The Last Princess

Dawn and Max walked through the streets, checking every once in a while to make sure nopony was following them. They saw the occasional Fallen, but managed to avoid them. Just as Max had thought, all the markets, even the street vendors, had been cleared of everything edible. Eventually, they stopped checking, and focused their efforts on keeping an eye out for trouble.

After a good bit of walking, the novelty of coming outside into the dangerous city wore off, and Dawn found herself getting bored.

"Hey, Max," she started, eager for any sort of distraction, "where are we going, anyway?"

"Well," he began, and Dawn groaned inwardly. He was about to go off on one of his monologues, she knew it from the tone in his voice. "I think it's best if we avoid any major cities, like Las Pegasus, or Vanhoover. Ideally, I'd say we go to Appleloosa, what with the plentiful orchards and the fact that not many ponies stayed in the desert, but..."

"But that's a long way to walk." Dawn interjected, a feeble hope that her interruption would cease the explanation motivating her to speak. That hope was crushed as soon as Max nodded.

"Exactly. So, I suggest we aim for the next best thing. Ponyville."

Dawn thought for a moment. Ponyville... Ponyville...

"You mean that place where the Elements of Harmony are?!" She asked, her eyes going wide.

"No, I mean that other Ponyville just east of the Crystal Empire." Max replied sarcastically.

Dawn couldn't stop her jaw from dropping. Ponyville!

Eventually, though, the thought of going to Ponyville wasn't enough to keep Dawn entertained, and she found herself getting bored once again. She tried to think of something she could do, or something she could say, and then she realized something that she had never really thought of before.

"Hey Max, what's your story? I mean, you must have had family before all this, right? Why don't you tell me about it?"

Max was silent for awhile, and then opened his mouth, as if he was going to say something, but before he could, his ears twitched and swiveled back the way they had come, and he turned around, not responding.

"Hey, that's not fair, you should answer the que..."

"Shh!" Max hushed shortly, and Dawn hushed, and listened, too.

Clip Clop

Clip Clop

Clip Clop

It was the sound of somepony's hooves hitting the pavement of the road, and they were coming in their direction.

Max quickly ushered Dawn into a small alley, and they tried to stay as quiet as possible while they waited for the unknown pony to come their way.

Clip Clop

Clip Clop

Clip...

The pony seemed to pause mid-step, and then a scream shattered the silence of the dead city.

ClopClopClop

CLOPCLOPCLOP

The pony was galloping now, and was getting closer by the second. Finally, they saw a figure burst around a corner and take a sharp turn onto the street they had just been on. Dawn could see the pony well enough now to know it was a mare, though she had assumed as much when the feminine scream ripped through the streets. She also had a magenta coat and crimson mane and tail.

Before the surge, either one of them would have helped a pony in need without so much as a thought. Now, however, it took some serious thought to decide whether or not to help somepony. All they needed to see to know what they were going to do this time, though, was the Fallen that was chasing the stranger. Immediately, they both ran out to the street without so much as a word between them.

"Hey! Over here! This way!" were some of the things they began screaming. Max ran forward while Dawn hung back, waiting for the strange mare to reach her. The mare kept on running, and once she reached Dawn, she started running beside her.

"Hi there!" Dawn shouted.

"Um... Hey." the mare answered, clearly surprised that she was being addressed.

"Who are you?" Dawn spoke more softly this time.

"Pomegranate. And you are?"

"Dawn Haze, nice to meet you."

"Likewise, and... I'm sorry about your boyfriend."

"We're just friends!" The shout came from behind them, and both mares turned their heads to look. The orange stallion with the golden mane came galloping up behind them, and Pomegranate gaped.

"How did you get away from that thing?"

"I took a chance. Thought that he might prefer a nice apple instead of ponies."

"HE? That..." Pomegranate began, but Dawn interrupted.

"An apple? Are you saying you gave him some of our food?"

"Would you rather be chased and potentially caught by an insane, cannibalistic pony?" He retorted.

"Point."

"Wait, why'd you call it a HE? That thing's not a pony anymore!"

"Sure he is, he just fell from grace. And unless you want to meet a lot more ponies that fell from grace I suggest you KEEP RUNNING!"

"Max, what do you mean?" Dawn asked.

"Well, since our new friend here screamed, and with all the yelling we did, I'm guessing that we've attracted more of the Fallen!"

"No need to guess!" Pomegranate shouted, and the other two turned to look. Behind them, ponies were pouring through alleys onto the street that they were currently on. A select few turned back, presumably to make short work of the one distracted Fallen who had just finished eating his apple. The rest, however, set their sights on the three ponies that were currently running from them. So, snarling and biting at each other, they began to give chase.

"The bridge is coming up on the right!" Max yelled.

"How are we gonna keep them from following us?" Pomegranate questioned.

Max furrowed his brow and stuck his tongue out slightly. Dawn always called it his "thinking face". But both the bridge and the Fallen were coming up fast. Could he think fast enough?

"Dawn, how far do you think you could fly carrying me and...um..?"

"Oh, it's Pomegranate!" the magenta pony introduced once again.

"Max Suspense, pleased to make your acquaintance. Anyways, Dawn?"

"I couldn't even get off the ground carrying both of you!"

"No, I mean, assume that you were already in the air! How far could you fly? Or even just glide?"

Dawn felt the smooth asphalt of the road turn to the cold metal and toughened wood of the old train tracks that ran across the bridge. She and the others took a sharp turn so that they actually went the direction that they wanted to go, out onto the large metal structure that spanned the channel.

"I don't know, maybe fifty yards? It depends on how high we were!"

"Okay, we're going to have to jump off the bridge!" Max concluded.

"WHAT?!" both mares screamed.

"If Dawn can carry us, we won't get seriously hurt, if at all."

"But what's stopping the Fallen from following us to shore?" Dawn asked.

"We won't make it to shore!"

"Huh?"

"I'll explain once we're in the air! Now, get ready to jump! Off the left side!"

All three prepared themselves for the jump, Dawn falling behind the other two slightly to make it easier for her to catch them.

"Ready? One, two, THREE!" and all three dove off the bridge.

The Fallen were very angered by this, but many of them realized that they could simply get them when they reached the opposite shore, so they began to run across the bridge, and the rest caught on. But the pegasus wasn't strong enough. She fell into the water not five yards from the bank, taking the two earth ponies with her. The Fallen stood, and watched the water for a long moment. Finally, they all concluded that the food was lost, and some even hung their heads in disappointment. But soon, they realized that there was more food in the area. About one hundred more foods.

When they heard the first splash, Max, Dawn, and Pomegranate surfaced and swam the rest of the way to shore.

"Well done, Dawn." Max said, with some difficulty due to how long he had been holding his breath.

"Thanks, but it was your idea."

"Psh, it's easy enough to cling to a riverbed, and even easier to think of doing so." Dawn shook her head. Brilliant and still humble. Hard to find a pony like that, especially these days. Then she looked around and spotted Pomegranate. She was staring at the bridge.

"Uh, Max?" Dawn said, and gestured to the magenta mare. Max trotted over and took Pomegranate by the shoulders, turning her away as he said, "Don't look at it."

"B-but they're... They're..." Tears were running down Pomegranate's face as Max took her face in his hooves.

"Ssshhh, I know. I know. But there's nothing we can do."

"But they're tearing each other apart!"

"Yes. They do that. You kind of... get used to it after a while." Dawn interjected with a shrug, and Pomegranate stared at her, horrified.

"How can you... get used to something like that? To all the b-b-b-blood a-a-a-and... a-a-a-and..."

"We know, and it's terrible. But there's nothing we can do. We've got to keep moving."

"But, what about your food? It must be soaked!"

"Nope, we put everything in plastic bags, just in case something like this happened!" Dawn said, with enthusiasm. Max frowned at her.

"I think you mean I put my food in plastic bags. As I recall, you didn't have any food."

Dawn frowned right back. Humble, yes. Annoying, also yes. "I still put some of the stuff I brought in plastic bags!"

Ignoring her, Max said, "But we do need more food, and as much as I'd like to avoid it, we've got no option but to go south to Fillydelphia. We should be able to find more food there, unless those ponies went there, too."

"What ponies?" Pomegranate asked.

"A large group that came rolling through last night, and took all the food in Manehattan."

Pomegranate's face contorted into a mask of pure rage. "Those TRAITORS! Scum of Equestria! Thieving braggarts!"

"Huh? Do you know them?" Dawn asked. Pomegranate almost immediately put up a poker face, and stuttered for a moment, until Max interrupted.

"Of course she does. She was a member of their little troupe, until they left her here without a second thought." The fruit-colored earth pony's jaw dropped, and she just stared at Max for a moment before speaking again. "H-how did you..?"

"Know? I searched high and low in that city, trying to find anypony who might still carry their morals, and I never found one. Then suddenly, the night after a group of ponies goes through downtown looting every food store they could find, a sane pony shows up who seems to have no idea of how to survive on her own. Then, at the mention of her old crew, she bursts out cursing their hides, leading me to believe that they have done her wrong in some way, likely by leaving her behind with no food when they left."

Dawn just stood there, not allowing her jaw to drop. It wasn't THAT impressive of a deduction, he was just a LITTLE clever.

"The one thing that I want to know is, were they Bandits? Or simply travelers?"

Pomegranate said nothing for quite some time, but eventually, she sighed, and said, "We were bandits. We traveled, and if we came across a wandering pony we robbed them, and, sometimes, we..." She didn't finish. And she didn't need to. Max and Dawn knew perfectly well what some bandits were willing to do to survive. All were silent for a time, and then, slowly, Max walked towards the mare, put a hoof on her shoulder, and asked seriously, "Did you ever hurt anypony? Personally?" There was a pause, and then Pomegranate shook her head. Max lowered his hoof, and simply stated, "We're not bandits. We don't take things from other ponies. And we certainly don't kill. But you're welcome to come along, if you like."

Dawn could see Pomegranate thinking, but it only took a moment before she was nodding, some small tears of joy slipping from her eyes. Great. A new companion. That meant more food to carry, less privacy...

And somepony who might catch Max's eye that wasn't her.