“It’s a brave new world”

Everything was dark, Chrome floated in the darkness. What had happened? Where was he? Where was everyone else? Why was it dark? He couldn’t remember anything. Slowly memories started to return and with it the pain…

Chrome’s eyes shot open as his body was racked with pain. Coughing he looked around the dark maintenance tube, the only light coming from the partly open hatch behind him. All the lights were out and his entire body burned as did his lungs. He looked at his pip-buck at all the flashing warnings, the most concerning was the rad level being deep in the red.

Gritting his teeth he slowly started to push himself backwards towards the hatch. What the hell happened why was the hatch closed at all and what was that smell?

Kicking the hatch open he slowly slid out….and found out what the smell was. Bodies, bodies everywhere, blackened by fire. He started to shake as he looked at the ponies fused to the walls, floor, each other. Stallions, Mares, foals, all burned alive. Some had tried to run out the open stable door, other had thrown themselves over loved ones to try and shield them, it hadn’t mattered. They were all consumed.

“So….you did survive…that’s good…”

Chrome jumped as the blackened body beside the hatch spoke and he saw it wore the barding of a Security Pony. She looked back at him, one of her eye looked like a cooked egg and her body was mostly charred black but he recognized her as the unicorn who was in charge of the evacuation and had sent Chrome under the floor to repair the door mechanism. He knelt beside her.” Uh…stay calm…don’t try to talk…”He said not sure what to do.

She laughed. “Isn’t that….my job?” She wheezed and chrome went to try and find a heath potion. “Don’t bother……I’m already dead….”She said stopping him. “It wou…..it would be better if you got what you could and used it yourself, your burned pretty….bad. “She forced out though gritted her teeth.

Chrome had been in so much shock at seeing the others he had forgotten about his own burns and now they started to remind him they were there and he dropped to his knees.

“Hey…easy…you need….need to get some medical supplies…I doubt the tube would….have protected you from….the radiation…”She started coughing her body shaking. “Over there…”She pointed with a hoof at where the medical ponies had been setting up. “Some…of it might have survived…..if you’re lucky….”

Chrome nodded and slowly started to dig though the supplies, trying to ignored the smell of the burned body beside the pile. Most everything was destroyed but he managed to find an enough rad away to drop him back down to yell on the rad meter and a single health potion. He brought it to the Security pony opening it and holding it up to her lips.
She shoved his hoof away. “I…said you take it….im already dead…I’m surprised I lasted this long…”She coughed violently, blood coming up. “Oh….that’s not good…” she wheezed.

“No you ne—“Chrome was cut off as the unicorns pistol pressed to his forehead wrapped in her magic.

“Drink….now” She said her one good eye staring him down leaving to room to question what she’d do if he didn’t. He drank it down and shivered as he felt his skin start to close over the burns for the most part. It wasn’t enough to completely heal them but was enough to stop the worst of the hurting and keep him from bleeding out if they tore open.

Chrome jumped as the gun clatter to the ground the magic releasing it as the unicorn panted.” Oh….good…you bought it…..I was worried…..you’d try to….force the issue….”She said slumping a bit.

“You….weren’t going to shoot me?”

She laughed again but it was cut off by more coughing and blood. “Ow….don’t make me…laugh….it….hurts….but….no…why would I…..kill you….after….saving….you?” She asked looking at him

“Saved me?”

“yeah….I…saw the fire….coming….and….slammed….the hatch closed….thought….thought it might keep….the fire out….I was right….”She smiled up at him “Least…..least I saved one….”she looked down at all the others she had failed to save. “You….want…you want to know why we in security….were always so….hard on you….ponies in the maintenance wing?” She looked back up at him and he nodded not sure what to say. “Its…cause you were more needed….then us….”

Chrome blinked and started to open his mouth to speak but she kept talking looking him. “You….kept the Stable functioning….you kept everypony alive….all…we did was patrol….and….take reports….”She laughed bitterly” it was petty jealousy….and…the one time….we is needed….truly needed….and we fail….and everypony dies. “Her look hardened” all except you….”She levitated up her pistol and turned it so the grip faced him. “take…it….you’ll…need it….more than me…..id…give you more ammo….but….the magazines….are fused to….my barding…and me….you…have one 12 round magazine of 12mm ammo….make…make it count….”Her magi failed and Chrome barley caught the gun before it hit the floor.

“What….what’s your name?” Chrome asked.

She chuckled looking at him with eyes that knew she didn’t have much longer. “I’m Soft Melody” She said smiling before her eye glazed over before slowly closing as her head slumped back down the floor, a slight curve to her lips.

oooOOOooo

Chrome slowly walked up the tunnel outside the Stable door; the wall had been scorched black by the fire rushing up the tunnel. He stepped carefully to avoid the bones that littered the ground. “There’s so many…”HE knew none of them were from his Stable, they had been outside the door all this time, ponies that died trying to get into the Stable.

It had taken a while before Chrome had left Soft Melody’s as he just stared at her, with that small smile on her face even in death; she had died happy she had been able to do her duty, even if it was only partly. He wondered how she had been before all this had happened.

Chrome knew he had to leave as he couldn’t stay in the Stable, not with the damage, or the bodies. SO he carefully slipped the pistol into his saddle bags and for some reason his Pip-Buck had flashed the name of the gun as Melody. It had given him pause but he soon snapped out of it and began walking. HE reached the mouth of the tunnel and it was open to the air but he could see signs that something had been over the entrance made of wood, it hadn’t lasted I the fire leaving bits and pieces lay here and there.

Taking a deep breath Chrome step out of the tunnel and winces as the light hit his eyes, it was a lot brighter up here then it had been in the Stable but still not by much do to the cloud cover overhead. Blinking his eyes slowly adjusted and he looked out over an expansive desert that lay before him in all direction from the cluster of rocks that hid the entrance to his Stable. In the distance was a tall building in the distance with a large satellite aimed at the sky.

“Well….here goes nothing.” Chrome said and started walking towards the only structure for miles.

oooOOOooo

As Chrome walked he looked around at the horizons. “Sand, sand and more sand, oh and a rock.” HE said spotting a large boulder a ways off from his path. HE wondered if anypony was even alive up here of he was the only living thing in the world. That would cause issues as he didn’t exactly have any supplies other than Melody and his tool set, and none of those were edible or drinkable.

The tall black structure wasn’t too far off now as he’d been walking for about an hour and he could see despite how long it had been out here it was still in decent shape, if smoothed by wind and sand, even the dish was mostly intact with only a few holes that he could see from below.

MILITARY RELAY STATION LW39-4DI DISCOVERED

Chrome blinked as the notification appeared on his HUD as he neared the building and he stopped looking at his Pip-Buck’s map, sure enough there was a marker in front of him approximately where the building was. “Huh…ok then.” He said looking back up at the building and started walking.

He walked around the building till he came to a door that looked like it had been blown open, judging by the old scorch marks in the door frame, and judging by the lack of any smell of explosives, happened a long time ago. He slowly approached and looked in, the hall was lite by a few emergency lights, most of them had gone out long ago and the few that remained were dim or flashing faintly.

Taking a deep breath Chrome drew Melody from his saddle bag and started to make his way inside, not like he had any actually weapons training but if he did run into anything unfriendly it was better than nothing.

The halls were littered with scattered papers, discarded cans and bottle and bits and pieces of the wall and ceiling that had fallen. Searching from room to room he didn’t fine much of anything else besides furniture in offices and destroyed terminals, nothing of use.

As he approached a set of double door, the one on the left had been removed and laid against the wall of the hall by an old terminal in the wall that had failed long ago. Stepping in Chromes eyes had to adjust to the much darker room as it was only lite by a single emergency light above the door, but he could make out a few rows of desk in the room with terminals one them and a door to a side room to his right with light coming from under it.

Chrome approached it and tried to open it, it didn’t budge. “Well…wasn’t expecting that.” He said as a locked door in a place where people had forced their way in with explosives was surprising. Looking around the room he shrugged and turned around. Four quick bucks later and the door slammed open reveling an office with a working light above the desk, a book shelf, filing cabinets a terminal, and a single skeleton of an earth pony sitting behind the desk, a shotgun between its legs, the fact the back half of its skull was missing and the dark stain on the wall behind it left no guesses as to what had happened.

Chrome stored Melody back in his saddle bags as if anything meant him harm it would have attacked by now. Walking up to the desk he saw a single mouth written note by the terminal. “WHAT HAVE WE DONE?” was written in large letter in the middle of the paper, and under it was written in smaller letters. “”Unseal the silent grave”

Chrome tilted his head, what in the name of the Goddesses did that mean? HE walked around the desk and saw the terminal was on and logged into a screen. “INPUT PASSWORD” Chrome glanced at the note and typed what the smaller test said.
“….PASSWORD ACCPETED” The screen flashed and suddenly the room outside the office lite up and Chrome ran out. The wall across from the double doors was lighting up with dozens of screens as lights started to turn on as did the other terminals, most of the larger screens showed only static but the screen in the middle which was the largest started to display text.

CANTERLOT STATUS: NO RESPONSE
FILLYDEPHIA COMAND STATUS: NO RESPONSE
HOOFINGTON STATUS: UNKNOWN
CLOUDSALE COMAND STATUS: NO RESPONSE
EC-1101 STATUS: UNKNOWN
NO RESPONS FROM EQUESTRIAN MILITARY COMAND STRUCTURE: MIA PRESUMED KIA
EMERGENCY PROTCOLS ACTIVE: STANDBY….
…….
…….
……..

Chrome jumped to the side as a power box in the wall exploded in a shower of sparks and some of the terminals exploded as the power surged and overloaded the old equipment and suddenly the entire building went dark as the power failed.

Turning on his Pip-buck light chrome scanned the room, the smell of burnt wires and smoldering electronics filled the air. “Well….what the hell was that?” He said looking back at the main screen. Sighing chrome turned from the screen and trotted for the door, there was nothing here and no sign of anyone having been here in a long time. “Guess I’ll look somewhere else.” He said leaving the dark hall way behind.

oooOOOooo

Chrome had trotted down the winding bath that had led to a parking lot and from there hard started following the road that lead away from the relay station trying to figure out what the text on the screen had meant, if anything. He knew that most of Equestria had been hit by Balefire bombs so the cities not responding made sense, what didn’t make sense was Hoofington being an unknown, that had been odd and what was EC-1101? Seemed important if it appeared on the same list as Canterlot, but what did it mean activating emergency protocols?

“Gah…it probably was nothing, just an old computer shorting out with the power in that place being a mess.” He said out loud as he trotted on looking at the sky over head, as best as he could tell it was late afternoon, he was going to need to find somewhere to sleep tonight as who knows what comes out at night, even though he hadn’t seen any sign of…well anything alive that didn’t mean there wasn’t anything.

“Well, well, lookie what we have here boys fresh meat.” A voice to Chrome right said making him jump and spin towards the speaker. It was a Unicorn stallion dressed in some kind of spike covered barding with fleck of dried blood on it and a broad smile on his face. Chrome blinked as more ponies dress like the first one made their way around the rocks he was standing by some of them giggling, all of them carry weapons of various types, mostly blunt but some had some rusty pistols and shotgun.

“uh…Hi…”Chrome said seeing that the compass in his HUD showed five red bars in front of him, what did that mean? Why hadn’t he paid attention to that section of the manual on pip-bucks. He hadn’t seen the point as there was no real need to use the compass in the Stable. “I mean you no harm.”

The unicorn stallion laughed hard and drew a rifle with his magic. “Oh too bad we mean to harm you.” HE said as he racked the bolt on the rifle to chamber a round and one of the others, a blue coated mare, laughed with glee holding a large butcher knife in her teeth.

“Oh I’m going to enjoy making him scream! “She said around the knife. At that Chrome turned to make a run for it, forgetting about Melody in his saddle bags. The was a loud crack and a sharp pain shot up one of his rear legs causing him to stumble and fall, crying out at the pain, looking back to see a bloody hole in his leg. He looked back at the group of ponies in time to be tacked by the knife wielding mare and pinned down as the other four casually made their way over.

“Oooohhhh where do you think you’re going, your my little pony toy and aren’t allow to leave till I say so. “She said down at him smiling wide around the hilt of the blade. “Now let’s hear you—“ A loud CRACK cut her off as the side of her head exploded outward splatting chrome with blood and bits of her brains as she slumped over on him.

“What the fuc—“ one of the others yelled as he spun towards the sound of the shot, only for another round to strike him square in the chest and he two slumped down.

“FUCK IT’S AN AMBUSH! FIND THE FUCKER!” The pony with the rifle, who Chrome assumed was the leader, yelled as he spun and shot in the general direction the two shots had come from. An earth pony armed with duel shotgun attached to a battle saddle turned to spray the area, only for another shot to come from the rocks the group had been hiding behind and a hole to appear in the side of his head. Chrome wasn’t sure, but it had sounded like a different gun from the first one.

Chrome took this chance to heave the dead mare off of himself and start to try and crawl away as the lead and a bat wielding mare tried to make a run for it the opposite way. Two shots rang out and they both dropped in a heap. And like that, it was all over in less than ten seconds flat.

Chrome tried to stand, only for his back leg to buckle and him to fall to the ground. He looked back over his shoulder and saw a large revolver held in a magical grip aimed directly at his head and his eyes widened as he realized he was about to die. The revolver lifted up, and came straight down on top of his head and everything went black.

Author's Note

50% towards leveling up