We got off the train to see an old western town, which consisted of an aisle of buildings ranging from stores to houses, completed with what looked like a house decorated with apples. But what really stood out was the number of white tents spread out across the town. Twilight then stepped out the front and began to lead us to the house at the end of the street, I could already hear the Geiger counter ticking as we walked past the white tents but the girls didn't notice as they looked around to see the sick residents.

I managed to get a look into one of the tents to see a pony with chunks of his fur missing causing me to cringe slightly as I look back to Twilight to see we reached the front porch of the apple covered house. Applejack then walked to the door before knocking on it twice, some movement could be heard from inside for the door is opened to a pony who has a bluish-gray coat, two-tone black mane and tail, blue eyes, and a cutie mark of a blue star and white shooting star, he was wearing a hat with a gold stair pinned upon it. He stared at us with his frown before saying "Howdy Applejack... What brings Y'all back to this dying town?"

I hold down a chuckle at what I thought was a joke as Twilight begins to speak "We have come on the behalf of the Princess to sort out this problem you've been having with this sickness" Twilight then smiled with glee as the look on the sheriff brightened up a bit before going back to his glum state

"I don't think there is a way to stop this virus from claiming this town..." The sheriff said as he looked at the ground "I mean just look at everypony... Their skin is literally falling off"

Everypony with the exception of me shivered by the detail that was given before Twilight composed her self and says "Well that's why we brought Ray, He's kind of an expert with this stuff." She then steps aside so he can see me fully, the look on his face was priceless

"Y-You know what's tearing apart the citizens?" The sheriff asks with a surprised look on his face, I nod without saying anything before the winds begin to pick up causing my Geiger counter to slightly faster, finally getting everyponies attention. I lick my hoof before holding it up to see which direction it is coming from, I furrow my brow before saying "Let's get moving, keep everypony inside till we come back"

The sheriff nods before galloping away, leaving me and the girls. I turn to the left and hold up my hoof one more time to feel that I'm facing the direction the wind's coming from, "C'mon, The longer we wait, the more people get sick"

I start to lead the girls out into the desert wasteland, I wipe the sweat off my forehead as we walked past the various cactuses and animal bones here and there. The more we walked, the faster the counter ticked so I pulled it out of my saddle bag to look at the meter. I swallowed the lump in my throat as it began to reach around the 400 range so I stop in my tracks.

I took off my saddle bags before I begin to hand out the gas masks "The radiation is getting too high, just hope we are close to it and the meter doesn't go over 10,000..."

Twilight then asked as I handed her gas mask to her "W-What happens if it reaches 10,000?"

I let out a shaky sigh as I put on my saddlebags before answering "We will only survive around a few weeks before eventually succumbing to radiation poisoning..."

Everypony then shouted in unison "WHAT?!?"

I shake my head before trying to calm them down "The chances of us experiencing that high of a dose will be highly unlikely though."

Rainbow Dash then sarcastically butted in "Great, that makes me feel so much better"

I shake my head again as I slip on my gas mask, the girls see their queue and also put theirs on before Rarity pressed the speak button on the side of her mask and asked a question "Wait, why can't I just use a magic shield to block it out?"

I press the button on my mask before saying "Magic is a type of energy, so is radiation. If you put a shield around us, the magic will absorb the radiation, pretty much making your shield a microwave"

Twilight and Rarity gulped before we continued our walk in silence. Minutes felt like hours as we walked through the sandy desert, the Geiger counter slowly rising as we trotted along. The Geiger counter just raised above 1,000 as we came to a ditch, I hold my hoof up causing the girls to halt. I clear my throat before telling them "Stay here... I'll check this out"

They do what I ask and stay put as I slowly inch toward the small indent in the sand. After what felt like an eternity, I reach the edge of the ditch before I look down into it. A mountain of Grey coats, pants and boots were sitting inside, they looked familiar but at the same time did not... I searched throughout my memories to see where I've seen these before... The thought suddenly reached my mind, these were human fireman clothes, more specifically the ones used to clean the rubble out of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after it had the meltdown...

I stared at the clothes with shock, I couldn't believe it. Clothes from my world somehow appeared here, like me... I was snapped out of my thoughts as a scratchy voice shouted from behind "Whats in the gosh-darn hole?" I turn away to look at the girls, I couldn't see their faces but I could feel that they're worried.

I wave my hoof at them so they know they could come to me, they all got the message and slowly trotted over. Once they all got to the edge and looked down they gave confused tilts of their heads before they looked to me for an answer so I pressed the speaker button and gave them one "These are firefighter clothing from my world"

I could see their eyes widen as they looked back down to the mountain of clothing. Rainbow Dash suddenly asked, "Why are a bunch of clothes causing these problems?"

I was about to answer but Rarity also asked a question "And why do the fire brigade have such terrible fashion sense?"

I roll my eyes again before I say "I'll answer those questions later, we need to discard or contain this"

Twilight then asked, "how do we contain it?"

I roll my eyes before answering "Lead, water, concrete or all three." Everypony seemed to chuckle but I silence them before I ask Twilight "Can you send Celestia a message to send us a lead container" but felt like I didn't need to as she had already sent a letter, seconds later a large box with a letter on top flashed into existence.

Twilight picks up the parchment before reading it out loud

'My Faithful Student

I am glad you found the problem and the solution, I will send some guards to pick up the dangerous items and have scientists research these items. I will need Ray Joseph for this as he knows more about the items than anypony does, I will head to Ponyville in a weeks time for him.

Sincerely
Princess Celestia'

I nod at Twilight before remembering to switch the gas mask filters, so I take off my saddlebag and pull out the filters "Switch them, just like I showed you" They nod before unscrewing their old filter before screwing in their new one. I look to the large wooden box Celestia sent with the letter before opening it up to see at least 3 inch thick plates of lead on each side of the box, including the lid.

I look the human clothes before trying to grab them with my magic, it burned a little but not enough to make me stop. I place the pile of clothes into the lead insulated box before closing it. I sigh as I shake my head to rid the stinging pain that has entered my horn, it worked a little bit as the pain slowly began to numb. I lift the box up before slowly walking back to the town.

The walk was uneventful as always, by the time we got to the town we already took off the masks, we arrive to see three Royal carriages landing in the middle of the town before 3 guards holding black AK-47M's get off of one of the carriages and walk up to us before one of them asks me "Are you Ray Jo...seef?"

I chuckle at his attempt to pronounce it before I correct him "Joseph, and yes I am. Guessing you here to pick up this?" I set down the lead box in front of him to which he nods and picks up the box in his magic.

"The Princess will see you next week," the guard said as he walked away with the box before stuffing it into the carriage and hopping into it with the other two guards in tow.

I smile before turning back to the girls who were being awfully quiet "Is something wrong?" I ask with a worried tone. They shake their heads no but I can see they don't want to be here any longer so I say "Let's get to the train, wouldn't want to miss it" They agreed with nods as they quietly walked with me to the train station, we bought tickets before heading to the last car on the train.

I sat down at one of the tables with a glass of water as everypony did their own thing, I remember their questions about the firefighting clothes so I ask "You girls still want me to answer your questions?" They seem to all stare at me for a second before trotting over to me. As soon as they all gathered around I began to answer Rainbows' question "Going back to Rainbows question, How did those clothes get to how they are now? Well, it began in my old world on April 26nd, 1986... There was a massive power generator called a Nuclear reactor power plant in a small town called Chernobyl, they were testing... something but with its production of a severely flawed Soviet-era reactor design combined with human error, they managed to send the whole thing into a meltdown. The meltdown caused the reactor to explode, blowing a hole in the facility's roof and leaking all of its radiation into the air"

I stop for a second to take a sip of water before continuing "After the meltdown stopped, They sent in scientists and firefighters. The scientists would calculate the severity of the meltdown while the firemen cleared the rubble so the scientists could go deeper into the facility to check the extent of the damage. When they got to the basement, they sealed their fate, the reactor grew so hot that most of the metal surrounding it melted into a liquid and burned through floor after floor before reaching the lowest level. They called it the elephant's foot... After just 30 seconds of exposure to the blob of metal, dizziness and fatigue will find you a week later. Two minutes of exposure and your cells will soon begin to hemorrhage; four minutes: vomiting, diarrhea, and fever. 300 seconds and you have two days to live." The girls gasped as they covered their mouths with their hooves

I take a chug of water before saying "And what of the firemen? They went in there with no protection at all, just their fire-retardant suits. After they cleared all the rubble and were no longer needed they went out, took off all their clothes and threw them into a room where they would remain for years, collecting radioactive dust. As for the firemen themselves... some died from radiation burns, most of them died from cancer while some survived till they died of old age."

"And well... If things my old world are getting here, then this might only be the beginning..."

Author's Note

YEESSSSSS, I finally got my laptop back and now I can write for you guys, I might be a bit sloppy at the moment so just bear with me, anyways I hope you're happy I'm back to writing and i'll write to you in the next chapter (probably)