Before me, flat on the ground, was one of my best friends. I had known Julian since the sixth grade, but we did not first meet in school. In our small town, there had been a weekly youth club that some teenagers had organized. The church had only provided a room for us; the rest we had done for ourselves. We had gone to the first furniture store that we had seen in the business section of town and asked for a donation in the form of a piece of furniture. We had gotten it along with several other things. I had donated an old computer and, together with another friend, put together an old processor. In addition, we had even found a fog machine. We had also gotten a foosball table, which went together with the billiards table. From then on, our nightlife had happened at that place, be it a party, simply relaxing, or having a LAN-party. Everything that we did, that place was our starting point. For a long time, Julian and I had maintained the equipment and oversaw the entertainment. I took charge of the computer and the music we played, while he was the one who did the live entertainment, seeing as he could play the guitar. In fact, he was the one who taught me what I knew about it. I hadn’t owned a guitar of my own back then, but he had lent me one of his to practice on. He had showed me how to read the tabs and showed me how to play the different chords.

Now he lay there, stammering in a language I could not understand and looking up at me with large eyes. "What's up, Julian?" Nothing better came to my mind. I knew it wasn’t likely that he recognized my voice since I was speaking English, or rather Equestrian. I had already found out earlier that my voice sounded differently when I spoke a different language. On the other hand, he had spoken English to his friend just now, for whatever reason.

He seemed to react to his name being called, as he turned on his back and scrambled away a few centimetres. “Come on, I know you can understand me.” I could see AJ and Trixie from the corner of my eye as they simply looked on, but I feared that the situation of us three against him would not calm him. “Could you both put his friend on the gurney back there?” Trixie nodded. The pistol went on the counter, and in the next second, the unconscious body on the floor rose in the air. Frightened, Julian crawled away even further and squeezed against the wall as my companions disappeared with his friend.

“What are you?” was his whimpered response as we were both left alone. I held up a hoof in the air, ran it through my mane, and produced a beat when my hoof touched the ground again.

“I would say that I’m a pony.” He looked at me in terror, more precisely at my horn. “To be more specific, I’m a unicorn.” Apart from the situation we were in, I was actually somewhat glad to be able to tell someone, if only to see their facial expression.

“How do you know my name?” That meant he didn’t recognize me or my tune.

"Would it ring a bell if I say moving beer box?" The rigid look remained on his face. "Or the drinking game?" I considered briefly. “The bed of nettles?” These were all funny things we had experienced, though the last one was one-sided. At a party not ten minutes removed from my house, I had landed in a ditch, stone drunk, and took a nap there. My friends had all gradually passed me, each taking a photo. About five hours later, I had woken up and staggered home, with the morning almost already upon me.

“From where? That can’t be.” He leaned directly against the wall. “Timo?” I had not heard that name in a long time, and it felt so distant and wrong.

“I prefer Blue Light these days,” I corrected him.

“But you died! I was there at your funeral, before all this happened. How is that even possible? Were you reborn, or does one become a pony when they go to heaven? Or hell?” I was only glad to have found a friend.

“If only he knew…” I murmured before focusing my attention back to him. “No, nothing like that. Actually, there is a short, plausible explanation.” I stopped and took a deep breath. “Magic!” I got the confused look I had expected. “You know what? I’m sure the cafeteria is somewhere near the station here. Why don’t we go and talk it over peacefully?” He nodded hesitantly, still almost speechless, and began to rise. The midday sun, which poured in through the windows of the flat ceiling of the building, now made it possible to look directly at him. The first thing I saw were the shadows his hair over his face. His hair wasn’t the bright brown I had known. It was now black, as was his beard. It was an unsubtle reminder to how long he hadn’t experienced the pleasures of a bathroom. His cheeks had sunken in, which wasn’t all that surprising given that he had always been thin as a rake. He now towered above me and gazed at me with an empty look in his eyes, making me feel like a child. I went up to him, my horn just about reaching his navel.

“Can I get my weapon back?” It still lay on the counter behind me, and I was the only one who stopped him from reaching it.

“Sure.” I let the weapon float over to him, and he stretched his hand out carefully. As my blue aura touched his finger, he only twitched shortly before he grabbed onto it courageously and tore the weapon from the air. “Come on, let’s go.” I turned my back towards him and headed off around the corner to where Trixie and AJ waited for us. Julian actually knew his way around like I did, as both our parents had worked here. It was a wonder we hadn’t gotten to know each other through our shared bond.

A bang interrupted my thoughts, followed by a sharp pain that forced me to the ground. Frightened and with gnashed teeth, I looked over and saw the smoke that came from the weapon in my friend’s hand. This trembled, as well as his entire body. He needed, as I did, a few seconds to understand what had just happened before he allowed the pistol to fall and ran. AJ and Trixie came around the corner as Julian went around one of the stations on the other side of the corridor and disappeared.

“What happened, sugarcube?” My gaze wandered to my right hind leg where the pain emanated. The fur there was burnt, so I could only recognize half my cutie mark, and I saw some blood flowing. However, it seemed to be too little to be a gunshot wound.

“I don’t think I was as convincing as I thought.” I followed their gazes to the flesh wound on my flank, and the looks on their faces told me that their sympathy for me was light. “At least it was only a warning shot.” Julian had had an impressive collection of weapons, but everything had been either Airsoft or used to fire in the air. To be honest, I had not expected what had happened at all, but it explained why they had wanted to come so close. Over some distance it was harmless, but with direct contact with the skin, the consequences could be bad. A meter closer and I would have had to spend the remainder of my life with a depression rather than a cutie mark.

“That looks like it hurts,” Trixie said as their noses went closer to the wound. The cool air they exhaled somehow felt refreshing.

“I don’t suppose you know healing magic?” I asked hopefully as I applied pressure with my hooves to staunch the wound. Apart from the fact that they weren’t hands, they had already spent an entire day on the ground. An infection was already likely in any case. Trixie thought for a moment before she shook her head.

“None that fits your wounds, but I do have one for burns.” I could imagine why she would have one for that. When one worked with fire as she did, it helped to have a card up your sleeve in case of fire.

“Better than nothing,” I said and turned with the help of my forehooves so that they could have better access to the injury.

“This might hurt a bit.” Her horn lit up, and I immediately felt a cooling sensation dampen the burning feeling. She applied more and more coldness in such a way that one discomfort soon replaced the other. I cried out as the magic took its full effect, and the cold spread out across my entire rear. I bit my lip to deflect the pain to another area, an old trick my mother had shown me against syringes. As a child, I had had a great fear of them. After a few seconds, I noticed that the cold was retreating, and I began to feel my body again. I sympathized with her if she had to do that whenever she had burned herself during her performances. I felt something near to me and saw AJ, making me feel as though my time had come.

“What did your friend do to you?” A question I could only answer with assumptions. His eyes had been so cold and ready to kill. Perhaps I did not want to admit what I already knew – that people had fallen back to their basic instincts. The sings had been everywhere. The pharmacist had won her uniform. She would have only worn it during the day. There were no Nightmares during the daytime, so she had not been killed by them. The police had erected road blocks to keep the mob under control, and the shops mirrored the fact that they had failed.

“Where are you? I’m at the hospital. Over?” Rainbow Dash announced, probably having turned back after communications between us had gone silent for a while. I threw a frustrated look at my marefriend and only shook my head at her question as to whether she should answer.

“We’re in the building. You might be able to see through one of the windows in the middle of the roof. Over,” I answered and left the volume on the headset. Trixie looked at it curiously, and I pushed it lower down so that it now hung around my neck. “It goes with the radio.” I had had several in my bag. They must have spilled out during my fall and now lay a bit away from my position. “They should be right there.” She floated them to me and carefully put them down next to me. From above came a knock on the glass, and I saw Rainbow wave to me as I looked up. I opened it with my magic, and she flew down and landed on the ground next to me in the next moment.

“What happened here?” She did as I had done with the headset and put it around her neck. “Why weren’t you answering?” She looked at AJ and I, but before I could answer, Trixie intervened.

“Someone who he wanted to have a word with attacked him,” she said emotionlessly. “Probably because it was a friend he trusted and turned his back to him.” She stared at Trixie and then to me, rage in her eyes.

“You were the one who said to be careful and avoid unintentional contact, and then you go ignoring your own advice?” She was ready to go for my jugular.

“Not to mention they tried to attack us first to try and eat us,” Trixie continued. I saw Rainbow already raising a hoof, but a second later, she moved back.

“Who was the person you blindly trusted like that?” she finally asked, and I could see the same question burning in the eyes of the others.

“One of my friends… my best friend.” The room became quiet, and no one said anything for a few minutes before the brightness of the sun finally made me take to my hooves. Putting pressure on the wound like this would not be harmless, and it hurt, but we couldn’t remain here the entire day. I tried to take a step but stumbled. My marefriend managed to prop me up just in time before I fell over.

“Hold on… did you say ‘they?’ Rainbow asked Trixie. I had almost forgotten that. He had abandoned his friend in our care. Trixie quickly ran around the corner where the stretchers were and came back almost immediately.

“He’s gone,” she said, and I could slap myself. He must have woken up when he heard the shot and taken the chance to slip away. “He left this here though.” She levitated a small black wallet in front my nose and let it fall to the ground. I opened it with a hoof and saw the identification card of one Kevin McDowell, an Englishman. It explained why I could understand the writing. I unfolded the inside pocket and found a picture of a young woman that had been cut out from an article from the London Post. With a bit of magical help, I freed it from the post and held it up.

"England evacuates," I read the headline, under which was a picture where hundreds if not thousands of people were to be seen aboard cargo ships. Soldiers could be seen in the foreground, ensuring that things were running to plan. “Two weeks after first contact, almost thirty percent of the populations have fallen victim to the shades.” No one said anything, and I swallowed. “‘The soldiers successfully fought back at night, but since the bullets couldn't kill them, their escape was just a question of time," said the Prime Minister.” The remainder of the article had been torn off. The way how faded the words that we were still able to read told me that the article was several months old.

“Where’s England?” Rainbow asked, looking questioningly over at me.

“English is an island-country. At the moment, we’re in Germany. I think your version is Germane. Anyway, it lies northwest of here, and you would probably need to go at your maximum speed for over an hour to get there.” She looked amazed.

“With the sonic boom, I need only about ten minutes to get to Cloudsdale. This England must be pretty far." I believed they still had the wrong picture of how big Earth actually was.

“Cloudsdale is still in Equestria, Dash. England is in another country, like the Gryphon Empire.” I had learned that this was located across the sea from Manehatten. “The Earth is big. We are, at the moment, on the largest continent: Eurasia. Then we still have Africa, North America, South America, and Australia. If I had to estimate, Germany, together with Denmark, Austria, and Switzerland, is as big as Equestria.” Then, with my comparison, Fillyburg would probably be the size as Spain.

"Well, Albion is not as small as you might think," Trixie interjected. “We have the countries like Camelrabia, Horsetralia, Vaporia, Zebrica, Prance, the Hooviet Union, Neighpon, Cowrea, Ib'Xian, Pingwin, Canida, the flying islands of Eden, Elir, Edonna, Ert, and Evisica. Also Germane that you already mentioned. Besides, there is still a continent that a researcher discovered only a few years ago. I believe his named was something like ‘Echo’.”

I stared in Trixie’s eyes and felt the wanderlust that laid in them. This was the first time that I had, for a second, felt a connection with her. I had already been to several countries in my lifetime, but those had always been family vacations. Only hotels and beaches had tired me out as a child, so I had remained at home as soon as I had been old enough. The last time we had taken one was to Bulgaria, almost four years ago.

“Okay, I’m impressed. Still, we’re not here to compare countries. I changed into a pegasus and began to float near the three to reduce my pain. I had to use the muscles in my back and wings, and I didn’t know how long I could endure. “We should go check out the hardware store.”

“What do we do about those folks?” She pointed to the exit where Julian had fled.

“We’ll leave them alone for now. We have our own problems to solve." With that, we started to move and went down the corridor to the main entrance. We went past the separate stations and also the lab where my mother had worked. She had worked there for more than thirteen years and did EKGs and other examination that involved the heart. Trixie abruptly stopped and held up a hoof to my chest to bring me to a halt as well

“What is that device?” She pointed to a monitor.

“This is a monitor. One can see information on the screen, depending on what device is connected to it. In this case, a computer. They’re used for the processing of data and other information, and they can solve problems within seconds. I used to earn money working with these… Well, before all this happened." Trixie darted over behind the table where the computers stood and began to press the keyboard.

“Can we not use then such a device?" She took the monitor between her hooves and tried to raise it. However, it remained in place due to all the connecting cables.

“It won’t work without electricity.” I rushed past AJ and Rainbow and knocked the screen from Trixie’s grasp. My head wandered under the table, and I quickly found the button I looked for. A sound I had long missed was heard and a light flickered above me. Trixie looked at the computer screen as it awoke to the life along with the others. The white lines gave way to the Windows XP boot screen before, finally, the login was to be seen.

“Name and password?" Rainbow read, surprised. "I need to give a password to this thing.”

“No you don’t. I have both." They all looked at me strangely. "I already told you that my mother had worked here. Because she was older, she can’t remember as much as she used to, so she used the same passwords at home." Though I wanted to use my hooves, they would be too big to utilize on the keyboard. I thought briefly before the magic around my horn lit up and began to give the required information. After a few seconds, the desktop loaded. Only few symbols were on the desktop, and the background was only a green surface, a little bit too dreary for my taste. However, one took what one could get. My first look at the network symbol what showed that the PC was connected with the network of the hospital. My hopes were high as I navigated the mouse and clicked on the Internet Explorer icon. The browser opened immediately and showed the white page that I had expected. Even if everything here in the hospital functioned, it was improbable that the servers still worked.

"What does four zero four mean?" Trixie asked, and I saw all three looking at the monitor.

"The page I wanted to connect to is not available." All looked at me as if I was speaking madness. "I tried to get access to a gigantic library, but the connection cannot be had without electricity. In addition, the place where these pages are must also be connected with electricity, not just here," I tried to make the Internet understandable. Trixie seemed to follow along, though AJ and Rainbow only threw each other confused looks. "Time to see whether there’s anything interesting on this thing." I accessed the Windows’ search engine and went through some. After inputting some of the names of persons, and then Nightmares, the term ‘survivors’ brought in the result of an inconspicuous text file. I opened it and began to read:

"To whoever reads this, the hospital has already been evacuated." As I had already surmised. "All patients were moved by the armed forces to Düsseldorf, where the population have already hidden. Enclosed here is a list of registered persons." However, there were several text blocks of names that were in German and Russian. I scanned over the list and found what I hoped to see. The name of my brother's Nils was quite prominent at the top, followed by my grandmother and Dirk. My mother was certainly under staff and was therefore not listed. A name nowhere to be seen, however, was that of Enno. He had been my mother’s friend for about two years and should belong here, but it was not.

"Did you find something, sugarcube?" I only nodded and clicked the print button. The device near the monitor took in one of the sheets, and in less than ten seconds, I had everything on black and white. Below, on one of the sheets I held with magic, was the date of October the thirteenth. This list was a month old if the date on the desktop was accurate. Today was the thirteenth November, 2013.

I allowed the sheet to fall and clicked on clock next to the calendar to check. My fear was confirmed. "The delay was worse than I thought…" I murmured and allowed myself to slam onto the ground so that it reminded me of my wound.

Author's Notes:

Special thanks to JBL for translating.