1: Survival

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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.

2: Necessity

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Applebloom was snuggled into Applejack's chest when she awoke.

With a gentle yawn she carefully detached herself from the smaller mare, smiling as Applebloom gave a grumble at the loss of warmth whilst she left the sleeping bag, and swiftly zipped it up to keep the cold out. It was bright enough that she could see around the room of the worn down station they were in, everything being bathed in a mute hue of green as the sunlight diffused through the leafy-coloured tarpaulin barely covering the massive hole in the building's side. She breathed out and frowned at the small cloud of mist that formed as she stood up properly, immediately noting the lower temperature and the slight powdering of snow built up around the tarp's edges. A shiver ran through her as the morning whistled into the room. It was always quite frigid until the sun fully rose, and it seemed that it was delayed again today.

The weather didn't make sense anymore. Beyond the idea that the sun and moon would rise and fall in due time, just about everything else was unpredictable and chaotic. A week after the Singularity she'd watched massive lightning storms form just past Appleloosa that had thankfully dissipated a majority of their energy before they fully hit the town, though there had still been plenty of damage. She'd been given permission to take the necessary supplies and travelled out to meet with her cousin Braeburn to check the wellbeing of the town, finding that it had thankfully been mostly structural with minor injuries to the townsfolk.

It was all she could do to hope that he was still alive, and still doing well. They'd been holding on even if they were in the same dire straits as Ponyville had been, though that had been a few months before she and Applebloom had set out.

Sighing, she glanced to the window still covered over with a cut section of tarp and went over, slowly freeing and lifting one side to peer out. From the window view lay the immediate open area of the station and its damaged rusted joint tracks down between the platforms, though the station was less than it should have been. The platforms were blackened and discoloured at a certain point, the bricks on the far side slagged and settled into something akin to eroded regolith, with a massive furrow that cut across the site and dragged on into the distance before abruptly stopping in a sharp fade. A brazen result of a pillar of fire coming through the area. It was still obvious despite the ice and snow that had managed to build up within the mighty gouge as there was likely some residual maleficent magic that kept it from covering over completely.

Beyond the station following the cauterised scar and outward was the barren ashland also mostly laid over in white, the sheer heat from the fiery pillar had rendered the surrounding grassy area desolate and radiation had done the rest. A few lone gnarled shrubs or stubborn tufts of mutated plant still dotted the landscape further on, breaking up the wide stretch of snowy nothing until she rested her eyes on the desiccated woods she commonly travelled between and Threshold not much farther beyond that.

Applejack didn't spot anything nasty lurking out in the flats, this part of the Western Ranges was often clearer as there wasn't much to be had out here for bandits or monsters. Everything worth having was within Threshold or one of the other cities or smaller towns further to the west. It was partly why she'd chosen this location to stay in even with the drawbacks of being somewhat open to the elements.

Everything seemed normal for now, as far as normal could be these days.

Moving back across the room, she sat for a moment before the remnants of the fire, picking up an unmarked tin of what she suspected were probably carrots. With what she'd gathered yesterday they would have enough for the week, though she'd like to find more so they could actually have full bellies for once without also having to worry too much about the next day. Opening the tin with a can opener lying near the precious pile of food she raised an eyebrow in surprise to see baked beans in a sauce, far better than carrots for the calories they'd need. She grabbed a fork and ate half the contents cold to soon leave it atop the others, Applebloom would see it and finish it off when she was awake.

Done with that she began to gather what she'd need for the trek out, getting up and grabbing her pack to double-check everything. It had already been cleared and sorted last night but she didn't want to haul anything that wasn't necessary. Inside was the bottle of water and ration bar she'd held off of having yesterday, a spare filter for the gas mask, and a smaller bag of hex nuts and bolts, nothing else. The fasteners hadn't been necessary yesterday really as she'd used known paths and her Phobos hadn't been alerted to anything much, yet today she was braving a less travelled route and she did always feel safer having it to hoof.

Applejack took the smaller bag out and clipped it to the upper foreleg of her jacket, then doing up her pack and bringing it over to her weapons. The lever-action hadn't been cleaned when she returned last night, she'd been too tired, but it was sturdy and she really didn't need to strip it every day. Time had been spent to fit the pulse rifle with the two newer gem-cores from the park though, so it should be good for at least twenty good shots, hopefully more. It would take encountering a monster to test the level of output, she wasn't going to waste what charge it had otherwise. Throwing the pack on and slinging the weapons around herself after, she confirmed the Nova grenade was still securely attached, then sheathing her knife and grabbing the hoof-dusters.

Finishing up by chucking on her boots, the gloves came after so she could fit on the hoof-dusters, and finally she placed her gas mask around her neck and the Phobos in an upper pocket, throwing on her poncho to hide them from sight. The weight of everything she carried wasn't detrimental at the moment given earthen strength, though she'd certainly feel it when it came to getting into a fight or needing to run away, yet she'd manage it the same as usual.

A brief glance towards the steamer trunk and she saw that Applebloom had tidied away all the spare bits and tools, and the radio itself looked complete, but she knew they still lacked a majority of connective electronics for its inner workings. Maybe she'd find something usable on today's venture and get them that much closer to getting out of here.

Turning back to where they kept their weapons, she picked up a hefty revolver with an attached magitech hoof-brace built around it, the only other gun they had. It was a bit big for Applebloom yet she managed it well enough. They'd taken it from a dead mare during a firefight between some warring factions they'd been caught in the crossfire of some time ago, luckily getting out with their lives and the gun. Quite some time had been spent fixing the hoof-brace's mechanism to make the pistol workable for hooves again as it had been damaged, using parts for it that could have gone into the radio, but having good protection was paramount to their immediate survival. The gem and its basic connections were all still intact, and she brought it over to the sleeping bag.

"I'm heading out, 'Bloom. Need ya up," she said, watching as the bedding soon mumbled and shifted.

Applebloom yawned as she unzipped the bag and stuck her head out, raising up a hoof to take the weapon as she smacked her lips. Applejack hoofed it over and watched Applebloom also check it as she'd been taught to do before fitting the brace around her right hoof, slowly stumbling to all fours and shivering as she trotted over to the firepit to finish off the half-eaten tin left for her. She thumped onto her haunches and picked it up along with a spoon, quickly digging in and turning back to Applejack.

"Can ya try an' be back before sundown?" Applebloom asked her through a mouthful of beans.

Applejack shrugged. "I can only promise that I'll do mah best to. I gotta go the alternate route, that sniper might be waitin' again, an' there ain't no tellin' if them folk I wronged are still alive an' holed up along the main road in wantin' to get revenge."

Applebloom frowned. "The way you told it, their guy shot at ya first, an' all ya actually stole was some fruit."

"That don't mean they ain't gonna be sore on both counts," she replied, moving to the room's exit and lifting the makeshift bar they'd set up across it to block entry from this side of the station. She placed it against the wall and shimmied her gear around to get it more comfortable. "I aint riskin' it, an' the alternate route should be pretty clear by now. How many shots does yer pistol have?"

"Four outta six."

"That's right. Be sure to-"

"-Put the bar back across, keep quiet if I do some work, monsters aren't likely to show up but hide in the floor if they do an' leave the Hound blood out to throw 'em off, if bandits show up hide until the last possible second an' aim fer their heads," Applebloom recited, sounded a little weary. "...An' save the last bullet fer myself, I know, Sis."

Applejack nodded solemnly. "I know you do, 'Bloom. I just worry when I ain't here fer ya."

"So then get back as quick as ya can." Applebloom said, a slight smirk on her muzzle. "That or you can take me along with ya."

Applejack gave her a flat smile, swallowing the fear in her belly she got everyday when she left the station. She opened the door into the empty room next to them, cold air breezing and light spilling into the building from the destroyed walls and ceiling. It didn't matter how damaged the station looked, one day she knew somepony was going to come exploring and she just hoped that she was here when it happened. She looked out of the gaps and still saw nothing in the surrounding area, moving back and giving Applebloom a tight hug and a well wish before shutting the door.

As soon as she heard the bar go down she turned and made to leave. Applejack put her hood up to hide her mane, noting the bullet graze across the back of her neck had healed up in the night. It was a small measure of comfort to her current fugue. She knew she'd feel a little less worried once she got going, Applebloom was a capable young mare and had proved that she could protect herself if she needed to, and she'd hide away in their little hole if anything or anypony came along until she couldn't. It was a very unsuspecting spot and with any luck anypony with less than friendly intentions would focus more on the unattended food and parts in the steamer trunk than a notable lack of people in the room, perhaps believing that they'd gotten lucky and discovered the station whilst its occupants were elsewhere.

It was just another risk they had to deal with. What scared her were the unknown variables, and that was everything these days. Applejack had always found solace in structure and routine, her fastidious nature got along with such things like a house on fire, yet there was no semblance of any clear paths to take anymore beyond a general idea. The future was dark and incredibly uncertain to the point that she found herself afraid of whatever lay ahead. She feared these waking moments, the simple ever-present fear of danger that surrounded every movement and never went away, no matter how hard she pushed the feeling to the back of her mind and told it to stay there.

All she could do was bury it as much as possible and keep on. Her friends were likely in the same boat, and she couldn't imagine what Applebloom must feel like having lost the normal future she should have grown up with. Yet even with their troubles and what had happened so far Applebloom was emulating her big sister and keeping a stiff upper lip, refusing to cry and staying strong for everypony else's sake.

Applejack was waiting for it to come crashing down, and she'd be ready to hold Applebloom when the time came, the realisation and existential dread that came from truly thinking about what the future held and the possible hopelessness of their plight. It would hit her at a moment of weakness and she would need to be there to pick her little sister back up.

They had to believe they had a future.

Shaking her head at the sombre thoughts, she watched the niveous flats ahead before she hopped down between the worn platforms onto the cess, pacing between the burnt or rotting sleepers of the rusted tracks and across to the opposite side. She didn't pull herself up onto the platform above at first, instead moving to one of the boxy recesses underneath that was tightly covered over, a small bucket just outside it much the same. The bucket was quickly checked, a hoof lifting the makeshift lid to see the special filter was apparently still working, though she was a little disappointed at the level of water. Opening the gap she saw the cultivated soil inside and didn't see much progress in it, and she pushed a hoof into the frontmost patch of dirt.

Applejack breathed deep and let her innate magic surge briefly, letting it flow into the earth and the seeds that still hadn't shown much growth. The mushrooms hadn't progressed either which was rather unfortunate. She'd done her best to contain the area to keep out the hazardous elements, gathered soil where she could that wasn't irradiated, and used filtered water that they could have drunk to help the plant life flourish. Sadly, not a lot was happening still, and latent radiation was probably still bleeding in. It might have been better had she found some fertiliser, but that was something of a pipe dream and this was currently as good as it got.

Maybe it might show some progress over the next week.

Making sure she securely covered the gap again, she pulled herself up onto the platform above, seeing the flats were still clear. A studious eye went to the giant dark scar in the land as she moved on ahead, taking the usual path around it. Here and there were small rock piles set into the ground, a few covered with a small layer of snow which she brushed off as she stopped by them so she could find them again later. They were spaced oddly, differently shaped, and far enough from one another that it shouldn't arouse suspicion as to the route they mapped out. They formed a guide to keep her clear of dangers as the flats weren't safe from radiation or anomalies either, her Phobos even gently clicking when she passed certain markers that were 'safe'. She'd gotten out and back yesterday without getting held up, though it didn't mean she could every single day.

Applejack stopped suddenly as her Phobos ticked quicker approaching another marking stone, eyes darting around and not seeing anything strange around herself, no distortions or flickers in the air or snow swirling about in a small wind. It was never good if the Phobos was ticking heavily and there weren't any obvious signs as to why, she'd heard about undetectable anomalies before and she hoped never to encounter one. Grabbing the small bag on her foreleg she reached in and retrieved a bolt, sharply throwing it out in front of her. She held her breath as the bolt sailed through the air, and she watched it land some distance ahead from the marker without any issue, but her Phobos was still warning her of something. She threw out another to her left, flinching back a little as it travelled a bit before squarely stopping in place, a strange echo keening through the air as it then slowly melted down into dross whilst falling to the ground.

Just her luck, this hadn't been here yesterday.

Most folk she'd encountered called them Melts, because that's pretty much what they did. Metal objects would almost instantaneously and simply melt down into nothing, rather quickly the smaller they were. A Melt didn't immediately kill a pony though, instead, if they found themselves absently stepping into one they'd overheat and begin to have severe migraines and muscle cramps. They would have very little time to get out of it again before they started to bleed from their orifices as then their organs began to melt. There did exist a similar anomaly known as Slags that for some reason only damaged inorganic material. Whilst they would make one feel uncomfortably warm and give varying degrees of headache or migraine they wouldn't kill outright, though she wasn't about to test if this was one or not.

Her breathing quickened as she did feel a slight increase in warmth, and she carefully took a few steps to the right, throwing out a nut towards the direction of the giant scar and feeling thankful it touched down without incident. Applejack made it to the next marker without any trouble as the Phobos calmed down, and she relaxed a little better as she safely moved to the one after as well.

Such things always had to be kept in mind even when going around familiar places, the land could shift overnight or even hourly in certain areas. She took a moment to breathe as she soon passed the flats into the beginnings of the gnarled forest. Granny Smith would have called that encounter a bad omen, and it didn't bode well for the rest of her trip. Regardless, she continued onward towards Threshold moving on to a well travelled hoofpath outside of the city that soon led parallel to a road leading inward, and she broke off to follow another way around the outskirts. The beaten path she came to had been laid by others in the past simply by way of walking it a great deal, with plenty of old and obvious landmarks or objects that had since built up and overlapped to the point that it was simply clutter.

The only real use now was cover to utilise from the overlooking city. Particular care was taken to keep between corroded burn barrels and worn wooden barricades, moving along the semi-clear dirt road whilst keeping ready for any trouble that might come her way. On the route she paused by a makeshift metal structure built out of old iron pipes appearing to be somepony's attempt at recreating a radio tower on a smaller scale. It held a sign reading Hocks Place, with 2 miles written beneath it, the sign pointing towards the direction she was headed.

Hocks Place, as it turned out, had been a small outpost within the city near the eastern side where she assumed people had once traded with one another. When she'd gone to check it out a few days after initially arriving near Threshold however, she'd only found a deserted and empty shop with numerous bullet holes riddling the place and old blood stains on the floor. It had remained that way since, as she'd thought setting up there wouldn't have been within the best of ideas.

The sign was a simple mark of history at this point, it made her wistful.

Applejack trod past the tower, boots softly crunching in the snow underhoof as she went. A light chilly breeze was her only companion as she continued on her trek for some time. Her eyes glanced this way and that, she was always wary, and thankfully unnoticed for now. Her breath wasn't clouding nearly as much as time progressed, so the temperature was going up, she could feel the gentle warmth of the sun as it climbed into the sky. Following the way this far along past the tower signalled a minor waypoint, a small cairn of sorts marking what she supposed had been a death, and she shifted her shotgun down to rest beneath her as she soon came up to a long-since disused military checkpoint. It only held a few rusted trucks with rotting tires, a thick layer of black ice and fresh snow laying across everything, with anything that might be of use quickly looted in the wake of the Singularity. She swiftly moved up behind a shot-up sandbag emplacement to listen out for a few seconds.

There wasn't much to be heard except the gentle flow of wind through the area, whistling between the old vehicles and cold bones as she looked around for danger. Moving from her cover, she trotted over to one of the trucks to snap off its still-intact mirror, rubbing her hoof into the hard dirt and then onto the mirror's face. It was slightly bigger than the one she'd lost yesterday, but hopefully it wouldn't affect what she could easily put into her backpack without having to screw around organising it. Shoving it into her pack, she went past the truck to move along an actual side road leading in that the checkpoint had been set up on. No mind was given to keep to the cluttered path that continued along to the main road on the other side of the city.

That way lay a sizable encampment just a few hundred hooves down a hill, she'd spotted it before in the distance along with numerous ponies and a few gryphons milling about it and not looked back. There was no trusting they weren't simply bandits, and she wasn't going to risk her life checking. If she could see them it was a certainty they could have seen her, and she refused to stick around long enough for them to get any ideas.

The snowy side road she went on travelled toward Threshold for a short period until a few remote buildings started to appear. The small and damaged roadside shops of brick and wood she passed had once sold produce. She stuck to the edge of the road and kept close to the rundown shops when she came up on them, just in case she needed to duck behind one from long-distance fire. It was also so that she could peer through their broken windows to see if anypony had taken up residence since her last trip this way; it wouldn't do well to alarm a squatter or let herself be ambushed. Nothing was out of the ordinary as she went on her way, not until some distance had been crossed, her Phobos once again ticking up as she neared a half-collapsed shop that she suspected somepony had once set a grenade or two off inside of given its poor state.

Before she could utilise the bag on her foreleg, there came a low throaty growl from within the ruined building. Her breath hitched as she realised the sound and immediately went for her pulse rifle, slipping it off her back and moving upright onto her hindlegs just as a mutated and strongly-muscled hairless paw moved out from behind the nearest broken wall. Crunching onto the crumbled bricks around it, the next paw appeared as well as the rest of the massive twisted beast, its bulky disfigured head turning in her direction as it came into view. A Direwolf, of all fucking things. Baring yellow teeth as large as railroad spikes, its growl deepened whilst it suddenly lurched into a rush toward her. Applejack got the rifle up and her hooves secured in both its trigger and hoof guards as the Direwolf crossed the distance between them in a flash.

The shot was swiftly lined up, and she immediately backed off whilst aiming for its huge head, squeezing in the pulse rifle's blocky trigger so that it could charge. The pointed tip at its fore glowed with purple light before she then released, the rifle emitting a flash as it fired out a bright bolt of scorching energy. She missed the Direwolf's head in her agitation as it came for her, but the bolt struck its side and made the beast howl and fumble as its flesh was burned away. It was a good enough shot despite her missing her main target, the rifle's power was about at the right amount she hoped it would be.

Squeezing the trigger in again she knew she'd land the headshot, though before she could release the trigger there was a sudden flare and crack as the Direwolf lunged for her, the space next to it suddenly arced out with furious thunder. Applejack fumbled back and shouted in alarm as the area was all-too-quickly bathed in electricity from a triggered Strike anomaly. She cursed as her shot went wide and she landed on her rifle, ignoring the ache in her ribs and scrambling back to get away from the violent energy crackling through the air. Her mane stood on end as she watched the Direwolf be struck by multiple bolts of lightning emanating from the Strike's rapidly fluctuating glow, the huge beast failing to get away from the maelstrom. It crashed into the road and loudly yowled in pain as the anomaly continued to rage on.

Strike pulses continued to thump into its prone form until the Direwolf shuddered and went still with a growling sigh, and she remained frozen in place outside of its range, not daring to move an inch lest she be struck. It seemed an age until the anomaly stopped fluctuating and finally settled back into a semi-dark inertia, and she felt like she could breathe again properly as silence fell. Slowly gathering herself she got back onto her hooves whilst her nerves calmed some, keeping the pulse rifle secure on its sling below her rather than the shotgun as she slowly moved past the Direwolf's corpse. Very carefully, she kept herself at several hoof lengths from the Strike, keenly aware that their distances to activate tended to wildly vary.

The Melt earlier really had been a bad omen, if encountering both a Direwolf and a Strike at the same time was any indication of her luck. Her Phobos was slowly ticking away due to her close proximity to the anomaly, though she was apparently safe for the time being. The Strike had discharged a majority of its energy now and would take a while before it built up such a level of power again. That didn't mean it wouldn't hurt her if it was activated a second time, the effect wouldn't be as strong but it would still likely burn her quite badly. Applejack supposed she might actually count herself rather lucky the Strike had been there, as if she'd managed to miss her shot on the Direwolf then without it she'd probably still be tussling with the beast.

That or she'd have been its breakfast.

A small misted huff escaped her as she just wished she'd noticed the Strike's light haze, it must have been camouflaged against the snow surrounding it. Applejack glanced back at the shimmering veil where it still retained a hint of its just-expended power with annoyance, eyes then flicking to the dead Direwolf laying near the centre of the road. She honestly would have liked to butcher it for the meat. With snow all around it wasn't a terrible idea to get as much as she could and pack it into a mound to freeze whilst she did her errand. Later she could transport it back to the station and freeze it again, ultimately keeping it for trade or, Celestia forbid, eating if they ran low on food. Quite a few ponies had turned to eating meat rations in the months following the Singularity, and it wasn't as if they couldn't eat it. There had been no laws against it before the laws had collapsed, and plenty of hardy northern ponies around the Frozen North living on its harsh tundras had happily subsisted on fish, but personally it just didn't sit quite right with her.

It was best to leave it for the time being, with any luck the corpse would still be there later.

She wanted winter clothing far more.

The Phobos stopped its lamenting once she'd gotten far enough away from the Strike. Threshold's taller buildings loomed as she approached, blocks of derelict flats and dead frozen skyscrapers both looking down on everything else around them with an ominous presence. There was an oddly eerie sound to the city early in the day as the wind picked up and howled through its countless ruptured surfaces. Thanks to the overlapping myriad of sounds, she had to make a point of really keeping an ear out for others. Between the occasional distant shot of a gun firing, baying howls of creatures braving the day, and the thud of hooves or boots against the ground, there was much to keep alert and wary for.

Case in point, she swiftly moved and ducked behind the corner of the nearest building as quietly as possible when there was an audible crunch up ahead. The sound came from beyond the ruined vehicles laying in the road, of a hoof stepping on something icy that broke into pieces. A quick peek out with her shotgun ready, and she saw a small group of three moving through the area, two stallions and a mare. They were all dressed quite well rather than being wrapped in rags, and all of them were armed, the mare having a heavy coat well-suited for the weather. Almost immediately one of the stallions glanced up, most likely seeing her in his enhanced peripherals. Applejack held her position without any action and kept his gaze as he quickly alerted his two companions to her presence, their heads turning towards her as well whilst they tensed.

"No trouble!" he shouted over at her after a moment. The group promptly moved on, though they looked back over their shoulders at her occasionally, probably to see if she'd try to shoot them in the back.

Everypony was wary of one another which was good, it helped them live longer.

She only left her spot when she was sure that the group had moved on, weaving through the frost and dirt between the broken down vehicles and crashed propulsives on the road. Usually she'd stick to the edges of a street, though during the day if she ran into somepony hostile it was best to have plenty of cover. Glancing around briefly, she roughly knew the way she needed to go from here to get to the shopping centre. Thankfully she didn't have to follow behind the trio to get there, that would have made them very uncomfortable. If she did have to then they might be likely to open fire at her, thinking her a bandit or prowling opportunist waiting to strike whilst they were gaskin-deep in shit.

Her Phobos ticked on occasion as she neared certain areas, and she avoided small pockets of radiation that had built up in alleys or around large chunks of irradiated stone within craters smashed into the ground. Applejack had done trade with a stallion who had told her that when the Singularity had hit, that some buildings made of certain types of stone had absorbed a heavy level of radiation. Nopony could safely settle in them or traverse them all the way up to the top, because that was where most of it had been concentrated. Over time the buildings had crumbled from the damage unleashed by the resulting insane weather and crashed down below to create numerous unsafe areas that monsters liked to lurk around.

She neared her destination just as the sun wasn't far off its zenith, the sizable shopping centre coming into view as she turned onto the same road that linked up with the abandoned park she'd scavenged in yesterday. Upon her approach, a gunshot rang out not too far from her current position, sending her hastily ducking under a lopsided lorry bed. A few seconds later it was followed by another, and luckily it wasn't at her. It sounded as if it had come from within the shopping centre but it could have possibly been behind it, she couldn't be sure. In either case it wasn't good as it meant activity around the area. Whilst she'd expected that she might possibly encounter one or two people seeing as it was daytime, she'd been hearing far more gunfire than she was used to, especially over the past few days.

Try as she might, she couldn't help but wonder if it had anything at all to do with the malicious rumour that had initially gotten her and Applebloom stuck here in the first place. Applejack didn't doubt that there had been others like them or the group of scum they'd encountered to be interested in the fantastical story. A slight growl left her as she knew she shouldn't let herself dwell on it.

As soon as it was quiet again she paced out from under the cold wreck, sneaking along the nearest underhang so that her line of sight was clear behind and in front. The pillars and arches of the once-fancy buildings exteriors she was trudging under were horrendously weather beaten, numerous chunks broken from their designs from somepony having once used the underhang for cover too. Sitting down for a scant moment before she reached the end, she retrieved the new mirror from her pack, checking the turn-offs with it for any signs of danger as she neared them. They seemed clear for now, though it didn't help that there was a sizable distance between where she waited on the edge of the overhang and the shopping centre ahead. A two-way road sat between them and surrounded the building, and only a wide open icy vehicle park with low walls and a few derelicts for any form of cover awaited her.

Applejack tucked the mirror's stalk into the neck of her jacket, a little uncomfortable against her chest but that was fine. Steeling herself, she broke into a gallop, and didn't dare slow until she'd jumped the wall and gotten down between two loosely spaced cars corroding with rust. No shots at her yet. Taking another breath or two she kept herself steady as she sprinted again towards the only entrance she could see, avoiding piles of rubble as she ran and slowed only when she was a few hooves from the double doors. They were already open with their glass plating smashed, and she went as carefully and quickly as possible as she stepped through onto grimy marble flooring, immediately dipping into the nearest store through its broken window to get her out of the open hall.

She bundled herself into a collection of musty summer wear, the garments mouldy where the damp had blown in. It wasn't the kind of clothing store she was after. Moments ticked as she kept low and breathed gently. She didn't hear anypony moving around, and waited a bit longer just in case somepony had heard her approaching the shopping centre and had also hunkered down to catch her unawares. A few minutes passed whilst she waited, and maybe she was simply being paranoid but she could have sworn she heard hoofsteps much deeper within the building.

Staying here all day wasn't an option, so she slowly rose and trotted over through the worn racks and shelves towards the store's main exit. The mirror from her jacket came out again as it was certainly going to be invaluable. She edged it out and checked the left hall, then turned it right and saw both ways were clear, for now at least. All that she could see were wide and open empty spaces built-up with the rubbish and the remains of looted shopfronts, blown-in leaves alongside layered frozen detritus covering the open floors, and frost and grime that had settled on stairs, railings, escalators, or around the pillars connecting to the upper floor.

Once proud banners hanging from the ceiling that depicted happy ponies shopping and the amazing sales they could have were now tattered and faded, the rot eating those away too as mould crept over their lengths. Strips had been torn out in places from the Hewbats she spied nesting in the gaps between the smashed open roof panes in the ceiling and the uppermost corners, the beasts occasionally swooping around from place to place with light cries.

It was easy to surmise the overall floor plan as it was rather simple. The hall she'd come into from one entrance went along to another set of double doors, connecting and going left at the middle to branch into another connecting hall with the same openings. The overall shape of the shopping centre resembled a letter H, with stores on every available bit of space around its inner edges.

There were three floors in total with the first floor holding the outdoor store that she was after, somewhat central on the opposite side to her position according to an information board she could read in the face of her mirror. With another glance both ways again just to be sure, she tucked the mirror back into her jacket before carefully moving out of the clothing store, tensed and with her shotgun still ready beneath her. Creeping towards the escalator she scanned the upper level for any danger, not hearing anything or seeing anypony. It could have been that maybe she'd simply heard an echo of her own movements as she'd come inside. The escalator was slick with ice as she stepped up its metal-plated stairs, noting the imprints of boots and hooves in the frost that she couldn't be certain were fresh or not.

There were numerous stores dedicated to clothing and hobbies when she reached the first floor as she had a quick scan around, turning right towards the outdoor store and feeling a little peeved to see at a glance that it was extremely barren. It was far smaller than she had expected it might be. She could already see the walls, shelves, and racks were spotty in what they offered, but what was there could be made to work if need be. Quick hooves promptly carried her into the store, and she gently pushed aside broken glass underhoof before putting her boots down carefully against the wooden flooring. She went to the nearest coats, annoyed that nearly all of them were in terrible condition. The fur was utterly mouldy where the coats had been left alone to battle against the elements.

First thinking about something for Applebloom, the most that she found was a slightly less tattered coat with a minimal amount of mould on it. Frustratingly she came up empty, and decided to check the back room. Quietly moving through the rear door into a small open area lined with metal shelving units at its back, she trod between them inspecting what garments there were. Many lower parts of the shelves had a few sealed boxes amongst plenty of torn open ones with their contents carelessly strewn around, all partly worn down from the cold streaming in and affecting them.

Applejack tore open a larger unopened box that hadn't been too damaged by the damp, only finding it to be full of woolly beanies. They weren't what she was after, but she took several of them just in case, shuffling off her backpack and stuffing them in. The pack was left momentarily as she tore open another smaller box. A slight grin graced her features, seeing a good mix of assorted foals hiking wear, soon finding a larger sized fur-lined coat in excellent condition as she rummaged around. It would fit Applebloom perfectly with room to spare, the coat being on the bigger side would be good for both layering and for when Applebloom grew. As an additional pick, she took two pairs of gloves and hoof warmers for her too as it was going to get very cold within the coming months.

An ear twitched as she took a couple of still-packaged thermal leggings off a shelf behind her, pausing in her search around for something coat-like for herself. There were voices echoing from some way outside the store, somewhere along to the right. She froze up momentarily before hastily reasserting control, grabbing her pack and sneaking as fast as possible into a small alcove indenting the wall that would readily hide her from view. Her back met the peeling mould-streaked wallpaper as she pushed herself up onto her hindlegs into a corner with her shotgun prepped, throwing the pack and what she'd gained down to one side. Applejack waited tensely and listened out, the voices getting closer as a sweat started to build up her back. The odds were never good, even if only one of them came in she'd still be in trouble, and she didn't fancy her chances against a bigger group at all.

"Guppy, go check that one real quick. Grab me a jacket or something, and Zip some gloves, we're gonna go up a floor."

"Yeah."

Shit.

Applejack felt wound up like a spring as she breathed as gently as possible, hearing the crunch of Guppy's boots on the broken glass covering the floor as the stallion stepped through one of the store windows. He stepped around making sound indiscreetly looking for the items, not knowing that there weren't any gloves that he'd find in good condition, not until he looked near the till where she'd seen some behind it on a rack. That was much too close to the back room for her liking, if he came through then she was going to have to fight him. He shuffled through rubbish and clothing she'd already kicked through for a few agonising minutes that stretched on forever, and there was a brief pause as she heard him reach the tills and quietly exclaim upon seeing the gloves. She really hoped he cared less about the conditions of the jackets and just picked one so he'd leave soon enough, and then she could get out of he-

No, he was moving into the back. This was about to go from bad to worse.

He was passing through the door, and he'd soon be walking right by her. The alcove was big enough that she'd be hidden from his sight until he was right on top of her, yet even if he wasn't looking for anypony he'd still immediately spot her in the corner of his vision. Contact was going to be unavoidable. It was just him right now, his group was elsewhere, she had to be careful about this in order to get out quietly. Applejack readied her hoof-dusters, flicking them onto her coronets. Her shotgun was in place below her just in case she had no other options, but a hoof first went to her combat knife. There was a slight chill that crept up her spine and her stomach dropped as she withdrew it. She really didn't want to have to use it, holding her breath as Guppy's shuffling grew more audible.

As she expected, the split-second he entered into her view his head snapped up towards her, his vibrant blue eyes going wide in shock.

Applejack lunged.

"Oh shit!" he shouted as they collided.

He yelped in alarm as she just managed to wrap her hooves around both his torso and gun hoof as they fell to the floor. He was a pegasus, and she didn't want him using his wings to bat at her, grab his gun from its brace, or make a fast exit. His free hoof smacked her in the face, before she fully threw herself forwards and headbutted him squarely on the nose in return. It delayed him enough that she followed it up with a hard punch to his jaw with a hoof-duster, shifting herself to grab him again and bring the knife in her other hoof up to his throat whilst he was temporarily stunned by the attack. It put an immediate halt to his struggling, his wings going deathly still as she pushed the blade against his skin. He sucked in a breath as she held it there threateningly. Her free hoof moved down to his side and tore the semi-automatic pistol he had out of its brace, momentarily tucking it into one of her jacket's outer pockets.

"That's right, nice an' quie-"

"Hey Guppy, what's up?!"

Applejack glowered at the voice coming from outside the store, pushing the edge of her knife against Guppy's throat just a little harder. "Hewbat, tell 'em."

"U-uh... just a-another fuckin' Hewbat, took me by surprise!" Guppy shouted out after swallowing his shock, his luminous eyes looking back at her with fear. "B-be out in a sec!"

A very tense few seconds passed, nopony came to check the situation.

"Good, that's good. I don't wanna hurt ya, Guppy," she whispered, frowning a little at her words. "Well, anymore than I already did, I jus' wanna get outta here without gettin' shot fer the trouble."

"M-my buddies wouldn't─"

"I can't trust that, an' I won't," she sharply cut him off, keeping her voice low. "I'm surrounded by unknown people, Guppy, a group of folk I ain't sure ain't bandits that'd shoot me fer being alone an' easy pickin's. Would you trust that with yer life?"

"...Probably not," he conceded.

"Exactly."

A few more seconds passed, and Guppy spoke up. "W-what now?"

"Now? Well, I would have had a look about fer a coat, an' now there ain't no time, so I'm awful sorry but I'll be takin' yers. It looks to be in better condition than mah jacket is," she said, as she'd seen that he was wearing a weathered duster. Even though it was made for pegasi with holes in the back for their wings to poke through it would work, and it was in very good repair. It wasn't a coat but he got the idea, and quickly nodded. "I'm gonna back off, an' you can take it off real slow, an' don't go makin' any quick movements or shoutin' out 'cos otherwise I'm gonna have to shoot ya. Most likely yer group'll gun me down but I still got a chance of gettin' out, you'd be dead 'fore ya hit the ground."

He swallowed, nodding again, and she abruptly shoved off and upright, bringing her shotgun up fast with a hoof and keeping it partly level as she sheathed the knife so she could fully support the frame. As she'd ordered, he carefully got to his hooves and shifted the duster off using his wings. He gently tossed it forward and waited for what she would do next. It didn't sound as if Guppy's friends were coming to check on him yet, so she carefully stepped over to one of the shelves whilst keeping the shotgun trained on him. The shelf had some full thermal undersuits she'd not have minded having were they not so mouldy, and took them off with a hoof, a little awkward on her back hooves as she moved over to him.

"Turn."

Guppy mutely faced about and she had to make the conscious decision to let the shotgun hang on its sling as she took one of the undersuits and pulled it taught. The material was long and stretchy enough that she could pull it around him and use it like a rope. He didn't attempt to push her off with his wings as she chucked it over his head and tied it in a quick double knot around his midsection, just about managing it with the length. It was probably a bit tight as Guppy grunted from being jostled about whilst she did the second knot up, but he'd be found soon enough by his friends once she left.

Applejack took her hooves off of him for a scant second to ready the second undersuit in order to gag him, her heart doing a somersault as he instantly made an attempt to bolt. His wings struggled at the makeshift binding whilst she lunged forward to grab him, a foreleg going around his head. He tried desperately to shake her off to no avail, and she grabbed for her knife to pacify him into compliance again.

"GUYS! GUYS CO-"

Before he could keep shouting her knife had left its sheath and the blade stabbed upwards under his muzzle. She clenched tightly as he violently jerked, the knife very easily pierced up through the soft flesh towards the back of his throat. He spasmed and grunted in agony, his words cutting off and his wings erratically twitching as he gasped in an futile attempt to keep shouting out.

A fast-welling rock arose in her throat and tears threatened at the corners of her eyes as she gripped his head harder with both hooves, feeling the blade sink deeper to the hilt whilst the warmth of his lifeblood flowed over her foreleg from the fatal wound she'd inflicted. Slowly, his spasms subsided into gentle twitches over the painfully long seconds, and he wretchedly gasped as he died from the shock. His fluttering wings slowly eased and went limp at his sides. She released a quiet distressed cry of horror, struggling to breathe in the scent of his blood as she held his corpse against her chest.

"You stupid bastard, why'd ya go an'... w-why'd ya... ya stupid..." she whispered into his ear as she gently cradled him. "...mm'sorry..."

"Guppy? What's going on, dude?!"

Applejack stiffened again, the voice was rapidly approaching. She needed to move right now, she needed to leave right now. Trying to keep down her revulsion, she let go of Guppy's lifeless body as she held back a sob with tears blurring her vision, fighting to stop herself choking as she shakily picked up his duster. His blood had gotten everywhere. The front of her poncho and jacket were stained a dark red just like her forelegs, and a quick hopeless attempt to wipe his blood off only succeeded in spreading the stain further. As quickly as she could, she went over and stuffed the duster into her backpack, along with the additional clothing, the mirror, and his pistol she'd put in her pocket. Hooves then crunched onto the glass within the store's entrance area, just as she'd clasped the pack shut and swung it on.

There wasn't going to be anywhere to hide, and the next stranger would soon see Guppy and either shout out or run away to alert his fellows. That meant fighting her way out. Taking a few queasy breaths to steady herself, she swiftly sheathed her knife and repositioned. With an exerting push she forced herself upright again and weightily rested against the front wall of the backroom as she pointed the shotgun at the doorway. Her heart was beating a million miles a minute, and she was trying to keep her breathing under control as she blinked away tears, though she wasn't having any success.

Applejack really didn't want to have to kill anypony else today.

"Hey, you having trouble with the Hewbats in here, Guppy? Did one bite you on the dick?'' said a stallion, a navy unicorn in a heavy winter coat, as he stepped through into the back, then quickly saw Guppy's corpse and her instantly afterward with her shotgun in his face. The smile on his muzzle abruptly vanished. "Oh, what the fuck..."

"I don't wanna kill ya, I jus' wanna leave, please," Applejack whispered desperately, her eyes flicking to his horn and over the pump-action shotgun on his back. "Take yer shotgun off, no magic, alright?"

"Go fuck yourself, my friends are gonna kill you slow," he growled at her.

"Take it off now," she said back a little more sternly, her already fast heart rate ticking up. "Please don't make me shoot ya, I don't wanna kill nopony else but I will if I have to."

He was clearly sizing her up and seeing if she'd follow through on that statement. He didn't respond and she wondered if he was trying to delay her and waste time, but he soon relented with an angry sigh. One hoof went back slowly, grabbing the pump shotgun by its middle, and he began to ease it off from around himself.

...Before he then swiftly rushed at her, knocking aside her shotgun as she tried to fire at him, and failing as his horn flared to life and held the trigger. He only just succeeded in pulling her to the floor, hastily trying to shove his horn into her face to gore her through an eye. Adrenaline pumping, she yelled in frustration as a hoof came up and the hoof-duster solidly connected with his chin in a weighty impact of metal on flesh. His head snapped back from the heavy blow as if struck by thunder. Applejack surged, smacking forwards with her other hoof-duster into his side and making him shout out in pain as his ribs were struck by the brass. Refusing to let up, earthen strength allowed her to compel herself up onto her haunches even with his full weight atop her, and she hastily threw another punch as he fell back, striking into his raised forelegs.

She launched herself at him and smacked at his horn as he tried to use his magic to lift his shotgun at her. The action stopped his casting dead and he stumbled through the likely wave of nausea it sent him into, though he still wildly flailed and scored a few lucky hits on her. The hits were a minor discomfort and she grunted past them as she brought down another heavy hoof across his face, hearing a crunch as her hoof-duster broke his nose whilst he choked out a cry of pain. Another punch went into his side where she'd already hit and she heard something crack there as well, letting up as he groaned in agony.

"Stay where ya are," she ordered, stepping back as she got to all fours, and then willing herself upright to get her shotgun into place. "Don't try to-"

His horn glowed weakly and he ensnared his own shotgun, trying to bring it around.

"Don't!"

He still made the attempt along with trying to rise, his pump-action getting about halfway with his magic clearly surrounding the trigger ready to fire. It was easy to beat him to the punch as she was already raising her lever-action, her shotgun roaring at the last possible second. His horn winked out and his weapon dropped, the stallion convulsing animalistically as he collapsed back to the floor, chest blasted with a close concentration of pellets whilst some had torn into his neck and legs. Applejack couldn't force herself to look away as he wheezed at his torso being ripped open through his clothing. He could hardly breathe and was only able to take in pitifully strangled gasps as he laid there staring into the ceiling, incapable of doing anything as his lungs filled with blood. There was a painful shock etched across his face, a dark redness rapidly spreading through the undershirt beneath his open winter coat.

"I-I warned ya..." she told him uselessly as she cycled the action to let the spent shell eject, and knew she couldn't stay and help him. "I'm sorry."

The two downed stallions' other friends were quickly approaching, she could hear the loud shouts of alarm and anger from outside the storefront. Her lever-action only had three shells left and they'd be bearing down upon her soon, and she didn't know how many there were or what they were armed with. The hoof-dusters flicked up and swiftly went over on all fours to the dying stallion, barely sitting as she lifted up his shotgun. Hastily ejecting its shells, she saw that they were slugs rather than buckshot, but that would do just fine. Swallowing her discontent, she put a hoof on what she suspected was an ammo pouch hanging off of his coat and opened it to find more shells inside, a random mix of slugs and buckshot both. The buckle was undone as fast as possible and she slipped the pouch with its strap out from around him, putting it around herself and reclasping it as fast as possible.

"What the fuck's going on in there?! Guppy? Crow?!"

"Who's shooting?!"

"Get the fuck out here, whoever you are!"

That was at least three hostile strangers. She wagered they weren't just going to simply walk in, nor did she think she was going to be allowed to leave freely given Crow's attitude towards her. Applejack carefully moved back to the wall before the doorway and let the backpack shift forwards, unclasping the Nova grenade off of it before shrugging it back into place. Its glow became readily more apparent as she unwrapped the cloth covering and gently put a hoof on the grenade's top, twisting the cap to the right until it clicked. It was primed for a one second delay now rather than three seconds, and she took another breath to steady her frazzled nerves.

"Hey there... y'all out there," she shouted out a little lamely.

"What did you do to Crow and Guppy, you bitch!"

"I'm real sorry but Guppy's dead, and Crow's in a bad way, I don't think he has long," she loudly replied to the voice as she glanced at Crow. His breathing had grown shallower and he was barely moving, a wealth of blood completely reddening his front and starting to pool beneath him. "I'd be more than happy to let one of ya come back here with only medical supplies to fix him up, assumin' ya can."

"What, and give you a fucking hostage? Dream on!"

"I... wasn't thinkin' like that at all," she said, frowning at the idea. "I jus' wanna go home, I didn't wanna kill nopony! I just wanted to leave peacefully, they gave me no choice!"

"You're not leavin'!"

"You're dead, Guppy was my best friend!"

Applejack yelled out in surprise as one of them unexpectedly opened fire with an assault rifle, and she fell to the floor whilst tucking in as best she could as the bullets perforated the wall. Plaster sprayed in clouds, clothing exploded in puffs of musty air, and shelving units pinged as bullets rained through into the back area, before one voice shouted for the shooter to stop. She stayed where she was, breathing heavily as her heart pounded in her ears, though she wasted no time in getting her hooves under herself as she moved into low crouch with the Nova grenade at the ready again.

The second she heard two sets of hooves step into the store she pushed forward and slapped the top of the Nova grenade, throwing it out into the main area and tensing up in preparation as she sharply turned away. There was an urgent shout of alarm as then she clasped her eyes shut from the massive flashing pulse that spilled past the doorway, feeling the blasting shockwave and crackle of energy from the Nova grenade's bursting detonation. One of the trio promptly opened fire with a shotgun as he was blinded, the impact hitting a different wall out front rather than the one she was taking cover behind, before they were quickly told to stop as well before they killed one of their own.

The Nova kept on pulsing for a second or two, and when it ceased she swiftly seized the opportunity to bolt, rushing out and instantly galloping towards the exit. She flicked a hoof-duster down, throwing a hard punch into a stumbling stallion's face as he heard her and lifted his assault rifle in her direction despite his lack of vision. The blow knocked him down from the sheer surprise of it, the hoof-duster flicking back up as she kept on running.

Applejack barrelled into a lithe stallion standing in the doorway, he was also a pegasus and she easily forced him aside as she smashed her larger body into him, making him crash back into the walkway railing overlooking the ground floor with a meaty smack. The Nova grenade tended to blind and disorient people for several minutes at a time, moreso with the changes of their eyes, but she didn't trust that somepony might happen to recover much faster than usual ─they hadn't been invented with the Singularity in mind─ and instead of taking the stairs she decidedly leapt over the rail.

It was a bit of a drop but she knew she could take it, landing hard on her hooves in a loud thud when she touched down. Applejack cried out as deep lances of pain shot up her legs, mostly her right from landing more on that side, and collapsed to the grimy marble floor onto her front in a cloud of dirt, the weight of her weapons and pack bearing down. Shakily recovering from the fall and stumbling back up as fast as she could, she broke back into a run as best she was able after a few steadying breaths of stale air.

There were shouts above her from the blinded trio as she kept going, a gunshot from a rifle firing in her general direction but easily missing by a mile as she rounded a corner out of the shopping centre. Her weapons jostled on her back as she alternated between sprinting and jogging thanks to the pain that was throbbing through her body. She growled with the effort and forced herself to move as the strain didn't ease up, taking off for the direction she'd come in from towards the east side of the city. Clumsily winding her way through the vehicle park, the shouts kept up behind her, loudly echoing from within the shopping centre. It took a good moment to pull herself over the low wall surrounding the centre, much slower than she'd have liked, and she went back into a poor run-jog-run cycle whilst taking her chosen path.

With any luck she'd find somewhere relatively safe to hide until the strangers had given up on pursuing her, hopefully recover quickly from her self-inflicted fall, and then, well... maybe reflect on everything that had happened.

3: Opportunities

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Greedy lungfuls of the morning's still-chilly air filled her as she collapsed against the stacked rubble. She heavily rolled back to face the broken ceiling and the glimpses of overcast sky that peeked in through its fractured face from the floor above. Pain arced through each of her legs from both her lengthy fall and her running, and subsequently her back where she'd just thrown herself down against everything she carried. That pain, alongside the numerous bruises she'd obtained from the fighting, was a minor note in her raging mind.

Clutching her precious shotgun in her hooves against her chest, she kept her frantic eyes on the slanted and partially-buried entrance she'd fallen through. Without even thinking about it she had already quickly edged herself into the corner of what appeared to be a small lobby of the dilapidated building she was now taking refuge inside. The smaller details were almost lost to her; the smashed pictures on the walls, the ruined and rotting seating crushed by debris, the frozen desiccated bodies of those that had died, it was all out of mind. The signs that something had once also nested in here were apparent by the bodies missing flesh or the filth that had built up in places, though these things were just as secondary as the immediate threat mattered more.

Applejack couldn't relax, and refused to let herself. They were certainly still coming for her. If it had been her friends that had been killed she'd be tearing down walls with her bare hooves to get at the ponies who'd done it. Whose childhood memories had she irrevocably tainted with the knowledge that the precious others weaved into them were now gone forever, their candles snuffed out by a strange mare that had been hiding in a barren shop. She tried her best to push it down but it was no use. The stallion she'd slaughtered with her knife, Guppy, his blood was still fresh on her, the stallion she'd gunned down with her shotgun, Crow, she could still see his pained grimace. She battled nausea as she tried to breathe, her throat felt blocked and her eyes stung with tears that weren't just the result of her hastened run.

Two more deaths she'd caused, added to the list.

She'd already killed three the previous day...

The only possible solace that she could take in both matters was that she'd never intended to do any harm. Applejack wasn't bloodthirsty and she didn't want to kill, she despised that she had to kill at all. Her attacks on others were and had been in defence of herself and so she could protect Applebloom. It wasn't exactly comforting, but she clung to it all the same.

Her eyes clenched shut as she did her best to deeply breathe in and out, in and out, trying to calm down and ignore the potent smell of blood. That was all she could do right now, simply try to breathe, slow her heartbeat, and do her best to rid herself of agitation as she opened her eyes again to keep them fixed on the doorway. Now was not the time for trauma, there wasn't any room for it at this moment. Compartmentalise now, deal with the trauma later. Much, much later. It was callous but necessary. Slowly, slowly she felt herself shake less as she got herself under control and the adrenaline abated bit by bit, hefting the shotgun and keeping it raised at the open gap in front of her as she swallowed the painful lump in her throat. There were no other ways in, the wide window on the far side was blocked with collapsed debris from the building having fallen on that side, and she had a good angle on the half-buried door. Her eyes cleared as she blinked the tears out of them, the seconds ticking by as they dried on her face and her breathing became more even.

Lock it all down.

There was no danger yet, but it would come soon.

She waited tensely, still shaking a little from the comedown as her ears perked under the hood for any hint of a cry or a shout, any possible sound that might inform her that the group she'd wronged was pursuing her. There wasn't much but the shrill whistling of the wind through the streets and ruins. Whilst the sound was unnerving it at least meant that she was alone for now. After a few more seconds there were some distant gunshots, though those weren't anywhere near her, and she almost believed herself to be in the clear until she heard the distant crunch of a boot on gravel.

It was faint but she'd definitely heard it.

Partly cycling the shotgun's action, she nudged the lever down to peek into the breach and found it had a shell loaded. Thankfully she had already cycled it after the last shot, she just hadn't recalled if she had done so or not in the heat of the moment. Carefully letting the lever move back up into the resting position, she kept her breathing low and the barrel as steady as she could currently manage. Pushing herself back against the rubble, she braced as the heavy steps became louder. There was likely nothing for it, she was probably going to have to shoot somepony again today.

"Hello? Hey, you alright in there?"

...Maybe not? That voice didn't sound hostile, but that trick was what had gotten them into this mess in the first place.

She kept the shotgun level.

"Hey, lady? I saw you running like a pack of fucking Hounds were on your tail, you alright?"

The voice was sharp and bordering on gravelly, almost a bassy baritone. She felt that she could hear a certain level of concern in it underneath the heavy layer of wariness. It was a voice that was also used to being tricked, that much was obvious, and a voice that belonged to a creature that was certainly keeping a weapon at the ready whilst looking around for an ambush. Slowly taking in a deeper breath, she held it whilst the stranger approached her position, her shotgun prepared to fire if she needed to. If she saw the hint of a weapon poke into the doorway first...

The heavy steps ceased.

Applejack waited for a couple of seconds without anything happening before she breathed out and carefully lent to the side to try and peek for the stranger, but to no avail. They must have either realised where she was hiding and were waiting for her to move, or they were simply listening out for where she might be. If they had grenades then they would have thrown them in already had they guessed where she was. Maybe waiting was the best play for now.

"Hey."

Her eyes went wide and she gasped in alarm through another spike of fear as she quickly snapped her head up, her shotgun moving and her hoof ready on the trigger. Applejack spotted the gryphon peeking at her through the gaps in the damaged floor above as her shotgun began to point in his direction, before he quickly darted down in a flash, a hand moving imperceptibly fast as he grabbed the barrel in his talons. Before she could pull the trigger or fight back he'd snatched the weapon from her weaker grasp and partly caught her legs up in the weapon's sling. She was prevented from moving too easily by it, so she tried to edge towards grabbing her pulse rifle instead.

"Calm down, lady. I'm not gonna shoot you."

There was an attempt to pull her weapon back but it was futile, and she snorted in anger at him as she tried to thrash out of the sling. The sound of her briefly struggling atop her pile of rubble echoed slightly off the walls around them. It was more an annoyed gesture of being caught stupidly unaware if nothing else. A few seconds passed before she stopped, and instead of trying to kick at him she allowed herself to ease up just a bit, the gryphon staying in place with a partial smirk on his beak. It was simple enough to reason that he could have shot her with a weapon that he could've easily pulled from elsewhere by now, like the rifle on his back. He could also have shot her from above with the obvious pistol holstered on his hip whilst she'd been focusing too hard on the doorway, and he hadn't. Unless he was the sadistic type then she wasn't going to get a bullet in the back either.

"Can I have mah gun back?" Applejack asked in a huff after a moment.

He raised an eyebrow. "You gonna try and shoot me?"

"Not unless ya pull a gun first."

He grinned, the answer seeming to satisfy him as he let go of the shotgun's barrel. Applejack caught the weapon as she saw him move back just as fast as he'd caught her out, wings gusting wind and his tail whipping as he moved a little higher up onto another rubble stack. He didn't draw his pistol as she got a hold of her shotgun properly and leant back again with it in her hooves, though he certainly had his hand on it whilst she got herself sorted out. She stood tall on all fours and let the shotgun rest, and he then dropped back to the ground, his tufted tail swishing as he landed on his booted paws with a weighty crunch on the debris-strewn floor around them. He stood up to his full height and easily towered over her, hand still on the holstered pistol as vibrant azure eyes assessed quietly, and she did the same in return.

His upper half was probably silver in colour, his down and lower half being varying shades of gold, and he was very well protected in what was clearly military-issue body armour and kit, sans a helmet. The standard assault rifle of the Royal Gryphonian Legion rested on his back besides just the gun on his hip, as well the usual items most had on them like the Phobos secured to his chest rig or the gas mask at his side. It made her wonder if she was actually rather lucky to be as decently equipped as she was.

Similarly like her, he'd covered himself over in a mid-length poncho, though he had a scarf too. Oddly, both were an irregular mix of patterns ranging through shades of grey and white. It was strange as his armour was also a dark grey, and she could only assume that it was something recent to the gryphon's of Equestria's military before the Singularity. The usual soldiers she'd seen beforehoof had always been fitted with the standard wheat-coloured drab. Something that was definitely unique to non-ponies though were the open-toe boots he had on his paws, each digit spread out with the claws dug into the floor below them for purchase.

Applejack nodded at him and he returned the gesture with the same grin on his face.

"Howdy," she greeted him.

"Hey," he said again, his hand relaxing off his pistol. "You look like a capable mare, what were you running from?"

Applejack shrugged, glancing over her shoulder. "None of yer business," pausing as she took a breath and looked back. "No trouble out there then, I take it?"

"Nope, pretty empty streets today. Except you, of course."

"Yeah," she trailed off, turning away. "Well... see ya, thanks fer not shootin' me."

Moving off as fast as she'd entered, she was still careful in how she went to the doorway and peeked beyond it. As the gryphon had said, it was apparently clear, and she warily stepped out to keep on going seeing as she had recovered from her panic. Whilst she could always head back with what she had, or maybe go and cut up the Direwolf she'd shot for meat, there was still plenty of time in the day for scavenging. Now that she'd gotten the winter clothing she needed for her and Applebloom she wanted to find some more electronics for the radio, and general equipment and supplies that they could use in fortifying the station.

Annoyingly, as much as it would have been ideal she couldn't return to the shopping centre anytime soon for what she needed. Frankly, she didn't want to anyway. It would have been handy to go and look there again as there had been an appliance store on the ground floor, however right now the idea made her utterly sick to her stomach.

Applejack took a glance around at the street she'd gotten herself in and didn't see much to indicate where she was. This part of the city was rather new to her, so really it just came down to exploring and hoping for the best. Thankfully her Phobos hadn't triggered yet so she hadn't needed to slow her pace and throw any bolts, there was apparently a lack of monsters too which was─she paused as there was movement behind her, unmistakably the gryphon. A tense jolt quickly crawled up her spine as he didn't mask his steps and casually thudded on the damaged roads. She stopped and glared back at him and he just smirked at her in return.

"Can I help ya?" Applejack said dryly as she went.

"I don't know, can you? I haven't seen anypony in a while that wasn't openly hostile," he shrugged, coming up and walking along behind her, still on his hindlegs rather than all fours. It was likely he was standing that way so that he could grab his rifle if he needed it. She was about to point out that she would have shot him had he not stopped her, but he quickly raised a talon. "You were clearly surprised by me, I don't count that one for civvies."

"So yer actually military?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Former," he clarified. "I doubt you want the specifics."

"Ya guessed right. So long as ya aint a bandit I don't much care what yer history is," she said, scanning her immediate surroundings.

"I've already scouted the area from above when I saw you running like a madmare," he supplied for her. "There's some commotion further out to the east between some bandits and the Rebirth lot, their people have been pushing into the city a little more lately, but other than that there's just a few strays here and there like yourself."

That didn't mean much to her. "Rebirth?"

He gave a grunt of confirmation. "Some wannabe paramilitary idiots that popped up from the north-east. It was a small town community that had a wealth of supplies, it made them into kings after the event. You could say they have a bit of a monopoly on the outlying area, and they've been adding more to their numbers lately. You haven't heard of them?"

"New info to me," she said as she relaxed a little, then regarding him again. "How long were ya trailing me?"

He shrugged. "Not long. Saw you running down a street away from a shopping centre as I was flying, covered in blood and not looking behind you as if a pack of Hou─"

"Hounds, yeah, ya said," she nodded, glancing down and sighing. "...Shit."

Applejack felt herself tremble as she looked over herself, a wave of sickness passing up her throat. She'd been doing her best to ignore that she was still quite obviously damp with Guppy's blood, it had soaked through a majority of her front. A section of her poncho was stained, it had spread over her forelegs, and even areas of her neck if the stickiness there wasn't simply just sweat from running. Her jacket was a normally sage green in colour, usually a little darker as she rubbed soot into it, but right now it was a disgusting dark reddish brown where the blood was slowly drying.

It made her want to vomit... made her head swim.

"You alright? Why don't you sit down?" the gryphon said to her left.

Swallowing the wave in her stomach, she gently shook her head. "No, can't stop, I got things to be done."

"You're limping as well," he stated. "You might need first aid."

"I'm fine."

He relented with scoff and a light shrug. "...Alright then."

Her legs did hurt, though it wasn't anything she couldn't power through. If she had any fractures then she'd already feel where her legs would have been swollen, and she'd also really be having trouble taking steps if any of the fractures were in her forelegs. She'd hurt herself more than enough kicking the sturdy apple trees of Sweet Apple Acres in her fillyhood to know the signs. The gryphon's dubious concern was at least somewhat appreciated, if a bit queer. It was rare these days to have anypony that looked over others as anything more than competition. Granted, there were a few that might offer help, but it was always in order to gain something in return, and she was suspecting as much from him as well.

Applejack made it another few streets before she decided that the blood covering her ─and the gryphon following and side-eying her as if she was about to keel over─ was bothersome enough to take a short break. The task she'd set out to do had been completed, so it was okay for her to take some time to recover from the ordeal, if just to eat something.

The Phobos was blissfully silent as she dipped from the cold street into a thankfully unoccupied side alley, taking careful steps into the cramped space. It was a dead end, so there wouldn't be any surprises coming from that direction. Other than some old heavy bins that weren't currently overflowing and a general scattering of snow-topped debris, it was a clear and passable place to recuperate.

Throwing off her weapons and her backpack, she placed them to one side as she settled onto her haunches against the side of the alley. A deep sigh of relief escaped her from the lack of their weight, a brief shiver also running through her from the cold ground pressing through her jeans. Her vision flicked up briefly as she watched the gryphon brush snow off and sit down on a chunk of stone opposite her, silent for the moment. Turning her attention back to her clothing, she pushed down her discomfort as she lifted the poncho over her head, and held her breath as it passed her nose so she didn't get the full scent of blood. Throwing that to the ground, she unclasped the button of her jacket at the neck, pulled down her hood, and drew down the zip, feeling a lot less disgusting as she swiftly shrugged it off.

The breeze gently shook her lengthy mane as she took in a fresher breath of air, feeling a lot less constricted with the clothing now free. It was a little odd to feel underdressed in front of a stranger, though that was a strange feeling to have, and she ignored it as she took some comfort in the coldness that travelled up through the alley for the sheer freedom it gave. She shouldn't be down to her fur for too long of course, as it was much colder than it should have been. These early days of the first winter since the sky fell were getting a great deal chillier, and the snow was already reaching far higher levels than they'd faced in previous years even well into the later months.

Slipping off her hoof-dusters and gloves she removed her jacket completely and looked it over, sighing at the revolting mess across it that was turning brown at its edges. Her poncho wasn't as stained but it was definitely going to need cleaning too. Her gloves were leather and weren't as susceptible at least. Applejack allowed herself a few more moments to feel the lack of restriction that came with not being bound in protective gear before she soon started to dress again, until the gryphon cleared his throat to get her attention.

"You're clearly not used to that, you look like you're about to puke," he observed. "Let them dry for a while, it lessens the smell."

Applejack nodded after thinking on it for a second, taking the jacket and laying it out flat on the ground along with the poncho. That done, she slowly exhaled with a gentle shiver, closed her eyes, and leant her head back against the cold wall. She heard the gryphon slightly shuffle about for a moment, and she then grunted as something soft collided with her face, her senses instantly being filled with a utterly bizarre and overwhelmingly masculine odour. Opening her eyes as she dragged the offending item from her face, she looked at the gryphon's own oddly coloured poncho in her hooves.

She glanced up quizzically to see him putting on a second poncho as he pulled it from his backpack.

"It's always best to carry a spare. Wear that for now, keep yourself warm. Not that I don't like seeing a pretty mare in the buff, but it's best if you don't catch a cold. It's not as if you can head down to the local chemist for some tablets," he said, readjusting the poncho until it was comfortable and digging into his pack again to pull out what appeared to be some rather stiff-looking sachets, full of a transparent ruby-tinted liquid. Her eyes widened a little as she immediately realised what they were. He held them between his hands and snapped them, an audible crack sounding, and he then tossed them over too. "Put those under your clothes, they should be alright without hanging them up."

Applejack had been hunting for reusable heat packs ever since the ones she'd had were stolen, when she and Applebloom had been accosted all that time ago. They were extremely rare as they were one of the most sought after items around besides probably a Remnant, though she imagined a Remnant that generated heat was even more treasured. They landed in her lap, and the quickly building warmth was a welcome surprise as the ones she'd had before would usually some time to increase in temperature. Military heat packs must have been a little more potent. As much as she wanted to simply hold onto them, she placed them under her jacket and poncho as instructed.

The gryphon went into his pack again, pulling out two foil-wrapped ration bars and glancing up at her. "Want one?"

She gave a slight nod. "Sure?"

Catching it out of the air this time as he chucked it over, she unwrapped it to find that it wasn't the usual fare of a bland hay or hardtack ration, but instead an oat-and-nut bar. It even had honey, and the scent was lovely. Applejack took a small bite and chewed very slowly, savouring the taste, the gryphon chuckling lightly as he saw her expression change to one of bliss. Wrapping it up after having half and putting it away into her pack for Applebloom, she swallowed the mouthful and retrieved the bottle of water she had with her.

Unscrewing the cap, she took a few invigourating swigs as she then eyed the gryphon. "Why are ya helpin' me?"

"Why not?" he shrugged in response.

Her head shook as she lowered the bottle. "Things ain't worked like that fer a while now, what are ya after?"

He chuckled again. "Not much, seriously. Just trying to help a civvie that looked like they needed some help. It's what I'm meant to do."

Applejack wanted to believe that, she heard a hint of honesty in his voice, it was just that the idea was almost foreign now. There had so many run-ins with those who'd tried to pull a fast one on her that somepony actually being genuine was a rarity. She studied him as she met his bright-eyed vision, holding the gaze for a time before he raised his brow questioningly. Ever since leaving Ponyville she'd had heavy doubts in her once-strong ability to unconditionally discern the truth from others, yet she couldn't find much fault in his expression and it was almost alien to behold.

"Fine," she accepted, looking away. "I appreciate it."

"Glad to have your approval," he scoffed with amusement in his tone.

They sat quietly in what could be considered companionable silence until a distant howl made them both glance to the mouth of the alley. The howls picked up and the gryphon began to reach for the assault rifle on his back, until the howls were then followed by an equally distant burst of gunshots and further silence. The instance broke up the tense monotony of simply waiting without talking. Applejack usually had Applebloom to keep her occupied, her little sister always humming a tune under her breath or talking away. Even if it was to herself about something that she was doing it generally kept things from being completely quiet. The gryphon was apparently the silent type when he wasn't pestering anypony, seemingly quite content with the long stretch between their conversation.

Applejack looked up to him again after a short period of staring at the cold ground, seeing him idly checking over his Phobos. He had removed its main face panel and was likely ensuring its inner components were all properly intact and functioning correctly, something she'd already done with her own Phobos the previous night. He held a tiny black screwdriver in his talons, part of a small contained tool pouch beside him. That specific type of set was something that wasn't common in the hardware stores she'd come across. It was a specific kit that might rarely be sold in a specialist store, but they were far more common in places such as police or firefighter service buildings. Some engineering workshops had them for getting into and working on certain types of magitech devices found around junctions or utility buildings, like the terminals that no longer functioned.

There was a similar kit back at the train station, one that she'd found still unharmed inside a side-pouch of damaged webbing wrapped around a desiccated and burnt corpse. The body had been part of a destroyed military checkpoint near the giant scar, not far from the station itself.

His claim of being former military was ringing true, and not just from the decent calibre of equipment he possessed. It was rather clear that he hadn't just looted it all as she had done with her few precious pieces of kit, he observably carried himself far differently to others. She'd taken full note that regardless of his steps being devoid of any stealth that they were still deliberate, each one taken had been so that he could have the best possible stability upon the icy ground. The way he sat was different too, and she could see that he was actually tensed up like a spring despite his apparent relaxedness, as if he was ready to jump into action at a split-second's notice.

Having to second guess a pony when they told her something was almost mandatory now, most often it was the offer of trade that she wasn't really certain was legitimate, reading into possible context clues that led to them secretly wanting to pull a weapon. There had been plenty that she'd had to quickly deal with during the following months after setting out from Ponyville, travellers on the road that had rapidly eroded her high trust in others when they pulled a gun rather than the goods they claimed to have.

The gryphon being upfront about himself was incredibly refreshing.

But that didn't mean she was going to throw caution to the wind and blindly trust him either, after all, it was more than possible that he could use his position for advantage over others.

"I'm pretty but I'm not that pretty," he mused, as she realised she'd been staring at him a mite too hard. "What's on your mind, lady?"

Applejack laughed a little despite herself, she was hardly a lady. "Nothin'..." she said, her expression quickly becoming serious. "What did ya mean when ya said you were former military? I woulda thought the military was still established in a bunch of places, settin' up safe zones an' the like."

"Not exactly," he smiled darkly as he paused his work, it wasn't a happy look. "After the event hit we obviously tried to maintain some level of order and do that, basic first relief efforts we'd been trained in, setting-up field hospitals, check-points around cities and towns to stop thieves and bandits... but nothing capable of handling things on this scale. The army was already spread thin since we got hit by the event the same as everybody else, but we still tried to do what we could," he half-shrugged, half-scoffed. "That all broke down pretty fucking fast when our own reserves started dwindling, and things got impossible to manage when our supply lines collapsed. People were dying all over the place from sickness, our own were getting taken out by bandits for what they had, and then we got the order to retreat and abandon our posts from the higher-ups that were still around. That was it, just like that it was everybody else for themselves. Only a few of us didn't like that very much and tried to stick around as some sort of loose policing force."

She frowned. "So there's like, no military left? At all?"

He paused as he thought for a moment. "Hm, there's definitely still some Guard presence up near Canterlot, though it's heavily diminished; it got hit the hardest by the event. Last I knew they were maintaining a wide exclusion zone because of the heavy radiation, nobody's allowed in."

Maybe not allowed in, but maybe the Guard were─

"And no; trying to go to Canterlot is a bad move, before you consider it," he stated, interrupting her thoughts as if he'd read her mind. "I already tried to return after a while and got shot at for the trouble, twice, they really don't want anybody coming near the place."

"Not even former military personnel?"

He shook his head. "Not unless we went with them initially it seems."

Applejack stewed on that for a bit. That would certainly explain why no assistance ever came from Canterlot following the Singularity, and it was a rather bitter pill to swallow. She and many others had held an abundance of hope that the Princesses would have been able to survive and restore things to how they were before. If the military command structure had collapsed except for a few remaining pockets and weren't helping anypony but themselves, then it was highly likely there was no true leadership left to rally them. The Princesses were likely dead, and that stung her deeply. Without them to guide everypony...

A few different snippets in her mind started to piece together with disturbing clarity.

For one, the military checkpoint on her alternate route had been shot up and ransacked, and she'd thought it might have occurred long after everything else had happened by others having utilised the place for cover. Now, she could easily see at the onset an increasingly desperate populace and directionless military clashing over what remaining resources they had as the supply chain ceased to exist at the highest level of governance. Across roughly a dozen different locations she'd come across similar scenes that had played out.

The death of the Diarchy had only been one of a few theories bandied about back in Ponyville as to why they had remained in such a chaotic state for so long, but it would explain a great deal. With the gryphon's own testimony it lent a lot of weight behind it towards being factual.

"Well that's just great," she said dejectedly. "We really are on our own."

"Unfortunately, it looks that way," he agreed.

They soon slipped back into silence, the only sound in the alley other than their breathing being the wind that blew through. It was slightly awkward given that she honestly would have preferred to be alone. However, given that the gryphon seemed like the decent sort and was trying to help her out, she didn't feel as if she could tell him to leave her be. Having another person around to keep an ear out for danger wasn't unwelcome either.

"So... what happened back there?"

Applejack looked up from the ground again to meet his curious gaze as he fitted his Phobos back onto his rig. There wasn't any judgement there, just his mild level of curiosity and little else. Of course he was probably also wondering as to why she was covered in blood. Whether he was hiding any obvious thoughts to what she'd done under the surface she couldn't tell, but it didn't really matter.

"None of yer business," she stated evenly. "I'll thank ya not to pry."

He shrugged as he leant back. "Fair enough," he then nodded to her weapons that rested beside her. "What about those?"

An eyebrow raised. "What about 'em?"

"They're good equipment, and you know how to maintain them in a pinch it seems," he said just as evenly. "The shotgun's in great condition, oiled, and there's not many that would think to jury-rig lesser gem-cores to get a pulse rifle functioning again without a proper core, we do that ourselves when we need to."

He had a very keen eye beyond what the Singularity had bestowed. It wasn't as if the pulse rifle's socket was hidden from view, though most people would simply look it over as some surface damage. It usually would have required a unicorn's magic to open the socket, but she'd simply brute forced it so that she could get it working in the first place.

"I asked ya not to pry," she frowned, a certain level of grit in her tone. "Why'd ya keep askin'?"

"Sorry, like I said, you seem like a very capable mare," he smiled vigilantly.

Sighing as she looked elsewhere, a gentle shiver tickled down her back after another breeze travelled through. Applejack glanced at her clothing laid out on the floor and decided they'd probably been sitting for long enough, picking up her poncho and finding it quite warm to the touch thanks to the heat pack. There was an unmistakable tang of iron in the air from where the warmth had affected the blood soaked into it. As unpleasant as that was, she found the poncho was much drier than it was before as she padded a hoof over the affected area. Checking the jacket found it in the same condition. Her nose wrinkled as they didn't smell very nice, given that she hadn't had the time to give them a proper wash lately. A mixture of stale sweat, dried blood, and whatever grime she'd used to darken them filled her senses, though it was certainly better to have an amalgamation of them rather than only being able to focus on the stink of blood.

Taking off the gryphon's poncho, she shimmied her jacket back on as well as her own poncho and found she could breathe much easier without feeling ill, the cold already chilling them and lessening the impact that the heat had on the odour. There was nothing that she could do about the dark stains across them right now, but that was something she could deal with easily enough when she was safely back at the train station.

Picking up and wrapping the heat packs within the patterned poncho, she threw it across to the gryphon who caught the bundle in his hands with a brief nod of thanks. He stuffed them into his backpack as she got to her hooves and began to get everything together. He was already standing by the mouth of the alley waiting for her as she finished fitting on her second hoof-duster over a glove, simply observing her process.

"Can I ask where you're headed now?" he said with a slight grin. "Or would that be considered prying?"

Applejack rolled her eyes. "Prying."

"Thought so."

Moving to the alley's exit alongside him, they both peered out and didn't see any immediate threats. Her eyes flicked to him and looked over the way she stood, leaning upright against the wall for cover as he checked the direction to their immediate right. The way he was leaning almost suggested to her that he was under the assumption she would cover the left direction herself, which she was to a degree.

It didn't seem right to her that he should place even that small level of trust in her given that he knew so little of what she was like. Obviously she wasn't going to shoot him, but he had no true way of knowing that. There wasn't a chance that she could imagine herself trusting something so important to a complete stranger. She doubted he was stupid at all, so maybe he was simply confident in his abilities. As she stepped out towards the left side and watched her path forward, he automatically withdrew his pistol in a hand. He kept himself in cover much as she would have done whilst he moved out to the right, partially leaving himself exposed to her when he moved between positions.

He really was trusting that she would cover his flank.

Whilst he had possessed ample opportunity to get the drop on her, she hadn't felt any sense that he might try to. He hadn't drawn his sidearm until now, and even possessing talons he hadn't brandished them at her either. He'd made no threats, and there had been no suspicious edge to his voice or sinister look in his expression that she could pick up on that suggested ulterior motives beyond his curiosity. The gryphon had only given freely of what he had without asking for anything back in return.

At this point she almost felt guilty that she was still doubting him. Why would he waste resources on her if all he was going to do was eventually kill her? Her mind jumped to the extreme that he might be wanting to gain her trust in order to lead her into a group lying in wait, as that would be easier than killing her and carrying her gear by himself. As much as she was justified in thinking to that extent, it still didn't feel right. If the girls were here she knew they'd be telling her that she had to place a measure of trust in others again at some point.

Whilst she didn't know his motives, it didn't mean she couldn't extend an olive branch.

"My name's Applejack," she said after a couple of minutes.

"Ah, so she does have a name," he said whilst keeping his eyes forward, though they flicked to her for a brief moment. "You look like an Apple. I knew an Apple once, any relation?"

Her brow raised, surprised. "They're muh kin."

"Huh, small world," he mused, the crook of his beak raising in a smirk.

"More likely that we're pretty spread over," she returned. "If you were about Canterlot before all this then ya probably knew one of cousin Strudel's family, she had plenty of siblings an' children."

"Probably that then, it was just a corner shop I commonly dropped by."

"Sounds like cousin Syrup's café," she said. "He makes some great pies."

He nodded, smiling to himself. "That was the one, small little café off the corner of Duchess's Street."

They slowed and paused as they came up to a T-junction exit on the next street, both checking their immediate directions again and passing their vision over the many weathered buildings towering over them. Applejack didn't spot anything that might indicate trouble along the cracked icy road or around common clutter sprawled through it; the few lonely vehicles and propulsives that lay abandoned along her way were devoid or anything she might think to be a trap. She scanned the dead buildings again just in case, the many hundreds of smashed windows above were also clear and unobstructed. It was the boarded or covered up ones that she was always wary of. The rusting vehicles that had stopped at the exit out which they were utilising were rather good cover too, should anypony decide to take a shot at them.

A quick tap came at her shoulder and she turned her attention the gryphon's way. He was holding up a talon, his face a mask of concentration as he appeared to listen out for something. Her understanding followed as there swiftly came a disturbing sense of unease, a chill crawling up her spine worse than any shiver, and she tensed as she heard it before she saw it. It was a gentle whisper in the air at first, and it was gradually climbing into a scream. Applejack immediately backpedalled as he tugged hard on her shoulder, moving with and forcing her back as there came a horrendous keening echo that warped her vision. Stumbling over her own hooves across the ground, broken glass and hardened snow crunched underhoof as she corrected, a second echo with a much deeper chorus of overlapping wails punching through her thoughts and staggering her further.

There was little she could do but fumble away, she couldn't see straight and threw herself behind another vehicle further down. All she could do to cover her ears as the bizarre anomaly soon haphazardly tore through the street somewhere ahead of them, however she wasn't sure if it helped her whatsoever. Her vision swam as the distorted screaming increased in pitch and the multitude of painfully tortured voices reverberated off of every single surface that the sound could reach. Darkness filled with blinding stars edged in around the sides of her peripherals as the intensity of it pierced into her brain. It was like nothing she had ever experienced before, the discomfort having rapidly turned into a profound agony that deeply ached through the rest of her body and made her fall limp.

As she was on the verge of passing out, she was tackled into an embrace by the gryphon, his forelimbs wrapping around her whilst the pain from the anomaly slowly and inexplicably began to lessen. He held her tightly against his chest as she blinked away a worrying glint of red through her disorientation, blinking until her vision cleared up and she could see better. Breathing came a little easier as the maleficent anomaly continued on its erratic path beyond their position, its vicious howling decreasing the further from them it travelled.

The gryphon released her after a short period, sure that the thing had gone. His tufted tail lashed in agitation as he wiped at his eyes with a cloth, fixing her with an intense glare as he offered her the rag. "Are you alright? That was the most insane fucking Banshee I've ever seen."

"I-I'll live," she swallowed past the lump in her throat, wiping at her eyes with a cleaner part of her sleeve instead. Applejack had never encountered that type of anomaly before, and sweet Celestia's teats if the damn thing couldn't half move. "Thanks fer the save. How come ya ain't too outta sorts?"

He regarded her for a moment, looking partly distrustful for the first time since she'd met him, before he opened and reached into one of the pouches on his rig. He pulled free something that almost appeared to be a misshapen stone halted midway through being slagged, except it seemed to be formed from some kind of dark opaque crystal. The object played tricks on her eyes, shifting to and fro as she tried to focus on it. Applejack knew what she was looking at.

"Remnant..." she murmured.

"We called it a Nox, found it in a black patch of what I'm fairly sure was a Siren," he said, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder. "It seems to give some protection against crazy shit like that."

She raised a concerned eyebrow. "Ain't seen a Siren either."

"It's what a couple other guys called it after their buddy walked into it," he explained, pocketing the Remnant again. "He just kept on repeating how beautiful the singing was and how nice the ponies were, over and over again. Then he just collapsed and died."

"It sounds like it lures ya in."

He gave a nod. "It does. If you ever hear singing in a language you can't understand, or see a dark silhouette of a pony standing nearby, you plug your ears and run away as fast as you can."

That was easy to remember. "Noted."

They could still just about hear the Banshee wailing off in the distance if they listened out for it, and she was glad that the way it went wasn't the way she was going to go. Applejack still felt quite out of sorts and needed a moment, it was a highly powerful anomaly that was par for the course. It was obvious that she'd not found all the types of crazy that the Singularity had created just yet, that much she had expected, though she'd clearly grown perhaps a little complacent as of late thinking that maybe it wasn't as bad as she'd thought. Now she had knowledge on two more, and by the Sisters, who knew how many more lay out there. Her mind was settling as she slowly recovered, the pain that had settled in her chest was getting better and her limbs ached less.

"I'm Gwaine, by the way."

Applejack looked up at him from the road she was staring into. "Nice to meet ya."

And it was, she thought. He'd helped her and then he'd saved her, she didn't know what would have happened had he not been around to shield her from the Banshee. There wasn't much need to think on what could happen if she had passed out in the street, she'd be easy pickings for anypony or any monster that came along if she hadn't just outright died. He could very easily have left her to her fate and he hadn't. She might not know him well, but she was getting a sense. In the past she'd declared herself friends with other ponies for far less, and the girls would have greatly insisted on friendship by this point. Pinkie would already be making up a song too...

Even so, she wasn't going to call him a friend just yet. It didn't change that in the short time since he'd appeared that he had certainly earned himself a modicum of trust, and that was more than she'd given others in a long time.

"Gwaine," she said. "Thank you, truly."

He waved her off dismissively. "It's fine. Like I said, it's what I'm meant to do."

Gwaine smiled a little as he moved past her, his boots crunching on the road as he neared the spot ahead between the vehicles again. He glanced out both ways as he held low, his tail tucked down as he crouched. After a moment he gently waved her forwards whilst he kept watch. Not that he wasn't already doing so, but he was being a lot more cautious thanks to the encounter, and she was glad as they'd both be better off for it.

"Think I can ask where you're heading now?" Gwaine asked as she came up behind him.

Applejack huffed, glancing out as well. "Why d'ya wanna know?"

Gwaine grunted in return, looking at her.

"Alright, so..." Gwaine sighed. "I said you seemed capable, and you are. That's important. You're green when it comes to shit made by the event, but that's most civvies," he paused as he weighed his words. "The thing is... I can't tell you why just yet, but I can watch your back if you help me out."

And that was why she didn't blindly trust, there was always an ulterior motive.

"I'm good, thanks." she frowned, slightly annoyed. "I got things to be done, general scavving and the like. Ain't no particular place I'm going an' I doubt ya wanna tag along."

Gwaine perked up at that. "The place I need to go has supplies. Some food and ammo too, not a lot, but, some. I haven't had much need for them, but if you do... I can take you there."

Her frown deepened. "Why wouldn't ya have already taken them fer stockin' up?"

"See, I might not need them, though," he shrugged. "I also can't get to them."

"So what makes ya think I can?"

"Together we can, no problem, it's a two person job. Admittedly, it would be easier with a unicorn, but an earthen can do just as well."

Ah, so it was like that.

To say she was vindicated in her thinking was an understatement, though it wasn't great and much more disappointing that she was correct about the world. Applejack didn't like that she was seriously considering it, either. He had seemed genuine about assisting her for the sake of it, but she couldn't help thinking he'd only done it to possibly get help in return, and that he was probably quite over the moon that such a nasty anomaly had made an appearance. It had allowed him to save her, and she owed him for that. He knew it on a certain level and she couldn't ignore it by her own nature, yet neither did she want to go into something unknown and dangerous with somepony she couldn't fully trust.

"And if I don't want to?" Applejack posited.

Gwaine sighed, tapping a talon off his leg. "Then I guess the supplies are staying put," he looked at her properly, shifting around. "Look, I get it, I'm a complete stranger and that's hard to trust, but how about you just see what we have to do first?"

"Yer really tryin' to sell this, huh?" she raised an eyebrow. "I ain't stupid, ya want into them supplies fer somethin', ya just aint tellin' me what."

Gwaine nodded. "Alright, fine, I'll be honest. There is something I need from the stash," he quickly raised a talon. "But just the one thing, I don't really need any of the rest of it. You can have everything else and that won't be any feathers off my back, I swear."

He clearly didn't want to tell her what 'the one thing' was, so she suspected it was probably another Remnant or something similar. They were extremely rare and powerful oddities, and many ponies would try to search around the dangerous areas of anomalies in order to find them. From what she understood it was where they formed, and Gwaine had said that was where he'd gotten his Nox. Applejack couldn't imagine risking her life for the damn things, personally. Yes, they clearly granted protection from the bizarre creations of the Singularity, but they were also of the Singularity. That didn't sit well with her, there was no telling what effect they might have on a pony, in mind or body.

Regardless of her own misgivings however, there was an opportunity here.

It was also a clear goal instead of wandering blind.

Considering the errand at all was a bad idea, and yet she still was; she and Applebloom needed more than they currently had, and Gwaine was providing her with a way to get more. Applejack scanned his face for any signs of deceit, but try as she might she couldn't see any hint of dishonesty to what he'd said. He'd told her the basics and she could easily guess the rest of it from here. At the very least, if he did have further ulterior motives then she wouldn't allow herself to be caught unaware, not again, she'd be ready for it this time.

Applejack regarded him, and soon exhaled through her teeth. "...Okay. If it's too dangerous then I ain't gonna do it, but otherwise if it looks to be doable then you've got a deal."

She held out her hoof.

Gwaine grinned, taking her hoof and shaking. "Good enough for me. I'll lead the way."

Shadow Of Equestria

by Jinxed

1: Survival

2: Necessity

3: Opportunities