When The Dead Start To Trot

“You're back already?” Charming Blade asked surprised. “Caramel broke up, didn't he?”

“Save your charm for later!” Stellar hissed back.

“I got charm coming out of my ass. What do you expect?” he grinned.

“Bon Bon is injured,” Stellar snapped back.

“Huh?” Big Mac answered.

Caramel and Stellar brought her to the nearest armchair they saw which was the one she had sat in before they went outside to train Caramel and go plundering. At least they had planned to do that.

“I'm fine, guys. I can do that myself,” she interrupted.

“No, you're not,” Charming Blade coldly said. He then gave Stellar and Caramel a quick look. “Don't they know?”

Stellar looked confused. “What are you saying?”

“That bite is her death sentence. 'Cause that's how you eventually turn.”

Stellar looked at him in disbelief, eyes wide opened.

“Bon Bon?” He turned around to her.

Bon Bon looked to the ground for about half a minute that was filled with silence. She then looked up again.

“Yeah, he's right. It is,” she confirmed.

Stellar's eyes widened even more. He had really started liking Bon Bon although he wasn't sure if he actually had fallen in love with her.

He didn't know how he should handle his emotions and feelings now. He turned away again and went outside. There he went to the nearest tree and started punching it. It hurt but it was like he didn't even realize.

He finally found somepony he more or less got close to and then she had to die that soon.

“Should I talk to him?” Caramel asked sadly, having got told the truth that abruptly and shockingly.

“No,” Bon Bon said, pushing herself up. “I'll do it.”

“Ah don't think you should do that, now,” Big Mac who knew about the the consequences of a walker bite as well told her with a voice mixed of sadness and seriousness.

“I got this,” Bon Bon responded in the same leading tone she always used again.

Stellar has stopped punching the tree and was now leaning against it. He only half noticed Bon Bon approaching him.

She then stood in front of him and thought carefully of what to say first.

“Sweetie Drops.”

Stellar looked at her with sad and cold eyes.

“That's my real name. Sweetie Drops.”

“Why did you never tell me?” Stellar asked coldly.

“Because it actually is secret,” she admitted.

That got Stellars attention but still he only waited for Sweetie Drops to further explain.

“I'm from Canterlot and princess Celestia's agent for Ponyville. I was supposed to look for other survivors and bring them to Canterlot,” Sweetie revealed her story.

Stellar stared at her surprised and confused. He at first couldn't believe it but he was sure that she wouldn't lie to him like that.

“I landed here in this area after I lost track of where this camp called 'Release’ is,” she continued. “That's how I landed here.”

“And the others?” Stellar wanted to know, sounding calmer again.

“I first found Big Mac near the train tracks. He told me his little sister would have been rescued by some team Canterlot had sent. Although I never heard from such a team.” She mumbled this last part more to herself than to Stellar.

“Where's Charming from?”

“Wait a minute,” Sweetie Drops put him off. “Then, I met Caramel. He was hiding in a house somewhere near Appleloosa, completely barricaded. He seemed scared to death of something I still don't know. In the end however, I managed to convince him into coming with me.”

“And Charming?” Stellar asked again.

“Why are you so interested in him?” Sweetie smiled sarcastically at him.

“I just can't read him. He's basically a mystery to me.”

Sweetie then presumed telling her story. “I met Charming not too long ago. Lyra, Caramel and I were investigating a house near this farm here and found him inside investigating as well.”

“Lyra was already with you?”

“She always was. I know her since we were little fillies.” Sweetie's look saddened. “We've been friends for so long now… and this is how it has to end...”

Stellar could see a few tears forming in her eyes.

“Where even is she?” Sweetie then added and turned back around. Before she began walking to the house, she looked over her shoulder. “You're coming with me?”

“Is she even gonna wake up at all?” Applejack asked herself concerned, running in circles, not even risking seeing Applebloom's fresh stump.

“She is just still unconscious,” Doctor Whooves confirmed. “She did not lose too much blood. I am sure she will be fine. It does not help telling yourself that over and over,” he also added once again, trying to finally calm her down a bit.

Applejack didn't even seem to notice though and kept running in circles.

“Please stop,” Rose asked Applejack. “You're only making everypony even more nervous.”

“Do ya even have an idea what Ah have to deal with right now?” Applejack screamed at Rose, getting the full attention of the walkers that were still outside the house roaming around. They then started groaning loud again. “Who even are ya?”

“I’m Rose, or Roseluck if you're fancy,” she shouted back with almost the same determination and strength in her voice.

Applejack froze. She remembered the name 'Rose’. Daisy had said something about a friend of hers named Rose. Applejack had feared meeting her because she felt like she was the only reason Daisy now was dead.

“Hey! Anypony there?” Rose looked in Applejack's eyes, beginning to get pissed. She had a stronger temperament than others would expect from her.

Applejack didn't notice her. She simply had a blank stare in her eyes at the thought of Daisy's death. She saw it happening over and over again in front of her inner eyes.

A while after Rose gave up getting Applejack's attention back, the Doc interrupted the silence.

“We should not just stay here. She will need more medical help.” He gave Applebloom a quick glance.

“Ya’re right,” Applejack then suddenly snapped back. “But how we're supposed to get out of here?”

“Somepony needs to distract them while the others sneak out. Simple,” the Doc suggested.

“Simple?” Applejack asked back. “Yeah, easy. Distracting the walkers is the safest thing ever!”

“Calm down!” Rose snapped back angrily. “You're not helping us at all acting like this!” She pushed Applejack a bit.

“Don't ya touch me!” Applejack hit her hoof back. “Ah don't know what ya had to go through but Ah doubt ya ever saw your little sister with one leg cut off!”

Rose stayed silent. She didn't how to respond to that.

“You're totally right,” Rose tried to spontaneously formulate an answer. “I don't have a sister.”

Applejack felt kind of provoked by the way Rose had said that last sentence but didn't think she wanted to do that.

Rose noticed the look on her face and quickly said something to calm her down again. “I saw similar things though.” Her voice began to slightly crack. “I had to see how my mother first got devoured and some days later, my father went missing and I never found him again. And then, I got separated from my friends Lily Valley and Daisy.”

Applejack really had to restrain herself to not spill out the truth about the two of them. She wasn't sure why but she felt like she couldn't hold the pressure of knowing what happened to them while being with Rose.

“About Daisy, we-” Applejack began, not thinking clearly, quickly interrupted by Doctor Whooves who was predicting what she was about to say.

“We heard of her before but we didn't see her in Ponyville.”

It seemed weird to Rose and she immediately thought that something wrong.

“Don't play me like a fool. That ain't working,” she told them with a suspicious look.

“Come on, Roseluck,” the Doc tried to divert her assumption. “Do you really think we would be lying to you about something as serious as that?”

“You being fancy is something I would expect from you, Doc.” Rose snickered quietly. “I wouldn't know why you'd be lying and I don't think you would unless you would have killed her.”

The Doc coughed in his hoof after about a minute of silence.

“Well, I think we should return to thinking about how we get out of here.” He stepped to the windows and peeled outside. “These walkers just do not want to leave.”

It was right then when a walker jumped at the window, startling the Doc.

“You see?”

“Yeah, but like Ah said, it ain't safe at all. You just gotta trip and ya're pretty much dead,” Applejack reminded him.

“But what else is there to do?” Rose countered. “We won't get out there by just running out.”

“I think our best call is to be quiet and wait until the walkers are too. Then, one of us sneaks out and lures them away. I will do it, if you do not want to.”

“No. You're the only one here who knows how to take care of the filly.” Rose then remembered, “Applebloom.”

“Yeah, Ah’ll do it,” Applejack offered herself to do the job despite how dangerous and stupid she felt it would be.

“You don't have to,” Rose then surprised Applejack. She would never have thought Rose would just risk her life for a stranger like that.

“Ah'll do it,” Applejack confirmed her choice. “We've waited long enough doing nothing at all.”

“Huh? Applejack?”

Applebloom finally woke up after a few hours. It really surprised Doctor Whooves that she woke up that fast though.

“Applebloom.”

Applejack's voice cracked way worse than Rose's did a while ago. She stumbled to her little sister and threw her arms around her. Applebloom made it despite her being that young.

Neither Doctor Whooves nor Rose could do anything else than smile at the scene playing in front of them. Applejack cried her eyes out and let Applebloom almost no space to breathe who was only looking confused around her, not realizing what exactly happened a few hours ago.

Stellar couldn't do anything else than feeling bad and expressing that really well. He could barely hold his tears back.

Sweetie Drops and he entered the room Lyra and Caramel had slept in during the night. It looked exactly the same as it had as Stellar first entered the room when he found the farm but it still seemed way darker than ever before.

The room itself wasn't anything special and it didn't have many things to offer. The best you could find except the bed was a pile of comics stashed underneath it. Stellar never understood why anypony would keep them under the bed and not just put them on a shelf or on a nearby table. He just guessed that some foal loved to read those before sleeping which the parents didn't like because he or she needed the sleep for going to the foalgarten the next day.

“I'm sorry.”

Lyra was reading one of these comics while laying on the bed. Ironically, it was the comic and more child-friendly version of 'My Little Dashie’. The same story Sweetie had been reading before going plundering with him and Caramel, shortly before she got bitten.

Lyra then looked up to meet Sweetie's eyes. “What? Sorry for what?”

Sweetie broke her gaze and shut her eyes tight, obviously holding tears back.

She then looked back at Lyra again and responded. “For leaving you like that.”

“You mean going plundering? That's nothing to feel sorry about,” Lyra told her confused. “I don't get it.”

Only now Lyra really noticed the bite wound on Sweetie's chest. She also didn't know what it meant for Sweetie.

Lyra stood up with a worried look on her face and stepped towards Sweetie.

“Oh no, what happened?” She reached out to touch the wound carefully but Sweetie stepped back a bit.

“That's what I meant with leaving you,” she left Lyra confused. “I got bitten. By a geek.”

Lyra didn't answer and instead just stared at Sweetie, giving her a look that told Sweetie to finally tell her what exactly she meant.

Sweetie took a deep breath.

“The bite is what I meant.” She paused. “A geek bite kills you eventually.”

Lyra didn't know how to react to this. She kept opening and closing her mouth over and over with nothing coming out. She shakily stepped around a bit.

“W-what?” she then finally stuttered out.

Stellar felt terrible being there and feeling like he couldn't do anything to help Lyra.

“Lyra…,” Stellar tried to calm her down.

“Is… is it true?”

He stayed silent. He didn't think it would be necessary to actually answer to give her a response.

Understanding what Stellar was implying with his silence, Lyra continued stuttering confused, “No. It can't be, it can't be.”

She then threw herself on the bed and covered her face in the pillow. But it didn't silence her sobbing.

Doctor Whooves had had to carry Applebloom on his back into Canterlot. Applejack knew she needed to make sure her little sister would learn to walk on three legs.

They directly went to Celestia since they had no idea where they could find a doctor, except Doctor Whooves, or where to turn to now. They weren't even sure if there actually was a doctor in Canterlot although it was most likely because of the city's importance and size, even after the apocalypse started.

Celestia however either didn't want or couldn't talk to them directly. At least a guard told them that.

“Applebloom’s missing a damn leg! What could be more important than that?” Applejack screamed at the guard, earning herself the attention of all nearby ponies.

“None of your business.”

Applejack then gripped the guard by his neck and pulled him closer, making a second guard react. He pointed his spear at her.

“We had to cut her leg off, 'cause she got bitten. Ah don't even know if it works. Let me to her. She probably can do something with her fancy magic,” Applejack whispered angrily at the guard, seemingly even unsettling him a bit.

“Let go of him, ma’am!” the other guard told her in mixed voice of calmness and anger.

“Don't ya call me ‘ma’am’!” Applejack let go of the guard and stepped to the other one. “How old do ya think Ah am?”

“I don't care. Now go,” he coldly stated.

“Ah'm the Element of Honesty. And ya seriously want to turn me down?”

“Yes. Because the Elements ain't worth shit now these days,” the first guard answered.

“So your friend can't speak for himself or what?” Applejack snapped back.

“AJ,” the Doc calmly said. “Come on. We can try later again, maybe.”

“No, you can't,” the second guard then quickly said and left it at that.

Rose and Doctor Whooves could basically feel her blood pressure rising but luckily Applejack didn't get to do anything. Maybe she'd even have attacked the guards.

Twilight had arrived at the scene and used her magic to stop Applejack from doing anything that would have lead to her getting kicked out of Canterlot.

“Oh Celestia, good I found you. I need your help, AJ.” Applejack then noticed Rose bowing her head.

“Don't do that, please,” Twilight asked Rose who in reaction swiftly brought her head back up.

“I'm Rose - or Roseluck, to be exactly,” Rose introduced herself to Twilight.

Twilight's glaze then switched to Doctor Whooves who was still carrying Applebloom.

“You found Applebloom! Fantastic!”

“Hi, Twilight,” Applebloom weakly muttered. She hasn't been doing great after her amputation. Then, Twilight noticed Applebloom's stump. Her eyes went wide at the side.

Applejack didn't want to remind herself again nor did she want to completely distract Twilight, although she knew that it was mostly because of her, so she interrupted and stepped between Doctor Whooves carrying Applebloom and Twilight.

“So, what did ya want?”

Stellar didn't know where to go now. He was with Sweetie Drops, Lyra, Caramel and Big Macintosh on his way to this camp Sweetie had told them about. She had said that she had seen it from the distance when geeks began approaching her and she had to flee. Only Stellar knew that she actually was on her way there, having got the mission from Celestia herself, but she had wanted to check the surrounding area first.

Charming Blade had stayed behind at the farm. “To protect this place and stuff,” he had said. Stellar didn't think that would be necessary but he didn't bother trying to get through to Charming.

“Where we're goin’?” Big Mac asked annoyed, although Stellar was sure that he heard some uncertainty in his voice that he tried hard to hide.

“Let me think for just a minute, okay?” Stellar snapped back, hearing this question for the fifth time in only ten minutes already.

“Ya had time to do just that,” Big Mac growled. “More than 'nuff. We've been wanderin’ around for two hours with no results.”

“Then you do it better!” Stellar almost shouted at him. He was sick of hearing Big Macintosh complaining about him leading the way because no other pony volunteered.

About half an hour later, Big Mac found a sign to which a map with instructions on how to get to the camp Release was attached.

“That is it!” Sweetie happily said despite knowing she perhaps wouldn't even get there. “Camp Release!”

”Ah don't like it,” Big Mac promptly replied. “And not just the name.”

“Well, I agree on the name part,” Lyra then said, “but I don't get why you see a problem in it. Or literally every other thing.” She muttered that last part, showing a side of her Stellar hasn't seen until now. She's always been the reclusive type, although her still red eyes which were the result of her crying did mild her presence.

“Why would there be a camp out in the open just like that?” Big Mac responded more calmly this time. Stellar noticed he was always calmer when it came to talking or interacting with Lyra in any way.

“Why wouldn't it? There still are nice ponies around.” She gave Stellar a quick glance. “Like him.”

Stellar couldn't help himself but to blush a bit, even for just a few seconds. It was just… he didn't know how to describe.

Caramel staying silent the whole time was another thing Stellar had noticed. He was a bit shy but he could talk for a few hours if he wanted to and was around ponies he knew.

“What's wrong, Caramel?” Stellar interrupted Lyra and Big Mac. He didn't want to take the risk of an argue building up. “Why so silent?”

Caramel didn't even seem to notice that he's been asked a question.

“Huh, what?” he then suddenly said, confused.

“Why are you so silent?” Stellar repeated, carefully avoiding sounding annoyed. He hated having to repeat things.

“I don't really know,” Caramel admitted. “I think it's just Sassaflash. I hope that I find her in this camp but…” He sighed. “I just have a feeling that tells me I won't.”

“I have too,” Big Mac coldly mumbled. He didn't intend to let Caramel know though. He looked saddened. “Ah'm sorry, Caramel,” Big Mac then apologized which deeply surprised Stellar, “but it's just my feelin’.”

“Can we just keep going, please?” Sweetie then asked. “I'm not getting any better by standing here.”

“Right, sorry,” Caramel apologized. Big Mac didn't say anything but rather simply nodded his head.

“Thing is, are we gonna make it till it gets too dark?” Stellar asked the group. “I mean, it's already pretty late and we don't have too much reservations with us.”

The reservations were about ten cans of peaches and beans, some hay sandwiches and a few soda bottles. Since there only were two relatively small backpacks in the farm house, it was about as much as they could take with them.

“If we hurry up, then it should be possible,” Sweetie said. Stellar could see the sweat glistening from her forehead. His worries about her bite wound began to stir up again. And they intensified even more.

“Hopefully they have some medicine for her at Release…”

Rose had returned home with Applebloom. Applejack didn't really like it but not only did Rose seem trustworthy, she wanted to have the Doc with her as he always had the chance of finding a peaceful solution for a conflict, that wasn't hard to comprehend in her opinion.

When Applejack and Doctor Whooves were lead to a nearby pub by Twilight, they could see what her problem was. From what felt like a mile away, you could hear the chaos and screaming and shouting from inside.

“I hold them off with my magic but there are too many,” Twilight explained the situation.

“And what are we supposed to change about’em?” Applejack asked, not really understanding her point.

Twilight sighed. “I saw how you were reacting to the guards at the front entrance.” She then admitted, “And a bit how you were to the guards at the castle. And I thought, maybe, you could just go in there and see if you can change anything about it.”

“What do ya expect from me? Going in there and kick them to death?” Applejack responded. She was quick to realize that it sounded way more serious than intended.

“No!” Twilight shouted. “Why would you say that?” She sighed again to calm herself down. “You're the Element of Honesty. Everypony knows that. Even if you think that it isn't worth anything anymore.”

She basically spoke out Applejack's last thought. Sure, she had told the guard at the castle that she was the Element of Honesty but considering how many ponies still believe in the Elements, she figured it would have been her best bet.

Now it was Applejack's turn to sigh. “Fine, Ah’ll see what Ah can do.”

Inside, everything was in complete chaos. Tables and chairs were lying around, bottles were thrown around. The floor was sticky from all the beer, whiskey and all the other alcohol. It was the perfect pub fight.

“Stop!” the Doc tried to shout over the screaming but had no chance of being heard. Applejack then tried something. She climbed on top of the counter behind which the bartender cowered. He looked up at Applejack.

They didn't change a word with one another as Applejack stood on the counter and screamed her lungs out. She didn't say anything, she just screamed.

At least most of them were now stopping and focusing on her. Some other ponies who were just way too drunk to notice anything at all were still wandering around but not more.

Applejack dodged an empty beer bottle right before it could hit her in the face.

“Fuck off!” one of the actually lesser drunk stallions yelled at her. “You're boring everypony!”

Twilight didn't notice Applejack picking up another bottle, this one being completely filled with beer.

The stallion may not have been completely drunk but still too drunk to dodge the bottle of beer hitting him directly on the nose, making it bleed.

He stepped backwards a bit, staggering. He couldn't control his staggering and stumbled over his own hooves which lead him to hit his head on a table.

Thud!

He broke his neck and died immediately.

Some friends of him needed a moment to comprehend what just happened to their friend but all eventually did.

Applejack also didn't realise what she had caused at first. She had caused another pony's death. She knew that she didn't do it directly but she knew it was her fault.

One of the other stallions, an unicorn, then suddenly drew a gun that he had somehow managed to smuggle inside the bar and opened fire on Applejack.

A bullet hit her right in the left shoulder. Applejack shortly screamed in pain before quickly throwing herself behind the bar before more bullets were coming her way.

She harshly fell to the ground, right on her wounded shoulder. The bartender was still cowering there and grabbed the nearest pair of towels he could get without having to risk getting his brains blown out.

The other stallions and mares luckily didn't have any guns on them and were obviously surprised that their friend had smuggled one in. They all were still too drunk to do anything about him trying to shoot Applejack though.

“Let me handle this,” Twilight asked Doctor Whooves quietly, once again shocked by what just happened. Too quietly, however, as he then tried sneaking up on the armed stallion to grab his gun.

Unfortunately, in his drunken state, the stallion randomly turned around and opened fire again. The Doc however dodged quick enough to let the bullets fly past him.

Then, Twilight stopped the stallion with her magic.

The stallion was immediately afterwards completely unable to move or do anything except for breathing, speaking and looking around.

“Now, what the hay is going on exactly?” Twilight then yelled. With the princess here and noticed, even the most drunken ponies became silent. Most of them sat down on a chair or the floor, some other ones more or less simply fell to the floor.

The bartender slowly rose up from behind the counter and stuttered, “T-there’s been an a-argue about the next t-train going to Release.”

Doctor Whooves meanwhile went behind the counter to help Applejack with her wound as best as he could for the moment. With the fewest of supplies, he bandaged her properly and managed to stop the bleeding a bit.

Meanwhile, Twilight found out that everypony had been arguing about who would take the next train to Release which eventually had lead to total chaos in the bar.

After the drunken ponies were sent home (or teleported outside if needed) Twilight looked after Applejack. Luckily, the Doc actually had some experience with those kind of wounds.

“I will stitch it up later,” he told Applejack. “The wound is not that bad.”

“Thanks, Doc?” she mumbled her appreciation and then turned to Twilight. “Now, anythin’ else ya wanted us for?”

“Yes,” Twilight said, sounding a bit confused. She didn't really know how to properly interact with Applejack after her putting off a bullet wound that easy. “Like the bartender said, there's this camp called ‘Release’. I actually wanted you to check it out. If it's really a camp you can live in, it could be an important partner for Canterlot.”

“You do not expect Applejack to go, do you?” the Doc asked Twilight.

“Well, originally, I did,” she admitted, “but now, in her current condition,...”

“'Course Ah'm comin’ with y’all,” she quickly interrupted Twilight. “Ah'll be damned if Ah let myself be beaten by such a wound.”

“I honestly admire your dedication, Applejack,” Doctor Whooves told her, smiling.

“Well,” Applejack then continued, “when does that train arrive?”

“See? We're not that far away!” Caramel happily exclaimed. As soon as he saw Sweetie's bite wound however, he promptly calmed down and his smile vanished.

He was right however as they already could see the camp in the distance. It looked like the whole complexe only had one huge building in the middle which seemed to have been a pre-apocalypse fabric.

After about another half an hour of walking, they finally arrived at the front entrance of Release. Looking through the gate, Stellar could see somepony quickly approaching them, an unicorn mare.

Stellar also noticed that it was surprisingly quiet inside. Not the kind of unsettling quietness however. It was more like a safe quietness. He couldn't see them but a lot of ponies were talking to one another, completely chill, like the apocalypse never happened, like everything was still normal.

Stellar loved it.

The train was really shaky and seemed even more unstable. Applejack felt all the while like the ground beneath her hooves could simply suddenly break.

Luckily, it didn’t happen. After arriving at the terminus, they were a lot closer to the camp than expected, as they basically were just next to it.

Applejack together with Doctor Whooves and Rose who they had picked up earlier and told her everything investigated the place a bit more from the outside. Applebloom had stayed with Twilight during that time.

“Ah think it’d be the best if we simply sneaked up on’em. Wanna see them before they see us,” Applejack suggested and unsaved her silenced 10mm pistol Rose had found in her house earlier.

“Come on, Applejack,” Doctor Whooves put her off. “Why would you want to do that? They then definitely will not partner with Canterlot. You will scare them off.”

He wanted to put her gun down but she refused.

“Maybe it's not that bad,” Rose then told the Doc. “Maybe they think that we're clever enough to know how to be secure and they like it.”

“Possible,” the Doc had to admit. “The chances however are not that high.”

Applejack didn't even listen to him anymore and started climbing up the fence.

“Applejack, what are you doing?” Rose hissed at her. “I agreed with you but I didn't think of this!”

Applejack was quick enough to be on the other side of the fence before her companions could do anything about it. “Then what did ya think Ah meant?”

Rose wasn't sure herself but Applejack didn't even give her a chance to answer as she had already turned around and started sneaking towards the nearest entrance of the building.

“Applejack!” Doctor Whooves tried to quietly shout, not getting her attention, as expected.

Rose and Doctor Whooves looked at each other for a moment before Rose then climbed over the fence as well.

“You cannot be serious about this.”

“You can't change her mind. I'll make sure she doesn't buck everything up, hopefully,” Rose quickly explained herself before going after Applejack, leaving Doctor Whooves behind.

“Rose!” he shouted at her.

But she didn't listen to him.

Inside the building, they first came into a small corridor that was rather empty. Some shelves were hanging from the wall, some others had already fallen to the ground. A desk from a nearby room was laying on the floor and Applejack and Rose had to climb over it.

As Applejack, leading the way, was slowly pushing the door open, she quickly closed it again as she had seen a guard standing on the opposite side of the room.

Rose wanted to turn around and find another way when they heard slow hoofsteps coming closer.

“Celestia damn it!” Applejack angrily hissed through her clenched teeth, trying to hold the gun steady.

“Quick! There!” Rose pointed at the fallen desk, with the plateheading towards the door.

Applejack didn't need to be told twice. She rushed over and jumped behind the desk, followed by Rose.

As soon as they found some way of being completely covered, the guard blindly opened fire once he had opened the door.

The desk was well built fortunately, massive oak, that wasn't going to be destroyed that soon with bullets.

Once the bullet fire died down, Applejack decided to lie down with her leg noticeable for the guard. She knew it was risky but thought that it could be a good chance of shooting him.

The guard took his time as he didn't come back until a few minutes later. Applejack had already thought he'd be that gullible to think that he'd have killed them for good.

The guard slowly walked towards the desk as he noticed Applejack's leg sticking out. Rose who now had the gun kept her aim steady and prepared to shoot.

Then, the guard sticked his head over the desk instead of going around it and Rose quickly fired, missing him by a mile. The guard stepped back, shocked by the sudden gun shot. He ran back towards the end of the hallway and pushed an alert button. The warning signal could easily be heard in the entire building, maybe even outside.

Rose fired again, missing one more time before hitting him in a leg.

He still was able to hold his gun however as he then started shooting at them again with his 12. 7mm submachine gun.

Applejack and Rose hid behind the desk again. Applejack angrily took Rose the gun away and then looked into a drawer in the desk.

For some reason, there was a grenade inside! She quickly noticed however that it hasn't been finished and wouldn't explode. It still came in handy though.

She acted like she'd activate it and blindly threw it into the guard's direction.

The guard just saw the grenade and threw himself out the door. Applejack took this as an open invitation. She quickly aimed and shot him directly in the head.

“We gotta go,” she then said in a normal voice. “The whole team's gonna be after us now.”

“What is that alert for?” Caramel asked the mare that had let them in.

“Don't you worry about that,” she put it off. “They'll handle it. No problem.”

“Ya sure?” Big Mac asked.

“Yep!” she happily said. “You're safe here.”

She then turned back around to them and grinned.

“Welcome to your Release!”