After escaping the bandits I met her. She was a ghoul pony. I guessed before she was just a regular old earth pony. She reminded me so much of mom. She was kind and compassionate.

I’m not sure whether it was losing everything I had known or just the fact that she felt like she could actually be my mom, but I started to call her mom. She wasn’t happy about it at first but after a week or two she seemed happy that I was in good spirits.

She didn’t speak to me so it was hard to communicate what she wanted me to do but eventually I understood. She taught me what most fillies and colts learn when they go through school in addition to helpful tricks to surviving the wasteland.

I was about ten before she allowed me to be anywhere out of her sight for more than a few seconds. Before then she had actually watched over me as I slept. It was kind of creepy but also it was what helped me to sleep many nights.

We went out to scavenge for food one day and we got more than we bargained for. A large super store was the target of our expedition. From what I could gather she had been to and from this store many times searching for supplies. We had been running low on supplies for a few weeks and without a stockpile of food we would not survive the wasteland much longer.

The store seemed mostly abandoned. A few fires had burned out in front of the building. I was hopeful that anypony who had been here had left the area. I was young and dumb and didn’t know what exactly to expect from this world.

The door swung open and a large stallion walked outside. He was holding a large chunk of metal that looked rusty. He swung at Rose and missed the first few times.

About the fifth swing he connected with Rose’s foreleg. His victory was met by a small caliber bullet to the head. He was dead before he hit the ground.

I rushed over to Rose who looked badly injured from her fight. She shook her head and pushed herself to her hooves. She walked with a limp but continued on into the store.

The inside had been all but picked clean by whatever had been living here. What little that remained would be able to keep us alive for a few more weeks at the very most.

I rushed forward not paying any attention to my surroundings. Hunger drove me forward and I was a slave to one of my most basic needs.

Rose’s hoof caught me just before I left the cover of the entryway. She shook her head and pointed to ponies who had vantage points all around the inside of the store.

I looked to each one individually. Most were armed with rifles. I looked back to Rose and nodded my head.

We got as low to the ground as we could and started to crawl towards the shelves with food on them. Every so often Rose stopped me and held me close to herself.

I was more scared for her than I was for myself. I didn’t want anypony who I knew to get hurt. I knew that I would always try my hardest to protect the ones I loved.

It took us around fifteen minutes to get to the shelf unseen by those ponies that were guarding this place. We made quick work of the shelves with food on them. We were almost caught when I accidentally dropped a can of beans to the floor.

We had to hide under a shelf that was barely held up for 5 minutes before the pony who was looking for us left. Rose crawled out before me and after a few seconds motioned for me to come out.

She motioned for me to head for the exit. I flopped down onto my stomach and started to crawl my way to the exit. I was small enough that the little bit of cover that made a wall to the exit hid me from sight entirely.

I had made my way to the exit in time to see Rose hop over a small counter and then disappear entirely from my sight.

I stood where I was petrified as thoughts raced through my head. After a few seconds she appeared again with a weapon in her mouth. It was a long slender bladed weapon. I had seen guards carry swords before but I had never seen a sword anywhere near as cool as the one Rose had.

It took all I had in me to not shout to her that the weapon she had gotten was amazing.

I took a longer look at Rose. A look of horror that I had never seen from her was all that I could see. She nearly dropped the sword as she began galloping towards me. I turned around towards the exit to see what could possibly have scared her so much.

As I turned around to see one of the raiders lift a sword above his head with magic and bring it down towards me. I flared my wings and jumped to the side. The sword smashed into the ground sending a high pitched ringing throughout the building.

My left wing felt a little weird but I had little time to think about it as Rose scooped me up and smashed through the door taking us both outside. She didn’t stop running for what seemed like hours.

As soon as we stopped Rose grabbed my wing. I looked over to my left wing to see that half of it had been sliced off by the raiders sword. Rose was barely able to contain me as I pushed all of my weight away from my injured wing. A calming hoof wrapped around me and we sat there for a fair amount of time.

Rose had managed to bandage my wing stub before she tended to a wound of her own.

Rose had been badly burned on both of her front hooves. I didn’t recall ever seeing a source of flame or anything else that would have possibly burned her so badly.

She drank a potion before getting to her hooves. It was obvious even to a young me that she was in horrible pain.

She looked into my eyes the way she did when I had a nightmare. The look was kind and made me feel a little better. I took another look at my wing before Rose put me up on her back and carried me home.