The snarls and groans of the creatures were right on their heels as they ran back up the stairs. Applejack's heart was pounding fiercely against her chest as she ran back into the room with all the clothing racks, Rainbow right behind her. She slammed the door closed behind them, pressing her body up against it as she felt fists strike the other side of the wood. "Rainbow, get some of those clothing racks over here, NOW!"
"On it!" The pegasus bolted over to the closest one, giving it a hard shove so it rolled over in front of the orange mare. She moved from her spot in front of the door, tipping the rack over to it fell in front of the closed door. Another was pushed over to her, and she pushed that one over as well. Soon enough, there was a large pile of costumes and metal clothing racks barricading the door, bangs and moans and yells audible on the other side. Applejack stepped away from the door, her breathing heavy as Rainbow nearly shuddered next to her. "Sweet Celestia...what are those things?"
"I...I don't know, Rainbow. But I do know that we need ta get the hell outta here." She turned around, looking right at the window. "We'll jus' go back the way we came, easy as apple pie."
They both walked over to the window to peer out into the night, and their hearts both froze in their chests as they saw even more shuffling about outside the building they were trapped in. Rainbow Dash groaned in frustration. "Are you kidding me? Where the...where did all of them come from?"
"They were probably in all the houses around here, and came when we stirred up this ruckus..." Applejack stuck her head outside, looking around to force some kind of idea to come to mind. To her surprise, one actually did. "Alright, this is easy. We jus' get on the rooftops, and we keep up on 'em and hop on out of here. Then we can jus' be on our way!"
"AJ, I could just fly us out of here."
"No can do, Rainbow, I don't want ya gettin' tired while we're both hoverin' over any of 'em. Last thing we want to do is deliver ourselves right to 'em. Come on now, let's do this." She hoisted herself out of the window, turning herself around so she could face the edge of the roof. She leaped up, her fingers curling around the edge and gripping tightly as she pulled herself up, swinging her legs up and over as she climbed onto the roof. The blue mare followed her out, flapping her wings to land next to her.
Applejack turned to face the adjacent rooftop, and she took off with a dash, making a huge leap when she reached the edge of the roof. She cleared the gap by a few feet and landed with a sweet roll, hopping right back up to her feet. She grinned back at Rainbow, tipping her hat up slightly. "I told ya, easy as apple pie."
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They kept this up for another half hour or so, going from rooftop to rooftop until they were far enough away from the small horde of creatures that they didn't risk getting torn apart if they went back on the ground. With the coast clear, Rainbow picked Applejack up and fluttered down to the ground, setting her down before landing next to her. "Man, that was surprisingly easy."
"Yeah, it's gonna take a might more 'n some kinda undead ta take us out." The grin Applejack had plastered on her face was similar to the cocky grin Rainbow usually wore. She was pretty proud of herself for thinking of a plan when everything started to hit the fan. Usually it was Rainbow that was good at quick thinking under stress.
They eventually found a nice spot to sit down for the night, dropping their backpacks on the ground before plopping down next to each other. The orange mare turned to her friend, blinking at the far-off look the other mare wore. "Rainbow, you alright?"
"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine!" She threw on her trademark cocky expression, but Applejack could tell it was forced, and gave the pegasus a look that told her so. She sighed, her wings folding up behind her. "Okay, have you ever, like...imagined everything falling apart? Like things suddenly getting as bad as you can comprehend?"
"Ya mean like thinkin' about the worst case scenario? Well shoot, Rainbow, I think about that stuff all the time. Ya almost have ta, in a world like this one."
The blue mare shook her head. "No, I mean like...really vividly, like so real and convincing that you almost think, for a few seconds, that it actually happened."
"Well...no, nothin' like that." She admitted, before she moved in front of Rainbow. "Did something like that happen back there?"
Rainbow nodded slowly. "When you jumped onto the first rooftop and over that alley, I...this is so stupid, I pictured you slipping, of all things, and falling down to the ground below. So I go down there, to get you back up and make sure you were okay, and then a bunch of those things got at my wings...totally tore 'em up, so we couldn't fly out of there. And then..." She trailed off at the end, not wanting to spell out what happened in the rest of it.
"Rainbow..." Applejack moved to close the distance between them, wrapping her arms tightly around the other mare. "I ain't goin' anywhere, and neither are you, not if'n I have anything ta say about it."
The pegasus gently pushed her away. "AJ, come on, we have to stop fooling ourselves. We can't protect each other from everything-"
"Hey." Applejack moved her hand under the Rainbow's chin, lifting her face until she looked back up at her. "I've told ya before, I don't say things unless I mean it. An' I mean this. I'll do everything in my power to protect you, and that's the good 'n honest truth." She gave a smile down at Rainbow, which was slowly returned to her.
"Thanks, AJ."
"Ain't no problem, suagrcube. If'n you get ta feelin' like that again, jus' tell me up front, and I'll make ya feel better."
The smaller mare leaned a bit closer, her eyes closing just a bit, going half-lidded in the process. "Is that a promise?"
Applejack grinned, leaning down until they both could feel their hot breath on each other's muzzles. "It sure is."
The few stars visible in the sky twinkled as the two shared a gentle kiss.