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."