What Remains of the Shattered World

by ImpossibleReflection

Kindness: Ch1 "Dogs of war"

Applejack chose a room with a north facing window. The moon was full tonight, if more Diamond dogs were coming tonight, they would have no trouble, unless she saw them first. To the north of the town was a field of rocky outcroppings. with boulders, and piles of rocks that would easily provide cover for a firefight. But are too dispersed to make the terrain difficult to get through.

The room itself was pretty basic. it had a bed, a set of sheets with a blanket, a lantern, a small table, a set of drawers for storing personal belongings, and a chair. Her duster was laying on the bed, the musket was leaning up against the window. Her pistols were still strapped to her forelegs.

Applejack was currently sleeping in the chair next to the window. She was tired, after she helped remove the bodies from the bar and cleaned up the blood, refusing help from Wet Whistle, digging graves for them, giving them a proper burial she was indeed deserving some rest.

She was having a peaceful dreamless sleep, the best she could hope fo anymore r.

"APPLEJACK!"

Said mare quickly roused from her slumber, glanced around her surroundings, then made brief eye contact with the barmare who shouted her name. She then looked out the window towards the north.

Once she blinked the bleariness out of her eyes she looked out the window. After a few moments she spotted a group of five diamond dogs, three regular sized, one distinctly larger than the others, and one pup.

Applejack grabbed her musket and aimed it out the window. The dogs were currently a little over a hundred yards away. Just beyond the max range of her musket. As the dogs continued towards the town they wandered in range of the gunslinger, yet the mare did not open fire. The pup would be too small a target at this distance. The average sized ones would be easy targets, but she wanted to hedge her bets as much as possible. The last one might be big, but a .75 caliber ball is plenty for just about anything.

Eighty yards, perfect. Applejack put the front bead on the center of the big ones chest. Slowly, steadily, the gunslinger pulled the trigger. A loud boom shook the building, and a cloud of smoke obscured the window. She immediately bolted over to the room next door.

_-/|\-_

Five hours ago

"Why do you want two rooms?"

"Ah'll pay fer both of 'em."

"But why?"

"Ya said the encampment they were in is due north right?"

Wet Whistle nodded.

"If they come ta see why the others haven't come back yet during the night, Ah'll have ta shoot out the window. Which'll tell them exactly where I am, so Ah'll be able ta switch rooms and shoot It'll only work once, but it'll give me another shot from safety."

Applejack took a look out the window, "Ah'll shoot at 'em when they're near those rocks, hopefully they'll hide behind them. It will hopefully buy me time for another shot before Ah have ta face 'em."

_-/|\-_

Applejack looked out the other room's window, the large diamond dog lay in a puddle of blood, unmoving. The remaining diamond dogs were shooting at the other window, and trying to hide behind the rocks. She began the process of loading her musket, and in thirty seconds it was ready to fire.

The dogs no longer moved casually they began running quickly, trying to hide as much as possible. One of the remaining adult diamond dogs decided to run through an open clearing to their next cover. Applejack aimed as carefully as she could in the alloted time and fired. Her aim was a little off, and hit the dog in the stomach. A lethal wound for sure, but not a quick death.

At this point she wouldn't have time to reload and stop them from entering the town, she set the musket down against the window, sprinted out the door and stopping only for a moment to tell Wet Whistle, "Ah hope you've made yer decision, 'cause yer time's up."

She then proceeded down the stairs and into the bar area, leaving through the kitchens back door and behind a rock. Peeking out from behind her cover she looked out into the rocky outcroppings. Upon seeing one of the diamond dogs, she jumped towards it and galloped to get it into firing range with her howdah pistols.

The diamond dog noticed her coming and began to turn towards her. Applejack leaped towards the diamond dog pointing one of her pistols at the him, unleashing both barrels of leaden death into his torso, the recoil from the guns spinning her around before she landed hind legs first onto the falling diamond dog.

She climbed off of the corpse and moved away from the rising cloud of smoke. Moving deeper into the rock formations. Keeping herself low to the ground, moving from rock to rock trying to stay in as much cover as possible. Moving next to a tall stone she looked around carefully.so carefully she nearly jumped out of her fur when she heard paws touch down behind her. She turned to look at an adult diamond dog low to the ground in a cloud of dust. Ah forgot to look up... again.

The gunslinger started to turn around right when the diamond dog's crystal weapon started to emanate a sickly purple glow. She realized quickly, that she was far too slow. Applejack was halfway turned around towards the diamond dog when a knife flew threw the air and embedded itself in the dogs neck. Immediately after the gunslingers world turned bright purple.

_-/|\-_

Five hours ago

Applejack sat in her room with her musket, looking out the window, Wet Whistle hadn't left yet. "Ya gonna help?" She inquire of the bar mare.

"With what?" The unicorn seemed confused at the question.

"Fighting back, or are ya just going ta sit back till it's too late like most ponies?" This caused a stir in the mare. She leaned back as if offended, but her face didn't hide the consideration.

She leaned back forward, a pensive look on her face. "What would I even fight with? I have no weapons."

"Course ya do. Ya got a kitchen in here right? It probably has sharp knives. It would be what Ah would use if Ah was a unicorn, a whole lot less loading than guns. Or a shovel, a pitchfork. Anything sharp or heavy can be used as a weapon. Ya just have ta have ta be willin' ta use it."

_-/|\-_

Ten minutes ago

"APPLEJACK!"

Said mare quickly roused from her slumber, glanced around her surroundings, then made brief eye contact with the barmare who shouted her name. She then looked out the window towards the north.

Applejack grabbed her musket and aimed it out the window. Wet Whistle stared at the mare, admiring her focus. Her nerves consuming more and more as she saw the mare before her hold a weapon, about to kill. Ready to kill, with not a care outside her visible determination to do so. No remorse decorated her features, only cold calculations and patience.

She was broken from this stupor by an explosion of powder. Coming back into reality just to have an orange blur rush past her.

Wet Whistle went to the door of the next room over and watched Applejack load the next round. She could only stare in wonderment at the orange mare's movements. It was easy to see the motions drilled into the very being of the gunslinger as she reloaded her musket.

Soon she was awoken, once more from her trance, by a boom rattling her bones. She watched the mare set her gun down next to the window. Then she rushed out the door stopping only to quickly say, "Ah hope you've made yer decision, 'cause yer time's up," before she rushed down the stairs as sickly purple blasts entered through the window.

Wet Whistle trotted down the stairs. She wanted to hate the gunslinger, but every action the mare did seemed so genuine, so Honest. Despite her job requiring her to be heartless, she seemed so selfless. She could have just pushed her gun into my face and forced me to talk. We both know I would have told her immediately. She could have left the bodies of the diamond dogs in the bar. No, she gave them as proper a burial as exists anymore. She then remembered all that Applejack had told her since she offered to help. She couldn't deny it any longer, she knew the gunslinger actually wanted to help. She knew that she could help back, and keep her town safe. She walked into the kitchen and grabbed the biggest, nastiest knife she could find in a hurry. Then she rushed out the back door and blindly into the rock formations out back. She saw one as it dropped down behind Applejack. She took aim and carried the knife with her telekineses as the crystal started to glow. She pushed the knife all the way into his neck, before he let loose a magic blast point blank at the gunslinger.

_-/|\-_

It took Applejack a few moments for the purple to fade from her vision. The near miss leaving her a bit more than a little disoriented. Once her vision returned to her she decided to retake her surroundings. The diamond dog lay on the ground, squirming with a paw to the gushing wound in his neck. The movements where slowing and becoming erratic,
he didn't have long.

Looking over to where the knife came from laid her eyes upon Wet Whistle, a bloodied knife floating in her magic. She stood there, frozen stiff, eyes locked on the crimson coated weapon. A bit of movement in Applejacks peripheral caught her attention. It was the young diamond dog pointing a crystal at Wet Whistle.

"Look out!"

The stupefied mare, Glanced up at Applejack, then around. Seeing the diamond dog she jumped behind a nearby rock as the dogs crystal began to glow. Applejack started to creep closer while the dog was focusing on the bar mare. The crystal kept growing brighter, much brighter than it should have. Applejack quickly realized what was about to happen, and bolted towards Wet Whistle. "Move!" she yelled.

The bar mare looked around, but didn't move. Looking back to the rapidly approaching mare in confusion. Too late for her, she realized that the gunslinger wasn't slowing down. Wet Whistle had no time to react as she was tackled by Applejack.

Looking over the gunslingers shoulder she saw the rock she was hiding behind engulfed in a massive purple beam that tore through it and any other rocks as it continued it's path out into the desert. Accompanied by a loud rumble that she could feel in her bones.

Applejack couldn't hear it over the loud sound of the blast, but she knew the pup was screaming. She's heard it once before, and it will never leave her nightmares.

The two mares lay in there dirt till the beam stopped. "Are ya okay?" Asked the gunslinger as she got off of the bar mare.

"Yeah, I think so," she answered as Applejack helped her off the ground, "What about that diamond dog?" She asked becoming aware that she was out in the open.

Applejack winced and shuddered, "After one of those, he won't be alive."

"What why?" she said looking over.

She looked over to what was left of the pup, she gasped and covered her mouth with a hoof. The young diamond dog lay on the ground, face contorted in pain, eyes unseeing. It's fur had turned white, and the skin wrinkled along the face and joints, while tightly hugging the bones, ribs clearly visible. As if the dog had been starved for months, and aged tenfold. "Wha... wha." Wet Whistle barely managed to stutter out.

"Those crystal weapons, they allow creatures without innate magical ability to cast beams of magic. However, they use the casters life force. If you use it too much, or lose control, it will kill you, and leave a corpse like that. Just as demented as the Dark King who made it."

"So what now?"

"Now, I hope for a dreamless sleep. Then clean this mess up in the morning," Applejack stated before heading back to the inn.

Wet Whistle stood there, looking at the death and destruction around her. To the dead bodies, the rocks now missing chunks, or just plain missing, and the bloodied knife lying on the ground. It was several minutes before she could tear herself away from all the information she was taking in, but failing to comprehend.

She made it into the inn, and went upstairs to check on Applejack. She was cleaning her musket. A cold expression on her face. "How do you do it?"

The gunslinger looked up from her task, "Do what?"

"Kill so easily, so many. Just one, and I froze. It hurts, thinking about what I've done. How do you do it, make it not hurt?"

"You don't. It always hurts, and won't stop. At least Ah hope not. Ah'd hate not feeling more than the hurt. Because when it hurts, Ah still know Ah'm a pony. Sometimes you need to do it, it's the worst when you find out you didn't need to and it's too late."

At this point Applejack had finished cleaning and loading her musket. "Ah'm going to go to bed now, see you in the morning."

Author's Note:

I experimented a bit with flashbacks/timeskips in this chapter. Please tell me what you think.