I adjusted the load on my back with a short jerk and moved towards the exit. I considered what items from the store we could use, but most of the machines would need electricity to operate. I guessed that we would have some kind of magical source on board, for example inside the fridge, but I heavily doubt that that source would be compatible with this kind of equipment.

“Err... I've got some movement here... one of these cars is moving … um, over.” I could hear Rainbow via the headset. The static in the background was growing stronger, which implied that she had covered quite a bit of distance. On the other hoof, it also could be the wind.

“Is it moving up the hill we came down earlier? If not, ignore it. Making contact isn't really a high priority at the moment. Over.” I really wanted to order her to follow the car for a while, but she had no knowledge of the terrain, and the target of the driver wasn't known. It was also possible that she would have to leave the range of the radio.

“It’s driving over the bridge we crossed...” She paused briefly, and only the static sound of the wind was audible. “Now it’s entering a tunnel. Over.” It seemed it was driving towards Minden, where the Praktiker was located. We would also have to go there if the Obi didn’t have what we needed.

“Okay, Rainbow, abort the pursuit and fly over to EDEKA. Over.” As I released the button, I could hear a door closing behind me, and I turned, startled, only to stare at a shelf. I was accustomed to being able to watch over these things. Confused, I trotted around that shelf and now stood in a wide corridor that connected the separated compartments.

I amplified the light over my head a little and saw how the door towards the employee area had opened a little. Somebody must have walked through the door a few seconds earlier. I threw myself against the door to keep it open and stared at a long dark corridor, hearing the sound of another door being used. I bolted down the hallway without much consideration and entered a warehouse, spotting a wide opened door. I passed the door and found myself behind the store. All I could see was a scooter speeding away from the store. Somebody had seen me or my light, to be more precise. It still floated over my head, and I cut off the spell. I could imagine how easy it was for somebody who only saw the floating light to be frightened. How often does it happen that a little star floated down upon you? And the world was already being invaded by Nightmares, so all survivors were edgy.

“For the third time, I've arrived. Over!” shouted a voice inside my ear. I continued to track the scooter that disappeared in the direction of Minden.

“Copy that, Rainbow. Follow the road down to the next crossroad. Then turn left until you reach the following crossroad. There is a signpost over by the gym, so keep a low altitude. Over.” I waited for an answer while I slowly walked away from the rear entrance towards the road to meet up with AJ and Trixie in the hospital.

“I’ll call you again when I reach the crossroad. Over.” I only rolled my eyes and accelerated my pace

This place was way too quiet for Trixie’s liking. It reminded her of the orphanage in Manehatten. It was a similar sterile building, and the staff had been more than distant and cold. Often it had been social workers ordered by court for minor felonies or those who were forced to work by their rich parents, who needed to at least pretend to care for the underclass.

“Hey, Trixie, any idea what this is?” Applejack stood behind a large white counter and peered at something that seemed to be some kind of big black mirror. In front of the mirror was some kind of control panel with various letters and other symbols.

“Trixie has no idea what this… object is supposed to be. I think my brother would be the better pony to ask. But Trixie will try to figure it out.” She started to scan the object with her magic. “This is odd... It's made mainly with some kind of unknown material, a little glass and copper, and a few other metals.”

AJ nodded and started to push a few buttons on the control panel. Her hoof didn’t fit with the small single keys, so she always hit more than one.

“Looks like it's busted. Doesn’t do anything.” She tapped her hoof multiple times against the black mirror, which fell of the table after three hits. “Whoops.” Trixie lifted herself with her forehooves onto the table, looked at the now one hundred percent broken device, and shot a look of irritation towards her companion.

“You know, Applejack, maybe we should wait for Trixie’s brother. He will know what to do with this thing. Let's search for humans until then.” They had already searched the rooms on their way but only found storerooms and rooms filled with odd, oversized gadgets. They had expected more beds and medicine from a hospital. The last room, directly behind the counter, was filled with papers and some kind of timetable. “Maybe we should search upstairs.” She pointed towards one of the glass ceilings where they could see one floor above them.

“It doesn’t seem like there are any patients’ rooms down here.” Applejack nodded silently and both walked down the wide corridor. The floor was made of an odd material that they had never seen, which was similar to the material from the black mirror thing. It had to be a really versatile material when it could be used for tech and also make floors.

“This floor feels kinda weird. It's almost as slippery like th' wood floor in Light’s house.” It seemed like that fact wasn't able to go unnoticed by the farm pony. “Ah mean, why does a stone house have a wooden floor?” Trixie hadn't really thought about it, but Applejack was right. Quite a lot was different in this world, but Light had warned them about this.

“Applejack… Trixie doesn’t see a staircase.” Again she scanned the corridor. The earth pony next to her did the same and started to scratch her head with a hoof

***

I had completely forgotten the fact that, without electricity, the revolving doors at the entrance of the hospital couldn't operate. However, it seemed like Trixie had somehow found a solution. I saw the two at Station Two just before they vanished behind the counter. The only other entrance was the staff entrance on the other side of the building. I had no other option and walked straight across the parking lot. The few cars which were still parked here were all scattered haphazardly. A lot of the cars were dented and scratched. The other drivers must have tried to leave the parking lot at any sacrifice.

I turned the corner and saw the parking lot for the rescue vehicles. It was empty, people likely using them to flee, and that would mean the hospital had used them or some scavengers had taken them for the meds. To walk along the building took a lot more time than I had thought. The building had the form of a giant 'H' with two floors and was, from an architectural point of view, a complete balls-up.

A buddy from my trade school had told me how the company had scrimped on the building material. He had worked, like many others, as scab labour on it and another government building. When it was made public knowledge, a lot of local politicians had been plastered in their humiliation on the front pages of many newspapers. I had only laughed about it and enjoyed the irony. Heh, good times.

I walked up the loading dock and past the open door. Trixie must have used her spell again to gain entrance. I now stood on the loading dock where the laundry was gathered and where the robots were stocked with the food that they transported from here to the patients and brought the garbage back down, being cleaned and again loaded with the lunch. The same procedure was followed for dinner. In the old hospital, everything had been done by the staff. After they fixed the usual start-up problems, everything worked just fine.

I walked past one of the robots that had stopped in the middle of the hallway and entered the basement of the building. The robots were little tanks, with flat treads so that they could transport the trays for the patients, similar to those little vacuum robots.

In the basement were the storage rooms, staff lounge, and the administration offices. Past these were the backup generators that were supposed to keep this place running if things got pretty bad. I decided it was worth a try to start them up. Maybe we could use one or two of the computers to contact somebody, or maybe one of the phones. However, I doubt that any data centre would have electricity, so no Internet.

“Dammit, how am I supposed to get my two hundred spam mail about how to enlarge my penis?” I grinned at my own joke, trying to push past everything that could happen out here. I really hoped we would find some survivors here, like my family for example. I walked towards the door to the backup generator and found the door locked, of course. I wasn't really in the mood to search for Trixie and AJ first and then walk all the way back. I channelled a little magic and fired a little heat ball on the lock, which melted and allowed the door to swing open. Celestia’s magic, which consisted mainly of warmth and light, really came in handy. Somehow I couldn't stop appreciating this fact again and again. Now I was able to enter the room that only had a large orange container with various buttons and switches, along with labels I couldn't read. Luckily, the word start was international. In the case of an emergency, everything was also labelled in Chinese, just for the hell of it. I pressed the 'Start' button with my magic since it was out of my reach and I really didn't want to press it with my snout.

The starting engine was audible, and the lights in the building started to flicker. Satisfied with the outcome, I inspected the liquid level, which showed an almost full tank. After the repairs of the Celestia, we could use the hospital as some kind of base, seeing as it had electricity and, I imagined, a good store of food and meds. The stuff in these little breakfast containers were long-lasting, and I couldn’t imagine that anybody would be against Nutella. To be honest, I thought Pinkie would love it. I, for one, wasn't a big fan of it when I was little, true, but now I preferred cheese and jam, along with various apple products of late.

Right, time to find the others. The few staircases in the building were behind thick iron doors, not really meant for visitors, and I hadn’t planned to do so. I went to an elevator that happened to be already there. I stepped inside and pushed the button with to the first floor and slowly closed the doors. With a jolt, the elevator started to ascend. After a short silent moment, the doors opened again with the usual noise. I stepped into the corridor and saw what had happened downstairs. The corridors of the second floor were constructed to be free-floating over the ground floor so you could see what happened downstairs and vice-versa. This was supposed to give the building an open feel. I always thought an air conditioner would have done the same, but those were simply non-existent.

I peeked inside the first room to my left and saw that there still were beds in the room and, according to the smell which lingered in the room, still in use. While there were still so many deceased here, we could forget my idea with the base. Alongside the diseases that were spread from corpses, we also had five unpredictable fillies, and I preferred to avoid traumatising them. Silently, I closed the door and marked the door with a swing of my horn, cutting a scratch in the white wood.

I walked down the corridor and found the nurses' station equipped with surveillance monitors and filing cabinets behind the counter. The hospital had six of these stations placed all over the first floor, and I happened to be in one of the biggest of them.

It was the Senior Wing, as the staff called station four in which I happened to be. Here the older patients were brought in who had Alzheimer's or similar illnesses associated with ageing. I couldn't even be mad about how the staff had abandoned them, knowing they would die one way or the other.

My thought might have sounded cold, but I had to distance myself or I would break down. Out there were survivors and for them I was here. Out there were humans who waited for help. And that was why I was here. If I had only found a dead world, I think I would have drowned in self-pity and guilt.

I inspected the monitor where, in six little screens, the cameras of the station showed what they recorded. If I wanted the backup generator to last for a while, I had to deactivate all the unnecessary equipment sooner or later.

“The electricity is back.” I suddenly heard a voice and quickly hid myself under the counter. There was an advantage to being small, but the saddlebags were hindering me. “Do you think the horses did that?”

“I don't give a shit. It's meat! Fresh meat. Hadn't had anything like that in months,” answered another voice, and I could hear as someone licked his lips.

So they had seen AJ and Trixie. “How many shots do you have left?” I could hear an ammo clip sliding out of a weapon.

“Five. But I think that will do.” The clip slid back in and the barrel was pulled back. The gun was loaded. “We should be able to jump onto the counter down there and surprise them.” I feared he was right. The corridor wasn't that high, only about two meters. Under us was the reception of station four, and the two men had planned to assault the two mares when they passed. I was really glad I didn't call out for them.

“The gym is empty. Over.” It was a really untimely moment for Rainbow to contact me. I couldn't reach the radio without them noticing my magic, or I had to open the clip on my bag. One way or the other, they would notice me. “HELLOOOOOO? The gym is empty. Where is this bathroom? Over.”

The hello was loud enough that I had to twitch. If Rainbow shouted again like that, they would find me.

“What was that?” asked one of the men.

“The electricity is back; maybe one of the machines.” I could hear a silent click “Psst… here they come.” I had to do something FAST.

“Why is one blue and the other orange? Was somebody that bored? And why is the blue one wearing a wizard’s hat and coat? And the other a cowboy hat? Who would do something like that?” I could hear how flummoxed this made him and had to smirk.

“Never mind. Ready yourself.” I could hear how their boots bumped against the glass as they climbed onto the handrail. This was my chance. I bolted out of my hideout and could see the two men sitting on the handrail like two chickens on their roost.

“HAAAAAAALLOOOOOOOO? OVER?” shouted Rainbow inside my headset, and this time it was audible enough for the two men to hear it.

One turned his head towards me, but it was already too late. I already was behind them and my hooves were ready to buck. And buck I did both men square on the back. The one who had looked at me managed to turn himself before he landed unpleasantly on the floor downstairs. His buddy wasn’t that lucky and landed nose-first on the linoleum.

“WHAT IN TARNATION?” I could hear AJ shout when the two humans landed in front of her. I stepped on the bridge that connected the two floors and looked down to my friends.

“Everything alright?” both faces looked up with a puzzled expression.

“Light, what's going on?” asked Trixie, but we didn't have time.

“Trixie, do you see the black object there?” I pointed on the nine mm Beretta that laid next to the one whose face pointed to me. “Take it and look after it.” She did what I told her, and instantly the weapon flew over to her. Her curiosity made her inspect the thing and when she looked inside the barrel I couldn't do otherwise then shout “Don't! That thing is dangerous. It's a handgun, a pistol to be precise.” It seemed like she remembered what I had told her about them and removed it to a safer distance. I transformed myself, in the meantime, to a pegasus and glided down slowly onto the counter like our attacker had planned to do.

“Could ya now please explain what's going on, sugarcube?” I jumped down the counter and traded wings for horn to collect the weapon.

“These two were on the search for food, and I guess they thought you two looked pretty tasty.” I know it wasn't really fitting to joke about something like that, but my mouth was faster than my brain “They planned to attack you with this here.” A quiet groan could be heard from the one lying on his face. I slowly stepped towards him.

“Everything okay?” I reached a hoof out. “Sorry about that, but you wanted to attack my friends, so I didn't had any other choice.” His face looked up, astonished. Long brown hair and a full beard didn't really conceal the shock in his eyes. My face didn't look any different.

“Julian?”

Author's Notes:

Humans! Yay!

Thanks to Muetze198 for translating.
Special thanks to JBL for editing.