Life

I went to see Frank and saw him unconscious with his hands tied and head cracked slightly.

"What happened?" I asked Fleetfoot.

"I thought he was gonna make a move. So, I knocked him out, right place, wrong time, I guess."

"Well, at least he isn't dead. He might have gotten a concussion or worse." I said as I saw the crack up close.

"Yeah. At least he's alive." Shining said.

I saw as he regained consciousness.

"Hello?" I heard Frank faintly ask.

"Why did you try to escape?" I asked.

"W-what?" Frank asked me.

I turned to Shining.

"You tried to escape. You must have received memory loss from Fleetfoot knocking you unconscious."

"Really? All I remember was Rainbow Dash asking me some questions." Frank said to us.

I sank that in for a minute.

"Dash was the one who said you escaped." I said.

Frank quickly shuddered.

"Now I remember! Dash asked me the questions, then pulled a gun on me. Said "This is the only way to survive" or something like that."

I let that sink in also. Dash nearly killed him for nothing but "a way".

"Let me talk to her." I said as I walked out the door.

Me and Dash met in the library.

"What is it? Shining said it was urgent."

"Stay away from him." I told her.

"What?" Dash asked.

"Stay away from Frank. We know what happened. What really happened." I said.

"What happened?" Dash asked.

"You tried to kill Frank. Let me talk to him from now on." I said.

"...Fine. Have it your way." Dash said carelessly.

Later that day, I went to check on the wall development.

"How's that wall coming?" I asked.

"Great. We've finished the East and West sides. After these panels are up, we'll be done with the North side." Mac said as he hammered the panel in.

"Any new ideas?" I asked him.

"Well, Dash thinks we should use the corpses as walls, but we shut that down immediately. Also Dexter wants to add turrets on the wall, the jury's still out on that one." Mac told me as he added the final panel on.

"We need to keep an eye on her. She almost killed Frank and she's sounding more threatening as the days go by. If anything goes south, we'll have to exile her." I said as I took what Mac just said.

"Alright, then." Mac said to me as he helped with moving the panels.

Scootaloo walked towards me.

"You heard that?" I asked her.

"Yeah. As much as I hate Frank, killing him isn't the option. Now you got Dash wanting to add corpses to the walls. What's next? Smashing Cadence's baby's head with a rock if it's stillborn?"

"Speaking of which, how's she doing?" I asked.

"She's getting there. If we need to perform a C-section, Fluttershy's delivered a few animals at the shelter more than once." Scootaloo ensured.

"It's not that I'm talking about. I mean Rainbow." I told her.

"She didn't even let me in to talk to her. I think she's planning on leaving." Scootaloo told me.

We were interrupted by Shining calling me.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's Rainbow, she's gone." Shining said.

I was shocked.

"Well, did she say anything?" I asked him.

"No. I went to check on her and she was gone, her window was open, and I found this." Shining held a peice of paper with the words

TAKE CARE OF SCOOTALOO. THIS PLACE, YOUR DREAMS OF THIS WORLD ARE A LIE!

"Wow... I never thought she'll actually leave..." I said as I read the note.

"So, now what?" Scootaloo asked me.

"We see to the city now. Keep building it up and over time, this place could be a safe-zone." I said.

"Well, we need a name if we're going in that direction." Scootaloo told me.

"We'll just call it what it is. Sanctuary." I dubbed.

"Alright. It seems pretty awesome. Sanctuary it is." Scootaloo officially announced.

We heard murmurs of agreement from Shining and the other guards.

"Well, now we need a police force. Shining," I called. "I want you to start it." I told him.

"But, why me?" Shining asked.

"Because you can. Now, I understand you have a child on the way, so we could wait on that. But for now, we start rebuilding this place." I said to the people.

I heard people cheering behind me.

"Well, it's settled then." Sunset said to me.

"Yeah. Where's Fluttershy?" I asked.

"...We didn't see her for a couple hours. Oh, no." Sunset ran for her apartment.

"What is it?" I followed her.

We ran to Fluttershy's room to hear crying-

Then glass shattering.

"Fluttershy?" I tried to open the door only to find it locked.

"Fluttershy, this isn't the way. Come on, Fluttershy. We need you, Shining needs you. Frank needs you." I called to her now using my knife to scrape the locks.

"Out of my way." Daisuke said as he picked the lock.

We rushed in to see Fluttershy covering her wrist now gushing blood.

"I'm sorry..." She said to us.

"It's okay. Come on." Sunset said taking her arm and pacing to the infirmary.

The next day, I listened to Sunset and Fluttershy talking from the other side of the door.

"Why did she try to do this? It doesn't add up." I said.

"At CHS, she lost someone. Someone who really mattered to her. His name was Discord, those two were like two peas in a pod. We found his corpse a few days after the outbreaks. It really must've gotten to 'er." Applejack said to me.

I stood there astounded.

"Well, let's hope she can move on from this. We need her right now- now more than ever." I said as I listened to the two talk.

"I understand you miss him, but you need to let go!" Sunset said to Fluttershy behind the doors.

"I tried. I can't. What do you want from me?!" Fluttershy cried.

"It's not what I want! Shining and Cadence need you for their child!" Sunset assured her.

"And if it's stillborn?" Fluttershy asked coldly.

"Well... Then we can work something out. Anything but suicide!" Sunset screamed.

We stood there thinking of what we were going to do next.

"We need Megaville's medic for this. Not a shelter volunteer." Vinyl said.

"No. We need a therapist. Someone who can get her through this. Sunset isn't enough." Daisuke said.

"Yeah. Maybe a grief counselor..." Rarity suggested.

I had an idea.

"Sunset. Let me in." I told her.

I heard the door creak open.

"What is it?" Sunset asked.

"I think I know what she needs." I told her as I came in.

"What?" Sunset asked.

"Someone who went through the same thing to talk to." I said to her.

Sunset slowly nodded and walked out the door.

"What's your excuse this time?" Fluttershy asked boldly.

"No excuses this time. About 2 years ago, my father and mother found a homeless teen in the alleys. We took her to my father's orphanage and after a few months, she opened up. Made friends with the other orphans, and became a form of a daughter to my parents. After they wanted to adopted her, she quickly accepted. Me and her became close in a matter of weeks. Then, the Dogs found out. They gathered a few of their gang members, formed a riot, and burned the orphanage to the ground. Lots of people died that day. Friends, family... Dad... I lost a lot of people in a matter of minutes. Then my mom almost lost it. Shot one of the gangsters dead and arrested the rest. It was just me, mom, and my sister ever since. Then she got a job in Scranton a few months later. Then it was mom, then Gary. Not you too, people are close with you. You have friends, family. Something I never had since that day. Don't do this. We need you."

"... Okay." Fluttershy said silently.