The next two weeks followed in a monotonous order. Every day, I spent several hours practicing the few spells I had learned the first day and adding one or two more to my repertoire. I devoted the most time to simple target training, figuring it was my biggest weak point. Besides, it didn’t matter how many spells I learned if I couldn’t hit a single one of them. Shield would sometimes come watch, every now and then taking out his gun and taking a few shots himself. He was much better at it than me.

At night, I would spend the time going over Twilight’s notes. I devoured each of her books with a speed born of desperation. The stakes were much higher now. Maybe from these books I could find a way back home, a way to actually get back to the old Ponyville. There weren’t any blatant references. The only thing I had seen thus far were vague notes here and there.

Sunrise never came out to see, whether because of her disapproval or because of how busy she was I never asked. Still, I saw her multiple times every day and every time she came home for the night. We would often just sit up and talk, her telling me more about the wasteland and the other points of interest scattered throughout. It really helped me out and gave me a basic overview how the world had developed.

Compared strictly to the rest of this world, Rust’s region had more peace than pretty much everywhere else. There were only a few raider nests and slavers remaining left. There were three “cities”, which was more than most other places. They weren’t the biggest cities, but at least they were peaceful. Even just thirty miles to the west, the land become much more inhospitable. Even here though, politics generally were a knife and cloak affair, which made the straightforwardness of Sunrise’s election all the more surprising.

Speaking of politics, events moved fast in this town. Just two weeks after the speech, the elections were to be held. To be honest, it was a moot point; everyone in the town knew that Sunrise was going to win. One of her competitors had already thrown in the towel and the other one was just in it so she’d have a little competition.

Even still, on the night of the election we awaited in the square together. Sunrise was understandably nervous, but I felt confident that Sunrise would win the election. We had turned it into a little picnic, eating and watching the crowd go by and cast in their choice. A few volunteers were counting the votes, the small populace making vote counting easy. The whole affair only took two full hours.

Finally, a pony stepped up onto the makeshift stage, envelope floating gently beside him. Sunrise seemed to be the only pony that didn’t already know the outcome with absolute certainty. She sat beside me, wings locked tight to her side eagerly awaiting the results.

“The winner by a landslide: Sunrise Melody.” The stallion announced to the crowd. The assembled ponies stomped the square, showing their support. Personal conversations then broke out between the crowd.

“Oh thank Celestia.” Sunrise muttered, exhaling a deep breath. She smiled and glanced out over the crowd.

“You know there wasn’t even the smallest chance you could lose this election right?” I tease. Shield and I had been trying to get her to calm down for the last week, to no avail.

“I know, it’s just...so stressful. This was the best chance I could get to actually start somewhere, it was the best chance for me to start making a difference.” Sunrise explained. I could understand her worry, but still, it was a bit much. Of course, neither Shield or I was going to say anything. “Anyways, tomorrow the real work begins. First real day as sheriff.”

“I’m sure you’ll do great Sunrise.” I reassured her. Ponies were starting to approach our little corner of the town center to come and congratulate Sunrise and speak to her. I started to shift, my own anxiety starting to set in. I really hated crowds. Sunrise was quick to notice my discomfort.

“Why don’t you go on in? I’ll probably be out really late but will you come see me tomorrow? Shield will come and get you, we need to talk.” Sunrise asked. I nodded, curious about her last line. That could wait until tomorrow though. With a quick exertion of energy, I teleported out, not wanting to bother shoving my way through the mass of ponies.

__________________________________________________________________________

The next day, Shield woke me by entering the house wearing his full armor and making the loudest possible noise. Not only that, but my head was pounding. I was half tempted to just

throw him out before remembering that Sunrise had wanted us for something.

“Get up, lasy ass! Time’s a wastin’!” Shield yelled, bemusement in his voice. Resisting the urge to soundproof my room and ignore him, I shook myself awake and got up from bed. I made my way down the stairs, a look of murder on my face.

“You could’ve just shook me awake or something.” I grumbled. It wasn’t entirely Shield’s fault; I had never really been a morning person.

“Sunrise needs us, seemed pretty urgent too, let’s not waste her time, right?” Shield asked, taking obvious enjoyment from my discomfort. He was right I suppose. Mumbling assent, he started to lead the way across the town. I easily spotted Sunrise, like a bright burst of sunlight in an otherwise gloomy world. She was up by the front gate, discussing something with the guards. We waiting until she finished and approached her.

“Well?” Shield inquired. Apparently he hadn’t been told much about what Sunrise wanted either.

“Follow me.” Sunrise commanded, although she said it as more of suggestion. She led the way past the gates to outside the town where the apple trees grew. “Obviously, all this land is ours. But up the river, there’s another town that has access to a pre-war dam. If they were to cut it off we’d be in a whole lot of trouble.”

She stopped for a second before continuing. “This is where you two come in. I’d really like to not have to do this, but this town doesn’t really have many hands to spare especially if we start to extend the farmlands. We’ll have more when everyone gets some skill with a weapon, but right now we’re out of luck. Neither of you are real ambassadors, but quite frankly you’re the best we’ve got right now.” She sighed dejectedly. “Make no mistake, this is a really dangerous mission. There have been troubling rumors about the land in between and I really don’t want to have to send you into such perilous land.” She finished, aiming the last part directly towards me.

Both Shield and I thought about it for a second. “Look, I get the part about sending me to guy, but why send out little half-pint herel? Isn’t sending her back out into the wasteland kind of a bad idea?” He asked, glancing down at me with worry in his eye. Inside I was fuming, while touched that Shield was concerned for my well-being I could more than handle myself now. Just as I was about to start cursing him out, Sunrise kept me silent with a stare.

“Normally I’d agree with you but you can’t deny that her magic is strong and if these rumors prove to be true you’ll need her to teleport you out of there. Could you teleport yourself over a mile?” Sunrise asked, jabbing at Shield slightly.

“Well no... I still don’t like her coming.” Shield protested weakly. “I’ll do it though. Got nothin’ better to do.”

“Sunrise, you know I couldn’t say no to this. Of course I’ll go.” I answered, not a doubt in my mind. What had I been preparing for in the last two weeks if not this? Sunrise’s smile at our acceptance alone was worth it.

“Oh thank you, both of you!I don’t know who else I could’ve sent.” Sunrise positively gushed. “Shield, do you think I could talk to Zenith alone quickly?”

“Fine, fine. Don’t worry about old me. I’ll just ah... finish packing.” Shield muttered, excusing himself. He turned back towards the village gates and quickly disappeared within the safety of the walls.

“Zenith, please promise me that you’ll be careful. I couldn’t even begin to describe how terrible I’d feel if you got hurt or killed because of something I asked.” Sunrise implored. Worry had etched itself onto her face now.

“You worry too much.” I said, trying to make light of the situation. “You think anything’ll be able to get past Shield? It’s in his name. If he can’t protect me from the big baddies out there nothing can.” I teased lightly, trying to get the smile to return.

“I know, but you could get seriously hurt here and it’d be my fault cause I asked you to go. Look, Shield can be reckless at times, so all I’ll ask you to do is to think things through and if you don’t think you guys can take something, get out of there ok?” Sunrise finished, eyes filled with pleading. I shifted uncomfortably under her gaze, suddenly a lot more worried than I had been before.

“Of course, I’ll make sure our lives are the top priority.” I promised. That at least seemed to calm Sunrise down a little and she breathed a sigh of relief.

“That’s all I needed to here. Come on, let’s get you two packed up. Might as well get some ground crossed before nightfall.” Shield explained, heading back towards the town. As much as I didn’t want to quite leave yet, he was right. Besides, I didn’t really need to pack anything up. I kept most of my belongings within the otherspace that accompanied me wherever I went.

Sunrise led the way back to the center of the town with Shield splitting off and going to what I assumed was his own house. She stopped first at the apple stall and, after a brief conversation with the vendor, picked up a saddle bag loaded with the undernourished apples, provisions for the journey. I took it with my magic and let it enter my otherspace pocket. Next, she went into a tent and didn’t let me follow. She returned a few minutes later, with a package wrapped in old newspaper.

“This is for you. That shot back at the slaver compound got me thinking. You can conjure a magical shield easily enough, but what if you don’t notice somepony, or you need the energy for something else? I thought that you should probably get some armor. Nothing near as fancy or as heavy as Shield’s; Celestia only knows how he’s able to move in it, but something lighter that can still take a beating. So I had this made.” Sunrise dropped the package at my hooves. Hesitantly, I took the package with my magic and unwrapped the newspaper.

The package revealed light barding, made from sometime of reinforced material I hadn’t encountered before. I probed it gently with my magic and it seemed to be pretty damn resilient. It matched the darkness of my coat, blending rather well with my coloration.

“Oh wow. One second, wait here.” I said, popping in and out of existence back into my room in Sunrise’s house. A few minutes later, I re-appeared front of Sunrise, the displaced air making a bang. “How does it fit?” I turned in a circle, trying to show off a little.

“It fits great. You right intimidating.” Sunrise replied, a bemused expression taking up her face.

“Well look at the little warrior.” Shield’s voice joked as he approached with two loaded saddlebags of his own. Despite his light-hearted words, sadness filled his eyes and the smile didn’t quite seem genuine.

“I wish we could delay the goodbyes longer, but now would probably be the best time to go. You two need to get as far as possible tonight if you’re going to make it in any decent time.” Sunrise said. The sun had already reached directly overhead, bringing forth the hottest time of the day. Not the ideal time to leave but sunlight burned fast at this time of the year.

Together, the three of us advanced towards the main gate. We stopped for one last goodbye, a quick hug and Shield and I were off. We progressed in silence for a while, both of us lost in our own thoughts and the still within earshot of the town. To be honest, I was slightly eager to finally get out and do something. This was just like all the books I had read back in the library.

Don’t get me wrong; I wasn’t fool enough to think it was all happy sunshine and rainbows like in the books. I had lived in terrible places before and I knew that my life could be on the line here. It still felt good to finally get out and do something that could actually make a difference though. Even back in my own world I had done nothing useful cooped up in the library. Now was my turn to make a change, or at least help with it.

Suddenly, the world was eerily silent. I glanced back and realized I could no longer see the town anymore. Nothing to do now but keep following Shield’s lead. This silence would drive me crazy though. It was like the world was dead.

“So Shield, what was that rumor that Sunrise was talking about around here?” I asked, trying to start up some conversation.

“I wouldn’t put much stock in what ponies ‘round here have to say. Tend to exaggerate things and embellish their stories quite a bit.” Shield replied, seeming to dance around the issue. What, did he think I would run home to Sunrise if I got too scared?

“Shield. Just tell me.”

“Fine, ponies have been saying that there’s some kind of strange creature round this little stretch of wasteland. Caravans have gone mysteriously missin’ and the like. Not even their goods are ever found. Some ponies think it’s Nightmare Moon’s ghost back for revenge. T’ain’t no truth to it though. Probably just raiders.” Shield reasoned. Perhaps he was right.

But still, a dragon? How would they even manage to survive in a world like this? More importantly, if it found us would we even have a chance of getting away? By myself I could easily teleport many miles, but with Shield the equation suddenly became a lot more difficult. By definition, the more mass, the more difficult the teleport. No, with a flying dragon running away would be impossible. That left hiding or fighting it.

The landscape was completely barren. A burnt and twisted tree here, a nearly destroyed house there, and the river constantly to the right of us and that was it. If I could teleport us to one of the houses we might have a decent chance of getting hidden. If worst came to worst though, we’d have to fight the best. Worse yet, dragons were naturally resistant to magic. The lightning spell would be our only chance and I could only cast that two or three times with my own stores before losing consciousness. Luckily, I had the entire amulet worth of energy ready to dispose of.

“Heads up. Dead ahead.” Shield motioned forward, pre-emptively readying his rifle. Up ahead, a pony lay on it’s side underneath an overpass that had been part of the pre-war road system. Looking down at my hooves, I realized we had been walking on the remains of a road for quite a while. “We’re going to check this out, but be ready alright?” I nodded and we started to advance cautiously. The pony didn’t stir even as we entered directly underneath the arch.

All at once, the pony stood, gun in mouth and leveled at Shield’s chest. Four ponies appeared on each opening of the bridge, effectively blocking us in. Each of them held rudimentary weapons; sharpened shovels, old, rusted, gardening tools and assorted mess. Only one of them held a real rifle. A unicorn, who had it aimed directly at me.

“Drop the gun and give up what you own and you get to leave. Start shootin’ or cast at all and you die. Don’t be stupid here, just give up your shit.” The rifle unicorn instructed. Shield glanced back at me and tapped his hoof twice. I didn’t understand what it meant at first before quickly grasping its meaning. Second spell, of course. That would be logical.

“Now!” Shield shouted, firing off a shot of his rifle. In response, I case the shield spell I had been working on for so long. It quickly came up without a hitch and I could see Shield fighting for his life through the translucence of the bubble. The other ponies didn’t fight with any coherence, they didn’t attempt to attack him simultaneously or even with any sort of teamwork.

Shield was able to take a few shots unhindered, but he couldn’t handle so many in so small of a place on his own. He would just get swarmed. I glanced around quickly, trying to find something to help him with. Piles of debris were clumped around the edges of the bridge. Those would do.

With my telekinetic grip, I picked up a few of the heavier rocks and sent them flying towards the now mob of ponies around Shield. Most of them missed and just went sailing past the clump, but one or two struck home and had the effect of distracting some of the ponies away from Shield.

Three of the ponies headed towards my bubble, trying to pound on me with blades and hooves. The shield was easily able to stop the attacks, but every hit sent a pounding through my head. I started to fall back to avoid as much of the abuse of possible but they didn’t let up.

In desperation, I tried to send more rocks at them but the extra concentration brought the whole thing down around my head. My shield flared brightly once and then completely disappeared. It took the ponies a second to recover but they were on me too quickly.

I panicked and barely managed to dodge their thrusts. I  squeezed my eyes shut and managed to teleport forward, behind the attackers. Shield had managed to break free for a moment and dropped one of the ponies attacking me before being overwhelmed by the four attackers that remained standing against him.

He had leveled the playing field by quite a bit. Several bodies lay on the floor, unmoving. Of the original nine, only five remained standing, including the two pressuring me.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any more time to watch the fight as the two ponies had finally noticed where I was. The two worked together much better this time, more in tandem than before. They actively tried to attack at the same time, forcing me to move faster and faster away from them.  

I couldn’t keep it up for long. One of them managed to get his blade between the links of my barding opening up a shallow cut in my side but it caused me to stumble and fall to the ground. I heard Shield yell out once and get another shot off, at least injuring one of them enough to ignore me for a bit.

But it wasn’t enough. The remaining pony’s blade descended towards me and desperation made my world flare in red. My magic acted on its own and my vision clouded over in red, blinding me.

When it faded enough for me to see again, the only two ponies left standing were Shield and I. The two closest to me had been burnt to a crisp, the smell of burned flesh tainting the air. The bodies closer to Shield were charred, or stabbed, or shot. Nothing moved for a second. I realized that Shield had been trying to get my attention for the last minute.

"You alright?” He asked, continuing to glance around and keep an eye out for any further threats. I took a few shaky breaths, head pounding from using so much magic in such a short amount of time.

“Yea...yea. Just a little cut. Maybe a bruise. Nothing bad.” I answered. I took my first look around the site, eyes glazing over as I realized the repercussions of our actions. The smell... the corpses... the heat of the few remaining flames...

I hurried out from underneath the bridge, unable to stand it for a second longer and threw up all of last night’s picnic onto the ground. I had just taken another pony’s life. Not just that, but two ponies because of my direct actions. What if they had families? Foals who were at home now, waiting for them to get back with tonight’s food. I could’ve just taken all that from them. Tears had started to burn my eyes and I struggled to hold back sobs.

“Aww jeez.” I heard Shield mumble as he came up behind me. “Come on.. don’t fall apart on me now.” He continued, the awkwardness obvious in his voice. He really wasn’t good at this whole comforting thing.

“J-Just give me a second ok?” I asked, through the tears. I heard him sigh and step away.

“If you need me, I’ll be on the other side of the bridge, going to see if there’s any lootin’ to be had.” Shield finished before I heard him walking away.

His last statement made it even harder to hold back the floodgates. To be completely fair, they would have done the same to us. That was the entire objective of their little trap but it didn’t make it hurt any worse. This wasn’t the Equestria I had grown up in. My childhood was bad and each day was a struggle but killing was virtual unheard of.

I had just intentionally killed another pony.

I would never be able to take that back. No matter what I did from hence forth I would have blood on my hands. I couldn’t waste anymore time right now though. Sunrise needed me to do this. There would be more time to think about this later.

I took a few more minutes to finish feeling sorry for myself and stop crying. Then I made my way to the other side of the bridge where Shield waiting, saddlebags noticeably more full.

“I’m ready.” I said, my voice still raspy and my eyes hung low.

“Shit.” I heard Shield swear under his breath. “Alright, let’s keep going. We’ll find some shelter before stopping for the night.”

We walked in silence for a few minutes before Shield spoke up again. “I normally wouldn’t get sentimental or any shit like that. But Zenith? If you need to talk, I’ll be here for ya. Sunrise ain’t the only one who can help ya out and I’ve been through a hell of a lot more than here in this world.”

I looked up in surprise, just concentrating on my hoofsteps before me. Such an offer from Sunrise wouldn’t have phased me, but coming from Shield? That was sweet.

“Thanks Shield.” I muttered, feeling my spirits start to lift. At least I would have ponies who cared for me, even if this land was terrible.

A/N. As this is exam week for APs, really didn't have much time to do any editing on this nor will I have much for the next chapter. As such, they are probably not going to be the best. Expect further edits after I have more time.