I'm waking up to ash and dust. Dan Reynolds

I started to slowly regain consciousness. For the moments I was conscious I could see sections of the wall missing and I could smell something burning right behind me. Once I was fully awake, I tried to slowly stand up. Once I got on all 4 legs, my right foreleg buckled and I found myself stumbling forward a few steps before I felt a sharp pain in my hoof I took a few more before I was able to balance myself by bracing against a wall.

“AW FUCK A DUCK!! FUCK A LEEK!! FUCK EVERYTHING!!” I screamed in pain. I took a look at the hoof, and saw a piece of shrapnel sticking out of my hoof “GODDESS DAMMIT! IT GOT ME RIGHT IN THE FROG!” and so I spent the next minutes cursing in my head as I pulled out. Once I pulled it out, I spent the next couple minutes cursing violently and colorfully. Once I was done I headed back the way I came, as I walked I developed a few priorities I had in mind (1. Find Serenity, 2. Gather supplies, 3. Get intel) I figured the best course of action at this point was to find a terminal and grab any supplies I could find along way.

After about 1 hour, all I found were ammo of various calibers, an empty battle saddle, but no guns. Perfect. I thought sarcastically as I slammed the door leading to the armory, I sighed in frustration.Why the hell did this whole thing have to happen? If those Griffin's didn't attack, none of this would have happened. Speaking of which, why did they attack in the first place? I mean sure we had war with them awhile back, but I thought we had an armistice or something... It must have been a prisoner we took in, but we never took in any Griffin’s, unless... I slapped my head, the answer had quite literally stared me in the face, it was that bastard who shot Wildfire it would make sense… Well sorta, why Griffons would attack a base, risk heavy casualties, all for one pony? Unless he was a big time player, which still didn’t make sense why they would let a big shot, scout ahead with only a hooful of ponies accompanying him. I needed a moment to think about this. I leaned up against the wall and sighed.

“I’m formulating crazy theories with no facts except that some yellow unicorn with a purple mane took a gun and shot up the base… And now I’m talking to myself again, good goddesses, I’m turning into Great-Uncle Thunder aren’t I?” I mused with a slight chuckle.

I looked up at the clouds hanging high overhead, standard protocol was that if we lost contact with the Enclave at least one pony would have to contact them within three days or else we all would be labeled M.I.A. But looking around made me confident that would only make a difference for two ponies at the the most.

Stumbling about the wreck that was once a prison, trying not to step on dead bodies and more shrapnel. I thought about what I was going to do once I left the prison. My first thought was to head north to a settlement I occasionally overheard some prisoners talk about, supposedly it’s a half-decent hub of trading, making it an ideal place to get some money, or find leads on that unicorn. But then again if he was traveling with the gryphons after the attack, they might have continued on their original course and since they attacked from the north that would most likely mean they would continue south…

“Urgh! Why does everything have to be so fucking complicated?!” I screamed at the sky, before tripping once again and crashing through a door, splintering it. I sighed loudly as I picked myself off of the floor, brushing the splintered wood off of my coat. "Is nothing going to go right today?" I mumbled, trying to yell and upset whatever cosmic being had my number today. Looking around the room, I noticed a terminal. “Thank you!” I said to the cosmic entity responsible for my recent luck before rushing over to the terminal and promptly booting it up, it flickered briefly before going dark again. “For humoring me, asshole.” I muttered as I banged my head into the terminal. The terminal then sputtered to life. I decided not to question it, and ruin this.

Sifting through the terminal I looked for the option to make a new file and send the message that there were survivors. I came across a set of files labeled “Personnel”, curiosity got the better of me and I decided to take a peek. I flipped through the files when I saw one that was labeled “Big Boss Stallion”. I opened it and was greeted with descriptions of physical measurements, appearance, where I grew up, and my family. Pretty standard except for one bit under family, it labeled my father as Brigadier General Ivory Spark, and my brother as Captain Falkner.

“Typical,” I sighed, “figures they would constantly remind everypony of my family and how much I strayed from the path my ancestors went down.”

I casually flicked through the files once more. Stopping this time at a file labeled “Wildfire”, I opened it and like mine it listed her physical measurements and appearance. But it didn’t say a word about family or where she grew up.

“That’s odd, I could have sworn she said she had a son… What gives?” I muttered.

I finally started to work on my original goal, creating a new entry I wrote:

June 1st, 1,217
This is Guard Big Boss Stallion, the base was compromised. I’m am one of only two survivors as far as I know. Second survivor, Guard Cloudy Serenity’s status and location is unknown. I am currently heading to the town north of here, I can not confirm my location if it has been more than three days since this was made.

Exiting out of the terminal, I walked towards the exit thinking of what I will do if the Enclave don’t come and get me in the three days all MIA Enclave have before they are barred from coming above the clouds.

“Maybe I become a mercenary,” I commented to myself, “no, that won’t make me a lot of money in the beginning and I’m going to need that to survive out here.” As I passed by the cells where we kept prisoners I got an idea, “Maybe I’ll be apart of a caravan! Yeah, that’s a good idea, good pay but…” I shook my head once again, “I don’t have a gun, and I doubt anyone is gonna lend me their weapons…” I trailed off once again my eyes catching sight of a brown object barely sticking out of some rubble.

I felt a smile start to form on my face as I removed the rubble on the object. “I think my luck has just changed!” I exclaimed as I picked up a sniper rifle, it wasn’t anything special though, it was just a simple rifle. It had taken quite a beating, which may have been the reason no one picked it up. Fortunately, the battle saddle I found was working perfectly, unfortunately there was only one magazine for the gun, but hey I’ll take what I can get.

Once I got out of the prison and turned towards the town, I quickly realized that my wings might not be a welcome sign, since I was part of a system that probably made several inhabitants disappear. I almost instantly fixed this problem by snatching up one of the dead attacker’s uniform and wearing it over my wings. As I started towards the town, one thought crossed my time: “I’m coming for you Serenity.”

Author's Note

Thank you for waiting patiently for this chapter, I had to bust through numerous bouts of writer's block while typing this out. Special thanks to Befallen Tragedy for helping me improve a couple sections of this.
As always, let me know of any typo's I missed and if you want more.

Some random's, random fact: I probably listened to "Radioactive" several hundred times while writing this chapter.