Five years, ten months after meteor...

A peal of thunder rumbled the earth.

The knapsack slung around Shy dripped rainwater. Her vision reached only a few pony lengths in any direction. A wall of rain obscured the rest. It did not deter her as she walked the path she had walked so many times before.

Zecora had insisted on bandaging her injuries of the previous day. Those bandages now hung looser as they became soaked with water. She imagined anypony coming across her would mistake her for a mummy. Not that anypony would come here.

Her hoof bumped into something hard. Shy looked down and saw what she had come for: a piece of metal sticking out of the mud. She reached down with both front hooves and yanked it out. A horned helmet caked in mud. Hello. It stared back silently at her.

“What’s the plan, Shy?” Fluttershy asked from behind her.

“How unlike you to be so forthright,” Shy commented. “Don’t you want to make some tea first? Or maybe we should braid each other’s hair and talk about our feelings?”

“I know your feelings already. You made them clear last night.” Shy put the helmet in her knapsack and kept walking while Fluttershy berated her. “You’re going to just let the griffons come and hurt Zecora?”

“They’re going to kill Zecora, after they kill me.” Shy bent and picked up another piece of her armor. “I’ve pretty much guaranteed that.”

“I know you don’t care about yourself, but she doesn’t have to suffer because of that!”

The pony on two legs glared over her shoulder. “Every day she stays is her own choice.”

“She stays because of you!”

“Why do you care?” Shy spun to face Fluttershy. Thunder ripped through the sky overhead. The light did not reflect off of the pony on four legs. “You wanted her to die so she could become part of your fake world!”

“I don’t want any of my friends to get hurt!” Fluttershy huffed.

“Then do something about it!” Shy shoved another piece of armor into the sack. “Let me leave this hellhole!” Fluttershy grit her teeth and looked down. “That’s what I thought.” The standing pony returned to finding her armor.

Fluttershy sat while watching her. “You’re letting your hatred of me effect how you feel about Zecora. If you feel anything for her at all, you won’t let her get hurt.”

“Hurt, hurt, hurt; just say she’s going to die already.”

“No pony dies in Ponyville.”

“Then it’s a good thing she isn’t a pony, isn’t it?” Shy bent to pick up the last of her armor.

“Please, Shy… I know you care about her… ”

The element of kindness stuck halfway out of the mud a few hooves from Shy. Its pink surface was unmarred by the elements, seeming to glow softly in the torrent induced darkness. I don’t need you where I’m going, Shy thought.

Fluttershy’s pleads continued. “Shy… ”

“You’re wrong, Fluttershy.” Shy turned from the element. “I don’t care about you, or her, or anypony else.” Her voice dripped venom. “I hate you all more than you could imagine.” She walked past the stunned pony towards Zecora’s hut.

The hut’s door slammed open. Zecora jumped and fell over herself in panic. “Calm down!” Shy yelled at her from the doorway. The zebra visibly calmed at the sight of the pony.

“Shy, I-”

“Shut up.” Shy walked into the hut, metal inside her knapsack clanking. “I’m tired of this game, Zecora. Ever since you came back to Ponyville you’ve been a pain in my ass.” The pony kicked furniture out of the way to get to the food storage container. “Get your things and go.”

Zecora sat perfectly still, mouth agape. “Did… did I do something wrong? I-”

Shy stuffed the sack she wore with food. “I don’t want to see your face anymore. Get out of Ponyville. Tonight.” When the sack was bulging with food, Shy turned around and started for the door.

“NO!” Zecora screamed as true realization dawned on her. “I don’t want to go! Please!” She got to her hooves and took a step towards Shy.

The glare the pony gave her stopped her in her tracks. “I can’t kill you. Fluttershy won’t let me. But I can hurt you very badly.” Shy leaned down till her face was inches from Zecora’s. “I do not want you here anymore, understand? I never did. Your usefulness is all used up.” She again started walking for the exit.

“I love you!” Zecora blurted out. Shy froze. The zebra began to sob. “I love you. Please don’t leave me alone.”

Shy stayed perfectly still for a full minute. When she spoke, she did not turn to the zebra. “I hate you,” was all she said before walking out of the hut.

The sound of Zecora wailing followed her out the door.

Many of the houses in Ponyville were uninhabitable, either made so instantly when the meteor exploded or from eventually succumbing to the elongated seasons. Shy wandered the town until she found one Fluttershy had maintained for one reason or another. The shoddy repairs looked weathered.

Shy left a trail of water behind her as she investigated the inside. All of the windows had been boarded over and the roof had been patched with planks. Rain seemed to leak through everything, warping the wood floor and forming pools. Broken, beaten, warped.

The pony dropped her knapsack to the floor and sat. This is fine. It shouldn’t be too long till they get here. I’ll wait till they spread throughout Ponyville, kill a few, then die.

Rainwater dripped from the ceiling to a pool on her left. The sound seemed to echo throughout the empty house.

Shy stood and walked to a wooden chair. It had remained somewhat dry. She took a matchstick from her knapsack and lit the seat on fire. Again, she sat, this time somewhat warmer.

This is fine.

Zecora wailed in her mind. Thunder boomed outside. No light entered the house through the boarded windows. The shadows danced behind the fire.

Shy stared into the flames.

This is fine.

Three days later…

Metal claws raked through empty air. Shy hopped from back hoof to back hoof. Her breathing was steady. Again her armored claws swung about, seeking invisible targets. Shouldn’t have let the target practice shit in the Hall rust, she thought for the hundredth time.

Sighing, she lowered her front legs. Though she didn’t feel in as good of a condition as when she fought the beast, Shy knew she could still put up a fight. The armor didn’t feel as heavy as it had when she had again donned it several days ago. She had fought the urge to train all out with the knowledge that her life was on a timer.

But the thoughts that polluted her head when she wasn’t training felt worse than her tired limbs. Lingering images of Zecora sleeping, cooking, or smiling wouldn’t go away. Shy tried to move her mind in a more constructive direction: Fluttershy and Skadi. But even those thoughts caused nothing but confusion and anger. But I’m closer now, I can feel it.

Shy speared a slightly darkened cabbage from her knapsack and ate it carefully, keeping her helmet on. She lamented how comfortable she had become with her armor, something she couldn’t take with her into the afterlife. Maybe Death will make me a soldier of Tartarus?

“Why do you think you’ll go there?”

The pony stopped chewing and looked towards the voice. Fluttershy sat on the only other dry spot within the house. Shy narrowed her eyes and continued her meal without responding.

“It doesn’t have to be this way. You could go underground and hide in the tunnels.”

Shy rolled her eyes. She turned her head away from the other pony and took another bite of cabbage.

“What about a deal?”

The eating pony slowly turned her head back towards Fluttershy, glaring daggers.

“… alright, no more deals. Please, Shy, you can’t just-”

“Can’t just what?” Shy spat at the other pony. “Can’t just die? Don’t act like you can’t do anything about it, that this is my decision!”

“We can’t leav-”

Metal claw raised and pointing at Fluttershy, “I’m not talking about leaving! You have the power to stop them, don’t you?” Fluttershy’s eyes widened, mouth shutting fast. “Right, I forgot, you can’t acknowledge that, can you? Alright, just stop me when I say something false.” Shy stared into Fluttershy’s eyes. “You have some kind of magical power, some item or spell, don’t you?”

Fluttershy gulped.

“… I knew it. The element of harmony reacted twice, once when Skadi tried to kill you and the other when I was fighting the monster.” Shy’s hoof shook. “That’s how you really survived all of this, isn’t it? How you could build all those machines and plow the fields and put everypony back together? You got stronger, yes, but you had some kind of edge, didn’t you?”

“Shy, enough,” Fluttershy said through gritted teeth.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” Shy’s lower lip shook. “It’s true? All this time you could have done everything yourself and yet you were putting me through this hell!”

Several heavy thuds suddenly pounded across the roof. “They’re here,” Fluttershy said breathlessly, looking up at the ceiling. When she looked back at Shy there were tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I never meant for you to get in the middle of this.”

“In the middle of what?” Shy stood. More and more thuds thundered overhead. “What’s going on?!”

Fluttershy’s head shot to the side, eyes seeming to look through the wall. “She’s back.” The bright yellow pony turned and fled through the closed backdoor.

“FLUTTERSHY!” Shy screamed at the top of her lungs. A large form burst through the boards over a window and barreled down on her. Claws the size of Shy’s head came in from either side.

Shy stepped into the attack, left front hoof shooting out and up. She caught the griffon under the chin, her claws piercing up into its brain from below. Still, the beast’s momentum caused it to fall onto Shy. Its death spasms and the awkward angle her front leg was in restricted Shy’s movements.

The sound of another griffon entering through the window echoed through the house, its lion paws splashing in the pools of water. Shy froze. She waited until the new griffon was leaning down to check on its companion before punching out with her right hoof. Her claws lanced into the male griffon’s face, his sex given away by his screech of pain. Shy pulled her claw away, ripping half the griffon’s face off. He fell to the ground screaming.

The pony took the moment to pull her claw from the head of the first griffon and crawl out from under it. No more thudding footfalls emanated from the ceiling. She got her back legs under her, front legs dripping blood.

Shy kicked open the door to the house and stepped into the blinding downpour. Large shadowy figures swooped from rooftop to rooftop. In the corner of her eye she saw a something yellow duck around a corner.

“You aren’t getting away,” Shy growled out and pursued.

Gilda stuck a nail into the empty socket of a pony. The skull sat on the complete recreation of that particular pony’s body. It was held together with string, glue, and cloth. “What an abomination.”

“It’s like this everywhere in this town, Mother,” Salana, second to the Clan Mother, remarked. “Skeletons of ponies put back together.”

They stood on the first floor of a library cut out from the inside of a tree. A spear with a jagged edge was tightly secured to Gilda’s back. The pony the griffon poked had purple bones and seemed vaguely familiar to her.

A male griffon stepped through the open door of the library. “Mother, we’ve found Gald in a shallow grave outside of the town.”

Without turned towards him, Gilda replied, “And the one responsible?”

“There was a home near him, but no one was inside. Sama and Yick are also missing.”

This time, Gilda did turn. She towered over the male, the dark splotches around her eyes giving her a monstrous appearance in the dark building. “Something is in this town. Find it and bring it to me.”

“Yes, Mother!” the male shouted and fled into the rain.

Gilda returned her attention to the purple pony. Scoffing, she pushed the pony aside and moved deeper into the library. “I can’t imagine a pony doing this. Perhaps some monster getting off on being around so much death?”

“Nothing I’ve ever heard of,” said Salana. She stood just a few inches shorter than Gilda with light blue splotches of color on her white feathers.

“Once it’s dead, we’ll… ” The sight of rainbow hair poking out from under a blanket sent a shiver through Gilda. She walked slowly towards the bed. “No… ” Her claw reached out and gingerly pulled the blanket away. There, put together like any other pony, was Rainbow Dash. Gilda gently stroked Rainbow’s skeletal cheek. Nostalgia hit her hard.

Hey, Gilda, will you come visit me in Ponyville?

That lame place? Why don’t you come to Filly Delphia instead?

It’s not lame! You’ll see, I’ll be the number one flyer there and they’ll have to make me a Wonderbolt!

Yeah, yeah, pipe down. Everyone’s gunna know you’re in here.

Oh, right, heh. We’d be in so much trouble if they knew-

“Clan Mother?”

Gilda pulled away from the skeleton, breath coming in gasps. Salana stood on the other side of the bed with a worried expression. “Are you alright?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” Gilda calmed. She ran her eyes up and down Rainbow Dash, settling on her skull. “Bring me some rope.”

“Yes, Mother.” Salana hurried to comply. Only males carried such simple supplies.

A griffon stalked through the alleyway. The sound made by the rain echoed in the tight space. The tall creature turned its head around to check behind itself.

A shadow in front of it burst forward and punched a claw into its throat. The griffon gurgled, choking on its own blood. The claw drew back and came forward again, following the griffon to the ground. Its last gurgling breaths were lost to the rain.

Shy stood up, the fresh blood already washed away from her armor. She felt some of it soaking into the softer material between the metal and her fur. The pony closed her eyes. I’m not even tired. They must be sending males at me to flush me out, but they’re all so weak.

She walked with one claw tapping against the side of the alley. The clouds kept getting thicker, the world around her darker. A storm had settled in. Though the fighting wasn’t taking a toll on her, the constant rain and stickier mud was starting to. I have to get to the cobbled street if I want a chance at-

Something bright yellow rushed past the mouth of the alley.

Shy nearly tripped running forward. When she got near the end of the alley she stopped. Pressing up against a wall, she sidled to the corner and peeked out. There were no dark shadows anywhere she could see.

Her breath suddenly came out in a white cloud. “Oh, there you are.” Shy recognized Skadi’s voice coming from behind her. She turned slowly and faced the alicorn. No rain touched the tall pony.

“Skadi.” Shy spoke her words carefully. “Why is Fluttershy running from you?”

The alicorn looked surprised. “What makes you think she’s running from me? There are all these scary griffons around, I’m sure she’s just looking for a place to hide from them.”

“She said earlier that I was in the middle of something,” Shy slowly leaned away from Skadi. “In the middle of what?”

“In the middle of town, maybe?” Skadi laughed softly but her eyes stared unblinking into Shy’s mirthlessly. “Who knows what that pony is thinking? She’s been manipulating us from the start.”

“Us?”

“Yes, us. We’re in the same boat.” The alicorn stepped towards the pegasus. “We should work together and stop her once and for all.”

Shy shook her helmeted head slowly. “Just tell me what is really going on, then I decide.”

Silence fell between them. Skadi’s expression went from calm to agitated quickly.

A yelling voice turned both their heads towards the center of town. It was muffled by the rain but Shy could imagine where it was originating. One of them must have perched on the town hall.

“Well, you’re busy, as am I.” Skadi walked past the smaller pony, eyes forward. Shy resisted the urge to lash out with her claws. “I have a pony to catch. Oh,” the alicorn looked over her shoulder, “you’re welcome for saving you last month.” White mist evaporated off of her until she vanished within it. The mist shot off in the direction Fluttershy had run.

Shy let out the breath she had been holding in. Something’s changed between them. They aren’t playing around anymore. The only thing Shy knew for certain was that neither Fluttershy nor Skadi was going to tell her the truth. Her death would come and she would never know what any of it was for.

So be it.

Without fear, she marched out of the alley and towards the voice.

“All clan members, return to camp!” a female griffon shouted from her perch halfway up the Town Hall building. She repeated herself over and over.

“Tell her to stop,” Gilda instructed Salana. Her second in command yelled up at the shouter. The Clan Mother stood in front of the closed double doors of the town hall and stared into the darkness. “Go take a headcount and report back.”

There was no hesitation in Salana’s movements as she headed off to the camp the griffon clan had setup just outside of town. Showing any would have implied she didn’t believe Gilda could kill any challenger, which also meant seeing her as weak. And if any clan member saw the Clan Mother as weak, they were instantly reminded of her strength.

Gilda was left completely alone in Ponyville. Instructing her clan to retreat grated her nerves. She imagined all the ways she would punish the males for being too weak to kill a few monsters. The spear she carried was now in her claws and crackled now and again with electricity.

Secured with rope through its empty sockets, the jaw-less skull of Rainbow Dash stared at nothing from Gilda’s shoulder. “It’s just you and me now, monsters. Come out!”

Thunder erupted in the sky on the other side of town. The streets looked empty for the brief moment Gilda could see clearly.

But she felt something there. When darkness returned, a dark shadow stepped out from around a house and started towards her. “Monsters?” it said in a strangely melodic voice. “I’m the only thing here.”

“You’ve killed my clan alone?” As the shadow came closer Gilda saw the outline of claws and horns. The thing’s size infuriated her. “How could something so miniscule defeat a griffon?”

The thing laughed. “Your clan is weak.” It stopped a few yards away. “Why did you bring them here?”

Gilda ground her teeth together. “I’ll tell you after I rip you apart!” She stepped forward and slashed her spear at the thing.

She stopped the blade an inch before its outline. It hadn’t moved an inch. In fact, it had relaxed completely as if welcoming the attack. Gilda whipped the opposite end into the thing’s face. It fell hard to the street. “Are you mocking me?! Fight!”

It struggled to rise. “I don’t want to anymore. I’ve been fighting every day for the past five years. I just want it to end… ”

Gilda pressed the thing back into the mud with her paw. “You killed my clan. Males, yes, but my clan regardless. Your death will not be quick.” She kicked the thing hard in the midsection, sending it rolling away. Its skin felt as hard as metal. “What the hell are you? A dragon?” It tried to rise again. This time Gilda reached out quickly and grabbed it by the neck. She felt fur against her claw.

A bolt of lightning hitting a building nearby lit the area. Gilda saw the thing for what it was. “A pony?!” she screamed in denial.

Even while being choked, Shy still managed a smile.

The Clan Mother heaved her through the air like she weighed nothing at all. Her armored body skipped along the cobblestones until it came to a rest. She tasted copper and felt wetness on her back. My wing wound is bleeding. Shy willed her body to rise, managing to get her four hooves under her. But she had gone so long since walking like a normal pony that the position now felt strange. I’m not normal.

“That’s too bad, pony,” the Clan Mother was saying, walking towards Shy. She held her crackling spear in both claws. “I can’t have my clan knowing they were being killed off by one of your kind.” Shy stood up completely. “Especially one so strange.”

“That’s all I want.” The pony held her front leg out to either side. “I won’t defend myself.”

The griffon brought her spear down to stab it into Shy. Over the creature’s shoulders, Shy could make out a yellow form and a white form on opposite sides of one another. They stared at her expectantly. Sorry to disappoint. A meaningless death is better than a meaningless life. When neither ponies reacted to her thoughts, Shy made one final conclusion:

Fluttershy separated all three of us. She’s afraid of Skadi, so she did it to protect herself and either purposefully or inadvertently protect me. She gave me control of her body so I could then protect it, making her safe both physically and mentally while attempting to give me what she considers a better life.

So then why are they just standing there letting me die?

The Clan Mother’s attack seemed to come in slow motion. It was so dark that all Shy saw was the small lines of lightning around the spearhead being held by an enormous shadow. Shy kept her eyes wide open, determined to see her death to the end.

What she saw was black and white stripes.