Unexplained Circumstances

14th Night

"Are you ready, James?"

"As ready as I could ever be." She smiled and tossed her hair back. "Please pass me the shotgun."

Rarity smiled back and hovered the weapon to James using her magic. It was an old-looking thing, but magically altered, it worked wonders for the young girl night after night.

"You good to go, kiddo?" Rainbow Dash called from outside Carousel Boutique, where she flew around in circles, waiting. "We've only got about two or so hours left of sunlight, so I'd hurry if I were you!"

"Coming!" James slung the weapon's strap over her shoulder and kissed Rarity's cheek goodbye. "Thanks for all the help!" She called out as she rushed out of the door and into Ponyville.

Rainbow flew down from the roof of the boutique and landed next to James. The two of them passed through town rapidly as they could go, rushing for Golden Oaks Library.

It was a short race and plenty of twists and turns later that they found themselves in front of Twilight Sparkle, the resident town librarian. Twilight and Rainbow exchanged a glance and a nod, and then the rainbow-maned pony flew off into the sky, where she dashed from cloud to cloud, gathering them together until they formed a large mass.

Meanwhile, Twilight briefed James swiftly on what she assumed might be the situation for the night, while the young gal listened halfheartedly and toyed with the shotgun strap.

"...so be careful when they swoop down and..."

'I wonder if RedBull really would give you wings here... things work differently...'

"...and don't forget to feed the..."

'Do pigs fly here? Ponies fly. Why wouldn't pigs do so too?'

"...if anyone offers you candy, you have to say..."

"Yes, Twilight." James replied, eyes centered on her thumbs.

"What? No! You say no!" Twilight placed both hooves on James' small shoulders, worry in her eyes. "Please, I know I say these things every day, but they're important!"

"I know, I know. Sorry." James said as she brushed away a strand of golden hair from her face. "It's just... weird. I don't think there's even any consistency with what happens night after night. It's just random."

Twilight sighed and walked to one of her bookshelves. "Maybe so, but it still doesn't hurt to try and be prepared." Using her magic, she levitated one of the books from the top-shelf down to James. The title read: 'A Survivor's Guide' in large, bold letters. The book was covered in scratches and the leather of it was badly torn.

"Good luck, James."

"Thanks." James took the book from Twilight's magic and tossed it inside a backpack filled with many other utensils Twilight had prepared beforehand. James looked up at Twilight, a smile forming on her mouth. "I'll try to bring back some-"

The library was empty.

James lost the smile that had formed on her face, and sighed. The sun shone brightly outside the library and the cool morning air brought freezing memories of the past, future, and present. It smelled of now, then, and tomorrow, with every whiff of oxygen making the imagination run wild.

For James, it was just another night in Equestria.

She slung the backpack on her back and checked to make sure the shotgun was at hand if she needed to use it, before moving out. The library's floor was dirty and covered in debris from the caved-in roof she walked under, and the front door was ajar, just as she'd left it the night before.

"Post-apocalyptic Equestria, here I come."

James pushed the door open the rest of the way, and stepped out unto the world. A ruined world. A post-apocalyptic world.

Ruined buildings and shattered roads were the first thing she saw, and a clear, sunny day was the second. Dust and ashes flew to and fro with the currents of air as they passed, and the odd rat or two made their way through the rubble.

James made her way through the ruined town of a Ponyville sometime in the far future. Not a soul was there to greet or even see her, so she kept walking. She walked until she stood before a large building, presumably a warehouse of sorts that had no presence in Day-Time Ponyville.

She entered the warehouse. The metal doors screeched and groaned with every push and shove she gave them, until the entrance was finally clear and open. James looked around, eyeing her surroundings.

“Hello? Anyone here?” She called out to the empty vastness of the warehouse. “I'm going to grab all the food now, okay?”

James smiled and briskly walked into the warehouse, humming a tune as she went.

Scavenging was not the most glamorous task, as Rarity might say, but it was a rather useful one, as Fluttershy might add.

'Sleazy little mare.' James thought, as she tossed canned goods into her backpack, which was already half full with other things. 'She seems like a calm enough pony, but beneath that mask lies a Bear Grills-type survivor.'

James continued to scavenge anything she could get her hands on, and did so for a few hours more until the backpack was nearing the too-heavy-to-carry stage, and she sighed contentedly.

“That's got to do it.” She said, hands on her hips. James nodded and left the warehouse with a smile.

A smile that dissipated the moment she saw what waited for her outside.

"Oi, lassy." Called the leader of the Diamond Dog clan. "We're goin' to hurt you now."

The pack cackled madly at their leaders' words, and a cacophony of chainsaws being readied filled the air.

"Oh, bugger." James dropped the backpack and pressed the butt of the shotgun to her shoulder. "Bring it, boys."

Howling and squealing, the first of the Sawer Boys rushed forth from the ranks of his pack, tongue lolling out and spitting saliva as he swung the chainsaw around. His paws kicked dust behind him like a cloud, a cloud that concealed the ten or so many others whom had begun their charge not a second later.

James flexed her fingers and took aim.

The diamond dogs pressed forth. A hundred meters, ninety meters, eighty... James licked her lips.

Aroooooooooo

Yelps filled the air and cries of pain burst from the Sawer Boys within seconds of them halving the distance between the girl and themselves. Limbs flew into the air, blood splattered on the dry earth, and the howls of battle turned to screams of butchered swines.

Bursts of magical light flew through the air, splinters grown to abnormal sizes impaled the dogs, and metal pellets tore their flesh apart and spilled intestines on the floor. Razors and boulders, shards of glass and fire, it was all fair game in the madness of magical battle.

And in the midst of it all stood a bewildered James, with her hands holding a fully loaded shotgun, and her finger still hovering over the trigger, wondering when the command would come to press it.

"What. The. Chicken nuggets." James croaked, as the dust dissipated.

Three hooded figures danced around the battlefield, still tossing curses and incantations at the battered corpses of the Sawer Boys. One second a man, the next a dragon.

'Shapeshifters!' James turned on her heels and ran. She ran as far and fast as her scrawny legs could take her.

The Shifters Clan members did not follow her, but the sounds of howling increased. Dozens of paws pounding the ground suddenly became all too apparent to James, and the Shifters would not be there to help.

James jumped over a pile of rubble, darted in and out of alleys and ruined homes, and raced to the top of a small trash hill. She was heaving and panting by the time she made it to the top.

"Oi, lassy. We-"

James fired her shotgun from the hip.

"-going to hurt me, yeah, yeah." She said as the still-twitching, decapitated corpse of the Sawer Boy fell off the side of the trash hill. "Here, doggy, doggy. Have a snack."

Trigger Happy.

Dozens of Sawer Boys rushed the hill, all losing limbs and sprouting new bellybuttons the moment they laid paws on it. James simply fired. The magically-fed weapon blasted away charge after charge of magical projectiles, all of them exploding upon leaving the barrel of the weapon and showering everything in front of James with ardent, explosive shrapnel.

The Sawer Boys laughed and roared in agony at the same time. They pressed onward despite the losses, thrilled at the prospect of sinking their fangs on the soft, pale flesh of the gal, but their numbers did not amount to the quantity needed to swarm James. Bodies piled up in pieces at the base of the hill, but the stream that fed the river of snacks for the weapon could not be maintained, and eventually died when the last Sawer Boy lost his torso in a burst of guts and innards showering the nearby surroundings.

"Holy teddy bear on a candy cross..." James gasped. Her shoulder ached badly, and her arms felt weak and trembled from the strain the shotgun had exerted on her muscles, despite its recoil having been reduced via Twilight Sparkle. "I'm too young for this."

James walked away from the scene and kicked the rotten door of an abandoned building down. The place stank of mold and rot. James covered her face with her shirt and used some broken furniture to barricade the door, albeit slowly because of her shoulder and arms.

Making certain that every window and entrance was either blocked or inaccessible from the outside, she sat down and pouted.

"I forgot my backpack..."

With a groan, James looked out of a crack on the wall. The sun was still high in the sky, but the battle still raged outside. Sawer Boys and Shifters ran around outside, battling, dying, and trampling anything that got in the way.

'There must be around a bunch of Boys out there...' James leaned against the wall and tried to not doze off as she waited for the battle to die off. 'I'll never get my backpack back...'

By the time the war had died off and the victorious Sawer Boys had run off back into the desert with the heads of the Shifters, it was already too dark to go out.

James sighed and laid back against the wall. She closed her eyes, and went to sleep.

"James? Are you alright?"

Twilight's voice resonated throughout her skull.

"James, darling? Are you awake?"

Rarity's was softer, but still rather loud.

"Good morning, sleepyhead!"

"Ah! Pinkie, why?!" The girl jumped up from her slumber and stared out at the old world. The normal world. It was early in the morning. The sun had just come out, and James was lying in Twilight's guest bed.

"Good morning, James." Said Twilight, as she levitated a tray filled with food over to the girl. "Did you get anything to eat?"

"No, actually. I'm starving." James replied with half a piece of toast sticking out of her mouth. "Thanks!"

"Don't mention it, dear."

James smiled.

"What are we going to do today?"

It was just another day.