"Applejack? Like... The cereal brand?" Elliot asks bluntly.

She turns to stare in confusion at him for a moment, before shaking her head.

"'Never heard of 'em. But now that you mention it, I'll be checking more often." She rolls her eyes.

"Glad I could help ya." He smiles.

"You dumbass, do you really think they still have our foods here? I don't think I see any 'Jack in the Box'es around here, do you?" I joke, earning me a punch in the arm and a laugh. "If I ate a cow I'd probably get burned at the stake or something."

"Well, I don't know about fast food restaurants, doesn't look like it's a busy town. But if they do you aren't going to see me again!" We continue laughing our heads off, earning silence from the group ahead. They seemed to be more interested in our talking than in personal communication. Which was fine by me, they were just a little creepy is all.

"Soooo, do the rest of them not speak English?" Asks Elliot.

The crowd in front quickly picked up with a collection of voices I could not make out individually. The Pink one was the highest pitched, Applejack was the lowest. From what I could tell. Each of them were going on defensively about my remark.

Looking at the chaos we appear to have stirred, I catch a glimpse of the Yellow one taking cover behind the crowd. This wouldn't bother most people, there are plenty of reasons this may be the case. But with the unfortunate turn of events recently, the worst had to be assumed...

I'll have to keep an eye open for her.

The chatter died down slowly, if not surely, until all was quiet again. Forging a very awkward and unnatural silence.

"Well, I think you're all done, and I didn't catch a single word of that. But it sounds good enough to me. So, names?" I ask.

One by one they all introduced themselves. The Pink one went first, jumping around like a teenager trying to get noticed by their idol. But following at the very last was that Yellow one that was putting me on edge. She barely whispered when she spoke, Elliot and I leaned closer, but I have a feeling he didn't hear anything more than I did.

"Fluttershy, that's her name." Twilight spoke from behind us, triggering a jump out of us.

"Jesus Christ-where did you come from?" I demand.

"Who?" She turned her head.

I processed her confusion.

"Nonono, I said 'Jesus Christ'. I wasn't trying to address you-"

"Dude, I doubt they'd even know the name Santa Claus, better yet a religion they've probably never even heard of." Elliot cut me off. "Either way, I-" Elliot started.

"I don't mean to be rude, but do you two always talk so much to each other?" Came a voice from the White one, introduced as 'Rarity'.

"What was that?" I asked, looking at Elliot, matching his gaze. We were at that point of acquaintance where you can talk to somebody just by looking at them. The same way kids could look at each other from across the class room and think of the same joke. We turn back.

"Yep, pretty much. As long as I'm not currently shooting at something or one that is." I nodded.

"Is that a common occurrence that I should be worried about?" She asked, in a tone that seemed partially sarcastic, but I wasn't sure.

Elliot and I stifled a few giggles.

"Well, yeah. It's a pretty common 'occurrence'." Elliot answered.

"Wait, you're not joking?" Her face dropped slightly. "If you're trying to tease me this isn't funny." Her agitation slowly escalated.

Twilight stepped beside the unicorn, taking a crack at diplomacy.

"Maaaaybe we should talk about something else, anything else." She offered.

"Perhaps we should..." Rarity seethed.

"Twilight..." Applejack's voice came again. "Could I talk to you for a moment?" She asked.

"Hm? Sure! What do you want to talk about?" She turned around, facing Applejack fully.

"I meant in private, just for a moment?" She avoided our gazes carefully.

"Oh, uh, sure? You all can sit down, I'll be back in a moment." She began to walk to the staircase, if they whispered, they'd be safely out of earshot. Applejack tailed her without hesitation.

We all moved to the couches, Elliot and I ended up sitting secluded, since all the others took the seats farthest from us on the other couch and, for 'Fluttershy', the chair beside it.

Rainbow Dash broke the silence.

"So, you guys are soldiers?" She asked.

"Like Twilight said, let's just drop the matter." Rarity insisted.

"Don't be such a sourpuss, you don't have to listen. I think it's cool, anyways..." She turned back to us.

"No, we're janitors for the local mall, did the uniform give it away?" I joked, making Elliot laugh, and scored a grin from Dash.

Peeking to the side, I saw the heated conversation between Twilight and Applejack running, clearly they were in disagreement.

"So how do you guy-" Rainbow began, but was cut short by a loud, close, and powerful noise that stopped my heart.

Outside, no more than fifty meters away, was the explosively sudden sound of gunfire.

Author's Note

Jeez, this took a long time. I'm doing what I can, but I'm no longer certain how often this story will update. Inspiration is VERY low.