A forest grew up around her, birch trees sprouted up towards the sky with leaves green as emeralds. The grass around her hooves swayed lightly in the breeze, creating the image of waves across a vast green ocean. The breeze gently stroked her chin, and Lilly closed her eyes and smiled. As she opened them again, the sun was high in the sky, spreading its rays through the leaves above her.

Lilly sighed contently at the sight, and took a deep breath. Her nostrils got filled with the smell of the forest around her. The smell of fresh sap from the trees, the smell of grass beneath her hooves. And above all else, that special undetermined smell of sun and summer. The thick smell that always accompanies the warmth of the summer months. Sometimes so strong it burns your throat, the same way it freezes in the winter.

Like you’re quite literally breathing the rays of the sun, feeling it fill your lungs and sending surges of happiness throughout your veins.

And as Lilly observed the beautiful nature around her, with the ever-growing chirping of birds in the distance, that feel of radiant happiness slowly grew into an almost orgasmic blissfulness that coated her mind like waves washing over a perfect shore, caressing the part of her one might refer to as soul. She allowed her mind to bask in this harmonic heaven of green, and her body sank down into the grass beneath her, the many straws stroking against her soft, blue fur.

With another deep sigh she leaned on her side and rolled around on her back. The soft grass tickled her back and a few seeds flew up into the air above her as her tail and mane brushed by a few dandelions dotting the green ground. A strand of white hair entered her vision and covered her left eye. Not wanting to move, she tried to blow it out of her eye with her breath, and after a few attempts her mane disappeared from her sight.

Lilly…

The rays of the sun faded slowly as a black object floated in from nowhere and covered it. Eventually, nothing but a black spot with a golden rim around it remained. Just looking at it made her feel intoxicated.

Lilly…

The dreamscape around her disappeared as she awoke from her sleep. Just like last night, she’d been awoken by loud banging on the walls. Once again she raised herself up into a sitting position and was about to hit the wall with her hoof yet again to signal the neighbors to shut up, when the knocking came back. Followed by a voice.

“Lilly! You awake?”

Duskshine.

“.. Just a minute..!” Lilly called back to him and hurried to get out of bed. At least if slower than a dead ferret could be considered hurrying. She just wanted to sleep and don’t care about anypony else. He could knock on the door for as long as he liked.

“Come on, lass!” Duskshine raised his voice some more. “There’s somepony here I want you to meet.”

“.. Why? And who?” Lilly asked as she finally slouched herself out of bed, almost falling limp on the floor as she did. In a daze she walked across the room to get her cloak.

“They came this morning.” Duskshine answered from beyond the door. “The Stalkers.”

Lilly gasped and stopped dead in her tracks as she heard the final word. Stalkers. Her mind started to spin. Just a few seconds later she swung the door open so fast it almost pushed the stallion on the other side down into the snow.

“Sorry...” She said shyly as she helped him up. Her cloak was put on clumsily and not properly tied, and her scarf had just been tossed around her neck and hung limply down, moving slightly in the cold wind. “So.. Where are they?” She asked as she carefully adjusted the Stetson on her head.

“At the inn.” Duskshine responded quickly. “Exchanging stories from their travels and stuffing themselves with Iceoma.”

“Let’s go then!” Lilly exclaimed in joy, almost bouncing slightly as she walked past the stallion.

“Hold on, don’t forget your diapers.” He said after her with a smirk.

She stopped and turned her head to him, rolling her eyes. “What..?” She asked annoyed.

“You’re acting like a child.” Duskshine said back to her. “Just calm down before we go.”

Lilly rolled her eyes yet again, but did as he said and tried to relax. After a few moments, Duskshine walked up to her with a smile. He didn’t wait for her and she followed him without a word as they walked through the small town.

The few buildings scattered across the valley had all been built from scraps scavenged from bigger towns and settlements. Metal, boards, containers, glass, benches and tables; anything that could be used. As they approached the inn, they could see a couple of fillies sneaking around the doorway, probably hoping to catch a glimpse of the newly arrived heroes inside.

They tried to act innocent once they noticed Lilly and Duskshine. “What are doing, boys?” He asked them in a friendly voice. “Spying on the Stalkers?”

Above their heads a rusty old sign swayed in the breeze. It was merely a big piece of bark, with the words “Ashcraft Inn” Carved into it. It hang from a metal rod that had been welded in place it the top of the contained that made out the entrance, and at the edge of the rod a few wind chimes hung, made out of rusty horseshoes and a few empty cans.

The sound they made wasn’t exactly beautiful or calming.

“We... We just wanted to see them, sir... Hear their stories...” One of the children said, head lowering somewhat as he did.

“Sorry, but Stalker’s stories aren’t for young foals. Run along and play somewhere else instead.”

The children nodded slowly in unison. Lilly felt a small prick of pain in her heart as she observed them. Their hopes had just been crushed. “Hey..” She said to them, trying to muster up a somewhat warm smile. “Don’t be sad, boys. Who knows, maybe you’ll earn your cutie marks today! Wouldn’t that be better than listening to old boring stallions talking about boring stuff?”

The children looked at her, perplexed. When one of them answered, Lilly stood surprised at his words. “Um... What’s a cutie mark…?”

Before she managed to figure out what to say, Duskshine pulled her with him through the doorway. “Age of the blank flanks, eh?” He whispered to her. The room they found themselves in was crowded, and filled with whispering voices. A quite ruckus. Maybe out of respect for the Stalkers.

“Before we go inside..” Duskshine continued whispering. “How much do you know about them?”

“I know they’re kick-ass.” Lilly responded. “They kill off threats to settlements and protect travelers and scavenge for anything useful.”

Duskshine nodded slowly. “Right, but you don’t know anything about them. Listen...” He pulled her off to a quiet corner of the room. “Take your average low-life; bandits, thieves, rapists, murderers, Bleakers, Wraiths and anything similar you can come up with. Combine all these and you get a bat-shit-crazy killing machine driven by nothing but pure feral instinct, killing, raping and eating everything it comes across. It knows no fear, no remorse or pain. Then you have Stalkers. They’re the kind of ponies that would make this bloodthirsty killing machine piss itself out of fear.”

Lilly remained quiet, feeling unease build up inside her the more he said. Suddenly she didn’t feel as eager to meet the Stalkers.

“They’re mean fuckers, so watch your words, alright missy?”

She nodded in response. Without saying anything else, Duskshine walked past her, nodding as he did to signal her to follow him, and she did, but her legs has started to tremble slightly. She knew that Stalkers where strong fighters, but this... She was afraid.

They walked further into the crowded room and placed themselves at the bar. It was probably the only piece of furniture in all of Ashcraft that wasn’t made out of junk. It had been hewn out perfectly from an old oak, with the bark on the sides still left intact to create a more stylized image. The top had been smoothened down into a perfect sheet of shiny wood, now adorned with dried up rings from old glasses and drinks. On each side a small pillar shot out from the board and connected it to the ceiling above.

As Duskshine ordered a couple glasses of Iceoma, Lilly took the opportunity to look around the room. It was rather big, consisting of four containers stacked next to each other and cut in half, resulting in a massive open space to fill up with tables and drunken ponies. And of course it was full with ponies, though how many where drunk she couldn’t tell.

To conserve what little warmth they had, the inn didn’t have any windows and instead relied only on lit candles and oil lamps. A few candles had been placed on just about every table, and the lamps hung in ropes from the ceiling, casting shadows on the floor in a strange way. Behind the bar there were several long shelves, filled with different bottles and glasses. Most of them contained Iceoma; the alcoholic liquid distilled from magic ice. How it was done she had no idea, but seeing as ice covered most of Equestria now, they would at least have an unlimited supply of this drink.

She nodded a thanks to the bartender as he handed over her glass to her. The drink itself looked like liquid, floating ice with small stars sparkling inside it. Like flakes of snow drifting around a shiny sea of ice. Oftentimes Lilly found herself just peering into the drink instead of actually drinking it, thinking how beautiful it looked.

Once she looked up from the drink, she noticed that Duskshine had moved away from the bar and was approaching a table in the farthest corner of the room, one with only one lit candle and several of the ponies around it partially covered in shadows. As if he sensed she was watching her, he turned his head around and looked her in the eyes, giving her a quick nod to follow him.

She quickly swallowed down the drink and headed down across the room. As she came closer, her legs started to tremble. Those ponies around the table, they had to be Stalkers. No doubt about it.

“… and apparently they have taken shelter in the tower, and…” The conversation around the table faded as Lilly came close enough and placed herself next to Duskshine. They all stared at her, everypony with a different expression.

The first one she saw was a beige stallion with dark red mane. Nasty scars adorned his neck and face, and one of his eyes seemed a bit clearer than the other. A pair of thick goggles had been pushed up unto his forehead, and an olive scarf hung loosely around the lower part of his neck. A couple of saddlebags had been strapped across his back, and on the lower end of it, something that looked like a cloak hung, covering his flank and hind legs.

Next to him stood another stallion, this one bigger and with more muscles. For some reason, he didn’t have a mane, and nothing but his grey fur covered his head. Lilly felt a bit queasy as she saw that he only had one ear; the other had somehow been ripped right off. He wielded a massive sword, strapped to his back with thick leather strings. She didn’t have time to look closely at the others before Duskshine spoke up.

“Gentlemen.” He began. “This is Lilith, a young mare eager to learn about Stalkers. I was hoping you could help her with this...”

When he stopped talking, the stallion without mane looked at her with sly eyes. Lilly didn’t like the look he gave her, feeling as if he looked too deep into her mind.

“A unicorn mare, huh?” His voice was broken and growling, reminding Lilly of the time a fire broke out in one of the houses close by. The ponies that inhaled the smoke had sounded just like him. “I haven’t fucked a unicorn since the Great Fade...” Lilly’s heart stopped at his words.

“Shut up, Sawblade.” The beige stallion quickly said. He looked at Lilly. “Sorry, he’s…” He looked back at Sawblade. “.. Well, he’s an asshole.”

“Fuck you, Crescent.” Sawblade responded.

“Love you too, buddy. Now... Miss… Lilith, was it? Why don’t you join us, we were just discussing some news from Appleloosa.”

Lilly gave Duskshine a worried look. “It’s fine, missy.” He said reassuring to her. “I’ll be over by the bar if you need anything. Good luck.” He whispered the last two words.

As he turned to leave, Lilly quickly stopped him. She wasn’t sure about this, and Sawblade terrified her. She opened her mouth to protest, but closed it again as she realized she didn’t want to look like a coward in front of the Stalkers. “I, um...” She began. “... That joke earlier was lousy.”

“Don’t worry, Lilly, you’ll be fine.” Duskshine answered. He probably sensed her worry.

Lilly nodded slowly after a few seconds. “… Okay.” She turned back to the Stalkers. “You… you said something about Appleloosa?” She tried her best not to stutter, but she still did. She glanced over at Sawblade, still uneasy.

“Yes...” Crescent responded slowly. “You ever been there?”

“I grew up there.” Lilly answered quietly.

Crescent’s eyebrows raised in wonder. “You don’t sound Appleloosan.” He pointed out.

“Ah’ know.” Lilly responded in her regular accent. “Ah’ rarely speak this way, Ah’ try to hide it.”

“Why would you hide your roots like that?” Sawblade suddenly asked. “Are you ashamed?”

Lilly hesitated for a while. “No, I… I just don’t want to think about Appleloosa. I prefer this accent over it as well; I’ve been using it so long it actually feels more natural than the southern accent.”

“I guess that explains that as well.” Crescent added with a nod towards her Stetson. When Lilly didn’t answer his remark, he continued on the previous subject. “Anyway… Appleloosa. We haven’t been down there for almost a year now, and I don’t know if these rumors are true.”

“It is true, just ask that guy over there.” Sawblade objected, pointing a hoof across the room. Lilly turned to look at where he was pointing, but saw nopony out of the ordinary.

“Yeah, whatever. They say that the entire town has been completely covered in snow. I mean completely, all buried except the church tower. Can you imagine it, all that snow down there, the driest damn place in all of Equestria? Apparently the few ponies there use it as shelter. The tower itself serves as entrance into the church which has now transformed into a fully-fledged bunker, deep under the snow. If it’s true... It’s both sad an impressive, I say.”

Lilly listened to what he said, but she didn’t hear him. “… Who did you point to? I don’t see anypony special...” For some reason, finding this pony seemed more important to her than listening to the news from her hometown.

As an answer to her question, a few notes of music streamed across the room.

At the same time, a few ponies moved across the room and revealed a strange-looking pony at the other side of the room. And he was playing a guitar.

“That guy.” Sawblade said. “Say, unicorn, have you ever heard of Magisur-”

Lilly didn’t hear the rest of his question. She had already moved away from the table towards the stallion, her eyes fixed on him like in a trance. The song that came from the guitar he held almost lulled her into sleep as she came closer to him.

She came to a stop just a few feet away from him, unable to speak. As the last chords on the guitar faded out, the stallion looked up at her.

“How did you..?” She whispered, feeling as if all the air in her lungs had disappeared. The stallion before her smiled a bit and removed his hoof from the throat of the guitar, held it up towards her. It took Lilly a few seconds to understand what she was looking at, and once she did, her chest started to ache.

Several indentations adorned the edge of the hoof, separated by no more than a few millimeters. The stallion lowered his hoof once again. “I’ve filed down small lines.” He said. “That way I can hit the notes I want to almost perfectly.”

“.. Did it hurt..?” Lilly whispered in response. While she asked him, she also looked over his body; she’d never seen such a strange combination in colors. His coat was a dark red color, almost like blood. And the mane…

“A bit.” The stallion answered. “But it was worth it.” Lilly didn’t answer; her eyes had stuck to the colors of his mane. The stallion noticed this and chuckled a bit. “I know I look odd.” He said. “I guess rainbow-manes are kinda rare these days...”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t stare like this, I...” She tried to apologize and averted her eyes from his mane.

“I’m used to it.” The stallion responded with a smile. “You’re from the south, aren’t you?”

Lilly raised her eyebrows at his question. “How do you figure?”

“I recognize the accent behind your voice.” The red stallion answered, putting the guitar down next to him. Again, Lilly raised her eyebrows. After a few seconds, another smile cracked the stallions face. “Fine, I heard you saying it to those guys over there.”

“Is it true what they said?” She asked quickly. “Is Appleloosa gone?”

The red stallion sighed at her question. “Yeah, afraid it is. Nothing left except the tower, like they said. I’ve seen it myself.”

The small amount of hope Lilly had left inside of her shattered. She turned away her head as tears welled up in her eyes.

“I’m sorry.”

“You don’t know me; you don’t need to be sorry.” Lilly replied through her tears. “But thanks for telling me anyway...” She turned her hooves around. “I should go, I…”

“Wait, before you go…” The stallion muttered. “That hat… Where did you get it?”

“None of your business.” Lilly said sharply.

“I think it is. See, I recognize the way it smells...”

Lilly turned her head and looked straight into the stallions eyes. They too had a strange color, and she couldn’t decide if they were green with a hint of light purple, or the other way around. “… You knew her too?” She asked, still with tears in her eyes.

The stallion nodded. “Yup.”