“Ready, S.A.T.S., Fire!”

SHIT!

That was the only thing that could think of as I was attacked by what seemed to be some kind of zombie-pony. The pony had crashed through the ceiling of the office and landed directly on the skeleton of the dragon that had taken his own life over two hundred years ago. The ribcage of the dragon shattering as the pony landed on top of it.

My blood boiled (maybe even literally) as I watched this obvious act of degradation toward the dragon’s remains. The dragon might not have been a dragon but it was still a shitty thing to do.

The pony didn’t seem to care as it picked up one of a dragon’s bones, one of the dragon’s leg bones based on the size, and spat it at me.
I dodged the zombie-pony’s attack, the bone flying past me and shattering when it hit the wall. I then used my magic that I still didn’t know how I processed to pull out the revolver that Breeze had given me out of my saddlebags and aimed it at the pony.

I used one of two mane spells of my Pipbuck to help me aim at the strange zombie-pony that was in front of me. The spell going by the name of the Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell, or S.A.T.S. for short. The spell making so that time seemed to slow to a crawl, maybe even stopping it completely I rarely if ever used it in Stable 70, and making so that I could target an individual body part of whatever I was aiming at and the spell showing me a percentage of how likely it was that my shots would hit their target.

I tightened my right claws that were glowing in my red magic and fired my revolver. I dropped out of SATS and the spell did its job with a single bullet from my revolver ripping through the pony’s mostly decayed skull. The head of the pony exploding in a blast of blood, bones from the pony’s skull, and brain matter. The pony’s limp body falling to the ground with a thud about a foot from the claws on my forelegs.

“And stay dead!” I shouted at the ‘dead’ pony that was in front of me.

I heard the thundering of hooves behind and I swung around and pointed my gun at the opened doorway behind me.
I was about to drop into SATS and fire again when I caught the sight of the unmistakable yellow coat of my unicorn companion, Sweet Breeze. I let out a sigh of relief and lowered my revolver but still held it in my red magic.

“What happened! I heard screaming! And gunshots!” Breeze said quickly as he entered the room.

“I’m fine, Breeze.” I said to Breeze, catching my breath. Me just now noticing how fast my heart was currently beating. My heart feeling like a sledgehammer beating against my chest as adrenaline rushed through my vines.

“What is that thing?” Breeze asked me, pointing his hoof at the ‘dead’ pony that was lying with a bullet hole in its decayed skull next to me.

“I don’t know Breeze, some kind of zombie-pony or something like that.” I said as I stared at the pony that was next to me.

“Zombie-pony?” Breeze said as the sound of thundering hooves on tile was heard some part of the school.

“Eta, what was that?” Breeze said with wide eyes.

“I don’t know, Breeze. But there’s only one way to find out.” I said as I reloaded my revolver and cocked it.

“What in the fiery pits of Tartarus are those things!” Breeze shouted as he hid behind a corner as I fired my revolver at a hoard of some kind of zombie-ponies.

“I don’t know, but this would be a lot easier if you’d help me shoot.” I said as I fired another shot at the zombie-ponies in front of me. The sound of my revolver going off right next to my ear making them ring.

I grunted in pain as the ringing died down. I saw Breeze’s mouth moving as he responded but I couldn’t hear what he was saying.

“What!” I shouted as my hearing returned.

“I said, I can’t. I’m not a murder!” Breeze shouted as he continued to hid behind what used to be a dispenser for Sparkle-Cola. Some empty and rusted cans being screwed around the tile ground.

I just growled at Breeze’s inability to fight. “This isn’t murder Breeze! This is nothing more than self-defense against creatures that want to eat you!” I internally shouted as I shot a death glare my unicorn companion’s way.

“Then if you won’t fight than I don’t think you’ll mind if I borrow the pistol that you have.” I all but shouted at Breeze.

Breeze didn’t speak as he gave me his revolver. I used my red magic in claws to grab it from him and aimed it down the ever-advancing horde of zombie-ponies that were about to overrun us.

I checked to make sure that Breeze’s revolver was still loaded, it was, and I dropped in SATS. My red magic took on a light green highlight as I used the spell.

I was still not used to the sensation of time coming to a full stop and being able to choose actually where I was going to fire, but it was still really helpful.

I used SATS to aim my revolver at the two closest zombie-ponies to me. Them both having no manes and missing the left half their body. Me being able to see their beating hearts in their exposed chests.

I targeted the head of both ponies and unloaded four shots, two each, into the ponies’ skulls. I popped out of SATS and the spell did its job with the two ponies dropping dead with two bullets holes in both of their heads. Them falling in a pool of their own blood that my Pipbuck beep from the radioactive blood. Their blood looking like black sludge rather than the usual red blood.
I then brought up the smaller revolver that I had given Breeze and dropped into SATS with that one.

The gun didn’t seem to be as accurate as my other revolver as the numbers for targeting the different body parts of a zombie-pony that’s left hind leg had decayed so much that I could see the bone that was underneath the flesh. Or I could just be a worse shot than I thought I was. But that’s not likely, right. Right.

I used SATS to aim two shots at the neck and head of the pony and fired. The calming release of SATS left me as my Pipbuck carried out the shots for me. The gun wasn’t as loud, so I didn’t lose any of my hearing, the recoil of the weapon was also less as I didn’t feel the same amount of kick on my red magic as my other revolver.

Regardless, it fired and both shots hit their target. The first bullet was a little off target (I aimed it at the pony’s neck) and went straight through the breast of the pony. The pony cried out in pain for less than a second as the second shot ripped through its body. And this one was on target. The pony’s decaying skull exploding in a blast of the same black sludging blood and pink brain matter.

The zombie-pony hitting the tile floor with a thud, there being a crunching sound when its head it the ground. It's shattered skull shattering even more from the impact.

I wasn’t out of the woods yet as another half a dozen zombie-ponies in vary degrees of decay rounded a corner. Them looking like a wave of decaying death. The ponies jumping over each other as they tried to make the both of us their next meal.

I tried to drop into SATS again but I wasn’t met by the familiar stopping of time and the green targeting of all the different body parts of my targets, only an infernal beeping coming from my Pipbuck.

The beeping was different than beeping that I heard when I was exposed to radiation. That was high-pitched beeping that got louder depending on the radiation that I was taking.

I looked down at the purple screen of my Pipbuck to see that it had a message for me.

“No SATS points remaining. Please wait, twenty to thirty seconds and try again.” The message said in bold green letters. The message having a cream-colored pony that was wearing blue Stable barding with a happy smile on its face and holding one of its forehooves. The pony having one of its black dots for eyes winking at me.

The sight was patronizing, to say the least.

I internally cursed my Pipbuck’s limited magic and I turned my head to speak to Breeze.

“We need to fall back!” I shouted at Breeze, he didn’t question my words and began to start sprinting in another direction. His movements catching the attention of the zombie-ponies. Them all growling and dropping into their own sprint after my yellow friend.

“Damnit, Breeze!” I internally cursed my pacifist companion. Why did he have to be a bright yellow. That must just scream lunch to these things.

“Hey!” I shouted from behind the tipped over can dispenser that I was using as cover. My words catching the attention of the half a dozen zombie-ponies that were chasing Breeze.

“Why have a regular unicorn for breakfast...” I said as I stood up on top of the can dispenser. “When you can have a dragon as the mane course?” I said to the zombie-ponies.

My words seemed to be effective as they stopped chasing Breeze, allowing him to escape by turning down another corner. The ponies all shared a look between each other, they still seemed to have some kind of rational thought as they seemed to debate amongst themselves what would make a better meal.

Wow, did I just say all of that in a single sentence? Damn, less than a day out of the Stable and I am already doing insane shit.

Anyway, the half a dozen zombie-ponies that were in front of me didn’t take long to make up their minds and they all shifted their attention from growlingly arguing with each other to looking at me. All of their mouths watery with the same black sludge that made their blood, while all except one that is.

One of them being a young (looking) unicorn mare that had only a few patches of her pink mane remaining on her head. Her body also seemed to be mostly intact, outside of a few bare flesh. Her skin was gray with a slight tint of blue and looking more wrinkled than anything else. Her eyes were the same red color as the others that I had come across. But they were… different. They weren’t filled with the same blood lust that I had seen in the rest of the zombies. This mare’s eyes were filled with… fear. Her eyes were staring directly at the two pistols that I held in my magic, not at my fleshy underbelly like the rest of them were.

I couldn’t get a reading on this mare, but she was one of them. And they all needed to die.

Regardless all of the zombie-ponies slowly began to advance towards me. Their eyes burning as red as fire. They must have been thinking that they had an easy meal as they slowly advanced forward.

I was about to shot all of them without the assistance of SATS when I heard another beeping coming from my Pipbuck.
I looked down to see a different message from my Pipbuck.

“SATS recharged, thank you for your patience.” A message in the same bold green lettering said to me. The image of the cream colored earth pony smiling at me with its hoof up. I couldn’t help but again feel patronized by the message, but it meant that I didn’t have to rely on my own skills anymore.

The beeping didn’t go unnoticed as the zombie-pony that was closest to me, a red stallion that was missing a fair amount of his face and right hind leg, jumped at me growling and with its sharpened teeth ready to dig into my scales.

The quickly dropped into SATS again and all time went to an instant halt. The sensation was strange, to say the least. The feeling of time stopping, me being able to the beauty, yes the beauty, that the destroyed the school still managed to process. The floating pieces of rubble that the zombie-ponies had kicked that hovered in mid-air. The small beams of sunlight that shined through the broken windows of the school.

But I couldn’t take in a strange beauty that the school had. I was still being attacked by a horde of ponies that wanted to make me their next meal.

I aimed the two pistols that I still held in my red magic and marked the larger revolver to unload three of its remaining four rounds in the chamber into three of the zombie-ponies. I marked my small revolver to fire three of its remaining ammo into the other three zombie-ponies. I made sure that both of them still had at least one round remaining, just in case any of the bullets missed. Or if the shot didn’t kill their target.
I dropped out of SATS and the first shot fired and there was no way that it could’ve missed as the first bullet from my .44 caliber revolver was aimed directly at the head of the zombie-pony stallion that had charged at me.

The revolver went off and less than a second later the stallion’s head exploded with a beautiful blast of brain matter. The falling in a heap in front of me and the second shot from my .44 went off shortly afterward.

The second reign true with the bullet hitting the pony, a tan earth pony mare that was missing all of her hair and tail, that was directly behind the one that I had just made head’s explode. The bullet hitting the pony directly in the left eye and it falling backward from the force the impact. It’s black sludging blood spilling out from its wound from its eye. Then the first shot from the .38 revolver that Breeze gave me went off.

The bullet was noticeably weaker than the one from my larger revolver as the pony, a silver unicorn stallion whose was missing half of a mane that looked to be originally a two tone black and green, was hit right in the neck and all it did was disorientate him. The stallion fell to the tile ground and growled angrily, but it remained on the ground. Luckily for me as the second shot from my .38 fired automatically.

The second shot fired and it was more successful than the first. A small beep coming from my Pipbuck, my looking down out of the corner of my left eye to see that it read “Critical Hit!”.

The bullet hit the fourth pony, a unicorn mare that's coat looked shit brown, directly in the head. The pony’s head didn’t explode, much to my disappointment, instead, I heard the bones of its skull-shattering from the bullet. The pony falling with a small thud not far from the unicorn stallion that I shot earlier.

The stallion that I shot earlier wasn’t dead, my Pipbuck’s enemy detection said so, but he hadn’t moved since I shot him. Maybe he was hoping to ambush me later. Not likely asshole.

Anyway, there were still two other ponies and the third shot from my .38 fired.

The final shot from my .44 fired and this final shot hit the blue mare that had a strange feeling about. She cried out in pain as the bullet pierced through her chest and she fell to the ground. Her cries of pain were unusual as none of the other zombie-ponies ever cry out in pain, they just growled.

She wasn’t dead, she was still breathing slightly. I deemed that she was no longer a threat to me, at least not yet, and I turned my attention to the red stallion that I shot earlier.

I didn’t need SATS to kill this stallion and I aimed my .44 revolver at the stallion head manually and fired. The bullet found its target and punched a nearly half an inch hole through the back of the stallion’s head. The red dot on my Pipbuck that meant him flashing out. Leaving only one red dot that was next time. The blue mare that just couldn’t get a reading on.

I checked my Pipbuck one last time to see that Breeze was around the corner waiting for me. All of the other red dots being a good distance away and they were all retreating. I guess they still had some brain cells left and didn’t want to follow the rest of their friends by having a bullet in their skulls.

I walked out from behind my can dispenser that I used as cover and cautiously approached the wounded mare.

The blue mare was breathing heavily and her blood was spilling quickly out of her gunshot wound in her chest. Her eyes were closed and I could hear what I thought sounded like sobering but I quickly wrote it off.

My .44 revolver was out of ammo so I placed back in my right saddlebag as I slowly approached the blue mare.

“Time to die, you monster.” I said as I pointed my revolver at the mare’s head.

“Wait.” The mare whimpered at me and I stopped dead in my tracks.

She spoke, I had heard these ponies speak before. But it was nothing more than an animalistic rambling about trying to make me into its next meal. She was speaking to me, pleading with me. Her voice was raspy and gravelly and she had opened her eyes.

Now that I was closer to her, I could get a better look at her eyes. Her eyes weren’t red, they were pink. And they weren’t filled with blood lust and anger, they were filled with fear. This wasn't a brutal beast, this was a scared mare. This was different, all of this was different. This mare wasn't trying to kill me. She was… pleading for her life.

“What?” I said in shock, what else could I say. The red magic that held my revolver was shaking as I continued to stare into those pleading pink eyes of the mare that was in front of me. Me just now noticing that the blood of the mare wasn’t the black sludge that the other ponies had, her’s was red and it continued to flow out of her body.

“Wait…” The blue mare said weakly. Her breathing was fast and heavy. I must have hit her in one of her lungs. “Don’t kill me.” The mare pleaded for her life. Her voice was weak, probably from the gunshot, and gravelly. Her sounding almost like my mother whenever she woke up in the morning. Back in Stable 70.

My revolver continued to shake in my red magic, the barrel being only mere inches from the small horn that protruded out of the blue mare’s forehead. The horn having a thin crack that ran all the way from the point and all the way down to the base. The horn being slightly crooked and looking like it had been broken and some point of the mare’s shitty life and hadn’t healed properly.

“But… but… you are a monster.” I stammered, my brain had seemed to shut down. I didn’t know what I was doing anymore.

“Monster is a matter of perspective.” The blue mare said as she coughed up a mouthful of blood. Her red blood landing mere inches from the claws on my left foreleg.

“But if you must kill me.” She said as she closed her eyes and placed her forehead up against the barrel of my revolver. The red light from my magic making so that I could see the many cuts and healed or healing scars that was all over the blue mare. What kind of life had she lived?

“Then do it already.” She said weakly accepting her fate, she was going to die anyway. It was only a matter if it was going to be quick and mostly painless or long and painful.

I felt the corners of my eyes begin to feel with water. I had killed ponies before, this shouldn’t have been any different. But… it was. I wasn’t killing a pile of shit that didn’t deserve to life. I wasn't defending myself against mindless beasts. No, this was… murder. I was ending the life of another. I was killing an innocent. An innocent that must have made my life look minuscule in comparison.

I shut my eyes and turned my head away from my head away from the blue mare. I couldn’t bare myself looking at her. “I’m sorry.” I whimpered as I tightened my right index claw and then…

Bang!

I heard my smaller revolver go off and I heard a ringing in my left ear for a few seconds. I kept my eyes shut for a few seconds, I couldn’t open them. I was doing the best I could to hold back tears. Opening them would just break the dam that I was trying to keep.
I finally opened my eyes and turned my head to look at my work. A small bullet hole being in the head of the blue mare. Her eyes were closed, she had accepted her fate. She was peaceful, why wasn’t I.

I couldn’t look at her for long, I was too ashamed of what I had done. My eyes drifting down toward my left foreleg and my Pipbuck. The last red dot on my mini-map flickering out. She was an enemy, she was a threat. But really was she?

“Eta, are you alright?” Breeze asked me as we continued to walk through the destroyed school. I wasn’t really listening to Breeze, my mind was going two hundred miles an hour.

“I’m not a murder, I’m not a murder, I’m not a murder.” I repeated in my head. I wasn’t a murder, it was just a misunderstanding. My Pipbuck told me she was an enemy. I was tricked. Yeah, I was tricked, I didn’t kill her, it wasn’t my fault.

I didn’t even notice that Breeze had stepped in front of me before I bumped into his side.

“What?!” I all but shouted at Breeze.

“What is wrong with you?” Breeze asked me, and I just snorted in denial. I wasn’t in the mood for another one of Breeze's lectures.

“Nothing.” I said quietly as I pushed past Breeze.

“No, you’re not.” Breeze said stepping in my path again, blocking my movements with his yellow hooves.

“Breeze move, or you will be moved.” I said to Breeze as I felt my eyes change color again and my claw beginning to glow. I didn’t want to threat Breeze with violence, he was my best friend and I knew that needed him as much as he needed me in this shithole. But I wasn’t looking forward to another lecture from my unicorn companion.

I could see Breeze’s mind debating whether or not he should let me pass, but he still held is ground. I respected him for that. I could tell that he was scared of me. Tartarus, I was scared of me.

“No, I need answer Eta!” Breeze shouted with a stomp of his right hoof.

“You want an answer, Breeze!” I shouted back at my companion.

“Yes, I believe that I have the right to one!” Breeze shouted back.

“Why!?!” I shouted back at Breeze. My brain was clouded by misplaced anger toward my friend and I wasn’t thinking straight.

“Because you’d be dead if it wasn’t for me!” Breeze shouted at me and I fell silent. “Am I wrong!?!” Breeze continued to shout and that was when I realized just how much the both of us had changed since… the worst day of my life.

Breeze was always quiet and he almost never argued with somepony, yet alone get into a full fletched fight of words. Now less than a day into the wasteland and we were already at each other’s throats on two separate occasions. What would the both of us be like tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. What would we turn into, what had this new bucked up world turned us into? I shuttered at what came to mind.

I needed to fix this. I needed to Breeze to trust me with the same amount of trust that I had for him. I needed to tell me the truth, no matter how painful it might be.

“I killed somepony.” I said quietly. Breeze’s muzzle warping into a look of confusion. “No, I murdered somepony.” I corrected myself. Breeze’s confusion only increasing. He had seen me shot a stallion in the face in cold-blood.

“Ok, what about it.” Breeze said waving off my actions with his non-Pipbuck hoof. His actions disgusted me, maybe two hours ago he was at my throat for killing the very stallion that had raped me. Now he treated me taking the life of another as nothing more than a normal occurrence. What was this world doing to him, what was it doing to me.

“This wasn’t a random… zombie-pony or just a pile of shit that deserved to be killed anyway. I killed a real pony. I killed a defenseless mare!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. I didn’t care if the remaining zombie-ponies that were in this school could hear me. I needed to shout, I needed to yell, I needed to be loud.

“Eta, calm down your...” Breeze began to say before I cut him off.

“I will not ‘come down’ Breeze!” I shouted as tears began to fill my eyes. “I murdered an innocent mare Breeze. Less than a day out of the Stable and I have already murdered the stallion that raped me, a dozen or so ponies that were trying to eat me, and an innocent mare that I had no right to decide if she was going to live or die this day.” I cried out with tearing eyes to Breeze, who kept a neutral expression. Him mentally eating up everything that I was saying.

I fell silent for a few seconds as the weight of what I had done in the last few hours seemed to double. I spoke again when a stunning revelation.

“Breeze, am I a bad dragon?” I asked Breeze with tearing eyes.

“No Eta, you aren’t a bad dragon.” Breeze said embracing with a warm hug. “You are a very good dragon that very bad things have happened to.” Breeze whispered into my ear. I was getting more used to him touching me.

Did I love Breeze? Yes. Maybe not romantically, but I still loved him. Breeze was like the little brother that I never had but always wanted. And I really needed somepony to comfort me right now.

I reluctantly pulled out of the hug the Breeze was giving me and wiped away some of my tears with my non-Pipbuck paw.

“Thanks, Breeze, but it still doesn’t change what I did.” I said as I continued to walk through halls of the destroyed school.

“Eta, wait!” Breeze called out to me and my movements went to a halt.

“What?” I said a little bit more bluntly than I had intended.

Breeze’s next words took me off guard as he trotted up next to me. “Did I ever tell you about what happened after you passed out a few days ago?” He asked me and my blood instantly jumped to a boiling temperature from anger.

“You mean what happened after I blacked out after getting raped!” I angrily shouted.

“Yeah, that.” Breeze said sheepishly, him seeing that he had touched a nerve in my me. My nether regions were still sore from what that bitch did to me.

“But to question, no. You never told me about what happened after… that.” I said to Breeze respectively, my anger beginning to get back under my control.

Breeze waited to tell me what had happened when I was knocked out until we were in a safe place. Well, safe relative to the fact that we were currently in a crumbling school that was invested by a horde of zombie-ponies.

But anyway, we found a safe place inside an old classroom. The classroom being about the same size as my room back in Stable 70. A blackboard similar to others that I had seen in other classrooms in the school was at the front of the room. There was a large window that took up most of the far left wall of the room. The glass of the window was surprising not broken, just extremely dirting. Some kind of graffiti in a language or a slang of a language that I couldn’t understand. The classroom looking to have been some kind of an art class given that now yellow walls (me thinking them to be a pure white when the school was still in service) were covered in old drawings.

Most of the drawings had been faded or completely destroyed from water damage from the 200 years that they had been exposed to the elements. But the few that I could see looked to be a cruder version of the propaganda that I saw in the auditorium when I first entered the school. Most of them showing a large white dragon that remained of the zombie-dragon from my dream in some kind of stance of leadership. Any zebras that were shown being shown in a very negative light. I didn’t mind it, these creatures were monsters and deserved to be depicted as such. It wasn’t like they were disrespecting them, they were just showing them for the monsters that they were.

One that stuck out to me showing the white dragon standing atop a rock with his massive wings extended with the decapitated head of a zebra being held in one of his claws. A stream of orange fire coming out of his mouth and pointed directly into a blood red sky. I was also able to make out a large green mushroom cloud off in the right corner of the picture. The picture looking like it was depicting some kind of armageddon. An armageddon that was caused by the evil of the Zebra Empire. The one that had drawn it being a very good artist. The pictures were very patriotic, to say the least.

The room had the same ‘a bomb went off inside’ kind of look to it with overturned chairs and desk. Most of them being completely destroyed and nothing more than a pile of twisted metal and fake wood. Anyway, enough with the room. Back to Breeze.

Breeze and I took a seat in one of the few desks that were still remaining in the classroom and Breeze began to tell me about what happened when I blacked out. Me eating up all of his words as he spoke.

I could tell the Breeze was nervous. He was playing with his hooves and avoiding from making any kind of contact with me. It was almost like if he as much as looked at me with his beautiful blue eyes I would shatter like a piece of glass.

It I was made it so that he could talk to me. “Breeze…” I said reaching out to my unicorn friend. My right claws resting atop of his forehooves. Our positions from only a few moments ago changing. Instead of him reassuring me, now I was reassuring him. The feeling was strange. The day before I wasn’t even able to let anyone touch me, except my mother. Know I was able to reassure a pony, urging him to tell me about the worst day of my life from his perspective. Had I recovered? Maybe, only time could tell for certain.

“You can tell me what happened.” I said to Breeze, my words were soft and urged Breeze to tell me what he knew. My scales were thick, I could take whatever he had to say right, right?

Breeze let out a heavy sigh and turned his head to make eye contact with me before he spoke, his words taking me off guard. “I was scared.” Breeze said, a look of confusion appearing on my face at his words.

“What?” I asked Breeze and he continued speaking.

“I was scared.” He repeated, this time I didn’t interrupt. I wanted to hear everything that Breeze had to say.

“That day looked like to be nothing special, in fact, it started off looking like it was going to be a good day.” Breeze said with a small amount of nervous laughter. “Everything was going well at the hospital. No pony had died from the night before. I had been given a job by my supervisor to deliver a special package to the Overmare in exchange for extra food. Food that I intend to give to your mother.” Breeze continued to speak without a pause. He sounded happy, but his words still held an apparent sadness.

“Everything was going great until…” Breeze paused, this being his first pause since he started telling me his story. “It happened.” Breeze said somberly, his words coming to a stop. I could see small tears beginning to form in his light blue eyes and he stopped looking at me.
I stayed silent. Breeze didn’t need my help. If he needed to shed some tears then I wasn’t stopping him.

“I’m sorry.” Breeze said through small tears that began to flow down his muzzle. Breeze wiping away some of his tears with his non-Pipbuck hoof.

“Don’t be…” I spoke for the first time since Breeze began his story. “Everythings alright.” I tried to reassure Breeze, but it didn’t work. I saw a flash of anger build up in Breeze as his muscles tensed up and he sternly shook his head no. Then he exploded.

“No it’s not!” Breeze shouted, his outburst taking me off guard.

“Breeze, are you ok?” I asked my friend, trying to reach for his hooves. He recoiled his hooves and continued to shout.

“No, no I’m not!” Breeze shouted, I recoiled in fear and my eyes began feel watery.

“Everything was going fine, everything was bucking perfect. Until you showed up!” Breeze shouted his blue eyes burning with anger.

“You ruined EVERYTHING!” Breeze continued to shouted, the walls of the classroom making his voice sound even louder than it actually was.

“You had to come lumbering over to be while bleeding to death! You had to faint right in front of me! You had to lose unconsciousness and make me fear that I had just seen my best friend die in my hooves for no apparent reason! I had to hold you in my hooves for what felt like forever as somepony got somepony that could actually save your bucking life!” Breeze shouted an image of him holding my unconscious body in his hooves while being scared to death.

“I had to watch from the outside as actual doctors saved your life. I had to be with your mother and assure her that she that her only child would actually be able to outlive her. I had to be the one that told your mother that it was nearly impossible for her to ever have grandchildren!”

“I had to feel both pain and joy when you finally decided to rejoin the land of the leaving. I had to be one that had to get slammed into a piece of medical equipment after you lost it!” Breeze shouted, my memory of when I mistook Breeze for the stallion that raped me flashing into my mind. I was ashamed of what I did. I apologized and Breeze had accepted it. Couldn’t Breeze see that, or had his anger clouded his judgement that much.

“I was the one that had to break into the very hospital that I had a steady job at for you. I was the one that gave you the only thing my father left me when he died! I was the one that was stuck in a Celestia and Luna damned pit of Tartarus because you told me to. A reason that you still haven’t told me!” Breeze shouted and tears began to freely flow from my eyes. H-He was right. I had force into this wasteland. And for what?

“You’re the one that has made me angry at everything all the bucking time!” Breeze shouted his anger at its tipping point.

“ALL OF THIS BECAUSE OF YOU!” Breeze shouted and didn’t know what to say. How do you respond to something like that. Had been reduced to nothing more than a hatchling from Breeze’s harsh words. Was that truly how he felt? Was he really that angry at me for getting raped? No, he was my friend. He was made at my… our situations. He wasn’t mad at me, he was mad at her.

“Breeze, none of that was my fault.” I whimpered back. My words were weak but they seemed to work. Breeze’s anger beginning to leave. Breeze wasn’t angry at me, I just happened to be the one in front of him when he released all of his anger.

“I know.” Breeze said sinking into the desk that he was seating in. “I know.” Breeze repeated reverting his eyes from me again. “It’s her’s.” Breeze spat bitterly as he fell silent again.

There was a few moments of awkward silence. How could either of us respond after what Breeze had just done. I knew that his anger was directed at me. But they still hurt. Me getting raped and how it affected Breeze initially wasn’t my fault, but everything afterward was. I had attacked Breeze, I had hurt him, I had made him become a thief, I had been the one that forced him into a wasteland that he never wanted to be apart of.

I had ruined Breeze’s life, it was my fault. What had I done?

My self-destructive thoughts left me when Breeze began to start speaking to me again.

“You still didn’t answer my question.” Breeze said and I didn’t respond. He asked a question during his angry rant. I guessed I must have missed it.

“What question?” I asked quietly, couldn’t look at him. I was too ashamed. He might have just been at his situation and not at me. But it still didn’t change the fact that he was right.

“Why did you leave the Stable?” Breeze asked and was about to snap at him with my answer that I had convinced myself with. But then it hit me… I couldn’t.

“Well…” Breeze said beginning to become irritated again. I didn’t want to start another fight with Breeze

“I don’t know.” I said admitting defeat to my cursed brain.

“What?” Breeze said in shock, but it was a calm shock. He wasn’t angry. Or at least, if he was he didn’t show it.

“I don’t know, Breeze! I don’t know why I left!” I shouted as more tears began to form in my eyes. How could I answer Breeze’s question when I couldn’t even answer it for myself.

Maybe it was as a way to get away from the insane mare that had raped me. Maybe it was to find that dragon from my dream. Maybe it was both, I didn’t know. Maybe I would never know why I left. All I know is that I left and Breeze just happened to be along for the ride.

“I ran.” I finally spoke, my words were quiet and I doubted if Breeze even heard them.

“What?” Breeze said leaning over his desk to hear me better.

“I ran.” I repeated, this time, a little louder than the last. “I ran, there’s excuse for it.” I said more to myself as my brain still tried to come up with a real answer as I left my home.

“That’s what I did, I ran. I was running from my problems.” I continued to say, Breeze leaning on her forelegs to listen to me closer. I felt exposed, weak, and scared. I just wanted to curl up in a tiny ball and die. But I continued despite what my body telling me to stop.
“I could try to bullshit my way out of this and say that I was getting myself out of a shitty situation after I was raped.” I said, now more speaking to Breeze. My words being what I had kept telling myself since I left. I was making sure that bitch would never have a chance to make me one of her playthings anymore. But… I knew deep down inside me that wasn’t the case.

“I could say that I left in order to find a dragon from a dream that I had, but I know that’s not true.” I said to Breeze not even realizing what I was saying until Breeze interrupted me.

“Wait, a dragon, from what?” Breeze interrupted my self-destruction dive into my own bucked brain. That had been the first time that I had told anyone about my dream. And now Breeze what an explanation for it. Oh… buck me with the claws of Omega.

“Um…” I mumbled my brain going blank as I stared directing into the blue eyes of Breeze.

“So wait!” Breeze said as we continued to walk through the destroyed hallways of the abandoned high school. I had just told Breeze all that I remembered about my dream involving that strange zombie-dragon and he still had question. I mostly ignored him, only answering questions that I knew the answer to. Even if I knew the answers I still sometimes didn’t answer them. I was able to tell Breeze about my dreams, but I still wasn’t reading to tell him everything that I experienced while I was sleeping. I might never tell him the whole truth, I still had the right to my own privacy. Right, right?

“You had a dream where you met a dragon that half of its face burned off and thought you how to shoot.” Breeze said behind me as I turned down a corner onto another long hallway. I was following the map on my Pipbuck but so far it didn’t show any place that looked like an exit.

“Yes.” I said as look back down at my Pipbuck, the red dots from all of the zombie-ponies that still remained in the school seemed to have been on the other of school but they all seemed to be regrouping and some of the stragglers looked to be heading our way. I wasn’t really that concerned. It only look to be two or three and I had already reloaded my .44 revolver, just in case.

“Do you know his name?” Breeze asked as he quickly trotted up to my right side.

“No, he never told me. And even when I asked he said that he could tell me and that I would come to know all things about him in time.” I said to Breeze as I turned around another corner to find another long hallway that had the right side wall being light up by the natural light of several windows that had surprising not been shattered, just really dirty. The windows being spaced apart every twenty feet or so.

“So… what was it… he like?” Breeze asked me. I wanted to drop the topic, but I couldn’t deny Breeze anymore. I would answer any of his questions, no matter personal they got.

“He was… different.” I said as I remembered the strange dragon from my even stranger dream.
“What do you mean?” Breeze asked me as the both of us continued to walk down the long hallway. Me having a sense that we walking down the mane hall of the high school and that one of the entrances had to be close by. At least, I hoped it was.

“Breeze!” I exclaimed as my movements came to a halt and I turned my body to face Breeze completely. “He had half his face burned off and just happened to also be the first dragon I had ever seen that wasn’t my mother.” I said to Breeze. “Even if it was just in a dream.” I said more to myself as I continued to follow my Pipbuck’s small map. The hallway that we were walking down looking to finally lead to the outside. I eager to find out what the rest of Salt Lick City looked like. If the school was any warning to the outside world then I might not really want to know.

“I see…” Breeze said falling silent not long afterward. His brain seeming to look like it was trying to find the best words as he said them. After a few moments of awkward silence, Breeze continued to speak.

“Do you think that you will see him again?” Breeze asked me and I didn’t miss a beat with my answer. I think I was getting better with opening up to Breeze.

“I don’t know Breeze, in my dreams maybe. But…” I said to Breeze pausing briefly. “I don’t think I will see him in real life. I idea of an actual dragon like the one from my dreams actually existing is unbelievable.” I said to Breeze, a small giggle coming out of me as I thought about the insanity that the two of us had been through the last twenty-four hours.

“I see, so know what?” Breeze asked me as I spotted a sign that hung from a single metal cable from the ceiling. One of the cables that had held it up looked to have snapped making the sign hang facing directly downward. Making a faded black arrow that was attached to the metal sign look like it was pointing directly at the ground. The arrow looking like it had originally pointed toward the closest exit out of the school. And sure thing, there was a pair of double doors that looked to lead outside.

“About bucking time!” I gave an internal sigh of relief. I had just about enough of this destroyed high school and I wanted to see anything else right now, even if it looked objectively worse.

“I don’t know Breeze.” I said to my unicorn companion as I walked over to the door that I assumed was an exit to the school and began to push it open. “But we might as well explore. This place is our new home after all.” I said as the doors protested my actions by creaking as the doors slowly opened. Light from the outside world shining into the school and me being hit by a wave of hot air. My lungs didn’t seem to like my introduction to the true outside world as I dropped into a massive coughing fit.

“Are you alright, Eta!?!” Breeze asked me with genuine concern and fright in his voice.

I had to wait several seconds until my coughing had subsided enough for me to actually speak.

“Water.” I said, my voice being both hoarse and raspy as I held out my left claw for a canteen from Breeze.

“Right, of course.” Breeze said quickly as he used his magic to hand me one of his canteens into my opened claws.

“Thank you.” I said hoarsely as I downed a big gulp of the canteen. The cold water flowing down and wettening my throat.

“Better?” Breeze asked as I gave the canteen back to him. My yellow friend returning his canteen to his saddlebags.

“Much.” I said with a sigh of relief, my voice returning it's beautiful self again. “Thanks, Breeze.” I said to my oldest friend.

“Don’t mention it, Eta.” Breeze said as he followed after me into the outside the world.

We both walked out of the school and I had to take a step backward in shock at what I saw.

Everything was destroyed, and I mean everything. All of the buildings, that were made from some kind of reddish brick that had since turned a maroon color, had been destroyed. Most of them had missing or caved in roofs. All of the windows were shattered. All of the buildings and roads were covered with overgrown plants that brought eerie sight to my eyes and a lump to my throat. All of the buildings also being covered in graffiti that not even me, a foul-mouthed dragon, wouldn’t repeat.

I looked up at the sky and was met by a blanket of black, gray, and red. I couldn’t see anything that I could even think was a sun or a moon for that matter. The sky was completely covered by a blanket of heavy black clouds that only thing that made certain that it was daytime the slightly red coloration of the lowest clouds as the light from some sun far above tried to pierce through.

I shifted my eyes to the east to find a massive mountain that stood above the destroyed city. The mountain’s peak, that looked to be easily several thousand feet up, still looked to be covered in snow. I had never seen snow before but I had heard about it. The white powdery substance that this region of was known for still seemed to exist at the top of the giant mountain. However, the ‘snow’ didn’t seem to be white anymore. The snow, instead, taking on a more black-green color and I might have just been seeing things, but I could’ve sworn that I saw the ‘snow’ glowing.

I felt the corners of my eyes beginning to water as I stared across the landscape that was in front of me. I haven’t seen the rest of the city and I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to. I didn’t want to know what had happened to the city’s famous temple for the Alpha. If regular buildings that no one really cared about were destroyed and vandalized were liked this. I shook to think about what one of the symbols of the Dragon Empire would look like now.

I felt a small tear flow down my cheek as an image of a completely destroyed temple flashed before my eyes. By the Alpha, please don’t make my mind be true. Was this really Salt Lick City, the pride of the once great Dragon Empire, or was it Tartarus. The pit of fiery death and destruction that bad ponies and dragons went to when they died. Was I dead, was this all a dream?

I had almost forgotten that I wasn’t alone in my journey and I violently jumped and dropped into a defensive stance when I felt someone touch me on my right shoulder.

“Wow! Eta, it’s just me!” Eta shouted at my actions, my unicorn companion holding up his hooves in defense. I breathed out a sigh of relief before I spoke, my increasingly sore muscles relaxing at my friend’s presence.

“Sorry, Breeze. I must have zoned out there.”

“You don’t say.” Breeze said sarcastically, if I wasn’t wrong to say that Breeze had become more sarcastic since when left the Stable. I couldn’t tell if it was him being around me more often or his exposure to the wasteland of above, probably the later, but it was still good to see. I think I was being a good-bad influence on him.

“So what now?” Breeze asked as we started to walk down the concrete sidewalk that was just outside the high school.

“We explore.” I said to Breeze as I began to walk down the concrete sidewalk that was in front of the school. Most of the sidewalk being cracked and having overgrown grass that had taken on a brownish-black coloration growing out of it.

“There’s gotta be someplace safe where we can rest for the night.” I said to Breeze as we continued to walk side by side down the sidewalk.

“You’re the boss, boss.” Breeze said as we walked down the sidewalk.

The both of us walked down the same street for several minutes or was it hours, I couldn’t tell. I had lost almost all sense for the passing of time since leaving Stable 70. Plus the blanket of black and red that made up the sky above made it impossible to tell if the sun was even still up. Given that I couldn’t see anything in the sky above that I could remotely think was anything like the sun that I have seen in the books that my mother had given me when I was just a hatchling.

Oh… my mom… I wonder if she is still alright. I had just left her, at least I was still a good daughter right, right?
Ugh! Stop beating yourself down Eta, you left and you gotta own up to it. Mom’s fine, she has been through way more than just being without me for the foreseeable future.

Anyway, despite all of the destruction around us, I felt a strange sense of peace. I couldn’t really explain it. Maybe I just liked to imagine what this city looked like before… they came and destroyed everything. I first time I come across a zebra I am going to shove both of my pistols down their throat and pull the trigger. It might be messy, but it would worth it. They deserve for what I have done.
My thoughts have anger were interrupted when Breeze tapped me on the shoulder. “Hmm… what is it, Breeze?” I asked my unicorn companion as my movements came to a quick halt.

“Do you know what that building over there is?” Breeze asked me, pointing his hoof across the street that we were walking down.
I shifted my attention away from where I was walking and over to where Breeze was pointing.

“What do you mean?” I said absent-mindedly as I turned my head to look at the building that Breeze was pointing at. When my gaze fell on the building that Breeze was pointing at my light blue eyes widened and my mouth dropped. My mouth suddenly felt incredibly dry and my legs began to shake.

“I think I remember seeing in a few books back home, in the Stable, but I can’t remember where. Or what the building was called.” Breeze said but I wasn’t really listening to him. I was more focused on the building that he had been pointing at. I hadn’t even noticed that my body had started moving toward until I almost tripped when the claws on my right foreleg hit the crib of a sidewalk. I recovered quickly and continued to have my body taken over by the beauty of the building that was in front of me.

“It’s real.” I said in awe as I stared up at the massive building that was made out some kind of cream-colored marble. A large golden dragon that was resting on the roof of the large building and holding the world in his claws staring back down at me. The statue was magnificent and could feel the corners of my eyes filling with tears as I continued to stare up at the large building that was in front of me.

“What, you mean you know what this building is!?!” Breeze exclaimed, him being so how shocked that I recognized one of the shining achievements of the Dragon Empire. Well… he did worship two pegasus unicorns that were said to have the ability to control the sun and the moon… so what the buck does he know.

“Of course, I know what this building is!” I snapped at Breeze, the yellow unicorn taking a step backward at my outburst. “What dragon in their right mind doesn’t know what this place is.” I grumbled more to myself.

“Ok, but my question still stands.” Breeze said as he trotted back up to my side. “What is this place?” Breeze asked and I breathed out a heavy sigh.

I slowly turned my head to face my friend and spoke to him.

“Breeze, this is the most sacred place for dragons.” I said to Breeze, telling him of the importance of the building to dragons like myself.
“This is the famed Salt Lick City Temple for the Great Alpha. The largest temple of its kind.” I said to Breeze, his blue eyes widening at my words.

“A Temple for the Greatest Dragon that had ever lived.” I said as I turned my attention back to the massive golden statue of the Great Alpha that was on the roof of the building.

I felt something rush through my body as I stared up at the statue that towered above me. I don’t know if it was my own fire that I has yet to learn how to use or the very power of the Alpha that had not a single doubt still burned. Even in the irradiated wasteland of the above world.

The Temple had to have been a safe place for us to stay for the night, right? Oh, how wrong I was that day.

Level up! New Perk: SATS Beginner: Your first experience with SATS has been successful and you will get better at using it in time. This perk can be upgraded.

Author's Note

The Salt Lick City Temple for the Great Alpha is an obvious analog for the famous LDS temple in Salt Lake. If you happen to be a Mormon or are deeply religious, I don't recommend reading the next chapter because of fucked reasons.