day. I continued to the eighth floor.

The eighth floor was filled with sleeping bags, fires not lit, and every window was broken. I didn't  know what to make of the floor. This floor was habited but not filled with blood or guts, so I supposed smarter ponies lived here, something I told myself id have to look into.

"Welcome home!" The filly muttered. "What?" I asked, looking to the filly. "I used to live here." The filly replied.

"Hey kiddo, how are you? I'm doing wonderful! How's your 10th birthday treating ya? Its great, but that pony over there was bullying me, I almost gave up my snack cake!" The filly was wandering around the room, talking to herself, as if living a memory. She finished talking and sat down, exhausted from walking on already tired legs. I picked her up in my magic and plopped her on my back. She was fast asleep. I continued to the next few floors, leaving an odd experience behind.

The next 10 to 15 floors held nothing but the common propaganda. The 15th floor had a single poster that wasn't of Twilight Sparkle. It was of a yellow pegasus with a pink mane and a white rabbit on her shoulder. The whole poster was scribbled over with profanity and horrid remarks. 'TRAITOR' was the most pronounced spreading across the whole entire poster.

"So many things to learn about." I left the poster alone and continued up the oddly empty building, "so many things to learn."

The sounds of a radio greeted me as I traveled up the floors of the scarily empty building. I came up to the 26th floor, legs dying, and noticed a single table with a single radio, set to on, sitting on said table. I slowly walked to the table, trying to make out whatever the crazy sounds coming from the radio were saying. "Hey! Th--s i-- y--r host D- -O--3 bri-gi-g y-- t-e n--s" The radio must not be getting much connection from all the way down here, but the radio being here lead me to believe that some sort of radio station had been built someplace near or around this huge city.

I set the radio to off and was greeted with a window shattering and a bloodied pony jumping in the broken window firing some sort of automatic gun. I pulled up S.A.T.S. and aimed for the head. With how close I was the 85% chance would have to hit him with at least some shrapnel. I was greeted with a pony missing a head landing dead in front of me. The automatic gun landed and clanked its way over to the table and stopped, hitting one of the legs on the table making the whole table tip slightly.

The table tilted to the right and a click resounded from a higher floor. In the confusion the filly, which i had no clue the name of, had fallen off my back and was now awake. Staring into the dead pony's body where his head should of been. I walked to the table and picked up the automatic rifle. I liked how it was put together and decided that the more protection I could have, the better. The table was confusing and I had suspected that it was going to help later.

I helped the filly back onto my back, she had a scrape on her knee, but she would be fine. The higher levels still proved nothing interesting. The emptiness of the rooms were starting to scare me, with the random attacks, Star being turned to stone, finding a deranged filly in a cage and finding nothing at all of worth on any floors of this main building. I was starting to think Star was right, this was a dangerous place. I also thought two things about the emptiness of this building. One, someone or some people moved all the stuff in this building somewhere else. Or two, this was made empty for a reason that may have been related to war.

I didn't dwell all too long on the idea and traveled up the floors, getting terribly tired. I finally made my way to the top floor after almost an hour of nothing. 75 floors I counted. The top floor was white beyond white. It was almost terrifyingly bright, I was getting blinded by it. My eyes eventually adjusted and I was able to see a small white end table with a single drawer. It held an audio recording. I plugged it into my Pipbuck and turned it on.

"Project Sundown is now in place. Testing in 3. 2. 1."