Hope is dead.

Swift Blade's eyes slowly opened, the first thought that popped into his head was: ''Am I dead?''

Things started to get clearer and he could now see his surroundings. He was in a normal looking house, one just like any other in Ponyville, He could hear groaning and banging noises coming from outside as he lifted himself off the ground, a little wobbly at first, but righted himself quickly.

The windows had been boarded up, and the door had been too, helping keep out the creatures outside out for awhile longer. How had he gotten here? The last thing he remembered was fighting off a horde of pegasi, and then blackness. There was only two conclusions he could think of, either he was in hell, or somepony or something had saved him.

Hearing hoof steps coming from the hallway, Swift Blade reached for his sword, but then, feeling nothing where his weapon usually was, started to panic.

Something was coming and he was unarmed and had no place to hide. If whatever was coming meant him harm, he was finished. The hoof steps grew closer, and then the source rounded the corner. upon spotting the source, Swift Blade's eyes widened, and his jaw almost dropped, when he saw the figure as they stepped into view.

It was a beautiful white mare with a blue mane that looked like it had bolts of lightning through it. her cutie mark was a backwards double music note, he had no idea what it was really, he never had been into studying music. The most noticeable thing about her however, was the large sunglasses she wore, covering her eyes.

Slightly taken back that his savoir was this beautiful mare, he just stood there, unable to find any words.

The mare giggled and smiled at him, ''Your awake, that's good, for a while I was afraid that you were dead.''

''Where am I?'' Swift Blade asked with quick look around the house once again. Nothing he could use a weapon, not even a vase.

''We're in a house by the edge of Ponyville, after I saw you collapse in front of the horde, I jumped in and got you out of there. I barricaded the door while you were out, but they aren't just going to leave, so we're stuck in here for a while.''

Swift Blade nodded, understanding the situation. ''So um... I'm Swift Blade, who are you''

''I'm Vinyl Scratch, better known as DJ-PON3 to the public, before this all started of course...'' Vinyl lowered her head as if painful memories were running through her head.

Swift Blade slowly approached her and offered a hoof out in comfort. Vinyl glanced up and took it, a single tear ran down her face. letting go of her hoof, Swift Blade asked her, ''You want to tell me what happened, and do you have any idea why this all started or how?''

Vinyl shook her head, ''I have no idea, and I don't really want to talk about it with somepony I just met.''

Swift Blade nodded again, he could understand.

Suddenly the banging from the outside started getting louder. ''They must be getting close to breaking the windows, we have to get out of here!'' Vinyl exclaimed.

''Where's my sword?!'' Swift Blade cried out, seeing that he needed his weapon.

Vinyl pointed to the kitchen, ''In there!'' She said, slight panic in her voice.

She followed the blue stallion into the kitchen and watched as he grabbed the sheathed weapon and tied it to his back.

''Alright, is there any other way to get out of this house!'' Swift asked the Vinyl.

The mare quickly looked around, eyes scanning the room. ''No, but we could make one. We could break a window and make a break for it, but first we should grab anything of use.''

Swift Blade nodded and snatched up a knapsack from the ground and started throwing canned food and bottled water as well as a kitchen knife that was all lying about on the counter.

Not stopping, Swift thought of something and turned to the DJ with a questioning stare. She noticed his stare and shrugged, ''What, I knew I was going to have to escape this hellhole after a while, so I set all that stuff out just in case I had to make a quick escape.''

Swift Blade nodded and swung the knapsack over his back with his teeth. The bag hit his back with a clang, due to the metal cans in the pack hitting his sword.

Vinyl had already packed up her pack and was standing near a big window at the back of the house. Her horn glowed as she prepared to destroy the window with a spell, but Swift stopped her, ''Don't use up your strength just yet, save it for running'' He smiled at her, cheeks turning slightly red when he accidently looked down at her rump as she turned around.

Thankfully she didn't seem to notice. Shaking away any thoughts of the impure sort, Swift drew his sword and swung it at the window.

The glass chipped as the blade connected with the glass with a loud smack. Swift Blade brought the sword back and swung again and the glass shattered, leaving a big hole in the center. Using the blade, Swift Blade chipped the edges away so that a pony could fit through.

''Time to go!'' Vinyl suddenly shouted out.

Hearing the boards covering the windows break and the door crack was enough for Swift to jump through the window without a pause to let Vinyl through first.

Following him, Vinyl jumped through the window, but cried out in pain. She had cut herself jumping through the window. Blood flowed from the wound as she limped over to Blade, whimpering. Swift quickly searched through his pack and pulled out a roll of cloth. Ripping it with his teeth, he quickly wrapped the wound.

''You know I could have just healed that with my magic'' Vinyl groaned, a few tears streamed down her face in her pain.

''No time, we have to get out of here!'' Swift said hurriedly, gesturing to the now broken door with the undead pony's streaming through it. Turning to the gate of the back yard, the two survivors, with Vinyl being supported by Swift, made their way as quickly as possible to the gate and swung it open.

The two began making their way into the desolate wasteland that was once Ponyville, the horde not far behind.