The Fall Of Equestria

Chapters

Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Eight
One
Seven
Nine

Two

We thought dropping a nuke would solve this crisis. We only hoped that there were some survivors out there, but chances were slim. We hadn’t even thought of telling the ponies on the outside about the strike.

The deaths still played on our conscience. We acted before we thought about the implications of what we were doing. No heroes in this battle.

The deaths were in vain. The nuclear attack had no effect on the infected. If anything, it had just made them stronger.

What had we done?

The answer seems pretty clear. We have done nothing more than slay every living uninfected pony in all of Equestria.

The fallout shelter

The door slid closed as the orange mare and the brown stallion exited the shelter, leaving Mist and Fluttershy sitting alone in the center.

Mist looked at the frightened yellow mare next to him. Fluttershy wasn't looking at him; just examining the stone ground. Mist wanted to know what she was feeling, so that he could help her in some way. He sighed. He hated doing this, but it was his ability after all.

He placed himself in front of Fluttershy and tilted her head up to face his. He stared directly into her eyes, feeling the power build up behind his own. His eyes glowed an electric blue. He focused on the pupils of the pony in front of him.

A torrent of emotions hit him as a wave of images flooded into his head. He quickly cut the connection off, not wanting to wallow in Fluttershy's sadness. He now understood. Now he could help. It was the same doubts; the same fears that he himself also had. The mare in front of was looking at him with wide eyes. He placed himself next to her and wrapped a wing around her comfortingly.

He hadn't lied when he promised to Applejack that he would take care of her. He wasn't joking when he vowed to keep her safe.

Meanwhile, out in the wasteland

Applejack stumbled on the rubble of a destroyed structure. Regaining her footing, she looked around at the town she once knew.

The nuclear bomb had left Ponyville a mere shadow of its previous glamour. Tall, proud buildings that had lasted ever since Ponyville’s inception had been destroyed, the wooden remnants littering the ground. Some, miraculously, were still standing, however they were just shells of their former self. The Everfree Forest was now just a mass of blackened, dead trees. Applejack felt another pang of loss as she remembered about Zecora. The black-grey clouds above her reflected what she felt as she looked sadly upon a decimated town.

After pondering over the remains of Ponyville, Applejack and Mountain Heart headed to what was Sweet Apple Acres and began looking through the remains of the barn, which were burnt but somehow still standing, knowing that there was a risk of the building collapsing, each step had to be taken carefully.

After what seemed like an hour of searching, “ Found something over here, care to verify?” Mountain called out to Applejack, pointing under a bale of hay.

“Is that… a trap door?”

“How much longer do you think they will be out there, Mist?” asked a still somewhat fearful Fluttershy.

“Honestly, I hope they will be back soon, but I don’t know how much longer they will be out there. Only time will tell.” said Mist, getting a bit worried himself but not showing it for fear that it would only cause Fluttershy to worry more.

They sat there in silence. ”What am I going to do with myself if I fail to protect her as I had promised I would? Would my survival be in vain? What purpose would I have if I failed to protect those that I swore to protect?” Mist thought to himself, the weight of each question bearing more emotional pressure on him.

A wave of loss and darkness came crashing into him and he nearly crumbled to the floor, as he tried to wave off the sudden emotion, he went to the darkest corner to think of why these emotions flood him like they do.

Mist started to think about the different kind of creatures that called Equestria their home. Most of the creatures would have perished in the blast. But then a horrible thought came to mind.

Could the changelings have survived the nuclear blast? No, it can’t be possible.
The nuke wiped out everything that wasn’t aware of the nuke being dropped on Equestria.

Theres no way they could have survived it without being warned or already knowing, but how? Who could have warned them? What If the individuals that I warned in Manehattan were changelings? Could that be possible?” Mist thought to himself

Fluttershy looked at Mist, seeing that he was thinking of something that was really weighing down on him. In an attempt to ease the stress, she walked over and placed her own wing around him.

He looked directly at her, then at the ground and let a tear fall. Fluttershy moved to sit in front of him and pulled him closer to allow him to shed his tears into her shoulder, giving him what emotional support she could. She gently rubbed her forehoof through his mane and she wrapped both of her wings around him.

Then the answer Mist was looking for came to him. He began weeping even more as he realized that he failed to warn his friends even though he had thought he’d warned them. The guilt, caused by the realization of his failure to warn his real friends instead of possible changelings, and the loss of his friends and family had sent him over the edge of the cliff of emotion.

“I never knew this was here.” Applejack said surprised. “This is an armory I never knew we had. Was this put here in case of such events as these?”

The weapons under the barn weren’t the best, but they were weapons none the less.

Noticing a duffel bag on the ground “I don’t know. Lets put all of the weapons and ammo in this bag so we can hurry up and get back to the others.” Mountain said with a hint of urgency.

With their knowledge of time being the essence of their chances to survive their current trip into Ponyville, they hurriedly take all of the weapons and ammunition in the room placing the weapons they did not chose to use and loaded themselves down with ammunition for the weapons they did chose to use, both choosing a 12 gauge shotgun.

They hurried up the stairs to the surface through the trap door they found, taking notice that the barn was about to collapse as they heard a weak groan from the structure. They ran outside and just to finish it, Applejack threw a rock at the barn, causing it to collapse.

They were walking back to the shelter when Applejack’s eyes passed over something familiar. She stopped, gazing at the burnt remains of a tree. How was this familiar?, she asked herself. It was quite a large tree, nothing special about it. Applejack examined the tree further and then she realised why this tree was so important.

Twilight…

Mountain looked around and saw Applejack just staring at the tree. He trotted back to her.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Twilight…” murmured Applejack.

“Who?”

Applejack galloped straight towards the empty space that once was a door. Mountain galloped after her. Entering the ruined house, Applejack started to look around, hoping for a small sign of life. Mountain Heart entered behind her.

“Applejack, what are you doing?” said Mountain, slightly angry.
“Twilight, where are you?” whispered Applejack, more to herself than Mountain.

She galloped up the stairs to Twilight’s bedroom, once again looking around for any sign of the purple unicorn. Her visual search revealed nothing to her, so, carefully, she started to clamber over the rubble. Mountain Heart just watched as Applejack searched desperately for Twilight. Applejack was about to give up, when she tripped over something. Picking herself up, she looked back to see what she had tripped over, expecting to see a book cover or a sticking up piece of building.

She wasn’t expecting the sight her eyes gave her.

“Hey, Fluttershy.” Mist said, still clearly sobbing into Fluttershy’s yellow shoulder.

“Yes, i- is there something you want to talk about?” Fluttershy asked, gently caressing Mist in her caring embrace.

“I- I… Yes, there is.” Mist choked before nearly breaking down again. He took a deep, shuddering breath, but still found himself unable to continue. For a while, he just focused on the softness of the mare who was holding him. He closed his eyes and just listened to the slow breathing of Fluttershy.

There was something about this mare that made Mist feel… different. More alive inside than he had felt in a long time, before all of this shit happened. He buried his face into Fluttershy’s shoulder again, savouring the feel of the individual fibres brushing against his face. His heart finally seemed to start beating again. He moved his head off Fluttershy’s shoulder to stare her in the eyes. His disjointed thoughts finally formed words.

“I was just as timid as you when I was younger. My friends accepted me for who I was, but now that all of this has happened, my friends are… Well, lets just say that I’ll never get to see them again.”

Taking another deep breath, Mist continued.

“It does bother me to know that, but I don’t let it get in the way of survival. in fact I let it fuel my will to survive, not that I don’t miss them, ‘cause I really do.”

Silent tears fell down Fluttershy’s face as she listened to Mist. For nearly five minutes Fluttershy and Mist just sat there with tear filled eyes, not saying anything, not moving from their current position, then after the fifth minute the two slowly leaned in, half closing their eyes before connecting their lips and holding each other in an affectionate and loving embrace keeping the kiss going for a good minute.

After another half a minute passed they broke the kiss and said only three words simultaneously “...I love you.” and with this the two resumed their kiss.

Applejack gasped. She was seeing what she had tripped over clearly, just her mind wasn’t allowing her to accept it.

For she had tripped over a pony’s leg.

Applejack slowly moved over to it. She poked it with her hoof and jumped back. The leg didn’t move, thankfully. She knelt down and brushed away some of the rubble. Slowly, a shape appeared in the wreckage. She moved a little bit more rubble and the shape was thrown into the light. Applejack had uncovered the burnt and crushed remains of a pony. Even in it’s deformed shape, Applejack knew who it was.

“Twilight…” said Applejack, fresh tears pouring down her face. “Twilight, no…”

She pounded her hoof into the ground, causing a small cloud of dust to rise from the earth. She hauled the body of her friend out of the rubble, slinging the lifeless corpse over her shoulder. Mountain looked over at Applejack, with a puzzled expression on his face.

“Who’s that, Applejack?” asked Mountain, pointing at the figure on Applejack’s shoulder.

Applejack didn’t reply immediately. She slowly moved down the stairs, heading towards the door, Mountain following her. She laid Twilight’s corpse on the ground and turned to face Mountain, tears still falling from her face.

“We have to give her a proper burial.” said Applejack.

“Who is she anyway?” asked Mountain, not taking his eyes off the corpse.

“Twilight Sparkle. One of the best magic users in Equestria. And my best friend. I have to bury her.”

“Fine. But let’s do it quick. I have a bad feeling about this. Allow me.”

His horn glowed brightly and the dirt in front of them writhed. The dirt moved and formed a rectangular hole, which Applejack laid her fallen friend into. After a few moments, Applejack motioned to Mountain, and he swept the dirt back into the hole, leaving no trace there had even been a hole dug. Applejack swore that she would come back here one day as they turned and trotted briskly away.

Once outside Ponyville, Applejack pondered over the sight of the destroyed town once more, thinking of what she could be doing if this didn’t have to happen.

“Hey AJ, you coming?” Mountain called to her, breaking her from her trance over the town.

“Oh uh, yeah.” Applejack answered, heading to the shelter down the road where the other two are waiting inside.

Mist was still holding Fluttershy close to him, when all of a sudden they heard hoofsteps outside the shelter.

Fluttershy’s ears were the first to perk, hoping that it was Applejack and Mountain

“Mist, do you hear that?” she asked.

Mist turned to listen more closely. His ears perked when he heard the first door to the shelter open. Mist stood, ready to fight whatever came through.

The locking mechanism on the second door came undone and the door slid open revealing two ponies armed with shotguns, one of them carrying a bag..

“Mist, it’s us. You can calm down now.” Mountain said.

Mist relaxed from his defensive stance and sat down as they dropped the bag in the middle of the room revealing the weapons and ammo within.

Seeing that the weapons were found out there, Mist asked “Did you find any survivors?”

“No, we didn’t. But we did find a body.” replied Mountain, nervously glancing at Applejack as he said this. Should I let her tell them? Or should I?

Applejack moved towards Fluttershy and hugged her tightly.

“I- It was… Twilight, Fluttershy…” said Applejack, nearly overcome by a fresh wave of tears. Fluttershy gave a small gasp of horror and tightened her arms around the orange mare.

Mist knew that the two were taking it harder than he had taken his loss, so, setting his losses aside, he walked over and places his wings over them. After a while, Mountain suggested that they sleep, and slowly they started to get ready for the night. Mist walked over to Mountain and pulled him away from the others.

“How are you taking it?” he asked, looking at the other stallion with concern.

“I- I’m fine.” said Mountain, a little too quickly.

“Come off it.” scoffed Mist. “You’re just as scared as those two over there. So am I.”

Mountain nervously rubbed his hoof across the ground. He wasn’t the one to show emotion. Survival was an emotion to him, with no place for love, hope, fear or happiness. But…

“Yeah… you’re right.” answered Mountain, and he trotted right past Mist without another word.

As the light was turned off, Mountain laid himself down next to Applejack. He slowly closed his eyes, his head still buzzing from the chat with Mist.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the shelter, two figures were silently conversing with each other. After a while, they hugged and gave a final kiss before they lay down together protectively, as sleep washed over them all.

Author's Note

This chapter took us a long time to get done so please take the time to give a review based on everything about this chapter. We don't know how soon we can get the next chapter out with me starting at amazon in two days so please be patient

Three

A clear sky, ponies about their business, friends conversing amongst themselves.

He remembered it all, this was Manehattan. Before him were his four friends, but their expressions were different. All he could see was anger, hatred, and disappointment in the look the eyes were placing upon him with murderous intent.

The sky had turned a dark grey, everypony had fled to their homes except the ones before him, advancing on him with the intent to kill him.

Before too much longer he took off running, trying to escape his aggressors, as they were slowly gaining on him, he decided to run down an alley, hoping for an escape route.

Panting heavily from running for so long he slowed down and began walking, still searching and hoping they hadn’t followed. He stopped, unfortunately, at a dead end and turned to see that they were right behind him.

He tried to fly, but nothing happened, he looked at his back only to see that his wings were non-existent.

Beginning to panic, “C- C’mon guy’s, w- why are you doing this?” he said “I- I don’t understand, w- why are you trying to kill me?”

No response.

He tried screaming for help, no one heard him.

He broke down in tears as his fate came to him and the ones that were his friends were upon him.

Mist woke with a near scream coming from his muzzle, bolting into a sitting position, causing the others to wake up.

“What in tarnation is going on here?!” Applejack shouted, being roused from her sleep at a rather undesirable hour.

After Applejack’s fit of grouchiness, she looked over to see Mist breathing heavily, sweating heavily, shaking profusely.

“Uh, I think we oughta check Mist to see if he’s okay ya’ll.” Applejack said with heavy concern laced in her tone.

The first to appear before him was Fluttershy, looking worriedly at him, then embracing him to attempt to calm him down as much as she possible could.

Mountain could see that he was still shaken by whatever it was that had gotten to him and decided to let him calm down before asking him anything.

After calming down a bit he returned Fluttershy’s embrace still shaking somewhat, still unwilling to talk.

After a long period of silence, Mist appeared to be willing to talk, so Mountain walked over, Applejack close behind.

“Mist, tell me what happened.” Mountain said.

Mist just looked down for a moment then said “I was there.”

“Where, Mist. Where were you?” Mountain asked urgently.

“I was in Manehattan, I-” Mist choked.

“You what?” Mountain demanded “Tell me, what you saw in Manehattan?”

“It was like this had never happened, but my friends. The- they tried to…” Mist replied shakily pausing to take a deep breath.

“They what? What did they try to do?”

Preparing for the worst, Mist breathed deep again before saying “They tried to kill me.”

Mist immediately broke into a fit of tears after describing his nightmare, burying his face into Fluttershy’s shoulder, who still held him in her embrace as tight as she could. Applejack walked over and placed her forehoof over his shoulder, providing what comfort she could.

For a while, no one spoke, the only sound being Mist’s sobs of regret as he was reminded of his friends for the second time since this had happened, until Applejack spoke up with tears beginning to build up in her eyes and said to Mountain “He’s not the only one thinking of their friends right now.” looking at Fluttershy, who was now in tears.

Applejack placed a forehoof over Fluttershy, keeping the one on Mist in place, pulling them both into her.

Nothing but the sound of tears being shed could be heard, the pain of loss was present among the three that were gathered together, its effect was devastatingly powerful this time. The group was there for the longest time, unmoving, just sobbing, holding on to each other, depending on one another, each trying to support the other as they grieved for their friends.

Mountain was leaning against the far wall, away from the group. He gazed upon the three and he realized that after all this time, he had lost something valuable to him. What it was he did not yet know, but it didn’t bother him. Survival was all that he really strove for; he had no time to get weepy over some dead ponies. He joined the group and placed his forehooves around them, sharing in the moment of companionship.

The sound of mourning ponies was the only sound that filled the air, Fluttershy and Applejack, for their friends Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, and Rarity.

The realization of Mist actually remembering the mane six in this instant, and two of them being here, mourning for the other four, only crushed him more than the loss of his friends in Manehattan, as Mist knew that these were his true friends that he was with and mourning for, he never knew Mountain until all of this had happened.

Mountain did have a brother, Midnight Star, who taught him everything about survival and navigating the world by the stars.

The thought of his brother brought him to tears as he remembered his brother’s untimely fate because of all of this. “I- I’m so sorry Midnight, I should have brought you with me, it would not have been this way had I allowed you follow me to where I am now. You would still be alive if I had brought you with me, but I was so frustrated that I left on my own.” Mountain thought to himself, breaking into sobs of regret.

It was in this moment that they realized what they truly felt for each other, they felt compassion, friendship and something much deeper. Applejack looked up to have her eyes locked with Mountain’s and Fluttershy’s were locked with Mist’s.

"I… uh… well…” stuttered Applejack.

“Shhh, you don’t have to say anything. I think it would be best we just sit here for now.” Mountain said, gently placing a hoof on her lips.

Fluttershy and Mist were already nuzzling each other lovingly and kissing occasionally; apparently they had already shared their true feelings for each other. Without saying a word, Applejack nuzzled Mountain under the chin causing him to gasp in alarm. After a minute of being unsure of how to react, he nuzzled her back.

“You know, I knew this would happen, but I wished that it wasn’t true, but to a certain point I am glad it did.” Mountain said, sighing immediately after.

“Wh- Why’s that?” Applejack asked out of confusion.

“It brought me closer to the somepony that I never thought I would meet.” He stated with a smile on his face as he watched her try to figure it out.

“Who is it that you have been looking for and for what reason? Applejack questioned, giving up on figuring it out.

Mountain laughed. “You. I have always loved the apples from Sweet Apple Acres, and I knew that the daughter of the Apple family was just as lovely.”

Applejack’s blush at the words went darker “How’d you hear about me?” she asked.

“Oh, let’s just say that Braeburn and I ar- were good friends. I was in Manehattan trying to get my family to understand that this was going to happen, but the only one that did understand was my brother, Midnight. My parents wouldn’t let him go with me. I intended to sneak him out, but I was so frustrated that I just left.” he explained.

“Well, he did talk about me a lot, and I am sorry for your family, especially your brother.” Applejack said with sympathy heavy on her voice, still shaken by the effect of the loss of her friend, and not knowing about the other three.

“Thank you, he really was the only pony that I could talk to about anything, until now.” Mountain stated.

“Twi- Twilight was one of my closest friends, as you might be aware due to my behavior when I found her. I don’t know if the other three are alive or dead, but I still mourn due to their absence.” Applejack said, nearly choking as tears flooded from her eyes as she spoke.

Mountain wrapped his forehooves around her, embracing her tightly, comforting her as she wept into his shoulder.

After a while, Mountain noticed that he no longer heard Applejack crying. He looked to his shoulder to see that she had fallen asleep in his embrace, he couldn’t help but momentarily admire the sleeping mare in his arms before he said to the others “I think it’s time we got back to bed, as you can already see.” revealing Applejack, in a deep sleep.

“Good idea.” Mist replied, lying down and waiting for Fluttershy to join him

Fluttershy nodded and laid down next to Mist. The two kissed once more before falling asleep in each other’s embrace.

Mountain joined Applejack, lying down next to her, he placed his forehooves around her and whispered into her ear “I love you.” before falling asleep.

Author's Note

I did a good bit of the writing but as we all know I still had Ascending Anthem help in terms of a bit of reading and some editing, but please still give him equal credit for doing that much.

Four

It's been five days since the nukes were dropped, in those five days we have had no luck in searching for survivors.

Thinking back to when this first began, we were just living our normal lives before this, now we are fighting just to survive. Why we didn't warn anypony until it was too late, we didn't know until it was too late ourselves; we were the only ones that made it to a shelter for all we know.

We can’t hold out in here forever… As I write this, the infected draw near. It only takes one of them to enter…

What can we do?

Mountain sat up and rubbed his eyes, yawning and stretching in equal measure. Looking down to his left, he saw a familiar orange mare sleeping next to him.

Shortly after looking at the mare he looked around the room to find that everything was still in place as it should be. He then looked over at Mist and Fluttershy, who were sleeping peacefully in the other’s embrace.

He flopped back down, snuggling in close to Applejack as she slept on. For a moment, he completely forgot about what had happened. The reason why he was here in the first place. The instant he remembered this terrible truth, he sighed deeply and got to his hooves.

Walking over to the duffel bag he and Applejack retrieved only yesterday, he opened it and had a look, taking inventory. That was what his brother told him. Day after day. ‘Take inventory.’

The bag contained a few shotguns of varying size and type. Among these was a pistol or two and right at the bottom was a long and lethally sharp machete. Ammo was also among these items but there wasn’t a lot of it. Mountain zipped the bag closed and leaned against it, waiting for his companions to awake.

It wasn't long before the other three began waking up, each yawning and stretching their limbs and rubbing the sleep from their eyes.

Mist was the first to speak, "What's got you up this early in the morning?" he asked.

“If it is morning…” said Mountain forebodingly “I just woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. Simple as that.”

Mist nodded simply “So, are we going out again today?”

“I think we should.” replied Mountain “We might find a way to contact others who might have survived.”

"Just let me n' Fluttershy have a chance to finish waking up, then we'll gear up." Mist said taking a glance over at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy looked at him and asked "Are we going out this time?"

“Only if you want to.” replied Mist, nuzzling Fluttershy “I don’t want to put you in danger.”

“I’ll be fine.” said Fluttershy, in such a truthful voice that it was hard to disagree with her.

"Are you sure you want to go out there?" Mist asked "I don't want to risk losing you out there."

Fluttershy wrapped her forelegs around Mist, pulling him into a tight hug “And I don’t want to lose you either.” whispered Fluttershy “We’re stronger together.”

"Then we'll go together." Mist replied "Mountain, how are we going about the search today? Are we sending out two, or are we all going?"

As Mountain stood to his hooves, he said "Today you will be going out in a pair just like AJ and I did a few days ago."

With Mountains response, Mist and Fluttershy went to put on their hazmat suits and retrieve their weapons, Mist taking the pistol and Fluttershy the machete.

"We will return before midnight comes, make sure you two keep them out and listen for any other survivors." Mist said, walking to the first door of the shelters interior "And stay alive."

“We should be the ones saying that to you.” said Applejack, winking at Fluttershy.

"Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to her out there." Mist assured her "And if we don't make it back before midnight, then and only then should you come searching for us."

With that, Mist readied his pistol and Fluttershy nervously stared at her machete as the two left the bunker for the destruction above.

“I hope they’ll be fine.” sighed Applejack, staring at the door which had just opened and closed mere seconds ago.

“I’m sure they’ll be okay, Applejack.” Mountain replied “Mist cares for Fluttershy like she’s all he’s got left to hang on to.”

Applejack walked over to Mountains side and said “I know, I’m just worried is all, worried that the worst could happen to them.”

For a moment, the two sat in silence, contemplating what to do when suddenly, Mountain felt Applejack’s gaze upon him, he took in a whiff of the surrounding air, noticing that it had seemed a little different from what it was normally like.

“Applejack, are you…” Mountain stopped to clear his throat nervously “In heat?”

~Wastes of Ponyville~

The constant eeriness of the wasteland slightly spooked Mist as he and Fluttershy trudged through the destroyed remains of Ponyville. Mist had expected zomponies to be traipsing around everywhere, but so far... nothing. Despite the absence of enemies, Mist still kept a firm grip upon his weapon, glancing around every few seconds.

Most of the buildings in Ponyville were completely destroyed but a few remained standing. A few checks inside these buildings revealed nothing of value. The entire area was silent. Only a small wind whistled past, but nothing else moved. Once, Fluttershy stepped on a plank of wood and it snapped, causing her to squeak in alarm.

Apart from that, everything was still.

Then, Mist was tackled over from behind.

~The Shelter~

“Yeah, I wish it wasn’t that time of year though, but it’s happening anyway, I just don’t want to pressure you into something you don’t want to do.” Applejack said in a somewhat disheartened tone “ I just want to get rid of this dreaded itch as soon as possible, but I understand if you aren’t ready yet.”

“Maybe if we wait until Mist And Fluttershy get back, we won’t have to worry about forgetting that they are out there.” Mountain said, shaking his head as he found himself subconsciously staring at her slightly damp marehood.

“I don’t know how long I can wait, but I’ll try and wait as long as I can.” Applejack replied.

“I hope they come back soon.” Mountain said, letting his fear get the better of him again.

~Wastes of Ponyville~

Mist yelled in alarm as his pistol was thrown from his grip. A pony above him snarled, blood covering its mouth. Its mouth lunged forward and Mist dodged it. Mist grabbed its head, trying to force it away from him, but the zompony opened it’s mouth, ready to bite into Mist’s neck. Mist desperately reached out towards his pistol, but it was too far away. Mist could only watch as the pony closed it’s teeth.

Something slashed through the air right in front of Mist. The zompony made a final gurgle as its head rolled off, landing on the ground with a thud. Mist backed away from the now truly dead pony, staring at who had saved him.

Fluttershy stood, bloody machete in hoof, staring down at the corpse with unfamiliar hatred on her face. She looked at Mist and trotted over to him, holding out a hoof. Mist took it and the pair looked into the other’s eyes.

“I guess I didn’t need to look after you after all.” said Mist, staring right into the eyes of the pony in front of him.

Fluttershy smiled at the comment, holding out her hoof again. Mist’s pistol sat on it, which the owner took.

“Thanks.” stated Mist simply, and the two ponies continued their search.

~The Shelter~

Mountain sat there, contemplating the current situation he was in. He had a mare in heat that doesn’t know how long she can wait and he is continuously worrying about Mist and Fluttershy, overall, these are causing him to stress himself to the point where he isn’t sure if he could hold off any longer and should make advances on his own.

“Hey, Applejack.” Mountain called, trying to take his mind off of his current worries.

“What is it, sugarcube?” Applejack questioned.

“I was wondering, what was it like being an Element of Harmony, before all of this happened?” Mountain asked, struggling to hold back his thoughts and pressures.

“Well, It certainly wasn’t the easiest thing but it is worth it all when you are saving the ponies you care so much about, but now that this has happened, I don’t know if it really matters, we don’t know who will be next to possess the element of magic.” Applejack said, remembering Twilight once again, falling into tears.

Mountain walked over to her and lifted her muzzle with his forehoof and said “The only thing we can do for her now is live, we can honor her by living for her, and I know that she would want nothing more that for us to survive this mess we a…” Applejack cut him off, planting her lips against his, they stayed like this for a while, making out passionately, they allowed their hooves to explore each other as they remained locked in their passionate kiss.

Applejack then felt something pressing against her lips as if asking permission to enter, with a moments thought, she let her tongue slip out and wrestle against his, the two battling for dominance, found themselves lying on the floor with Applejack on top of Mountain.

Mountain broke the kiss breathing heavily, lying his head back against the concrete floor as Applejack lay on top of him, also breathing heavily. Applejack leaned in and slowly trailed her tongue up Mountain’s neck, causing him to shiver. AJ’s tongue trailed across his face as their lips met once more.

~Wastes of Ponyville~

After searching the remains of the town Mist and Fluttershy begin their journey back to the shelter, as they walked they watched all around them for any other zomponies that may be near.

On their way out of the building that they were searching they heard something suddenly snap behind them, causing them to turn around to see nothing, “Eh, probably just a bit of debris falling somewhere nearby.” Mist said, turning and continuing about their route.

Fluttershy wasn’t so sure, but she turned around and followed Mist. That’s when she was grabbed from behind. She struggled, but in those few seconds, she was somewhere else entirely, Mist gone from her vision. Fluttershy was about to scream but a knife slowly slid itself across Fluttershy’s neck, just missing her.

“Don’t move.” the pony whispered.

“Mist, hel-” Fluttershy’s voice cut out as the pony tightened its grip on her neck, drawing the knife ever closer.

Mist whipped around wielding his pistol against the unseen attacker, “FLUTTERSHY, WHERE ARE YOU!” Mist shouted hoping for a response.

Mist’s ears twitched as he thought he heard a scream that was cut off and ran in the direction of the scream.

‘If she dies here, I don’t know what will become of me. I have to find her before something else happens.’ Mist thought to himself as he burst into a house and found himself running through one of many corridors.

~The Shelter~

In the midst of their passionate kiss, Mountain began tracing her body with his forehooves, all the way down to her well toned flanks and began rubbing her cutie marks, eliciting a pleasured moan from the mare. Applejack then reached one of her hooves down and began rubbing her marehood lightly, tracing the outer part of her sex, coaxing her juices to seep from her marehood and began covering her forehoof in her juices, causing her to moan into the kiss even more.

Hearing these moans, Mountain breaks the kiss and looks down to see his stallionhood already standing half-mast. Applejack pulled her hoof away from her marehood and took it into her muzzle tasting her juices. Mountain was only encouraged by the sight of this and rolled her onto her back and began lining up kisses to her neck, causing her to shiver and moan in pleasure as he traced her body slowly with kisses down her barrel, between her teats, sucking on each one, then down to her marehood, which caused her to quiver even more.

Mountain slowly trailed his tongue up her area, rubbing her flank with his hoof simultaneously. Applejack arched her back, moaning pleasurably as Mountain continued to lick her marehood.

~Wastes of Ponyville~

Mist ran down the corridor, hoping against hope that he could find Fluttershy before anything happened to her. After a while, it became apparent that he had lost her.

“Fuck!” he yelled, slamming his fist into the wall, which cracked slightly.

After sitting there for a moment, he calms down and remembers that he can use his telepathic abilities to locate missing ponies. He closed his eyes and focused his thoughts on Fluttershy. Images flashed before his eyes revealing that they are just two doors down the hall. As he sees a mysterious figure folding Fluttershy hostage. Taking mental notes of what he saw, he opened his eyes and followed the hall down to the second door on the left. Inside he heard quick panicked breathing and instinctively bursted through the door. Pistol in hoof he aimed quickly for the pony holding Fluttershy hostage. Mist couldn’t see the pony taking Fluttershy hostage, for they were also covered in a hazmat suit.

“Let her go.” Mist growled, voice laced with malice.

“Now, why should I do what you say when you intruded upon my place of hiding, hmm?” the pony asked, voice distinctly feminine.

“Just let her go and I won’t hurt you, and besides, I have a gun and you have nothing but a simple hunting knife.” Mist reasoned “If you let her go, we guarantee shelter, food and water. All you have to do is let her go.”

“And how do I know you aren’t lying to me?” the mare asked.

Fluttershy spoke up and said “He’s not lying, look him in the eyes and you will see.”

“If she speaks the truth, you will drop your weapon until I say you can pick it back up.” the mare commanded.

Mist dropped his weapon without a second thought, knowing that Fluttershy spoke true, he meant every word of it.

As promised, Fluttershy was released, as soon as she was released, she ran to Mists side embracing him tightly, tears rolling down her cheeks, relieved that she is finally reunited with her lover. Mist returned the embrace wholeheartedly.

~The Shelter~

As Mountain continued his ministrations with his tongue, he removes his hooves from Applejack’s flanks and uses them to part her nether lips and proceeds to lick at her now soaked folds slowly, causing her to writhe and moan in ecstasy. Applejack then places a hoof on the back of Mountains head and shoves his muzzle into her marehood, causing him to thrust his tongue inside, giving him a taste of her inner walls, upon this new sensation inside her wet pussy, she moaned loudly with pleasure as he continued wriggling his tongue inside her, hitting all of the most sensitive spots he could.

Applejack’s breathing became hastened and erratic, signaling that she was nearing her peak, but before she could tip over, he pulled his skilled tongue out and began suckling and nibbling on her now engorged clitoris, bringing her to new heights of pleasure.

Mountain then went back to thrusting his tongue inside of Applejack’s soaked cunt, he used his hoof to tweak her clit, which immediately sent her careening over the edge and into the hardest orgasm she has had in the longest time, spraying her pussy juices into and on Mountain’s muzzle.

Mountain continued to lick at the source until she had come down from her orgasm, then moved up to look her in the eyes and plant a deep kiss on her lips, not even bothering to lick his muzzle clean before locking his muzzle with hers.

In the midst of their kiss, Mountain found himself on his back and he knew that she knew it was her turn to send him over the edge. Applejack broke the kiss and began lowering herself down to level her muzzle with his stallionhood which was now standing at full mast. She began licking from the flared tip of his stallionhood down to the base and back up to the tip repeatedly, causing Mountain to shake and quiver with each jolt of pleasure she gave him.

All mountain could do was lay there and enjoy the pleasure of her licking his shaft until she enveloped his stallionhood in her mouth and began pumping her muzzle on his throbbing meat. Caught off guard by this, Mountain let off a groan of pleasure unmatched by his previous reactions. Applejack heard this and began taking in more and more while picking up the pace all the while rubbing her pussy, causing her to moan on his shaft only making him groan in pleasure even more.

The sensation became too much for Mountain to resist bucking his hips and forcing her to take him into her throat, where she began deep throating him, causing her to gag each time she descended on his phallus, hilting him in her throat each time.

Mountains breathing became quick and erratic just like Applejacks did before her orgasm.

“A-Applejack...I’m… about to…” he said before his breath hitched when she drove her muzzle downward once more, sending him over the edge and causing him to send his cum spurting load after load down her throat with each spasm.

She swallowed every bit of cum he shot and pulled his cock out of her muzzle with a pop, the tip and her bottom lip connected by a strand of mixed saliva and cum. Applejack then pulled herself up over him locking lips yet again, this time Mountain allowed Applejacks tongue to enter and explore his mouth, still she was able to taste herself on his tongue, she tasted like apples.

After waiting a minute or two, she lowered herself to line her pussy up with his shaft. She gave him a sly wink before completely impaling herself on Mountain’s stallionhood. She stayed in one place for a moment to adjust with him already hilted inside her due to the strength of the downward thrust from Applejack, her walls clenching tightly around his shaft, already trying to pull him in deeper, she begins thrusting herself slowly, drawing long pleasured moans from both of them. Not forgetting that Mist and Fluttershy were still out in the wastes, “Mist and *gasp* Fluttershy are still- ahhh- out there, The-they should be- ohhh- coming back soon” Mountain said, before falling back into his own pleasure as Applejack continued to ride his stallionhood. Applejack ignored him in her own shroud of pleasure. As Applejack rode Mountain, the pleasure began to get more intense, causing Mountain to thrust upward into her and, in turn, caused her to start thrusting even faster, which Mountain continuously matched her thrusts, until suddenly Mountain pulled out and rolled Applejack to her back, spreading her legs so that he could get better access, lined himself up with her pussy again and thrust hard into her, continuing their love making with fast, rough and still rhythmic thrusting.

“Ahhh, yes. Keep going!” Applejack moaned loudly “Harder, fuck me harder, please?!”

Hearing this, Mountain went into full throttle with his thrusting, unrelenting, he pounded into her like a wild animal, causing her moans to become screams of pleasure and ecstasy. Soon the both of them began to feel a pressure building up, letting them know that their climax was close.

“Applejack, I- I’m gonna…” Mountain groaned.

“Inside, do it inside!” Applejack replied hastily.

As soon as she had finished, Mountain thrust into her once more and tensed up, his cock pulsing as he shot his white hot load into her pussy, sending her over the edge into her own orgasm, causing her to splatter her juice all over Mountain’s crotch and on the floor beneath them mixed with his own cum.

Mountain collapsed beside Applejack, snuggling close, the two just enjoyed the afterglow of their intense love making session.

“Damn, that... was the best... experience… ever.” Mountain said tiredly, he looked down to see that Applejack was already fast asleep, her head on his chest. Mountain laid back and closed his eyes and rested.

~Wastes of Ponyville~

Mist retrieved his gun from off the floor and Fluttershy grabbed her machete that she had dropped when she has been grabbed. For a while, Mist and Fluttershy stood, looking at the unknown pony, who hadn’t moved since releasing Fluttershy.

“So, have you seen anypony else?” asked Mist.

“Not since I made my way to a shelter. Things have been pretty quiet.” replied the unknown mare, standing as irresolute as ever. “I like being alone anyway.”

There was a silence, in which Mist and the unknown pony looked at each other. Then, his face split into a grin.

“I didn’t think I would see you again.” said Mist, walking forward and hugging the pony. She returned the hug fiercely. Fluttershy looked in confusion and slight jealousy.

“Mist? Do you know this pony?” she asked.

Mist broke the hug and smiled at Fluttershy “Yes, I do.”

“Who is she?” Fluttershy asked curiously.

“Let’s just get back to the shelter. Applejack and Mountain should know what happened.”

The trio returned to the shelter.

As they entered the shelter, they noticed an odd smell and decided to look round the room.

“Well, I wonder what happened in here while we were away that has it smelling like sex in here.” Mist asked curiously.

Fluttershy caught the sight of two ponies sleeping in each others embrace and said “Why don’t we ask them… um, if you don’t mind?” in her usual timid voice.

“That would be a good idea, but we do need to get some sleep.” Mist replied.

“Agreed, and before we do, I suppose I do owe an introduction, My name is Arching Arrow, you can call me Archie.” Archie stated, laying out her bed roll that she carried with her “I will introduce myself to the other two when we wake up tomorrow.”

“Goodnight, everypony.” Mist said to the other two still awake, laying down on his bedroll.

With that, everypony was in bed and asleep within seconds from the events that took place that day.

Author's Note

Sorry it took so long, Ascending Anthem has been away for a while so I have kinda been working on this alone except the last time he was at home which is the reason I am now posting this, yes the clop is in sections so that we could keep the attention shared between the search group and the ones staying at the shelter they are in so don't be disappointed. We have unveiled our first OC pony survivor thanks to Ascending Anthem's friend allowing us to use her OC as a survivor. I have posted a way to get your OC in this fic in The Shameless Self Promotion Bureau, the submission details are there.

I know that the scene breaks are confusing but that is the way Ascending Anthem and I planned it, if it helps I inserted the place for each scene when a scene break occurs.

Five

Author's Note

Sorry guys for the delay of the update, we've just been doing a lot of work on another collab called 'A Nightmare Returns' please if you like any of this and would be interested, go read that one and tell us what you think.

Five

After so long, we found the first of many survivors, Arching ‘Archie’ Arrow. We found her when we were separated, Fluttershy and I. We were searching Town Hall when we found her, I didn't think we’d ever find her, or better yet anypony.

But for now I must return to the rest of the group, for all I know the dead could be upon us very soon.

Arching Arrow blinked herself into consciousness. For a moment, she wondered where she was, the surroundings unfamiliar to her. She calmed once she realized she was in the bunker in which Mist and the others had been living in. She got up, carefully avoiding the others, and sat down, slumped against a wall.

Arching Arrow was a blue-green unicorn, with a flowing golden mane and tail that had been smeared with grime and dirt from outside. Her brown eyes surveyed the room, attaching themselves to each pony. Around her neck was a necklace, the ornate jewel set into it close to her. She looked down at it. She hadn’t taken it off in years. Finally, Archie looked down at her own cutie mark thoughtfully. Three heart shaped balloons were emblazoned on the flank. Archie giggled darkly, the irony of the situation hitting her. ‘Yeah… we all need some love in these times.’ She twisted her neck slightly, hearing a few clicks. Her eyes once again looked out, waiting for somepony to wake up.

Mist’s eyes snapped open, sitting up he surveyed the room and eventually his eyes fell upon Archie. “Morning, Sleep well?” he asked as he stood and walked to the store room.

“Better than I have had in a while.” replied Archie.

“I’ve had better myself.” Mist stated. “Tell me, how have you survived so long out there in the open like that?”

“Part luck, part skill.” Archie replied simply. “You learn or you die, simple as that, little brother.”

“I never thought I’d find you out here, I thought you had died with the others. So what is it that brought you here, to Ponyville… or what’s left of it anyway?” Mist asked.

“Was just passing through. Then…” She threw her hands up in the air. “All this shit happened. Lucky I had my bow.”

“And we’re lucky we found you, besides it was you who taught me what I needed to know to survive.” Mist said confidently. “I’m going to check on the supplies and see what we have left, wanna help?”

“Sure… why not?” Archie picked herself up off the ground and followed Mist to the supply room.

It was then that the rest of the group began waking up, Applejack being the first. She stretched her arms and back, sighing as she heard small pops and clicks.

“Looks like we’ve got enough supplies to hold out for the rest of the month, The only problem is… how are we going to gather more when we need to?” Mist asked in a tone that showed his concern for the survival of the group when they run out of supplies.

“That is a problem.” Archie said. “I don’t think we can take any more survivors and keep going for another month… We have to figure out a way to contact someone, the military or something…”

“The military would be best… If they weren’t wiped out.” The pegasus replied. “If not then our chances of survival may be greater than what they are now, when we come across them.”

“Quite right… But there is still the problem of contacting them…”

“That is true… If we could find a radio or the supplies to build one, then we might be able to contact them.” Mist said. “I think the rest of them are waking up, best go and join them.”

The two of them made their way back to the main area, where indeed the others had started to wake up.

Applejack and the other two looked at Mist then to Archie. “Who’s that, Mist?” Applejack asked.

“This is my sister, Arching Arrow, please call her Archie, Nopony calls her by her name unless they want to go through the ringer with her.” Mist explained.

Archie gave a small nod.

“Name’s Applejack, and the other two are Mountain Heart and Fluttershy.” Applejack replied.

Mountain gave a wave and Fluttershy just looked at Archie.

“So you’ve all been together since the start, correct?” Archie asked.

“We have.” Mist replied. “Been that way ever since, and we have come to learn from each other as well.”

“I’ve been on my own most of the time.” Archie said, a little sadness in her voice.

“I need to know something, it’s mother, father and Midnight, are they alive or are they…” Mist hesitated for a minute. “d-dead?”

“I-I don’t know… I wasn’t near them when it all happened.” replied Archie.

Mist’s ears drooped, a few tears building up in his eyes, but he quickly wiped them away. “So, for all we know, they’re pretty much dead, unless we find them or they find us?”

“That seems to be the case.” replied Archie.

“I-I just feel so bad for leaving you and them all behind like I did when I left and came here before the nukes hit, I just feel so horrible for doing that.” Mist said, his voice wavering between anger and sadness.

“Mist… that was all in the past. You can’t change it.”

“All I have left of them now is the memories and the pain I brought on myself for leaving, I wish I could go back, but now that opportunity is gone.”

“Mist… If you hadn’t of left… you might have died.”

“All I know is that right now, You, Fluttershy, Applejack and Mountain are all I have left in this world, they are like family to me now, you are family, you four are all I have left.” Mist said, his head hung low as the memories recurred in his mind, causing him to hit his knees, weeping silently.

Fluttershy walked over to Mist, hugging him tightly.

Mist threw his hooves around Fluttershy, weakly hugging her back and burying his face into her shoulder.

“It’s okay, Mist.” Fluttershy said, rubbing her hooves against his back.

Mist only continued his sobbing, letting his emotions flow freely.

Applejack walked forward and joined the hugging pair, wrapping her forelegs tightly around both of them.

Mountain followed suit shortly after, whispering words of comfort.

Archie just watched the huddled group, not wanting to join in with the emotions being thrown about.

After what seemed like hours, Mist finally calmed down. "Sorry about that, it's just… memories and emotions, you know?" he said past light sniffles as he wiped away his tears.

“Try and get them under control, won’t you brother?” scolded Archie. “I don’t want you breaking down like that when you’re out there.” She jerked her head at the door, separating the land of the dead from themselves.

"I'm as close to cold as steel out there as I can be while still caring for everypony around me, but in here, it's a different story." Mist explained. "In here, I feel broken because of all the memories this has brought on me, all the time, sometimes the pressure gets to be too much for me to bare, but this is the only place I let my emotions run it's course freely. I'm actually relieved to see that you still live, sister."

“I’d be glad if we saw anypony live after all of this.” replied Archie, a little cooly.

"But now that this has happened, we have all lost somepony close to us, and those of us that still live, most have found survivors and love or are still searching for survivors." Mist replied.

“Love?” questioned Archie. “You mean, even in all this chaos, you’ve found love?”

"Yes, when I am in here, I have also had the chance to bond with the others, Fluttershy and I, we love each other, that is how strong our bond is, Mountain and Applejack, they also love each other, the love that we have feeds our will to survive." Mist answered.

‘Huh… maybe I was wrong. Maybe love can survive in a terrible calamity like this one.’ thought Archie.

Mountain stood up, stretching his limbs. "Well, we've got another long day ahead of us, we need to get out there and continue searching. Archie, you can chose to come with us or stay with Mist and Fluttershy, it's up to you."

Archie sighed. “I’ve been out there long enough, I need to rest someplace safe for a change. So I’ll stay with Mist and Fluttershy, if you don’t mind.”

"Just promise us you'll not let anything happen to those two." Mountain said. "Being that you are Mist’s sister, I trust you to ensure their safety."

“You can trust me… I just hope that you two don’t die out there."

"Don't worry, we'll come back, we might have some close encounters but we will make it back before the day ends." Applejack assured as she suited up and armed herself with a 12 gauge shotgun.

“Be careful you two… and stay close.” said Mist.

With that, Mountain and Applejack made for the door to begin their search opening and closing the first door before repeating the process with the second.

"So, how long have you been out there?" Fluttershy asked curiously.

"Ever since this all began." Archie replied. "After that, nothing. I saw no one apart from the dead walking about. Until you two showed up that is."

“Where were you when it started?” Mist asked.

"In Ponyville. Managed to find my way to a shelter before it all went to shit. Unfortunately, that one was not as stocked as this one, so I left it behind."

“So… in a way you were searching for us, right? You were searching for better shelter with better stock?” Mist questioned.

"In a way, that was what exactly what I was doing."

“And finding us just made your search for better stocked shelter easier.” Mist added.

Archie laughed. "Why, yes it has."

“But one of our greatest concerns is where will we go once this shelter runs out of supplies, food and water?”

"Of course... But let's hope that we find something soon." Archie replied. "Despite my searching, I found nothing when I was out there."

“And if we do find anything, how do we know how long it will last before we have to travel again?”

"We don't."
______________________________________________________________________________

“I hope they’ll be alright back there. I mean, I trust Archie, but, what if something goes wrong” Applejack asked.

"I'm sure they have the strength to fight back and escape." replied Mountain. "Mist and Fluttershy are close and Archie is Mist's sister, so they'll fight for each other."

“I’m just so worried that they might not make it out if they need to, I don’t want to lose the last of my friends.”

"Hey... You don't know if your other friends out there survived. Just hope for the best and maybe you'll see them again."

“That’s all I really can do. I hope the rest of them are still alive, I’d hate to see them wind up like Twilight.” Applejack said, stifling her emotions.

Just as Mountain was about to respond, there was the sound of hoofsteps behind them and a low groan. Mountain whipped around to attempt to kill the zompony but was rushed at the last second, being pinned to a nearby wall, holding the dead pony’s jaws away from him.

All that could be heard, besides the snarls of the zompony gnashing its jaws at Mountain, was the crack of a rifle in the distance, then the splattering of the zompony’s brain, the dead pony falling dead once again.

“Who ever took that shot... is a damn good shot, nearly took my face off.” Mountain said, panting from his encounter.

“Yeah… but… where is the pony who saved you?” Applejack asked. “We could most likely use their help.”

"I don't know, maybe he'll come to us." Mountain replied.

They stood for a while and watched the place where the bullet had come from, seeing nothing. However… none of them noticed the unnatural mist that had formed behind them.
______________________________________________________________________________

"I was wondering, what will happen if Princess Celestia didn't survive? What would we do to run Equestria without proper leadership?" Mist asked.

“I don’t know.” replied Archie. “Anything could happen…”

“What could be worse than the sun possibly burning out?” Mist asked. “What are the chances that the sun could go supernova and destroy everything?”

“I don’t know… but that should have already happened by now if it did… Maybe, assuming the princess is dead, its power remains. But probably not for long… we need to find another alicorn princess capable as soon as possible.” Archie glanced over at Fluttershy, who was quivering slightly. She lent forward, whispering into Mist’s ear. “Mind keeping the death talk to a minimum… your marefriend over there is getting scared.”

“Oh… sorry… I didn’t mean to frighten anypony… it’s just my concern for our survival.” Mist said as he reached to pull Fluttershy into a comforting embrace.

“It-it’s okay.” replied Fluttershy, still quivering in Mist’s embrace.

Continuing to hold Fluttershy close, Mist looked over at Archie with a look that said ‘can you give us a bit of time?’ in his eyes.

Archie stood up, reading Mist’s look perfectly. “I’m going to go check the storeroom again. Maybe we missed some sort of secret passageway filled with supplies or something.” She left, closing the storeroom door behind her.

“Fluttershy…” Mist began, choosing his words carefully. “I didn’t mean to frighten you, and if it’s any consolation, I kinda scared myself talking about it, but I promise I won’t talk about it again unless I absolutely have to, okay?”

“O-okay…” Fluttershy whispered, blinking back a few tears.

Having said what he needed to say, he leaned in and pulled Fluttershy closer, gently planting his lips on hers.

Fluttershy slowly returned the kiss, placing her own forelegs around Mist in warm comfort.

Before things could go too far, Mist broke the kiss. “I don’t think I’m ready for the next step yet.” he said. “I’m gonna go and see if Archie has found anything that we may have missed when we searched the place the first time.”

Fluttershy blushed when Mist said ‘the next step’. “O-of course… T-take your t-time.”

With that, Mist kissed Fluttershy once more before standing up and heading into the storeroom. “Hey Archie, did you find anything that we missed this morning?”

Archie stopped and turned around to look at Mist. “Nothing… so far at least.” She sighed. “I’m surprised that you aren’t in there with her,” Archie gestured to the open door, leading back to the main room. “she is your marefriend after all.”

“I know, but there’s something else I wanted to ask you.” Mist replied, nervous about the fact that he was about to ask about such a sensitive subject.

“Go ahead.” said Archie, waiting for Mist to say something.

“I know this is quite a sensitive subject, but…” Mist paused for a moment, trying to find the words. “How would I know if I’m ready to… you know… take my relationship with Fluttershy to the next level?”

Archie paused for a second. “Well… firstly, you just met her. Maybe wait, and see how it goes. Secondly, it’s a trying time right now, and someone like her would try and latch onto anypony to keep herself sane, so maybe she doesn’t like you at all, BUT…” The last word came louder than the others, as Mist had opened his mouth to argue. “That doesn’t seem to be the case. And lastly… you know she’s in heat… right?”

“Well, now that you mention it. I have been a bit… drawn to her in that manner… it’s just that I don’t know if I am ready to do that.”

“Then don’t, but I warn you… Lust can make even the sweetest of mares turn wild. She is no exception.”

“I can’t let that happen, I have to be ready… for her. I have to be. I need to be.” Mist said, a sudden air of confidence surrounding him.

Archie placed a hand on her brother’s shoulder. “Don’t rush into anything you don’t want to do, just play it safe, like you do when you’re out in the destroyed ruins outside.”

“I will wait for her, Archie, I will be ready when she needs me to be.”

“Then go back to her. I’ll keep trying to find anything useful in here.”

Mist nodded and headed back into the room with Fluttershy, resuming his place beside her, holding her close.

“Archie find anything?” asked Fluttershy.

“Not yet.” Mist replied before clearing his throat. “Umm… Fluttershy…”

“Yes?”

“I had a bit of a discussion about my… uncertainty of taking our relationship to the next level… and… I just wanted to tell you that I’m ready when you need me to be.” Mist said, hoping that he hadn’t just messed things up.

Fluttershy blushed. “Oh, um… it’s fine. I don’t mind staying like this for now.”

Mist snuggled closer to Fluttershy and nuzzled her chin affectionately.

Fluttershy snuggled closely against Mist. “Um…” she blushed. “There’s something I really have to tell you… It’s kind of embarrassing...”

“What is it?” Mist replied with a soft, caring tone.

“Well… I’m kinda… in heat…” Fluttershy blushed a deep shade of crimson.

“So… you want me to… help you with your heat?” Mist asked, cautiously approaching the subject at hand.

If Fluttershy could have blushed anymore, she would have. However, when you’re whole face is a deep shade of red, there’s not much left to go onto. “Well… no… I think I can restrain myself for now…”

“I understand. All you have to do is let me know when you want me to help and I’ll be ready, okay?”

“Umm… Okay.”

Mist returned to his affectionate snuggling and nuzzling, giving Fluttershy all of the love he could possibly give to her.
______________________________________________________________________________

Mountain had just finished recovering from his encounter when he turned around and noticed the mist behind them. “Umm… Applejack?”

Applejack turned, staring at the mist. She moved closer to Mountain. “Mist doesn’t act like that.” she stated.

“Whatever is causing this… It’s either friend or foe, but we can’t take any chances so I say we try to get the hell out of here.” Mountain said, turning to get ready to run, but before He could even move. “WAIT!” a voice called. “I’m not going to hurt you.” the dense cloud began to dissipate eventually revealing a pony. Who ever this pony is, they don’t seem to have any hostile intent about them.

The pony in front of them wasn’t wearing any radiation suit, but he seemed to be just fine. He look at both Applejack and Mountain with startlingly blue eyes. His teal mane was brushed in front of one eye, a few black accents through it. His coat was dark grey, almost black, mixing in with the fog that had been there before almost perfected. A rifle was slung over his shoulder, and bat wings protruded from his sides. His cutie mark; a dark cloud, the cliched yellow jagged lighting protruding from it. “I’m not going to hurt you.” he repeated.

“Might I ask who you are and why you aren’t wearing a radiation suit?” Mountain asked.

“I would rather like to know your name first.” replied the bat-pony.

Then I guess introductions will have to wait.” he responded. “Now, why aren’t you in a radiation suit?”

The bat-pony shrugged. "Always had a high tolerance for radiation. With one of those clunky suits on, it becomes very difficult to fire this." He jerked his head back at his rifle. "And lucky you. If I had been wearing one of those, I wouldn't have been able to save your life."

“And it was a close shot, nearly took my face off.”

"Yeah, and so did that." He pointed towards the corpse. "Wouldn't have mattered either way."

“Heh… you’re right about that, I’d rather you nearly take my face off than that thing.” Mountain agreed with a slight chuckle.

“Got any shelter or something? I can’t find anywhere else, and I’d rather not sleep out here any more than I have to.”

“Yeah, just outside town, stick with us and we’ll be there in no time. Keep your rifle ready at all times when you're out here, never know when you’ll need it.”

"Sure." the bat-pony said, readying his rifle. "So are we going straight back to your shelter, or are you guys going to look around a little?"

"We were actually about to head back when you showed up." Applejack replied. "But it wouldn't hurt to look around a little bit more, just not too much longer, search for any supplies that we could possibly use, maybe even a two-way radio."

"Then what are we waiting around here for?" asked the bat-pony. "We should get moving."

"Right, c'mon lets get going." Mountain said as he turned to continue searching.
______________________________________________________________________________

Fluttershy snuggled closer to Mist, feeling her heat rising up slightly as she continued to hug him.

Mist continued to hold Fluttershy close, ready and waiting for her to tell him that she wants his help.

"Hey... Mist?" Fluttershy asked. "A-after everything returns to normal... W-will you stay with me?"

"Always." replied Mist. "I will stay with you for the rest of my days."

Fluttershy smiled and tightened her grip on Mist. "Thank you..."

Mist hugged Fluttershy tightly, followed by a deep kiss, showing all of his love for her.

Fluttershy pushed Mist to the ground, still with their lips interlocked together.

Mist gave no resistance when Fluttershy pushed him to his back, instead he began running his forelegs along her back.

Fluttershy moaned slightly into the kiss, still vigorously kissing Mist.

Mist began rubbing between Fluttershy's wings, keeping his lips locked with hers.

Fluttershy broke the kiss, gasping as Mist rubbed close to her sensitive wings. She got off Mist, her back turned to him. "Could you preen my wings?" she asked. "And give me a back rub at the same time?"

"I'll do my very best." Mist replied.

Fluttershy shuffled her wings at the stallion behind them, practically begging for him to rub them.

Mist began massaging Fluttershy's back as he searched her wings for any bent or broken feathers and plucking them carefully, sensually rubbing along each wing when he finished preening both of her wings.

The yellow mare moaned. "Mmmm... Don't stop, Mist..."

Mist continued massaging, working her tensed muscles loose, relieving the tension.

Fluttershy shook and collasped to the ground, her wings sticking up at Mist.

Mist giggled a bit. "Somepony really is enjoying herself, am I right?" Once he had finished with Fluttershy's back he went back to rubbing her stiffened wings.

Fluttershy didn't answer, the pleasure rubbing through her back rendering her speechless.

Mist stopped rubbing Fluttershy's wings. "Would you like to return the favor?" He asked.

"Y-yes. I'd love to."

Mist gave a loving smile before quickly kissing her on the lips and turning around, presenting his back and wings.

Fluttershy slowly grabbed Mist's wings, rubbing them slowly as she searched for loose, bent or broken feathers. Plucking them out neatly, she moved on, starting to rub Mist’s back.

Mist shuddered as pleasure ran from his wings to his spine, causing it to run along his back.

“You seem to be enjoying yourself.” said Fluttershy, alternating between rubbing Mist’s back and his wings.

Being rendered speechless by pleasure, Mist could only groan his approval.

Fluttershy dug her hooves into Mist’s back, nuzzling into his wings as she did so.

“Ohhhh… Right there.” Mist moaned as Fluttershy reached the small of his back.

Fluttershy continued, pushing forcefully into the spot where Mist had jerked with pleasure.

The pleasure overwhelmed Mist, causing him to seize up and collapse.

“Are you okay?” asked Fluttershy, still digging her hooves into Mist’s back.

“I… I’m f-fine… it just… feels really good.” Mist breathed.

Fluttershy nuzzled against Mist’s wings, feeling them pulse slightly. She started rubbing her hooves against them again.

Mist moaned as the pleasure from his wings again shot it’s way up and down his spine, he didn’t even notice his throbbing member because of the pleasure he was receiving already.

Fluttershy however, noticed. She blushed. “Ummm… M-Mist?”

Mist looked up at Fluttershy. “Yes?”

“Your… um…” Fluttershy couldn’t say it, so she looked down at Mist’s member, hoping that Mist would realize what she meant.

Mist looked down and his eyes went wide with utter surprise. “Whoa! When did that happen? Dammit, what am I going to do about it?”

“It- it only happened just then… Well, I only just noticed it then but…” Fluttershy blushed again.

“I guess I’ll just have to tough it out.” Mist groaned. ‘I hope Archie doesn’t see me like this.’

“I’m sure that she’ll stay in there.” Fluttershy said.

“Well… I-I really don’t like springing a… umm… well, you know what I mean... in front of her. I just get... uncomfortable when she sees me like this.” Mist stated with a blush as he tried to ignore his raging boner.

“Well of course you would. She is your sister.” replied Fluttershy.

“I-I just don’t know how to handle it without her suddenly walking in.” Mist said. “I’ve never had those types of thoughts about her and I never want to.”

“That’s good.” replied Fluttershy. They both sat in the awkward silence that followed. But, no matter how long they sat there, Mist still remained aroused.

______________________________________________________________________________

“Hey, over here, found something.” Mountain called out to the other two.

“What?” quickly replied the bat pony. rushing over.

“Can’t tell, help me get the debris off of it.” Mountain said as he began pushing large debris off of what he had found.

The bat pony and AJ started to help, shifting large rocks and debris off whatever Mountain had found.

After a moment of shifting and digging through the debris, the item was uncovered. “While it isn’t a radio or a weapon, It might serve a purpose in other ways essential to our survival.” Mountain stated. “But I haven’t seen any of these in my travels. Either of you two know what it is?”

“Whatever it is… do ya’ll still think it works?” asked Applejack.

“Maybe, I don’t yet know.” Mountain replied, opening his mouth to speak again but was‘cut off when the bat pony stepped in.

“A water purifier.” the bat pony explained. “It’ll clean up the water when we’re out here looking for supplies or are traveling to another shelter or relatively safe area.

"Then we should take it with us." Mountain said, lifting it off the ground. "It's a little heavy."

The bat pony and Applejack were soon lifting the other end of the weighty object. “Let’s get this thing back to the shelter as quick as we possibly can, I’d rather not get caught in a mess of undead while carrying this.” Applejack stated.

"Yeah, I wouldn't want to either." agreed the bat pony agreed.

With everypony in agreement to heading back with the water purifier, they were on their way.

______________________________________________________________________________

Still sitting in silence, Mist’s erection was still throbbing. ‘What am I going to do if Archie walks in here with… this... What will I do?’ he quivered at the thought of what could go wrong, also fearing what his sister might think as he sat there. ‘I can’t lie to her… she knows when I am lying.’

"I'm sure she'll understand." said Fluttershy. "She is your sister after all."

“I just don’t want her getting the wrong impression, that’s all. I don’t want her thinking that I’m some sort of… ugh… I don’t even want to say it.” Mist replied in a defeated tone.

Fluttershy moved and cuddled against Mist. "It'll be fine."

“But… What if she does think that of me if she sees me like this?” Mist asked as he wrapped his arms around her.

"Well... Then we'll have to do something before she comes." Fluttershy suggested.

“W-Wait... are you suggesting that we… d-do it? I-I mean, I know I said I would be ready when you wanted me to help, but, i-is this your way of letting me know?” Mist asked, worried that Fluttershy might be pushing herself to do something she doesn’t want to do just yet.

Fluttershy blushed. “No! I just thought… we could do something small…”

“I-I was just wanting to make sure you weren’t forcing yourself to do something you weren’t ready to do.” Mist said, hugging Fluttershy tight. “I’ll do whatever you want to do.”

“No, nothing like that…” replied Fluttershy. “I just thought we could do something to help you out slightly.”

“Like what?” the stallion asked curiously, wondering what Fluttershy had in mind.

“Well… ummm…” Fluttershy blushed, unable to say what she wanted to do.

“You can just show me…” Mist said, trying to encourage Fluttershy. “You don’t have to tell me what you intend to do.”

“Ummm… ok.” Fluttershy slowly trailed her hoof down Mist’s front, slightly touching his throbbing member with it.

Mist flinched with pleasure as he felt Fluttershy’s hoof make contact with his erect member. “Ooohhh… th-that feels… g-good…” he moaned lightly.

Fluttershy blushed again, starting to stroke Mist’s shaft slowly.

Mist moaned as Fluttershy began stroking his member, drawing out the pleasurable feeling, a bit of pre leaking from the head of his shaft.

Fluttershy moved her head closer to Mist’s cock and slowly dragged her tongue over the head, tasting the sweet pre from it.

Mist’s eyes rolled to the back of his head at the sensation of the yellow pegasi’s tongue running over the head of his member, causing him to moan even more.

Blushing profusely with the thoughts running through her head, Fluttershy wrapped her mouth around Mist’s shaft, sucking on it slowly.

“Mmmmm… Ohhh yes...” Mist moaned, relishing in the warmth and pleasure of his marefriends mouth sucking on his shaft.

Slowly bobbing her head along Mist’s sex, Fluttershy started driving Mist’s pleasure through the roof. Fluttershy couldn’t stop thinking though about how this was the first time she had done this, and she worried about how she might screw it up.

Mist placed a forehoof on Fluttershy’s head, encouraging her to keep going, moaning as he did so.

Fluttershy went deeper, taking more of Mist’s member into her maw. She felt her mouth reach the base of it, and she pulled back up, nearly removing the entire thing from her mouth before going back down again.

Mist moaned loudly as Fluttershy began deepthroating his shaft, hilting deep in her throat.

Moaning and squeaking a little herself, Fluttershy continued sliding her mouth up and down Mist’s member.

It wasn’t long until Mist began to feel that clenching feeling in his gut, he was getting close. “Fluttershy… I-I’m...g-gonna cum… s-soon…” he warned.

Fluttershy's reply was muffled due to Mist's shaft in her mouth, and she continued to suck him off.

Mist was steadily approaching the edge of the orgasmic cliff, slightly bucking his hips as he got closer.

Feeling Mist’s member continuously hit the back of her throat, Fluttershy continued, vigorously sucking Mist off as he neared his peak.

In just moments, Mist was pushed over the edge, howling in orgasmic pleasure, his seed pouring down Fluttershy’s throat.

Fluttershy choked slightly, but managed to swallow most of the liquid. She managed to pull away as the last of Mist's cum landed on her face.

“W-Wow…t-that was… wonderful...” Mist panted heavily, his shaft softening and retracting back into it’s sheath. “T-thank… you…”

"Your... Welcome." breathed Fluttershy, wiping some of the cum from her face and mouth.

“I-I would think that I should give you some pleasure, at least without going as far as… doing it.” Mist breathed.

"But the others have been gone a while, they'll be back soon." Fluttershy said.

“You’re right about that, but don’t you think they’d understand that we were just relieving tension?”

Fluttershy laughed slightly. “You’re not fine with having your sister walk in on us, but with Mountain and Applejack, you have no problem with that?”

“I mean, if you don’t want me to I won’t, it’s just that I want to give what I have received.” Mist replied, blushing slightly.

“Well… I guess that’s fair.” replied Fluttershy, blushing a lot more than Mist.

“Would you like for me to return the favor?” Mist asked.

“S-sure.” Fluttershy said, feeling the heat rise in her cheeks.

With Fluttershy’s response, Mist slowly trailed a forehoof down her midsection and all the way down to her marehood, lightly rubbing it in a circular motion. He pulled Fluttershy into a passionate kiss, locking his lips with hers.

Fluttershy moaned loudly into the kiss, the pleasure making the shy mare almost unresponsive.

Mist began to slowly press the tip of his hoof into Fluttershy’s marehood, covering it in her arousal.

“Ahhhh!” Fluttershy moaned, shivering uncontrollably from the stimulation.

With the kiss broken, Mist began to slowly lower himself, planting sensual kisses down Fluttershy’s midsection and eventually to her marehood. He pulled his hoof away then drew a long slow lick along Fluttershy’s slit.

Fluttershy gasped and fell back onto the floor, panting loudly. “W-wow…” she moaned loudly.

Once Mist had caught sight of Fluttershy’s pleasure bud, He began suckling on it lightly between each lick.

Fluttershy closed her mouth and bit down on her lip so Archie in the next room couldn’t hear her scream in pleasure. A few moans escaped her though.

Hearing her moaning, Mist lightly nibbled on Fluttershy’s buzzer.

Fluttershy bit down even more, piercing her lips lightly with her teeth as she tried to remain quiet enough so Archie couldn’t hear. She was failing terribly though…

Mist then pulled away from Fluttershy’s clit and went to work on probing her marehood with his tongue, trying to coax out what juices he could.

Fluttershy felt herself shivering at every touch Mist gave her. “Ahhh! M-Mist!” she moaned.

Hearing Fluttershy moan his name, he began digging deeper with his tongue, parting Fluttershy’s lower lips as he pressed deeper.

Closing her eyes and panting frantically, Fluttershy pushed her hips towards Mist, silently begging for him to continue.

Mist obliged by thrusting his tongue as deep as he could get it, shoving his face into her marehood, eating her out deeply.

“Oh… M-Mist… I can’t keep quiet…” breathed Fluttershy, trying not to scream Mist’s name.

Mist stopped for a moment and pulled away. “Just enjoy it, that’s all you have to do. I didn’t care if she heard me howling like I was.” he said before diving back in and eating Fluttershy out once more.

Fluttershy started panting hard, drawing deep breaths. She held back a few more screams as Mist lapped at her marehood.

Mist moved a forehoof up and began rubbing Fluttershy’s flank where her cutie mark resided, digging as deep as he possibly could into her marehood, trying to bring her to orgasm.

Fluttershy moaned loudly, unable to contain herself anymore. She felt pleasure surge through her entire body and she screamed in pleasure as she hit her orgasm.

Mist swallowed as much of Fluttershy’s marecum as he possibly could before it spilled past his lips. He then went to lick her marehood clean of her juices.
______________________________________________________________________________

Mountain, Applejack and the bat pony were just about to reach the shelter when Mountain stopped and looked at the bat pony. “Hey, would you happen to know anything about the princesses at the moment? Have you seen them or even heard from them?”

“Nah.” The bat-pony shrugged. “Nothing. I just hope at least one of them is alive.”

“We all hope that they still live.”

“Yeah.” The bat-pony sighed.

“Well… we’d better hurry up and get this thing to the shelter and ourselves.”

“Agreed.” said Applejack.

The three of them walked towards the shelter door.

Once they arrived, they set down the water purifier so that Mountain could get the door open.

“Wait…” the bat pony said. “I guess… We should introduce each other now. I can’t trust you if I don’t even know your names.”

“I guess you’re right, the name’s Mountain Heart, just call me Mountain.” Mountain said before reaching for the door.

“I’m Applejack.” replied AJ, looking at the bat pony with anticipation.

“I’m Crescent.” he said. “I came to Ponyville for a visit with my parents. We were separated when this whole thing happened. I have no idea what’s happened to them… or even if
they are alive.”

“We’ll help you find them.” Mountain replied. “Now we should get inside before we risk getting swarmed.” he said as he opened the outer door to the shelter and using his magic to help lift the water purifier. He entered the shelter and nearly dropped it, his magic wavering slightly at what he saw. “Uh… guys…” he whispered back to the two of them. “Maybe we should check around a little more…”

Mist pulled his head from between Fluttershy’s legs, unexpectant of their arrival, and turned around. What he saw shocked him. “WAIT…” He called once he shook of the shocked expression. “We were just finishing up. Let me explain everything to you.”

Crescent sighed. “If this is what you guys do when one pair is out risking their lives, then count me out.”

“N-No it’s not like that.” Mist stated. “We were just… relieving some tension, besides I was just returning the favor for her helping me out. We don’t always do this it’s just that this was the only way to relieve our tension for the moment.”

Crescent shrugged. “Whatever.”

“Anyway, the name’s Mist.”

Fluttershy was quivering at the realization that she and Mist had been caught. “F- Fluttershy.”

“Crescent.” the bat pony said. “Thanks to me, this guy here,” He punched Mountain lightly on the shoulder. “was able to live another day.”

Soon after Crecent introduced himself to the two, Archie came out of the store room. “Who’s the bat pony?” she said, staring directly at Crescent.

Crescent froze. “You… I’ve seen you before…”

Archie looked confused. “What do you mean you’ve seen me before?”

“I’ve seen you before… through a sniper scope aimed at your head…”

“And now that that’s been cleared up, who are you?” Archie asked

“Crescent.”

“So, Crescent, before I introduce myself, why exactly were you aiming at my head?”

“It wasn’t me.” replied Crescent. “I was with another survivor. He aimed at your head and asked me if I knew you at all. Of course, I had no clue. When I realised that he was going to kill you, I stopped him. Violently…”

“Then you have my thanks for that. My name is Arching Arrow, just call me Archie, unless you want to go through the ringer.”

“Pleasure to see you alive, Ms Arrow.”

“My, what a gentlecolt. I see even etiquette still survives in the wastes.” Archie replied. “I wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for my brother Mist and his marefriend

Crescent shrugged again. “Why be rude to others? Cooperation is the only way to survive out here.”

“It can be hard to trust others in times like these, but I see no reason why I should have a problem with kindness and respect for others.” Archie stated.

“Exactly.”

Mountain stepped in. “Now, Crescent, since you’ve been out there so long, just take a few days to relax before going out again.”

“Fine by me.”

Mist looked at his sister. “Did you find anything in there?”

“Something that looked like a tunnel, but I decided not to check it out alone.” Archie replied.

“We’ll check that out tomorrow then.” Mountain replied.

“Agreed.” said Mist. “Who knows what could await us at the end of it.”

“Could be weapons, armor or just a trap.” Applejack added.

“Or just nothing at all…” continued Archie.

“I’m sure you all have to be exhausted from searching and carrying that heavy thing back here.” Mist said, changing the subject.

“And I’m sure you two are a little exhausted yourself…” Mountain said, grinning. “From other means…”

Mist blushed a bit. “Hehe...Yeah… I-I guess you could say that…”

Fluttershy just hid her face behind her mane, not speaking.

“Well I guess it’s best we all get rested up for tomorrow. if tomorrow hasn’t already come.” Mist said as he laid down on his bedroll.

“I can never tell.” Mountain replied, lying on his own bedroll.

Fluttershy said nothing and laid down next to Mist, who wrapped his forelegs around her.

Crescent looked around. “Do you guys have any other bedrolls? I seem to not have one.”

“There should be a spare in the store room in the back.” Applejack said, lying down next to Mountain, on her own bedroll.

Crescent entered the store room and quickly located a spare. Laying it out on the floor, he fell back against it.

Archie stayed up for a bit. ‘How many survivors are out there, hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions, well we’ll never know for sure, but I do hope that the princesses are amongst the survivors.’ she thought to herself before lying down.

There was nothing but silence as Archie lay there, everypony had already fallen asleep. She laid there, waiting for the moment that the darkness of sleep overcomes her.

Six

Author's Note

Sorry it took so long to get this update out, been working on so many other things it's been drawing my time away.

Anyway, here it is, dig in.

Six

“See anypony yet?”

“No…”

Two ponies were lying on top of a hill. One of them was a dark shade of grey with bat wings. The other, a light shade of red. The red pony was holding a sniper rifle, searching, while the grey one watched.

“Tell me again, why we have to use that to look around?” asked the grey bat pony.

“Because we don’t have binoculars, and this is the next best thing…” replied the other pony.

It remained silent after that for a long time. Or maybe it was just a few minutes. The ponies just didn’t know anymore. The red pony twitched slightly.

“You know her?”

The bat pony moved to look into the scope. Centered in it was a blueish-green unicorn with yellow, almost golden coloured hair. She seemed to have a fair amount of supplies, judging by the saddlebags on her back. As they watched, she pulled something from some debris. Apparently, it was a great find as she seemed to stare at it with awe.

“No…” replied the bat-pony.

“Good, then move.”

The bat-pony moved and the other pony resumed his spot. The bat-pony noticed the red pony’s hoof drifting towards the trigger, heard him breathe in.

“Wait… what the hell are you doing?”

The red pony looked at him. “What do you think?”

“You aren’t seriously going to…”

“Completely. Judging by those saddlebags and what she just found, she has a fair amount of supplies, and we’re running short.”

“Why don’t just ask her to join us?” The bat-pony tried to talk some reason into the other.

“Look… I don’t trust anyone right now, apart from you. She could kill us both. Those supplies might have been stolen from the ponies that SHE has killed. There seems to be too much there to just be simple scavenging.”

“But-”

“Crescent… just stop… When have I ever led you astray? Ever since all this started, I’ve always made the right call. Just sit back.” He looked through the scope again, finding the mare within a few milliseconds and taking careful aim again.

Crescent couldn’t just sit back and watch. While it was true that the red pony had never led him astray, this wasn’t right. He drew his knife slowly, so the red pony didn’t notice. “Are you sure about this?” he asked.

“Deadly.”

“Do you even care?”

The red pony froze. “I care about my own survival. That is all.”

“That’s all I wanted to hear.” Crescent said, before plunging his knife into the back of the other pony’s neck.

After a brief struggle, the red pony was looking up at Crescent with blank eyes. Pulling the knife from the body, causing the blood to start flowing onto the ground, Crescent picked up the sniper from off the ground and took one last look at the body before slowly walking away.

Crescent opened his eyes and sat up. ‘Not that nightmare again...’ He sighed. He looked around, scanning his surroundings. All of the ponies were still asleep. Seeing the couples cuddle together tugged slightly at his heart-strings. He tried to think of anything to block out the memory of what he did, but it kept returning to him with more force. He still remembered every second of those few moments. He shuddered, though not from the cold that was circulating inside the bunker.

It wasn’t long before Archie, even with what little sleep she did get, awoke and looked over at Crescent. “You okay?”

“Fine.” Crescent replied.

“I know something is on your mind, and it is troubling you, c’mon tell me about it.” Archie said.

“It’s nothing.”

“It’s the day you saved me from getting killed, isn’t it?” Archie asked, determined to find out the truth.

Crescent froze. "How'd you guess?"

“It was just a guess.” Archie replied. “What happened that causes it to haunt you the way it does?”

Crescent sighed. "To save your life, I had to end another."

“Did you know the pony personally?”

"Not really. Didn't even know his name. The only thing I knew about him was that he was looking for his younger brother... Thinking about that makes me feel even more guilty."

As the two conversed, little did they know that Mountain had been awake.

"That gun isn't even mine. I took it from him once I'd..." He shivered. "Anyway, I couldn't just stand back and let him kill you..."

Mountain walked over and placed a foreleg around Crescent’s shoulder. “You did what you thought was right, but I must ask, may I have a closer look at the rifle?”

Crescent raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

“My brother always used a certain rifle when he was hunting and such, I saw him with one that looked similar to it the last time I saw him.” Mountain replied.

'Oh god... I didn't just...' Crescent calmed himself down. "Sure, go ahead."

Mountain went and picked up the rifle from where it rested, examining it carefully before he hit his knees. “Th-... This is my brother’s rifle… b-but… h-how did you get it?” he asked, his voice wavering as tears filled his eyes.

"A-Are you completely sure that that is your brother's?" asked Crescent.

“Y-Yes… his was the only one... engraved with his initials in it, these are his initials.” Mountain replied, pointing out the initials which read ‘C.H.’

"Oh shit... I'm sorry... I'm so fucking sorry..." Crescent said, getting up and backing away from Mountain. "I... I..."

“Y-You… killed him… Didn’t you?” Mountain said, standing up and turning to face Crescent, anger and frustration clearly visible in his tear filled eyes. “Didn’t you!?”

"I... Didn't know..." said Crescent weakly. "I'm... So sorry..."

“YOU SAVE MY LIFE ONLY TO TELL ME THAT YOU KILLED MY BROTHER!” Mountain shouted.

The yell woke up all inside the bunker. After a brief moment of confusion, everypony looked from Crescent, who was cowering against a wall, to Mountain, who has a gun trained on him.

"I... didn't know he was your brother..." Crescent said. "I'm truly sorry."

“The hell you’re sorry, forgiveness is the last thing your sorry ass needs.” Mountain growled, dropping the gun and slugging Crescent across the face.

The blow nearly knocked the bat-pony out, causing him to slide to the ground.

Mountain bent over and picked the gun back up and once again trained it on Crescent. “Get up.”

Crescent slowly rose from the ground, blood trickling from his left nostril.

“Take the fucking gun, now!” Mountain commanded pushing the gun into Crescent’s hooves.

Crescent did so, not daring to say a word.

“Now put the damned thing to my head and pull the fucking trigger.”

"No."

Mountain reached and grabbed the barrel of the gun and shoved it to his head. “C’MON, DO IT! END IT RIGHT FUCKING HERE!”

"I refuse."

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU WAITING FOR? DON’T YOU WANT ME TO BE REUNITED WITH MY BROTHER?!” Mountain shouted.

"If you want to be reunited with him so badly, do it yourself." Crescent said with malice. "I refuse to kill again. Your brother, so wrapped up in his own survival, planned to kill others to make that happen. If you want to join your brother, then be my guest." Crescent shoved the gun back into Mountain's hooves.

It was then that Mountain hit his knees again, buckling over as he let the gun fall from his hooves. “I-I can’t… I-I just can’t do it… M-My brother wouldn’t want me to do that… I-I promised him… I’d live for as long as I could… Applejack, Mist, Fluttershy and Archie... t-they need me…” Mountain’s words became unintelligible sobs as he fell to his side, curling his knees to his chest.

Crescent kneeled down. "Whatever image you have of your brother, remember that. This entire situation must of caused him a great deal of stress, and with that, he made all the wrong choices." He stood up again. "I'm going out." he said simply, walking towards the door.

“W-Wait…” Mountain choked. “I...I-I…”

"I can't remain here in good conscience." Crescent replied. "With what I've done, I don't think I can live among you."

“I forgive you.” Mountain said. “Please… don’t go… we need you… We all need you...You saved my life and I should have been thankful for that.”

Crescent stopped, just in front of the door. “But I killed your brother, without hesitation. I was no better than he was when he decided to kill Archie…”

“And if you hadn’t, several other ponies would have died by his hoof, Including Archie. Although it does pain me to know this, I cannot hold it against you. You saved so many by doing the one thing you didn’t want to do.” Mountain said as he stood and walked over, placing a foreleg over Crescent’s shoulder. “What you did to my brother, it doesn’t matter anymore, you saved so many survivors from his wanting to ensure his own survival over anypony else’s. While the least you could have done was knocked him out, I understand why you did it.”

Crescent shrugged off Mountain’s hoof. “Whatever…”

Mountain, clearly seeing how intent Crescent was on leaving, moved up and stopped between the bat pony and the door. “You would really throw my forgiveness and gratitude out the door because of something in the past?”

“I’m not throwing out your forgiveness, neither your gratitude. I just need some more time alone.”

“You know it’s dangerous out there and I can’t let you go alone.”

“Of course I do.” Crescent said, shoving Mountain aside.

“Then whatever happens out there is your own doing, you can return whenever you like.”

Crescent opened the door, leaving the shelter. He turned around and closed it, hiding him from view.

‘I don’t understand, why, when I have forgiven him and have expressed my gratitude, does he dwell on the past?’ Mountain thought to himself. ‘What can I do to help him put everything that he’s done, including the killing of my brother to save Archie, behind him?’ “Sorry I woke you all up, and I also apologize for what you saw, I was… acting irrationally.” he said to the ones that remained. “I hope he comes back.”

“Acting irrationally?” said Mist. “You told him to blow your fucking head off!”

“I wasn’t thinking… I just… Listen, how would you feel if your sister had been killed by my own brother?” Mountain asked. “What would you do?”

“Make him feel guilty.” Mist replied. “I would have wanted him to feel the pain and suffering I had.”

“The only way you could have done that would be to do the same to me.” Mountain stated. “You are a hell of a lot luckier than I am right now. I am the last standing member of my family because of all of this.”

“You don’t know that…” Mist said. “You don’t know if all of your family is dead. And neither do I.”

“My brother is the pony that raised me for the majority of my life, he kept me fed, kept me safe, kept a roof over my head. My parents died when I was just seven, my brother was eighteen when he took me in and began raising me himself.” Mountain countered. “I had no other family than my parents and my brother, and my brother was all I had left until now.”

Mist tried to argue, but found he had no retort. The bunker grew quiet after that.

Mountain walked to the darkest corner of the room, sliding to the floor with his back against the wall, faced away from the group.

Applejack was the first to break the silence. “So… about that hole that Archie found…”

Mountain didn’t look at the group. “You all can go and search it, I’m staying.” Mountain replied. “It’ll give me time to think.”

Mist rolled his eyes. “Fine.”

“Mountain, please…” Applejack begged. “Don’t be like that.”

“Like Crescent, I need some time alone.”

Mist gave a final glance before heading into the storeroom followed by Fluttershy, Archie and Applejack, who still had a pleading look in here eyes.

Mountain placed his head in his hooves.
______________________________________________________________________________

“I hope he’ll be alright.” Applejack spoke, worried about Mountain and his sudden behavior.

"He'll be fine..." Archie stated. "It's just what he learned.”

“What worries me even more is that he tried forcing Crescent to kill him.” Applejack added.

"He was grief-stricken. You heard how much he meant to Mountain..." Mist replied.

“We may need to keep a closer eye on him, who knows what could happen with him being like this?” Fluttershy stated.

"Well... Who's going to stay behind and watch him?"

Archie stepped forward. “I don’t want his lover seeing him suffering the way he is right now, so I’ll stay.” she said as she looked at Applejack. “Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to him.”

"Th-thank you." replied Applejack.

Archie promptly nodded. “Be safe in there.” she said then headed back into the main room.

"So... Should we go?" Mist asked the two mares.

“Yes… I don’t want to be in there any longer than I have to.” Fluttershy replied.

"Neither do I." said Applejack.

“Stay alert… we don’t know what could be in there.” Mist said as he took the first step into the tunnel.

Applejack and Fluttershy followed close behind.
______________________________________________________________________________

Archie was leaning against the wall on the far side of the room from Mountain, always keeping her eyes on him, but remaining completely silent.

"Why did you stay behind instead of the others?" asked Mountain after a while.

“To make sure you don’t do anything to harm yourself or anypony else, especially with what you are going through right now.”

Mountain scoffed and averted his gaze from Archie. "I could hardly do it to anypony else when I'm alone, can I?"

“You’re right about that, but I won’t take any chances leaving you here alone.” Archie replied. “Besides, I promised Applejack I wouldn’t let anything happen to you, even if it is self inflicted.”

Mountain shrugged. "Whatever, just leave me to think quietly."
______________________________________________________________________________

“I sure hope they’ll be alright. I can’t stand to think of what could happen.” Applejack said, still worried about Mountain and now Archie. “I don’t want anything bad happening to them.”

"I'm sure my sister is perfectly capable to react to anything that life might throw at her." Mist replied, a little sharply.

“I know… It’s just… I’m so worried about Mountain right now.”

"I'm worried about Crescent." spoke up Fluttershy. "He's in the same position as Mountain..."

“I know…” Mist replied. “I’m worried about both of them. I fear that they may wind up going at each other’s throats if they see each other again so when Crescent returns we’ll have to watch both of them carefully.”

"IF Crescent returns..." said Applejack.

“He’ll come back, trust me.” Mist said. “Even if it is just to make amends.”

"How can you be so sure?"

“I don’t really know, but I have a feeling that he’ll come back.” Mist replied.

"Then I hope you're right..."

"So do I, Applejack..." Mist replied. "So do I."
______________________________________________________________________________

Archie just sat, watching Mountain closely. None of them had spoken in a while, and Archie was getting a little angry at Mountain. She kept her mouth closed however, waiting for him to make the first move.

Mountain was still sitting there, unmoving, thinking quietly until he suddenly had a confused look on his face and oddly enough looked at Archie. “Hey, Archie… can I ask you something?”

"Sure."

“I’m not sure what you would have done, but, what would you do if you were me right now?” Mountain asked.

Archie thought for a moment. "I don't know... I've never had to deal with what you are going through."

“Oh… well, thank you for being honest.” Mountain said, looking away from Archie and down to the ground. “You know… I-I feel kinda bad for acting the way I did towards Crescent.”

"I'm sure he feels bad too..." Archie added.

“I need to apologize, but I don’t know if I’ll have that chance.”

"You always could... Go looking for him?" suggested Archie, looking at the shelter door.

‘It’s just not safe for me to go alone, I won’t go alone.”

"Crescent went alone." pointed out Archie. "And he could actually be in trouble because of that."

“Would you be willing to go out there again to help me find him and help him if needs be?”

"With the others in that tunnel, somepony has to stay up here... I'm sorry, but I can't."

"Then I’ll just have to go against my gut and go alone to find him.” Mountain said as he stood and headed to the store room to get ready.

"Be careful out there."

“I’ll be as careful as I can.” Mountain replied as he finished pulling on the HAZMAT suit and picking up a shotgun and a case of shells, he then made for the shelter door, opening the first one and continuing through it, closing it behind him.

"Be... Careful." repeated Archie.
______________________________________________________________________________

"Hey, Mist?" Applejack called.

"Hm?"

"I... I know how Mountain feels about all of this, I feel the same way he does but I can't say for sure that all of my family is dead, I have family everywhere." Applejack said.

“Everywhere?” questioned Mist.

"Yes, even in Manehattan and Appleoosa."

“Exactly how much?”

"That's what I'm not sure of. So… how do you think Mountain’s doing?” asked Applejack.

"I don't know, let me check." Mist said then closed his eyes, searching for Mountain. "No..."

“No? What’s up?”

"We have to get back to the shelter and gear up, Mountain went out alone!" Mist nearly shouted as he began running back the way they had come.

“But what about the tunnel?” asked Fluttershy as she started to gallop after Mist.

"It'll have to wait!"

“Why didn’t your sister stop him?!” yelled Applejack.

"I don't know..." Mist replied. "But we're going to find out."

“Then we better hurry.”
______________________________________________________________________________

'I have to find Crescent, I have to tell him I'm sorry for my behavior.' Mountain thought to himself as he ventured out in search of Crescent.

The land was just as dank and depressive since the last time he had been out here. Destroyed buildings, rubble everywhere, the whole scene was just depressing.

'Why did I act like that? Why did I lash out towards him? It's not his fault that my brother is dead, he saved Archie. I had no right to lash out against him.'

He kicked a rock and it clattered away on the the ground.

"Agh! Why is everything that I care for going to ruin!?" Mountain yelled. "All I have left is Applejack, Mist and Fluttershy! Why does th-" he paused when he heard a series of low groans. "Fucking hell!" He shouted as he readied his shotgun.
______________________________________________________________________________

Mist, Fluttershy and Applejack all climbed out of the tunnel.

"Archie!" Mist called. "Get in here!"

Archie poked her head in. “What’s up?”

"Why the hell is Mountain out there alone!?" Mist nearly yelled. "You should have stopped him or went with him!"

“He wanted to go and apologize to Crescent. I would have went with him… but we ne-"

"Don't give me that! No one goes out there alone!" Mist cut Archie off. "You should have stopped him or gone with him as I said just a second ago!"

“He just wanted to apologize to Crescent.” repeated Archie.

"That doesn't mean let him go alone!"

“And I stayed here!”

"If you were so insistent on staying here you should have fucking stopped him!" Mist shouted. "Now it's up to us to bring him back!"

“I think he’ll be fine.”

"You just stay put, the three of us are going to bring him back… if he isn't already dead!" Mist yelled, giving Archie a glare before reaching for a weapon.

The sound of a bow being pulled was abnormally loud. Archie had nooked an arrow and was pointing it at Mist. “No… If this is my fault, then I’m finding him.”

"You would threaten to kill me just to convince me to let you go out there to find him?" Mist growled.

“Yes.”

"Then do it, I'm not afraid. You'll only feel guilt in the end, but if it's what you want just so you can find him yourself then who's stopping you from killing me?"

“Because you’re my brother.”

"Then stay put… no… better yet, you’re coming with us... so that if he is dead, you will be the one burying him."

“No. This happened because of me, and I intend to fix it.”

"And I said you aren't going alone."

“You never said that, you said I shouldn’t have let Mountain go alone.”

“Well I’ve said it now… I won’t let you go alone.”

“Even so, we all can’t go. There’s only two suits left.”

“Applejack, Fluttershy…” Mist asked as he turned to the two mares but suddenly turned back to his sister. “No... you know what, don’t worry about it… If you really want to go find him yourself then go right ahead… but don’t blame me if you don’t make it back.”

Archie’s face turned cold. “Fine then.”
______________________________________________________________________________

The instant Crescent had left the shelter, he wanted to turn right back around and re-enter it. However, he had just kept walking, not looking where he was going in the slightest. He met nopony, alive or dead, while he walked.

‘Why did I admit to killing Mountain’s brother? Even more so why would he try to force me to kill him? He had every right to be angry with me, yet he forgives me… why?’ Crescent thought to himself. ‘I don’t deserve his forgiveness for what I have done, for who I’ve taken from him…’ Crescent’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a distant shotgun blast. “No…” the bat pony said to himself as he bolted in the direction of the sound.

After making his way past rubble and finding his way up on top of a house that had some structural integrity remaining, he looked around for where the sound had come from.

After a moment of looking around he heard another shot and looked in the direction that it had come from to see a pony being pursued by a small swarm of zomponies, He then noticed another group of zomponies approaching behind the pony and his veil of mist quickly appeared around him as he headed in the direction of the pony.

After a moment of running he had closed in on the pony not yet close enough to get his hooves on him to identify him, cutting his way through zomponies that got in his way as though he were a phantom in a desert, using his power to control mist to keep himself hidden.

The small horde of the dead destroyed, Crescent advanced slowly towards the other pony, who was still running, and hadn't yet noticed that they were safe.

It wasn’t until moment’s later that the pony stopped, exhausted from running for so long, and looked behind him to see, not the zomponies, but the cloud of mist that veiled Crescent from sight. “Crescent?” the pony called. “Is that you?”

Crescent froze as he recognized the voice. “Mountain?” he called back, slowly approaching the pony, hoping that it was who he thought it was.

"Who knew you'd be saving my ass two times in two days?!" replied Mountain, grinning.

“I didn’t know it was you, but… why did you come out here alone knowing that you could run into something like that?” Crescent replied, a little upset.

"Because... I wanted to apologize to you... For all the things I said and did back there."

"I… But I single hoofedly killed your brother, you had every right."

"I know... But that's all in the past now. We can't just keep moving back, looking at the past."

"I know… but… I-I just feel so… guilty… for everything I've taken from you."

"Not everything. I still have a lot that I have."

"I... I-I... We should head back to the shelter." Crescent stated. "It'll be safer to talk there."

"Agreed."

"Hold on…" Crescent said. "Something's off… like there's somepony out here other than us, I can't tell whether they are friend or foe."

"Where?" Mountain raised his shotgun.

"It feels like it's to our left."

Mountain looked to the left, studying everything he could. "I can't see anypony there..."

"Just stay close and stay in the mist." Crescent commanded as he used his power once more to shroud the two of them from visibility. "Let them venture closer."

Mountain froze as they watched, waiting for the other pony to reveal themselves.

“Whoever it is, they’re already getting close so keep quiet.”

Mountain kept looking around, searching, but seeing nopony at all, and then a pony came into his view.

The suspicious pony was alone, searching for something or somepony. “Mountain!” the pony called.

“That sounds like Archie.” Mountain whispered to Crescent.

"Sounds like... But I won't believe it until I see her. It could be anypony under that suit." Crescent whispered back.

“True… but there’s only one way to find out, we have to reveal ourselves.” Mountain implied.

"That's something I wanted to avoid..."

“Then how are we going to find out if… we could have the pony confirm their identity by asking them a simple question.”

"That's something we could try... Got anything in mind?"

“Maybe like having them confirm the name of Archie’s brother in full.” Mountain suggested.

"Do you know his full name?"

“Well… No…”

"Then that's a problem... The best thing to do would be to reveal ourselves, and escape if things get nasty."

“Then let’s do this... carefully.” Mountain replied.

"If things come to the worst... You do the shooting..."

“I… I’ll try not to hesitate if it comes to that.” Mountain said, hesitation set heavily on him.

Crescent lowered the fog around them, appearing seemingly out of midair to the pony in front of them.

“A-Archie… Is that you?” Mountain asked the pony.

"Mountain? Crescent? Where did you two come from?" asked Archie.

“That doesn’t matter right now, we need to get back to the shelter before another horde attacks.” Crescent quickly replied, then pointed to Mountain. “I already saved him from one horde.”

"We better move then." Archie replied.

With that said, the three headed off in the direction of the shelter they currently call home, keeping conversation to a bare minimum of warning of possible threats nearby.
______________________________________________________________________________

“They’ve been out there quite a while.” Fluttershy stated. “I hope nothing happened to them.”

"I'm pretty sure they'll be fine." Applejack said.

"Mountain is with Crescent right now. Yeah, I've been tracking him ever since I searched for him and discovered his location when we were in the tunnel."

“You know… speaking of that there tunnel…” Applejack started, a little nervously. “We should check it out, while we wait for the others.”

"It's too risky leaving the shelter unattended, anypony could get in and steal our supplies or sneak up on us." Mist replied.

“True, but your sister said exactly the same thing a while ago.”

"I know, that's why we're waiting here for them." Mist said. "There are times when I trust my sister’s judgement and this is one of them."

“That’s not exactly what I meant. When Mountain left, Archie only stayed because there was no one else in the shelter at the time. However, you still berated her for that.”

"I did that because she didn't stop him from going out alone."

“You saw how Mountain was reacting. Even if Archie tried to forcefully stop him, that wouldn’t have stopped him.”

"He took a risk that I will ensure never happens again." Mist started. "I know what it's like to lose somepony close, it's hard to cope with, sure I may not know what it's like to be in the room with the pony that killed somepony in my family, but I do know that it's not easy to cope with."

“Mmm.” agreed Applejack, stretching.

"I'm sure you had younger or older siblings before this and they might still be alive, would you care to tell us about them?" Mist asked, looking at Applejack.

“Well… as I told you, my family is rather spread out over Equestria.”

"That you did, but I'm meaning brothers, sisters, ponies that were closest to you as family could be." Mist stated.

Applejack looked at the ground, very interested in her hooves at this point. “There were three of my family who resided in Ponyville with me…”

"Would you like to tell me about them?" Mist asked.

“Their names were Granny Smith, Big Macintosh and… A-Applebloom.” Applejack’s voice wavered slightly.

Mist still caught on to the emotion causing her voice to waver as it did and wrapped his forelegs around her in a comforting embrace.

“I- I don’t know where they are. I tried to find them but…” Applejack nearly broke down as she tried to steady herself.

"I know you’re holding it back, just let it out… let it all out." Mist urged.

Applejack started crying softly. “They’re the closest family I had.”

Mist sat there holding Applejack in his embrace, continuing to attempt to comfort her while continuing to urge her to let her tears fall freely, listening to her every word.

Fluttershy joined the embrace, hugging her friend tightly.

Applejack eventually broke down, burying her face into Mist's shoulder, soaking his fur with her tears.

Mist patted Applejack lightly on the back. "It's fine AJ, it's okay..."

The weeping mare weakly threw her forelegs around Fluttershy and Mist, continuing to sob freely into Mist's shoulder.

Fluttershy couldn't do much but just hug Applejack tightly, just being there for her friend.

After moments of sobbing and tears, Applejack had cried herself to sleep and was now lying down on her bedroll, Mist and Fluttershy sitting nearby.

"I hope she'll be okay." said Mist, looking down at Applejack.

“I hope so too.” Fluttershy added, following Mist’s gaze.

Mist moved a little closer to Fluttershy, placing a foreleg around her and placing his head on her shoulder.
______________________________________________________________________________

“We’re almost there, keep your eyes peeled.” Archie said to the stallions behind her. “Don’t want any surprise attacks.”

“Alright.” replied Crescent, looking around at the deserted landscape.

After mere minutes of walking, the three had made it to the door of the shelter and quickly made their way inside.

Mist looked over his shoulder at the others entrance. “Great. You’re back.”

“What’s with the dullness?” Mountain asked. “Afraid we’d be going at each other’s throats?”

"Nah.. Nothing like that..." Mist looked over at Applejack for a second, before returning his gaze to the others.

“Well, we got everything sorted out and now we’re cool with each other. And I am terribly sorry for going out alone.” Mountain said, then looked at Applejack.. “What happened? Is she okay?”

"Physically, she's fine. Emotionally, she's a train wreck.”

“What got her?”

"I asked about her family closest to her... Fucking stupid thing to do in hindsight, but she's been holding in tears for a long time..."

“I’m guessing she cried herself to sleep in your hooves?” Mountain said as he walked over and sat down next to Applejack, who was still asleep.

"Yeah... Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened." Mist sighed. "So what happened to you?"

“Well… Let’s just say I ran into trouble out there, but luckily Crescent saved my ass again.”

"You're pretty accident prone, aren't you?" said Crescent.

"Not usually." Mountain replied. "My emotions can often cloud my judgement if I'm not careful."

"Like what happened before..." Crescent pointed out. "With you and... That." He looked over at Mountain's brother's rifle, that was leaning against a wall.

"Exactly like that." Mountain replied.

"Just... Please don't do that again..."

"I hope I don't act the way I did again."

"Now, with all of that swept under the carpet, can we go check out that tunnel?" asked Mist.

"Yeah, why don't you and Fluttershy take some personal time while we go check it out." Mountain said as he did a hinting downward gesture.

Mist looked at him with a mixed expression of anger and disapproval. Fluttershy blushed deeply. "Sure..." Mist said, getting up.

"Sorry… I-It was just so painfully obvious."

‘I think we’re fine for the time being… But go on ahead if you must.”

"Well… if you want to tag along then I won't stop you." Mountain said. "But make up your mind quickly cause we're going in just a minute."

“Somepony has to stay up here.” Mist replied. “Just go…"

Mountain nodded. "Alright… are the rest of you ready to go?"

They all nodded.

"Alright, let's get to it." Mountain said as he headed to the store room.

The rest of them, excluding Mist, Fluttershy and Applejack, who was still asleep, filed in after him, the door closed, and the main bunker was silent.

Mist sighed. "I hope they'll be fine in there."

“Me too.” Fluttershy said, hugging herself close to Mist.

Mist held Fluttershy tight in his embrace, nuzzling her chin affectionately.

“I wonder what’s down that tunnel…” Fluttershy thought aloud.

"I don't know, but right now all that matters to me right now is you… and keeping this room locked down."

Fluttershy leaned over a little and kissed Mist lightly before pulling away.

Mist grinned and pulled Fluttershy back into a kiss of his own, keeping in mind not to go too far.

Fluttershy wrapped her forelegs around Mist, pulling herself closer to him.

Mist slowly fell to his back, gently pulling Fluttershy down on top of him without breaking the kiss.

Fluttershy slowly trailed her tongue over Mist’s lips, silently asking for entrance.

Mist parted his lips to allow Fluttershy to explore his mouth.

Feeling Mist’s lips part, Fluttershy slowly entered his maw with her tongue, slowly trailing her tongue on the inside of his mouth.

Mist gave a low moan as he felt Fluttershy's tongue wriggle and writhe within his maw, encouraging him to wrestle her tongue with his own.

Slowly, Fluttershy touched her tongue against Mist’s.

The stallion wrapped his tongue around Fluttershy's in a loving embrace, suckling lightly on her tongue as he did.

Fluttershy squirmed a little, the suckling on her tongue ticklish.

Mist began letting his hooves wander about Fluttershy's back, rubbing every bit of her back sensually.

Fluttershy giggled into the kiss as Mist’s hooves rubbed deep into her tender spots.

Mist broke the kiss, breathing heavily, a string of saliva connecting their lips. "K-kissing you… is like kissing… an angel…" he panted as he slowly regained his breath. "It's just… breathtakingly wonderful."

Fluttershy blushed. “Y-you’re just saying that."

"No need to fluster at such a compliment." Mist giggled a bit before pulling Fluttershy back into another kiss.

This kiss lasted a little shorter than the first. Fluttershy pulled away, breathing heavily. “Did you... really mean what you said before?”

"Every… bit of it." Mist breathed.

Fluttershy squeed in embrassment and returned to the kiss.

Mist moaned lightly as his lips reconnected with hers.

Fluttershy started trailing her hooves over what little of Mist's back she could reach.

Mist rolled, changing positions and allowing Fluttershy better access to his back as he pulled him self closer to her.

Thankful for Mist's position change, Fluttershy continued, rubbing Mist's back deeply.

Mist moaned into Fluttershy's mouth at the sensual contact, urging him to press his tongue forward and brush against the mare's lips.

Parting her lips and allowing Mist's tongue entry, Fluttershy continued to rub Mist's back.

______________________________________________________________________________

"I wonder what those two are up to?" Archie questioned.

"Probably making out or something?" Crescent suggested.

"That's a likely possibility, considering that we walked in on them last time, hence ruining the mood for them." Mountain implied. "But I can't say they were the only ones that did that, Applejack and I did once."

“I don’t see how you ponies can do that after knowing each other for a few days, even in this situation.” Crescent sighed.

“We don’t want lust driving us insane now do we?” Mountain questioned. “It’s better to do that type of stuff with the pony you love than to be driven to fuck anything that moves, is it not? Especially when mares are in heat.”

Crescent just shrugged. “Whatever.”

“Hay, you can’t say that you haven’t loved somepony enough to go a round in bed with them.”

“Well, actually, I can.”

“You’ve never had a marefriend before, have you?” Mountain asked.

Crescent looked at the ground. “I never considered feeling that way about… well anypony…”

“Oh… well… I’m sure there might be somepony out there for you.” Mountain assured.

“Even after all this, I highly doubt it.”

“All you have to do is wait and see.”

Crescent shrugged again. “So, what do you think is at the end of this tunnel?”

“Dunno... but something tells me we are very close to what ever it is.”
______________________________________________________________________________

Mist and Fluttershy had been lying on the floor kissing deeply for a few minutes, breaking for a few seconds before kissing again.

Fluttershy was in heaven. She'd never had somepony kiss her like that. She moaned a little into the kiss, pressing herself a little more firmly against Mist's lips.

Mist pulled himself closer to Fluttershy, pressing their bodies together as the kiss continued.

Fluttershy broke the kiss before it could go too much further. “Not yet... I’m not ready... to go that far... just yet.” she breathed heavily, regaining her breath after the long kiss. She then pulled him into a tight, loving embrace, which he returned just as affectionately. “Soon, Mist. Soon, I will be ready.”

Soon the two were breathing normally, and just in time, as soon as Applejack had awakened.

"W-where is everypony?" she asked, yawning hugely.

"A tunnel was found in the store room, they went to investigate." Mist replied.

"And you two stayed behind, huh?"

"More like we were told to take some personal time for ourselves." Mist stated, a light blush warming his cheeks. "But we didn't want to go that far with you being in here."

"Oh, was I interupting?" Applejack blushed herself.

"N-no, we just… wanted to be respectful of your presence." Mist quickly replied.

"I see." She looked around nervously. "Should I follow the others?"

"I'm sure they'll be back soon, so just stay here with us." Mist replied.
______________________________________________________________________________

The three that had ventured into the tunnel soon came across a metal door similar to what a vault would have.

"What do you think is inside, Mountain?" Crescent asked, curious about the vault.

"Not sure... Anything really..." Mountain replied, looking at the vault with interest.

A sudden banging on the vault door from the inside startled the group. “Did you hear that? We have to get in there now.” Archie ordered as she began prying at the wheel on the door to get it to turn.

"I don't know... Whatever is in there could be dangerous." Mountain replied thoughtfully.

“Just help me get it open!”

The rest of the group silently moved forward to help out.

Within a few minutes the vault door was opened and what they found was shocking.

Eight

Throughout the night, Crescent watched over the group and surveyed the area constantly until Mountain began to stir and finally awaken.

“Sleep well?” Crescent asked.

“Well enough.” Mountain replied groggily wiping the sleep from his eyes. “Just give me time to wake up before you go to bed.”

“You got it.” Crescent replied. “Need me to do anything while waiting?”

“Check our current stock, ammunition, food, water, all of it.” Mountain answered.

Crescent nodded, stood and headed off into the store room and checked on all the supplies and saw that there was still enough to get them through the next couple of weeks, but it would last a while longer if they cut their rations in half. before heading back into the main room. “There’s just enough for a few weeks, but we can make it last by cutting ourselves down to half rations.”
“You care to explain what he did?” Crescent asked.

“Ahem, It was quite some time ago, back when I was a young colt.” Mountain began. “I was just on my way to class when all of a sudden this other colt pushed me to the floor and snatched my saddle bag and threw it to the side. He was about to hit me when suddenly we both hear Mist shout at the bully, the colt warned him that if he didn’t leave, he’d beat him to a pulp.”

“What happened next?” Applejack asked curiously.

“Mist stood his ground and once the colt went at him, Mist wiped the floor with the colt in self defense, though he did get suspended for a few days.” Mountain finished. “I even offered to help him get his grades up, but he declined, said he’d do that on his own. I swore that one day, I would help him for saving me from that colt.”

“What happened to Mist, besides getting suspended?” Fluttershy questioned.

“He came out with a bloody snout, that’s it.” Mountain replied.

“He must have been quite the idol to you since then.” Archie said. “My brother never stood for bullying and I’m proud of him for it, always have been.”

“I strived not only to be like him, but even more so to have him as a mentor and fight against bullying.” Mountain replied.

“He’d love to hear that himself.” Archie replied.

Mountain looked over at Mist. “I’ll do anything to ensure his survival, I know he’d do the same for me. I just hope we don’t have to leave here before he is able to get up and moving again.”

“Me too” Fluttershy added.

"And I know why." Scarlet added. "He had once been bullied until he couldn't take the pressure and threw away his weakness and cowardice. I know this because I trained him in unarmed combat and it was he that came to me for help."

"Huh, no wonder he had gotten so good. He learned everything he knows from you, and I thought I had taught him well enough." Archie replied with a slight giggle. "Shoulda known better than to think that."

"I agree." Scarlet replied, joining the laughter.

After a few moments, the two settled down and surveyed the rest of the group.

“I’ll do anything to ensure his recovery, but I have to force feed him like a foal since he is unconscious and unable to move on his own.” Scarlet stated before a blush lit her cheeks. “A-and just so you know… I-I kinda… H-have a crush on him… But seeing that he’s taken… I’ll just have to live without him.”

"Well, if you ask, I'm sure him and Fluttershy won't mind you laying next to him as well." Archie replied.

"Umm… I don't mind, just as long as Mist doesn't." the yellow mare replied. "But I wouldn't risk it right now and just… don't try anything with him without our approval."

"I understand." Scarlet replied.

Fluttershy nodded and turned to the rest of the group, awaiting their course of action.

“Well with two of us being temporarily disabled, we cannot leave unless it is an emergency.” Mountain said as he laid down on his bedroll. “Scarlet, find yourself a bedroll and pick a spot and try to get some sleep.”

Scarlet nodded and done as instructed, lest her attitude towards the others get her thrown out as she lay down relatively close to Mist and Fluttershy, but not close enough to be interfering with their comfort zone as everypony began to hunker down for the night aside from Crescent, who stayed up to keep watch over the group.

***

Mountain looked at him sternly. “Are you crazy, we’d starve at half rations at this point.”

“What other choices would we have besides leaving before Mist can recover, or for Rainbow Dash’s recovery for that matter?” Crescent argued, making his point valid.

Mountain opened his mouth to argue, but closed it, seeing that there was no arguing the point, if they were going to survive, they would have to make their supplies last as long as possible, even if it meant cutting down on how much they consumed. “I’ll break it to them when they wake up in the morning, I’ll break it to Dash and Mist when they recover fully.”

“Alright, it won’t be too much longer before I’ll need my sleep, so I’m gonna go ahead and get laid down.” Crescent said to Mountain.

“Go ahead and get some rest, I’m good enough to keep watch.” Mountain replied.

Crescent nodded and laid down, closing his eyes as he drifted of to sleep.

Mountain sighed as he took over the watch, wondering how he’d break it to them without sounding insane.

As soon as he began thinking about it, Applejack, Archie and Fluttershy awoke.

“Morning everypony.” Mountian said as they all rose from their bedrolls.

“Mornin’.” Applejack replied.

“Good morning Mountain.” Came Flutteryshy’s answer.

“If it even is morning.” Archie added.

“Umm… Everypony, there’s… there’s something I have to tell you all… you may not like it… but… We have to cut our rations down to half the normal if we are to survive long enough for Dash and Mist to recover, it’s our responsibility to make sure they know when they are recovered.” Mountain said.

“If it means our survival, then it must be done. That’s all there is to it.” Archie replied, voiding any reason for argument. “It’s how I’ve lived before Mist and Fluttershy found me.”

“I see, there’ll be no argument from me.” Applejack replied. “But if you don’t mind my asking, Have you seen the princesses while you were out there?”

“Ahem, I have actually, Let me regale you on the time I spent with them and how I met them.” Archie replied, lifting her bow which now seemed to have a particular glow to it now that they actually payed attention to it.

Author's Note

Sorry for keeping you all waiting, here's another yummy chapter for you, Chapter 9 is a fic of it's own, a link will be posted when it is finished.

One

Nuclear explosions…

One thing which is seldom known in Equestria. But it still exists nonetheless.

Equestria was overrun... overrun by an enemy we knew as friends and family before the infection and the nukes. We don’t know how many may have survived the blast, but we know they are out there.

But as the search continues, we may have to accept a harrowing truth...we will have to fight the extinction of ponykind, the problem is the way it will have to be done.

Applejack was leaning against the door, breathing heavily, the implications of what had just happened hit her. It all seemed like a dream, one terrible nightmare. But this felt too real… too vivid.

She gazed around the small nuclear shelter, her eyes sliding from one pony to the next. There were only four of them, and she had no clue who two of them were.

The first one wore a hood with a clock, and he was leaning back against the wall, whispering to himself. Every so often, his eyes darted around to look at the others before he resumed his quiet monologue. Applejack couldn’t make out anything much about him, apart from his piercing blue eyes.

The next one she didn’t know either. He sat in the darkest corner but his features were still quite clear. He wore jeans, ragged from fighting the undead, and he had an air of confidence around him. His black mane was brushed in front of his eyes; his coat was a dark grey, near black. Applejack could feel whatever hid behind the hair watching her.

Her eyes slid to the only familiar face she knew, and it was the most scared out of the bunch. Her aqua eyes were darting around so much that they almost seemed blurred. Her yellow coat was slightly spattered with dirt and mud; the same colour wings tucked tightly into her body. Her eyes were starting to fill with tears and she looked down at the ground, trying to hide them from view.

For the longest time, none of the four said a word. They were either too fearful to say anything, or they were watching the others with a keen eye, watching… waiting for any sign of weakness.

After what seemed like an hour of prolonged silence, the stallion in the darkest corner stood.

“The name’s Mist Sh-” The stallion faltered. “The name’s Mist, I know that this isn’t the best way to meet, but it seems that circumstances brought us here for this reason, to survive the wasteland, and since it is only proper to introduce ourselves so I must ask, what are your names?” Mist asked, keeping a solid gruff tone.

Applejack slumped to the floor of the bunker realizing that four of her closest friends have been killed in the blast. She buried her face into her arms, quietly sobbing. She felt somepony place a hoof on her shoulder. She looked up, hoping to see Fluttershy, but she was taken aback by the appearance of the hooded pony, who threw off his hood and cloak in an instant. His coat was a light brown and his mane was a slightly darker shade of the same brown, out of which protruded his horn. He smiled down at Applejack reassuringly.

“I’m Mountain. Mountain Heart.” he said. “And what’s your name?”
Applejack wiped her eyes and managed to choke out, “A-Applejack.” Mountain Heart sat down next to the orange mare and placed a hoof around her shoulder. Applejack started to cry again, still grieving over the friends she had lost.

Mist walked over to the yellow pony, who still had to introduce herself. “Hey there, what’s your name?” he asked her in a calm reassuring tone. The yellow mare didn’t answer instantly; she just slightly moved away from Mist, fear still plaguing her eyes.

Mist looked into those eyes, he knew that look, he once again asked for her name. The yellow mare took a deep breath.“I’m- I’m Fluttershy.” Fluttershy stated, her voice barely above a whisper and she once again dropped her face to stare at the expressionless ground.

Mist sat down next to Fluttershy and placed a hoof under her chin and lifted her face to look her in the eyes. For a while, no one in the shelter spoke; only held each other in a quiet moment of companionship.

Mist looked over to Mountain and asked “How’s she taking it?” with a concerned tone.

Mountain Heart leaned over and whispered into Applejack’s ear. “How you holding up?”

“Everypony I ever loved is most likely gone. My friends, my family. It’s just- too much.” cried Applejack, and she broke down into sobs.

Mountain looked back at Mist. He knew what she was feeling. He considered himself a loner, but he still had family… he still had friends… at least, he did.

“Not very well.” said Mountain.

Mist stood and walked over to Applejack, motioning calmly for Fluttershy to follow, and sat down on the other side of her, wrapping a comforting wing around her.

Fluttershy sat down in front of her, whispering words of comfort to her. The three of them just sat there, comforting Applejack, disregarding their own losses at the sight of the weeping mare.

After hours of crying, Applejack finally calmed down, still sniffling, wiping away her tears. She looked at Mountain, who returned her soft gaze with an almost loving affection in his eyes.

She then looked over to Mist, wing still around her shoulder. He looked at her with a look that could almost seem to express the same feeling she felt before she began sobbing. She could see the emotion he’d been holding back for so long.

Then her eyes turned to Fluttershy, who’s aqua eyes glistened with a light that seemed only apparent to her.

Applejack pulled the three into an embrace, showing her appreciation for her new friends and Fluttershy, they returned her embrace with the same appreciation.

After an hour, Mist said “We really should consider getting some rest.” yawning from exhaustion, even though not much was done other than sitting in a bunker and comforting his friend in her time of need.

“He’s right. After what had transpired today, we really should rest up.” Mountain stated, yawning soon after.

Soon they were all in their bedrolls they had in the bunker, all but one drifting off to sleep.

“Why is this happening to us? Why couldn’t I save all of my friends? Who is the one responsible for all of this in the first place?” Applejack thought to herself, looking up at the ceiling of the bunker, her eyes threatening to burst again.

After an hour had passed, Applejack finally closed her eyes, letting out a sigh, drifting into the dream world.

She saw the outside world, destroyed due to the explosion rent by the warhead. Rising up out of the rubble were four other ponies. She recognized them instantly. Her friends… they were alright! She galloped towards them, hoping to ensnare them all in a hug. However, as she drew closer, she noticed that her friends were not… normal. They were all darker shades of their former colours. The ‘new’ Rarity noticed her and let out a groan, raising a rotting hoof. The other members of the mane 6 turned their heads slowly to face her. Applejack let out a scream. The four ponies ahead of her slowly trotted closer to her.

They were all rotting. Bits of flesh hung off their bodies and their eyes were sunken and lifeless. Pinkie Pie was even missing an eye. Her smile was stretched out wide, so wide in fact that it was scary. Rainbow Dash was missing one of her wings. Twilight Sparkle, who led the slow progression of Applejack’s friends towards her, had part of her face missing, so that Applejack could see the skull underneath.

Applejack was frozen in place. She couldn’t move. Her friends were upon her, and then… they started feasting on her. Applejack watched as her vital organs were ripped out of her body. She watched as her blood flowed from her body. She watched as her friends slowly consumed her. Her voice had gone, so she couldn’t even scream for help. All she could do was watch and feel the pain coursing through her.

Applejack sat bolt upright, smashing her head on something.

“OW!” yelled Applejack and another voice simultaneously.

Applejack blinked a few times to clear her foggy vision.

It was dark in the bunker, but she saw what she had hit.

Mountain Heart was on the ground rubbing his head and staring at Applejack with a look of concern on his face.

Applejack looked around, she was still in the bunker, she noticed that neither Mist nor Fluttershy had awoken.

“Are you alright?” asked Applejack, trotting over to Mountain and helping him to his hooves.

“I’m fine. How about you? I heard you talking in your sleep, and it didn’t sound good, so I came over to see what was wrong. I was about to wake you up, because you were rolling around frantically.”

That must of been when I woke up, thought Applejack.

She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry I hurt you.”

“I told you already. I’m fine.” replied Mountain. “But you’re not though. Tell me what happened.”

Applejack shook her head. She couldn’t bring herself to speak about that… nightmare.

“Are you sure?” asked Mountain. “Talking always helps.”

“No!” shouted Applejack. Mountain stepped back from her.

“Fine… goodnight, Applejack.” said Mountain bitterly.

He started trotted back to his own bedroll.
“Mountain, wait!” pleaded Applejack. Mountain stopped, but he didn’t turn and look at Applejack. “Could you- would you… can you sleep near me tonight?”

Mountain turned, his head cocked to one side. “Why?”

“I just… want somepony friendly near me.” said Applejack.

Mountain turned and trotted away.

Good on you, Applejack, she scolded herself. You’ve just lost one good friend. I mean, sleep next to me? Why did I even say that!? Why would I ask somepony who I haven’t known for longer than a day to do something like that? Why-

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of something being dragged across the ground.

Applejack looked around and saw Mountain dragging his bedroll towards her.

He laid it next to Applejack and laid himself on it, looking at her.

Applejack laid herself onto her own bedroll and gazed right back at him, both sighed in relief knowing that things were okay, for now.

“Thank you.” whispered Applejack, as she once again closed her eyes.

Mountain just laid there, staring at the sleeping mare, who had a slight smile on her muzzle, for a while, thinking "She really is taking it hard, I'll need to keep an eye on her just in case she breaks down or has another nightmare again." before drifting back to sleep.

After a rough night, Fluttershy wakes to the newly familiar sight of dense concrete walls, dusty concrete floors, and dark corners, the others still sleeping somewhat peacefully. After sitting for a moment she decided to stand and walk around while walking to the store room, taking note of the supply of food and water stored. She also noticed a few weird looking suits hanging from the walls. She left the supply room and sat down on her bedroll, thinking.

After about an hour, the rest of the group begins to wake up. Mist closed his hoof on the door handle, but then withdrew it. It would still be quite dangerous to leave, not just because there might be those things still out there. Nuclear radiation...

He turned and looked at Fluttershy, the only pony completely awake. “What’s the supply look like?” he asked.

“There’s enough food and water for a month. At the most.” she stated “I also saw some weird looking suits in there.”

Weird suits? Mist walked into the supply area and looked at the suits. He didn’t have the faintest idea of what they were.

He walked out of the store area, pondering what those suits might be, but to no avail. Mountain Heart was just flickering his eyes open. He sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and stared wearily at the pacing stallion.

“Mist, what are you doing?” he questioned.

“Fluttershy found some sort of suits in the store area, I went to look at them and I can’t seem to figure out what they are.” Mist answered “Might you be able to tell us?”

“Suits?” Mountain’s eyes lit up. “I’ll take a look at them.”

He got up and stepped carefully over Applejack before making his way into the storeroom. After a moment, a shout reached the ponies outside.

“Ha! Celestia has blessed us!” said Mountain, trotting out.

“You know what they are?” asked a puzzled Mist.

“Sure do! They are hazardous material suits. Hazmat for short. They will protect us against any radiation still floating around. These one’s are top notch too. Class A standard.” Mountain exclaimed.

“How do you know that stuff?” said Fluttershy.

“Well, when your special talent is surviving, you have to know this stuff.” Mountain said in a matter-of-fact like tone.

“So that means that we can go out there, but what do we do about other forms of protection. We need weapons, don’t we?” asked Mist with a hint of confusion “In case there are any mutated creatures out there.”

“I’m pretty sure that the infected have been destroyed, but it can’t hurt to be prepared.” replied Mountain.

After a minute of discussing the suits and defense, Applejack awoke from her slumber, blinking her eyes a few times, wiping away the sleep.

“What have I missed, y’all?” Applejack asked, shaking her head slightly, her long ponytail swinging around. Applejack had lost her hat somewhere.

“Well, to start off, we have a month’s supply of food and water. On the other hoof, we have hazmat suits to protect us from the radiation.” stated Mist. “Unfortunately though, we don’t have
any sort of weapon to protect ourselves with.”

”I believe there might be a shotgun back at the old barn, maybe we could start searching there?” Applejack started, slowly getting to her hooves.

“You seriously not thinking of going out there, are you?” asked Mist, his eyes wide.

“I know Ponyville better than most ponies, even if it is destroyed. I’ll be the best one out there right now.”

“Well, you’re not going alone.” said Mountain, trotting over to her. “I’m coming too.”

“Just be careful out there, okay?” Fluttershy said, her voice just audible enough to be heard.

“We will. Mist, are you gonna take care of Fluttershy while we’re gone?” asked Applejack, looking straight at Mist. For a fraction of a second, Applejack though she saw Mist blush, but she blinked, and whatever she saw had gone.

“Yeah, I assure you, I will let nothing happen to her.” Mist said positively, assuring Applejack that he would let nothing happen to her as he placed a leg over her shoulder.

After putting on the hazmat suit, Applejack felt alert and ready. She nodded at Mountain Heart, who has already got his hazmat suit on and the two walked towards the door. Applejack placed a hoof on the handle and with a strong tug, opened it. Applejack turned and waved at Mist and Fluttershy, who were sitting together in the middle of the shelter. They waved back to Applejack and Mountain, who stepped out of the shelter and closed the door behind them.

There was another door here, so Applejack opened this one as well. As it slid open, Applejack gasped as the destroyed remnants of the little town she once knew came into her view. The sky was a dark grey and no sunlight filtered through the dark clouds.

This was Ponyville.

Author's Note

This is just the beginning of the collab that I am writing, the clop, however, doesn't come in until closer to the end, so just bear with us ladies and gentlemen.

Seven

Author's Note

HAHA! Ya'll probably thought this fic was dead, so guess what… IT IS BACK FOR MORE!

Seven

Mist, Fluttershy and Applejack had been sitting for a few minutes now, waiting, wondering. “What’s taking them so long.” Applejack asked.

“No idea.” Mist replied. “Maybe they found something?”

“Oh we found something alright.” Mountain said appearing out of nowhere with the others plus one unconscious pony, a cyan pegasus mare with a rainbow mane and tail draped across his back.

Applejack gasped and rushed over to the pegasus. “Is she alright?!”

“She’s still breathing, I haven’t looked for any injuries yet but she’ll need to rest for a while, she looks severely dehydrated and in need of food.” Mountain replied. “Make sure she is kept as fed and hydrated as possible.”

Fluttershy rushed over as well and the two took the unconscious pony to a spare bedroll and laid her down gently.

“Do you two know her?” Crescent asked.

“Mhm.” Fluttershy nodded.

“This is Rainbow Dash, the element of Loyalty, she can be a bit hot headed at times but you’ll get used to it.” Applejack explained.

“Where in Equestria did you find her!?” Fluttershy said, gently brushing a bit of Rainbow’s mane out of her face.

“She was… trapped in the vault, we had no idea she was in there.” Mountain explained.

“In a vault?” Applejack pried.

“It was at the end of the tunnel, she was left with no food or water by the looks of it when we found her, meaning she was deserted there.”

“You mean… Somepony locked her in there?” Fluttershy gasped.

“I don’t know who did it but clearly they were wanting her dead because I found this empty poison gas canister in there with her, how she survived I don’t know.” Mountain replied pulling out a empty canister of poison gas.

Fluttershy looked like she was going to get angry, or cry. She looked down at Rainbow Dash for a long time, not moving.

Mist moved up beside Fluttershy and placed his wing over her along with one of his forehooves.

“I can’t believe that somepony tried to kill her…” Fluttershy whispered.

Mist pulled Fluttershy closer and into a comforting embrace. “We’ll take good care of her, we won’t let her die, I promise.”

Fluttershy wrapped her forelegs around Mist, silently crying into his shoulder.

Mist hugged Fluttershy tightly, trying to comfort her the best he could. “Get Dash covered and get her some food and water ready.” he ordered.

The others did so, covering Dash with a blanket they found while searching through the storeroom and prepared some water and food for her.

“It’s been a long and stressful day for us all so let’s lay down and get some sleep.” Crescent said, actually feeling tired himself, he then sat against the wall and closed his eyes.

“Yeah.” Mountain replied, following Crescent’s suit and falling asleep himself.

Mist and Fluttershy had already lied down and fallen asleep in each others embrace, sleeping peacefully.

Applejack moved next to Mountain and hugged herself closer to the stallion, falling asleep as well.

Archie followed Crescent’s example and sat herself against the wall before falling asleep.

Mist awoke to see Rainbow still resting, but he knew she needed to eat something and drink some water. He stood up and walked over and gently nudged her shoulder to try to wake her long enough to eat and drink.

Rainbow Dash mumbled something incoherant.

"C'mon, wake up so you can get some food and water in you." Mist said as he nudged her again.

"Uuhhhh..." Rainbow Dash cracked her eyes open.

Mist attempted to give Rainbow Dash some of the water that was prepared for her, holding the bottle to her mouth.

Rainbow Dash was still half-asleep, but mananged to drink down some of the water before collapsing into sleep again.

'I guess we could try to get her to eat when she'll be able to stay awake longer.' Mist thought, knowing he was successful in getting her to drink some water. He went and laid back down beside Fluttershy.

Fluttershy woke up just Mist laid himself back down. "Everything ok?" she asked.

"I was able to get her to drink some water, but she fell back asleep before I could feed her." Mist replied.

"You mean Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy asked.

Mist nodded and hugged Fluttershy.

"She's been through so much." Fluttershy said, rubbing her hooves over Mist's back.

"As long as she is in our care she'll get better over time." Mist assured.

"Yeah..."

"But she needs to be kept well fed and hydrated."

"I'm sure that she'll recover if we do that..."

By now the rest of the group was beginning to wake beginning with Applejack. "How's Rainbow?" She asked tiredly.

"She's fine." Fluttershy replied. "We just need to care for her."

"Did either of you have any success getting started?"

"I did, I got her to drink some water but that's it." Mist replied.

"Good..." replied Applejack, laying back down.

"No one will be leaving while she is in our care, understand?" Mist demanded.

"No problems from me." Archie tiredly replied.

"There is one slight issue though..." Crescent said as he woke.

"What?" Mist asked.

"It's how we found Rainbow Dash... I mean... The tunnel led from that vault to straight here right?"

Archie nodded.

"That is a problem, what are you suggesting we do?" Mist asked.

"We did search that vault however. There was nothing else. The problem doesn't lie in the vault... But think about this... The only way to get to the vault was through here..."

"Are you sure you didn't miss anything? Any clues, hints, or secret doors that were sealed entirely after use?"

"You are missing the point... See, somepony had to take Rainbow Dash through this shelter... Which means, in theory... One of us put her in there."

"What if it wasn't any of us? What if she was in there before we found this shelter?"

"Let me ask this then... Who was first to the shelter?"

Mountain began to feel suspicious of their discussion.

"I don't know, Mountain, Applejack, Fluttershy and I arrived at the same time, right Mountain?"

"We were all a minute or so apart with Fluttershy and Applejack coming in last." Mountain remembered.

"I know I didn't put her there, I had no idea she was there." Mist said, his words ringing true.

"Well... Let's say that you are all telling the truth... Next question... If you found a shelter and a secret vault which you placed a pony into, and there is a goddamn apocalypse happening... Would you leave?" Crescent said.

Mist suddenly saw Mountain's eye twitch at the question. "Okay, don't take me too seriously, but say I did do this, I would have left as soon as the deed was done… but I would never have returned." Mist exemplified. "The actions of a true suspect to these questions would be suspicions of being caught, their eyes would twitch involuntarily or they would sweat, or they would exhibit all three as I have noticed one of these from Mountain just now, but we can't be certain."

Crescent turned his eyes to Mountain. "What I am saying is two possiblies... One: One of us is the attempted murderer. Or Two: There is another pony here... one we do not know about."

"And both are causing a potential threat to the rest of us." Mist added. "We'll need to tighten our security, one of us always watching while the others sleep. I however will always be listening… even in my sleep when I am not on watch."

"Good." Crescent said.

"Don't make me have to sleep with my eyes open." Mist warned. "I have photographic memory of everything my eyes see when I sleep."

"That's interesting..."

"Am I clear on this?" Mist drilled.

The others nodded.

"Good. Now let's see if we can get Rainbow to eat something, volunteers?" Mist asked.

Crescent nodded. "I'll do it."

Applejack stood. "I'll help him."

"Alright." Mist said. "Anypony up for a quick security sweep?"

The rest nodded and stood.

"Alright then. Gear up and get ready to scan the tunnel again, put on the suits just in case." Mist said, heading into the store room and doing so himself. “We’re going back to the vault to make sure we didn’t miss anything what-so…” he then felt something like a pinprick in his neck before he fell unconscious.

Crescent sprung to his hooves. At the same time, he saw Mountain slightly turn... in what seemed like an attempt to run. He lept towards him and easily subdued him. "Somepony get me some rope... Better safe than sorry with this one. The rest of you... Keep watching the storeroom entrance... Somepony is in there..."

Knowing Applejack, she pulled out her rope she always had on hoof and passed it to Crescent.

"Thanks." He quickly bound Mountain. "Sorry, but you just seem too suspicious for my liking." He stood back up.

As soon as Fluttershy looked into the store room, she shrieked at what she saw. Mist was being dragged into the tunnel, most likely back to the vault, seeing as that was where it led.

Crescent pushed past the others and bolted into the storeroom, just early enough to see Mist's body slipping out of sight. He galloped towards the tunnel and lunged towards the pony dragging Mist, knocking them to the ground.

The pony quickly threw a knife at Crescent, just grazing his shoulder before quickly getting up and lunging at him with a sword.

Crescent dodged the sword, grabbing for the hilt and trying to wrench it out of the other pony's hooves.

The pony delivered a swift kick at Crescent’s hind legs, causing him to lose his grip on the sword and fall to the ground.

Crescent growled angrily, sweeping the pony's legs out from under them.

The pony hit the ground, letting out a feminine grunt on impact before trying to stand back up only to find herself pinned by Crescent, who quickly delivered a powerful headbutt, knocking her out immediately.

Breathing heavily, Crescent stood up, rubbing his grazed shoulder. He finally got his first good look at the pony. It was definetly a mare.

Fluttershy and Applejack stepped in and saw Crescent rubbing his shoulder, standing before a second unconscious pony. “Who’s Mist’s attacker?” Applejack asked.

Crescent picked up the mare. "Maybe Mountain might know... I have a sneaking suspision about this..."

Applejack trotted over and picked up Mist and followed Crescent back to the main room and laid him down on his bedroll, where Fluttershy quickly rushed over to him, pulling his unconscious body into a tight embrace with tears flooding down her cheeks.

"He'll be fine." Crescent said.

Fluttershy looked up at Crescent with tears still running down her cheeks. “Th-thank you for saving him.” she said in a weak tone before burying her face into Mist once again.

Crescent patted Fluttershy on the back before placing the unconscious mare next to Mountain. “We need to tie her up as well…”

Applejack pulled out another rope and bound the mare in her unconscious state so that she couldn’t pull any sudden moves and took every weapon the mare had on her, leaving her completely unarmed. “Take these and lock them up somewhere she can’t get them.” She said as she handed the weapons to Crescent.

“Right.” Crescent took the vast variety of weapons and placed them in the storeroom. “She was definitely packing a whole load of equipment…”

A moment later, the mare woke up to find Applejack looking down at her. “H-hay! Let me go!” the mare demanded as she tried to free herself, but to no avail.

The mare’s coat was a deep red in color, her mane and tail both straight and black in color, her cutie mark is that of a dagger with black blood dripping from it’s blade.

"After what you did? Hardly..." scoffed Crescent. "Intending on murdering another is a pretty serious thing, you know."

“Do you have any fucking idea who I am?!” the mare screamed. “I could peel your eyelids back and rip your eyes out of your skull in a matter of seconds.”

"I have no clue who you are, but keep talking like that, and it won't matter in the end." Crescent threatened.

The mare then decided to spit in Crescent’s face. “Fuck you, whoever you are!”

Crescent wiped away the spit, grabbed the sniper rifle from the wall where it was leaning and smashed her in the face with the butt of it.

The impact instantly knocked the mare out a second time, causing her to slump over on the floor.

“Did you have to hit her that hard?” Mountain asked from his place on the floor. “As for who she is, she is Scarlet Rain, a highly skilled assassin, and used to be captain of the crystal guard until the apocalypse started. The only reason she failed this time is because you were able to intervene and counter her attacks. She usually never fails.”

“Then she could be a valuable ally to us, if only there was a way to convince her to help us.” Applejack added.

“There is a way, but I do not know it. We’ll have to wait for her to wake so that she can tell us how to convince her to help.” Mountain said. “Now if you’d please untie me, I’d be much obliged. As for Mist, right now I don’t know what she could have hit him with so we’re gonna have to keep a close eye on him.” he said as he looked at Mist, who was still unconscious, his breathing shallow. “As much as I hate to say this Fluttershy but, whatever she hit him with could actually kill him if we don’t catch it soon enough, if it is what I think it is.”

What the group didn’t know is that Scarlet had already awoken, she managed to sit herself up against a wall. “It won’t kill him, though it will leave him disabled for a while even after he wakes. The poison isn’t strong enough to kill him.”

“So, Scarlet. Why did you attack him in the first place?” Mountain asked.

“I thought I was in danger when I saw him and therefore saw him as a threat to my own survival. I had no idea you guys were actually searching for survivors, like I had been doing.” Scarlet explained. “Now, can you untie me at least, I’ll understand not giving my weapons back until you can trust me, but at least untie me.”

“Not until you tell us how you got in and join us in our effort to survive.” Fluttershy said in an unusually harsh tone, unlike her normal tone, she actually sounded rather angry about Mist’s current condition.

“I snuck in last night while you all were asleep, I was actually hunting the pony that tried to kill Rainbow Dash, but he’s not here.” Scarlet replied. “The only way I will join you is if you can help me find the pony that tried to kill Dash.”

Fluttershy looked at Scarlet with doubt but pushed it aside and untied the pegasus. "I'm trusting you only enough to let you roam about, but you will be responsible for caring for Mist until he's fully recovered, you'll not be receiving your weapons until he is able to move about again unhindered and flawlessly."

"Fine… but if any of you go behind my back and pull anything against me… I will kill you." Scarlet replied.

“Same with you.” Fluttershy responded.

"So, Scarlet. Have any clues as to who we're looking for?" Crescent asked.

“Not really. It is a stallion we are looking for however.”

"Any other details?"

“Not really…”

“Hey! Mind untying me here?” Mountain asked, who hadn’t been untied yet.

"Sure thing, just don't get all hoppy on us." Applejack said as she untied the stallion.

Mountain stretched. “Thank you.”

"Is he gonna be okay for sure?" Applejack asked, gesturing to Mist.

“He’ll be fine… sooner or later.”

"How long will he be unconscious and how long will he be immobilized?"

"Unconscious, three days. Immobilized, four to ten days tops after awakening." Scarlet said. "But for full recovery…" the pegasus paused.

"How long for a full recovery?" Fluttershy asked.

"Three weeks… three weeks until he's back up to normal." Scarlet said, an unusual aura of remorse surrounding her.

The others looked at Scarlet like she had just grown a horn and turned into an alicorn, their expressions then became one of concern. “Three weeks, how will we be able to ensure his survival if we have no choice but to leave?” Applejack asked.

Mountain stepped forward. “I’ll carry him if it comes down to that. I owe him that much for having saved me some time ago."

Nine

Chapter nine is a fic of it's own, so if you would like, please check out 'The Fall of Equestria: Familial Ties' to continue, otherwise, have a nice day and please, please feel free to submit an oc of your own with a description of the character, what weapons they use and their special abilites.