My stomach growls. I think back to the days before this. As the whole system was crumbling. Just for the whole thing to fall down on our heads at once. There is banging at the door. It shakes me from my thoughts. Deprives me of sleep. Of sanity. The knocking is louder now. Faster. Screams now accompany it. I lay my head back down. Maybe it will be over soon.
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Crystal Light fumbled with the first aid kit she had retrieved from the bathroom. Her mane no longer shimmered in the damp, dusty room darkened by closed blinds and growing night. The box creaked and groaned as she opened it, the rust upon it's hinges was given notice by the reasonably panicked mares.
"Is that stuff gonna be fine to use?"
"It's gonna have to be. Alright, let's, let's just see what we can do."
"Crystal, Crystal..."
Crystal Light looked up. The look on her friends face went far beyond fear or exhaustion. This was a look of proportions unspeakable.
"I...I-I can't feel it. I can't feel my leg anymore."
"It, it's probably just... adrenaline. Let's take a-"
Crystal Light moved just ninety degrees, enough that she noticed the small bit of red and brown that was littered upon the bright pink.
"What? What is it?"
"It's, I forget what it's called."
There was a moment where Crystal Light had to look away and cough into her foreleg, almost choking from the sight.
"That bad?! What happened!?"
"No! Don't look! This...this will be easier if you don't look."
Tears came to Amber Breeze's eyes as she put her hoof on the table and rested her head on it.
"Just, whatever it needs, do it. Quickly."
"Alright, just, brace yourself. This may, well, this is gonna hurt."
Crystal Light poured a fair amount of alcohol onto a strip of bandage, and prepared herself for what she was about to put her best friend through. The moment the cloth touched the wound, an ear-splitting, gasping cry ripped through the house, carrying out into the streets and sky. Amber Breeze's wing scrambled across the table, and soon enough, the small plastic fruit was being violently clenched between her teeth.
"I'm sorry! Just hold on, I'm almost done."
Another cry, muffled this time, but still just as heartbreaking to hear. The wound was soon free of blood and dirt, and Crystal Light looked with a slight relief at the wound.
"Ok, good news. This isn't what I thought it was.
"What?" Amber Breeze said after removing the object from her mouth. Her breaths were rapid, and made her sentences stuttering messes. "What is it?"
"I thought it was a compound fracture, but it's not. It, I think it's fractured though." Crystal Light took a roll of bandages from the first aid kit and strated to clumsily wrap it around the leg. "Here, keep going. We need to get back to your house, Nov's mom can fix you up."
"How are we gonna get back there? There's no way it's any better out there than it was."
Crystal Light took a few steps to the front door and peered through it's window. In the distance, through littered streets, she could see an unmoving form laying on the ground. She backed away. Suddenly, an idea struck her, and she was running to her bedroom as fast as she could.
"Crystal, where are you going?"
The question was answered when Crystal Light spat the walkie-talkie from her mouth onto the table. She took a seat and started to fiddle with a few of the knobs on the device.
"The walkies! I remember those!"
"Do you remember what channel you left yours on?"
"I, I don't." Satisfied with her handywork, Amber Breeze ripped the bandage and taped them tight against her leg with the small roll of medical tape. "Just try them all. I think I left it somewhere in the den, they should be able to hear it fine."
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Three older ponies stood, exchanging embraces. The younger one stood by the window in the next room, nervously biting his lip.
"Rusty, Dr. ShineHeart, it's good that you two could make it."
The red stallion of the couple chuckled slightly, reaching a hoof up to rub his scruffy mustache.
"Well, can't say we're over during the best of circumstances, but, we're here nontheless."
"Thank you for helping Nova Bomb out," The mare spoke next, dropping her thin, yellow hooves from the other mare's body. "Can't ever keep that boy from hurting himself."
"Reminds me of me a little."
The three parents chuckled, somehow the impending fate of the world listfully forgotten for a few moments. The contemplative moments were interrupted suddenly by a faint crackling and a muffled voice. Nova Bomb's ears perked up, and he spun around to look at the room before him. Through drawers and under chairs he looked as the crackly voice came again. Finally, he found the small grey device hidden under a chair he had not yet flipped over.
"Hey, hello?"
"Nova Bomb? Did it work!?"
"Yeah, yeah, if this is what you were trying. Where are you guys?"
"We're at my house." Crystal Light paused for a second. Amber Breeze could only look away after her next sentence.
"My, my parents are there, by any chance, are they?"
"No," The response came after a few moments of hesitation. "No, they aren't. They're somewhere though, somewhere safe, I know it."
"Thanks."
"Look, you guys need to get back here."
"We can't! We were in the streets running here and some guy jumped on Amber Breeze!"
"What?!" The walkie-talkie was quickly grabbed from Nova Bomb's hooves. "Dear, put my Breezy on the line."
Crystal Light pushed the walkie across the table to Amber Breeze, who shakily picked it up.
"Mom?"
"What happened?! Are you alright? Do you have something you can use? Is Crystal Light versed in-"
"Mom, mom, I'm fine." Amber Breeze answered, cutting off the mile-a-minute questions. "Is Nov's mom there?"
"Yes, yes she is. You need to get here so she can check you out, somehow... Can it wait until nightfall?"
Amber Breeze and Crystal Light exchanged glances quickly, faces of concern and wonder.
"Yeah, probably."
"Alright, I don't like it much, but that's what we'll do. Come time, you'll go out and through the backyards to here now, ok?"
"Alright, that may be easier said than done."
"Well remember who's child y'are now dear lass, I raised ye like me mum raised me, you're just like her, just like me."
Warm, genuine smiles came to both Amber Breeze's and Crystal Light's faces.
"Alright mom, I'll see you later. Love you."
"Ah, takes the end o' days for you to show your mother affection in front of your friends, eh?" The mare gave a soft laugh, and in hearing her daughter's laugh through the walkie-talkie, smiled. "I'll put the boy back on now. Good luck sweetheart."
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The hours before darkness seemed teeth-grindingly long. The groups in either household sat, waiting nervously for the hour of imminent action to arrive. The glass door sild open leisurely, just barely emitting it's trademarked squeak as it did so.
"Ok, let's go."
Crystal Light pushed the door open just slightly further, allowing for her very full saddlebag to fit through. Carrying a saddlebag equally as full, Amber Breeze managed to limp through the doorway following closely behind.
"Fly if you have to but don't leave me behind."
"I think I'll be fine, I don't think we'll be running too fast."
"Yeah, definitely don't need to draw any attention. Come on."
The hinge of the gate let out a loud, slow creak as it was pushed open. The two mares quickly made their way along the long row of fences.
"So, if I may ask, what the hell's our plan once we get back?"
"Hold out for a while, see what happens? I don't know, I guess we'll all talk it over."
An overbearing silence blanketed the lion's share of the walk. The pair eventually reached a corner adjacent to their target house, their bodies pressed gently against a fence.
"Alright, is it clear?"
Crystal Light, having taken the lead, check cautiously around the house. She saw dim lights through the closed blinds, and just barely noticed one of them shift slightly.
"Alright, now's the time, let's-"
The mare's sentence was cut off by a loud expression, somewhere between a curse and a cry.
"What was that?" Amber Breeze whispered harshly. "Was that-"
The incoming question was answered all too promptly when another sound echoed, followed by multiple loud cracks through the sky. The two mares waited for a long moment, agonizingly still. The curtain moved again, and this time, they could see a face on either side of the living room window. The two mares started running, but stopped when the source of the previous screams fell into their view. A mare and a stallion, both looking just slightly older than themselves, were running past the house. The stallion fell, crying out, and the mare turned back for him.
"Get up, come on!"
"Just go! Get back!"
"No, I'm not-"
"Hey!"
Crystal Light ran over to the pair, and held a hoof out.
"Come with us! This house right here!"
"What? You-"
"Let's go!"
Amber Breeze ran as fast as she could into the house and into her mother's open hooves, Nova Bomb having propped the door open after seeing them. Crystal Light helped the mare drag the stallion into the house, where the gravity of his injuries became apparent to all.
"Somepony help me with him, does anypony have medical training?"
"I do, Emerald does too."
ShineHeart and Emerald moved to the table and started to scan the stallion's body
"Good, get him to a room with some more privacy, I'll help you carry. Somepony's gonna need to grab a medkit."
"There's one in the bathroom here," Nova Bomb said, started toward the hallway. "I'll grab it."
"Thanks." The mare said, nodding to him as he ran off. As she and ShineHeart lifted the stallion, her eyes met those of Crystal Light. "Thanks to you too kid, you may have saved a life."