> D A S H
>  by Primordial
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> Chapter 1 Renegade
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	The winters of Ponyville were worse again this year. The days grew darker and darker and the nights seemed longer. The wind's howls and hisses stir up the barren trees and echo throughout empty houses of the town. In between the rests of gusts, wooden doors and windows creak and the Windigos laugh above and whinny, beckoning the night sky. There was nothing left in this town except, loneliness and despair. 

Among the ransacked houses and decaying debris, a shivering young mare hides in the sanctity of an abandoned school house, where she has made the school's storage basement her shelter. Inside the basement, a pile of burnt books rests against a broken furnace and a crude crayon drawing of two ponies playing gives her hope. The ashy air burns her nostrils and she lefts out a forced sneeze. The mare breaths in and stretches her worn-out body, her cold, brittle bones crack and her stomach churns. She extends her cramped wings, another crack and temporary relief. She exhales a deep, wintry breath and sighs. Her teeth rattles in her skull as she looks for something to eat. She scans the room and upon immediate inspection, she concludes that she first needs to find more books for fire fuel. 

The frosty mare chuckles under her visible breath, "Twilight would have had a fit if she knew I burned books in my spare time," she shakes the smirk off her face and sighs, "Well, in any case, I need to find more books. Even if I don't have food for tonight, I need to avoid freezing to death."

She braces herself before getting up, she grunts as she tries to pick herself up from the charcoal dusted floor and tosses her torn blanket aside. She winces as she walks over to a cowl hanging from a wall hook. While she struggles to put on the cowl, an idea flashes in her mind, "Or maybe, just maybe, I could risk it all tonight to find food for today and tomorrow. That would save me some time to make preparations for the long journey ahead of me." The mare scratches her head, "I sure am going to miss Ponyville, but I need to get out of this wasteland and focus on finding my friends above all else. I just have to. My biggest challenge are those damn Windigo. If I can get passed them somehow I'll be closer on my way to be reunited with my friends again."

She ties the cowl together firmly under her chin, and tucks her wings in and shuffles about to get them evenly inside. She trudges to the doors that lead to the inside of the classroom, she hated going back in there. Without trying too hard, the mare unlatches the lock to the basement doors. The blustery winds fling the doors wide open and a strong suction gradually pulls the mare out into the inside of the classroom. She quickly grabs hold of the cowl before it had the chance to fly away and huddles in it for some warmth. She hides her face under the hood of the cowl and walks against the wind's current. She could hear the booming of the Windigos' laughs, this made her throat dry and her head spin.

The lowly mare tried to keep calm, but she was sure the Windigos would see her at any moment. Without the roof of the school house there, she was just as safe as a sitting duck. "There's no way to hide from those things, I can't fit under any of the desks and the bookshelf doesn't cover me from above, think, there has to be something." The winds above her head grew harsh with every minute going by. She started to breath heavily, her heart started to race, "The teacher's desk, that has to be the only way!"

She pushes against the strong winds to see behind the teacher's desk. Behind the desk, drawers occupied the space that would have been beneficial to her survival. She disregards the desk altogether, but before leaving, something shines in her eye. Under the desk a small object was wedged between the desk's leg and some floor space. A ruby-shaped apple, most likely a paper weight given to the teacher as a gift. Her gut feeling tells her to take it, maybe she could use the apple as a distraction for an emergency get away of some sort. She stuffs the apple into her only pocket and manages to bolt over some rubble and tree stumps. She makes it outside of the school's perimeter and takes refuge under a damaged cart with a wheel missing.

From outside the school yard, she could see Sweet Apple Acres, the Everfree Forest, and Ponyville's Town Hall. The mare must decide where to go next to find books and food, before the Windigos find out her location. 

She plans her strategy in her head accordingly, "Let's see, Sweet Apple Acres is probably my best bet for food, if all the apple trees haven't died yet." She continues thinking, her teeth shivering away, "There's no way I'd ever go into the Everfree Forest, especially under these circumstances, it's suicide then and it's suicide now, and wouldn't find any books anyway. Despite the Forest having a ton of wood and sticks, I'd rather risk finding books in town than in that hell hole.  Even the gamble of even finding Zecora, dead or alive, is a greater risk above all else if I choose Everfree." She bites down hard on her teeth to refrain them from chattering, her eyes begin to water from the dry winds, "O Celestia, it's freezing out here, I need to make a move quick or I might as well be dead. What about Town Hall? There would have to be a well abundance of books there, even in that ruined library next door, but the Windigos have made Town Hall their own personal Watch Tower, there's no chance of me getting out alive if I show my face in Ponyville again. Crap."

She sets her outlook on Applejack's farm, the mare has finally decided, "Sweet Apple Acres it is. I hope I'm making the right choice."