Caring Sparkle (Under Revision)

Twilight woke from her sleep feeling exhausted and worn out. Tyler had kneeled beside her and was looking worriedly at the unicorn. "Twilight, are you okay?" Tyler asked in a low voice.

Twilight stretched her muscles, feeling multiple pops from her joints as she stretched. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just feel like I haven't slept at all. What happened to Marcus? I thought he was standing guard?" Twilight looked around the room to see Marcus, sleeping heavily, in a sleeping bag.

"We changed out for the rest of the night. I came to check on you because you were crying in your sleep. Is everything okay?" Tyler asked as he took a rag from his pocket and wiped the tears from Twilight's face.

Twilight looked at the, now wet, rag in confusion. "I don't know why I was crying. Other than feeling really sore and exhausted, I feel perfectly fine."

Tyler stood up and walked to his locker, pulling a brown towel from a low shelf. "I think you might have had a nightmare. I need to jump in the shower. If you want to talk more, I'll be right here," Tyler pointed at the shower room door on the other side of the room.

Twilight didn't feel like going back to sleep. Thinking back on her dream, she couldn't remember anything. Maybe it would be best to stay awake. "Yeah, that sounds alright."

Twilight stood from her sleeping bag, feeling more joints pop as she straightened her legs. I've never felt this worn out before, Twilight thought. Maybe, if I walk around the room, I'll wake up a bit more. Twilight began to walk along the edge of the room, steeping softly so as not to wake Marcus or Kristan. Twilight examined the contents of the room as she passed by them. Near where she slept, duffel bags covered the floor, all of which were missing their contents. A large box, filled with rolled up sleeping bags, had capsized near where Marcus and Kristan slept, spilling its contents along the floor. Not that Marcus nor Kristan seemed to mind. Kristan had gathered a dozen sleeping bags and formed a mattress while Marcus used one to sleep in and one to lay his head on.

Twilight stopped as she looked at the only four lockers that had not been looted. Twilight read the names on the lockers from left to right: Marcus, Kristan, Tyler, Berin... Twilight read the last name slowly as she recognized it as the man who died when she first arrived in this world. A necklace with a metal tag dangled from the handle on the locker. Looking closer, Twilight was able to read out the name Berin Sneider. The necklace must have belonged to Berin,Twilight thought.

Twilight noticed that Tyler's locker was hanging open, squeaking on its hinges. Pictures covered the entirety of the locker, but, a few pictures, in particular, caught her attention.

The first picture was of Tyler. A much younger Tyler in fact. The hair on his head was all gone and he was wearing a multi-shaded green uniform. In his left hand he held a sign ,which read," Hey mom, I'll be home soon. I love you!". He looks so happy. I wonder where he went at that time?

The second picture looked to be of another man holding Tyler in a head lock as they laughed. They both wore their military dress uniforms, judging off the multiple medals and ribbons they wore. The name "Vick" was scribbled along the bottom of the photo. That must be a friend of his from the military, Twilight thought as she smiled. I'm sure times were much easier back then...

The last picture showed Tyler kissing a woman on the cheek. The woman in the picture had a big smile and was blushing bright red. Along the bottom of the photo, Twilight read the word, "Buttercup". A big heart encircled the word, hinting Twilight that the woman must be Melissa. She does look really pretty, Twilight thought with a slight giggle. "Best watch yourself, Tyler, she looks like a handful," Twilight jokingly said to herself.

"Oh, trust me, she is." Tyler said, leaning against the locker. Tyler could tell he had scared the unicorn as she jumped, accidentally smacking her head against the shelf of the locker.

"Tyler! I'm sorry. I wasn't snooping on your personal stuff, I swear," Twilight said as she rubbed the fresh bruise along the base of her head.

"Ah, don't worry about it," Tyler said, running a towel through his hair. "You're not the first person to look at my pictures. So which ones caught your eye?"

Twilight, unsure of how to answer, simply pointed at the three which stuck out to her. Tyler gave a soft laugh, "I see. Well those are some quite interesting memories". Tyler pointed at the picture of him without hair, "This is when I was in basic training. I went to a religious seminar that a priest held for the soldiers. I had a lot of fun and they took pictures of us to show to our loved ones while we were there. I didn't know what else to say but to tell my mom that I love her. She was always such a strong woman.... She raised me by herself till I was fourteen years old. Sure, my stepdad was around, but, he never did anything to help me. He would just show up and sleep all day. But that's a story for another day..."

Tyler pointed to the picture of him and the other man, "That's me and Vick. Vick is an old buddy of mine. We met at training and found out that we were both from the same state. Do y'all have states where you're from?"

"I'm not sure what a state is but we are broken up into separate lands. I'm from the land of Equestria in the town of Ponyville," Twilight explained, listening intently to Tyler's stories.

"Well, here in our world, we are in the country of the United States. Inside that country is a collection of states. And that leads us to where we are, in the state of Louisiana," Tyler noticed Twilight's large interest to learn more. Clearing his throat, Tyler focused back on the subject at hand. "Well, that was the day Vick and I graduated from training. My family wasn't able to come, so his family was nice enough to bring me with them on family day."

"Why was your family not able to come to family day? Did something happen?" Twilight couldn't imagine how much it must have hurt Tyler to not see his family after so long. Twilight made it a point to see her brother whenever they had a special occasion while he was at training.

"It wasn't like they had a choice. The air conditioning unit broke and it was the middle of Summer. It was going to take a lot of money to get cool air flowing back into the house so I told them to just forget about coming. Sure, I really wanted them there, but I had gone all that time without seeing them. So why not wait a few more days, right? Missy kept me happy because we talked on the phone almost the entire day," Tyler laughed as he remembered the conversations that day. "As long as my family was safe, I didn't care what happened. I just wanted them happy."

Twilight smiled at the selfless act. His family means the world to him, Twilight thought. As Tyler pointed to the last picture, Twilight noticed a mixture of happiness and sadness wash across his face.

"This picture.... was a both a beautiful day with my, at the time, fiancé, and a horrible day for humanity.... Missy and I were enjoying a day together. I had proposed to her only three days prior. As we were driving back to her house, the emergency broadcast streamed across the radio. Satellites in Earth's atmosphere were going down one by one and nuclear bombs were detonating world wide. Not long after the broadcast, the radio went out and that's when all hell broke loose..." Tyler threw his towel into his locker, pulling out a pair of jeans and a dark green t-shirt to change into.

"I hate to ask, because I'm sure it's not comfortable to talk about, but may I ask what happened?" Twilight didn't like that she had to ask that question. The expression on Tyler's face was cold and lifeless. It almost looked as though he could cry at any second, but the tears never came.

Tyler finished lacing up his black boots when he continued. "The sky went very dark. It was four in the afternoon, so it shouldn't have been that dark. First we heard a loud explosion, off in the distance but still close enough to hear. Then Missy screamed as pieces of metal rained from the sky. Houses, cars, even people were crushed by the falling debris. We couldn't go any further by car so I grabbed Missy and we ran for it. I saw many people die as we ran. Some by the falling metal, some by other people who just wanted their stuff. Society crumbled that day. I can't remember how long it lasted... A few minutes? Maybe a few hours? All I remember is holding missy close to me as we hid under a table in the basement of a nearby hotel." Tyler reached into his locker, pulling out a long black duster jacket. "My parents died sometime during all of this. Our house sat on a steep hill, which collapsed during all the destruction. The house rolled down the hill and crashed at the bottom."

Twilight fought back the urge to cry. "I'm sorry for your loss, Tyler. I'm sure they were nice people."

"They were good people. Even better parents..." Tyler started checking his weapons for any deficiencies. It kept his mind preoccupied.

"What happened to Missy's parents?" Twilight asked, seeing Tyler's mood brighten up slightly.

"They survived the chaos. It didn't hit too bad where they were. They died of natural causes about a year ago though. It tortured Missy and I to see them go, but, in the end, they were just happy to know that they're daughter is safe. Their graves are located at an outpost in Alexandria, not too far from here. That's actually where Missy is now. Her mom was a nurse, so they asked Missy to provide some first aide classes for their troops," Tyler gave a warm chuckle. "For a woman who is deathly scared of needles, she sure knows how to patch you up if you're injured."

"She sounds like a nice woman," Twilight pulled the picture of them down from the locker, dropping it in Tyler's hand. "Even though things have happened, I'm sure she's glad that you were there for her through it all."

"Yeah... She is an amazing woman," Tyler folded the picture and slid it into his pocket. "I'd do anything for that woman."

A loud knock came from the vault door, startling Twilight and Tyler, and waking Kristan and Marcus. Kristan aimed a pistol at the entrance while Marcus grabbed his shotgun and ran to the security monitor.

"Who is it Marcus?" Tyler pulled a more compact shotgun from his locker, loading shell after shell into the drum attached to the bottom.

With a flip of a switch, the security monitor, hooked to the outside camera, came to life. Marcus observed the screen with a look of disbelief.

Tyler stood between Twilight and the door, centering the bead of his shotgun where center body mass would be on the door. "Well, Marcus? What's out there?"

Marcus backed away from the monitor rubbing his eyes in disbelief. "It's... It's Councilman Briggs..."

Tyler ran to the security monitor. With a screech of static, Tyler spoke into the speaker system. "Briggs? Briggs, if that's you, look up and present your code."

The elderly man looked up into the cameras view, pulled the golden ring from his finger, and revealed, to the camera, the words inscribed on the inside border of the ring. In bold, cursive letters, was the phrase, "Roses for Dawn".

Tyler released the locks on the door, wrappng the elderly man in a hug as the door swung open.

Twilight stared in confusion. "Can someone tell me what's going on?!"