“I don’t care if you have to use a slingshot to shoot bullet casings, buy me some more time!” Dove snarled before tossing the radio receiver to the desk and and turning to the five uniformed ponies in front of her. “What are you standing around here for!? Get out of my sight, now! You have work to do!”

As they sidled out, Dove snatched up the receiver again and smashed the transmit button. “West gate, report!”

“Marshal, we are not good over here!” a stallion bellowed back, making himself heard over the storm and the gunfire. “Generators are flooded and the electric fence is down. There’s so many bodies in the razorwire the fence’s gonna fall down if one more of these bastards tries to climb it. We’re low on ammo. Pretty soon we’re gonna have to start throwing water balloons!”

“We might as well be using sandbags to hold back the ocean!” said a baritone mare. “They’re pushing so hard against the fences the ones in front are getting crushed through the bars!”

Dove fell back in her chair, eyes glazing over as the sound of hail pounding the roof faded away. She turned her head this way and that until she found the window. Rain poured down it in a solid sheet, though there was no missing the hundreds of ponies milling about in the shipping yard, waiting for a skywagon they would never get.

If she waited any longer, she wasn’t even going to get her own ponies out of here. There were at least a thousand soldiers here at the moment, and not even all of them would make it.

Reaching for the receiver was like trying to shove her hoof through a wall of sand. Grasping device, she clicked the transmit button and took a deep breath. “Commence Shattered Hope. Light your fires and take to the skies. Lethal force authorized towards civilian interference.”

She dropped the receiver like it was hot, the death toll already ringing up in her head. ‘That’ll be twenty-two-fifty madam!’ the cashier declared. ‘No, not tens. Thousands! And don’t forget about the sales tax!’

Holding her gut, Dove staggered away from the table, knocking her chair over. “Damnit!” She lunged forward suddenly, shoving the radio off the the table then flipping the table over on top of it. “I am sick and tired of losing!” Over went the chair.

Still boiling, she hefted the radio and hurled it through the window out into the rain. Immediately, the ruckus of the storm was drawn into full proportion as ponies screamed and thunder clapped. The chair followed the radio, and the only reason the desk didn’t go too was that it was too heavy to throw.

Holding back a scream of irritation, she began to pace the room, hooves crunching on broken glass. Off in the distance, near the gates, fires lit one by one until they were towering infernos or orange and white light that battled the pounding rain. The fire would have to hold the zombies back long enough to get to the wagons.

She needed time to herself, time where she could just be herself and not have to be in charge of everything. But that wasn’t possible, and it certainly wouldn’t be possible here, confirmed by a white mare who had just butted open the door.

When this was over, she would never make another decision in her life. “South. Tell them to head south down the coastline. We’ll search for new grounds to establish home base.”

“Marshal?” The white mare cocked her head. “Pardon me, but we’ve evacuated the civilians to the north.”

“I am aware. We no longer have the resources or the ponypower to look out for those who cannot contribute to our cause. Have the officers round up all who can fight at the evacuation sites and take them along with us. Leave the rest.”

It was obvious the mare was having a hard time biting her tongue, but nopony spoke against the marshal. She folded her ears and looked like she was going to protest, then turned away. Seeming to change her mind again halfway out the door, she turned back to Dove. “Marshal... they’ll die.”

“Do you think I don’t know that!?” Dove snapped, looming over the poor mare. “As much as I’d like to protect everypony, I can’t. I’d save everypony in Equestria if I could, but I can’t! Our world has changed. Those who cannot protect themselves have no place here. They must either learn to protect themselves or die. I can not hold onto a cause while protecting dead weight; it will only spell our demise. This city is a perfect example of what happens when we try to save too much! In order to do any good in this hellhole, we need to focus on the bigger picture. Perhaps if towns form we can help provide protection, but until then, civilians are no longer my problem or priority. From now on, we focus on the infection.”

For the first time in what seemed like forever, the sun was out. For the better part of the storm, Sunny had slept. He couldn’t remember the last time he had legitimately slept, which was probably why he had felt so good. It had also been a long time since he’d gotten to see the sunrise; that compared with the fact that he was seeing it from the air, the mist of the storm still hovering in the atmosphere and casting the most beautiful shades of pink and gold across the land, and the quietness of it all led him to think that this was one of the most amazing mornings he had ever seen.

It was kind of sad that it took a world-scale apocalypse to make you really appreciate a sunrise.

“Have you found a good place to land yet?” Sunny’s ears perked and his head snapped around towards the front of the skywagon. Most everypony was still asleep. Willow was up, staring out the window opposite of Sunny, though she hadn’t said a word. Moon and Cloudstorm were also up and sharing a murmured conversation at the very front of the skywagon.

“I think so,” Cloudstorm replied in a hushed tone. She pointed to an indistinguishable spot on a map rolled out over the navigation console. “This here is the Happyhorn Correctional School for Criminalistic Children. It’s got a wall with barbed wire and everything and a courtyard large enough to land and take off again.”

Cloudstorm tossed a small glance towards Moon, then shrugged. “I sent my daughter there.”

Sunny couldn’t help but smirk as he watched Moon’s eyebrow shoot up into her mane. “You? Daughter?” the mare questioned.

Cloudstorm snorted. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m a bad parent. But that’s beside the point. I know for a fact that the entire school was on break when things went down, so it should be empty and all the gates should be locked. If nopony else had the same idea I’m proposing right now, then there should be an empty complex for our taking. Nonetheless it’s worth a fly-over. We need to find a place to let the pullers rest.”

Cloudstorm rolled her eyes. “Can’t take my word, can you?” With a dismissive flick of her tail, she silenced Moon’s rising protest. “It was parent week. All the little baddies were home with mom and dad. Well... most of them.”

“I swear it by Celestia,” Cloudstorm interrupted, “if you ask one more question I’ll punch your nose into your brain. If it comes to zombies, there’ll be ten, at the most!”

Sunny gave Willow a look, cocking a brow. Willow returned his look and shrugged. Sunny shrugged back.

He wasn’t worried about Cloudstorm doing anything that would screw them over. From what he’d seen of her, she was trustworthy. Moon obviously seemed to think the same as she slowly shut her mouth, though her eyes remained a narrowed.

“I’ll tell the fliers to change course,” Cloudstorm said with a little shrug, quick to dismiss the conversation.

Sighing, Sunny set his head down and rolled over onto his back, letting his wings splay out at his sides. There wasn’t much room for it in the cabin, but he made do. “Please, for the love of Celestia, tell me we get to rest. I am so tired of... everything.”

“No more big cities,” Willow said with a light sigh and an almost cruel chuckle. “No more cities.”

“How’re we just going to do this on our own?” Moon protested. “None of us have had anything to eat for at least a day. Already, we’re a quarter starved.”

Sunny shook his head slowly as the two spoke. “I feel like there’s something bigger going on here. When the guards let us through the gate, that mare said ‘is it him?’. They’re looking for a pony, a normal civilian. And it might have just been me. Think about it. All the research they did in Bottle of Progress.” Willow winced at the name. “The way I’m immune. What if they knew something we didn’t? What if there is some sort of cure... and I can help?”

Moon patted his shoulder, much to the pegasus’ discomfort. “Sunny. Don’t worry about that. We’re done with them.”

“But imagine if we could fix it!” He sat up. “Imagine if we could put it back!”

“You don’t know that!” It was Willow who spoke up, silencing Sunny before he could even speak. She squared up to Moon. “Friends, family... what if we could bring them all back?”

Moon opened her mouth, but didn’t speak. She only started into Willow’s eyes in semi-willing submission.

“We’ll be landing soon,” Cloudstorm said quietly, breaking the moment. Everypony onboard who’d been awake had been listening, and the silence that followed could have driven a pony mad.

Happyhorn was void of zombies, at least from first glance. More than a few milled around outside the gates, rotting bodies amongst them, yet nothing stirred within the contained courtyard.

Really, it reminded Moon of a school. The only thing that said otherwise was the stone wall surrounding the entire slew of buildings. Coiled razorwire spanned the top of the wall, and below it; happy depictions of smiling ponies prancing over rolling hills of grass and trees covered the worn stone, faded, but by no means any less colorful. Looking at the wall was comical on its own, though the longer she stared the more disturbing it seemed to get.

Stepping from the open door of the skywagon, Moon stretched each leg in turn, and just for safety’s sake, checked the clip on her shotgun. The REA model was nicer than anything she had ever used before; not only was it drum-fed, but it was semi-automatic and came with its own recoil-reducing enchantments embedded in small gemstones near the end of the barrel.

If a pony ignored the barbed wire, Happyhorn actually looked pretty nice! There was a fenced-in playground in one corner—without barbed wire—and further along there were different zones for all sorts of activities.

The two skywagons had descended side-by-side in the very middle of the compound. A large fountain sat in the middle of the yard; the stone carving of a proud unicron reared up on its hind legs seemed to gleam in the clouded sunlight. Although water no longer flowed from the spout, there was still a stagnant pool of water in the basin, most likely a collection of rainwater from the recent storms.

“Hey, I found us a water source!” She frowned at the algae growing around the corners of the fountain. “Might have to boil it though...” Moon stared up at the massive fountain. “Seems like a nice little place.”

“Yeah,” Cloudstorm said with a scoff, stepping up beside the mare. “Perfect for all the little rejects of society.” The mare’s eyes were dark as she stared at the statue. “Last time I was here, there was water shooting from the mare’s horn. It was pretty cool. Created this sort of abstract feel to the statue.”

Moon turned her head. Sunny was trying to give some sort of pep talk or something, which meant nothing good. Looking out over the crowd, the orange stallion counted heads. “Okay, there’s twenty-five of us, counting me. First thing we need to do is uh... scour this place for food.”

Moon looked out over the crowd of ponies gathered around the orange pegasus. Sweet Celestia, he was right, and the scariest part was that she knew all but the eight pegasi that had flown the wagons.

On the topic of those eight pegasi, they were still unhooking themselves from the wagons, and from the varying looks of confusion upon the ponies’ faces, things may have been on the brink of getting out of hoof.

Giving Cloudstorm a nudge, Moon nodded towards the pegasi. “You better go talk to them, and fast. They probably thought they were flying an REA mission.”

“I’ll calm them down.” Cloudstorm pawed at the ground for a moment before standing, giving herself a quick stretch. “Most of them are drafted civilians—they’re hardly loyal to the REA anyways. There’s nothing anypony hates more than being taken from your family and made to fly a wagon.”

“Right.” Moon sat back as Cloudstorm trotted towards the group of pegasi. Watching the scene unfold, the muttering and and grumbling of two-dozen voices, Moon couldn’t help but worry. She remembered when it had only been the six of them. The larger the group, the bigger the hoofprint. And the bigger the hoofprint...

Moon spun, switching off the safety on her weapon with an involuntarily bit of focussed magic and angling it towards the voice. “Yeah?”

Snowglobe stepped backwards, holding a hoof in front of her face. “Watch where you’re pointing that thing!”

Shrugging her shoulders, Moon fastened the weapon in its respective place on her left side and nodded towards her friend. “Yeah...?” She could see the uncertainty in Snowglobe’s eyes. The half-ring on her brow had since scabbed over, but it was still a painful reminder if their little clash on the train.

“I just wanted to say sorry... about what I did on the train.” Sighing, Snowglobe sat back on her haunches and rubbed the spot on her head with a little wince. “I kind of lost myself back there. Maybe a fire extinguisher to the head wasn’t the best way to bring me back to reality, but it worked for the time being.”

Moon could only bring herself to give another shrug. “I grabbed the closest thing I could... Anyways, I know I was brash about handling it. I’m just at the end of my nerves here, Snowglobe. For the love of Celestia, you know what we went through. You know what I failed to do.” Gritting her teeth, Moon turned away and began to pace around the fountain. “You know how I failed.”

“Moon... there’s nothing you could have done.” Snowglobe followed persistently after the mare, nudging her shoulder once she was close enough. “They were griffons! How could any of us have been prepared for griffons!? Zombie griffons.” She shuddered at the mention of them. “Nastiest things I’ve ever seen... At least you didn’t lose anypony you cared about.”

Moon winced at the jab. Snowglobe, in a way, was right. The memory of Dusty was still all too fresh in her mind, and it took a great amount of willpower to push it away. “And that’s something I’m thankful for.” Her eyes darted across the clearing, towards Yew. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how Dusty’s sister felt about his death. However the mare felt inside, she was doing a good job of hiding it.

“Alright ponies. Food!” Willow was shouting, shoving ponies randomly at one another as she paced between them. “Stick with a buddy and don’t die. We don’t know if this place is empty or not.”

Cloudstorm was done briefing the flight team by the time Moon approached, having chosen to ditch Snowglobe for the time being. Now wasn’t time to be sharing thoughts with the gray mare anyways.

“How’d it go?” Moon fell in beside Cloudstorm as the two broke off from the main group, heading towards the front end of the campus.

Cloudstorm shrugged. “Seemed a little worried the REA would come after us, but apart from that, they don’t care as long as they stay fed and don’t die. Two of them are REA and really haven’t taken too kindly to being kidnapped, in a sense. They might fly on us. I’m not really sure, but I hope they don’t, otherwise we’re down one puller for each wagon.”

Cloudstorm’s ears perked, though her face remained expressionless. “Leave?”

“I saw what you did for my friends, Cloudstorm. Why’d you give up your position for just another couple of ponies crossing into the evac zone?”

The mare only shook her head. “Gut feeling. It just felt... right. I really wasn’t expecting it to turn into a firefight. After everypony started shooting, I knew that my times as Sergeant were basically over. And hey, I’d already helped you guys out once. Why not do it again?” Cloudstorm paused, bobbing her head slowly as she glanced back over her shoulder at the others. “That orange pegasus with you. He’s special, isn’t he?”

“Yes, you know what I’m talking about. I heard all about the stuff with Bottle of Progress over the radio channels. Right before things hit the fan, Black Dove was desperate to find an orange pegasus by the name of Sunny.” Cloudstorm fixed Moon with a long, contemplating stare. “He’s immune, isn’t he? I saw the mark on his leg. That bite mark’s months old.”

Moon only nodded. “He is. He and Willow are both immune... though Willow’s something else. She’s this sort of... genetic mutation, really. It’s like she became a zombie without losing her mind. She’s strong like one. She eats like one... but she’s still sentient. She managed to get herself infected and took injections of some sort of antibiotic. I don’t know what did it, but it made her one of them. Her eyes glow in the dark and everything.”

“Moon, you do realize how important Sunny would be to the REA, don’t you?” Cloudstorm dodged Moon’s diversion tactic easily. “Whatever scientists are left after this whole mess are either signed up with Dove or with Striker out at sea.”

Moon stopped. “No. No, don’t even think about it. We are not giving him to them! They did stuff to him... and Willow, at Bottle of Progress. Willow flinches whenever a stallion takes a good look at her and Sunny’s afraid of anything with a pointed tip. He nearly passed out when Willow tried to inject him with a little dash of morphine for his wounds at the train station.”

Cloudstorm only sighed. “Yeah, but this is bigger than you know, and I’m pretty sure you know that.”

Moon didn’t reply. Instead, she fell back a little and let the former REA unicorn take up the lead. Cloudstorm seemed to know where she was going, following a trail towards a medium-sized building near the front gate. Moon could already read the sign above the door from here. ‘Admission’.

Moon frowned as they passed up the cafeteria, looking over her shoulder at the hanging sign and wondering if Cloudstorm had missed it. “Is there any reason why we’re heading to the front building, and not the cafeteria in search of food?”

Cloudstorm shook her head as she mounted the steps to the admission building and tested the door handle. “Other ponies will check there. There were snack and drink machines in the lobby, if my memory serves me right.” The handle didn’t turn when the mare tried it. Sighing, Cloudstorm stepped to the side and nodded towards Moon’s weapon. “Open it.”

In less than a moment, two buckshot rounds shredded the lock and the door swung open under the influence of Cloudstorm’s hoof.

Moon groaned and pressed her hoof to her muzzle as they stepped inside. The smell of rotting flesh assaulted her mouth and nostrils, so thick she could taste it. “Somepony died in here. Sweet Celestia that’s grody.”

Cloudstorm let out a long, slow breath, and Moon watched as the mare visibly shivered. “Maybe they starved...”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “Just... thinking about the ponies who were here when the infection broke out, is all.”

“...Did you know any of them?” Moon took a moment to glance around the room. It was dusty, but that was about it. Desks and chairs sat here and there, undisturbed for the most part. If she tried really hard, she could almost convince herself that the ponies had turned off all the lights and gone off on lunch break.

Cloudstorm gave another nod, this one much less assuring. “Yeah, I did.” Turning away from Moon, the mare started to pick her way through the offices. “Remember how I said I sent my daughter here? Well... I never picked her up for the parent week thing. I left her here with a hoof full of other ponies whose families didn’t want them around.”

Moon’s eyes fell on a droplet of water left in Cloudstorm’s wake, then another, the darkened patches sticking out plainly against the dusty floor. “Oh...”

When Cloudstorm spoke again, her voice was choked. “She would have been with me. She would have been with me if I hadn’t left her here. As bad as she was, she was still mine, and I left her to die out here, alone!” She stomped a hoof. “I was hoping that when we landed, there’d be other ponies... and maybe... you know, she’d be here.” Stopping just before the doorway to the lobby, Cloudstorm hung her head and choked out a sob, body trembling.

“You never could have known.” Moon gave the former-sergeant a light nudge with her shoulder. “It’s...” She tapered off. The last thing Cloudstorm needed to hear was ‘it’s okay’. “I-I’m sorry, Cloudstorm.”

Cloudstorm nodded. “I’m afraid. I’m so afraid. I left her all by herself to die. What if I walk around a corner and I find her on the floor? T-that rotting smell. What if it’s her?” Her voice was little more than a squeak by this point.

Moon didn’t speak. She gave Cloudstorm a rough shove to get her moving again and fell in stride beside the silently weeping mare. “I can’t answer that.” Moon bit her tongue to avoid saying any more, but nonetheless her words managed to slip out. “That’s why you brought us here, isn’t it?”

Cloudstorm huffed and met Moon’s eyes with a challenging stare. “You don’t have children!” She spoke with venom, the sadness temporarily shunted to the side. “If it had been one of your friends, you would have done the same. So don’t you go accusing me of anything!”

“I wasn’t accusing anything!” Moon said hurriedly, plodding over to a desk to rifle through its drawers. “You’re right. If it was Sunny, I would have done the same... Actually, I did do the same. I led an entire town of ponies in the direction of Baltimare just so I could get to him... None of them made it.” Once again, Moon’s hoof went to the headband she wore, not as a sign of leadership, but as a reminder of her failure. Sage was amongst the survivors, and often enough Moon found the turquoise mare staring at the red band hidden mostly by brown mane.

Moon’s trifles rewarded her with a half-empty can of salted nuts which she tucked into her saddlebags. Leaving Cloudstorm to do her own searching, Moon broke away from the mare, leaving the room through a small doorway and heading out into the main lobby. Across the room were the snack machines, but in the very middle was the source of the smell. A periwinkle stallion lay in a pool of solidified blood. What remained of him was grotesque and bloated. Somehow, the flies hadn’t gotten to him yet and there were no maggots to eat at the body, which only made the scene that much worse. The handle of a letter opener protruded from his neck as a clear sign of demise. Judging the scene before her, the body had only been here for a week or two.

“Hey!” Moon pulled her head away from the stallion on the floor, and much to her surprise, came nearly face-to-face with the body of a mare slumped up against the wall, her chest littered with small stab wounds. Grimacing, Moon stepped away. “There’s two dead ponies in here and it doesn’t look like the zombies got them!”

Cloudstorm came charging into the room, face contorted in worry as she glanced over the bodies. A moment later, the mare relaxed. “They look like scavengers.”

“So... do you think that means that that the ponies who did this are still here?” Moon glanced around the lobby, suddenly sure that she was being watched. The building had taken on a much more intimidating feel with her new discovery.

Cloudstorm shrugged, though there was no hiding the hope that shone in her eyes. “Maybe.”

The snack machines had already been emptied of everything but the bits in their trays, the locks having been cut and the contents removed. Paying better attention towards the ground, it wasn’t hard to spot the assorted candy wrappers strewn across the floor. “Somepony’s already had a go at the machines. Dry as a bone.” Letting out a low growl, Moon banged the side of the machine with a hoof, her mind already drifting to the can of nuts in her saddlebag. She’d undoubtedly have to share those.

Moon turned towards the sound of Cloudstorm’s voice off in the next room. “That all?” She was about to follow when the rustling of paper pricked her ears. It was subtle enough to be caused by a light breeze, though not enough to go unheard.

Levitating her shotgun out in front of her, Moon crept back through the doorway she’d entered the lobby from, looking over the rows of desks still cluttered with documents. A floorboard creaked somewhere and that was all Moon needed to know. Without waiting any longer, Moon charged to the center of the room, brandishing her weapon wildly as she spun herself in a circle. Soon enough, her vision fell on a standing wardrobe in the corner of the room. An almost foalish smile crossed Moon’s face as she lowered her stance, sneaking towards it.

Trying to focus two telekinetic fields of magic at once was a skill Moon had not yet mastered—last thing she wanted to do was try to pull the trigger on the wardrobe handle while trying to open the shotgun—so instead, she approached the wardrobe and took one of the brass knobs in her mouth. Bracing herself, she gave it a pull and hopped back, ready to decimate—

Simmering in defeat, Moon stepped forward and swung the other door open. “I’m too paranoid.” Sighing in exasperation, Moon turned away from the wardrobe and looked back over the room. “I don’t think there’s anyth—” Something cold pressed against the back of her head. There was no denying what it was, especially once the hammer cocked.

“One more word and you die,” a mare hissed in Moon’s ear. The voice was young, belonging to a pony little more than a foal.

“Easy,” Moon whispered, wincing as the gun barrel pressed firmly against her flesh. “I’m not here to hurt you.”

It was just a filly; Moon knew it in her gut. Chances were a filly wouldn’t have the guts to shoot a pony in the back of the head... right?

Feeling the weapon start to shake, Moon made her move. Crying out, she swung her head to the side and telekinetically hurled her shotgun at where she assumed the pony was behind her. The pistol—something low caliber—fired, though missed completely. The shotgun collided against something much too hard to be a pony, and Moon realized she had only succeeded in slamming the weapon against the back of the wardrobe.

Spinning on one hoof, Moon swung blindly as she turned herself around, and again she hit nothing. Her eyes widened as she came face-to-face with the barrel of her own shotgun, only the magic holding it was periwinkle, not blue. Moon ducked right as the weapon discharged, firing a solid slug into the wall at the other end of the room.

It was then that Moon spotted her assailant. The dew-green unicorn looked too old to be a filly and too young to be a mare as she stared back at Moon from within the wardrobe, terrified eyes fixed on the intruder. Moon’s shotgun turned to face its owner, and in attempt to dodge death, Moon threw herself directly at the filly.

The little mare was fast. Again, the shot missed, though it was more because the pony wielding it was occupied with dodging out of Moon’s way. With the unpleasant crunch of wood against her skull, Moon fell to the ground as the wardrobe rocked back and forth from the impact. Before she could so much as recover, there was a splintering of wood and the wardrobe’s forelegs gave out. Groaning and growling, the heavy piece of furniture toppled forward as Moon tried desperately to backpedal from it.

Rolling to her hooves, Moon pushed off the ground with her forehooves and tried to spring clear. No more than a second after she’d left the ground, there was a splitting pain in her spine as the wardrobe struck her. Moon didn’t even get a chance to cry out before the air was knocked out of her, the wardrobe slamming her into the ground.

“Moon!?” Cloudstorm yelled, hooves thundering from somewhere across the building. “What the hell’s going on!?”

Groaning, Moon picked her head up from the floor and tried to squirm out from under the wardrobe that pinned her to belly to the floor. She was lucky enough that it hadn’t broken her spine, though that hardly seemed to matter now as she stared past the barrel of her own gun and into the cold eyes of its wielder.

Cloudstorm burst through the doorway with the furiosity of a hurricane, though skidded to a stop a second later, horror stretching across her face. “Rainy, no!”

Moon blinked in confusion, praying for any sort of distraction, anything to keep those five steel balls from ripping her skull apart.

The mare pressed the shotgun right between Moon’s eyes, the hot barrel sizzling against cool flesh as Moon tried to squirm her way backwards in a cry of agony. “Don’t move or I’ll kill her!”

The mare known as Rainstorm threw only the smallest of glances towards Cloudstorm. “Who’re you!?”

“C-cloudy, Rainy.” Cloudstorm took another step. “Please, h-honey, put the gun down!”

Rainstorm shook her head. “N-no, you’re not her! Everypony else is dead! A-and she left me here to die.”

“Honey, I came back.” Cloudstorm was inching ever closer, trembling with every step. “I’d never leave you... I always knew you were a fighter. I knew you’d be okay.”

Moon couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes. She didn’t dare move. The filly standing before her had a very powerful gun and was probably scared enough to use it. It couldn’t end this way—not after all she’d been through. She hadn’t fought her way across Equestria to find Sunny, only to get to spend a few hours with him before getting gunned down by some paranoid filly.

The weapon began to tremble in Rainstorm’s grasp as the mare looked desperately between Cloudstorm and Moon. “Mom?”

The door exploded open from across the room, outside light pouring into the gloomy building as a pony stalked into the gloom. Altic appeared in all her light blue glory, dual SMGs held in her magical grasp. “I heard shooting! What’s—”

Altic had only brought her head halfway around when two rounds of buckshot and a slug blew the left half of her face apart. The mare staggered, then dropped to the floor, her SMGs clattering down beside her.

Growling, Rainstorm turned the weapon to Moon next, and the trapped mare could do nothing but cower at the smoke whispering from the breech and barrel. There was a certain resolve in the filly’s eyes now. She was going to shoot, and there was no doubting it.

Moon focussed her magic on the trigger of the weapon to try and keep it from firing. The filly fought hard, straining against Moon’s own magical force. Nonetheless, Moon was losing. Sweat beaded on her brow and ran into her eyes. Magic was much harder to produce through pain, and the wardrobe on her back wasn’t helping a single bit.

Dark blue fought periwinkle, though for how much longer was a very worrying question. Moon’s eyes widened a little when a light blue aura joined the battle over the weapon. Immediately, the barrel was yanked to the side. Rainstorm growled and fought to hold it in place, tugging it back towards herself in attempt to regain control of the weapon.

With a cry of exertion, Moon gave one last desperate push, closing her eyes in an attempt to channel every bit of magic she could. Suddenly, her horn sparked, then went dead.

The firearm discharged, though the sound was muffled by the flesh and bone of its wielder, the barrel pressed firmly against Rainstorm’s belly.

Rainstorm staggered, eyes widening as the shotgun dropped to the floor. Across the room, Cloudstorm stiffened in shock, the last traces of light blue magic fading from the tip of her horn.

Turning, Rainstorm took a step towards her mother. “Momma.” Her voice came out as little more than a foal’s whimper. Taking another weak step, she coughed, blood spilling from her mouth and nostrils. With one last cry, Rainstorm staggered to the side and fell against a desk, sliding down to the floor into the pool of rapidly spreading blood.

“Rainy!” Cloudstorm screamed, rushing forward and wrapping her hooves around the mare, blood or not. “No, no no no!” Tears running down her face, Cloudstorm pressed her hooves against the gushing entry wound in an attempt to quell the flow of blood. “You’re not going to die. Rainy, you hear me!? I thought I lost you once. I’m not going to lose you now!”

Moon couldn’t have moved if she wanted to. Her eyes remained affixed on the smoking shotgun abandoned on the floor, and the single shell beside it, still bleeding off the last traces of powder smoke.

“I’m sorry M-mom.” Rainstorm’s voice was little more than a whisper as Cloudstorm held the filly’s head against her body. “I thought you left me...”

“No, honey, no. I would never leave you.” Somehow, Cloudstorm managed speak through the tears that filled her eyes. “I came back... See, I came back! Now you’ve got to be strong. Be strong for me, please! Rainy, I can’t do this without you.”

Rainstorm closed her eyes and drew a shuddering breath, shedding tears of her own. “I waited for you. I waited and waited for you, even after the others left... I knew you’d come.”

Cloudstorm pulled her daughter closer, ignoring the blood that stained her coat. “You caused me so much trouble, Rainy, but I’ve always loved you.”

Rainstorm managed to produce a chuckle, though with it came more blood and a weak cough that sent a shiver down the mare’s shine. “I never did make you proud.”

“You always did, Rainy. I’m p-proud. I was always proud. I’m proud you w-waited for me.”

Nodding slowly, Rainstorm drew a shuddering breath and went limp. “Love you... T-thanks for c-coming... coming back.” The filly closed her eyes. “I’m sorry sorry I... shot your friend... Mom...”

“No, Rainy, no.” Cloudstorm gave the filly in her hooves a shake, Rainstorm’s limp body refusing to come to. “No, wake up! Please wake up!” Gasping, sobbing, Cloudstorm pressed her head against her foal’s chest, listening to what was left of Rainstorm’s heartbeat. Moon could hear it from where she lie, even over Cloudstorm’s whimpering sobs. Slowly but surely, the weak sound of life was fading to nothing.

It seemed like an eternity before Cloudstorm turned her shimmering eyes to Moon. “She’s—” Her eyes darkening, Cloudstorm sat up a little, relinquishing her grip on the cooling body. Suddenly, Cloudstorm’s magic pulled one of her two pistols from its holster. The deadly weapon levitated for a second, then turned on its owner.

Moon tried to struggle, to bring up any sort of a spell that could throw of the mare’s aim, but nothing more than a spark escaped her horn. “Cloudst—”

The pistol barked in the silence and a white flash lit up the room. A second later, mother fell upon daughter, and neither moved again.

“Celestia,” a stallion whispered, pacing slowly into the room. Moon knew that voice; it belonged to Range, and any second now...

Moon whimpered and covered her ears as the stallion screamed Altic’s name. He rushed to the mare, lifting her limp body off the floor and shaking her, screaming, crying for her to move, to open her one remaining eye.

Soon others came, but Moon didn’t hear them. She didn’t look at them or speak with them. A group of ponies lifted the wardrobe from her back, though there was no reason to move. Why would there be?

Mouths moved as ponies looked at her, word-like noises escaping their lips. Moon kept her eyes on her shotgun.

Willow shook her head as she returned from the skywagon. Snowglobe could only fall in and trot beside her, glancing worriedly between her friend and the wagon. “Willow, I asked how she’s doing.”

Willow grunted. “The mare’s in shock. Whatever happened in there fucked her up bigtime, okay?” She flicked her tail. “I came in there to find Range bawling over Altic’s dead body and Moon stuck under a wardrobe in front of Cloudstorm and a filly that I don’t know.” Pausing, she turned to Snowglobe. “Her shotgun was the weapon that killed both Altic, and the filly. It looks like Cloudstorm shot herself.”

The sun was just dipping down beyond the horizon. In preparation for the night, their party had prepped a bonfire in the middle of the courtyard using desks, chairs, and whatever else that was burnable from within the school buildings. Everyone was currently gathered around a stack of dry wood as Ember stood at the base, demonstrating how to properly use a flint stone.

“How long do ponies usually stay in shock?” Snowglobe frowned at Willow, her eyes glancing back to the wagon. Moon refused to talk to anypony, and had instead curled herself up in a corner of the skywagon, where she’d been for the past three hours.

Willow shrugged. “Could pass in a few hours. It could last a few days. Snowglobe, two of her friends just died before her eyes. One of them might have been from her own hooves even! I don’t know. The filly got blasted in the belly with a bolo slug. Do you know what those things are?”

Willow’s tone had changed to that of disgust. “A bolo slug is a shotgun shell that fires two steel slugs connected in the middle by a five inch steel cable. They’re specifically designed to shred tissue and lacerate whoever they’re being shot at.” A shiver ran the course of Willow’s body as she approached the soon-to-be bonfire. “...I think that filly was Cloudstorm’s. She said something about having sent her foal here on the flight and I checked both of their bodies. The two ponies are nearly identical save for the color of their coats.”

Snowglobe only nodded, her belly rolling end over end. “It would explain why Cloudstorm shot herself.”

The ponies surrounding Ember cheered as the mare managed to get the corner of a desk going. Grinning like a maniac, Ember swept her cream colored mane back with a forehoof and leaned forward to blow on the flame as it spread. After a moment, she stepped back and reared up on her hind legs, spreading her forehooves. “And then Ember came forth and declared, let shit burn!”

Despite the fact that she was determined to feel bad after the loss of two of their comrades, Snowglobe cracked a tiny grin.

It was kind of interesting to watch how ponies fell into their own separate groups. The eight pegasi who’d pulled the wagons stood in a small cluster on the opposite end of the growing fire, keeping mostly to themselves; somehow, Copper had found his way amongst them. Sage and Jade sat off to the side, the dark blue mare sitting behind Sage, both forehooves wrapped around the slightly-smaller mare. Somehow, those two had managed to survive together all the way from Appleoosa; they were two of the few.

Willow sat herself beside Brick, leaning against the larger stallion for support as she stared into the rising flame. Turning her head to Sunny, Willow waved him over from where he’d been staring at the fountain.

Foresight and Ember were sort of the oddballs, standing alone and refusing to meet the eyes of the others. Cotton and Candy sat beside each other, which was funny enough just because of their names.

Glancing away from the rising flame, Snowglobe looked elsewhere, out across the walls and between buildings. It didn’t take her very long to spot three ponies off to the right. Glancing around at the others surrounding the fire, Snowglobe backed away into the evening gloom and started towards the group of three.

They were gathered on the lawn in front of the cafeteria—just about the only spot in the entire school that wasn’t paved over. Three ponies stood beside three fresh mounds of dirt, not one of them speaking to one another.

Feeling her heart well up in her throat, Snowglobe swallowed it down and forced herself to approach the three ponies. She nudged her way between Loco and Range, throwing a quick glance past the gray stallion to identify Yew as pony number three. Loco leaned heavily on a dirty shovel, staring with unbroken attention at the slab of wood that served as Cloudstone’s headstone. The foul-mouthed stallion had taken the time to carve an epitaph into the smooth surface of the wood.

‘Cloudstorm’

One hell of a mare and the best friend any stallion could ever have
No pony else had a heart a as strong as hers
In the end, she cared too much
Let Cloudstorm live on in those she was closest to
Though her body may be gone, her soul remains within us all, ever bright and cheerful
She was our hero

Snowglobe’s eyes widened as she looked back to Loco. She never would have guessed that the grimy stallion was capable of general niceness. Just watching the hardened engineer tear up was enough to force Snowglobe’s eyes to the ground. Beside Cloudstorm’s grave, there was another.

’Rainstorm’

She was stronger than most fillies
Stronger than most ponies, really
In the end, Cloudstorm loved her more than life itself.
May the two be united in death

Snowglobe contemplated asking how Loco had known the other pony’s name, though pushed the thought away as quickly as it had entered her head. Now wasn't a good time to speak, let alone ask a question like that.

Away from the other two was the third grave, the one which Range and Yew paid their tribute to. This one carried a much simpler message.

‘Here lies Altic’

She kicked ass

Snowglobe’s breath caught in her throat as a smile pulled at the corner of her lips. It was a weak smile, one that didn’t really belong, especially now. Even in the mare’s death, Altic’s tenacity and abrasive attitude would remain with her.

Snowglobe didn’t move. She wanted to say something... anything to try and console just one of the three ponies here, but what was there to say? Their friends were dead. She knew much too well how little words did for the pain.

It was Range who finally broke the silence. “She didn’t deserve to go down like that... She hadn’t even seen it coming.” Gritting his teeth, the stallion hung his head, letting his mane obscure his face. “Altic was a fighter. If anything... she should have breathed her last breath in combat. Not get blindsided like that!”

Yew shook her head. “She never knew, Range. She died happy, at least.” The mare took a long pause, long enough that Snowglobe started trying to think up things to say again. “I guess that makes us two.” There was a morbid tone to the brown mare’s voice, one that rang with defeat.

Range’s ears perked and he tore his head away from the headstone. “Which is why we stay together, Yew. I don’t want to be the last one left, and neither do you.” Reaching out, he pulled the mare into a hug, letting Yew’s head rest against his neck. “If we go. We go together. Got it? You and me, the last ponies out of Canterlot.”

Yew crumpled into the stallion’s embrace. Choking back a sob, she pressed her face into his neck. “I never thought we’d make it this far. I thought we’d end up in some alley, all out of ammo, and that would be it. I never wanted to sit back and watch us go one by one.” Suddenly, she straightened and gave Range a brief nod. “You and me.”

Range gave the mare a firm pat between the shoulder blades. “That’s right. Now lets clear up the water works. If Altic saw either of us crying, she’d give us something real to cry about.” Range nudged Yew towards the bonfire, turning away from the fresh mound of dirt at his hooves. “Come on. Let’s go warm up.”

Snowglobe found herself standing alone with Loco, who could have passed for a statue as far as any nearby birds would be concerned. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. So far, her conversations with the stallion had been short and rather vulgar. Trying to spin a topic was hard enough as it was. Nonetheless, after a little bit of mental strain, Snowglobe settled on something nice and simple.

“Were you two good friends?” Snowglobe winced as the last word left her mouth. That had been a horrible question!

Loco nodded. “Fifteen years,” he mumbled, chewing on the end of an unlit cigar. “Babysat Rainstorm, her daughter, for her on weekends before the filly started getting herself into all sorts of trouble in school. Momma was the authoritative type, so Rainy rebelled. Got kicked out of damn near every school in Baltimare. Real sweetheart Rainy was when you got to know her, unless she was having a bad day. Then you’d just wanna’ hit her.”

Snowglobe occupied herself with dragging her forehoof across the grass. “Oh...”

“I loved Cloudstorm like a lover. Never could get close though. She swore off stallions after the accident that turned out to be Rainstorm. So I was her friend, and she was mine. I should have been around for her... If I could have just stopped her from pulling the trigger!”

“Loco... I’m sorry. I wish there was something... anything I could do to help.”

“Sure is.” The stallion sighed and pulled the cigar from his mouth, holding it out to Snowglobe. “Got a light?”

She flinched away from the cigar like he’d pointed a gun at her, then let out a sheepish little chuckle. “O-of course.” With a small spark from her horn, the tip of the cigar sizzled to life.

Taking a long drag on his treat, the stallion turned one eye to Snowglobe. “Always keep a unicorn around when you need one. Snowglobe was it, right?”

“Yeah. Not very fitting, but it’s my name.” She shrugged. “Mother collected snowglobes, so...”

Loco nodded his head and turned away from the headstone he’d carved, looking out over the group of ponies surrounding the fire. “Well, Snowglobe. Thanks.”

“Getting me out of Baltimare.” Pulling the cigar from his mouth, he offered it to the little mare beside him. Snowglobe coughed on the cloud of smoke that followed the nauseous cigar and waved it away. “Chances are if I hadn’t of gotten on the wagon with you ponies, I’d have died with so many others in the city. I hate that my friend died... I hate it more than anything, but mind you I’m still glad to be alive.”

“Uh... well, you’re very welcome!” Snowglobe took a step towards the fire and nodded for him to follow. “I’m glad to have you around.”

Loco grunted, starting off towards the fire with her. Shooting one last, resentful look at the two mounds of dirt he was leaving behind, he swung his head around to face Snowglobe. “An’ why’s that?”

Her eyes drifted over the large stallion’s figure. He was built tall and he was built thick; it wasn’t a husky sort of thick, but more of a big-boned thick. He still wore his earth pony shotgun thing, which was a feat of engineering on its own, but now he wore Cloudstorm’s duel pistols on either foreleg, just below the shoulder. Over all, he had a very intimidating appearance. She would hate to be on his bad side.

“Well...” she hesitated. “You’re loyal, for one, or at least I’m pretty sure you are. I’m an electrical engineer, but I don’t know a single thing about steam.” Grinning, she glanced towards the stallion. “You and I together could probably fix anything. And you also look really scary wearing those three guns.”

Loco laughed and reached towards Snowglobe, who instantly shied away. However, there was no escaping the mane-tussle coming her way. “Thanks Snow.” The stallion sighed, his breath rattling in his throat. “Cloudy believed in you guys. I don’t know why she did, but she did. The least I can do for you is stick around and do what I can... You guys give me a good feel.”

The atmosphere around the fire was a lot more cheerful. Now that Ember had gotten the entire pile of desks and poorly-written schoolwork lit up, everypony stood around the blaze as darkness settled in. Surprisingly enough, Sage had found herself a guitar and was currently playing a slow tune; it wasn’t sad, nor happy. It was something made for the fireside.

Snowglobe set herself down by the fire beside Sunny, gazing into the raging flames and the sparks that the inferno threw out into the night. She was sure Loco would sit beside her, but instead the old stallion trotted over to where Sage was and sat down.

Sage nodded proudly and gave the guitar one last strum. “My dad taught me a few chords. Never learned too much though.”

Loco nodded. “Your dad... he had good taste. Tell me, you know the words to that song?”

She shook her head. “Only the beginning. Besides, it’s a stallion's song.” She smiled up at Loco. “Do you know it?”

Sage’s grin seemed to smile. “Can you sing it?” Giving Jade a nudge, Sage sat up a little bit and gave the guitar a soft strum. How she managed it with her forehooves was a secret of earth pony magic. “Get your harmonica out, Jade.”

The dark pegasus did so without protest, reaching into her saddlebags and pulling the beaten instrument out. “Got you covered.”

“Right!” Sage jabbed Loco with the neck of the guitar. “Come on, sing it for me, big guy. I want to hear the words.”

Loco shook his head and took a step away from the mare. “I don’t sing in front of ponies.”

Sage scooted closer to him. “Come on. You know when the words start. help me out here. You’re a trainpony. Singing’s in your blood.

Shaking his head, the battered engineer stared intently at the fire, his ears perked. Snowglobe wasn’t sure of his intentions, but right as Sage hit a different chord, the stallion opened his mouth and grumbled the first lyrics.

“Have you ever watched the sky and wondered why?” Loco coughed and cleared his throat, his voice deep and surprisingly clear over the guitar. He sang with a sort of raspy slur, but it only fit the mood that much better. “Have you ever seen the clouds and wished them gone?”

Ember’s eyes widened as the stallion sang. Abandoning her spot by the fire, she ran around behind the ring of ponies and pushed in beside Loco. The stallion gave her a look of confusion, but she shook her head at him. “My grandad loved this song.”

Shooting Ember a smirk, Loco nodded and tapped his hoof for the both of them to start.
“Have you ever just wanted to leave—head to the sky?
To leave it all behind
If not for long?”

The ponies around the fire had gone completely silent. Loco’s deep, rumbly voice paired with Ember’s lighter, smooth tone blended into a spine-chilling harmony. Neither of the two sang with their eyes open. Loco and Ember worked as one, leaning against one another as the firelight danced over their features.

“Sometimes I dream of being free to live it all!
Sometimes I sing, hopin’ one day to climb that wall!
Someway I know, that death I can’t forestall!
But until then,
I’ll sing this song.”

Sage giggled in delight and put a little more power into her playing, closing her eyes and nodding to her own beat. Jade sat back on her haunches, her sole focus the harmonica held in her forehooves as she backed the song. Not even the crackling of the fire dared to interrupt the four ponies.

“My days are long—spent sweatin’ in the sun
My nights are slow when no one’s there to hold
Yet time goes by—faster than the old river runs!
Yes life drags on
Until you’re old.”

Snowglobe laid her head on her forehooves as Ember and Loco broke out into two different sets of lyrics at once. The words twisted and played off one another while remaining just different enough to hide both meanings. The two exchanged a smile as they sang, communicating with little nods and gestures as they exchanged lyrics.

After so much strife, one hardship after another, Snowglobe wouldn’t have cared if it all ended right here. Right here, right now... her life was perfect. She would give anything to hold on to this moment for the rest of her life, to simply forget what was and be here. It was almost how things had used to be.

Sunny threw a glance back to the bonfire as the surrounding ponies cheered their impromptu band. It was probably the least sane thing he could have done: walking away away before they could start another song. From the sounds of things, they were going to start another song, or at least Sage planned on it.

Sunny kept his ears folded flat to his head as he approached one of the two skywagons. Willow hadn’t been able to talk to Moon at all, though maybe it was because of the friction between the two, probably over him.

The evening breeze swept through Sunny’s coat, chilling him to the bone so soon after leaving the warm fire. Nosing open the door to the carriage, he trotted inside, peering through the darkness. “Moon?”

“Go away.” The mare’s voice came from the far corner, behind a row of seats.

He stood there for a moment, contemplating whether or not he should do as he was told. This was a conversation that was not going to be fun, and in all honesty the raging bonfire was much nicer and warmer than this cold, aluminum wagon. “Moon. It’s Sunny.” One hoof after the other, he made his way around to the back of the wagon until he came across the blue lump that was his friend.

“I said go away!” Moon snapped, hiding her head in the crack between the seat and the wall.

There really wasn’t any way to get her out of the corner without touching her and Sunny’s hooves prickled just thinking about it. “Moon, everypony’s out by the fire having a good time. You should come join us.”

The mare only sniffed. “I don’t want anypony to see me crying... just go away.”

“Everypony already knows you’re in here crying.” Biting his lip, Sunny leaned forward and put his hoof on her shoulder, shaking off the heebie-jeebies that came with the contact. “I’m... I’m sorry, Moon.” He tried to pull her out of the corner, somewhat succeeding. “There was nothing you could have done.”

He fell back on his rump as the mare spun and took a few steps back as she advanced on him. “I-I know you did, Moon.” His rump bumped against the back of the wagon and with a worried glance behind him, he realized he was trapped.

“Sunny, I watched a foal blow the brains of one of my friends across the floor with my own gun! I watched a mother accidentally shoot her own foal in the gut with my own gun! There was nothing I could do but lie there and watch as she pulled out her own pistol... and...”

Sunny was pressed firmly up against the wall, leaning as far away from the mare as he could, almost cowering.

Sunny threw his hooves in front of his face as Moon bellowed. He was positive that the music around the fire had stopped and the babble had died down.. “I-I don’t... Moon I—I could, no wouldn’t—”

Moon Threw herself onto Sunny, sobbing into his neck. “There was nothing I could do. I tried, Sunny! I tried. I tried to get out from under the wardrobe. I tried to pull the gun away from Cloudstorm. I tried to get Rainstorm to put the gun down. I tried, but I didn’t do anything right! All three of them died right in front of me and there wasn’t a single thing I could do about it!”

Sunny writhed and squirmed against the wall as Moon held onto him. He grit his teeth and tried to push her away. If anypony would have been watching them, it would have been easy to mistake Moon’s coat for something that was scalding hot and agonizingly painful to touch. “Yeah, yeah, okay!” He tried to duck under her to get away but Moon had gotten her hooves around his neck. “No hugs, please!”

“I just don’t know what to do anymore, Sunny! They needed me to be strong in Appleoosa and I couldn’t!” Her hooves tightened down on the pegasus’ neck and Sunny almost screamed. “Everywhere around me ponies always die. They always die, Sunny! Why do they all have to die!?”

Enough was enough. It didn’t matter if he was trying to console her or not. This wasn’t happening. Flaring his wings, he braced himself against the wall and shoved Moon away at the same time. The effect managed to break the mare’s grip on his neck, though not without a good amount of force. Moon soared a good couple of feet before slamming down on her back in the aisle, whimpering.

“Gah, Moon.” Sunny spun in a circle, neatly folding his wings back to his side and patting down his coat. “Don’t touch me!” Panting, limbs shaking, Sunny tried to calm his nerves. “You know I hate to be touched!”

At first, Moon didn’t pick herself up. Her flanks heaved as she settled down on the floor. The tears were gone, replaced with cold apathy. “I’m sorry, Sunny... I just don’t know what to do anymore.” Slowly as could be, Moon brought herself to her hooves. “Sunny, I don’t want to see you, or any of the others get hurt. I’m tired of watching the ponies around me die.”

Sunny shook his head. “We all are, Moon. There’s not much any of us can do about it. These things. Zombies, infected ponies... whatever everypony’s calling them—they bring out the worst in all of us. I don’t know about you, but I worry every day what’ll happen tomorrow, if I’ll live or die or if I’ll lose another friend.” He took a step towards Moon and set his hoof down by hers. He wasn’t touching, but he was close. “You’re the reason I’m still alive, Moon. Remember that day back in Desert Sage? The night we shared?”

“If you and I hadn’t have shared that night, and hadn’t have come across Notebook, we never would have met Willow and Brick. We never would have made it to the hospital, and we never would have known what was coming. Moon, if I hadn’t met you that day in the supermarket, chances are I’d be dead... and so would you.” Sunny nodded out the window. “All those ponies out there—all those ponies who’re alive: That’s part of our doing. We’re part of the reason they’re all here. This may seem like a funny way of looking at things, but by surviving, Moon, we’ve saved countless others.”

Staring into Moon’s blue eyes, Sunny forced himself to take her hoof. “Moon. I started this with you. I need you to stay around, for me... otherwise I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“Sunny...” She tightened his grip on the stallion’s hoof, leaning slightly towards the pegasus. “I took a train from Appleoosa all the way to Baltimare to find you. There’s no way I am ever giving up on you.” Her eyes darted to the ground. “I just don’t want you to end up like one of the others. What if it had been you to come in and check on the shooting and not Altic? I feel so good that she died and not you, but I hate myself for it as well! That poor mare got shot in the face, and all I can think of afterwards is ‘thank Celestia it wasn’t Sunny’.”

Things were getting into the danger zone now. Her muzzle was only an inch from his own. There was no way this was actually happening. The little pony in Sunny’s brain that was in charge of sounding the alarms bells was sleeping on the job, and things were about to get bad.

“...You worried that much about me?” Sunny blinked in surprise, and when he opened his eyes again she was a half an inch closer.

“Yes, Sunny, I did. I regretted letting you leave the moment you got on that skywagon... We stick together from now on. Deal?”

Their muzzles were touching now, and Sunny was too out of it to even pull away. “...Deal,” he whispered.

Strangely enough, it hurt when ponies touched him. Usually, Sunny would describe it as a burning sensation. It made him want to get away from whatever was touching him, and usually if the pony kept it up, it made him want to hurt them. The only burning sensation to be had was one in his cheeks. There was a tiny fluttering in the back of his skull, and somewhere in his brain, the stallion had woken up and was ringing every bell there was in high alert. Sunny ignored it all, his ears folding flat against his scalp as Moon leaned into him. They were the same height; perfect height for kissing one another, he supposed.

Moon wasn’t letting up though. Sunny felt a forehoof drape around his neck, pulling him closer as Moon reined him in with surprising force. Sunny’s wings went slack, drooping down to his sides as he lost whatever resistance he had left. This was happening. This was actually happening, and for once he wasn’t afraid of it. Somehow, the problem he’d had since he was a foal has simply shut itself off for this very moment.

Sunny jerked back into the real world at the all too familiar voice behind him. Staggering backwards, he turned halfway around and clobbered his head on a support beam for the roof. Falling to one side, he leaned against a seat and rubbed his head with a forehoof. “I...” Lifting his head, his muzzle came within inches of Willow’s. Unlike Moon, Willow didn’t look like she wanted to kiss him.

The white mare’s eyes glowed in the dark, as they normally did, but they held a fire in them now that could have melted through steel. “I heard yelling,” she said flatly. “I figured I’d come check on you two. I needed to give Moon a quick examination as well to make sure her spine hadn’t suffered any damage from that wardrobe.” Willow’s voice shook a little, though she held it together. “I figured, since she was still in shock, she might not be aware of any injuries that should have otherwise been brought to attention. To my delight, it appears she has made a full recovery.”

Sunny didn’t have any words. The very last place he wanted to look was into Willow’s eyes, though he couldn’t pull his own away. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale... He had to say something. “Willow... I—”

“Don’t worry, Sunny.” Willow turned away and closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, they were on Moon. “I-I’m sorry for interrupting you two. If you n-need me or anything, I’ll be outside.”

“Willow, wait!” Sunny took a step towards his friend, but Willow backed up, shaking her head at him.

“No, Sunny, just stay away from me.” She turned and ran, charging for the door at the end of the wagon. She missed it the first time and ran headlong into the wall, putting a heavy dent in the aluminum shell before righting herself and staggering out the door.

Sunny trotted halfway down the aisle after her, then stopped himself. Feeling weak, and suddenly rather sick, he leaned up against a seat and held his belly with a forehoof. “Oh, dear Luna not now. Not this. Why did she have to come in now of all times?”

“Sunny?” Moon placed her hoof on his shoulder from behind and Sunny jerked away with a wince.

The look on her face said otherwise. “Sunny... does Willow like you... like, like you?”

Sunny stomped his hoof and rounded on her. “Yes, Moon, she does! I’m the only pony she’s had to talk to for weeks! They locked us in a cell together. She’s gone through everything I have and we went through it together! Can’t you see why I’m so conflicted about all of this!?”

Moon took a step back, hurt shining bright and fresh in her eyes. “I—but... Sunny?”

“I can’t make everypony happy!” Snarling, Sunny turned his back on her and stormed out of the wagon. Outside, a light drizzle was just starting up, carried in by the winds. Of course, Willow wasn’t anywhere near the fire. Sunny didn’t feel like being around the others as he was right now anyways. It would, most assuredly, lead to even more disaster.

Even as his hooves carried him off towards the back wall of the campus, which he intended to take a nice, long walk around, his mind continued to wander back to the kiss; his first kiss.

Undead Equestria

by Sorren

Chapter 19 Rest