Freezing wind howled through the bony, hallowed trees. Cold snow swirled all around me like frozen stars twinkling in the sky. Through the thick snow, I trudged, hoping to find some shelter from the cold. The nippy wind whipped my mane, tail, and scarf all around me fiercely. The howling wind blew over my back and saddlebags and into the guitar strapped to my side, which resulted in a faint but strange sound. Ahead of me, I saw the faint outlines of a town. It would seem my luck was finally beginning to turn around. For two days, I've been trudging through the cold- just barely scraping by- looking for someplace safe to finally settle down- to call my own. I had heard on a radio broadcast one day that the zombies hated the cold, that they were slow and near inactive in the below zero temperatures. I knew it was in my best interest to make it up north and the best bet I had at surviving just a bit longer. Of course, I knew winter wouldn't last forever, but- despite the cold- it would give me ample time to find a safe place to hole up in and to completely fortify it. Maybe I could even find a place to secure as a fallback space in case of an emergency. First, though, I had to get out of this cold weather before I froze to death.

Though snow covered most of the sign I now stood before, I could make out the name of the town; Frostfall. Population: 102. Home of the Frozen Falls. I shivered hard as I trudged past the sign and into the town. Snow covered, boarded up houses lined street after street as I trudged through. Not once did I see a single infected as I made my way through town. It felt nice to not have to worry so much about infected anymore up here in the north, but- instinctively- my guard stayed as high as it could in this weather. Zombies weren't the only threat I knew I had to deal with up in the north. Other survivors would- no doubt- come up north for the same reasons as I. That would mean competition- a fight for supplies- but the early bird gets the worm. As far I knew, the news of zombies and their weakness against I had heard had been very recent, which- for me, hopefully- meant next to no ponies to compete with up here.

I blew out a steamy breath into the frigid air as I trudged past an abandoned car and into the parking lot of a small convenience store. I hoped there'd still be some food left inside and perhaps some wood to make a fire to warm myself with. With a shiver- and a few failed attempts- I pried the door open and slipped inside. I closed the door and almost immediately, I became less cold than I was before. There was still a bit of warmth left inside the convenience store but a fire was needed to thaw me out completely. I searched the store any food or drink that might've been left. All I found were a few candy bars, Planet Pies*, some small boxes of cereal, a loaf of bread, a box of hay and a case of water. I took what I could carry and continued to look around the store.

As I looked around the store, I found a lighter and some brooms and mops with wooden handles along with a roll of receipt paper. I wandered into the bathroom with the brooms and mops and break the handles off into sizeable pieces for a fire. Tearing some pieces of receipt paper off the roll and placing them in the pile of wooden handles, I used the lighter to start the fire. Within minutes, every inch of cold was melted off of my body. I stood and trotted to the bathroom window and opened it, knowing it wasn't particularly safe to light a fire with no ventilation. I returned to my place by the fire and sat down. I unstrapped my guitar off my back and strummed the strings. After briefly tuning it, I started to play 'This Little Light Of Mine'.

About halfway through the song, I heard the bell on door ding, which indicated somepony else was entering the store. As quickly as I could, I sat the guitar down and put the fire out with a bottle of water. I hid my guitar in one of the stalls of the bathroom and drew my machete from my bag. I had a pistol, but I only had half a clip left. I heard low voices coming from the front of the store. One sounded male, the other sounded female. I waited quietly behind the bathroom door all the while listening the best I could to the two strangers shuffling around the store.

"I heard something back this way," The female voice whispered, "I'm gonna check it out, make sure it's not a zombie."

"Alright, just be careful," The male voice whispered back.

Slowly and cautiously, I heard the female stranger come closer and closer to the mare's room. After what felt like an eternity, the female stranger finally entered the mare's room- unaware of me hiding behind the door. I peeked around the door to see a female dragon with emerald green and ruby tipped scales checking out the room. The webs of her wings were ruby-colored as were the spikes going from the tip of her to the end of her tail, which ended with an also ruby-colored feather-like webbing. Ivory horns spiraled from either side of her head and pointed sharply towards the back of her head.

I watched as the female dragon scouted out the bathroom stalls one by one. She opened the rightmost stall and pulled out my guitar. Her eyes lit up with excitement as she strummed the cords once.

"Score!" The female dragon exclaimed in a half-whisper, "definitely keeping this."

"Hell no, you aren't!" I exclaimed as I jumped out from behind the door "that's my guitar!"

"What the- Where'd you come from?!" The female dragon exclaimed.

"Not that it's any of your concern, but I just got here a little while ago to get out of the storm," I said sternly "and that's my guitar. I hid it so it wouldn't get damaged in case I had to fight somepony."

"Well, I'm not looking for a fight," The female dragon said as she held my guitar out to me "we're just looking for some food. We were gonna hit up a supermart but the storm got worse, so we decided to hole up here for the time being."

"I'm not looking for a fight either," I said as I took my guitar and sheathed my machete "who are you?"

"I'm Esmeralda," The female dragon said with a smile "it's nice to meet you."

Before I could introduce myself to Esmeralda, a stallion with a cream-colored coat, a solid creamy-yellow mane and tail, and dark blue eyes trotted into the room. The stallion looked at me with an expression of both shock and relief. After a moment, I understood why.

"Dosey-Doe?" I questioned.

"Yeah, it's me," The stallion answered, "is that really you, BR?"

"It is, yeah," I said with a smile "I didn't think I'd ever see you again, Double D."

"I didn't think I'd see you ever again either," Dosey- Doe said with a sad smile "not after you had gotten separated from us and we couldn't find you."

"It was hard on my own, but, I managed," I said as I hugged him "It's good to see that you're okay, but, uh, where are the others?"

"We're the only two left in our group- our old group- that I know of, at least," Dosey-Doe said sadly "if it weren't Esmeralda, I wouldn't be here."

I pulled away from our embrace and looked at Esmeralda with a grateful smile on my face.

"Thanks for taking care of Dosey-Doe," I said "he was my best friend until I got separated from him and the others. He still is, actually."

"It's been no problem at all. He's great company," Esmeralda said happily, "Dosey said your name was, uh, BR? Does BR stand for something?"

"My full name is Blue-Raspberry Surprise, but you can just call me BR for short," I said "or Raspy, Blue, Surprise or whatever other nicknames you can think of. The old group I was in with Double D, they gave me a bunch of different nicknames."

"Oh, that's a lovely name," Esmeralda said, "would you like to join our little group?"

"I'd love too," I said happily "it's better to have somepony to watch your back than wander alone."
Without warning, the ground around us began to shake violently. Oddly enough, things on shelves didn't rattle or move. The three of us stepped closer together as the world began to warp and twist, then seemingly shatter into black. A voice speaking of some warning seemed to speak in my head.

Author's Note

*My made-up version of Moon Pies because, well, Moon Pies are obviously delicious.