After an hour, I returned to the tent, to find four ponies. I recognized most of them although the forth was new. They all bowed at my presence, but I quickly waved them off.
“Colton,” I said acknowledging the black pegasus “Tell me who my squad members are before I brief them.”
“Yes ma’am” He said “The turquoise unicorn you know, but to review, his name is First Sergeant Cloudchaser, our medium range specialist his rifle will prove valuable in a pinch.” Cloud nodded and put a few more clips in his battle vest and brandished a nasty rifle.
“The brown earth pony will be our heavy for the trip.” He said motioning towards the brown earth pony next to Cloudchaser.
“His name is Corporal Bouncingstar,” Star continued cleaning his abnormally large machine gun, but gave me a wicked smile as he did so.
“The yellow pegasus is Corporal Scarletbloom.” He said gesturing to a pony I’ve never seen before. She was a yellow pegasus about Applebloom’s color. Her mane was a light purple color, and was cut short, probably for her military training. Her eyes, though they were a bright red color, seemed friendly enough “She’ll be our long range specialist.” I heard Colton continue. Scarlet then brandished a large bolt-action rifle with a scope that she assembled and disassembled as Colton spoke.
“That’s only three” I said turning to him “I asked for four.”
Colton smiled before downing a battle vest himself and brandishing a shotgun.
“Let’s just say I’m not the second highest ranking pony here for nothing. Besides, no one can use a scattergun like me.” He said loading his weapon and holstering a sidearm.
I nodded before turning to the four ponies in front of me.
“My little ponies…” I started “Your all here for a reason, you’re the best. I’m the last remnant of royalty that anyone knows is alive, but in order to lead this country I need the power of friendship. Unfortunately, most all my friends have been… stolen from me by those things we kill now. All except one, my friend Rainbow Dash is the only one who might be still alive. I can cast a spell leading us to her location, but when I get there, things might get hairy, and I’ll need you four to help me get to her. Does anyone question the authenticity of this mission?”
Scarlet stood up “We all have something we need to hold on to, and without it, we’d all be dead. I think I’m speaking to everypony when I say, I’m willing to help you.”
I smiled; she was just the kind of filly I’d love to meet back before the ghouls turned everything upside down.
“I’m glad you feel that way.” I said softly before grabbing a bolt-action rifle that was beside me “Now let’s go.”
We all walked outside and I prepared myself for a tracking spell. I found this out by reading a book on friendship spells. It turns out that when two ponies become good friends, their minds actually develop a mental string, intertwining them forever. The spell is simple, as all they have to do is trace the string to another. The only bad part is that it didn’t matter whether or not the pony in question was dead or alive, as friendships really do get carried to the grave as well. I cast the spell and could suddenly see a golden string, starting from my heart, and heading north.
“Follow me.” I said as I started to follow the string ahead of me.
We walked for a while, slowly causing us to drift into groups. Cloud stayed at the back, keeping his head down and not saying a word. Colton and Star started talking to each other on random topics, mostly just to keep the darkness of silence away; leaving Scarlet at the head with me.
“Sooo” She started trying to start a bit of conversation with me.
“Do you need something” I asked a little colder than I meant to.
Scarlet ignored my tone and continued trying to talk to me.
“So I’ve heard that you actually nearly went out with Cloudchaser back there.” She started nudging me.
“Yeah,” I said “What about it?”
“So, what’s he like?” She pressed.
“Well I never really went out with him” I said blushing “But we did do the occasional project together. He used to be a smart, happy person. He was fairly relaxed, maybe a little too relaxed, but he always managed to get things done.” I sighed “Now he looks like he can’t be more miserable…”
“Trust me when I say that’s just his bad side, and what’s happened can bring the bad side out of most ponies. You should see him when he gets his hands on some quill and paper. I swear by Celestia that while he still had paper to wright a story in, his mood was so much better. He was suddenly more outgoing, once he ran out of paper though, his mood started to decline again.
“Is that what he holds onto?” I asked “Like you said, everypony had something to hang onto.”
“Most likely” She said
“What’s yours?” I asked “What lets you wake up in the morning.”
Scarlet walked a bit ahead and showed her flank, revealing a cutie mark of two masks; one frowning and another smiling.
“I’m an actor” She said “I managed to get ahold of one of Cloud’s stories, and together we changed it to a monologue. I preformed it in front of the entire camp; that was possibly one of the happiest times I’ve had since the virus came to Equestria.
“How do you do that?” I asked.
“What act? It just comes naturally that’s why it’s my…”
“No” I interrupted her “How can you be so happy? You must have some sort of secret?”
“I don’t really know” She said looking up into the blue sky, “I guess it’s like some of defense mechanism I’ve come up with. Cloud locked up, and I came out.
I nodded, not really sure of what to say, so we walked in silence for a while, each of us lost in our own thoughts.
-----
We had stopped a while ago to regain our strength, and rest for the night. We sat by the fire cooking some canned beans we had brought along with a rabbit Scarlet had shot while we were on the road. We sat by the fire enjoying our meal and thinking about what we were going to do tomorrow. Suddenly I heard a small crack of a twig. My ear twitched as I puzzled over the sound. Scarlet and Cloud seemed to have heard it to as they were shushing Colton and Star from their conversations.
We slowly reached for our weapons, and listened intently for another clue.
“What are we listening for?” asked Star as he flipped the safety on his machine gun.
“I’m not sure” I whispered not taking my eyes off of the surrounding forest.
Then I saw it, a small movement in the shadows of the forest, a small glint of metal being raised. I quickly grasped whatever it was with my magic and threw it out towards a tree; I heard a yelp and watched as a mare holding a sniper rifle hit the tree with a sickening crunch before she fell to the ground.
“Raiders!” I yelled just before we all heard a war cry and the lead rain began.
We all ran in opposite directions searching for any sort of cover. I ran into the forest and knocked a yellow pegasus under the chin with the butt of my rifle. Then before he could get up I shot him in the head with my rifle. I chambered another round before firing into the raider’s ranks. I heard the roar of a machine gun and screams as ponies were ripped to pieces.
I could only hope Star was behind that gun and not somepony else.
I soon fell into a steady rhythm and the noise of the battle started melting away. It was simple. Chamber, aim, fire, chamber, aim, fire; it was too simple. Every bullet I fired quickly found its mark in another pony I couldn’t recognize. The thoughts of each pony I ended started to melt away along with all feeling in my body. I no longer wondered if their death was quick, or if they had friends and family that were still alive. Everything just started fusing together into a simple pattern; chamber, aim, and fire.
Every couple of minutes I would see one of my companions, Star wildly cutting ponies down with his machine gun. Scarlet jumping from tree to tree, nimble as a pegasus should be. I only saw cloud once, he had been in the forest with me; taking out ponies with the same cold expression he always wore.
I didn’t react to their presence once, when I saw a unicorn with a bowie knife in her mouth climbing a tree Scarlet resided in. I shot her in the leg and then in the throat as she fell. I didn’t even acknowledge her mouthing of “Thanks” to me as I killed more and more ponies.
Suddenly, I felt an excruciating pain in my back and I was tossed to the floor. I looked up with blurry vision to see a grey pegasus with a blonde mane. Her eyes were crossed and she held a shotgun that she had obviously used to knock me down. She was just about to pull the trigger when I mumbled “Derpy?”
She looked shocked and looked down at me “Twilight?”
“No!” I heard a furious yell from behind the dull pegasus.
Suddenly her eyes, for the first time in her life stared straight ahead, un-crossed. Blood dripped down the side of her mouth and she fell to the ground in front of me, revealing a bloody hole in her back, I looked up to see Cloud, the serious expression gone as he looked straight at me. He opened his mouth to say something but I interrupted him.
“You idiot!” I yelled at him “I knew here, she wasn’t going to kill me!”
Cloud’s hard expression returned, he looked like he was going to retaliate, but decided not to and instead ran back into the forest.
I looked back at Derpy to see her eyes still open and her breathing shallow.
“I…I can see” She said in a shaky voice blood foaming at her mouth “I… can see… straight…”
“Please forgive me Derpy” I said tears coming to my eyes. I hadn’t known her very well, but she was possibly the last pony I knew in this hell-hole of a world.
“I-… is this… what you see of the… world all the… time” She said her eyes slowly getting foggy.
I cried a little harder at her peace. “Yes, this is what I always see…”
“I-it’s… beautiful” She said her eyes drifting around the dark forest “Th… thank you… Twilight… for putting me… at… peace…” Her eyes slowly closed and I felt her last breath escape her lungs.
I sobbed against her body that was quickly going cold; her last moments she just seemed so… happy. She looked like she had accepted death with gratitude. Like it was a way out, I saw Derpy’s sidearm that had slipped out of its holster. I grasped it in my hoofs, feeling the cold lifeless metal in my hoofs. I briefly realized that I had never held a gun in my hoofs before. I had always just grabbed it with magic, now that I could feel the lifeless metal; I realized how similar it was to the cold bodies that now surrounded me. I was slightly aware of the battle noise fading around me, and being replaced with cries of fear as the remaining raiders retreated. I put the pistol against my temple; Derpy seemed so at peace with death. Maybe I could feel the same way, and join my friends. Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie, and Rainbow…
I dropped the gun quickly. I got up clumsily and stumbled back to our camp. I was slightly aware of the questions from my companions who were already packing up, but I ignored their inquiries and dug into my saddlebags until I found what I was looking for. A slightly crumpled sheet of paper; I pulled it out and re-read the note Rainbow had left. I realized that she had
been through the same thing I had. She had survived even when the world seemed to be fighting her. She had sucked it up and lived on, even when all her friends were missing. I felt a single tear run down my cheek, and I remembered my promise. I had promised on all my friends graves, that I would find my last friend. That I would make sure she was ok.
I tore a small sheet of cloth from my bag and grabbed a piece of charcoal from the now extinguished fire, and I wrote “I will find you RD” with black lettering. I held the sheet of cloth close to my heart for a moment before letting it drift in the wind. I then stood up and looked directly at my four companions.
“It’s time to go”