Ditzy led the way down the side of the mountain, and if I kept my eyes to the ground, the bill of my cap kept the falling ash from my face. I was so afraid that one piece was poisonous enough to kill me, even though I knew that it was not. The rain had not picked up too much, but even through my bandanna, I could smell an intense storm on its way.

I ran into Ditzy’s butt because she had stopped, and I was just mindlessly following her boot-prints. I peered at her from under the bill of the cap, and she pointed to a small, double-wide trailer, about 100 meters away, at the base of the mountain. It was by a narrow, gravel road that winded its way west to a south-bound highway a kilometer from us. The highway was connected to the bridge over Foal’s Creek which led into the ruins of Vanhoover.

“We’ll take cover from the storm in there.” Ditzy said through the mask and the light patter of rain around us. “We’ll need to move quickly. We don’t want to soak up any of this in case it's toxic.”

I nodded, but I didn’t say anything while I looked back at the ground. I thought about the light wetness I felt on my body. Was it from the mist, or was I just sweating? I pushed the thought aside and focused on Ditzy’s boot-prints again. I listened hard for a sign that the rain was becoming heavier. Despite the weather remaining an indeterminate mist, we had begun running anyway. I figured that it couldn’t hurt because, where life and limb are concerned, it was probably best not to dawdle.

“Rarity, get the door!” Ditzy panted as we neared, and my horn was glowing at the ready as I directed my attention to the door.

The trailer was charred on the side which faced ground zero, and all of the windows were blown out. A yellow, badge shaped sign was next to the storm door of the trailer. The black letters, V.P.A., was in the center and then, along the bottom of the acronym, it read Vanhoover Park Authority.

A low, distant hiss grew louder and louder with each second. I wanted to look into the sky, but that meant exposing my face to the falling elements. It was coming from the east, and grew into a whispered scream as the storm gained momentum. I pulled open the storm door, and jiggled the door knob of the interior, aluminum door, but it would not turn.

“Is it locked?” Ditzy said while turning around and bucking the door without waiting for an answer. Her hooves punched through the screen, and slammed the front door. The strike left two boot marks and bent the aluminum down the center. It allowed me to rattle the door until the deadbolt came loose from the frame. I followed Ditzy inside, and we both immediately split up in a frantic search.

As soon as we entered, we both hit an invisible wall made of a strange, putrid smell. I attributed it to the bombing and figured that something inside the trailer had burned, but this was unlike anything I had ever sensed; it wasn't the typical smell of ash and smoke. Even though it evoked strong reactions from both of us, we were far too hungry to mind at the moment.

The trailer’s front room had a small bureau with a display cabinet on the top against the south wall. The cabinet displayed photographs of the mountainside with park rangers standing together and smiling at the camera. The lower drawers, of which I pulled out and discarded the contents on the floor, had a collection of fossils dug up from the area. I’m sure that I may have been interested in them had I not been desperately searching for something, anything that resembled food.

Ditzy pushed over the front desk and cursed loudly when she found nothing inside. The desk slammed into the floor, which rocked the entire trailer, and the vases and picture frames shattered. Behind where the desk used to be was a small counter against the wall. On top was a little oven, a coffee pot, and a tiny fridge. Ditzy opened the fridge and found two water bottles, one of them half consumed, and a Styrofoam cup filled with old coffee. She opened all the cabinets below the counter and found a foil package of chewing gum.

The package was mangled, and the three sticks inside were bent and broken. It appeared old, as if somepony had wadded it up and discarded it, but I didn’t care. Ditzy kicked off one of the work boots from her fore-leg, and then used her hoof to pull the bandanna down. She took the package in her mouth, worked out a stick for me and one for her, and then she tossed the remaining stick on the counter while pulling the gum out of the wrapper with her tongue. I pulled down my bandanna, and my gum unwrapped with my magic.

We discarded the wrappers at the same time, and then both just smiled at each other. I knew it was silly to think that it was worth anything, but then we simultaneously popped the gum in our mouths and chewed with much satisfaction. I was probably burning more calories chewing than I was gaining from it, but I continued not to care. It was a taste. I tasted something after nearly a week of tasting nothing but water and my own breath. Although counter intuitive, the artificial watermelon flavor that burst in my mouth was glorious.

"I've never been into chewing gum." I commented while closing my eyes and chewing carefully.

Ditzy giggled, "I hate gum. I never understood the point of a treat that you didn't actually eat."

I silently agreed while taking a look over the north side of the room that had a wooden table with four chairs in the east corner. The west corner was a hallway that went deeper north into the trailer, split into two offices about two meters down, and then a bathroom was at the end.

Ditzy put her hoof back in her boot, and then motioned toward the hallway, "Let's go in there."

I nodded, "Of course, darling. I'm right behind you." and then I followed her down the hall.

We briskly made our way to the rooms, and then she broke left into an office, but just as I was entering the right office, Ditzy backed out and blocked my way, causing me to run into her butt again.

“Are you doing this on purpose?” I asked with a little smile, but she didn’t answer. She simply pushed me, hard, and almost knocked me off my hooves. I was flattened against the wall as she forced her way past me, and I just watched her go. She stalked to the middle of the main room and put a hoof on the overturned desk. She stared at the floor with slow breaths and was shaking really hard.

"Darling?" I asked while I looked at the office door from the hallway even though I couldn't really see inside. I'm not sure I wanted to anyway, but I did note the marked increase of the horrible smell from when we first entered. I looked back at Ditzy, "What's in there?"

"It's a..." Ditzy started, and then she cut herself off. She tried again, but still couldn't bring herself to say the words.

"Is there..." I started, but gave pause due to the dread of the truth choking the breath from me. I cleared my throat and continued, "Is there a pony in there?"

Ditzy turned her head so I could see the left side of her face, but she had her eyes closed. Her lips quivered like she was going to be sick, and then she nodded slowly. She took a sharp breath, and then she said, "Don't go in there, Rarity."

I turned back to the offices and backed away a few steps. I felt like we were so close to finding something to ease our pain and suffering, something that would give me confidence in the hell we were experiencing, but most of all, simply something to eat. My hunger pains denied me the luxury of turning around to leave, to search another location, and to go another day without eating. I was determined to find us something.

"I'll be right back." I said as I kept my eyes on the floor. I saw blackened semi-circles, hoof prints, that were burned into the fire-retardant, industrial carpeting. The outsides of the hoof-prints had, what appeared to be, pale yellow wax dribbled on floor, but I had never seen wax burn like that. I examined a bit closer, and it appeared to be overcooked fat. The pony Ditzy had found must have been burning alive from being caught in the shock wave, and when taking cover in the trailer... I swallowed hard to try and bury my urge to vomit. I realized that I was walking on a pony's melted flesh.

I took a deep breath, and tried to clear my head as I entered the east office. There was a corner desk that took up most of the north-east corner. A small waste basket was to the left of the desk, and then a trio of file cabinets against the west wall. The middle of the room had a much smaller desk that faced to the south wall where two black, leather chairs were. I started in the center of the desk, but slowly so that I could listen for Ditzy. Should she break down, I was going to console her, but while she was just digesting the sight, I felt like I could make some progress.

The large desk had lots of cabinets, and they were all already opened as if somepony had already rooted through it. I peered into all of them, but found that they were mostly empty. I opened the file cabinets and found a lot of files which was expected, but in the top drawer of the last cabinet I opened, I found a small box of ammunition in the back. There were a lot of warnings printed on each side, and the box was labelled, “.38 Spc. FMJ” but I had no idea what that meant. I looked inside briefly to see three rows of four bullets. I took the box with my magic, and put it in my pocket. I took a last look over the room which was devoid of anything edible. I shook my head and started toward the other office.

Once again, I kept my gaze on the floor and made my way to the threshold of the west office. I shook my head at myself, closed my eyes, and brought my head back. I took a deep breath, and did my best to imagine that the room was filled with dead puppies. I wanted the sight to be much less horrific than reality, but I also suspected that reality would be woefully under estimated. My brain screamed not to open my eyes, but my stomach told me I had to. I opened my eyes slowly, and I saw an office, identical in furnishings to the east office, but with a dead, unicorn mare slumped in the corner of the back wall and the desk.

An involuntary gasp struck me, and my entire body chilled. I took a step forward, in an attempt to confidently ignore the dead and continue a search of the office, but was overcome by trembling, so I stood still. I spit out my gum, which suddenly made me feel violently ill, and I closed my eyes again, but the image of the dead mare was burned into my vision. I took a few breaths and told myself to get over it. I shook my head and squeezed my eyes tighter and tighter, but nothing worked. I couldn't seem to shake the horror.

"Oh, my gosh." I said slowly, but Ditzy didn't respond. I felt my mouth twitch due to the exertion of my over extended frown. There was such an overflow of emotion that my face hurt from holding that expression for so many seconds. I shook my head again, harder this time, and then my features relaxed. I took a slow, deep breath through my nose, and let it out slowly through my mouth. I began to open my eyes, but I needed a second cleansing breath. I wasn't going to be stopped in searching this trailer because a dead pony was in the room. I simply could not leave this building without knowing for a certifiable fact that there was no food in it. I opened my eyes and more willingly observed the intrusive deceased mare.

Her body was laid against the west wall, across from me, and her head was resting against the desk in the northwest corner. The small, center desk had been moved against the south wall so I could see that the entire right side of her body was black with flesh peeled down to the muscles. The soft tissue of her cheek had charred and exposed her teeth, and I noticed all four of her hooves were scorched and foundered from the burns. My own hooves ached in the thought of this poor pony sprinting through a world of fire. The worst part was the mare’s scary eyes. Her eyelids were almost completely burned from her face which caused her eye-balls to horrifically protrude from her skull, and there was an opaque film over her iris that dulled the vibrant shine of life. I moved slowly in the fear that she would suddenly come alive, but I searched the office anyway.

In a magnificent stroke of luck, the first cabinet I opened, the one directly next to the dead mare, had a sleeve of salted crackers. The plastic was still sealed, which guaranteed that it was free of radiation and safe to eat, although the packaging had shrunk and contorted from the heat. I took the crackers with my magic and sprinted from the room.

"Ditzy! Look!" I shouted while putting the crackers in front of her.

"Oh, my gosh! Yes!" She sat on the floor and impatiently waited for me to open them.

My magic tore open the package and removed a cracker that I intended to eat, but Ditzy immediately, and quickly, snatched it with her mouth. She fit the entire thing in her mouth and bit down while letting out a soft moan. I took two crackers from the package and crammed both of them in my mouth. The crunching between my teeth had never been more satisfying, and I didn't even mind the heavy salt drying out my tongue. We payed no attention to dividing them equally as we feasted on the crackers like beasts on a fresh kill. To my surprise, the sickness of hunger pains was completely eradicated by our tiny meal.

Ditzy slapped the package from my magic, smashing it on the floor, and looked at me, "Did it look like there was anything else in there?"

I hid my mouth while I chewed the last cracker. We may be in the middle of a fiery nuclear wasteland, but I was still a proper mare. I answered after swallowing part of what I had in my mouth, "Um... I'm not sure, darling. I'd really like some help searching though. Being in there by myself is... It's very creepy."

Ditzy nodded and then said, "I understand." She clenched her eyes closed and shook her head, "It's just that I've never seen a dead pony before, and she's so... disfigured."

A chuckle escaped my lips, and I froze in horror at myself. Was I really just laughing at the dead? How could I laugh at somepony else's death? My thought was that it would have been easier to work up to the more grotesque through more peaceful looking dead, and that I'd wished we had come across, a least a few, dead ponies that were much less mangled. The idea of wishing I'd seen more dead ponies struck me as funny for an instant, and I began to think I was losing my equinity.

"I'm sorry, darling." I apologized for my outburst. "I just... I don't know what that was."

Ditzy shrugged, "Let's just go see if we can find more to eat, okay?"

I nodded vehemently, "Let's also forget I did that."

We made our way to the room. I stopped and peered inside to make sure that the mare hadn't moved. Unsurprisingly, she remained motionless in her final rest, but I did have a horrifying thought that she'd be staring at us as if to say, Those were my crackers. I led the way inside and made my way to the desk on the left while Ditzy took the desk on the right.

The small desk only had two cabinets and a thin drawer between them. I opened the drawer and found a set of sticky notes, pens, and pencils. There was a pencil sharpener, a collection of paper clips, and another package of gum much like the one we had found earlier. I pocketed the gum, and continued onto the cabinets.

The left cabinet had a blue and grey, soft-case lunchbox. I unzipped it and found a firm green apple, a juice box, and a half eaten daisy sandwich inside. The bread appeared to be safe, but it was stale and crumbled when I moved it, even with the gentle touch of my magic. I zipped up the lunchbox, put the strap over my left shoulder, and moved to the other cabinet which had a trio of two-ring binders stacked on top of each other, but no food.

"I found a sandwich, some juice, and an apple over here." I told Ditzy.

"Good stuff here, too!" Ditzy announced and then she held up a 16-ounce, manufacturer sealed bag of Pretty in her mouth.

Pretty is a brand of mixed, processed grains and ground soybean meal enriched with pure molasses. Before today, I would never indulge myself to such a fattening treat, but I lightly danced on my hooves and celebrated its presence.

"Shall we?" I asked her while taking the package with my magic, but Ditzy didn't release it.

"We should save this." Ditzy said through the paper bag, "We don't know when we'll come across more food, and this is sealed up."

I released the Pretty and nodded, "You're absolutely right, dear. Well, would you like the apple, now?"

"Sure!" She smiled while she and I trotted from the office, and back into the main room. I was really hoping that she would decline the apple, and allow me to have it, but I surrendered it to her.

She eyed it for a moment, put the Pretty on the counter behind the front desk, and then looked at my jacket pocket, "Don't you want to cut it in two?"

Gosh, I love this mare! I thought as my magic lit up my pockets, but I only felt the water bottles. I felt my breast pockets with my hoof, and then cursed loudly.

"Did we forget the knife?" Ditzy asked.

"I believe we did, dear." I said while shaking my head, "I suppose it's alright, darling. You go ahead. I have a daisy sandwich in here for me."

"I can't imagine the bread would still be any good." Ditzy smiled while she bit into the apple that was still suspended in my magic. She continued with her mouth full, "Now, you have some."

I shrugged and did as I was told. I'm sure it was the near week-long starvation, but this was the best apple I've ever tasted in my life. I payed no mind to the succulent juices that flowed from the corner of my mouth as I took a hefty bite. With the apple half-gone, I floated it back to Ditzy. We traded a few more bites before I elected to eat the core. She and I sat in the main room and silently enjoyed our first meal together since this crazy, heart-breaking, horrendous vacation began.

Ditzy smiled to me, "Just think, we could have been hanging out all this time under more desirable circumstances."

"I know, dear." I nodded, still feeling guilty that I invited her all the way out here under the pretenses. At the same time, had I not invited her, I would have definitely perished along with the mare in the other room. It was possible that Ditzy may have been killed in the attack if it weren't for my invite. Just the thought of her dying pained me, especially now.

"I'm really glad that we're together though." Ditzy continued.

"Me, too." I smiled and dismissed the ambiguity. Was she saying that she was glad that we were in proximity to one another, or was she reflecting on our unspoken relationship status? I wasn't even sure if we were, as the fillies say, girlfriends, but I did feel like we were more than just friends. Friends don't have sex. That changes everything, but were we really together in the official capacity?

"What are you thinking about?" Ditzy asked while she watched me stare into space and question everything.

"Well, I wanted to ask about our... time... in the cellar." I said surreptitiously.

"What about it?" Ditzy smirked, knowing what I was referring to, but being coy.

"I just want to lay out what that meant to us." I explained while becoming more weary that she may not have the same feelings. She had become very important to me, and not necessarily because she had saved my life, but because I felt comfortable with her. Ditzy now knew me better than any other pony before her, due to what we'd been through, but I didn't attribute my affection to the fact that we were stuck in the same room together for 6 days. If I believed that she and I were an item because of some incidental knowledge that she gained while we were confined in the cellar, (She knows what it sounds like when I pass gas and that I talk in my sleep.) then I would feel as if our relationship was forced. That isn't to say that experience didn't accelerate things, but I don't think it was a major contributor.

Ditzy shrugged, "I was playing it by ear. I'm enjoying what we have, and I didn't want to potentially muddy it up with labels."

I sighed because that didn't help my growing fury of internal conflict.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"Nothing, Ditzy. I was just hoping to dig into it a bit because I'm just not sure what we are." I explained.

A loud crack of thunder caught my ear and I looked out the south window. The rain was really pouring outside, but only a minimal amount of the rain was making it inside the trailer.

"What were you hoping for?" Ditzy asked while standing and looking at the desk that she had pushed over.

I chuckled, "I was really hoping that you'd fill in that blank for me."

Ditzy shrugged again and said, "I'm not sure, Rarity. That sounds like something we should decide together." She pointed at the desk and looked back at me, "Can you move this desk against that window?"

The desk was alight with my magic, and it moved to stand on one end while I spoke, "I was thinking that we were more than just friends." I had more to say, but the desk was much heavier than I thought it was. Ditzy made it appear easy to push over with just her hooves, but then again, she was much stronger than I was. I let out a small grunt as I turned the desk, slid it across the floor, and covered the window with it.

"Better?" I asked with a gasp. I didn't realize that I was holding my breath.

"Yes, thankth. And I also agree that we're more than just friends, but you're trying to ask me if the sex meant something personal." Ditzy stated confidently.

I simply smiled.

"It did, Rarity." She sat down in front of me again, "I really like you, and I have for a long time. I always thought that you were out of my league."

I gave a puzzled look, "Then why did you turn me down in the hotel?" Another explosive flash of lightning made my question a lot more ominous than I intended.

"You were..." Ditzy blew air and shook her head, "Beyond wasted. You were slammed, and I didn't want our first time to be like that."

I nodded understandingly and gave a tiny shrug. I looked at her warmly, "You know that I care for you a lot, and I don't want you to think that it has anything to do with being trapped in the cellar."

Ditzy laughed out loud, "I know that, silly, or you wouldn't have been trying to get at me in the hotel."

I hadn't considered that before. I grinned at her astute observation, nodded to her, and said, "That is true, darling."

Ditzy jumped up, "Oh, I'm sorry! I was distracted by the food, but I found something."

I watched her go back into the office with the dead pony. She trotted inside with such confidence despite the enduring presence of the body, but now the smell of the heavy rain was masking most of the pony's odor. I heard a door on the desk close, and then she trotted back out with a circular, silver object hanging from the chain in her mouth.

My magic lit up, I took the chain from her teeth, and I watched the second hand tick for nearly an entire minute on the pristine, operating pocket watch. Being a wind-up style, it functioned on mechanics alone, meaning the electromagnetic pulse emitted by the blast had not fried the battery it would use. It accurately reflected 4:32 PM, and there were 15 more seconds until the minute hand would release, shift to 4:33, and remain static for 60 seconds. I was locked in awe at it's existence in my magic; it was love at first sight.

Ditzy started, "The time seems pretty important to you."

I nodded, "It is, Darling. Thank you for remembering."

"Anyway, we should get some sleep and let the storm blow over." Ditzy suggested, but I wasn't tired. I suddenly wanted to reciprocate her actions from the previous night. I wanted to jump her bones and take her around the world. The bridge of my nose slowly became a glowing pink, but I had to shake the heat from my face. If it weren't for the dead pony in the trailer, I probably wouldn't be able to help myself. The watch floated to my up-turned fore-hoof, and I released it and watched the second hand go for a minute longer. Incidentally, I also saw my hoof trembling with sexual desire, but I couldn't justify tackling Ditzy in enamor; there was a dead pony just 3 meters from us in the next room.

"Right, sleep." I started. "But first, can you help me move that body outside?"

*** *** *** *** *** ***

Breakfast. Glorious breakfast! I looked at my watch, noted that it was sharply 9 AM, and Ditzy and I were eating breakfast. Pretty wasn't a typical breakfast food, but it was certainly doing the trick after a week without a breakfast of any kind. Oh, how I love breakfast! The most important meal of the day, and certainly after the night we had, we needed to replace many, many lost calories.

The night before, Ditzy helped me guide the dead mare out the front door, and my magic floated her as far as I could until I couldn't stabilize her weight due to the distance. The dead mare plopped onto the ground head first, and then she rolled several meters down a hill. She ended up in a drainage ditch about 30 meters from the trailer. I let a few hours go by, mainly for the dead body smell to dissipate, before leaping on Ditzy into a kissing, rubbing, and grinding frenzy. There were a few tricks up my sleeves, and I think I'd found a groove with her, but ironically, I had not the magic hooves she did.

"So, darling, where should we go next?" I asked Ditzy with my mouth full and hiding my chewing with a hoof.

Ditzy looked at the ceiling as if to picture a map above us, "Well, that depends on what you want to do. I assume we want to get you home."

"That would be a desirable first step, but could we make it all the way to Ponyville with no food, and one water bottle left?" I asked while we finished up the last of the Pretty.

Ditzy shook her head and started to put her jacket back on, "Probably, but it'd be difficult."

I followed Ditzy's example and began putting my gear on as well, "So, how do we resupply?"

"If you can handle it, I was thinking we'd go through the city and gather whatever we can find." Ditzy explained while expertly tying her boots with her teeth and tongue.

"After seeing that mare, I'm pretty sure I can stomach seeing anything." I chuckled while putting my bandanna on.

Ditzy gave me a serious look, "Rarity, that was a middle-aged mare, maybe a bit older than us, but we may see much worse than that in there."

I nodded with trepidation, "I know, dear. Like ponies we've met, or foals, right?"

"That, and survivors." Ditzy said. She took the half-drunk water bottle from the mini fridge on the counter and put it in her pocket. She tossed me the full one.

"Why would survivors be worse?" I asked while putting the bottle in my pocket.

"Because we're going to leave them behind." Ditzy mumbled somberly.

Despite hoping that we would find survivors, I had not considered that we had not the resources to help them. We were barely making it on our own, and we could not sacrifice what little we had scavenged for the dying. It made sense that we would not give up a bottle of water to a thirsty pony when Ditzy and I could not survive without it, but it went against everything I believed, and the element of generosity that I represented, to allow somepony else to suffer when I can offer even a momentary solution. Although, if we ventured closer to the epicenter of the attack, any survivors that we found would be beyond helping at this point, but merely the thought of telling a dying pony, oh, well, sucks to be you, was too painful to think about. I closed my eyes and sent a silent prayer to Celestia that anypony we may find would simply be dead.

"Okay." I whispered, "Then we should be on our way then."

Ditzy agreed, and we finished fitting ourselves with our gear. She led us out of the trailer and onto the gravel path to the highway. We turned left onto the paved road, and made our way across the bridge. There were puddles all over the bridge, so we zig-zagged our way through them because we could not be sure that the stagnant water didn't host radioactive particles.

Many of the buildings before us were toppled and covered much of the ground, the street signs were reduced to shriveled, blackened stalks, and the fires on many structures continued to fiercely burn. It was disorientating to be so close to the vastness of such a raging inferno, the heat from which felt like it was boiling my blood.

We followed the highway to where the bridge had collapsed and provided a steep incline to North Furlong Street below. We trotted about two kilometers south, over rubble and scorched buildings that were small and far enough from the blast that many remained standing. I peered inside one building through a blown out window and saw a small family of four. I assumed that they were family because their charred remains were frozen in a blackened embrace against the wall furthest from the window.

There were a few ponies that had died in the street, and my empathy went into overdrive. Were these ponies unable to find shelter through the burning world around them, or did they simply collapse before they even had the chance? Trotting through the dead made me feel guilty for having survived it. Why were Ditzy and I chosen to live? Why didn't they make it out? What makes me so special that they had to be subjected to the blistering, choking fires of nuclear war, and I did not? This guilt slowed my trot, and I found myself staring at the ground while I shuffled down the ash covered street. I was paying so little attention that I nearly tripped on a foal who had rolled from his mother's hooves after she succumbed to the fire. What was worse, it appeared that his little infant hooves were trying to crawl to a safety that was nowhere near. I tried my best to shrug it off, but I simply felt so guilty that I had been treating this situation so nonchalantly. I've been joking, laughing, having sex... what is wrong with me?

"Rarity." Ditzy tapped me. "There's a grocery store down this street."

It took a lot of self control not to wipe the tears from my face with my potentially contaminated boots. I simply nodded and looked down the street for a moment. I wanted to share my thoughts with Ditzy, but found myself mute. I felt if any breath was used to speak, I'd just breakdown and cry right here.

"Let's go." Ditzy finally nudged me.

I nodded again, and then took a deep breath before we trotted east, down Stirrup Road.

A block over, there was a tiny food store that boasted it was family owned and operated. The store's base was no larger than the trailer in which we had spent the night. The front of the store had an entrance door on the east side of the building's face that was reduced to a frame and a pile of glass on the ground. The west front door was in the same condition, but EXIT was printed above it. The entire front of the store, between the doors, was a display window that would allow a passerby to see the grocer's entire stock from the street. Of course, the display had no glass remaining there either. The awning above the window extended two meters over the sidewalk, and large blue letters were erected on the edge which read Falabella Food.

As we made our way inside, I saw a thin staircase on the north wall that went east, up into the owner's home above the store. There was a wooden counter on the west side of the store, warped and damaged from the heat, that hosted a single cash register. Behind the register was a wall of liquors and tobacco products. Under the staircase, there was a row of freezers, where the glass had curiously survived, the first of which was filled with an enormous collection of melted ice-cream bars, pints, and gallons. The second was filled with Heat-N-Eat products.

"There." I pointed to the second freezer and trotted to it with Ditzy close behind me. I opened the freezer, pulled out packages with my magic, and skimmed the labels. Nearly all of them, with the exception of the ones that contained egg and/or milk ingredients, said, Safe to eat for up to two weeks at room temperature. Keep frozen to preserve taste.

Ditzy took a set of tan saddlebags from the tiny clothing section of the store in the south-east corner. I loaded her bags with freeze-dried daisies, lactose-free potatoes au gratin, and steamed vegetable medley. We got six packages each before we ran out of space. The third freezer was a collection of ice trays, bags of bulk vegetables, and the bottom shelf had different styles of cake on display. There was nothing useful to us so we left it alone.

There were three shelves running the length of the east wall. The top shelf was bagged loafs of bread and buns of all shapes, sizes, and purposes. The bagging was so badly damaged that most had holes in the plastic, or it had melted and infused with the bread. The shelf below was several brands of canned food. I found a good-sized shoulder bag and put as many cans of beans, peaches, and pears as I could into it. There were more canned foods on the bottom shelf, but they were packaged for bulk sale. It felt like a waste not to take the entire store with us, but we obviously weren't going to be able to carry all of it.

To the left of the canned food on the bottom was a row of Pretty bags, of which two were still edible. I'm not sure if I associated it with the glorious breakfast of this morning, or if the taste simply grew on me, but I traded the canned beans for the bags of Pretty. While I was doing that, Ditzy was tearing open the plastic on a bulk container of water bottles with her teeth. We discarded the bottles that we had found in the trailer, and I stuffed her pockets with four, fresh water bottles, which took quite a bit of wrestling to get them in there, and I put six water bottles on myself. I put two in each saddle pocket, and one in each breast pocket. Once we were loaded up, I helped myself to a bottle that we weren't going to take with us, and Ditzy did the same as she twisted the lid off with her tongue, and then drank with the nozzle between her teeth.

Ditzy sighed in satisfaction and spit the bottle onto the floor, "Okay, I think we'll be good for a while. It will probably take about a day to walk to Cloudsdale. That's about the halfway point from here to Ponyville; maybe a little further."

"To Cloudsdale, then." I said, and then thought about Rainbow Dash whom was staying in Cloudsdale. I was glad that Ditzy was with me because she's a pegasus; therefore, she can walk on clouds. Since I cannot, Ditzy can retrieve Rainbow Dash from Cloudsdale, let her know that I'm okay, and then the three of us can go to Ponyville together. That is, if Rainbow Dash was still there when we arrived. I mutely wished to Celestia that Rainbow Dash was in Cloudsdale and that we would find her with the other pegasus ponies.

I looked up the steps that led to the owner's home, and I wanted to go up there to see what we may find, but then again, I was also scared of what we may find.

Ditzy caught me eyeing the stairs and shook her head,"We've got what we need. Let's not get greedy." She said and then led the way out of the store. I reluctantly agreed and followed her down the street.

We had not gone back the way we came; instead, we continued east through the city outskirts. We based the intensity of the still-burning fires to the south-west as ground zero, and we were attempting to make our way around. Ditzy led us to a golf course, which appeared mostly intact, except for the scorched exteriors of the buildings and the ash covered greens, and then we turned south onto a six-lane parkway. We must be getting close to the train station, the tracks of which we planned to follow to Cloudsdale.

As we were trotting next to each other, we had not said much, but mostly just took in our surroundings. The situation was much more dire when we looked at the street level destruction and saw exactly how much was gone. Despite most of the buildings still standing where we were, I was surprised that we had not run into anypony yet. I suppose that it has been some time, and any refugees would have been long gone by now. Even still, to find nopony, in a city that was populated so heavily a week ago, was shocking.

The train station rotunda was still there, but the south-east quarter had collapsed. As we made our way inside, the stores appeared to have been looted, and while there were many dead ponies inside, it appeared to be the result of rioting rather than the explosion. Many ponies didn't appear burned, but their wounds were consistent with being stabbed or beaten to death. Just inside the front gate on our right, a support beam had fallen from the ceiling and crushed a police pony's rear legs. He appeared to have been pinned there for several days before thirst took his life.

The police pony had a device on his right fore-hoof that was much like the Drink Dealer that I'd seen in the Cantlehorn Ballroom, except the claw was much more complicated and intricate. The frame was much lighter and had a closer profile to the pony, and it also went all the way to his shoulder.

"There aren't many police departments that have those." Ditzy observed.

"What is it?" I asked while giving it a soft tug. It's like it was surgically implanted to him.

"It's a gun harness." Ditzy said, "It's mainly for Earth ponies, but right now, with all this cover on, I'm basically an Earth pony." Ditzy looped a hoof around one of the straps and pulled hard. I could swear that his leg was going to come off, she was tugging so hard.

"Are you sure that's okay?" I asked as she pulled more and more violently.

"He's dead, Rarity. I'm sure he won't mind if we borrow it." Ditzy panted. She was putting quite a lot of effort into getting it off, but making no headway.

"I don't know, darling. What do we need that for?" I asked, and then I felt his leg with my magic, found a release clip, and squeezed it. Half of the harness to detached from his center mass where it was attached to a vest.

"Do you see all these ponies?" Ditzy explained while she pulled the harness from the police officer. "We're not going to end up like them."

"I'm still not sure we need it, darling." I said while I removed the police pony's shirt and unclipped the vest. I took off Ditzy's jacket and held it in my magic while I helped Ditzy put on the vest first, and then she fitted the harness on her right hoof. She tested it a few times to make sure that we had it put on correctly before I clicked the revolver onto the rotatory cuff.

She examined the pistol and spun the cylinder slowly, "I've got four good shells."

Ditzy stood relaxed and the revolver pointed at the ground, parallel to her right leg. When she rose her leg straight, there was a strap on the vest that pulled a thin piston and activated a set of crescents that looked like a bear trap. They would extend the gun past her hoof, and line her up with the weapon's iron-sights. As she did this, there was a tiny claw on the back of the revolver that snapped back, and when she curved the ball of her hoof down, it released and emitted a loud click as it slammed into the firing pin. She flexed her leg and brought her cannon and radius to a perpendicular angle. This caused the weapon to cock itself so that when she extended her hoof, it was ready to fire again. The shoulder of the harness, along her ulna, held tiny sleeves where the wearer could store six extra bullets.

"You wouldn't have happened to come across any .357 magnum bullets, would you?" Ditzy smiled while admiring the harness.

"No. All I have are point three eight S.P.C." I said and Ditzy laughed. Really hard, too, like I was being funny.

She studied my face while her laughter slowed and then she said, "Wait... are you serious? You have thirty-eight special shells on you?"

"Yes, I found them in the trailer, but I thought you said these are the wrong ones." I said while pulling the box from the bottom of my breast pocket. I had to pull out the water bottle first, so I took a drink while I was at it.

Ditzy flicked open the box with her tongue and then said, "No, this is perfect. They can both be used on this gun."

She pressed a lever on the pistol with her left hoof which released the cylinder. She discarded the two spent shells with her mouth and replaced them with the .38 special cartridges. She carefully turned the cylinder so that she will have 4 shots with the more powerful round first.

She flexed her leg which locked the hammer back again, and she stared down the sights with her left eye closed. It was odd because her good eye closed, and then her right eye immediately obeyed her command. She turned her hoof to the left slightly and pressed the orange button just above the pistol.

"That's called the Bobbitt Button." Ditzy explained. "It de-cocks the weapon."

"Ditzy, this is a last resort kind of thing, isn't it?" I asked. She appeared to be really comfortable with it, and I was really hoping that I wasn't fueling a bloodthirsty mare's desire to kill. It was now that I realized, Ditzy and I have only been getting to know each other for a week. There was still a chance that she was crazy.

"Rarity, I don't want to hurt anypony." Ditzy said while she allowed me to put her jacket on over the harness. "But if we come across anypony that reduces our chances of survival to less than one-hundred-percent. I won't hesitate."

I winced at the thought of my new lover taking the life of another pony, but I shook it off. That won't happen. I'm not even going to worry about it. but what if it did? Stop, it won't happen. We've walked several kilometers and haven't even seen another pony.

She and I trotted across the court, and we both hopped onto the tracks. We made our way into the tunnel that read Ponyville over the top, and the sound of gravel crushing under our hooves echoed. I lit up my horn when we got about half-way through because it was so dark, but it didn't help much. The light from the end of the tunnel appeared so blinding despite the heavy overcast. Our books had warned us that crops may not fare so well from the diminished sunlight, but I was almost more worried about my tan.

For several hours, we trotted for many, many kilometers, and every now and then, we'd sit down, drink some water, and eat something. I was lucky that I had her and vice versa. She was very knowledgeable and adaptable to our ever changing surroundings which helped me survive, and I had my magic which prevented her from contaminating herself with the toxic environment. I was just so glad to be an integral part of the system because I didn't want to be the pony that weighed her down. It would make me feel horrible if she just dragged me along because she felt sorry for me... I sighed at myself, Sometimes, your "generosity" makes you a bad pony, Rarity.

Ditzy slowed down as we came to the base of a hill. She glanced at a nearby tree which appeared sickly and brown, and then she looked at a distant boulder. She turned around quickly and pointed at a tiny creek that winded down the hill to the west of us. She looked up at the sky, and then back to me.

"What is it?" I asked while checking over the landmarks she was noting. The tree was sickly because of the week without sun, and the boulder didn't appear damaged. The creek, although nearly dried up, was still trickling along the few rocks embedded there. I looked up at the sky and saw nothing but the mist of nuclear overcast that hovers at around 6,000 meters, which we knew was going to happen because we had read it in those books. So, why did she looked so surprised?

"Are we lost?" I finally asked.

"No, Rarity." Ditzy shook her head, and then looked up at the empty sky again, "This is Cloudsdale."

My wish from several hours ago came to mind, and I broke into a hard gallop to the top of the hill. I went over the crest and a sharp gasp struck me in the chest as I laid my eyes on a vast field of browning grass stippled by thousands of dead pegasus ponies.

Author's Note

A 16oz Bag of Pretty

(Yeah, that's an edited bag of Producer's Pride 12% Sweet Feed, but that's what my head is thinking of when I say "bag of Pretty".)

11/30/2016 - I agreed with user Aureane and found it strange that Ditzy would call Rarity, "Babe". I decided to take that out because I felt like it was not consistent with her characterization.