The once proud land of Equstria had fallen far. The peaceful land was nothing but a memory now. I had already managed to kill another pony, even if it was self-defense there was no excuse. Ponies here were willing to kill over money, how could I get through this place alive? Surely Shield and I could’ve just given away the money Sunrise had given us to live off of, but we didn’t.

Shield was excusable, he had grown up in this world. He didn’t have the benefit of growing up in a peaceful society. But me? I grew up in times of peace. I should’ve been able to think of something. I should have been able to find some way to stop it. Sunrise would’ve been able to talk them out of it. Maybe if I had been able to do anything except magic I would’ve been able to think of something as well. I was really just a one trick pony.

For now, I just followed Shield while my mind went in circles. I kept my head low and just kept walking. The day had steadily grown hotter, I could feel sweat breaking out under my barding. It isn’t like I didn’t appreciate the barding (I did) and it isn’t like it did a bad job of protecting (it did a great one) but the damn thing was itchy.

Neither Shield nor I really wanted to talk, so we just kept walking in silence. Eventually, hunger began to set in, making the already unpleasant trip even more uncomfortable.  My stomach started to protest, first intermittently then more often, and louder. Finally, so loud that even Shield glanced back, a teasing grin stuck on his face. I could more or less feel a tease coming about my overly noisy stomach but his face quickly changed from mirth to concern as he saw what kind of condition I was in.

“You ain’t lookin’ too hot. First shelter we come to, we’ll stop for the night.” he promised. I only nodded, too tired to actually form a coherent thought. On the horizon, dark clouds had started to gather, lightning flashing occasionally. I wasn’t much of a weather expert, the subject never really interested me, but the thunderheads looked way more threatening than any pegasus made storm. Up ahead, a dilapidated house had managed to weather the years and still stood on an offshoot from the road we traveled on.

Shield and I arrived at the house after a few minutes and he gingerly pushed the door open. If there were any traps or guns leveled at the opening, his armor would be more than enough to take it. Fortunately, nothing came and he stepped inside with me in tow. He closed the door behind us. Inside, the room was nearly too dark to see, only a little light coming in through the door. We closed the door behind us, for what little protection it would still give.

I dropped to the floor, tired as all hell. Being in the shade felt so good after so long in the sun. Shield opened the saddlebags and levitated a few of the apples out, distributing a few to each of us. I took a few bites, trying to satisfy my angry stomach. The silent was oppressive, and I just had to say something to break it.

“Shield, so how’d you end up in Ponyville?” I asked, trying to stray away from any sensitive topics.

“Been livin’ in the area most of my life. Most caravans pass through it at one time or another so you can make a pretty good livin’ between scavenging for shit and trading it off for necessities. Long as you evade the raiders that is. That happens, best you can do is join ‘em. At worst, you can try and fight ‘em off. Even I wouldn’t have lasted long at that, though. So many competin’ gangs in that shithole, makes recruitment pretty desperate.” He responded between bites of food. Outside, I could hear thunder starting to come up, starting off as just a low roar in the distance. Even at this distance, the house rumbled lightly.

“So, any family?” I asked.

“Not the type of question you should be asking.” Shield snapped, a hard edge filling his voice. Ok, so maybe I wasn’t so good at avoiding uncomfortable subjects, but my curiosity got the better of me. Besides, this would’ve been a pretty innocent question where I came from.

“Sorry, I just thought it wasn’t a big deal. I was just curious.” I replied sullenly, taking another bite of my apple.

“Just... Just don’t ask about that. Ponies here don’t always last as long as me. Tough subject mind.” Shield sounded less angry now. He just seemed downcast now, depressed and thoughtful.  

“Sorry Shield.” I repeated. I kept forgetting that the types of information that would be harmless and basic from where I came from were much more drastic in the wasteland.

Shield rolled his eyes, but shot me a half-hearted smile. “S’alright. Guess it ain’t your fault, considerin’ where you came from and all.” Outside, thunder boomed, no longer sounding from far away. The storm had finally reached our poor example of shelter.

Lightning flared in through the cracks in the door, giving the room an eerie light for but a second. “T-thanks.” I was interrupted by a loud yawn and I finally realized how tired I was.

Shield shook his head and grinned genuinely at my yawn. “Get some sleep. I’ll take first watch.” He muttered.

I nodded and lay down my head. The storm had started to rage harder, impacts resounding out as debris struck the house. Due to how tired I was though, I managed to fall asleep regardless of the noise. Memories of home, awoken by my talk with Shield, filled my head as I drifted off.

______________________________________________________________

I dreamt of my childhood. Before I lived with Twilight, I had spent my life on the streets on Canterlot. For a while, an old mare had given me food and had actually been rather nice to me, even if she wouldn't ever let me in the house. I spent most of the time behind her house in an alleyway, but as expected, she died when I was still extremely young. She was really old after all. Before long, a new family had moved in, with male twins both older than me. They looked like the nasty sort, big and meaty with muscle, scars ripping tears in their otherwise pleasing orange coats. The parents looked respectable enough though, maybe I could still stay here. For a while, I hid without the twins taking note, having developed a small hiding hole near the very back of the alley. The situation couldn't last. One day, they were exploring the back part of the alley where I had taken refuge.

“Hey, somepony back here?” One of them called, his voice still slightly high-pitched from youth. At the sound of his voice, I huddled back further behind the trash can, causing debris to fall with a clatter. I peeked the very edge of my head around the corner, to see if they heard me. The two twins stood guarding the front of the alleyway, barring escape, ears perked up in my direction. “Oh come on out now, we aren't going to hurt you.” The lead on urged in a totally unconvincing fashion. He wouldn't know kindness if it came up and slapped him on the face. “We have food.” He urged harder. His brother nudged open the saddlebags, showing some fresh greens that most likely had just come from the market.

Hesitantly, I scooted forward out of my sanctum. The colt had said the magic word: food. I felt my stomach rumble loudly; the last time I had eaten was the day before the old mare died. “For me?” I whimpered out, pleading with all my heart that one of them would say yes. But why would things actually work out? I was weaker and unable to fend for myself when I was so young, all my strength flourishing much later. The lead brother nudged the saddlebag closed again with an abrasive snort.

“Why would we give anything to you? What have you done to deserve it?” The follower sneered snidely. “You didn’t work for this like dad and mom!” He asserted. Of course I spent most of my time hidden, otherwise other ponies would descend on me, trying to take my to some home or force me to go to school. I didn't need that. Besides, this colt was most likely just parroting what his parents had said about the other homeless throughout the city.

“Please. I'll do anything. I can do magic.”  I pleaded. I needed the food desperately. I couldn't stay here much longer unless I found some form of sustenance and most of the other sheltered places in the city had been long occupied. Not all the other homeless were bad, but the horror stories tend to get repeated a bit more than the tales of kindness. For a few minutes, the brothers whispered back and forth, apparently arguing over me. I turned looking desperately After an extended conversation, the lead brother turned back to me.

“Catch!” He called, telekinetically throwing an apple towards me. I caught it in my own  magic and hungrily started to devour it. It took me a few seconds to notice that the two boys were laughing at me and I slowed down, trying to eat more respectfully.

“M-more?” I asked, letting the core of the apple, completely stripped fall to the ground. It hadn’t done much to diminish the hunger in my stomach.

“Hmmm.. Maybe later.” The lead brother said, still grinning. He turned with his brother and left me alone, once again, in the alley. I watched them go, downcast and starving. For nearly a year afterwards, the brothers came back every few days to my alleyway. Occasionally, they’d throw me bits of bread, like damn pigeon and not a pony. But, it was the only way that I was able to stay alive and thus I kept my temper. For a while.

The day had gone the same as all those before it, save for the fact I was feeling particularly dreadful and was not in any mood to put up with the two brothers. Nevertheless, that day was the day they chose to visit me. The visit continued the same way as usual, with me barely holding back shouts. As they were leaving though, I tried to stealthily take some extra food from their saddlebags. Unfortunately, a tight yank wasn’t the most stealthy of maneuvers.

“The hell?” One of them grumbled, seeing the pieces of fruit start to float towards me. I guiltily let them drop, relinquishing my prize. This wasn’t enough satiate the two though and they advanced on me. I started to take anxious steps backwards, legs trembling. The closest brother reached a hoof out and hit my face hard, sending me to the ground. I barely caught sight of his hind legs descending towards me before my magic flared out, against my control. The two were sent flying back, ramming into the side of the alley.

They both fell, the one who had kicked me had his fore leg bent at an odd angle. I had somehow struggled to my hooves in a rage. My magic flared again, shoving them from my home and blocking the entrance with a barrier. As soon as I was in the clear, I fell to the ground again unable to hold back tears. It wasn’t long before the police ponies showed up.

_____________________________________________________________

A loud bang woke me from my fitful sleep. A huge hole had opened into one of walls of the house, something from the storm having drilled it through. Shield stood above me, sheltering me a little from the storm’s wrath.

“Deeper into the house! This storm’s getting bad!” Shield yelled. I could still barely hear him through the wind’s howling. I managed to get up, already thoroughly soaked from the rain pouring in from the hole, soaking us both. I lit up my horn enough to actually give us some light to see by and spotted another door. It was a struggle to get the door open against the wind, but between Shield and I we managed to get it open long enough to get through. The wind slammed the door behind us as soon as my magic left off.

I sighed in relief and brightened my horn, trying to give us a better idea of the room we were in. I instantly regretted it. In the corner, were the bodies of multiple ponies, haphazardly thrown on top of each other. Each of them were in various states of decay, the ones of the bottom nothing but skeletons and the most recent one just beginning to decay. Blood still dripped onto the floor, forming a puddle. The stench was overpowering.

Before I realized what I was doing, I had already completely backed into the door, my limbs shaking with fear. My eyes had grown wide, unable to process what I was seeing.

“Fuck.” Shield cursed, finally taking in the gruesome sight. “Easy there, girl.” He mumbled, watching me back away. Hesitantly, he scanned the rest of the room, but nothing moved. Somepony had to live here though. This was too fresh. He stepped in front of me, trying to shield my vision from the bodies.

“S-Shield... we need to go.” I said, my earlier nausea returning with a vengeance. I turned my head away from the corpses, but the vision remained fixed in my mind. I blindly tugged at the door, clumsy from the nausea.

“Hold on there.” Shield said with a comforting hoof on my shoulder. His voice was reassuring and something my troubled mind could latch onto. “Dead can’t hurt nopony, but that storm can. We don’t know if anypony’s home either, don’t seem like it.” Shield mumbled. “Why don’t you just lay back down? I’ll keep an eye out, don’t you worry.” I nodded and slowly lay back down in front of the door. I even dimmed my light a little, the blood red glow making the bodies look even worse. There was no way in hell I was going to get to sleep.

Shield had really been great to me so far, despite our earlier fighting. He had done his best to protect me when we were fighting and had comforted me afterwards. Sure, he had done it in a bit of a brusque manner, but all the same it had made me feel better. In return, I hadn’t been the greatest towards him. I needed to attempt to rectify that.

“Shield, I’m really sorry about earlier...I was stupid.” I said, trying to keep my voice down. If some pony was home, I definitely didn’t want them to hear us. Well, if I was going to apologize, might as well go whole-hog. “I-I don’t think sometimes and I really didn’t mean to make you feel bad. You’ve been so nice to me and I... well haven’t returned the favor.”

“S’alright I guess. You didn’t mean nothin’ by it. Different time and all that.” Shield mused. “Y’know, kinda curious myself now that ya mention it. Care to describe how your life was back then? Might calm ya down a bit.”

“That’s kind of a big question. Ponyville used to be a really peaceful town. It was nice, not the most exciting place in the world, but there were plenty of ponies to meet and plenty to do most of the time. I stayed in Twilight’s library, that’s why I was so eager to get back there.” I explained. “Was there anything really specific you wanted to know?”

“As long as you’re willing to answer, might as well learn right?” Honestly, he didn’t sound that interesting, but it did seem to calm me down. “There were more pegasi back then right? Wonderin’ cause-” Shield stopped abruptly as a loud thump echoed throughout the house. It was probably just another sound from the storm, but with the pile of bodies in the corner neither of us were willing to take many chances.

Another loud bang rang out, followed by a pained moan. I lit up my horn as bright as I could. Besides just the door we had entered from, there were two more in the room, which had previously gone unnoticed in the darkness.

“Careful now.” He whispered, eyes darting back between the doors. His gun switched back between the two. Several more bangs resounded, whether from the storm or another pony I was unsure. Shield took slow steps forward, his armored body still making a racket. “Stay close.” He added, inching forward.

I kept the light shining ahead of us. Shield pushed open the rightmost door, and stepped inside. Only the ambient sounds of the storm greeted us and he pushed on. I stepped in behind him and shined my light around. There was literally nothing in the entirety of the room. No furniture, nothing. Shield turned back around, heading back towards the corpse-room.

As we made our way towards the final door, I felt myself break out into a cold sweat. The storm had long since made the night chilly, but I was nervous and, I hate to admit it, scared as hell. The noises started back up as we got close. A whimper, a moan, and then a shriek of laughter. Shield hesitated nearly a minute.

My nerves built as Shield finally started to open the door. It started off well enough: he wasn’t instantly attacked. He took fully entered the room with me hanging close. This was definitely somepony’s bedroom. The bed was messily made with a sheet thrown over the top and there seemed to be a complete hoard in one of the corner. But, despite this, nothing seemed to be moving.

Shield and I finally relaxed and I let out a sigh of relief. “Well, that was anticlim-” I started, just as somepony tackled me. I kicked blindly, feeling myself hit something but it making no effect. I felt something stab into my side, my barding taking the brunt of it. Finally, Shield threw the other pony off of me, bucking it clean into a wall. I struggled to my feet and got my first clear look at our attacker.

The pony was a purple pegasus, a knife clamped tight in it’s jaws.The tip of the knife was covered in blood, too much for it to have just been mine. The pegasus’s pupils were expanded, too much to have been natural. Around the knife, it kept giggling, a mixture of blood and saliva spilling out onto the ground. Shield didn’t hesitate in taking a shot, the bullet impacting deep into the pegasus's shoulder. The pony dropped the knife and wailed loudly. Shield fired again, the bullet entering the mare’s neck and ending her life.

“Takes care of that.” Shield grunted. I glanced down at my side, checking my wound. A little blood oozed out, but nothing serious. My barding had been able to absorb most of the blow. Behind us, I heard a moan over from by the bed. “Hell’s that?” He mumbled, making his way over to the bed.

Shield levitated the sheet off the bed, showing a bed stained with blood and an earth pony laying on it’s side. Shield walked around the pony, taking a good look at the pony. What he saw didn’t seem to please him. Sadness reached his eyes. “Fuck.” He mumbled, sounding thoroughly depressed.

“What’s-What’s wrong?” I asked, not wanting to get close to the bloodstained sheets.

“Stomach’s gutted. Must of been that pegasus bitch. That’s what must’ve happened to all those other ponies out there too.” He explained, indicating the adjacent room.

“Is there...anything we can do for it?” I asked. Neither of us knew any healing magic. I had been studying just war magic for the last couple of weeks and Shield didn’t really seem like the type to know too much advanced magic.

“Yep.” He answered. He raised his gun up and fired one last shot. Right into the prone pony’s head.

“What the hell did you do that for!?” I yelled, not truly believing my eyes for a second. “How could you just shoot it?!”

“You think I fuckin’ wanted to?” Shield snapped back. He returned his gun to his saddlebags and let his horn wink out. He sighed and shook his head. “That pony didn’t stand a chance. Even if we had to managed to patch it up it would’ve just extended its pain. I did the best option I had. It was either let it bleed out in misery or me put it down, I don’t spose you could of actually done anything, or ya would’ve healed your own wounds by now.” I fell onto my haunches, chewing on my lip and thinking.

“O-Of course not. I-We-There had to be something we could do. We shouldn’t have just let it die.” I answered. Tears had already started to return to my eyes, but I swallowed my hurt and tried to keep calm.

“We’re in the middle of the desert, in the center of a massive storm. There ain’t shit we could’ve done. If you had healing magic you would’ve said something and I certainly can’t do it. We didn’t just let it die. We sent it to a better place. Anywhere’s better than here” Shield finished, talking as if the conversation was already over.

Shield left the room leaving me alone. The pegasus definitely deserved to die. It had killed, and not just for defense. But the earth pony on the bed? There had to have been something we could have done. Maybe if... I started to think, but nothing came to mind. A few minutes later I followed Shield out of the room into the completely empty room. It was definitely more pleasant to stay in than rooms with bodies or a room with a broken wall. He had already lay down and was trying to get to sleep.

“You’re right.” I admitted, no matter how much I hated it. Shield cracked open an eye and sighed.

“You’re a good pony Zenith. But this place... you gotta make some tough decisions. Sunrise might be able to get by with living her life nice and pretty. But you? You’re too strong to just live your life cooped up in a town. You’re going to have to start realizing that this isn’t going to be easy for you. You’re gonna have to get used to making decisions like that.”

“Sometimes life can be worse than death here and what point is that? Most of the time, I ain’t got a fucking clue. But cases like that pony in there? When they are clearly suffering? Their time is at an end. Let ‘em rest. Speaking of rest, you should get some. I figure we got a few more hours before this crap lets up. So try to get some shut eye ok? Take care of that damn chest wound first though, no use in letting it get infected.” Shield finished, closing his eye once again.

I did as was told, patching myself up before I took my own corner and curled into a ball, trying to get as warm as possible. What Shield had said weighed heavily on my mind and I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep for a while yet. I really didn’t want to believe it, but everything he had said was right and I couldn’t think of a counter argument. After nearly an hour, I finally managed to fall asleep.

Outside, the storm still raged.