My world slowly starts to come back to me, I open my eyes to find myself back in the barn at Sweet Apple Acres. I attempt to stand back on my hooves but a tight pain goes up the left flank forcing me back down again.

“So, finally awake are we?” A mare’s voice echoes around the stable.

“Who are you… where are you?” I ask the mysterious voice.

“Now now now” the voice echoes “I’m the one who brought you, here so I’m the one who will ask all the questions”

The voice of the mare sounds in a little distress, but still sounds intimidating.

“Errm… okay then… what would you like to know?”

“I like to know more about where all these Alicorns are coming from” The voice questions me.

“The… what now?” I question, pulling a look of confusion. “…What in Equestria is an ali-”

Before I even have a chance to finish my own thoughts, I’m being lifted up into the air in a levitation field.

“PUT ME DOWN PUT ME DOWN PUT ME DOWN!” I say screaming, I hate being picked up off the ground. At least my mom understands this and drags me along the floor.

“Now now now don’t be playing games with me, I’m the wrong mare to buck with” The voice now starts to sound angry.

“But I have no idea what you are talking abo-”

*THUD*

The unicorn drops me to the floor, causing a small amount of pain in my back.

“Ow” I mutter.

The telekinetic energy envelopes my wings and extends them.

“So how do you explain these?” The unicorn questions.

I explain to the mare where I was from and how I got my wings, the barn falls silent for a minute.

“How interesting” the unicorn seems a little confused by the matter.

The voice now sounds like it was just in front of me, then the unicorn appears right in front of my nose.

Standing there is a light blue unicorn, the lower half of her face covered by a scarf and she has some strange pistol in a holster attached to her forehoof along with two sets of knives holstered in straps attached to her side. Her mane was cover by a hood

“Now that we get to see each other face to face” The mare says “I’m Kinetra, wasteland survivor and my special talent is telekinesis”

The mare pulls back her hood to reveal her black mane with a red highlight. Her cutie mark depicted two knives in a cross shape surrounded by a telekinetic field much like the one on my cutie mark.

“I’m Tessia Starbow, but you may call me Tess, resident of stable 21 and my special talent…” I pause to look back at my cutie mark; my flank is wrapped in bandages. “I… I don’t know something to do with a bow I think” I sigh.

“You don’t know?” Kinetra asks, pulling a look of confusion “But you have a cutie mark? So surely you know what your special talent is” She says, pointing at my flank

I explain the whole predicament I was in; I tell Kinetra where I was from, why I was put here and how I got my cutie mark. Kinetra genuinely seems interested about my story.

“Tell me… what was it like to live in a stable?”

“Life was great, we live in luxury and our stable had everything from a sports hall to a shooting range” I say enthusiastically, however I did just kind of lie about the life being great and all.

“So erm…now that you have heard about my life…may I ask about your story” I ask looking up at Kinetra.

Kinetra smiles then looks at the ground, she starts to tell me her story.

***

12 hours earlier...

I gaze out across the Barren wasteland, spotting the ruins of Ponyville in the distance. My scarf covers my mouth and nose as dust and sand whips up into my face.

“It's more windy than usual” I mutter to myself “And that's making it hard to see”.

Suddenly I spot it through the dust, a small glimmer. Trotting over to the glimmer I see my dagger in full detail. The blade shines a silvery hue and the handle is made of a dark wood wrapped in black leather. The tarnished steel pommel of the dagger is set with an emerald which I scavenged from an old abandoned gem mine.

Lifting it with my telekinesis, I place it with the two other daggers in their sheaths on my left flank. I glance over my right flank to make sure that my other three daggers are also still in place and my pistol in its holster. All 6 of my daggers have different scavenged gemstones in their steel pommels. There is the emerald as well as a topaz, a sapphire, an amethyst, a piece of jet and the hardest to find gem of my collection, an Opal.

Seeing that everything is in place, I continue onwards, towards the city of Ponyville where I am to search for supplies. Mostly, I'm after medical supplies because I only have a few left, however I will take food and drink, new clothing and tailoring supplies and of course, any gemstones that I can find. It's good being alone because you only have yourself to fend for, no one else to feed or clothe and no responsibilities. I don't know where my parents are, they just sort of vanished one day, by now they could be ghouls or even dead. But that's in the past now and I have to fend for myself.

I approach the city from the west side, knowing from experience that the north side is dangerous, and the south side is a long walk. However, despite my caution, I still find myself confronted with two angry looking fire ants. I open my mouth to speak, and then close it again because there really isn't much point in talking to something that doesn't understand me.

The fire ants begin to scuttle rapidly forward now, charging me. It takes barely any effort to grab my first dagger with telekinesis and send it spinning through the air, to land square between the closer fire ant's eyes, killing it instantly. The other fire ant is close now. Thinking quickly, I use some telekinesis to whip some sand into the fire ant's eyes, causing it to recoil hissing. With the few seconds I had gained, I lift up a large boulder nearby and drop it suddenly on the fire ant, which perishes under the weight. Striding forwards I draw my dagger out of the first fire ant's skull using telekinesis, cleaning it of the blood before returning it to its sheath.

“Those vermin won't be bothering anyone anymore”

I continue into Ponyville, where I proceed with caution, keeping to the shadows of the buildings around me whilst looking for somewhere I might be able to find supplies. At one point another unicorn sprints gracefully across the street before vanishing between the gap of two building's. I continue forward with my wits around me, moving ever deeper into the maze that is Ponyville.

I glance around as I come across a crossroads. Moving swiftly, I enter the building on my left, but immediately regret it as I’m confronted with a gruesome sight.

“Eeewwww” I moan in disgust, taking a step back and pulling a wiry face at the scene before me.

The festering corpses of two ponies lay on the ground before me, being slowly nibbled away at by the multitudes of insects crawling over them. I’m about to back out of the building back into the street, but my thoughts stop me.

“If every pony that has come in here has been confronted with this and they have left again, then there might still be things here to be found”

I slowly step forward, trying to give the corpses of the two ponies a wide berth as I head for the doorway on the other side of the room. Some of the flies seem to take an interest in me and start buzzing around me, but I quickly swat them off.

“Damned flies” I mutter, glaring at them as if that would make them feel fear.

I pass through the doorway into what looks like a dimly lit kitchen and immediately smack my head on a low hanging frying pan, causing stars to flicker in my vision which can’t be right during the day. With a loud hollow thump I sit down, stunned.

“LUNA DAMMIT” I yell, and then realising my stupidity, I lower my voice “What idiot of a pony leaves a pan there, they were either a dwarf or had a very thick skull”

As my vision clears up I look around. There are actually a multitude of pots and pans hanging precariously from the ceiling, as well as cupboards and worktops around the edge of the room. The room itself seems pretty small, with plain stone bricked walls and a straw covered floor.

“Well here is a good a place as any to start my search”

Standing back up I begin to look through the various cupboards around the room, putting anything I find on one of the worktops. The search takes a while and not much is found anywhere. Looking over the pile of items on the worktop, I begin to sift through them, throwing away the rubbish.

“No, no, no, no hmmmm” I speculate whilst throwing several rotting vegetables aside with telekinesis to reveal a tin of beans. “This will be something for me to eat later” I say as I move the beans into the small saddlebag I’m carrying, slung across my back.

I continue to sift through the pile with limited success, eventually only coming out with a jar of pickled carrots and a spool of thread. I wrinkle my nose in disappointment. “This could have been better”.

I turn towards the door and step back out into the first room. I glance back at the other two dead ponies before heading to the half destroyed staircase on my left. Cautiously, I began to climb the stairs, ascending into the darkness above. Upon reaching the top of the stairs, I stand still for a minute, letting my eyes adjust to the gloom. Looking down the corridor to my right I see a slightly ajar door. I push the door open cautiously with telekinesis before making my way down the corridor.

Stepping into the room using telekinesis, I move the rubble from the centre of the room across to an empty corner. Against one wall is a bed, covered in tattered blankets. Against another wall is a large dressing table, with a mirror perched on it. The wall at the far end of the room looks like it has been blown out, with the rubble from it scattered on the street below.

“What did that?” I muse as I cross the room to the dresser, looking more closely at it. I blow on it and a thick blanket of dust whips up into the air, swirling in lazy circles. The dresser itself is well made, perhaps of mahogany with an even varnish.

I quickly sift through the draws, only finding bits of costume jewellery and scraps of cloth which could be used to repair clothes and perhaps that blanket on the bed. In frustration, I slam the last draw shut, but hear a strange rattling from within the draw. Opening it again, I see that there are only bits of cloth visible.

“Hmm that’s strange.” I use my telekinesis to lift out all of the cloth and then look into the draw. Along each of the edges seems to be a weird button. I try pulling on the one at the back, and then pushing on it, but nothing happens.

“I wonder…..”. Concentrating, I push in all of the buttons at once, grinning when I hear a satisfying click. I look into the draw to see that the bottom panel had clicked out.

Lifting the panel slowly I look into the small hidden space, a musty old smell wafting out. My
eyebrows raise as I see the contents of the hidden space. There is a mixture of bits and bottle caps,
about 50 bits and 100 bottle caps but my attention is on the object in the centre of the draw. It looks
like a silver disk, with about the same diameter as an orange with what looks like many swirling
black lines. Set in the center of the object is a sphere of quartz which changes colour depending on
what angle you are looking at it.

“It’s beautiful” I murmur to myself subconsciously. The object seemed to be projecting some sort of
magical aura. I levitate all of the money into one of the pockets on my bag, before carefully
levitating the odd object up to my eye level.

“I don’t know what it does and I should keep it safe until I do”

I wrap the object in a piece of spare cloth before gently placing it in my bag next to my little gemstone collection. I turn to gaze on the rest of the almost empty room before leaving and striding towards the stairs. Still preoccupied I start walking down the stairs, however one of the stairs crumbles beneath my hoof, and I’m left sprawled on the stone floor at the bottom of the stairs.

I look over myself wincing. There doesn’t seem to be any major damage, however my front left leg hurts a bit. Standing, I dust myself off and stumble towards the doorway with the intention of leaving.

The streets of Ponyville are quiet as ever, probably a good thing since usually there would be raiders or something trying to kill or enslave me. I remember that there is a small trading depot on the edge of Ponyville and I’m getting peckish. Not being in the mood for pickled carrots, I make my way back to the edge of ponyville, keeping to the shadows.

As I enter the trading depot, the first thing that hits me is how quiet it is. Half the shops seem to be open still, with the rest closed or abandoned. I look through one murky window into one of the abandoned shops, seeing only darkness inside. A faint odour drifts towards me on the slight breeze so I turn to find the source. At first I can’t work out where it is coming from, before I notice an average plain shop on the opposite side of the road with a rather worn out sign above it with “Mama Mane’s Wheaty Wonders” scrawled almost illegibly over it.

“Well it smells and looks like food, might as well try there first”

I enter the cozy shop to see an ancient pony behind a counter pulling a batch of bread and wheat biscuits out of an oven, which looks about as old as her. The smell hits me again, stronger now. Freshly baked bread is a rare thing in the wasteland, and it’s not very often that I even see the stuff, let alone get to taste it.

The old pony now turns to me and places the bread and biscuits on the counter.

“Well hello there dearie, you look peckish. I sell the best wheat goods in this here area, so I do. Does anything catch your eye…”

I look at the freshly baked bread and biscuits, now drooling.

“How much for a loaf of bread and 3 biscuits?” I ask, already pulling out my bottle caps.

“90 caps for you dearie” She says cheerily.

Her use of the words “for you” makes me wonder if it would be different for some pony else, but I don’t really care enough to linger on the thought. I count out 90 bottle caps and push them towards her. The old pony smiles as she sweeps the bottle caps off the counter into a box beneath the counter.

“Before you go, would you like to join us for lunch dearie? We don’t get many visitors and it gets quite lonely round these here parts sometimes”

I give it some consideration before nodding. This is a good opportunity to eat some of my bread whilst it is still warm and also I will be eating inside rather than out on the street like some uncivilised peasant.

The old pony wobbles towards the door, which she locks and puts a “Closed” sign on. She then turns and makes her way towards a doorway on the left. At the doorway she turns and looks me up and down.

“You look like a strong unicorn, bring the tray of fresh bakes please dearie”

Without looking, I wrap the tray of bread and biscuits in a field of telekinesis and lift it behind me as I walk through the doorway. For somepony who is making their way in the wasteland, she seems strangely friendly; however I do wish she would stop calling me dearie.

I follow her down a dingy corridor before we enter into a little room with a table and 4 chairs in the centre. As I place the tray down on the table another little unicorn, no older than 12, gallops into the room.

“Whoa slow down there Static, we have a guest”

Static stops and looks up at me, with a bright twinkle in her eye. She is a white unicorn with an orange and yellow mane which drops down behind her like lava off the top of a volcano.

“She is adopted” The old pony says to me as she takes a seat. “A group of travelling traders found her in the wasteland, still cuddled up to the corpse of her mother. I was one of the few sympathetic to her plight in this here depot, so I took her in.”

“So was there any evidence on how her mother died?” I asked, looking at Static with sympathy.

“No” the old pony replied “All we found on her mother’s body was some food and a diary she had been keeping, but enough of this morbid talk, you must be hungry dearie”

“Yes I am” I reply, just about ready to eat everything on the tray “Also you don’t need to keep calling me dearie, my name is Kinetra”

The old pony pauses suddenly, half between hoofing Static some of the bread. She seems to have a perplexed expression on her face, as if she was contemplating my name.

“Well it’s nice to meet you Kinetra, dearie. My name is Mama Mane” She continues to hoof out the food to Static and then pushes my loaf of bread and three biscuits towards me.

I pick up my bread and nibble on it whilst I wonder what her odd behaviour at hearing my name could mean. My mind is quickly taken off the thought as I nibble into the soft part of the bread, which is still warm and light and tastes delicious.

“Wow you do know how to cook a good loaf of bread” I speculate

Mama Mane just looks at me and smiles a sweet smile but doesn't say anything.

“If I may ask, where is everypony? This trading depot seems unusually quiet”

“I don't know” Mama Mane says “It seems that everypony has just up and left all of a sudden, maybe they are leaving because of the rumour of raiders in the area recently”

“Raiders?” I ask “I've not seen any raiders in at least 5 months now”

“Well we have chosen not to leave because they are only rumours, and I'm too old to travel and little Static here is too young to go by herself and I doubt that any of the others that left would have taken care of her.”

I muse a bit longer in silence. To be hearing about raiders again is weird after such a long time, I thought that most of them had gone to the city of Manehattan, or at least that's what the rumours had been telling me...

We continue talking and nibbling for a while longer, which was enjoyable for me. Soon however we are interrupted by some shouting that seemed to be coming from somewhere in the depot not far away.

“What was that?” I worriedly ask Mama Mane

“Probably just nothing” she replies, brushing it off without another thought.

We continue eating and talking for another couple of minutes before we are interrupted again by another shout, closer now, and the sound of hooves running past just outside the front door to the shop.

“Are you sure it's nothing?” I ask glancing at the door and then back at Mama Mane

“It should be nothing dearie, probably just an argument between a couple of the ponies in this here depot”

Just as Mama Mane finishes speaking a loud explosion goes off very close to the house, making us all wince at the volume of the noise. I jump up and gallop at the door, Static close behind. I stop in the doorway and turn to Static.

“Stay here whilst I find out what's going on Static, I don't want you to get hurt.”

I look up at Mama Mane who is now on her hooves and making her way away from the table. I get only a second to think before another explosion blasts the wall inwards behind Mama Mane, throwing her across the room to hit the wall. I manage to catch the large plank hurtling towards me and Static in a telekinetic field which I then lower to the floor. I glance at Static, who seems to be confused and in a daze.

I look back at the blown in wall as a stallion raider flanked by two other mare raiders come striding into the room, taking in the scene with malice in his eyes. His gaze lands on me and Static at which point he begins to speak.

“Well well well, if it isn't the infamous mare Kinetra”

“Infamous? And what did I do to earn such a lofty title?” I retort sarcastically.

The stallion laughs for a second before replying “You must remember 3 months ago, you had an... encounter with our leader that didn't really end well for him.”

“Ha I could hardly forget that arrogant idiot, acting all high and mighty as if he was untouchable, I taught him a lesson or two. I've been meaning to ask after him, he wasn't in too good a state when I last saw him.”

“Sarcasm will not get you anywhere now Kinetra” The stallion replied with an evil smirk “Our leader was blinded in his left eye, and to this day he still longs for your death. I will take great pleasure in being the one who brings you to your knees and taking the bounty on your head.”

“Oh I'm flattered” I reply, staying sarcastic “However you will not be the one claiming the bounty on my head.”

The stallion only has a few seconds to consider my statement before a large splintered plank hits him square between the eyes. I grin as I pick up one of the mares with my telekinesis and send her flying backwards 10 meters before landing sprawling on the ground. The other mare turns and runs, seeing that staying would not be a good idea. Seeing that no one was around anymore, I rush to Mama Mane’s side. Both of her left legs were broken, twisted at weird angles and she had a short plank of wood sticking out of her side.

Mama Mane looks up at me in pain. “It seems I was wrong about them here raiders” She utters.

Static trots over with a horrified expression on her face at seeing Mama Mane’s bleeding body on the floor. Mama Mane gestures to Static to come closer. She whispers something in Static's ear and Static's expression changes to that of shock. Mama Mane smiles once and nods at Static who gallops off into the house, tears falling from her eyes.

Mama Mane now turns to me; “Now dearie, I'm not going to live long so listen closely. I want you to take Static here with you somewhere safe. Please don't fail me, she means a lot to me.” Mama Mane pauses for a second. “Also there is something else you need to know”

I hurriedly ask what and Mama Mane opens her mouth to speak, but suddenly her eyes cloud over and her head falls limp. My eyes tear up slightly, Mama Mane had been an innocent and gentle pony, and now she has been killed by the cruel and heartless raiders.

At that moment Static come charging back into the room, a small saddlebag slung over her flank. I turn to Static, knowing that we had only moments to spare.

“Static we must leave now if we are to survive this.”

Static looks back at me, crying slightly as she nods her head. “Yes we must go”. I look at the table, which oddly enough is still standing and levitate the pieces of food that are still mostly intact into my saddlebag. “This is going to have to do for now”.

Static and I charge through the house as fast as we can. Upon reaching the still locked front door, I do not slow down but speed up, bursting through the door like some demon possessed, knocking the whole door off its hinges. I look around. There are two raiders down the road which I came up when I first entered the depot and there are a score of raiders striding down the road from the opposite direction. Throwing caution to the wind, or more accurately, the door to the wind, I hurl the now useless door at the two raiders blocking our path back to Ponyville.

Both the raiders see the door coming and dive out of the way, sprawling upon the ground. This however does not save them from the knives which neatly skewer each of them in the neck. As we charge past the two now deceased raiders, I wrap each knife in a telekinetic field and yank them out, sending little streams of blood into the air, just to then fall back to the ground and splash in the dirt.

“Faster” I yell to Static as I see the raiders further up the road taking aim at us. Several bullets whiz past us before we take a sharp turn out of the trading depot. I hear Static’s voice asking rather breathlessly if we can stop now. “No” I yell back “We're not in the clear yet, those raiders will probably try to follow us at some point. We need to get as close to Ponyville as possible.”

I look up for a second seeing hills in the background, and just above them, 3 specks. I blink rapidly several times, but the specks did not disappear. I wonder for a second what those three specks could be, before I notice that they seem to be flying in formation and getting closer. There is only one thing around here that could be doing that- Alicorns!

With haste, I throw myself behind a nearby boulder and envelop Static in a telekinetic field, dragging her behind the boulder with me. “Shhhhhh” I whisper to Static, who then sits there in silence, a worried expression on her face.

A minute later, the 3 Alicorn's fly almost directly over us. They don't seem to have noticed us but are speedily making their way to the trader depot. I wait a minute for them to move away a bit more, before throwing myself and Static into a gallop towards Ponyville once again. It's not long before Ponyville moves into view in front of us.

I look back towards Static, who seems to be almost on the brink of collapsing. I slow down and then lead Static into a rocky outcrop, where she promptly collapses. I also sit down, the almost continuous gallop from the trading depot back here had left me tired too. I pull out some of the food in my saddlebag and a flask of water. I'm about to offer some to Static when she pulls her own out of her saddlebag and starts hoofing it down.

I sit back taking a minute to relax a little whilst I sip on my water and slowly eat my food whilst I wonder why I saw those Alicorns flying over. There never used to be some many of them, but now I feel like I'm running into a group nearly everyday. I stop thinking for a second to look back at Static, who is staring at me, mouth half full, with a blank expression. “You do a lot of thinking don't yer” She says, mouth still half full.

“Yes” I reply “I have a lot to think about and a lot to worry about”. Static continues to stare at me, quite unnervingly. She swallows and takes another bit of bread before speaking again. “Why do you think that the raider's attacked my home?” I sit pondering the question for a minute, before answering with one word; “Greed”. Static's expression changes to that of confusion and then thought as she wonders what I could mean whilst still chewing on the bread.

I cut across Static's train of thought.

“All raiders crave money and supplies and quite often the thrill of being able to hurt or kill someone else. Since they're incapable of acquiring money through honest methods, they choose to kill others and steal from their corpses and homes.”

Static thinks for a little bit longer before taking another bite of bread. “So how come those raiders knew you then?” she asks. I wonder if this child ever speaks with an empty mouth before replying

“I ran into their group several months ago a bit further north. They probably would have gotten off more lightly if they hadn't of chosen to ambush me, which left about 5 of them dead and their leader with a rather nasty looking rock in place of his eye. It worries me that their group has grown significantly since I last saw them. The Stallion which we ran into was one of the raiders which managed to retreat after attacking me.”

Static looks at the ground, now deeply in thought again. I take a few more sips of water and then turn to Static. “Right Static, time to go now”. She looks up at me and nods before putting her food and drink back into her saddlebag. I turn and stride back out of the rocky outcrop with Static tailing behind me as we make our way back towards Ponyville.

Before entering back into Ponyville I give Static a few instructions. “Ok Static, when we go in there, we are going to have to be stealthy because there are usually some other ponies in Ponyville somewhere. Stay close to me and keep in the shadows. If we get separated I want you to come back here and wait for me to come back to get you. If you can't find your way back here then I want you to hide somewhere close to where we split up. Don't let any other pony see you, ok”. Static looks at me nodding. “Ok Kinetra, let’s go”.

I gallop softly back into Ponyville, Static close on my tail and immediately go into the shadow of a nearby building. We move deeper into the heart of Ponyville getting closer and closer to the center by the minute. Soon we reach the building that I searched earlier and we duck inside. As Static moves through the door, she sees the two dead ponies on the floor and opens her mouth to scream.

“No Static” I say, trying to keep my voice low as I promptly put my hoof in Static's mouth. However this does not stop Static and a muffled yell escapes instead. I look around the walls of the room as the sound bounces around the room and seems to echo into the street outside. Seeing that Static had stopped making copious amounts of noise, I took my hoof out of her mouth.

“Please don't do that again” I urge. “We don't want any encounters with some other pony”.

Static nods once before dropping to the floor. Clearly she wasn't ready for a sight such as this one so I probably shouldn't have brought her here as a checkpoint however, it is one of the few building's in Ponyville that I know my way around, so I don't know where else I would go.

My ears pick up the sound of approaching hoofsteps outside and immediately I know that someone nearby must have heard Static’s yell.

“Damn” I exclaim to myself causing Static to look up at me.

“What is it Kinetra?” she asks in a whisper.

“There's someone coming” I reply “Quick, hide! “ We desperately look around the room, however, due to the lack of intact furniture, the room was bare of all hiding spaces. At that moment an earth pony entered the room, rifle raised. I galloped across the room, drawing attention away from Static so that she wouldn't be shot at. The earth pony raises her rifle to take aim at me but neither of us were expecting what happened next.

At that moment, Static jumped up and sprinted across the room, head lowered in a charge at the earth pony. I thought Static was planning on using her horn to impale the other pony, which had only just noticed Static charging. However, I was proven wrong when the earth pony hit the wall and fell to the floor, little zaps of electricity buzzing off her partially charred body. I look at Static in amazement, seeing her horn glowing a yellowish light that was fading again.

“Now I understand why you are called Static” I say ”How did you do that?”

Static turns to face me, recollecting herself. “I can zap thing with electricity by touching them with my horn.

In all honesty, I didn't know if that would work because I have never done it before”. I look back at the still slightly smoking pony's corpse. “Well I'm glad it did work or else I would have been done for” I say, looking back at Static. “We should leave now, just in case anyone else heard”.

We leave the building again, anywhere would be better than here now. Also it seems that Static seems to be taking the killing of that other pony quite lightly, I envy her on her strength at being able to do that and not have a breakdown of sorts afterwards. My thoughts are interrupted by a loud -BANG- causing me and Static to jump, almost giving both of us whiplash. There is a faint yell in the distance, followed closely by another loud -BANG-.

“Well that's worrying” I say to Static, “Should we go and look?” Static looks at me, thinking a minute before saying “Yes”. With no other words I start to make my way towards where the yell had come from. Stealthily we move through the streets, using the buildings shadows and the rubble to our advantage to stay mostly hidden.

I halt suddenly as we come to another crossroad, Static almost colliding with me. This crossroad is wide, but if we want to get to the source of the yelling sound then we are going to have to cross it and be out in the open for a few seconds. “Ok Static, you know the drill, stay right behind me and don't get distracted, we're going to quickly enter that building on the opposite side of the road” I say, gesturing at the open doorway of a building. Static nods and smiles slightly. “Ok” I say “3, 2, 1 go!”.

We begin to dash across the road, moving as quickly as our legs can carry us, I’m through the doorway within seconds and turn to see where Static is. She is about 3 meters from the doorway galloping forward, still smiling slightly. At that moment, time seems to slow down, my vision goes sharp and focused and suddenly a bullet rips into Static's side.

Her momentum carries her tumbling through the doorway to land on the ground at my hooves, a horrified expression crossing my face.

“Static?” I whisper as I crouch down, tears streaming from my eyes. Static's eyes flutter open as I look at the wound in her side.

“Kinetra?” she asks.

“Yes, Static” I reply “I'm right here with you”. I look at the wound again, she doesn't have long to live. Static smiles at me

“Don't cry Kinetra, that will make me sad” I pull a puzzled expression, which then just twists back into an expression of sadness.

“Kinetra, will you take my mother’s diary and look after it for me, perhaps you can read it, there will be things in it which you should learn”.

I nod, still crying at Static. Static's smile widens slightly “I'm glad we got to spend this time together,...”. It seems as if Static is going to say more, but at that moment, she exhales her final breath and dies in my hooves.

This is not a good place for me to be mourning her death, so I continue, carrying Static with me in a levitation field. I hear another -BANG- from outside and guess that the sniper has found some other pony to shoot at. It's not long before I find out who.

I stop in one of the houses on the edge of the street just off to the side of the road near where I thought I heard the yell come from. I slowly lower Static’s body to the floor and look back out into the road. I am surprised when an Alicorn comes running out into the road, seeming to be trying to avoid the sniper. I am even more surprised when the Alicorn gets hit by a bullet. There are so many Alicorns around here now, where did they come from? And why is this one by itself? There's only one way I can get my answers. Wrapping the Alicorn in a Levitation field, I quickly throw her through the doorway, and she lands with a thud at my hooves.

I can't stay here or I'll be killed. Wrapping both the Alicorn and Static in a levitation field, I head off through the buildings. I need to make my way back to the barn on the outskirts of the village where I suppose it will be safe.

Fortunately the sniper doesn't notice my hasty retreat and I manage to make it back to the barn without any incidents. I forcibly throw the Alicorn through the door, not really caring where she lands. I then turn and start digging Statics grave...

Author's Note

Sorry this took so long, when you end up with computer problems on one end + Internet problems on the other then divide that by exams and you end up in a barrel of problems and laughter isn't found in barrels as we already know. Trying something hopefully new here as we go into the eyes of another character. like i said I hope this is something new and i hope you like it.