(The Friendship Express)

"Okay... What do you want to know?"

Salem's muffled voice caused the ponies within the train car to look at him, ever since they left the crystal palace to the train station no one spoke a word. Though some of the ponies like Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie almost slipped by asking him some personal questions while they walked.

But if it was out of politeness or courtesy, no pony spoke a word. Rarity however was very close to questioning his wardrobe choice.

Twilight already had a notepad filled with questions ready to ask the stranger though her mentor beat her to the punch before the princess of friendship could start going off her list.

"Well, perhaps you can tell us what happened to your world," Celestia asked to which Salem gave a light huff.

"Where do I even start," Salem leaned back in his spot that was away from any of the cart's windows.

"At the beginning would be nice."

Looking at the eldest sister Salem gave a nod before taking a breath.

"All right I'll try my best... it started some months back,"

(Many months ago...)

Salem gave a low groan before slowly opening his eyes...

Giving a grunt the human shifted himself against the hard concrete floor as his body felt completely stiff and sore all over. Getting to his knees Salem held his head, everything just felt... weird.

His legs felt like they were about to fall off and his brain was pounding against his skull.

But through his aching brain, he had one question that was rushing through his brain: Where was he?

Trying to stand up from the floor he grabbed the closest thing near him to help pull himself up, grabbing hold with all his might he struggled upwards.

Finally was able to get a good look at his surroundings.

He was in a... infirmary?

Confused he stumbled a little going to a cabinet across the medical bend he was leaning on, his legs slowly began to feel normal all though a little numb. He walked over to the door and turned its knob before peeking his head out into a hallway where more doors were lined up on either side of the long passageway.

"Hello?" His horse voice echoed through the hall.

Nothing...

Moving out of the room and into the hallway pushing against the wall to support his numb legs to make it to the end of the hall. Another door waited for him at the end but unlike the others, this one was metal and didn't have any doorknob looking down to see a button next to it Salem watched as the door slid open with a hiss.

Shivering slightly, the patent gown he wore did little to shield him from the cold air blowing past him, grabbing his bare arms as he walked forward into the corridor before him while the door automatically shut behind him. Looking at the door he turned back forward before walking forward, confused and alone he pressed forward to hopefully find someone.

Walking for what felt like forever through the seemingly endless twisting hallways of wherever he was he froze upon seeing something on one of the walls.

A symbol, one that looked familiar to him... a weird rounded circle with three bumps on it one on top and two on its side while a second white circle rested in the middle with three arrows pointing to the center of the symbol.

He could have sworn he had seen this symbol from somewhere but he didn't know why though it was so familiar to him, pressing forward he left the symbol behind him but it wasn't going to be the last time he would have seen that symbol. Walking for a little while longer he finally came across more doors but upon opening them every single one would be completely empty.

"Hello?"

"Is anyone here?"

"Can anyone hear me?"

"Please!"

More and more empty rooms with not a living soul in sight!

Just where the hell was everyone?!

Then he found it... after what felt like hours of wandering these halls he found what looked like a security office of some kind. Smiling as he walked forward, Salem walked forward as the automatic door was blocked by a fallen rolling chair preventing it from closing.

Good thing too since the door to this room didn't have a button but looked like it needed a key card or something to open it.

Entering the room, Salem looked around. A few lockers were on one side of the room while the other had a bunch of monitors hooked up to a computer. Switching the computer on, Salem watched the monitors light up as it reconnects to the system; revealing what seemed to be a live camera feed.

The screens showed him the blank hallways of this facility, some could have been a few he passed. One screen however caught his attention; it looked like a live feed from outside...

The feed showed him what looked to be some sort of entrance to a military checkpoint to wherever the hell he was. Everything at first looked normal, but in the daylight it felt…

Wrong.

Looking down at the computer he began to mess with the device switching from live feed to the past recorded records of this place. Salem scrolled down at the list of recordings. Most of them were corrupted but he kept scrolling and scrolling till he found a bunch of recordings that weren't corrupted.

Clicking on one Salem watched the screen as the recording played.

From watching the recording play out this place might have been some kind of military prison or some sort.

People in lab coats walked about while other more armored men and women walked in what seemed to be riot gear either patrolling the halls or escorting men in orange jumpsuits. This didn't really answer any questions he had about this place; a matter of fact he had more questions.

Like if this was some sort of prison was he a prisoner or one of this place's staff?

If he was a prisoner why was he here?

What did he do?

Why can't he remember anything?

Looking back up at the screen he was about to log out of the recording only to spot something happening on the outside recording. Turning to it he froze in horror, the people who were currently guarding the outside had suddenly melted under the sunlight while those who didn't were in a panic.

Suddenly the melted piles of what used to be their fellow guards attacked them, reaching out for them and trying to grab them and pull them into the light. Some of the armed personnel fired at the melted piles of flesh to no avail. The flesh remained unharmed by the gunfire as it dragged more victims into the light to be melted alive, adding more to its mass.

Salem felt his heart sink at the sight of that as the recording pressed on with those flesh-like creatures swarming around outside, while the people inside began to run through the halls as an alarm light went off. Through these records, he would watch as the people inside sealed themselves after they 'flashed' the outside with some kind of defensive system, burning away all the piles of living flesh.

More and more questions began to fill his mind as he began to go through the computer.

Going through not just recordings but Emails, Memos, and other available data to him before he found something...

To those of you with families, or God forbid, children - I'm deeply, deeply sorry, you must push on. Do not let their deaths be in vain. We do still have time.

Humanity may still have a future. Come to Site-19. We need all the hands we can get.
Learn to embrace the darkness, friends. Fear the light.
- The Administrator

Turning around Salem felt dread wash over him.

'Did they leave me behind?'

(Present day)

"Turns out they didn't or at least I don't think so... honestly I never really found out what happened to everyone at that site but luckily I found out a few things about where I was, among other things," Salem recalled a few parts of his past to the ponies before him. "Apparently I was in a containment site of an organization known as the 'S.C.P foundation'. They were a group that would try to contain any anomaly that would appear to protect humanity to the best of their ability. To my understanding, they tried to study and understand most of the anomalies they had contained but most times they never did,"

Looking at their faces he could see the looks of anxiety, horror, and pity while Salem rested his arm on the booth he was sitting in while looking at the window far away from his spot in the corner.

"Besides that, that's all I really know about what happened when the sun turned on us," Salem stated while Celestia looked down at the mention of Earth's sun.

All were speechless at what they just heard when moments ago they were ready to fire off questions but they didn't know what to say after what Salem had just told them. The altered human looked at the mini-bar next to him in the train car before he pushed himself. He was about to get himself a drink but was given a Pinkie Pie 'hugckle', causing the chimera to shift from her sudden dash at him.

When her mane was all puffy moments ago was now flat as she looked up at him with tears in her eyes, not saying a word she buried her head into his side like a sad little puppy. Salem looked down at her act of comfort, he raised his free hand and patted her head while Pinkie Pie cried into his exo-plate.

"Salem?" The armored man looked at Luna who stood next to the bar with her hand on the counter. "You don't need to tell us anymore if you don't want to,"

Nodding Salem broke eye contact before turning his attention to the pony still hugging him before tapping her shoulder, yet she wasn't letting go.

"Um... Pink? I appreciate the gesture but can you- Oh-kay! Her grip is getting tighter," Salem tried to pry the pony from him as Rainbow Dash, who was currently trying to hide her tears from her friends, moved over and helped pull the party-loving pony off of Salem.

"Sorry big guy she just... gets clingy if she hears about something like this to somepony," Rainbow stated while pinkie pie kept crying.

"It's fine," Salem huffed wish for a cold drink was now gone, replaced by a bitter taste in his mouth. The altered human just rolled his shoulders, "Does this train have one of those sleeping cars? I would like to get some rest. I've been going for three days straight without any sleep."

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah, it's in the next car behind that door."

Giving a thankful nod to the rainbow-maned pony, Salem turned to the door and opened it before leaving the ponies in silence.

"Luna?" Celestia broke the silence while the princess of dreams looked at her sister, but her sister knew what she was asking only for her to shake her head.

"No, Tia... I don't think I can," Luna shivered at the thought of going inside Salem's dreams to see the horrors within his mind.

This left the group silent, to process what they had just heard.

(Sleeping car)

Looking at the bed, Salem gave a smile under his helmet before crawling on top, still in his armored exoskeleton before laying down and resting his head on the pillow. Today had been quite the turn of events, from leaving earth with melted flesh monsters to now being in a world that was like something that SCP-1230 would whip up in one's dreams.

Moving himself to get comfortable on the bed Salem felt something familiar shift under his arms. Slowly a smile came across his face as he quickly recognized whose arms were wrapped around his waist. Not even needing to hope his eyes, Salem lightly held the entity as he felt her gently rest her muzzle on his shoulder, slowly drifting off the earth-born survivor relaxed in the presence of his silent partner.

He was so glad he found that document...

Author's Note

(12/15/2022)

Special thanks to Joe Toon for being my new editor!

Well...

This was an interesting chapter, some back story, and well...

I'm still in shock this happened to this story, something very awesome by a very awesome person. I can't say how thankful I am to Fire Hearth for surprising me with something that blew my socks off.

I'll explain in a blog in the morning (since I'm writing this at night, I'm burning the midnight oil here)

As for my story hope I you all like this small background of Salem, I know it's not much but things are about to roll. If you don't get what I mean this story takes place around the season 10 final but it wouldn't be the same for a few reasons.

I wouldn't spoil it but it will be very... messy.

Any yep... that is SCP-1471-A and hear me out.

If you were alone in a giant fortress complex with no one else for months on end (well maybe for a few scps I'll explain later) what would you do?

It's been scientifically proven that humans are not meant to be left alone, like physically and mentally. Something about stress and other biology stuff I don't know that much but seeing how he was alone for nearly an entire year.

You got to believe it is reasonable.

Besides, more of Salem's backstory will be revealed later on with what other SCPs he has with him.

Also, give Fire Hearth Studios some subs and likes over on youtube he deserves it.

And FH thanks man you really made my day.