"I never really thought about it, but your feathers look pretty too. I guess I never really took the time to look at them." I compliment Maxie as we continue to walk to camp.

Earlier, Maxie said something about my hair, and how she used to do it just like that. She told me it made me look cute. So in response, I quickly thought up a kind compliment.

"Thanks! I try to make my head feathers kind of floof in the front and in the cheeks, but it takes forever and I don't have time to do it all in the morning." She explains. "If you like it, I'll do it more often." She teasingly punches my shoulder.

"Well, uh, haha... yeah. For me, I try and tuck my bangs to the right, level with my eyebrows. I mean, I don't think you've noticed but my right eye kinda seems a little... I dunno, droopy. My hairstyle kinda rests right above my eye. I go through SO much hair spray doing my hair like that though, and I can never find it when I'm out scavenging." I can't help but relax as me and Maxie walk through the woods back to camp. It feels good talking to another girl about girl stuff. I mean, Violet was nice and all but... She's gone now. I feel a lump in my throat as I think of her, which I promptly swallow. Quit thinking. Just talk.

"I haven't noticed a lazy eye at all, actually. Your hair looks awesome though. I wish I could do something like that with my feathers." She sighs, blushing profusely. I awkwardly rub my shoulder in response, my eyes falling to the floor.

"Is something wrong?" Maxie asks, stopping for me. I keep my eyes level to the floor, shaking my head.

"I'm doing better than I was last night. Can't complain." Maxie nods in response, before stopping suddenly. Her tail shoots up, lightly swaying from side to side. "What is it?" I ask, reaching for the gun.

"Sh... Let me listen." Her eyes dart around the scenery as I pull the shotgun out of its sling, and level it towards the floor.

I too, begin to cautiously observe the forest, scanning for something. I dunno what it is... But I suppose we're about to find out.

Maxie's face tenses up, and she points to a tree.

"There's something behind that tree." She whispers.

"I'll go take care of it." I mumble, raising the shotgun.

I trudge through a pile of leaves, my gun pointed to the tree.

"Come out in the open, hands up. Or claws. Or hooves... You get the point." I order. A soft fizzling sound flares up from behind it, and I instinctively jump to the left.

A dark blue puddle of what appears to be some sort of acid suddenly appears just short of a foot away from me, which sends me scrambling backward.

A shrill shriek of "attack!" rings through the forest, and a roar of voices join in support.

"Chrysie, are you okay?" Maxie runs over, worriedly looking around the forest. The trees are suddenly alive, and the leaves begin to shake as griffons hop off of branches.

A fireball slams into a tree a couple feet away from us as a horde of ponies come fumbling out of bushes.

"I'm... I'm fine. Let's get the hell out of here." I pull the shotgun close to me, and sprint in the direction of the camp.

Maxie follows loosely behind, running full speed on all fours. She pulls to my side as I sprint straight ahead.

"Chrysie, I'll fly ahead to the camp and let Dixon know that you're coming. Give me the gas so I can fill up the car while you run." She orders. Realizing I don't really have a choice, I unstrap the gas that's hanging off a rope on my hip, and pass it to her. "Be careful, Chrysie." Maxie flashes me a worried expression, before flapping her wings and taking to the sky.

I let out a grunt of effort, and push myself to run faster.

Why can't I ever get a break?

"Fire!" Someone howls behind me. I shoot a glance over my shoulder, and just barely manage to jump out of the way of an incoming fireball. "Don't kill her, you idiot! She's no use to us dead! Ugh, I have to do everything around here."

Heaving myself up out of a pile of leaves and twigs, I stumble forward only to be tackled to the floor by what feels like a griffon.

"Gotcha." The thing above me grunts. Struggling in the dirt, I yelp out for help.

"Help!" I squeak. A talon goes over my mouth as a griffon shushes me. It tugs at my hair lightly.

"Shush. We're not here to kill you, not yet anyways. Your girlfriend isn't coming back for you anyways. Just give up."

Sucking in some dirt from laying face down in it, I use the rest of my strength to roll around and sock the griffon in the face. Surprisingly, I hit him hard. He falls off in a heap, just as it's pony friends show up to help pacify me.

Shocked, they stop to check on the griffon before leaving him to come and get me. Stumbling backwards, I pull out the shotgun as quick as I can and take aim at the head of the one on the left. They both skid to a halt to turn around and run, but the one on the left isn't so lucky.

It's head pops into a scarlet red bloodfest, sending a ribbon of blood and flesh practically everywhere. It's body crumples to the floor, it's forelegs buckling before falling on it's side. Bits of flesh hang to the side of what's left of it's head. Blood everywhere.

God damn, this shotgun packs a punch. My arm feels like jelly.

"Sweet Celestia... Dawn Shimmer! We need reinforcements, now!" The pony on the right orders. It seems to have found cover from behind a tree.

Not wanting to stay for the party, I put the shotgun in its sling and zigzag through the pattern of trees.

What looks to be a campsite ahead fills me with newfound strength, and I sprint full speed for it. Sure enough, Dixon and Maxie are running around and picking things up. Everything they grab gets tossed into the back of a white Subaru.

"Pant, pant, They're... Ugh... They're coming..." I heave.

"Shit. Maxie, get in the passenger seat, that's all we can grab. Great, ah... Fuck. Chrysie, okay... Okay, shit. Chrysie, you can drive right?" Dixon asks, dumping a sloppily wrapped up sleeping bag in the trunk, then promptly shutting it.

"Ugh... no..." I pant, trying to catch my breath.

"Fuck. Alright, I need you to get on top of the car and shoot anything that tries to hop on. I was going to go in your place, but I'm the only one who can drive. I'm awfully sorry." He apologizes.

Too tired to argue, I limp over to the car and drag myself onto the roof. Maxie peeks her head out of the window, shocked.

"What? No, Chrysie. You come in the car. You drive." She appears to be looking for Dixon, obviously kind of pissed.

"He's... Ugh, He's the only one who can drive." I take a deep breath.

Maxie looks up to me, nervously chirping. She doesn't seem to see any other options.

"Right. You're right. Please be careful." She asks, looking up at me worriedly.

"I'll be fine." I nod.

Dixon runs to the car, and hops in the driver seat, starting the ignition. The car shakes to life, the engine purring nicely.

"Hold on Chrysie!" He yells up to me. "We're going cross-country!"

Looking around for something to hold onto, I latch onto a groove above me that kind of sinks into the car. Like a dent, or something.

The car's wheels try to grab at the dirt road, before finding a hold and propelling us forward. My body jumps up, nearly flying off the car.

Coming back down and my back slamming into the metal, I don't hold back on cussing.

"Son of a-" A rather large griffon jumps out of tree, aiming for the car. Swinging the shotgun out to catch it on the way down, I shoot from the hip.

The recoil from the blast makes a dent in the car roof, but on the plus side I got a clean shot on its chest. It falls onto me bleeding and screeching. Swinging the gun around my waist, I thwack the griffon with the barrel while simultaneously pulling the trigger. Going limp, the body easily folds off of the car and tumbles into the grassy forest.

"Ugh." I mumble. "I... am... so done with this bullshit."

Reaching up for the groove in the roof of the car nearly saves my life as we hit a bump in the dirt road. The car jumps, and I slide to the right of the car, legs hanging off the edge.

I can distinctly hear Maxie screech at Dixon to slow down, which gives me a momentary feeling of gratitude. Pulling myself forward, I let out a grunt of effort.

Good Lord, what's next?

Dixon slows the car to a halt, rolling down the window.

"Get in the car, quick!" He hisses.

"Don't have to tell me twice." I retort, unintentionally slipping off the car onto the floor in a heap.

"Apollyon?" Violet asks, prodding me with a claw. She seems to be bothered by something.

"What's up sis?" I respond, sifting through a satchel a Pegasus happened to have on it. It doesn't seem to have anything of too much value, just a picture of what appears to be it's family, some coins, and what appears to be a Mountain Dew: Baja Blast.

Jackpot. Something for me and Violet to drink other than creek water, I guess.

"Well... I mean... I want to talk about what happened back there. Back at the coliseum, I mean." Violet awkwardly swishes her tail to and fro. Her tail is quite large, and kicks up a ton of dirt through each sweeping motion.

"Yeah... I don't know what happened back there. It was... Weird." I stop sifting through the bag, my mind going to the sword. I just want to keep looking at it...

My hands reach for the handle, and pull it out of it's holster. It shimmers in the light brilliantly, and feels natural to hold. Comforting, almost.

Violet takes a step back from it, visibly unnerved.

"No need to show me the sword." She says, shakily taking another step back. "I've... I've already seen it before."

Confused, I lower it.

"You okay?" I ask, tilting my head.

"Y-yeah... It's just... The sword. It makes me feel... Empty, almost." She shudders. "It talks to me, kind of. Says mean things." She admits.

Appalled, I raise it to look at it again. It shines brilliantly once more, and the emblem at the base faintly glows. Violet jumps back again, visibly shaken.

The blade doesn't seem to be talking, or making any sort of sound at all.

"Are you sure Violet?" I respond, studying the emblem. It feels so familiar, looking at it... Like... Like I've seen it before...

"Yes, I'm sure. Please put it away." She begs.

"Yeah... I'll keep it in the bag from now on. At least until we figure out what's up with it. We might have something really powerful on our hands." I mumble, shaking my head. Sheathing the sword in a special compartment on the side of my newfound satchel, I go back to checking out the torched bodies of the spectators from the coliseum.

Violet watches with a somber expression, before letting out another sad sigh.

"What's wrong?" I ask, standing up and brushing off my hands.

"Can we talk about the fact that I'm a dragon now?" She bursts out. She's audibly distressed.

"Well... Yeah, sure. Let's talk about it." I yawn whilst stretching, before taking a seat on a log. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Everything. Everything, Apollyon." She admits, laying down in the dirt. "I'm literally a monster now. How am I supposed to live like this? I'm huge. I breathe fire unintentionally, like w-when I sneeze, or if I laugh... And... Well..." Her face turns red. "I constantly feel like I have to burp. I know that sounds so stupid, but it makes me feel gross. It sucks." She sadly shakes her head.

I nod along to her explanation, pulling out the Baja Blast from earlier. I try to come up with some words to console her.

"Maybe... maybe all of it isn't a bad thing, Violet. I mean, being able to breathe fire is cool. You can fly too. That's a big plus. And I mean, I don't really mind if you have to burp or whatever, we're family. I love you no matter what, even if you're not like me."

Violet nervously blushes.

"You're just making me embarrassed. I hate this." She sighs. "It's not about whether or not you still love me or not, or if you care about the fact that I'll be burping all the time. I don't care what you think. I care what I think. And I think I'm a monster." She pounds her fist on the floor, sending dust flying everywhere. "And I'm sure Chrysie would too."

"That's not true." I stand up to move to her and console her. I unscrew the cap on the bottle of the soda, and promptly hand it to her. The bottle is roughly the size of her hand, so it's rather small. I decide to just let her have it.

She doesn't argue, and drinks it all in one swig.

"Chrysie is probably one of the most understanding people I know. She'll recognize you as soon as we find her, and I guarantee she won't be complaining. You're even more badass than you were before, and that's saying something. We're tough, sis. We'll get through this, no issue." I promise.

"Agh... Urp." Sighing, she tosses the bottle over some trees, never to be seen again. "Thanks. I... I needed that." She mumbles.

"What, the Mountain Dew? I mean, it looked like you enjoyed it." I observe, raising an eyebrow.

Laughing she shakes her head.

"Yeah, sure. Totally wasn't listening to your little rant, I was too focused on drinking some shitty flavored soda." She chuckles.

In response, I simply roll my eyes.

Author's Note

Pre-Reader Acknowledgements;
N/A

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(Two rhymes spoken from Dr. Seuss's final dying breaths)