Chapter 14: Trip to the Everfree

When we all got off the Zeppelin we bade Mr Grain goodbye and watched him take to the air once again. The snow in New Appleoosa was only about an inch thick but that would be because we were further south than we were at New Saddle.

When we got through the gates it turned out that New Appleoosa was a pokey little town built of box cars and trains. There were a few ponies still about despite the cold and the darkness with only a few fog lights lighting the town.

“Where’s the accommodation?” Alyshia inquired. We all looked at each other, from what I could tell none of us had ever set hoof into this town ever.  I however spotted a boxcar that might have been promising. I walked up to it and saw a sign that read “Absolutely Everything.”

“You think they sell accommodation?” Alyshia whispered.

“Not likely” Midnight laughed jabbing a hoof at the trading hours sign on the door. “It shuts at five pm” she finished.

“Well, I dunno about you guys but normally accommodation in small towns like this would be at the pub?” Brax whinnied, “personally I would be up for some beer.”

“Of course you would be” I muttered and I rolled my eyes.

“What was that?” Brax said kindly.

“Nothing” I corrected, “I just want to find someplace to stay.”

*                                        **                        **                      **                                                *

We found a place to stay at the New Appaloosa pub, unfortunately each room only had one bed so we had to book four rooms. I wasn’t too upset about this; it would have just meant that I had more privacy to get ready. Brax went to the pub by himself as Midnight felt a little too tired to go; she said she had some stuff to catch up on. Alyshia on the other hoof wanted to sort out her medical things to ensure we had enough for the journey ahead.

As for me, when I got into my room I pulled out my dress that Midnight had bought me. I also pulled out my sexiest set of frilly black socks, my fluffy saddle and my necklace, the purple gem glowing ever so softly.

I began to get ready by firstly brushing my mane to try and straighten the ends a little which didn’t really work so well so I gelled them to make it set just perfectly. I did the same with my tail and added a cute little bow on the end; I then pulled on my frilly socks.

After fighting the dress magically I managed to get it on. I tied the saddle in place and put my necklace on. I then added as much make up as my face could possibly hold before grabbing a cloth and wiping my horn to ensure it was perfectly clean.

I looked at myself in the mirror and did absolutely everything to absolute perfection, ensuring I was looking my absolute best. Finally when I believed I could not look any better, I tried some face expressions to try and look cute to Midnight, and try to win her with my adorableness.

“They say I’m innocent? I’ll give her just that” I said aloud.

*                                        **                        **                      **                                                *

I was outside Midnights room, room number ’12’. I looked up at the number and gulped, my heart thumping in my breast as adrenaline ran through it. I was scared, scared of rejection, scared of being laughed at. What if she said no? Would I be able to take that? What if she laughed at me? All my thoughts converged into more and more sinister things as I stared at her room door.

Finally I gulped and raised a hoof. I knocked three times.

“Come in” I heard Midnight say in a bored tone.

Shaking like a leaf I wrapped the handle in magic and walked into certain doom. I shut the door behind me and Midnight was reading a wonderbolts magazine. Well I thought. At least she had started to read like I told her to in Cantal.

I now felt what Lyra had felt when she stepped into Bon Bons room. Midnight looked over the top of her magazine which she dropped and her mouth fell open. I gave her a nervous smile and she just looked at me stunned.

“W-why are you dressed like that Amethyst?” She asked still quite stunned “It looks like you’re about to attend a wedding.”

“I-umm” I stuttered, “I was just wondering y’know, if umm.” I felt heat rise in my neck as I made mistake after mistake, “would you like to go to dinner with me?”

Midnight looked at me and it took her a while to answer. I trotted up to the bed next to her and looked pleadingly into her eyes. I never wanted her so badly. “You mean? As friends?” she inquired looking a little nervous herself.

I shook my head slowly “No Midnight, I want you to be my marefriend.”

I gulped and looked away my eyes filling with tears, this was way too much, it felt like my heart was about to bounce out of my chest, Midnight could surely hear it.

I moved closer to her and my muzzle was just inches from hers “Please Midnight? I love you so much. I love you to the point that I would die without you. I want you Midnight.”

What happened next was something I didn’t plan. Something that was just completely and utterly stupid. I leaned forwards and kissed her and the moment I did I knew I had made a terrible mistake. Midnight put her hooves on me and pushed me back quite hard “No Amethyst, I can’t do this. It feels wrong” Midnight said harshly “I’m not gay, you need to find somepony else who is willing to kiss another mare.”

I felt my stomach twist unpleasantly. “No” I moaned, “we can make it work we-“

“Amethyst” Midnight said angrily, “I’m not gay, I don’t do what fillyfoolers do. I have no problem with you liking mares; just keep me away from it. I like stallions, not mares. You’re a fillyfooler and I’m not.”

“No, please” I pleaded, I felt my eyes building tears. I felt my haunches hit the floor as my hind legs gave out from under me, “Midnight I love you” I moaned.

“Amethyst I’m sorry but I don’t. Can you please get out of my room?” Midnight told me pointing a hoof at the door.

I got up shaking and upset. I felt like I had been stabbed in the heart, it felt like it was bleeding from the inside. I left and closed the door behind me. When it swung closed I collapsed onto the ground crying. I shouldn’t have done it. Why wouldn’t Midnight love me? I was just Amethyst the stupid gay filly from a stable.

I held my hooves to my eyes and rubbed them causing the makeup to smear across my face before looking at my own hooves which were now covered in mascara. Finally I got up and went back to my own room.

When I got back I magically slammed the door shut hard enough to make the whole room shake. I was quivering with distraught. I just wanted to run and never stop running. Midnight just rejected me. It hurt so much, so much in fact that it brought back memories of myself being picked on at school, being left alone at home while mother was away, being rejected by my peers and of the horrors the wasteland had thrown at me.

I threw myself into my bed still crying. All that went through my head was how shit my whole life had been. My mother hated me, dad was dead, Berry was not here, Midnight didn’t like me and the wasteland was so fucked up. I’ve had enough; I just wanted to die at that moment.

I gasped and rolled onto my stomach and buried my face into the pillow and screamed as loud as I could, I felt none of the pressure dissipate. I sat up and magically threw the pillow against the wall. It did nothing. I wanted to just trash my room and smash everything but that wouldn’t do anything and I knew it. I threw myself back onto my bed and gritted my teeth wanting to scream as loud as I could. To alleviate this, I bit my right foreleg as I tried to not scream again. I bit until it hurt, however it had an unexpected effect. It felt… Good. The pain felt good.

I grunted and rolled back onto my back and held my foreleg in front of me, I could see my teeth marks under my coat turning maroon, the skin unbroken. It felt good and it gave me an idea, was I really that messed up? I rolled out of bed and wrestled the dress off myself with my saddle still on. The saddle and dress dropped to the floor and I pulled off my socks.

Finally I went to my saddlebags and levitated my knife out and held it up to the light, the blade was near blunt but that didn’t really matter. I had cut myself by accident on a sharp knife when I was a filly and didn’t really like that very much.

I felt my heart tighten again knowing what I was about to do, it would have the same effect wouldn’t it?

Finally I walked over to the sink with the knife and looked at myself in the mirror. What I saw was a mentally and physically drained filly with makeup smeared across her face, her pupils were dilated, her eyes were bloodshot and tears tracked down her face and snot ran from her nose. I closed my eyes and looked down. I felt fresh tears form as I grasped the knife in my magic. I held my right foreleg out and ran the blade across the inside of the leg about four inches above the hoof horizontally.

The sharp sear of pain was over in less than half a second and replaced by another feeling. It felt good as the pain throbbed from the wound; it felt better than when I was biting my leg. It felt like my problems were bleeding out with the blood that came with it. Everything I had gone through, everything that I suffered, my neglect, the teasing and laughing, the hundreds of head dunkings and the many times I had been beaten up by Glenda and mother not caring. Nopony cared about little Amethyst who sat in her room late at night crying while her drunk mother fucked a stallion two rooms away. All I wanted was all my mental pain to drain away leaving me at least content with the pony I was. I wanted to be happy, how could I be happy if I was reduced to slicing up my own foreleg?

When the good feeling wore off I ran the knife across about half an inch above the one I just made. This one actually hurt quite badly, it caused me to drop the knife into the sink. The good feeling came but it wasn’t as good as the last. I felt the warm sticky blood matt the coat fibres of my hoof. I looked into the sink and blood started to pepper the inside. It felt good but I didn’t care at that point in time, the pain I was feeling was nothing compared to the pain I had suffered, not only in my stable but out here too.

*                                        **                        **                      **                                                *

I had finally stopped crying and decided to clean up the mess I made. I washed the knife and put it back in my saddle bags then washed out the sink and washed my bloody hoof with soap. The cuts were quite prominent and I didn’t want them to scar so I opened my saddlebags and found to my surprise that I had no healing potions. Alyshia had taken them.

That’s ok I thought, I’ll just bandage it; they’ll prevent scarring and heal the wounds quite quickly. I found a roll in my saddlebags and wrapped my hoof with the bandages. My companions knew I had always worn socks so I slipped them all on which hid the evidence.

I sudden horrible thought entered my head. What if my companions found out what I did?  My stomach clenched even worse. Then again it was really none of their business what I did to my body, kind of like when I touch myself, no pony was supposed to know but me. Anyway, if I keep my socks on which I did nearly all the time except when I was not wearing my barding, nopony would ever know.

I looked over the side of the bed and picked my dress and saddle back up magically and put them back in my saddlebags. Finally I levitated my pillow back onto my bed, my head then hit the pillow and with a flash of my horn the lights went out. Unfortunately sleep did not really want to come. It was still early and I was still quite upset. I didn’t want to talk to anypony at that point. When I was like this I just wanted to be alone, all by myself.

What I did not expect or particularly want was a knock on the door. I pulled the sheets to my chin magically and said “come in” trying but failing to sound normal.

My horn flared and the lights turned back on. The pony that came in was not Midnight, it was Alyshia. “Amethyst, you’re going to bed alrea-?” but she paused when she looked at me. I might have managed to keep everything else looking normal but my face was a dead giveaway that I had been crying for some time. “Dear what happened? Why have you been crying?” Alyshia asked caringly.

“Nothing” I mumbled and I slipped lower into the sheets but Alyshia being the pony she was sat on the bed next to me.

“It doesn’t look like nothing” she muttered, “I see a young filly who looks troubled, who looks like she’s about to crack.” She gave a small pause before asking “This isn’t about your family is it?”

I nodded and I mumbled “kinda.” It wasn’t lying. That was a partial reason as to why I was so upset, Midnights rejection was just a spark to an already unstable me.

Alyshia grabbed my right foreleg right where my cuts were. I felt sharp pain grip my foreleg and I tugged it out with a little “ow.”

“Did you hurt your hoof?” Alyshia asked looking down at it, I scowled and nodded. To cover my tracks I then said “I whacked it when I was trying to get into bed.”

“Right” Alyshia said looking at my hoof, “Why are you wearing socks to bed?” she asked curiously, “I mean I know you like them but you don’t normally wear them to bed.”

“I do now” I told her tucking my hooves under the blanket.

Alyshia looked very concerned as she said “Would you like to talk? You have clearly been at the height of upset.”

I shook my head and said quietly “I’m fine.”

“You sure?” she whispered caringly.

I nodded.

Alyshia then smiled at me and leaned over. She gave me a hug and pulled the sheets onto me properly. She then kissed the tip of my horn and said, “ok then Amethyst, but remember I’m always here for you and if you need somepony to talk to, just come and see me ok?”

I nodded and she left. I sighed. I dodged a bullet there. I felt an ache grow in my stomach. I felt guilty for lying to her, I was wrong about nopony caring. Alyshia cared, she cared for me better than my own mother ever could have hoped to imagine. Mother never put me to sleep for as long as I could remember or for that matter kiss my horn and request that I talked to her about my problems.

I regretted what I had done at that point. I should have talked to Alyshia; I knew she wouldn’t have laughed at me. She was a reasonable pony, a pony I could trust and I kept pushing her away.  All I could say was that I loved Alyshia. Not in the same way as I loved Midnight, but in a different but bizarre kind of way, the kind of way a filly should love her own mother, a feeling that I did not have for my own.

I started to cry again for a reason I did not know, probably guilt? Probably anger at myself for taking such extreme measures to keep myself cal, I felt weak and vulnerable.  My tears leaked down my cheeks and into the sheets. I couldn’t sleep and all I could do was lie there and cry.

*                                        **                        **                      **                                                *

Some hours later I heard my door open and close. I pretended to be asleep, I knew who it must be but I just lay still and closed my eyes. I felt the bed sag as somepony sat on it. I smelt Alyshia nearby and she ran a hoof through my mane and whispered “Oh Amethyst, you poor dear. Whatever has happened for you to be like this?” I felt her hoof brush my face and run through the sticky tears that were left in the coat fibres. I could still feel the wetness of my tears on the sheets.

I felt the bed move again and Alyshia had crawled into the single bed with me. She was behind me and I could hear her breathing. She wrapped her forehooves around me and then fell asleep, her warm body against my back.  I felt a bizarre emotion take hold of me. I felt the piece of glass wedged in my heart melt away leaving a bleeding feeling behind instead and it almost made me cry again. It felt better than when I cut myself, it released some of the pressure that had built inside my head and inside my breast, at least enough for me to fall asleep.

*                                        **                        **                      **                                                *

Thump

Thump

Thump

I opened my eyes and came to realise my head was resting on Alyshia’s shoulder. The thumping sound was clearly her heart coupled with her slow breathing. I could see the wastelands dim clouded light coming through the curtains. It was clearly morning, so I raised my head and looked at the lavender unicorn sleeping peacefully on my bed. Alyshia provided me so much comfort the previous night; she had done more than my mother ever did for as long as I could remember anyway. The memory of me as a little foal that I did not realise I had, had been an indication but at some stage between that memory and of my first actual memories she had turned sour.

Alyshia began to stir. She then sat up and rubbed her eyes and looked at me who was looking at her. I smiled but Alyshia said groggily “Oh Amethyst, I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t be treating you like a foal but-“

I cut her off and said croakily “No Alyshia. Thank you so much for coming in, I really needed your comfort.” I then leaned over and hugged the older unicorn who hugged me back.

“You’re welcome Amethyst” Alyshia mumbled, “If you need to talk to me about anything, anything at all just let me know.”

I nodded, my chin on her shoulder but as I did so I felt my stomach squirm, as much as I wanted to tell Alyshia about my problems I privately thought that it would be best if I told nopony at all. They were after all my problems and why should I drag somepony else down with them?

I broke away from Alyshia and rubbed my nose with my right hoof, I gave a small gasp as a slight jab of pain jarred across it. It didn’t really hurt it just shocked me more than anything.

“You really hit that hoof hard didn’t you?” Alyshia laughed.

I forced a grin, “Yeah… Well…” I didn’t know what to say because I couldn’t come up with anything but Alyshia shook her head.

“It’s ok Amethyst, I understand.”

*                                        **                        **                      **                                                *

Alyshia left my room not long after and I started to get ready to go. I had to repack my saddlebags as I had completely unorganised everything the previous night. When I pulled my dress back out to fold it something rolled out and hit the wooden floor.

I wrapped my magic around the glass spun ball. It was the orb of desire. I looked into it and it showed Midnight and I hugging, we were happy. I felt tears leak down my face again followed by a flare of anger. This stupid orb kept telling me I was going to be with Midnight, but everything I tried was not working.

Losing control I threw the glass spun orb against the wall and it merely bounced off the steel with a small ‘tink.’ I picked it up and looked at it; the orb was not damaged at all. Instead it just continued to show Midnight and… well… myself. I sighed then placed the orb back into my saddlebags, it was after all a gift and I should keep it in case it would change.

I heard a knock on the door and I said flatly “It’s open.” The door opened and expecting Alyshia I said “Hi Alysh-“I felt the blood drain away from my head when I looked up. It was Midnight who looked a little abashed that I just mistook her for Alyshia.

I felt my heart clench tightly and I found it hard to look at her without throwing myself into her hooves. I took a breath and said trying not to cry again, “I’m sorry about last night” I mumbled, “I shouldn’t have kissed you. It was stupid.”

Midnight blinked and then sighed. She trotted over to me and put a wing around my body. I felt a leap of my heart. I looked into her eyes and felt the pressure in my heart build, “I’m sorry for pushing you away” Midnight mumbled, “so, you ok?”

I nodded. It was a lie, I wasn’t ok. I was screaming inside, I wanted her so badly. I gave a small sniff and said quietly “You’re beautiful Midnight.”

Midnight shook her head, “No I’m not, and you are the only pony to really say that. Not including my parents of course.”

I looked at the floor; the only pony to say I was beautiful was Alyshia and that’s including my parents. Well… I couldn’t speak for my father, I was sure he thought I was beautiful before he died.

“Midnight?” I asked timidly, “Can I ask a favour?”

“Depends on what it is” she responded.

I took a deep breath and said “Can you promise me to never tell Alyshia or anypony what happened last night?”

Midnight smiled and nodded, “To be honest, I’d rather forget last night happened as well. I won’t tell a soul.”

*                                        **                        **                      **                                                *

Later that day we regrouped and left the pub we stayed at. Brax had a slight hangover but was otherwise all good. I had swapped my socks to my normal barding socks which were thicker and stronger than the flimsy ones I wore last night.

Problem was now we stood in New Appleoosa with no idea where to go. We could just leave town but we didn’t know the conditions or if there was any danger beyond the gates so we decided to meet the town mayor.

“You have never been here either than Brax?” I inquired of the old stallion.

“Nope” he said simply, “Ain’t never been south of the Canterlot ranges.”

“Oh ok” I said. “Midnight, you lived in Cantal, this town isn’t that far away, you’ve never been here either?”

“Nah” she mused, “Nothing here for me, I mean why come here when Cantal has all I need?”

I nodded; I agreed with her, Cantal was a much better town than New Appleoosa. So far if I had the choice of permanent residence it would be Cantal.

“Uhh... So where does Cantal get its name from?” I asked thinking I already knew the answer.

Midnight answered “Cantal is a satellite city of Canterlot, It was built during the war.”

“Hey, you lot look new to town” a bucks voice sounded from nearby.

We all turned and found ourselves face to face with a young light brown stallion around my own age. He was an earth pony and wore a red bandanna around his neck.

“Uhh… Hi” I said awkwardly.

“Yeah we’re new in town” Alyshia piped up seizing the opportunity for help, “we’re looking for somepony to tell us the conditions and what to look out for outside the town gates, you see we got here last night on a zeppelin and we have never been here before.”

“Where ya’ll headin off to?” the stallion inquired, “Ah might be able ta’ help, fer the righ' fee o' course.”

“You want paying?" I asked him, "Forget that."

"How much do you charge?" Alyshia asked.

"Where ya off to?" He asked first.

I scowled "Stable three” I muttered looking at my Pipbuck, “and probably stable two and four.”

“Ya’ll stable trekkin’ now are we?” he asked excited, “Ah could help, ah’m good at navigatin’, ah know the New Apploosa – Ponyville area like the back of mah hoof. Oh an' I charge fifty caps a day or two hundred caps a week.”

“Okay” Alyshia said looking happy, “Thank-“,

I cut her off, “Who are you?” I asked not catching the stallion’s name,

“Amethyst!” Midnight snapped, “Don’t be so rude.”

Midnight smiled at him, “Don’t mind her, we just didn’t catch your name.”

“Ah apologise, Mah name is Lionel” he said looking apologetic.

“So you know where to go then Lionel?” Alyshia inquired.

“Ah sure do” he said confidently, “As ah said ah know this place like the back of mah hoof.”

*                                        **                        **                      **                                                *

Lionel had to collect his barding and guns from his boxcar home, turned out he too had a battle saddle like Midnight and Brax, his were two rifles, they were not fully automatic like Midnight’s ones.

He looked at Alyshia and I, we were both unencumbered from the need of Battle Saddles. He then said with a little laugh, “Damn you unicorns don’t need these battle saddles, wish ah could jus’ float mah gun and shoot.”

I pulled out my magnum magically and did a few flips with it in mid-air, my magical sheath broke and my gun hit the ground. I blushed then picked it back off the ground magically.

*                                        **                        **                      **                                                *

We left New Appleloosa and were on the way to Stable four which was near Ponyville almost a day’s trot away. Lionel said that Ponyville was no longer safe as raiders took over the town a few years ago so we couldn’t stay in the town itself. As for me I wouldn’t mind some raider blood. It would let me unleash some of the steam that had caused me to cut my leg.

“Do we have to go through Ponyville?” I inquired of the younger stallion.

“Yeah probably” he stated, “if ya want ta avoid the raiders then we have ta go in stealth like, problem is there is snipers there.”

His accent was really starting to throw me off but I said “Well then, I’ll pick off the snipers than we can sneak through town and… Where’s stable four?”

He replied “Stable four is wes’ of Ponyville, I think near the everfree forest.”

I checked my pipbuck and saw the marker for stable four; It was in the everfree forest but not far in. The everfree forest on my pipbuck was marked with a pony skull. This was ominous, Whitetail woods was on the other side of Ponyville yet it wasn’t really that scary, well… Unless you counted that behemoth that I came across.

“Is the everfree forest dangerous?” I asked as we continued to walk along the road that would take us to Ponyville.

He gave a laugh “Yea’ Everfree forest was feared even b’fore the war, the taint an’ radiation has made it worse.”

“Should we skip this one then?” Alyshia inquired, “We want to remain safe do we not?”

I facehoofed, “Alyshia” I said matter of factly, “if we’re going through a town full of raiders, then we are obviously not going to remain safe are we?”

“You have a point Amethyst, but who knows what lives in there. There could be an Ursa, or Manticores, or dragons.”

“Ursa’s are just an old pony tail” I muttered, “They don’t exist.”

“But you don’t know that Amethyst” Midnight put in, “I mean, I’ve never been in the Everfree forest but who knows? What about you Lionel?”

“Ahh. Ah’ve been around the entrance of the everfree, bu’ I ain’t seen no Ursa or Dragons, but the plants are fearsome ah must say.

“Plants?” I laughed, “Oh what are they going to do, leaf us to death?”

“Ahh, Amethyst, don’t underestimate tha everfree forest. The poison joke is no joke” he said gloomily.

“Right” I muttered as I rolled my eyes.

Lionel and Midnight then started to talk about the everfree forest which didn’t really interest me, I just facehoofed and continued walking.

*                                        **                        **                      **                                                *

“m’kay ‘eres Ponyville” Lionel finally said as we reached the top of a ridge looking down at an old and very busted up town below. My pipbuck gave three quick beeps and I glanced at it. My pipbuck had picked up three new locations; one was “Ponyville” the other was “Sweet Apple Acres and the other “Stable 2” which was at Sweet Apple Acres.

“Do you all want to check out Stable two first?” I asked my entourage, “it’s closer.”

“Nah” Midnight said “Check stable four first.”

I scratched my head then said “Well, if we are going to stable four we’ll have to pass through the outer parts of town.”

“I agree with Midnight” Alyshia said, “let’s get the harder stables first because chances are they have the talisman.”

I nodded and bought up a map of Ponyville on my pipbuck to plan the route. I knew that there were raiders in town and would prefer to avoid them if possible to keep my friends safe. “Ok” I finally said, “The everfree forest is that way” I pointed a hood over yonder, “so we’ll go via that building over there.” I pointed a hoof at a rusty old building that would have once looked magnificent. I looked at my pipbuck and read the name, “We’ll go by the Carousel Boutique, that way we don’t go into town unless we have to.”

Everypony nodded and finally I smiled, “All good then, now let’s just get rid of some raiders before we go shall we?” I said pulling out my sniper rifle.

“Wait what?” Alyshia babbled.

“I can see ponies on the rooves of some of those buildings, they might be snipers” I replied.

“Oh” she said simply.

I cracked the gun open and put some of those purple coloured bullets that I got from New Saddle. When I was done I pulled lever and said “let’s do this.”

I leaned onto a large rock and rested the rifle on it. I put my eye to the scope and found my first target. I was just about to shoot when I heard Lionel say “Ya’ll sure ya know how ta handle that gun?”

I pulled my eye away and said confused “What? Of course I know how to handle the gun.”

He shrugged “Ya look funny with that it is all.”

I looked at Alyshia confused and she gave a small jerk of her shoulder and head. I then said “Does it matter how I look with the gun?”

“Not really” he replied, “Just seein’ a cute lil’ filly with a gun looks… funny.”

I raised an eyebrow as a slight stab of annoyance hit my breast, “what are you implying little colt? You would hardly be any older than I am” I shot at him.

“Ah don’ mean it like that” he said realising his error.

“Are you saying a mare can’t shoot?” I asked with slight venom on my tongue.

“What?” he said, “Of course not, I’ve seen many mares shoot way better than most stallions, I wouldn-“

“Just drop it” Alyshia said with a sigh.

I turned away and looked through the scope, I had lost my target. I found him again and shot.

BANG

I saw my bullet hit the target and he melted into a purple blob. “Sheesh those bullets are mean” Midnight said. I looked up at her and she was flying with a pair of binoculars. Clearly I was the only one shooting. I was the only one with a gun that had a scope and could shoot so far.

I found another pony on the roof with a sniper rifle mounted on a tripod.

BANG

She melted too.

I seeked out another target and found another pony with a sniper rifle too. I found my target and aimed on his flank. I was just about to shoot when I noticed that my target had no cutie mark. I found his face and it was a colt. He would have only been around eight or nine.

I moved my focus to another pony. Even though he would grow up to be a rapist and a murderer I couldn’t shoot a colt or a filly of that age. I found another mare nearby and shot her instead.

“Amethyst why didn’t you shoot the colt?” Midnight asked exasperated.

“How did you know I was aiming at him?” I asked.

“Your gun was pointed in his direction” she muttered, “why didn’t you just shoot him?”

“I couldn’t shoot a foal” I growled, “That’s something I just couldn’t do.”

“Weak” Brax said, “That colt will grow up to be just like the rest of them, why not just end it now?”

“I couldn’t” I muttered again.

BANG

Midnight had my sniper rifle; she put it down on the rock. “There… Done.”

“Y-You shot a colt” I said shocked, “You just shot a foal”

“He’s hardly innocent” Midnight said, “Stable filly will always be a stable filly.”

I looked at Alyshia and she said “I probably wouldn’t have done it either to be honest.” Well at least somepony agreed with me.

“Told ya tha’ ya couldn’t handle the gun” Lionel mentioned.

“You don’t say” I mumbled aggressively.

I felt bad now; I wanted to show Midnight I was my own mare and not a shy stable filly still. Maybe just being me wasn’t working. Berry’s voice echoed in my head “You’ll never find a special somepony if you be somepony you’re not.”

I sighed. She was right; I needed to just be myself. Problem was, being myself was not what Midnight wanted, she was plainly after somepony more mature than she was, somepony who would look after her and not the other way around. I knew I was I submissive pony. I wanted to be dominated and I looked at Midngiht as being a dominant pony. The thought of her standing over me but being kind and helpful to me and looking after me made me want her even more.

“Hey Amethyst are you ok there?” Midnight asked from the air.

I shook my head and said “Yeah I’m fine. I just, I should have shot the colt.”

Midnight nodded, “we still have a lot to learn don’t we? But don’t worry Amethyst, I’ll teach you what you need to know.”

“But I already know” I said heatedly, “I know how to shoot, I know who to shoot.”

Midnight flew above my head and ruffled my mane with a hoof, “No you don’t filly.”

“I’m not a filly” I mumbled.

“Prove it” Midnight laughed.

I scowled, once again made out like a little filly who needed somepony to hold my hoof.

“Yea, ah think ya’ll need to stop that, Amethyst is lookin’ a little pissed” Lionel piped up.

“You don’t say?” Midnight said from above, “It’s all fun and games.”

I pulled my sniper rifle up with my magic and reloaded it as I said “Come on let’s just go.”

My bad mood persisted as we climbed down the hill we were on which was quite steep to the road that would take us to where we needed to go.

*                                        **                        **                      **                                                *

When we reached the outskirts of town I felt apprehensive. I saw two ponies who saw us approach the town open fire. I shot one and Lionel shot the other with his rifles.

“Hey” Midnight barked at Lionel, “You stole my shot.”

“It was mah shot” he replied, “Ah shot ‘im first.”

When we entered the borderline of Ponyville all that adorned the town was barbed wire, forts and wooden stakes with pony heads stuck on the end.

“Okay that’s just gross” I muttered as I looked at one encased in flies.

Every now and then we would come across a raider patrolling a path or coming out of a building. Every time we saw one we shot them. I was quicker than the rest as I could manoeuvre my sniper rifle much faster than Midnight, Lionel or Brax. Not long after I needed to reload my sniper rifle.

“Shit Amethyst, you shoot quick” Lionel complemented.

“Why thank you” I replied chancing a glance to Midnight who scowled. Maybe I could impress her with how quick I had picked up shooting?

“How long you bin handlin’ guns fer?” he asked curiously.

“I picked up my first gun about a month ago” I replied looking for more raiders as we walked through the outskirts of Ponyville.

“No way?” he asked shocked.

I nodded “told you I could handle my gun.” A raider all by himself appeared nearby, he saw us and ran but before I could shoot him Midnight got him.

“Need to pick up the pace a bit I think” Midnight laughed.

*                                        **                        **                      **                                                *

When we approached Carousel Boutique I saw how magnificent the building had once been. There was a sign on the outside saying that it was a dress shop. I broke away from my companions and trotted over to the door. It looked safe enough so I pushed the door open with a hoof and the little rusty bell rang indicating a customer. I stuck my head through the door but didn’t enter the building. The inside was trashed, mannequins lay smashed and torn fabric littering the floor and shit was dabbed on the walls. It smelt worse than a public toilet that had never been cleaned.

“Amethyst what the fuck are you doing?” Brax shouted, “get that flank back over here.”

I ignored him as I noticed the stairwell at the back of the boutique, it looked familiar. Before I could pinpoint where I saw it I felt somepony grab me around the flanks.

“Hey” I shouted, “You’re touching my-“I paused. It was Midnight and I finished softly “Flanks.”

“C’mon Amethyst” Midnight said, “stop holding us up.”

“You touched my ass” I said scornfully.

Midnight scowled, “didn’t you like it?”

“No” I lied, “I hate it when ponies touch me.”

Midnight rolled her eyes, “I thought you liked getting touched up by mares.”

“Fine I liked it” I spat, “I only liked it because it was you.”

“Gee no need to get so cranky” Midnight said looking a little perplexed.

When we reached the others who were waiting, I merely followed them lost in thought about the Carousel Boutique. The staircase looked familiar, I tried to pin point this from my memories but I could find the right one. It wasn’t until I imagined a white teenage filly with a curly pink and purple mane that was in a sour mood just like I was currently in, storming down the staircase to her sister Rarity.

That memory had taken place in Carousel Boutique which must have been Rarities house and Sweetie Belle must have been staying over. It looked so nice back then. Now it was just a horrible defiled place with nothing in it but shattered memories of the past.

“What’s that sound?” Brax grumbled from nearby.

My ears perked and it was coming from a two story building nearby. Curiosity got the better of me. The once pretty garden was nothing but dirty snow and frozen pony bodies. The front door had a stallion sexual organ nailed to it. “Ewwww” I moaned but Alyshia shoved a hoof into my mouth making me muffle.

I heard the grunt of a stallion and the moan of a mare. I facehoofed then bought up my EFS. This house had four hostiles. I wrapped my magic around the doorknob as I heard a mare scream “That’s right bitch, fuck me harder.”

“Amethyst, what are you doing?” Alyshia moaned quietly.

“Going to put these ponies down” I whispered back.

“They didn’t do anything to you” Alyshia muttered.

“They did stuff to other ponies” I whispered back.

Grunt

“I’m going in” Brax muttered and he pushed Alyshia out of the way to join me as did Midnight and Lionel.

I snuck through the entrance hall; the floor marked with blood and proceeded to the sitting room. The sitting room was a mess of pony shit and defiled copses. I heard another pleasured grunt but from directly above. “They could at least try to b-“I started loudly but I felt a hoof enter my mouth again.

“Shhh” Midnight hissed. The grunting and banging stopped. “I think they heard Amethyst’s huge mouth” Midnight shot at me in a whisper but I couldn’t reply because Midnights hoof was still inside my mouth.

I heard quiet hoof steps and my ears perked. Midnight removed her hoof from her mouth and I turned to the stairwell to see a khaki green stallion that had just come down the stairs. I turned to shoot him but Midnight hit him first. The mare then came down the stairwell who was of a dirt colour and her left forehoof was missing below the knee which was replaced by a wooden prosthetic.

When she saw us she put her wooden hoof to her face and pleaded “please don’t shoot me.”

She was clearly a raider and would have been the one that the stallion was having sex with as I could recognise her voice from a few seconds ago.

BANG

Midnight shot her. I looked at her reproachfully, “Why the fuck did you shoot her?” I shouted, “She didn’t need to die.”

“She was a raider” Midnight scoffed, “of course she needed to die.”

I opened my mouth to argue but Alyshia this time shoved a hoof in my mouth. “Did you hear that?” she asked.

“Ear waf?” I asked through her hoof.

“Amethyst shut up” she snapped. I scowled with her hoof still in my mouth.

I heard hoof steps followed by a door opening and closing.

“Waf if zat?” I muffled.

“Ah think we’re in trouble” Liden whispered, “Must ‘ave been more in the house.”

I checked my EFS when Alyshia finally removed her hoof from my mouth. There were no hostiles. I remembered there being four before we entered this house, where were the other two?

“I saw four hostiles on my EFS before” I whispered. “There’s none now.”

“Fuck” Brax mumbled, “Great, now the whole fucking town knows there are intruders.” He rounded on me, “Why the fuck did you come in here again?”

“I- I” I couldn’t answer it, not without contradicting myself especially after I told Midnight off for killing the mare. Brax sighed but did not say anything else; I made him angry again so I tried to regain control of everypony. “Okay then everypony” I said confidently, “let’s just… Go to the entrance of the everfree forest.

We all exited the house and quickly made our way across Ponyville. We must have shaken them off I thought. I gave a sigh of relieve.

BANG

A spark came off Brax’s armour followed by Alyshia squealing in pain. The bullet had ricocheted of Brax’s metallic armour and hit Alyshia in her leg.

“Fuck”Alyshia yelled as she collapsed onto the ground cradling her foreleg. It took me a second to process what had just happened. I’d never heard Alyshia swear in my life. I blinked and saw some blood oozing from a wound in her right foreleg. Alyshia seemed to be panicking.

“Alyshia calm down” I shouted as I dropped down to take a look at the wound. I let off a sigh of relief when she let me look at it. The bullet had only just entered her leg; the butt of the bullet was jutting out of her leg. “Hold still” I mumbled. She sat stock still as I wrapped the bullet in my magic and pulled it out. She gasped but didn’t yell, fresh blood oozed out and I wrapped the wound with a bandage. “Well, at least I could handle that one” I laughed.

Alyshia smiled and got shakily to her hooves. “Th-thank you Amethyst” she said quietly.

“No Prob-“

BANG

Another bullet hit the snow at my hooves. I saw my EFS light up with several red signalling me to pull out my magnum. “Umm” I stammered looking for someplace to run or hide. I really wanted to avoid a fight if we could, I wanted to try the dust flick trick but the problem was, the ground was covered in a layer of snow and the frozen melt had made the ground hard.

More red hit my EFS and before I knew it raiders were pouring into the streets around us which made us run into a nearby house which was like the last was used as some kind of prison, slash torture chamber place, slash execution room.

BANG BANG, rtattatttaatta.

Bullet holes were appearing in the walls as the raiders began to turn it into Swiss cheese hoping to kill us. We all ran into the back room and out the back door into the back yard. There were raiders here too.

I slid into SATS as Lionel, Brax and Midnight filled the air with shots. I targeted each pony and used the entire spell in one go.

I felt a bullet hit my barding at my shoulder and felt it bruise causing me to limp slightly. I focused on that raider and fired causing him to melt into a blob.

I saw Alyshia pull out a mine and was preparing to set it however three raiders climbed the wooden fence and she instead lobbed it at them armed which exploded when it made contact with one of them showering the air with gore.

Alyshia instead pulled out some grenades and threw them over the fence. The ensuring shouts and the splatter of meat on wood told me there were more over the fence.

I saw Midnight take flight and fire upon the hordes of raiders that seemed intent on defending the town that they stole, the town we did not really intend to fight for.

“I’m just going to go back inside and make sure none of them is going to ambush us” I shouted over the gunfire. Nopony seemed to hear me so I dashed inside anyway and found ponies starting to enter the house. I swapped to my shotgun and with SATS recharged I blew them apart showering the already bloody floor in more gore.

BTTTZ

A green double lazer shot one that was sneaking up from behind me. It was Brax, “get on filly” he growled lowering to allow me to scramble onto his back. He dashed outside and together we fought anypony intent on killing us.

I swapped back to my magnum and I spotted a pony who was screaming as she ran; she was ragged and bloody and she was being chased by another mare who shouted “get back here meat” she pointed a gun at the mare and I acted with haste, forgetting SATS I shot manually and hit the pursuing mare.

“Where are the others?” I shouted with my hooves around Brax’s neck.

“Dunno” Brax shouted as he shot another pony.

Brax took off with me on his back; he then turned into an alleyway between two houses. That wasn’t the right move.  About twenty raiders were pouring down the other end and as Brax came to a halt another fifteen or so followed us in trapping us.

Brax backed up as ponies opened fire on us. I bought up my shield to protect myself however it was just large enough for Brax to be within it as well. It didn’t really occur to me until now that Brax wasn’t only big, he was huge. I shook my head clearing it because I knew my shield wouldn’t stay up for very long.

I focused my magic once again but this time wrapping Brax and myself in a levitation field and with huge effort that was enough for my horn to spark and overglow, I managed to lift myself and Brax up and onto the roof of the house nearby. I collapsed my shield and looked to see if I could spot the others, I thankfully saw a white Pegasus flying around shooting with a purple pony on her back which just meant that Lionel was missing.

Brax took one step and fell through the roof and into the house we were on. I felt something whack my head causing stars to burst into my vision but I still maintained my grip on the metallic stallion. “Run” I yelled “before the raiders come in.” Brax galloped to the front door which he ran through rather than opening and galloped down the street to where Lionel was running from perusing raiders.

I grabbed him in my magic and levitated him; Midnight spotted us and flew closer down. Brax ran out of town and just ahead I saw the opening of a dark and dank forest. “Run” I yelled again as the dark green forest loomed into view. Brax ran in followed by Midnight and Alyshia who were flying. I looked back and the raiders had stopped at the entrance of the forest. One of them yelled “Have fun in there fuckers.”

Brax collapsed from under me and I dropped Lionel when my muzzle whacked Brax’s steel neck. Midnight landed and placed Alyshia on the ground. I noticed that Alyshia didn’t get up. “What’s wrong with Alyshia?” I panted still exhausted.

“I got shot again” Alyshia muttered lifting her foreleg to show a bullet wound right at the base of her foreleg, she was lucky it wasn’t further up.

“Have you taken a healing potion yet?” I asked her.

“N-Not yet” she mumbled.

I felt sick that Alyshia was hurt, for some reason I felt that her being hurt had hurt me too. I shook my head “you should take one.”

Alyshia nodded and drank the healing potion. The wound healed but she still did not get up. I walked over to her and sat next to her. Alyshia shifted into a sitting position and gave me a hug, I leaned into her soaking up her warmth, but Alyshia said “as much as I have grown to you Amethyst you can be a really stupid pony sometimes.”

“W-what?” I asked dumbfounded and I withdrew from her hug feeling hurt.

She shook her head and said “I told you not to go in and you went in anyway, you went in with the idea of killing the ponies and then got angry at Midnight for shooting one.”

“She yielded though” I said quietly. Getting scolded by Alyshia was different than getting scolded by the others, I felt disappointed in myself every time Alyshia told me off.

“Not the point” she said, “Just listen to me that’s all.”

I hugged Alyshia again and she hugged me back, “Aww” Midnight cooed.

I rolled my eyes and scowled; Alyshia let out a loud snort and shook her head saying “Purrlease.”

“Ahm, you guys, it ain’t very safe lyin round the everfree forest ya know” Lionel said helping me and Alyshia to our hooves. “Ain’t no time ta be jokin’ around.

“Right you are” Midnight giggled. She landed next to him and hoofed his side before she said “I agree, let’s go everypony.”

I blinked and I felt a little monster claw in my stomach. Is Midnight flirting with him? I shook my head, no way. They had known each other for what? Four or five hours?”

I checked my Pipbuck and the stable was nearby, a few hundred meters away. I gave a sigh of relief; this forest was creepy enough without needing to traverse for several days through it.

I heard a sudden rustle of leaves and the movement of wood, I was just about to look behind myself when without warning I felt something grab my front hooves and I fell into the dusty ground, the snow had failed to permeate through the canopy of the forest so this filled my mouth with dust and dirt. I gagged and got back up wiping my muzzle but as I did so I felt something woody grab me around the middle, “What the f-“ I turned and saw a tree had extended a wooden claw like hand and wrapped it around my middle.

I screamed at the sight of it, the tree had a face, its sunken eyes fixed on me like some kind of demon. “Amethyst?” Alyshia bellowed. I felt her magic wrap around me but the tree simply lifted me into the air and Alyshia’s magic broke. “Midnight” Alyshia screamed, “Get Amethyst down.”

“HELP” I yelled trying to pry the wooden fingers off me, my physical strength clearly nothing to the tree.

“Pony is yummy” the tree growled in a very deep and delighted voice, “I like pony.”

I felt Midnight grab me but the tree shook me very hard and Midnight flew off. When the shaking stopped I vomited all over myself and the hand holding me. I moaned feeling motion sickness take hold.

“Ow” the tree yelped in the same reverberating deep tone, “I want to eat pony, you get off me or I eat you too.”

“Not a chance ya piece o’ wood, let ‘er go” Lionel yelled. I saw Lionel had scaled the tree and was attempting to hack it off with a mini saw.  I saw the tree try to snatch at Lionel with the other hand. “Ge’ back ya cur” he bellowed, “Alyshia throw me a Grenade.” The tree moved its arm wildly and I felt a branch hit me in the side of the head and felt it gash just under my right eye.

I saw Alyshia throw Lionel a fresh grenade and he put it in a crevice he made with the saw. He then pulled the pin and jump for cover; this left me exposed to the blast. I tried to pull my shield up and it had only half formed when the grenade went off. The shield took most of the impact but that didn’t stop the shrapnel digging into my barding with the feeling of a thousand knives into my flanks.

The tree’s arm that held onto me had severed causing it to scream very deeply indeed, “pony hurt, pony hurt.”  This caused me to fall to the ground and squashed under the heavy branch which landed on top of me.

Lionel took a step and shouted “Come at me then you useless block o’ wood” while facing the tree in an aggressive stance, the tree froze and its face vanished. “Good” he muttered.

I was on the ground trapped beneath the aggressive tree’s arm. I was shaking with fright still and I could smell the sick that was on me. In addition to this I had noticed that at some stage I had lost control of my bladder as I was lying in a pool of my own urine.

I got up shaking; no pony seemed to want to come near me. I felt my legs give way and I fell back into my own urine, my barding slowly soaking it up. Alyshia finally stepped forwards and levitated me back to my hooves. I felt dirty at that point, I could smell the urine mingled with sick and it made me gag.

Alyshia tutted then lifted me up into the air and pulled off my flanker which exposed my hind quarters to the bitter cold air. “Thank you” I muttered to Alyshia but that still didn’t remove the sticky warm feeling between my hind legs or the pee that my barding had absorbed. My flanks were a little bloody but otherwise better than I expected after having a grenade planted three feet before me.

“Was’ your cutie mark mean?” Liden piped up looking at it.

“Why are you staring at my ass?” I asked angrily.

“Ahm not” he said looking taken aback.

“Well then let’s keep it that way” I seethed.

“Amethyst” Midnight said harshly, “he just saved you.”

“No” I corrected, “He blew a grenade up in my face.”

I felt embarrassed, embarrassed for being covered in urine and sick. Midnight went over and comforted Lionel who still looked like I had clopped him across the face. Good I thought, fucking moron shouldn’t have attempted to blow me up.

“Hey Amethyst…. Are you alright?” Alyshia asked.

I wiped my eyes with a slightly bloody, smelly hoof and nodded, “I just feel dirty, that’s all.”

Alyshia smiled weakly and said “we’ll just keep your flanker off for now; it’s wet and we don’t want you to get cold.”

*                                        **                        **                      **                                                *

We had managed to find where stable four was, we found it behind a large boulder that had hidden a cave near a flowing stream. Getting there was hard enough after being chased by several swarms of bloatsprites and even a pack of what Lionel called “mutated timber wolves.”

Alyshia insisted that we should wait till morning before we went behind the stable door. We set up a camp inside the cave after closing the boulder to prevent whatever other critters the everfree forest had up its sleeve.

I however was still in a sour mood after being ignored by Midnight for the remainder of the trip. Brax had lit a camp fire and we were all sitting around it. I was sitting between Alyshia and Brax but Alyshia had left some space between us because I smelt. I indeed did smell, my inner flanks were dyed yellow and my barding had dried sick still on it.

“Amethyst could you take your barding off please?” Alyshia muttered holding a hoof to her muzzle.

I sighed and magically pulled off my barding and threw it against the cave wall which just left me in socks which were damped with urine. It felt good to get out of it, but it made me feel vulnerable.

“And your socks?” Alyshia asked.

I shook my head and said “I’ll keep them on, my hooves are cold.”

“You know your newly manicured hooves will go all pruney if you keep them on all the time?” Alyshia said.

Lionel and Midnight we sitting together on the other side of the fire and I saw Lionel whisper something to Midnight. The both snickered.

I clenched my jaw, I couldn’t help myself; “What’s so funny?” I asked trying to not sound angry.

“Nothing” Midnight laughed, “You wouldn’t get it.”

I felt left out; I wanted Midnight to be playing around with me, not with him, why was she playing around with him?

*                                        **                        **                      **                                                *

Later that night after everypony went to sleep I was having another sleepless night, dark thoughts kept entering my head. I kept hearing my friends talking in my head, talking about how stupid and useless I was. I was crying again but silently, even though Alyshia was a foot away from me I felt like I was alone all by myself again. I felt the shard of glass wedge in my heart and it hurt.

I curled up on the dusty ground and wiped my eyes with a hoof and looked up to see Midnight’s sexy rump a few feet away. She was sleeping nearby her tail brown from the dusty ground, her left wing drooped on the ground, her feathers ruffled and pointing at an odd angle.

I felt guilty for checking her out while she was asleep but it made the voices go away, at the same time I felt the shard of glass in my heart build as did the heat between my hind legs. I looked away from her, my eyes still streaming slightly and curled back into a ball, all I had managed to do was make myself horny. The voices returned telling me how pathetic I was and how Midnight didn’t love me. These were occasionally punctured be the sound of Glenda laughing the words

“Fillyfooler, Fillyfooler, Fillyfooler.”

I pushed a hoof between my hind legs with a vision of Midnight loving me, kissing me and holding me; it had been a while since I last attended to myself. After about five minutes however I pulled my hoof away. It didn’t feel very pleasurable, if anything it hurt, like I was rubbing sandpaper over the most sensitive part of my body. “Can’t even bring yourself to orgasm” I heard myself say in my head, “Oh Amethyst, even after doing this for years, you suck at that too.” The only way I managed to deal with this thought was to say to myself that I wasn’t really in the mood for it anyway.

Instead I pulled my knife out of my saddlebags and took the sock and the bandages off my right foreleg. I looked at the cuts I made last night; they were partially healed, accelerated by the magic of the bandages. I felt guilt pit in my stomach, I could just talk to Alyshia but she was asleep, I couldn’t disturb her. Instead I held my leg out and made a single cut, the Blood oozed out and as it did so the shard in my heart melted away leaving a more bearable hollow feeling behind. I didn’t make it very deep but the pain that it supplied was satisfying enough. I wanted to do it again but I told myself that one was enough, I put my knife back in my saddlebags and wrapped my hoof back up and put my sock back on.

I guiltily shifted over to Alyshia and laid next to her, wanting the comfort of her mere presence. With the voices gone, the shard in my heart gone and the heat inside me waning I managed to drift off to sleep.

I woke back up, but it wasn’t to the cave I slept in, the floor was black yet shiny and I couldn’t see the walls or the ceiling of the room. Very little light lit the area I was in. I got to my hooves and looked around. I was alone.

“H-Hello?” I asked the room. My voice echoed around the wall-less and ceiling-less room. I felt a hoof touch my shoulder and I jumped. I turned to see the skeletal alicorn who haunted me before while unconscious. “Why hello Amethyst” he said his voice creepy yet angry, “How have we been keeping?”

“Wh-Who are you?” I asked feeling scared.

“That doesn’t matter” he said harshly. “So” he continued, “this is how you repay my kindness?”

“Your kindness?” I asked trembling, “I don’t even know who you are, why do you keep entering my head?”

“Yes Amy… My kindness” he shot, “remember that time when you almost got killed by the behemoth? The first time I saw you? I told you to make the most of your second chance did I not?”

I said nothing, this wasn’t real. I knew it wasn’t.

“Yet this is how you repay me” he said aggressively. He lifted me by my right hoof in a field of fluorescent green magic which was free of any clothing or bandages, my cuts were clearly visible. “You go and cut yourself because your idiot friend won’t like you.”

I felt the tendons and muscles stretch which held my entire weight. “I didn’t cut myself just because of that” I yelled at him. I felt angry which drove away my fear, “If you knew me you would know.”

“Oh really?” he said slowly, “does anypony but yourself know about these reasons?”

I said nothing. I felt guilt creep into my chest and plaguing it.

I looked up into the death pony’s hood and saw his decayed mouth grin. “I thought not” he whispered, “Look at me trying to council a teenage filly. You know what Amy, go do whatever you want. I don’t really care if you end up dead, ponies die all the time.”

“Why did you give me advice then?” I asked aggressively.

His response was of one I was not expecting “You know Amethyst; maybe you should listen to your friends, because it is with them where the answer lies.”

I woke suddenly with sweat beading around my forehead and in my mane around my horn. I gave a soft sigh of relief, it was only a dream, I knew it couldn’t be real but that didn’t stop me from being scared. I shifted and rested my head on Alyshia’s shoulder, her hoof shifted slightly and she placed it on my shoulder. I didn’t feel scared anymore, I felt safe with Alyshia once again and I didn’t want her to leave my side.

Footnote: level up

New Perk:  Shell Shock – You deal increased damage to raiders, bandits and slavers when using a high powered rifle.