By now, the stories of Littlepip, Blackjack, and the Ghost of the big 52... Hired Gun... (I mean I know the story but seriously Silver?) and countless others were known. So as fate would have it, whatever the thing was that was in control of the cosmos, well, it decided to fuck with pony-kind more. The entire story ends with me about to be dead...at least that's what I'm thinking right now, but we will get to that part later. Perhaps I should start from the top. My name is Ross. Yeah, yeah. I know it's not very inventive, but I don't care because it sounds cool. So, shut up. Oh, also, I'm a Pegasus and a stallion. A stallion that happens to like mares. Blasphemy, according to the other stories, I know, but I just never could get used to the idea of... eugh... with another stallion. Plus, I rather like having my own... eh... setup... eheh. Okay, so enough about my genitals. You'd probably love to know what this fine example of a stallion looks like, now wouldn't you? Well, sorry about your luck, but I can't do that just yet. I kind of have to wait and let you imagine that via the story where I dramatically reveal my faults, strengths and devilish good looks or whatever. So, since I'm sure you want me to shut up now, I’ll move on. It all started with a colt.

Somewhere outside Manehattan: MoA building.

The skies were damp and grey. Everything nearby was soaked through and even inside the dark halls of the nondescript grey building there were small pools of water reflecting a dim glow from the barely working bulbs. A flicker and flash of the slowly failing electrical work every few moments seemed to make every shadow dance, and pony-like shapes seemed to spring out of nowhere. Deep within the confines of the dark and damp sea of grey, there was a single room with a bright glow radiating out of it. The only splash of true color, an oasis from the dreary and run down walls. The chipped walls and fissures seemed to not even touch this room. It was almost perfectly preserved for 200 years. If one could open the door, which would be difficult by the way, with anything short of a balefire bomb, they'd find a single stasis pod. But this pod was of a different design than most ponies would find in the wasteland. For one it was jet black, and the readouts were all in red. These colors being the two favorite colors of the colt sleeping inside. Secondly, there were wires running throughout the facility that connected to the pod from cameras outside and within the facility. Some still worked but most had been destroyed, lost to the passage of time. But the strangest thing of all was perhaps the colt himself. He was more of a slender athletic build, and he was clean which was insane for the wasteland. His red coat was only slightly ruffled, and even in the odd glow encompassing the room you could still see just how vibrant it was. His mane and tail were of a dark brown, almost black, both messy and disheveled. If you looked even more closely you could see his eyelids twitch and flutter revealing glimpses of light, hazel eyes. His flank bore no mark, and at his hooves lay one of the rarest artifacts of the wasteland. It was a small, cyan figurine with "Be Awesome!" on the base. Maybe it was that simple figurine and the magic it possessed that had done it, or maybe it was the technological difference of this particular stasis pod from all the others, but if one could decipher the readouts they would see that all of his vitals, and even brain activity pointed to that of a healthy, sane colt.
Now, on this particular day there was an odd sound emanating from that very room. It carried through the silent halls, disturbing the monotony of the sound of dripping water, and rain on the roof of the cracked facility. The sound grew until anypony passing by could hear the high-pitched whine. Even if one was outside the building in the silence of the wastes. But lucky for the colt, nopony was around, just then, to hear the noise. So, when it suddenly stopped and a voice cried out into the decrepit facility it would seem his fate had been sealed. The child was on his own but the voice had alerted the pony shaped figures that had seemed like nothing more than shadows.

"Subject seven-six-three. Stasis complete. Commence waking procedure. Checking vital signs. Checking neural activity. All clear. Desynchronize."

The child stirred, and a small squeak escaped his mouth as his eyes began to open for the first time in 200 years. It had felt only like moments, but there was terror in his hazel eyes. He had just watched the world explode and die, but he couldn't remember before that. His memories had evolved so rapidly that they had been fogged or destroyed by the sudden passage of time.

"What do I do now?" He asked the silent room.

All the colt knew was that for some reason or another the world had been destroyed. He couldn't even remember having been a part of it before. It was as though he'd just been born into this mess of a world, and he was afraid. He'd seen the beasts that existed here and caught glimpses of the ones that inhabited this exact facility. Although he still had no idea what they actually looked like. Only that they were there. Shadowy things, that, because of the warp-time he had been seeing life in, seemed to move unbelievably fast. At that exact moment, an unpony scream echoed through the halls of the building and into the room he stood in.

"Oh no! No, no, no! Please no. I don't want to die!"

Tears began streaming from his vibrant eyes as his pupils constricted in fear, and his heart thundered in his chest so hard he thought surely it alone would kill him. The colt had seen the world die, and he was convinced he would too. But he knew deep down that he couldn't get away and that he couldn't stay here, but what options were there? Either face whatever horrible death was waiting outside the door or stay in this room and starve to death. Was he supposed to let the building decay with him for eternity until they both matched the scarred world of the outside?

"M-m-m-mommy", he sniffled before gasping and retching as his tears became more violent.

She was gone. Just like the world, he realized. She wouldn't have survived the horrible flashes of death and destruction he had witnessed. As he thought of it, it was almost as if he fell into a trance. For a split second, images flashed across his vision of an explosion. No. Explosions. Death and blood. Ponies ripping each other apart in fear and anger, hunger and sorrow. It was at that moment he also realized that he didn't even know his mother. Had he seen her die in those visions? His rump hit the floor hard, and his body fell to the side as he cried long into the night. Crying out for a mother he couldn't remember and for a father he'd never seen. Soon though, sleep overtook the colt. His tears dried to his face and his breathing relaxed, but he dreamed and found no rest.

The child's dreams were filled with images of violence, and somewhere deep in his young mind he wondered. Why is everything this way? Why did everything die? Why didn't I die? Everything went so quickly he couldn't pick out one image from the next. It was just a blur of horrible acts and events. That day, a colt was born and his innocence shattered in one swift motion. In a matter of hours he was brought back into a world that he knew was here to kill him. So, when he awoke he decided in the way a child would, he wouldn't let it. He just simply wasn't going to die. Somehow. Slowly, the door to the room swung open and he began to take a step out before remembering there was a figurine in his pod. He turned back to look at it and wondered for a moment how it'd gotten there. A few more tears ran from his eyes when he decided one of his long gone family must have given it to him, and he picked it up. The second he touched it, he could feel something strange. It was a boundless energy, a strength that for such a young pony, would have sent him bouncing off the walls, but it also came with a calm resolve to do what he had to do. So, he took the first step out of the room clutching the small thing close to his side, cradled in a feathered wing. It was a figure of a little cyan pegasus with "Be Awesome!" engraved in the base. At that moment, something strange happened. Something flashed in his vision. It was only an instant, and the hall had suddenly become bright and clean again. Happy ponies were milling without purpose around him and a red exit sign was directly ahead of him. So the colt, knowing he had to get out of here as quickly as possible set off at a trot towards what should be the exit to the ruined nightmare building. The scream from earlier sounded behind him and very loudly. With his mane tingling and his legs shaking, he turned his head, eyes wide to look at the horror that had made that noise. Before him, or rather behind him, bathed in the ghostly light of the open door of the room he'd just left, was a ghoul. It was a pony alright, but sickeningly disfigured. The skin was peeling and one eye had fallen out. It had only wisps of mane hanging on its head, and every rotted tooth could be seen. So, he did what any rational colt would do. He screamed and ran as fast as he could. His instincts cried out for him to fly but he could only remember little bits of flying. They were flashes, like flickering lights going off in his brain. Above all, he felt that his small figurine held importance and he refused to let go of Rainbow Dash, as though she were the only thing that could keep him from the very real terror and danger he was being pursued by.

All the strength in the world wasn't enough to save the colt as he made it to the the stairs and fell straight down. The stairs, or lack thereof, had crumbled away hundreds of years ago. In his terrified dash, he'd neglected to pay any attention to the dark pit that could be seen in the low flickering light of the bunker. His head bounced off the concrete floor with a sharp crack. The small colt struggled to get up as tears began flowing freely from his eyes again, when he heard the voices. They sounded like ponies, which was odd because all the ponies were dead right? He tried to look up to where lights were starting to come towards him, but for some reason his vision blurred and he felt dizzy and sick. So, with a few life-savingly loud retches, he emptied his stomach of bile and sobbed. He was supposed to live. He made the decision to live and still he got killed by stupid stairs. It wasn't fair. He shouldn't have to die after escaping those stupid... things. But it would seem it didn't matter, for his world began to swirl into darkness at the same moment a bright light glared down into his face. He heard a few words moments before his world was encompassed in blackness.

"I found a colt!"

In the blackness he found solace...and a name that kept repeating inside his head. Ross. Over and over again he heard it. No rhyme or reason behind it, but the longer he floated in nothingness wondering why he hadn't died, he realized something. It was a mare calling to him. His mother? He tried to speak but no sound came out. He wanted to sob but no tears came. In the end he merely floated in the darkness knowing his name, the fact that he had a mother who he couldn't get to, and no way out of what he assumed must have been hell.

Author's Note

There should be cover art sometime soon, so it'll at least look nicer. Also huge thank you to Kkat and all other authors of the FOE fanfics I've read for inspiring me to write something like this. Also, big thanks to my wonderful girlfriend vihuff for helping me to edit this.