We spent the next days heading southeast, skirting the edges of Hayseed swamp. After two days, I finally stopped looking over my shoulder for alicorn's on the horizon. Apparently, we had lost them. As we traveled, the already sparse and twisted vegetation of the wasteland got even rarer and more mutated, until it vanished into an expanse of grey sand that set the kids pipbuck clicking. When I could see the macintosh hills in the distance, I turned directly south, heading to a long ridge on the horizon. For nearly the whole journey towards it, the ridge appeared to be a solid wall of jagged rock, and the clicking of the pipbuck got louder and more insistent as we moved towards it. A dose of Rad-X took care of me, though the kid seemed worried. When we were nearly on to the foot of the ridge, a small gap came into sight near the top, along with a worn trail that appeared out of the deeply piled irradiated grey sand to wind up the ridge. As we walked up, it became obvious that it was once an old road, never paved, that had been slowly wearing away until all that was left were old wagon ruts and the pass carved into the ridge.

As we climbed, the kids pipbuck, which had been clicking loud and fast at the foot of the ridge where the sand piled up, began to slow. As we crested the ridge and left the sands behind us, it stopped altogether. Now, set out before us was as we crested the ridge and moved down was a veritable maze of high rock ridges and spires, cut by deep canyons, and broken up by twisted valleys of dull orange sand and sparse vegetation, and a few high flat platues. On every horizon, tall rock ridges or snow capped mountains rose, cutting this barren valley off from what had once been equestria.

We spent two days going deep into the badlands, the remains of the road we had folowed all but disapeared, only occasionally popping up here and there, but my hooves led us on. Then, on the second day, I could see the ruins of several ramshakle buildings rising in the distance. The kid, looking curious, sped up. My hoove however, just felt like I had lead shoes nailed onto them. It was everything I could do to place one hoof in front of the other as the ruins of what was once a pre-war town came fully into view. The buildings had been ransacked, many burned. The drifting sand filling open doorways and the lack of any fresh sign indicated to anyone interested that this had happened a long time ago. I looked at none of it, simply following the kid to the old sign that lay half-broken on the sand. The kid had shoved dust away, reading the sign, his face screwing up in obvious confusion.

The sign had said "Bray, Population: 213" but someone had crossed out the 213 to write a 0, followed by "Beware, deadly radiation.". The kid looked to his silent pipbuck, then back to the sign, clearly even more puzzled.

"Come on, I said simply, turning my back on the ruin. "We aren't stopping here."

"But..." The kid started, before I swung a hoof at him. He ducked, eye widening.

"I said, lets go." I growled. We left. The kid kept glacing from the town, to the sign, to me. He obviously had many questions. I had no answers for him. So, we just walked on. About an hour later, I led us off the path and into the cliffs beyond the town, climbing up narrow paths with barely a hoofhold. Not a problem for a hoof-sure donkey, but a problem for the kid. I tired of waiting on him, and unceremoniously swung him onto my back and carried him to where one of numerious caves dotted the cliff face. I dumped him inside the entrance and started walking deeper inside.

We followed the cave deep into the cliff face. Its tunnels split and rejoined many times, winding and twisting through the ridge of rock. my hooves led me where I knew we had to go, leading us through twists and turns until we came to a truelly massive door, like the others, but much, much larger, and again, no symbol or identification was painted on it, but this one was marked all over with dings, scratches and scorchmarks. Someone, or a lot of someones, had spent a lot of time trying to open this door. A terminal of a new sort stood by the door. It was covered in armor platting, its screen hidden behind a clear screen that was obviously bulletproof. Obviously because someone had shot it and it was still intact. Even here, panels had been attempted to be pried off to get at the guts of the terminal, but everything was intact, if banged up.

"Ok kid, see if you can get that terminal to open this thing." I said. The kid looked at me, so many questions obviously on his muzzle, but he turned away and went to the terminal. He obviously hadn't seen anything like it before, but he found some sort of port for his pipbuck that hadn't managed to be damaged by those who had tried to break into the terminal. He went to work. I sat, staring at the door, looking down, I saw a stick, small, barely more then a twig, still jammed where someone had tried to pry the door open with it, snapping the tiny thing easily. I pulled the tiny stick out, placing it down on the floor. The kid was having a hard time, I was actually seeing sweat pop up on his forehead as he frantically worked at the terminal. Again and again I watched him back out and try again. After a while, I wandered out the main room and down a separate passage. Before long, I was kneeling, sticking my head into a tiny burrow-like tunnel, looking in as a collection of old rags, an empty water bottle, and a small bundle of cloth. The last I pulled out with a hoof. It was an old child's toy, a small patchwork equine, badly frayed. I ran a hoof along a mane made from bits of an old broom, before tossing it back inside the hole. The past could stay in the past. Wandering back, I saw the kis still working, muttering to himself under his breath. I sat again to wait, pulling out my canteen to have a drink. Finally, after another 10 minutes, the kid pumped a hoof in the air, shouting a "Yes!" in victory.

I stood, watching with baited breath as the door began slowly and loudly rumbling open. Dust swirled in the air as vibrations shock the cavern, and a light flashed in a strobing pattern from behind the door. Finally, it rumbled back far enough to see... A small room, with a doorway at the far end, open, but sealed with a pink barrier, oh and another terminal. Ok, seriously? Even the kid winced, seeing he had yet more work to do. We both stepped into the small room, the kid plugging his pipbuck into the terminal and once again getting to work. I walked up to the barrier, trying to see into the room beyond. I could see nothing but darkness beyond the pink. This barrier, I had heard of such. Shields set so that only relatives of whoever they were set to let in 200 years ago could get in. And lets face it, I was noponies relative.

After pacing the small room for a while, waiting for the kid, I tried again to see what was beyond the barrier. I shifted forward a little more, cautiously trying to see what it was we were trying to get into. Then, my hoof abruptly lost all traction on the smooth metal floor. I caught myself before I could fall into the barrier, nose an inch from shimmering magical forces. That was close. I may have only heard about this in rumors, but they were said to range from just being a wall to vaporizing anyone who tried getting through.

I was starting to move away when I looked down and realized my hoof, the one that had slipped, was inside the barrier. I blinked, pulled it out, and tried to push on the barrier. My hoof tingled, but passed through like the barrier didn't exist. "Kid," I said, waving my hoof around in the barrier. "Uh, I think you can stop."

The kid looked up, jaw dropping. "But... how?"

"Must be broken." I said simply. "Not like I can be related to a ministry mare or anything." With that, I stepped through the barrier, my fur along my back standing on end at the tingle. The kid tried to follow, and smashed straight into the barrier. Wait, what? I tried pulling him through, but he just yelped like it hurt. I let him go. He said... something, but the sound was warped by the barrier. I shrugged, looking around. The space I was in was dark, I couldn't even get a sense of how large it was. However, a few feet away a terminal was set into the wall. Well, hopefully it wasn't locked. My luck, such as it was, held. The terminal had been left unlocked. I saw an option to disable the barricade and was about to select it, when I saw another file, marked "For my child.I opened it and began to read.

"Hello my child. Yes, I know its you. Oh, I know you may not be my son, or even his child, but to have gotten through the barrier I know you to be one of direct descent from me. Oh my child, I wish you had not opened that door. I though I had destroyed every trace of it in Bray, and vowed never to speak of this place, to let these secrets fade away and never trouble anyone again. If I could, I would have destroyed this place, and helped to further atone for what I helped the princess's do, but if you are reading this, then I must let you know what you have found.

I, Crabapple the donkey, established Bray, as you probably know. What you do not know is that it was established for the simple purpose of hiding the construction f this facility, and to allow me to guard it until completion. I kept careful watch over this place, even after... after it all ended. I was loyal to the princesses, but... I can't let this happen again. If anyone ever finds this place, it will happen again, I know it. So I'm shutting it down. I'm turning on the security and sealing the door. Let time take this place, let what's left of equestria forget. Please my child, let these secrets die.
-Crabapple

Wait, Crabapple? THE Crabapple? Well, yeah, I was a relative, half the town had been. But.. he was supposed to be a hero. He had saved us all. But... he knew how to get in the whole time? All that effort, all those stupid stories... and he had helped them the princess's, they had destroyed everything.All this time, Bray had just been... what, a distraction, camouflage for this? Crabapple hadn't been a hero. He had betrayed all of us. Well, I had no need to listen to traitors. I turned off the force-field, along with the security from the terminal. The kid trotted in.

"How did you do that?" He asked in amazement. "The force-field..."

"Doesn't matter." I said curtly. He obviously was about to ask more, but I headed him off." lets find out whats in here."

We trotted in, away from the terminal and a distant ancestors plee. That had been then, this was now. He may not want whatever was in this mountain found, but here in the wasteland, old secrets just meant caps. And that was all that really mattered.

The kids pipbuck illuminated the fact that we were standing in a large hallway that ended with a split further up. The split led to two separate corridors, identical, both leading in opposite directions. I turned right and followed the right hallway. It just kept going on and on until it turned a sharp left, then went on for another long ways, before dead ending at a door guarded by four deactivated turrets. The door had a small panel set into it, requiring a hoof print. I set my hoof into it, and it slowly slid open. Beyond was a space lit by shimmering light of of a multitude of strangely sickly looking colors. It was... kind of pretty, but at the same time, a wordless dread seemed to rise in my gut. I stepped into the room, the kid following, his pipbuck beginning to slick softly. What I saw when I looked around sent my hind legs out from under me, dumping my hindquarters to the ground.

A massive space was set out around me, stretching out large enough to accommodate the whole ruin of bray, and then some. Massive steel shelves ran along every wall, and several rows were set up through the room. Each shelf contained a strange geometrically shaped object that pulsed with the same sickly colors that lit the room. Each was about the size of a bushel of apples, and there must have been about 50 of them in the room. But I knew what they were. Everyone did. After all, one would be rather familiar with the weapons that nearly extinguished all life on your planet. Balefire Bombs. Freaking balefire bombs. Bray had been built to hide a stockpile of the weapons that destroyed Equestria.

Level up!

New perk added: Lead belly. Constant exposure to radiation has granted you partial immunity! You now take 50% less rads from food or drink.

Author's Note

Sorry this took so long to get out. I got a new job offer that required me to move to the other side of the country. As you can guess, a cross-country move tends to eat up your free time. But now that I'm moved in I'll hopefully get chapters out more regularly.