“No-no-no!”

Daniel’s yell echoed through the abandoned subway as he raced up the unpowered escalator. He didn’t hear any screaming. That was a bad sign. He had recognized the unmistakable short and bassy crack of a fragmentation mine going off. It was a danger Daniel hadn’t thought to warn Twilight about. It was a danger he had only recently learned to appreciate himself in Minefield.

Twilight couldn’t be dead. She just couldn’t. Not after their argument. He had to mend fences with her.

Reaching the concrete balcony over the metro platform, Daniel sharply turned and bound down the corridor. At the end was the scissor gate that marked the exit of the metro. There he saw Twilight. She was… fine?

Slowing his frantic run, Daniel took a few breaths as he approached. Twilight had her back to him as she leaned against the wall with her right shoulder. Her right leg was slightly raised to keep her hoof off the ground, and she was hissing in pain.

So, she wasn’t okay. Hurt and alive was unbelievably better than the shredded chunks he had feared he would find.

“Twilight?” he called out.

His heart still thundered in his chest, but it was calming. Seeing Twilight was still upright was a balm to his frayed nerves.

“D-Daniel,” Twilight groaned in pain. She rolled against the wall so her back was against it. As she faced Daniel, his heart skipped a beat and the thunder of panic resumed.

“Fuck!” Daniel cursed. She wasn’t as fine as he had thought. He was by her in moments to access her condition.

A dozen bleeding holes were opened up on Twilight’s torso, arms, and legs. Even having helped his father in the doctor's office of the vault, the sight of the three inches of metal poking out of Twilight’s right knee made Daniel blanch.

Taking a deep breath to steel himself for another look at her, Daniel noticed her whole body trembled. She was holding her left wrist with her right hand, squeezing hard as she stared at something. It was her left pinky dangling by a tattered string of furred flesh.

“Help me,” Twilight whimpered. She was going pale under her fur already. Shock was setting in. Her breathing rate rapidly increased until Twilight was shallowly panting.

There were two things Daniel knew he could do right away. Reaching into one of his many pouches on his armored vault suit, Daniel extracted a syringe of med-X. It was a potent painkiller. He plunged the needle into her right thigh. Twilight’s full-body shaking and sharp breaths slowed a few seconds after.

Tossing the spent needle away, Daniel pulled out a stimpak and plunged the second syringe into Twilight’s thigh.

Daniel had never seen someone else use a stimpak this close to him outside of a firefight. With grisly curiosity he watched as most of the wounds expelled the fragments of metal buried into her flesh before slowly closing. All of them except the one lodged in her knee. That was a bad sign.

Twilight’s breathing had slowed enough for her to speak.

“W-what about my finger? Can stimpaks heal those?”

Daniel shook his head as he pulled out a roll of gauze. The stump that remained of her pinky scabbed over as it closed.

“Stimpaks don’t reattach severed limbs unless you stitch them back on first.” Daniel said. He withdrew his combat knife and cut the tattered strand of skin keeping the finger on. He rolled the severed finger up with some of the gauze before putting it in one of his pockets. The rest of the roll went to wrapping her leg.

“We need to get to the radio station,” Daniel said quickly. “We might be able to reattach it if they have supplies.”

“Why didn’t it fix my knee?” Twilight asked with a whimper. The white cloth being coiled around her leg was already soaking through.

“Same as the finger,” Daniel replied, forcing himself to remain calm and clinical. Like he was talking to a patient back in Vault 101 with his dad. “Stimpaks are amazing, but some injuries are too much for them. I think the shrapnel might have snagged bone.”

Twilight’s stomach nearly flipped at the mental image of what was going on inside the wound. Her head felt light and she tilted forward, nearly hitting the ground before Daniel caught her.

“Whoa, maybe the radio station has some heftier medical supplies than what I’m carrying. Come on,” Daniel said, throwing Twilight’s right arm over his shoulders so she could stay off her leg.

“You still want to travel with me?” Twilight asked. The feeling of faintness was subsiding.

“I’m not going to let you go out on your own with your leg like that, so I guess you’re stuck with me for a little longer.”

<>~<>~<>

Twilight’s body felt numb. It wasn’t to the point she couldn’t feel anything. It was more like there was a fog coursing through her, making everything feel as if she were flying without using her wings. It kept the pain in her right knee down to a dull throb, yet she could still feel that her jeans were soaked through with blood. The warm and sticky sensation spread as the crimson ran down the inside of her pants. It soaked into her fur like a sponge. And like a sponge, once the fur was full, the blood ran until it found any dry spot it could.

Every errant move of her right leg aggravated the wound the stimpak had closed, staining the gauze red as it unsealed the hole in her leg. The jagged diamond of metal had punched through her knee as effortlessly as her horn through the skin of a tomato.

If she hadn't flown back at the last second…

Twilight forced the intrusive thought out of her mind as Daniel supported her meager weight. She was glad for the assistance. With how numb she felt, Twilight doubted she would be able to coordinate her wings together to fly. With her right arm over Daniel’s shoulders so she could keep her right leg bent, they hobbled their way past the bodies and through the scissor gate.

Warm afternoon sun beamed down at them both through an arched awning over the metro station. Every pane of glass the awning had once held had long since shattered. The remains covered the landing and concrete steps up to the surface in a layer of prismatic shards that gleamed in the sun.

The shards crunched under Daniel’s boots and Twilight’s hoof as the pair ascended the stairs step by step.

Four decorative yet rusting metal pillars greeted Twilight’s eyes. The metro resided in a courtyard flanked on three sides by buildings. The pillars dominated the center of the courtyard and were arranged evenly from one another into a square. Together, they held a horizontal metal hoop with almost spike-like decorations overhead. Metal poles similar to the spokes of a wagon wheel ran from the hoop to an aged brass globe in the center.

Past the rusting art piece was more destruction. Leading away from the pillars were two rows of burned and shriveled trees which led to a road. Beyond it were buildings three or more stories high. They stood half-crumbling in on themselves. Through a gap in the buildings past the road, Twilight could see an immense obelisk dominating the skyline. However between the obelisk and the metro was a three story building with bold letters proclaiming ‘GNR’. A slightly bent metal tower topped the building. It was a radio tower. They were so close. It only looked like it was a block away.

“It’s just ahead, looks like we might have a straight path,” Twilight said. She wrinkled her face and shook her head in an attempt to ward off the fog and refocus on the task at hand. It only succeeded in making her dizzy.

“Ugh,” Twilight bleched, “I know I should be grateful for the pain medicine, but it's really hard to think.”

“I’m glad you dislike it,” Daniel said as they limped underneath the giant brass globe. “Med-X is dangerously addictive because it makes you so numb. It makes it easy to forget the world and reach for it for every minor ache and pain.”

Becoming dependent was a grim thought Twilight didn’t want to entertain. Filing the dangers of Med-X away for later, Twilight looked ahead and her heart fell. The path she had thought was open was actually blocked by a building’s worth of rubble and debris past a large ruined foundation. Whatever the building had once been was now erased on an irrevocable level. All that was left of the building that wasn’t a heap blocking the street were a few chunks of floor over a basement largely exposed to the sky and part of a freestanding wall.

Twilight had seen ruins before, even back in Equestria. But at least those had been mostly recognizable as buildings. Here, inside this city, was destruction on a truly apocalyptic level. But to actually see the word brought to life was chilling. It was like looking at the result of every major disaster Twilight had read about or had been a part of combined into one bleak palette. What made it worse was that according to Daniel, scenes like this had been spread to every city as the closing chapter to a war now over two centuries ago.

“There has to be a way around,” Daniel said, snapping Twilight out of her depressing thoughts. As they approached the road he added, “Tell me if you spot anything.”

Twilight scanned her gaze over the rubble. Even as she spotted the winged-sword and three gear marking, her reaction to it felt floaty. Like her thoughts and actions were desynchronized.

“Already see something,” Twilight said. Her hand rose seconds after she had thought to point at what had been one corner of the collapsed building now cutting off their path. The gold painted marking included an arrow directing anyone seeking the GNR station to an alley between the ruins and a still standing brick building.

“I see it,” Daniel said as they moved onto the street.

It was slow going. Twilight felt like dead weight as she held onto Daniel. She cursed herself for storming off on him… again. Once at the school, then the metro. Both times had nearly cost her her life. Now she had to hang from him like a parasite, leeching his strength to supplement her own.

Twilight growled internally at herself. The foggy soup her brain had become was making it dangerously easy for sour thoughts to take a bitter hold. Closing her eyes, she took a calming breath.

While Twilight focused on meditating away her coming panic attack, a sound on the wind shattered her focus as her ears twitched.

“Stop… can you hear that?” Twilight asked as she looked around. Once they were stopped Twilight closed her eyes again to focus on listening. She didn’t have to wait long before the sound played out again. A staccato of sharp cracks echoing off the valleys of concrete and steel.

“Gunfire,” Daniel said grimly. “I’m no expert but it sounds close.”

The sound of Daniel drawing his gun caused Twilight to open her eyes once more. She looked down to see Daniel was holding the pistol by the barrel so the grip hovered close to Twilight’s left hand.

“You want me to take your gun?” Twilight asked, staring down at the diamond-patterned black grip

“I do,” Daniel said, nodding his head slowly. “Neither of us have enough arms to use your rifle, and I’m not going to risk dropping you by letting one of my hands focus on anything other than holding you. I don’t know how much I could hurt you if I were to drop you on your knee.”

Daniel’s voice was firm. A doctor giving their patient explicit orders. Twilight understood and grasped the gun. The grip was uncomfortable with only three fingers and a thumb.

“FOUND YOU!” a bass-filled voice screamed, accompanied by the boom of a rifle. The air around Twilight’s ears cracked as a bullet passed close enough the shockwave tossed her hair.

Despite the fogginess Twilight reacted quickly. She ripped the pistol in the direction she had heard her attacker.

It was not one, but two attackers. Both wore scrap metal armor much like raiders, but they only shared vague similarities to the drug-crazed humans. The most obvious difference was their size. They were nearly eight hooves tall and with a broadness to match their height.

The one with the offending rifle was at the top of a small concrete porch. It grunted in frustration as it tried to cycle the next round. Thankfully, its poorly maintained weapon was jammed. As it fumbled with the bolt of its rifle, the other equally massive creature charged with a length of board spiked with nails. It held the club over its head for a downward crashing swing despite being all the way across the street from them.

Twilight felt like a rabbit being run down by a timberwolf. The green giant closed in faster than anything that big should be able to move. It was as if a small tower of yellow-green flesh was running their way.

Twilight jerked the trigger as she swung her aim towards the charging one. Recoil and poor grip let the gun fly from her crippled hand. To add insult to injury, the frantic shot missed the mutant entirely and connected with a mailbox across the street.

They were going to die. Twilight felt her body tensing for the coming blow.

The blow never came as a sudden cacophony of bangs was accompanied by a hail of bullets. The giant gave a single cry of pain before it collapsed like a sack of dropped apples onto its face. Its partner was already falling limply over the rails of the concrete porch.

Blinking, Twilight’s breath came out in shaky exhales as her heart thundered in her ears. She stared at the three armored figures who had suddenly appeared, their weapons raised. They had arrived from the direction Daniel and Twilight had intended to go. Their armor was like the set Twilight had seen in the cave weeks ago, though these sets were polished and pristine. One of them, a blond woman carrying some sort of boxy rifle, was without a helmet.

“What the hell are you doing out here? This place is- oh,” the woman had started to shout, but cut herself off to calmly ask, “You’re looking for Fluttershy?”

For Twilight, hearing Fluttershy’s name was like having a whole barrel of ice water dumped on her. Everything came into crystal-clear focus.

“Yes, have you seen her!?” Twilight almost pulled away from Daniel in her excitement. Daniel gave a grunt as he adjusted himself, keeping her supported. Twilight had to force herself to be still, remembering Daniel’s warning about staying off her right leg.

“I have,” The blond woman said, “She’s up ahead with the rest of our group. We were out on a patrol of the area when the muties hit GNR hard. We circled back to give our brothers at the station some backup. My advice is wait until the fight is over. You’re injured.” The woman nodded to Twilight's still bleeding leg. The blood was dripping off Twilight’s hoof.

“I’m fine,” Twilight lied. Twilight knew the only reason she wasn’t screaming in pain from the metal spearing her leg was the too-potent painkiller she was currently on. “When it comes to my friends, I could be missing all my legs and arms and wings and I’d still find a way to reach them. Lead the way, uhm-”

“Sentinel Sarah Lyons of the Lyons’ Pride. We’re from the Brotherhood of Steel,” Sarah Lyons said.

So this was the group Fluttershy had joined. The name sounded like some sort of knightly order, and the Sentinel in front of her had the armor to match the expectation the word ‘knight’ put into Twilight’s mind. It somewhat set Twilight at ease, knowing people dressed in a carriage’s worth of metal were helping her friend.

“Ready?” Twilight asked Daniel. No matter what state she was in, Twilight was going to see Fluttershy.

As she turned her head his way, she saw he looked just as scared as she felt. It had been easy to ignore her companion’s reactions to things with her brain all fogged from the painkiller.

Of course he was scared. They had both almost died and narrowly avoided it yet again.

“Y-yeah,” Daniel shakily replied. “You think we can bend down and pick up my gun?”

“Oh, sorry,” Twilight apologized with a sheepish grin. She had already forgotten about the gun.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” one of the armored figures with Sarah said. Twilight looked up from the gun to face him, but he spoke to Sarah instead of her. The man wore a tan cloth and metal hood instead of a helmet. “We can’t waste time with civilians. The rest of our squad needs to push now or we risk even more muties slipping behind us.”

The third figure among their group gave several impatient nods of agreement. Twilight had no idea who the person was, as they were the only one wearing a full helmet.

“I know, Vargas, but these aren’t normal civilians. Look at his suit, that’s got to be the kid from the Vault that Three Dog keeps talking about.” She pointed an outstretched hand at Daniel, then pointed at Twilight. “And of course she’s one of Fluttershy’s friends. Three Dog will want to see them both,” Sarah Lyons countered. She bent down and picked up Daniel’s pistol, offering it to Twilight. “Try and keep up. We have medical supplies at the outpost.”

“We’ll try, Sentinel,” Daniel replied.

Sentinel Lyons turned and almost everyone followed. Twilight was glad Sentinel Lyons was considerate enough to move at a slow enough pace that she and Daniel could keep up. The helmeted member of their team gave a loud sigh and rushed ahead.

“Damn it, Reddin,” Sentinel Lyons cursed. “Don’t rush ahead!”

As Reddin fell back into formation, Twilight could sense there was some friction between the two. Sentinel Lyons was the commander if Twilight’s guess was correct, so Reddin’s attitude came off as impatient. Maybe even cocky. The suits the Brotherhood of Steel soldiers were wearing made each of them stand almost as tall and broad as one of the ‘muties’. Maybe Reddin felt invincible.

Twilight didn’t know how protective their riveted suits of metal armor were. She did know that the battery powered armor held internal machinery that assisted the armor, based on the testing she and the other girls had done in the cave. Hearing the hiss and clang of several sets walking at once was awe-inspiring.

With Reddin heeled, Sarah led their impromptu group into the alley the powered armor soldiers had emerged from. One building, a tall concrete monolith, had columns supporting the jettied-out upper floors. Due to the bottom floor being narrower than the upper ones, and how close the buildings were, the alley formed a short tunnel.

Rounding the first corner in the tunnel, Twilight saw a mattress down at the end of the next section of the corridor near another ninety-degree bend. A helmetless man in one of the large suits of powered armor was laying on the mattress being tended to by a second person in a near identical suit of powered armor. Although unlike the man the second had a helmet on. The man’s helmet was off so the second person could hold a rag against the man’s throat.

The rag was soaked through with blood, and even with her foggy brain, Twilight could tell the man was too pale for a normal human complexion. Twilight wondered if the medic knew their charge was already gone.

Past the dead man and the medic, a third armored figure was crouched at the very end of the corridor. They peeked around the bend and were lucky to be wearing a helmet as something sparked off the curved dome at high speed with a sharp ‘clang’.

With identical armor and helmets, Reddin, the medic, and the one who had just blocked a rifle shot with their face without flinching looked almost identical.

Sentinel Lyons jogged ahead of the group, her powered armor hissing as the mechanisms inside sped up their movement. She came to a stop behind the third armored figure.

“What’s the situation, Colvin?” Sentinel Lyons asked the one crouched at the corner.

The third figure, Colvin, didn’t answer, remaining crouched as they leaned far past the corner and performed several slow deliberate shots. Crimson beams lashed out from the boxy rifle with a crack of superheated air. The smell of ozone was thick enough in the air it reached Twilight and the others before they had even finished getting close.

Twilight wondered if the strange rifle may have been some sort of magic projector.

Colvin stopped firing and stood to face Sarah just as Twilight and the others caught up.

“All clear, Sentinel.” A male voice came out of the helmet speakers in a quick military cadence. “Five mutants released from their torment, with the rest keeping their heads down.”

“Good. The situation behind us is resolved. Only two were smart enough to flank us,” Sentinel Lyons reported. “We’ve dusted them and picked up some strays on the way.”

The figure crouched by the man on the mattress gave a heavy sigh. Their shoulders slumped and hands fell away from the bloody rag as they too stood up and faced Sentinel Lyons.

Twilight’s jaw nearly unhinged in shock as Fluttershy’s voice came through the speaker of the helmet.

“Initiate Jennings is… gone.” Fluttershy said after a moment of hesitation. The soul crushing despair in Fluttershy’s voice sent Twilight’s heart aching. It was as if someone had twisted a knife up through her guts and under the ribs. Fluttershy continued the report, “One of the greenies got lucky and found a gap. I stopped the bleeding as best as I could, but he faded before the stimpack closed the wound enough to save him.”

“Fluttershy?” Twilight asked. She couldn’t believe Fluttershy was under all of that metal. Something about seeing Fluttershy in the middle of a warzone felt wrong on an almost indescribably fundamental level. Fluttershy was no soldier. Yet here she was. It made some small sense at least that she was a medic.

“Twilight!?” Flutterhsy squeaked in an alarmed shout. “Oh no! It’s not safe here and you’re hurt already. We’ll get you to the station soon.”

Twilight’s confusion turned into bewilderment as Fluttershy sharply turned and willingly snatched up a rifle that had been leaning against the wall near the dead man. It was a type Twilight hadn’t seen before. It had a telescope mounted to the frame running parallel over the barrel.

As far as reunions went, Twilight had hoped for far better circumstances.

“Alright,” Sentinel Lyons called out. “With the mutants off our tail, it’s the usual drill. It’s just one more building until we reach the station. Reddin, you’re with Vargas. Fluttershy, I trust you’ll protect the civilians.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Fluttershy cried out. She yanked the slide back on the rifle to chamber a round in a quick movement that spoke of having familiarity with the weapon. “Now let’s show the big greenies that we’re the biggest meanies of the wasteland.”

“That’s the spirit!” Colvin cheered. “Come on, everyone, let’s give the muties hell!”

Sentinel Lyons, Reddin, Vargas, and Colvin all rounded the last corner of the tunnel Colvin had previously been firing down. Fluttershy was left standing by Twilight and Daniel.

“You joined the military?” Twilight blurted out. She was staring at Fluttershy as her mind began to swim again. The fog was rolling back through her brain as the idealized reunion with her friend shattered on meeting reality.

Fluttershy’s sigh was amplified as well as distorted by the helmet’s speaker. It made Fluttershy sound robotic and almost emotionless.

“I’ll explain later,” Fluttershy deflected. The sound of full auto rifle fire and the sharp cracks of the energy weapons warned Twilight that the ‘muties’ were no longer keeping their heads down. Fluttershy’s inclined head showed she had heard it too.

“Stay behind me,” Fluttershy quickly spoke as she approached the corner. “I mean it. Whatever happens, I’ll be your shield.”

Flutterhsy then turned the corner, stopped, and raised her scoped rifle. Daniel and Twilight had barely moved before a blast ripped out from Fluttershy’s gun. A spinning chunk of hot brass flicked Twilight in the nose.

“Ow,” Twilight hissed and rubbed her face with her arm to soothe the sting. By the time she looked to see where Fluttershy had been, her friend was already mid-way down the last section of tunnel. Daniel was half-pulling Twilight along to keep up.

Ahead the tunnel exited out onto a sidewalk. Twilight could see past the sidewalk was a road, another sidewalk, and finally a playground near an elementary school.

Twilight felt woefully under-armed and armored as the armor-clad soldiers who had gone ahead fought their way past rusting human carriages on the road and into the playground of the elementary school. Their armor pinged and sparked as the suits deflected shots coming at them from the second and third story of the elementary school building. Fluttershy lagged behind the other soldiers at a steady pace just below a jog. It was fast enough that she could keep up with her comrades, but slow enough that she could stay in front of Daniel and Twilight.

Nothing seemed to stop the progress of the heavily-armored soldiers. Three mutants charged out the double doors of the school with sledgehammers and spiked clubs. The mutants were quickly dealt with. Their deaths only served to give the soldiers an easier way into the building to continue their armored rampage through enemy ranks.

Twilight was beginning to understand why Reddin likely felt invincible and eager to rush into the fray. More than a few times, Twilight saw Fluttershy’s armor spark from deflecting a shot. It was quickly countered by Fluttershy raising her rifle again and firing.

Fluttershy wasn’t just a good shot. She was scarily accurate. Every pull of her trigger opened up two holes in the head of a mutant. One entrance, once exit. The exit was a bloody mess of pink mist and bone fragments spraying out in a cone that painted any surface behind the mutie.

Daniel and Twilight followed Fluttershy into the school. Blood and mutant bodies littered the ruined hallways. With the four other heavily armed Brotherhood of Steel soldiers having quickly outpaced them, there were no more enemies left for them to fight by the time they had caught up.

With the school cleared, it was less than a minute before Daniel and Twilight followed Fluttershy out into a large plaza in front of the massive GNR radio station. Other equally-armed and armored Brotherhood of Steel soldiers were shooting from balconies or from behind sandbag emplacements set up on the steps leading up to the front doors of the broadcast station.

The mutants in the plaza were too busy fighting the soldiers at the station to notice the elementary school firefight, and swiftly died with hot lead and ruby light striking their backsides.

“Hah! That’s right, muties, we won!” Reddin yelled, revealing she was a female, based on her voice. She broke off from their group and ran towards the body of a mutant close by two long and tall human carriages made for hauling lots of passengers in bench seats.

Reddin quickly ripped open the satchels on the mutant. She didn’t waste any time plundering the corpse for spoils.

Twilight gave a sigh of relief, seeing the fighting was done. Looking up to Fluttershy who stood nearby, Twilight watched Flutterhsy slowly pan her head from left to right like she was observing the battlefield their group had entered. Fluttershy stopped and stared at one armor clad soldier who had collapsed into a dried out fountain.

“You okay, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked as Daniel helped her hobble to Fluttershy’s side.

Before Fluttershy could give an answer, a resounding clang echoed through the plaza. Twilight’s ears splayed down as more clangs echoed out. Reddin had backed off the body and lifted her rifle towards the clangs coming from the large carriages.

“Twilight, get back inside the school,” Fluttershy ordered in a single breath.

Daniel backed away while cursing up a storm, Twilight forced to follow her support. There were more clangs and one of the carriages shifted slightly. Something big was on the other side of them, just out of view. The fur on the back of Twilight’s neck bristled.

Whatever was on the other side gave a guttural, almost draconic roar before the carriages exploded in small mushroom clouds. A large chunk of one passenger carriage slammed into Reddin. Her body was sent flying as the king of all mutants pushed through the flaming wreckage.

Twilight looked up… and up…

It had to be twenty or more hooves tall. An old boxcar door was tied to its left arm by chains, serving as a shield for the giant. Dozens of rotting severed heads hung from the ropes coiled around its massive torso. It was also armed. In its right hand it carried a length of railroad track. Welded to the end were dozens of thick chains, forming a flail the height of a small building.

The cry of one Brotherhood of Steel soldier described the creature perfectly.

“Behemoth!”

The plaza erupted into chaos as the surviving Brotherhood of Steel soldiers fired at the beast. It turned slightly and swept its weapon over the left-most balcony of the GNR station. The chains hit the soldiers who were merely pestering the creature with their bullets so hard their armor shattered like dry clay pots.

It didn’t stop at just shattering the armor. The multiple chains hit with enough force the blunt edges broke skin like extra wide knives, causing the soldiers to explode into a shower of gore.

A torso clad in crumpled metal sailed through the air while trailing a streamer of guts. The destroyed power armor hit the ground like a meteor with an almighty clang between Twilight and Fluttershy.

Twilight felt faint as the remains were no longer held in place by inertia and oozed out the cracks in the armor.

“Someone get to the fountain!” Sentinel Lyons’ voice sounded like it was being shouted underwater. A high pitch ring screamed in Twilight’s ears as her heart pumped blood faster than it had ever pumped before. Twilight hoped someone else had heard as Daniel finished backing both of them into the school.

Weakly, Twilight looked away from the torso to see if Fluttershy was okay.

Fluttershy had dropped her rifle and sprinted away. Twilight didn’t blame Fluttershy. The men on the balcony had been whipped into bloody chunks with a single swing. Running was only natural. If Twilight’s leg worked, she would be running too.

Twilight stared at Fluttershy as her friend defied all logic and stopped running away. Fluttershy had stopped at the fountain and was bent over. She was grabbing something just out of view near the dead soldier.

Moments later, Fluttershy wrenched a sled-like contraption with small gas cylinders mounted to it over her shoulder. It was already loaded with a vaguely egg-shaped metal projectile with stabilizing fins on the back. Two curved metal guide rails running the length of the device held the projectile in place near the rear of the weapon.

Time seemed to slow as Twilight watched Fluttershy carefully aim, then squeeze the trigger. The weapon let out a massive ‘shunk’ sound as a piston launched the projectile, filling the air with a shrill whistle that hauntingly overpowered the sound of combat. The screaming projectile moved slow enough that Twilight could follow its arc until it landed between the behemoth's feet.

First came the light. A retina-burning flash followed by the air-rippling shockwave. The concussive wave kicked up dust and debris. Brotherhood soldiers too close to the behemoth were knocked back, yet the behemoth fared much worse. Skin blistered, popped, then peeled away to reveal muscle, then bone as the pressure wave ripped through the air. Heat from the rising mushroom of fire charred the behemoth’s garland of severed heads, burned its stomach, and incinerated its flayed legs into dust.

Blinking the afterimage of the flash out of her eyes, Twilight stared at the dead behemoth collapsed onto the ground for several moments before her gaze drifted back to Fluttershy.

Letting out a broken laugh at the absurd sight of Fluttershy with a nuclear catapult, Twilight wondered—what had this world done to both of them?

Author's Note

So yeah, looks like I'm back to writing as a hobby. Can't wait to give you all more. Peace, love, and ponies :)