Cold

"Cooper, I... I'm so sorry. I had no idea..." Twilight trailed off, a sad frown forming on her muzzle.

"It's alright... I just wish I could have been there." He whispered, his head hanging low.

Twilight quickly pulled him back into a tight hug with her good foreleg, and nuzzled her cheek against his as she squeezed him ever tighter against her chest.

"Did... did you have a wife too?" Twilight quietly asked, pulling away just slightly.

"Yeah," He looked away slightly, "They died together."

"Was... was it from the blast?"

"No. People just... wanted what we had."

"What happened? If you don't mind telling me." Twilight inquired, ensuring to use as gentle a tone as she could.

"It's... not much of a story. I went to go look for supplies... they stayed at the house. While I was gone, people showed up... When I came home, my wife and daughter were dead." He replied, his voice devoid of any kind of emotion.

"Cooper..." She whispered, her heart aching.

Cooper sniffled quickly.

"I, uh... I never found the guys that did it... God, I'd do some bad things to them too... Real bad things..." He whispered, "I'd make them hurt... make them suffer for every second they hurt them... I-" He continued, but stopped short as Twilight pulled him into another tight hug.

"You poor, poor man..." She cried, her voice strained from the tears threatening to spill out.

Cooper froze for just a moment before burying his face into Twilight's mane. He silently wept into her fur and hair as she held him close, her good hoof stroking down his neck every few seconds.

For a time unknown to either of them, they sat there beside the fire, and held each other. Only when he had no tears left to shed, did Cooper finally pull away and release his grip on Twilight's back.

"Thanks... Sorry about that." He said.

"Don't ever apologize for having feelings... I can't imagine the pain you must have went through." Twilight comforted, giving a small smile of support.

"All the same... there's enough to worry about out here without me getting all emotional."

"You can share those things with me. Trust me, I don't know what I would do if I lost my brother or my friends..." She replied with a small shiver.

"Yeah..."

"What was she like?" Twilight asked, suddenly.

"Heh, like you... Always wanted to know everything about everything... Always so optimistic, even when I told her exactly what would happen... She even said that this whole winter would end if we just put aside our differences and got along." Cooper chuckled to himself.

"If only." Twilight replied, a trace of a smile on her face as she glanced out at the snowy landscape outside.

Cooper nodded slightly in response before looking over at the pipe and sighing.

"I should probably get back to work soon. They might wonder why the water stopped otherwise." He said after a moment.

"Are you sure staying around these people is a good idea?" Twilight inquired, stepping away enough for him to get to his feet.

"It's not like I have much of a choice right now. If we leave, we're bound to run into them again soon. They've taken over this whole area... Hell, the last few guys we had to kill were probably scouts for these guys or something." Cooper replied.

"What if we left the area? Headed somewhere far away where they wouldn't find us? Twilight questioned.

"Good luck getting anywhere. Most of the area around Houston is no man's land. Just snow and ice for dozens of miles. Just about everyone still alive lives somewhere near the city or in it." He explained.

"Well... what do you want to do then?"

"... I don't know," He sighed, "If I thought they wouldn't shoot you on sight, I'd say let's just stay with these people and see if they can actually do what they plan to do... but I don't know. They're confusing the hell outta me." He shook his head.

"What do you mean? What do they plan to do?" She pressed.

"They want to try to restart civilization. Basically start over and rebuild what we've lost. Problem is, I don't think they have a snowballs chance in Hell."

"What? Why? That sounds fantastic!" She exclaimed.

"Twilight... The world's dead. No amount of wanting to fix it is going to change that. Everyone here, every one of those people are dead. They just don't know it yet." Cooper explained.

Twilight frowned.

"I don't want to believe that... If these people are trying to do what you say, then isn't that alone reason enough to help them? To try to rebuild your world?" Twilight reasoned.

"Trust me, Twilight... You're preaching to the wrong choir. Even if we somehow managed to get everyone to stop killing each other, we'd just end up starving to death once we run out of food. There's almost nothing left alive at this point, and we can only find so many cans of food in every supermarket around. What do we do when we run out of food?" He asked.

Twilight bit her lip before sighing.

"I don't know what the answer to that is... but if there's one thing I learned from my friends, it's that great things can happen when you work together... This might just be your chance to do that." She offered.

Cooper pinched the bridge of his nose and frowned. He chewed his cheek for a few moments before fixing her with a melancholy look and spoke.

"If, and I mean only if that worked here... how do you know they wouldn't just shoot you the first chance they got? Last I checked, I'm pretty much the only one on this planet who hasn't tried to kill you." He retaliated.

Twilight cringed as the memories flooded her mind, and she glanced down at her still bandaged foreleg with a sigh.

"I don't know..." She admitted.

"Exactly, and that's what scares me," He replied, before kneeling down beside her again. He placed his hand on her cheek and softly stroked his fingers along the short fur on her face, "I told you I wouldn't let anyone hurt you... As long as I can still fight, I'll do exactly that."

Twilight blushed slightly as she looked down and away. Cooper slowly pulled his hand away from her face and stood back up to his full height before looking back over at the pipe and sighing.

"I really do need to get back to work. They're probably sending someone over here right now to see what the holdup is with the water. Do you think you can stay hidden until nightfall?" He asked, gazing in the direction of the camp.

"I can probably stay hidden on some rooftops... but I don't think I can stay out in the cold again tonight. I used what magic I've been regenerating just to stay warm last night." She replied, suppressing a small shiver.

Cooper frowned at her reply.

"Alright... Do you know what building I'm staying in?"

"Yeah. I saw you leave this morning." Twilight thoughtfully replied.

"Good. Find somewhere to hide and stay warm until nightfall. Once it's dark, head to the roof of that building and wait for me to open the door. That's how you'll know it's clear and you can come inside." He explained.

"Okay... I'll see you tonight." Twilight responded, before limping to the doorway and unfurling her wings. She gave a few small flaps before taking to the air and disappearing from sight.

Cooper let out a small breath and made his way back over to the shovel and grabbed it with his good arm. He made his way outside and shoveled up some more snow before walking back to the pipe.

Twilight shivered under the pitch black, starless night sky. The cold air and snow sapped at her strength, making it hard to focus on Cooper's instructions over trying to just get warm. Her teeth chattered as she looked down over the doorway for the tenth time in just as many minutes.

"Come on, I'm freezing my wings off up here..." She muttered to herself.

A few more minutes passed in a painful silence before the door opened, and Twilight's ears flicked back at the rusted metal scraping against itself. She quickly peaked over the edge once more and saw Cooper looking up at her. He waved her down with his good arm, and she hastily dropped from the roof. She flapped her wings just twice to slow her descent and landed on the snowy ground with a quiet *thud*. A sharp wince swept through her body as her injured foreleg made contact with the ground, but she managed to keep from making any noise aside from a small inhale.

"You okay?" Cooper whispered.

"Y-yeah. Just a little cold is all." Twilight replied.

"We'll get you warmed up in a sec. The floors are tile though, so try to make as little noise walking on them as you can. Let's go."

With that, he turned and headed inside the still open door, prompting Twilight to follow behind. She instantly winced as her hooves connected with the tile floor, making a loud clopping sound that echoed through the hallway and made Cooper wince. Biting her lip in concentration for a moment, she unfurled her wings and flapped them just enough to get her hooves off the ground. She glanced up at Cooper to find him giving her a nod of approval before closing the door behind them and heading back into the hallway. Twilight suppressed a small sigh of relief at the much warmer temperature in the building as the door shut fully and made her way after him.

"Let's be fast. I'm still not sure how many people live here, but they're bound to be coming in and out any second. I'm on the second floor, so let me go first. Try to stay close but if someone shows up, head back out as fast as you can." He instructed.

"Got it." She replied, only now taking note that Cooper had his rifle slung over his shoulder.

They hurried through the first floor to the flight of stairs at the center of the building. Cooper peaked up the stairs for anyone making their way down, but upon finding nothing, he waved Twilight over and headed up the steps. They quickly reached the second floor of the building, pausing only for Cooper to make sure both hallways were clear. Once he was sure there was still no one in sight, he waved her forward again, and broke into a quick jog down the hallway toward his room. Twilight struggled to keep up with him without causing too much noise or hitting any of the copious obstacles throughout the hallway with her wings. She fell behind only slightly as Cooper reached the door in question and shoved it open.

She quickly banked to turn into the room and flew inside, ensuring to snap her wings back to her barrel, lest they hit the doorway on the way in. Once her hooves connected to the floor with a deafening *clop* she froze. She looked back at Cooper just as he slammed the door shut and locked it. A heavy sigh escaped his lips as he slouched against the door and down to the floor.

"Jesus... We're gonna have to find a better way to get you in here if we have to do this again." Cooper shook his head.

"You're telling me. Trying not to hit anything with my wings was almost impossible. There's so much trash and debris out there. Even Rainbow Dash would have a tough time with that." She muttered.

"I'm just glad you made it. How are you doing?" He replied, pushing himself to his feet and un-slinging his rifle.

"I'm okay, just freezing is all. It's so much warmer in here but it's still barely above freezing, if that." She replied.

Cooper made his way to the bed, moving to take off his cloak and body armor in the process, but he winced in pain once more as he moved his bad shoulder.

"Here, let me help." Twilight offered, hopping onto the bed and holding out her forelegs invitingly.

Cooper eyed her for a few seconds before chuckling lightly to himself and giving a small nod of acceptance.

"What's so funny?" She asked, cocking an eyebrow back.

"Nothing, nothing. You're just too cute." He replied as he sat down in front of her on the bed.

Twilight pouted slightly but quickly set about removing and unclipping his coat and plate carrier. With them off, they were quickly set aside on the floor.

"Thanks."

"Happy to help." She beamed.

"I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm gonna pass out any minute now. Turns out that shoveling snow for eight hours straight is pretty exhausting. Who knew?" Cooper said, pulling his boots off.

"It would be nice to sleep in a bed for once." Twilight trailed off, her good hoof pawing at the bed.

"But?" He replied, turning around to see her contemplative look.

"Well... Do you... no, never mind. It's stupid." She blushed and looked away.

Cooper turned to fully face her.

"Twilight, what is it?" He pressed, tilting his head to the side.

"Well... I just... would you mind... snuggling?" She barely whispered.

"Snuggling?" He repeated.

"Um... y-you don't have to if you don't want to... I just... I'm just pretty cold still." She admitted, her gaze drifting anywhere but on Cooper.

"Dear god you're so cute you're gonna give me a heart attack. Get over here." He chuckled.

Twilight's demeanor instantly perked up, and she darted to the man in front of her. She wrapped her hooves around is chest, taking care to avoid his shoulder wound and nuzzled her muzzle into the crook of his neck. He gently wrapped his arms around her barrel and pulled her close before laying down. The lavender alicorn came to a rest on his side, his warmth slowly sinking into her noticeably chilly fur.

"Hehe, just like old times." Cooper happily whispered to himself before pulling the blanket over their bodies and dozing off. Twilight heard him clearly, but opted to simply give his neck a small nuzzle before sleep claimed her as well.