The wind, rain, and sleet stirred in the decrepit snowy park as she rustled through the massive pile of frosty broken appliances and rubbish that had been carelessly dumped at its centre over the seasons. Nearby, rusted playground apparatus long unused by any foal creaked and groaned disconcertingly as the forlorn weather teased them into movement every now and again. Their erratic animation was greatly more unnerving to her than the depressingly petite skeletons resting in the park's patchy confines amongst larger ones, many laying frozen in time between the old metal structures.
The deepening cold pierced into her jacket as Celestia's Sun was almost dipping at the horizon, and she grunted in annoyance again at the weather that had decided to so quickly change its course. It was winter, yes, yet it had been a fairly clear sky not too long ago with a light mix of rain and snow. Now the wind was picking up and the snow had given way to heavy rain that was liberally falling from the gathering grey clouds. Beyond the harrowing incident of the apocalyptic event itself, without weather teams to corral it anymore the sky was always a strange mix of erratic patterns.
It was too bad that her jacket wasn't enchanted or sufficiently lined, or made of leather like her gloves and boots ─as much as she disliked the material, it had several uses that couldn't be ignored─ because at least then she'd be a great deal drier and warm whilst she searched about. Pausing for a moment as she shifted the weight of her pack and two precious weapons around, she resumed her careful rummaging with a quick and wary glance to the surrounding area from under her hood.
Everything was still, there was nothing but fallen snow on old ash, turned to grime.
Applejack didn't stand out too much in the fading light of the day, however that didn't mean she wouldn't be a tempting target for anypony that might happen to pass by with ill intentions on the mind; she had more than enough to be shot and killed for what little she had on her person. These days even having just a few small pouches might make a pony a target for what they might possibly contain. Besides her main weapons she possessed a Nova grenade for escaping danger attached to her backpack, along with a Phobos Instrument for detecting deadly anomalies or heavy pockets of magical radiation, a single bottle of clean water and a ration bar, and a military-issue gas mask that hung loosely around her neck.
The Nova was concealed quite well by being wrapped in cloth, the mask and detection device currently being hidden by an old poncho over her jacket. It was all purposely done as the grenade gave off a cool-blue glow that would give her away, whilst the mask and Phobos were both extremely valuable pieces of equipment and rather rare to come by in such excellent condition as she currently had them. Even covered up, anypony with even half an eye open would make out the grenade, or the items under the poncho simply by the shape they made. The Phobos Instrument might have been fairly common but it was an invaluable item to have and a precious source of scarce parts, both technological and magical, so she had to be quite careful with it. A good reason to add to the stack for her camouflage, such as it was.
Her jeans were darkened the same as her once-olive jacket and poncho, the denim almost deep-navy in tone as much from dirt and grime as the soot and ash she'd rubbed into them. The same mix in her clothing was also darkening her face, mane, and tail too; it all helped to keep her profile less visible. An orange coat and light blonde hair weren't exactly inconspicuous when it came to wandering in the evening. Unfortunately, she couldn't do much about her strikingly bright and glowing jade-coloured eyes, somehow caused by exposure to the event. The gloves on her forehooves helped hide what the jacket couldn't, whilst the boots on her hindlegs did the same job as well as being a decent buffer from the harsh elements. She accepted that even when dirtied up the rugged leather hoof-wear might still possibly catch some small measure of light, it was a fair trade-off for the protection.
Maybe she focused too heavily on it, but she felt it helped keep her safe.
What she really needed for actual worthwhile protection was a mid-range enchanted coat or duster of some kind. As much as she'd kept a keen eye out she still hadn't even managed to scavenge a normal one for a basic level of security. It was very tough going when a majority of places had already been ransacked to the point of completion.
Applejack had no defence for her body beyond the soaked jacket, nothing for her head besides a hood, and absolutely nothing to stop a bullet in its tracks if she was sighted from afar. All she really had was the paltry camo and her quick wits. The most that she could hope for at the present moment in time was that she spotted anything dangerous long before it could harm her and slink away before needing to fire a shot. If the enemy was nearby and armed with the drop on her then she had the Nova grenade attached on her pack to hoof. Whilst its loss would sting considerably, dying wouldn't be preferred.
Perhaps coming this far into Threshold's boundaries had been too large a risk, although that would only be a certainty if her venture didn't pay off. She'd left the relative safety of the worn-down train station on the dilapidated city's outskirts, just to make the trip into the city proper for food and components that she desperately needed. The risk was necessary, she had another mouth to feed, a radio to repair, and one of the invaluable weapons she had on her back was on the fritz.
Sleek, pointed, and mostly made of dark crystal polymer; the pulse rifle was a unicorn's take on what a real firearm should be. It certainly wasn't her weapon of choice as it was wholly too reliant on the magic part of magitech for her tastes, but that was why it still functioned. It truly helped deal with the disturbing monstrosities that lurked in all the dark places, seeming to be one of the few things that harmed them to any worthy extent.
It wasn't known precisely what all of them were or how they'd exactly come about, and she honestly didn't care for the specifics, she just knew they were fast, deadly, and very hostile. The pulse rifle burned through their hides, rain helped to hide from them, and radiation healed them. Some of them even possessed strange abilities, altering the mind and the like. Like so many others, she'd watched once, helpless to do anything as one of the larger ones had mesmerised a pony into walking right into its waiting maw to be devoured. The sound of crunching bone and squelching flesh was not something she ever wanted to hear again.
There was nothing in them but hate she felt, much like the roaming groups of bandits that occasionally roved through the city on the prowl for easy targets. Applejack had an old-fashioned shotgun for those nasty cretins though; it was a classic lever-action with a capacity for six shots, with very good range and reliability, and it didn't need gems to function. It was just good old earthen ingenuity, and she prized it quite a bit.
She had the hoof-dusters and a combat knife for when things got far too up-close and personal.
Failing all of that, her innate magic might possibly save her... she hadn't needed to test that one just yet though, and she wasn't eager to try either as it would take a lot out of her. Using it in the midst of a fight would have to be decisive, otherwise she'd just be a sitting duck.
Several more minutes of shrewd rummaging and she suppressed a laugh, smiling triumphantly and exhaling instead of emitting anything louder. A wave of relief washed over her upon finding not one, but two tiny emerald gem-cores that she could utilise. They wouldn't exactly be a perfect fit as they came from microwaves, and one of them was slightly cracked, yet it wasn't going to stop her from bundling them together into the pulse rifle's power socket later.
That small trick had been discovered when she was bored one night; whilst a single gem-core of the smallest size wouldn't fit into a larger socket commonly found on things like pulse weaponry or a radio, she found that she could shave their edges and just about manage to force two of them into the slot. It wasn't ideal as every charge that was fired compromised the maximum power that could be stored within the cores. Eventually, they wouldn't be able to hold enough juice for even a single shot. It worked well enough for her purposes until she could source a proper gem-core that was made to fit the rifle.
She might find a few in the pocket of an enchanted longcoat.
Right, maybe she'd find a Remnant too.
Further scavenging yielded nothing major beyond a few fairly intact strips of metal that had yet to rust. The springs and smaller comps she pried from various destroyed magitech trinkets might also come in handy. Hopefully she remembered the right things she needed for the radio, there were still a few key pieces to have. It never hurt to have spare bits and pieces on the off chance she might manage to trade with somepony though, as rare as that was. There was a very small stockpile of odds and ends squirrelled away back at the station for when she managed to find somepony trustworthy enough to do deals with.
Done with one of her tasks, she turned about and carefully left the way she'd come. Keeping low and taking slow steps across the fallen snow that hadn't quite yet turned into ice or slush, she left the dead park as deftly as possible whilst staying alert. Her ears stayed perked to danger as she followed along a set safe path she'd mentally mapped out.
Applejack hadn't survived this long by making noise and running amok like a madmare. She'd seen a few folk that had met their end that way by getting themselves captured or shot, seen plenty more carelessly walk into a pocket of radiation and promptly keel over, or be dismantled by the malefic magic of an anomaly. Stringently sticking to the edges of cold stone and metal buildings as she went down the gloomy street, she avoided walking in the middle of the road this late, it wasn't wise. Her hooves carried her past numerous looted shops, burned-out terminals, and snowbound skeletons of both vehicles and the dead, making sure to stay under overhangs and utilising low walls where possible, her eyes scanning for any sign that something wasn't right.
As she went, her eyes caught movement and she froze for just a second before realising it wasn't motion from the living. Sudden tension bled out from her limbs and she relaxed just a little easier as she'd just seen the barest reflection of herself. It was an old dirty terminal screen that somehow hadn't been shattered yet, somewhat hidden beneath the fallen archway of an old library that had seen far better days.
Vaguely curious, she walked over, ducking under the crumbling arch and stepping through a mess of useless rubbish and grey snow towards it. Wiping off the frost covering the machine whilst bitter wind blew into the crevice and tugged at her clothing, she tapped the blank face of it to find, quite unsurprisingly, that nothing interesting happened. Nothing generally made of magitech from before worked at all anymore unless it was almost wholly made with magic like the pulse rifle, otherwise parts would need to be scavenged intact and the item rebuilt. Very few creatures ─herself definitely included─ actually possessed the know-how in order to do that for complex things like terminals, as it was commonly a specialist unicorn's domain. Applejack knew about enough to get a fairly simple device like a Phobos Instrument or radio running, but she still needed all the right gizmos to put into place.
Yanking the terminal's face off with a rough tug, her innate strength easily won out and bested the frozen machine. It was expected that the gem-core inside was long burned out and cracked through its centre, most certainly from being overloaded. Sadly, it seemed that all the wiring was fried too because of it. Nearly every common device that could exist had once been nothing but wires and metal, and she longed for those days. When some very smart ponies had come up with magitech ─the clever combination of unicorn magic and earthen technology─ such things rapidly replaced the older systems as it was far more efficient for the modern day. Now though it was a curse, all the main components of most magitech devices were simply dead. It wasn't often that she found anything in functioning condition.
If only the terminal worked and another somewhere else also did, she'd be able to contact somepony halfway across Equestria with the press of a button. Her brow furrowed at the screen she'd placed on the ground, she shouldn't be getting distracted.
Leaving the crevice and walking away she slowly continued on, picking over anything she might have missed on her way in, perhaps to find something useful lost by another. There was another brief pause to her step as she passed the smashed glass window of an old holovision shop, silently glancing over the ice and snow that had blown in across the tiled floor and rested across everything. The dead torn-apart junk inside contained nothing of use anymore. Applejack had already had a hoof in gutting this place for parts a while back, not that she'd found very much, the magitech devices that projected a hard-light surface were one of the first things to get broken down into salvageable components. There wasn't any use for even a working HV if there was nothing to watch on them, after all; wafer-discs with recorded film had been magitech too. It had all been fried in the event, and she somehow doubted anypony was going to get together to make new shows.
Distractions.
Sneaking down a couple more lonely streets, she saw countless remnants of what had been; rust, ash, dust, grime, and snow were all a constant fixture wherever she looked. So many things long abandoned and forgotten. A jolt ran through her as there was a light screech from above, quickly frowning up as a few Hewbats swooped overhead from leaving their nest somewhere up high within an open building. Despite the possible threat she didn't reach for her shotgun. As temperamental as the ugly leathery overgrown things were they didn't tend to attack unless directly provoked, somepony was near dead, or they were already a corpse. They were just bats once upon a time, one of many creatures warped by the event's aftermath effects.
Keeping on for what felt like an hour of cautious movement with her Phobos remaining mostly quiet, she diverted when she needed to avoid the newest dangers and possible anomalies. Her gait slowed along the icy pavement again as she came upon a twisted lamp post that was all bent out of shape, hunched over like a weeping willow thanks to the crashed propulsive wrapped around its cold iron base. A few skeletal remains of the driver were still present, frigidly fixed in place atop the vehicle's bonnet and topped in fresh snow. It was a landmark of sorts, and for her it marked the initial intersection into the city just a short distance ahead.
Applejack hadn't encountered any issues entering from Threshold's outskirts and often didn't because of her wary nature; there had been one or two ponies earlier before the park, though they'd seen her and immediately bolted. This damn this intersection in particular however... It was extremely troublesome, and she'd been shot at whilst crossing it in and on the way back many times before. It was a tedious location that worked well for ambushes. If anypony was spotted moving into the area, an inhabitant that had holed up in a high-rise or maybe an opportunist also scavenging might and often did wait patiently for them to return. Due to the area's numerous piled-up vehicles in the streets that intertwined into the crossroads, it made it rather easy to snipe at others as they were held up. It vexed her because thus far she hadn't succeeded in locating another path in or out on this side of the city that was safer once she was inside. Radiation or anomalies tauntingly rested in places she would have preferred to travel between, along with a plethora of the creepy eldritch beasts that were drawn to such deadly areas.
Stopping herself short of a pockmarked corner that had been heavily subjected to withering gunfire ─definitely from past firefights; the proof of frostbitten bones or frozen corpses, endless bullet holes, and old scorch marks around the area was testament to it─ she gently leant back on her haunches as the rain poured beyond the overhang. She took off the backpack along with the pulse rifle after laying the lever-action shotgun down beside herself from its sling, undoing the clasp on the top of her pack and fishing out a modestly-sized mirror that used to belong to the side of a propulsive. It didn't catch any of the already waning daylight as she'd long since covered its chipped face with a measure of dirt, just enough that it wouldn't reflect a glare and that she could still use it.
Holding it steady in her hoof she gently edged it into the open, facing out towards the street to her right from where she'd been attacked in the past, and keeping it angled so that she could look at the reflection.
The mirror sharply exploded in a glittering shower of brittle crystal fragments and water droplets the moment she'd fully extended it as a bullet forcefully punched through its face, the shot reverberating loudly through the forlorn street.
"Fuck!" she exclaimed, quickly pulling her hoof back and turning away from the shards so they didn't get in her eyes. A scant few seconds passed as the miniscule slivers settled, and she took a deep breath.
Adrenaline pumping now, she slung her pack on along with her weapons and psyched herself up. It was the same sniper in the tenant block at the end of the road, she was almost certain of it. Same sound from an elevated rifle, shooting from the right street and not the left. He'd definitely have chambered in a new round by now, she figured at this point it was probably a bolt-action as there was always a short pause between his shots. There was some small luck in that it wasn't a semi-automatic, otherwise she'd probably never cross at all.
Glancing around and grabbing an old dented can from the pavement, she rubbed its grimy surface with her edge of her glove until it had the barest semblance of a shine. Again, she slowly moved it towards the corner, heart beating loudly in her ears.
Within almost a split second of it poking out into the rain the can gave a resounding wet clang and went flying as it was shot out of her hoof. Applejack immediately broke into a sprint from her position towards the opposite side of the intersection. Her heart thundered as the heavy rain and snow pelted into her, the wind whipping the hood from her head, and she ducked and weaved between the numerous metal frames of the surrounding decaying vehicles, praying to the Sisters that a bullet wouldn't find her.
A frozen skeleton beneath her noisily crunched underhoof as she ran, and she unfortunately stumbled, the sniper taking the chance to fire. It was sheer dumb luck that she only felt it zip past the back of her ponytail like an angry wasp rather than decorating the icy ground with the contents of her head. She hurriedly reoriented as she forced herself on, the sharp sting of the bullet having tickled her neck swiftly travelling down her spine. A few more seconds and she'd be across, the overhang of the building ahead beckoned to her with the long stalactites of ice that hung down from it like a neon sign. Another shot took a small chunk out of the road below her as she jumped between a worn concrete barrier and the crashed vehicle ahead. Either the shot had been completely botched, or the sniper was going for the body now.
Thankfully it didn't matter as she leapt forwards again from the open street and behind the safety of the old building in front, the next bullet harmlessly whizzing through her tail as she fell to the cold pavement on all fours. Applejack still tucked herself in and waited, just in case, greedily breathing in despite the chill and refilling her lungs until her nerves calmed. Shakily glancing around, her eyes tracked for the next thing that would happen, waiting for the howls, yet nothing came.
The sniper certainly wasn't going to leave their safe position either, not unless they'd actually hit her, she'd wager. Who knew; maybe they were just shooting for the fun of it, she'd seen it before from bandits. Perhaps she'd catch the sniper one day when they ventured out of their hole for supplies, and she'd be the one laying in wait to ambush them instead. Getting to her hooves and checking herself over she only felt a small cut or two from a crystal shard on her cheek and feeling some slight aches where she'd thrown herself down. She did have a new hole in her hood and a burning sensation across the back of her neck where the bullet had grazed though, showing just how close she'd come to death. It wasn't nearly deep enough to warrant bandaging despite the slight warmth of blood she could feel, and it would clot soon enough, though it still hurt.
Everyday was just survival... The budding lump in her throat was swallowed as she pulled the hood back up. Shaking herself off and scattering water droplets, she continued carefully down the building line under the overhang, breathing evenly to settle her nerves.
The sun was almost gone and it was getting colder, the city looking harsh and sinister in the muddy midnight-tinged orange glare that was still being cast by what remained. It didn't help that the rainy weather added to the sombre feeling. Applejack needed to hurry with her task and leave before the twisted monsters came out to play. Many of them commonly stuck within the city limits where radiation tended to be heavier and rarely left its confines, and they might come out during the day, but the night was their preferred domain.
Getting out before they amassed was an absolute necessity; her pulse rifle currently likely only had enough power for a few light bursts that would only anger the larger horrors rather than kill them. Her shotgun would also essentially be a club for all the good it would do against their tough hides. The lever-action only had five shells at present and it would take two or three to kill the type of monster more oftenly seen and encountered. It might be that she only needed to use a single shell if one got close enough for her to fire into its maw, though she didn't want to let them get that close in the first place.
Thinking of the shotgun, she quickly shifted the weapon from her back and loosened its sling so it was ready beneath her. She was coming up on the location she wanted just down this section of the street. As she neared the run-down grocery store she knew still had some supplies she took a quick breath in. With a quick push she forced herself up onto her hindlegs into a bipedal stance, and took the shotgun in hoof.
It was something she'd known how to do for quite some time thanks to a small amount of training once upon a time. It wasn't possible to move too well as that required practice she'd not had, or proper training and discipline for firearms that was taught in the military. Applejack was right-hooved, so that one was in the lever-hook to cycle the action after firing whilst her left was resting under the frame. Carefully, she stepped forwards one hoof at a time until she approached the grimy cracked crystal of the shop window, her heart beginning to ramp up its pace again.
Bracing herself, she moved fast by the still-intact window and into the doorway as the wind whistled into the building. The shotgun was kept pointed up into the old family store as she swiftly entered, her mind racing upon instantly sighting a figure in the gloom between the shabby aisles.
"Stop right there!" Applejack shouted out, the figure immediately jumping and turning about to face her as she trained the shotgun on them. "Don't you move."
Her eyes sharply adjusted to the level of darkness as dust and ash flitted about whilst sleet blew in behind her. She saw that she was looking at a young unicorn stallion with a choppy mane, and possibly a pale coat, though she couldn't make out his true colours given that he was just as dirt-covered as she was for camouflage. He was also clad much the same as her, in worn clothing that likely wasn't great against the weather, a shawl around his muzzle to help ward off the winter chill and a messenger bag slung around his torso. Like her own, his pretty golden eyes were the most obvious aspect to him. They were quite luminous in the darkness of the store, and they were fixed on her.
"I'm not armed," he stated clearly, his eyes wide in alarm.
"I can see that... an' what about yer friend back there?" Applejack asked, a terse edge to her voice as her vision flicked to the shelves he'd been looking through.
Her shotgun slightly craned left as the second stranger carefully moved out from behind the aisle over. The light peeking in better revealed a grubby grey-and-maroon gryphoness in patchy dark clothing with her hands up, one set of talons gripping a knapsack by its strap. Her glowing eyes were a murky shade of crimson. Applejack tensed a little more, she didn't fancy letting her guard down around a gryphon when they were so fast to move. They might not have any sort of innate magic but they made up for it with great speed, even starving they could cross a short distance as fast as she could blink. In many cases there was an argument to be had that somewhat like pegasi, their speed was their innate magic.
"I'm not armed either," the gryphoness said, her voice somewhat grave and low-pitched like most gryphons' tended to be, moving the hand with the knapsack down and chucking it forward. "Just take it and piss off."
"I ain't here to rob ya," she told the hen plainly, glancing between the two ragged survivors before scanning the rest of the ransacked shop. "I'm guessin' you've checked the back rooms?"
"Yes," the unicorn said in a breath.
"Shoulda been some cans an' a sealed box of porridge in one of 'em."
"T-they're in my bag," he sighed.
Applejack kept the shotgun steady whilst her eyes went to the knapsack.
"An' in there?"
The gryphoness scowled at her with disdain but answered. "A Phobos, bits of junk. Food wise, a couple ration bars and some dried fruit."
Water dripped off of her as she stood silent in thought, time was rapidly dwindling. The rain was letting up outside and that meant less cover, the horrors that didn't tend to like it would start to roam in its absence. Whilst keeping her weapon aimed in their direction she shuffled her backpack off and let it hang for a second, quickly dropping her left hoof from the shotgun so the pack could fall to the floor, before snapping her foreleg up to the frame again.
She snaked a hindleg around her backpack and kicked it forwards across the gap between them. Resting ash scattered as she met the unicorn's gaze and then nodded to his bag, evenly keeping the hen in her peripherals.
"No magic, do it by hoof; put the porridge an' four of the cans in mah pack. There were seven the last I was here, an' I doubt anypony wouldn't just take the lot if they'd checked in here since then."
"So why didn't you?" he wondered, slowly folding his hindlegs until he was sitting, and quickly taking her backpack in hoof to start to transfer the goods from his bag.
"Same reason I ain't takin' 'em all now; 'cause I figured some folk might need 'em," she replied honestly, then sighing to herself. "But I guess I will rob ya; I'll take that fruit, been a month or so since I've had any."
He nodded quietly, reaching over and grabbing the knapsack to then take out the few silvery packets it held. There came a hope in her mind, quite wistfully, that one of them contained apple slices. After he was done he shoved her backpack back across the dirty floor to her and cautiously stood up to all fours again. Managing to lean down almost to her haunches without falling over, she hooked her foreleg through the correct strap whilst keeping the shotgun mostly level, awkwardly shrugging the pack on and raising back to a full bipedal stance. It took some effort to do it without dropping her weapon, straining out a quick clouded breath after the fact and making dust motes in the air scatter.
A few seconds passed without anyone speaking.
"Alright then." Applejack simply stated, eyes on the gryphoness as she began to back off.
The unicorn regarded her with a confused expression. "Why didn't you take the Phobos?"
She paused, vision flicking to him briefly. "I already got one, ain't needin' another. I know how important they are, an' I don't need yer deaths on mah conscience knowin' you'd walk straight into anomaly or a cloud of radiation an' dyin' without one."
The gryphoness gave a curt nod. "Thanks, I guess."
"Don't mention it. Really," she grimaced, taking another few steps back into the doorway before lowering the shotgun and slinging it around herself as she went to all fours to make a swift exit.
Applejack didn't have time to bring herself up and draw the weapon again though, as the door at the end of the small shop burst open and out came an earthen stallion already in a bipedal stance with a rifle in his hooves. Dropping herself to one side as he fired, the shot went wide and shattered the shopfront window anyway from poor hold or it being hip-fired, and she scrambled back whilst hastily grabbing at the shotgun to bring it around.
"Ceri, stop!" the unicorn shouted, his horn flaring in a brilliant golden aura in an attempt to wrestle the rifle away, but Ceri continued on towards her regardless.
He growled as he fumbled with his rifle as the unicorn tried to stop him from reloading, and she realised it was a bolt-action. "Fuck off, Aloe! I'll kill her, that's our food, we found it!"
Seizing the precious opportunity to get properly hooves onto her shotgun, she just brought it to bear as Ceri finished reloading. He was quite squarely pointing his rifle at her now where she lay on the damp pavement outside the shop, and before he could shoot she squeezed her trigger first. The other two threw themselves wide as the shotgun roared, and Ceri screamed out in pain.
Breathing heavily through another adrenaline spike, she kept her shotgun pointed forward and cycled it. The mechanism pushed back and she saw the shell eject from the corner of her vision whilst waiting for her sensitive eyes to readjust from the bright flash and back down to the shop's ambient light level, as Ceri loudly moaned in agony from inside. When she saw he was prone and his rifle was on the floor she hastily pushed herself off the ground onto her haunches, and shakily forced herself onto her hindlegs again with moderate trouble.
At this point it was taxing from having already stood so long, her forelegs were trembling and the graze across the back of her neck throbbed. Applejack was sweating despite the winter cold as well, although maybe that was simply due to the amount she'd already exerted herself running through the intersection.
"Ceri, you fucking moron..." the gryphoness growled, rubbing her own delicate eyes as she got up from the grimy floor, ignoring his wailing as she came over apparently now without a care that a gun was currently pointed at her, though given her demeanour Applejack doubted she'd actually attack. The hen knelt over him and her beak raised in disgust as she saw the extent of the damage. "You're gonna lose that leg."
At such a close range her shotgun possessed a moderately tight spread even without a choke, and his right leg was a mess of gore below the thigh even though she hadn't hit directly. Applejack didn't wait around to assess the situation further, heedlessly swinging the shotgun back and settling onto her hooves to leave as fast as possible. Her head then sharply turned the way she'd been walking previously, eyes widening and her ears folding in alarm, as from further down the street came a disturbing throaty wail that sent fear coursing through her.
She knew that sound.
"Aberrant!" the Gryphoness hissed, quickly rushing to grab her knapsack.
The brazen gunfire at ground level had obviously spread throughout the ruined city and alerted the horrors to crawl from their holes maybe a tad sooner than usual. The worst ones were going to be on top of them soon as they could always smell fresh blood. A brief glance was spared at the trio in their pitiful state, then back to the street at the rain lessening in the darkening morbid dusk ahead, and Applejack decided that this wasn't her problem anymore. With a parting look of regret at them she broke away from the shop, her tail whipping behind her as she galloped as fast as her hooves would allow.
Her legs were quite leaden yet she pushed herself to a greater extent for the sake of her life. In her tired condition she wasn't likely to survive an encounter, especially not with an Aberrant of all possible monstrosities. There was a tinge of shame in her chest as she raced down the pavement and the howling grew louder behind her, but she had a higher priority and it wasn't the strangers.
Luna's Moon had started its slow ascent and was partially free of the horizon as she soon reached Threshold's broken edges. Ahead of her across an ashen cauterised terrain lightly covered with forming snow lie a fairly dense copse of blackened trees she had initially come from, twisted by fire and never quite recovering since. In defiance of her haggard state she kept going across the wide stretch of no mare's land through the secure path she knew to avoid anomalies, her pack feeling like a massive boulder upon her back. Every instance her legs cycled in the sprint her weapons jostled to slightly drag her towards the earth with their weight.
Applejack only allowed herself the barest of respites when she finally reached the safety of the withered treeline, all but collapsing as she laid heavily against one of the husks, her chest heaving with her mane plastered to her face and back. There was a froth across her coat that caused her clothing to stick to her, her neck injury stinging from the sweat, though right now she couldn't find the energy to care. Wearily looking back at the city she knew nothing had chased her or she'd have heard the ravenous howls following in her wake, although it didn't stop her from taking a look around in her highly alert frame of mind.
She was alone.
It wasn't something she was fond of; it left her with her thoughts.
Applejack had gotten what she'd come for, and it had certainly cost others their lives, very likely killing that stallion called Ceri, and his friends too ─albeit indirectly─ as there was no back exit out of the shop. They'd have nowhere to go as they were boxed in by the monsters and they'd be swarmed in seconds. Blood was a fiery beacon for anything mutated and predatory, and she'd fired the shot that'd sealed their fate. Ceri's rifle had been loaded, his hoof on the trigger and the barrel pointed directly at her, so her actions were in self-defence, yet it didn't make the situation any better.
When she was a filly she'd been told by a soldier in the military that taking a life was never easy, yet she'd already learned early on into all of this that taking lives was actually incredibly effortless. It was only later on when she'd learned that the soldier hadn't meant the act itself.
The guilt that rested on the conscience was far worse. It was something that slowly accrued with every instance she caused harm, emotional ichor that just kept on building up, like poison on the surface of her soul that gradually sunk in. It wasn't possible to forget any of the faces, the one's she'd seen die in front of her were the heaviest weights and she was thankful her sleep wasn't troubled with them. This was just a few more to add to the stack, and she knew it would all crash down on her eventually.
Pushing it all away, she glanced up from her thoughts as faraway screeches echoed from within Threshold into the early nighttime, likely unrelated to the shop incident. Scanning around she saw she was still alone, though the air was getting colder and so was she. Her breathing was under control again and the frothing had stopped, so she pushed off from the tree and started walking in the direction of the train station. She'd promised she'd do her best to make it back before dark, so at least she wasn't coming back with nothing to show for her tardiness.
A small sigh and a shiver escaped her as she trudged through the hardening snow, stiff and tired, the weather still biting into her dampened clothing. At least it had stopped raining, she noted, watching the eerie moon as it crawled skyward through the swiftly dispersing cloudline. It was slightly different these days, and similarly like the sun it gave off a subtly different glow that illuminated everything in a certain off-putting light. It just didn't feel like it used to. With a brief glance over her shoulder at the city, she headed for home.
Applejack would feel fine when she got back and had a nice fire to relax in front of.
Doesn't feel like that long ago, still.
I'm not sure, keeping time wasn't a priority It was around 1241SC that it happened, roughly about a year and a half ago, maybe a little less, I'll update if I find something more accurate.
When the event, whatever it was, the Singularity was a nam Singularity hit, the event that caused all this, it took out just about everything across Equestria, and likely the whole of Ardinum. Whatever happened in the sky that day burned away anything and everything that wasn't inside a building or behind something heavy. Even then folks got burnt some, while every object made of glass exploded into thousands of shards so anyone that hadn't been immolated by the blastwave were instead burned and shred to ribbons if they'd been sitting in front of their windows. It hadn't ended there though as the sky kept on pushing out flame over the course of a few hours, just these giant pillars of pure starfire beaming from the endless abyss, sometimes just for a few seconds at a time, and when they stopped nothing was left of whatever they'd passed over but molten glass.
Those first few weeks were utter chaos but we stuck by one another, the equine spirit shone through and we came together as all communities should. We're a We were a small village, Ponyville had been one of those nice places where folk always banded together through the tough times, and we knew we needed one another. We buried what was left of our dead, mourned, and tried our best to get along with what we had on hoof until help came.
Except it never did.
No help came from Appleloosa, they were in the same situation as us, and Cloudsdale was a sore point to even look up into the sky for as one of those burning pillars had passed right through the centre of it, the only place close enough that we could look to was Canterlot.
We'd thought maybe with the Royal Palace being what it was, the Princesses being who they were, that they were somewhat fine as the sun and moon were still rising and falling, and at most we'd be holding out a month at best as the town hall always had enough emergency supplies for three months if rationing was done properly. We'd all be a little skinnier by the time help came, but we'd be alive. The phone lines were down and the radios didn't work, a propulsive that one of the richer townsfolk had was completely dead, the train lines had been destroyed miles out from the town thanks to the pillars of fire, and even the one terminal kept securely in the town hall's basement for situations like these wasn't functioning, so for a while we just sat tight.
We sent out fliers to Canterlot the week after just in case, and they never came back.
The second time they didn't come back either, and we stopped trying that.
Canterlot wasn't safe to travel to and we didn't know why, and we figured there were plenty of theories as to the reason. We got a semblance of an explanation when people started getting ill, and not just those that had survived their injuries during the Singularity. Though it wasn't something any medical professional in the town could diagnose as it wasn't like normal radiation sickness, they reckoned it was a special kind of solar radiation from the Singularity's blasts, and unfortunately there usually wasn't any sign of it until a pony just collapsed. They could be fine one minute and the next they were overwhelmed from something laying dormant inside them. The local hospital was completely swamped with cases of a sickness they couldn't treat well enough, and the meds that we had quickly ran out into the second month.
Back then we didn't have the remedies we do now, things we managed to figure out, so more started dying and we couldn't do much but try and make them comfortable. We assumed that Canterlot being a lot closer to the sky had gotten hit worse so the area was likely unsafe, maybe the why of our fliers not coming back was that there was more radiation in the city than below in the countryside.
It was the least of our concerns as we were getting desperate into the third month; our supplies were almost gone and no crops could grow that the land was so saturated with fallout. The few Phobos Instruments we'd managed to fix up were also starting to wear down from the constant use and we didn't have replacement parts for all of them and everything else we wanted to fix. We tore up just about every machine we had for what working electronics we could get just to move about without dying, as the radiation might blow with the wind. The strange clusters of magic we coined anomalies started to appear and follow us around like our own shadows wherever they fancied to catch us by surprise too, and nearly every morning we'd find they'd settled somewhere different.
The only upside was that some of us weren't dying. Everypony got ill, no matter what, yet the sickness didn't kill a small select number, it seemed to be random who recovered and who didn't, until we realised that some our eyes were glowi─
"Hey."
Applejack looked up from her notebook with a curious expression.
"Yeah?"
"I can't find the screwdriver," Applebloom said, Applejack's old battered stetson atop her head. It bobbed as she gently tilted right. "Ain't in yer backpack."
Applejack gave a curt nod towards the back of the room. "Steamer trunk. Should be on the left side the last I put it, probably buried under the other tools."
Applebloom smiled. "Thanks," a pause, as she then leaned over the notebook with a cute frown. "You writin' pointless stuff again?"
Applejack tutted with slight amusement as the hat blocked the notebook from view. "It ain't pointless. I've taken to writin' about the Singularity rather than just mah trips out an' takin' inventory. Somepony unlucky to be born in this time of the world might not know the how of why it's the way it is."
"'Singularity'?" Applebloom questioned as she looked up, an eyebrow raised.
Applejack nodded again. "You recall that crazy feller that got pinched a while back? He kept yellin' about the 'Singularity that destroyed the world'. I thought it didn't sound too bad, a name fer what killed the world."
"Uh-huh... so yer a scholar now?" Applebloom smirked, eyes scanning the pages upside down. "Hm. 'Giant pillars of pure starfire beamin' from the endless abyss', forget that, yer tryin' to be a poet."
"Just seems appropriate, kinda like how you'd read in them old books Twilight used to keep in her library," Applejack shrugged. "Go on now, do yer tinkerin', ya interrupted me when I was gettin' into the flow of it."
"I will do mah tinkerin'," Applebloom smirked, turning away with a level of mock-airs to her tone. "I'm gonna keep fixin' that radio up, an' you can write yer weird poetry."
Applejack scoffed as Applebloom trotted over to the trunk. "I was plannin' on workin' more on it tomorrow, another day ain't gonna matter none."
"An' I can do it now though, since ya found some parts," Applebloom replied casually over her shoulder. "Can't sleep anywho."
Smiling, Applejack relaxed back against the wall where she'd chosen to sit and rest, watching for a moment. "Keep ya occupied I s'pose."
Applebloom had gotten rather tough in the time since the sky fell, far less scared and more sure of herself. It was nice to see her turning into a confident young mare even with their unfortunate circumstances. This type of life was seeing her become a little more lean and tough than plump like most fillies her age should have been, though through it there was still a good measure of blooming femininity to her reflected through the ragged fleece coat and padded jeans she wore. Applebloom looked back after a moment of rummaging about with the screwdriver in her mouth, grinning around it triumphantly. Her eyes glowed a lovely and fiercely brilliant reddish-orange, beautiful like how Celestia's sunsets used to be before the world changed.
"Is the window secure?" Applejack asked.
"Yehp," came back the mumbled reply around the screwdriver.
"Keep a low light."
Applebloom nodded. "Ah 'noh."
It was the pitch black of night, and Luna's Moon had reached its apex and subsequently stopped glowing as brightly. It couldn't be explained, yet it happened nearly every night, and there was usually only enough light to see just in front of oneself, if that. Having a fire or too bright a light from a torch might bring trouble, so they only risked a fire when they needed to cook food, and they'd already eaten earlier when the moon was still keeping things fairly lit.
Applejack let herself be mesmerised by the flickers of light that still danced through the embers of the fire they'd had burning an hour or so before, basking in what little residual heat still remained. It was hard to keep the room warm for an extended period of time when it had a giant hole in it besides a smashed window. Having not found enough tarpaulin out on her scavenging runs to cover all the station's open damage over and keep in the warmth, they only had enough to just cover the window and opening both to hide the inside of the shelter from a distant view.
It would be nice to find another sleeping bag for comfort's sake too, but until they could properly seal the breaches it was better that they pooled their heat in the single bag they possessed so that they didn't freeze. This was the first winter coming since everything had happened, and it was only getting colder as the weeks dragged on towards it, the snow getting far more intense. Trying to find decent clothing for them had only really yielded the fleeced coat Applebloom had on, and they'd resorted to sewing rags into their clothing's inners to have some form of insulation.
Applejack's task tomorrow was going back into Threshold as per usual, only now she was going to go around the downtown area with the task she'd set out to do today completed. It wouldn't be easy going as she'd not really mapped that route, though it wasn't far from the current one she'd been travelling. The park she'd been scavving around had been near a huge road off from the main leading through the city, leading along to a shopping centre containing several outlets going by an old sign advertising such. Whilst everypony and their mother had no doubt descended on the place to hoard supplies in the initial wake of the Singularity, there might still be something to be had for just the two of them.
She wagered that very few would have been interested in winter gear back then, and there was apparently a decently sized supply store for outdoor hiking within. Some survivors and larger groups had definitely been there by now as winter was on its way, though if it was her personally, she wouldn't overload herself with several coats and the like, just take what was needed and then come back if she needed more. Applejack was betting, hoping on that being the case for others, although larger groups could carry greater amounts of course, so it might be that a few different factions had cleaned the place out. Unfortunately, there was no way of knowing until she got there.
It was her own fault they didn't have certain items like warm clothing or an abundance of ammo and food, being content to search forgotten smaller shops already checked through on and near the main road to avoid trouble, and barely diverting from it unless hostile groups, monsters, radiation, or anomalies had forced her to adapt her path. Most clothing stores she'd passed through didn't have winter clothing from the previous year, as a majority had been dominated by summer wear, and the common garments ponies tended to fixate on were dresses, frocks, and petticoats, some of which were currently the shredded rags in their jeans.
Hopefully she would remedy some more of their problems tomorrow.
In all fairness, she hadn't exactly planned for them to stay here as long as they had. It was maybe going on a month now since they'd settled, but this place was all they had at the current moment and she didn't want to risk moving somewhere else until she knew it was safe. Maybe it had been foalish but they'd not expected the wider world to have grown so hostile, and her own naivety had cost them dearly chasing a rumour, so now they were staying put. Like it or not, this was where they were going to be staying for the foreseeable future. Even if the radio was working right now there was no guarantee the girls had any communications up-and-running too, and she wasn't going to dare risk the trek back either until she damn well knew the way was clear to meet back up with them.
Applejack wished she'd never left Ponyville, wished she could have stayed together with them, yet the circumstances hadn't permitted it. There simply weren't enough supplies in Ponyville and once again she and the girls were the town's only true hope, so they'd decided to do the right thing.
Their plan had been to spread out to other locations to find anything they could to help the small village; mostly food and supplies, the idea being that the larger cities would have been where a majority of relief efforts were concentrated. If they could get their hooves on enough of it they could return, perhaps set-up trade between surviving groups as they'd brought things with them others might need. It was a gamble even taking what they had as the village sorely needed it, but they had to hope giving it to her and her friends would work out.
Pinkie had stayed in Ponyville to keep an eye on things as she'd still been recovering from the solar radiation, whilst Twilight and Dash had gone in the direction of Manehattan, Fluttershy and Rarity had gone towards Los Pegasus, and she had been due to go to Vanhoover solo. She'd been loath to part from them, her family, and the farm, but it was an utter necessity. Big Macintosh had offered to come with her, though she wanted him to stay as he was one of the few who could help try to fix the land and grow food, look after Granny and Applebloom, and be a guardian to what remained of Ponyville.
Applejack had set off alone, yet she hadn't been planning for stubborn little sisters that snuck out from Ponyville to trail her, however. At first she'd been angry, but Applebloom was confident and wanted to do her part rather than sit and wait as the town needed to be saved again for the umpteenth time. Applejack couldn't find it within herself at the time to send her sister back, and now she couldn't anyway thanks to her fuck up.
They never made it to Vanhoover, of course.
They'd ended up moving towards Threshold, the smaller city they were currently camped outside of laying out towards the Western Ranges, previously named the Undiscovered West. The abandoned station was one of the first places they'd discovered, partially destroyed and completely desolate, though they were so weary and run down that they'd slept in it anyway, and figured it was a good enough place to stay a few nights. A few nights had turned into a few weeks, and well... they were still here, there weren't any other options and she was trying to make it work.
Applejack had to, for having brought Applebloom along, and for what she'd caused her. She still struggled with it, though whenever she brought it up Applebloom would tell her it had been her own decision to come, insisting that the consequences thus were hers to bear, and that Applejack should stop beating herself up over it. The subject had been reluctantly dropped and such misgivings kept within her mind. It didn't change what had happened though, what had almost completely altered her sister forever. No matter what it took, she was going to make up for it as best she could and get them out of here, and if she ever found those bastards again she'd catch them all, then give her shotgun to Applebloom to do with what she will.
A deep breath escaped her, a lump caught in her throat. Calming down, she put the pen she'd been writing with into the notebook's spine and placed it over to one side, getting up from where she'd been idly sitting whilst getting stuck in her own head and quickly going over to their sleeping bag. She could beat herself up some more later, right now she needed to sleep so she could be awake and alert for tomorrow's trek.
"I'm gonna rest. Don't stay up too long an' join me soon, y'hear?" Applejack said softly to Applebloom. "Don't want ya freezin' through the night."
"Gotcha." Applebloom nodded as she poked away at the old radio she'd retrieved from the steamer trunk, along with a mess of smaller pieces that had been scavenged, including bits from today's run. The small pen-torch Applebloom was using to illuminate her workspace was covered over with some thin lengths of cloth to lessen its intensity, just as Applejack had asked. Good girl.
She laid down and got comfy, extremely grateful for the semi-immediate halt to the cold and slowly building warmth as she tucked herself into the bag and zipped it up. For a time, she watched Applebloom as she settled down into sleep, knowing if there were any problems that her sister would rouse her from her slumber. Slight discomfort passed through the graze across the back of her neck as she dozed, her vision briefly landing on an empty silver packet near the fire's embers that had contained apple slices alongside some empty tins. A guilty pang rose up, before she squashed it and finally closed her eyes as Applebloom worked away.