MLP-Multiverse: Chimera - The Snake's Charm

Prologue: The Human Stable

The young mare coughed and sputtered to herself as she struggled onward through a radioactive storm. It had been a while since she had stepped outside, but she was beginning to regret it. Where she was going was not easy to find, but she had a map, hard as it was to read with sand blowing all around and bright green light flashing in your eyes every few minutes.

Heart O' Gold was a lovely young mare. A tall creature with two long legs leading into strong hooves and an upright body supporting two arms, also carrying hooves at the end, and two breasts like every other mare her age. Beyond the usual, however, she had many traits all her own. Big green eyes, with long lashes, a cutie mark of a little pot of gold with a sweet little heart carved onto the side, and a mane and tail that ORDINARILY flowed like a golden river, as her special somepony so often said, the cheesy stallion. Yes, it seemed every mare now looked like this. Ever since the nuclear explosion that destroyed this very world, they began to resemble the apelike creatures with no hair who started wandering the world, or what was left of it.

The Equestrians had run afoul of these apes on several occasions, where they would attempt to rob them, eat them, or even enslave them, which was strange as it was common knowledge among Equestrians that they were very amiable. If anyone so much as asked, they would be more than happy to help... MOST of them, anyway. Even so, the Humans, as they were called, seemed to delight in taking advantage of the once innocent creatures. To adapt to this environment, Equestrians learned to stand on 2 feet, and move like the Humans. They also learned to manipulate technology, as magic seemed to be "running out" since the nuke. This however, was common knowledge to all in Chimera, the new name for this collective hellhole.

What wasn't common at all, was the quest that this mare was on... sheltering a small bundle in her arms, which was another problem as Ponies, anthropomorphic or otherwise, carried no digits on their hooves. Traipsing through a collection of dirt, dead trees, collapsed skeletons of ancient Human stables, and dust storms in the middle of the night was unnerving, but she had to do it. This was all for her little bundle. Her little colt was only a few days old, and she knew she could trust her special somepony. As he told her, he had bargained for a safe spot inside of a gigantic metal stable that the Humans built before a gigantic flash of light consumed their world. She couldn't help but feel a sense of kinship with the creatures, even if she really didn't want to.

They called it the "vault", which was strange, as Heart didn't believe the Humans were bits, or bills, or whatever the humans held as valuable currency. This century it happened to be bottle caps... BOTTLE CAPS of all things.

"Well, no matter." she said between coughing out a mouthful of dust. "Time to find this vault." She had no time to lose, and she was beginning to feel faint from the radiation.

Eventually, stopping to rest from the storm in a nearby outcrop of rock, she noticed something. Somepony, or something, had tunneled into it, and there was a tiny wooden door built into the side. Checking a map that her somepony gave to her, she recognized the direction she was heading in, and immediately flung the door open, running inside to avoid the storm's further wrath. Upon spotting a telltale door, shaped like a great cogwheel, she figured this MUST be the place her somepony talked about.

"Hello!? Can anypony help me!?" she cried out in hopes that she would be welcomed with a little bit of kindness after all that she'd endured, and she was starting to feel very ill.

Heart stumbled and fell to her knees, still carrying the little colt, wrapped in a blanket, finally opening it's eyes. His eyes... she had barely remembered to just look at her foal, with all that had been going on. The little green colt's eyes were bright, and in a startling way, beautiful. They were a gleaming yellow, with slivered pupils like a reptile's. Just like his father. The foal looked up at her and reached out his small hooves... and with a great expense of effort on her sickly body, she brushed him aside. Now was not the time to get sentimental. She had to get the vault open. She had to keep her colt safe. Slowly making her way to the giant door, she finally reached out a hoof and pressed a red button on a small device near the entrance.

"Hello... Please, I need... HELP..." And with these words, she collapsed before the door.

With the sound of clanking steel and an array of hydraulic pistons hissing, the vault was opened. Before she passed, she believed she saw the vault's security run towards her, and an old man, presumably the Vault's leader, run towards her colt on the cave's floor. Although she wondered where her stallion was, and why security was sent out first, she looked at the old man carrying her foal, and felt at peace. The overseer of the vault thereafter carried the little colt into the vault, with a smile on his weathered, old face.