Cold

Cooper sprinted to his room and rammed into the door with his good shoulder. Immediately, the door broke free from its hinges and smashed into the floor while he landed on top of it. Once he was in the room, his eyes darted up to find Twilight sitting on the bed and looking at him with wide, fearful eyes. However, something much worse caught his eyes to the right and a pit formed in Cooper's stomach as he looked down the barrel of a gun, again.

"Speak of the devil, and he shall appear!" Gabe exclaimed, leaning down to press his pistol against Cooper's temple.

"Wait! Please!" Twilight cried out, pushing herself to her hooves.

"Not another word from you, creature!" Gabe shouted, instantly aiming at her.

"Gabe, stop," Cooper growled, pushing himself to his knees.

Before he could get to his feet, Cooper felt the cold steel of Gabe's pistol against his temple once more.

"Tell me, why does our current predicament have your name written all over it? Why is it that not two days after I graciously permitted you entrance into my camp, that we are so viciously attacked?" Gabe demanded, aggressively pressing the barrel against Cooper's head.

Cooper spared a fleeting look at Twilight as Gabe seethed. She was shaking and almost in tears, but otherwise seemed to be unharmed. The bed was a mess, and the closet door was broken, indicating that some kind of scuffle had transpired before Cooper arrived. With a mental sigh of relief for having arrived in time, he looked back at the man and spoke.

"Gabe, whatever's happening out there right now... we had nothing to do with it," Cooper began, his voice as calm as he could make it. "I know you're freaking out right now, but just put the gun down and we can all get out of here. Nobody else has to die today."

Gabe scoffed.

"You and your demon have already taken everything I've built from me! Do you understand how hard it was? How long it took? How much I sacrificed to build this settlement!? God chose me to reunite this land! Not you! Not that... thing!" Gabe declared, turning his anger towards Twilight.

"-and just what the hell even is this creature!? It's an abomination!"

Gabe wrathfully lurched towards Twilight, who instantly shuffled back against the window as he approached. Twilight was still easily within arm's reach, and Gabe pressed the gun against her chin, forcing a small gulp of fear down her throat.

"GABE! That's enough! You wanna point that gun at someone, you point it at me, goddammit!" Cooper snarled as he pushed himself to his feet.

Just as fast, the gun was on him again and Gabe's eyes bore through him with a gaze of pure hatred.

"All I am... all I have... is my people... and now, because of you two... I have no people." Gabe growled, pressing the trigger back until there was no more slack to take up.

"I told you we had nothing to do with what's going on right now! You've been taking territory all over the area for how fucking long now!? Did you really expect nobody to say 'fuck you' this whole time?" Cooper retaliated.

"We gave them a choice!" Gabe shouted back.

"Oh yeah? What choice was that? Join us or leave? I'm sure they took that reeeeeeal well. You've been forcing people to join you or seek life elsewhere; when there was nowhere else to go! Now, when they've grouped up and come back to fuck your day up, you're gonna try to pin the blame on me and Twilight!?"

"SHUT UP!!!" Gabe screamed, slamming the pistol against Cooper's temple.

Cooper immediately fell to the ground and clutched the side of his head as stars danced about in his blurry vision; his hearing was obscured by a dull ringing that made it nearly impossible to hear the rest of the commotion in the room.

"Cooper!"

"Get off me! You vermin!"

Cooper blinked several times to clear his sight. He heard dull thumps and the sounds of gunfire faintly sounded in his ears. His vision, blurry as it was, spun over and over again, making the cream colored walls blend with the red light fading in through the doorway to paint a spiraling picture that made him want to vomit.

"Twi... Gabe... stop..." Cooper groaned, planting his hands on the floor and pushing himself to his knees.

His knuckles ground against the floorboards while blood trickled down his cheek. He had to shut his right eye to keep the blood from obscuring his vision, but as he looked up, he froze. He saw Twilight, pinning Gabe to the ground with her horn heavily pressed against the back of his neck.

The pistol was laying on the floor just out of Gabe's reach, but he wasn't reaching for it. Instead, Gabe was struggling to get the lavender alicorn off of his back.

Cooper managed to unsteadily get to his feet, but still couldn't believe what he was seeing. He stared in shock for a few seconds before his brain finally caught up.

Cooper grabbed the gun from the ground, "Twilight, you can get off him now. I got this." He said, pointing the gun down at Gabe's head.

Twilight immediately pulled away and looked up at him.

"Cooper! Oh my gosh, are you okay?! Your head, you're bleeding!" She exclaimed as she rushed over to his side.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me. Listen, we need to get out of here. Grab my rifle and let's get moving." Cooper instructed.

Twilight hastily rushed over and grabbed Cooper's rifle while Gabe got to his knees.

"You... bastards..." Gabe huffed.

"You talk to m-" Cooper began, but before he could finish, the glass window shattered and a grenade landed by his boot, "Grenade! Get down!" He shouted, kicking the grenade toward the closet and diving towards Twilight.

Just a second later, the grenade exploded, sending shrapnel flying in all directions and blowing a hole in the side of the building where Cooper's wall used to be. Wood and plaster showered the pair as both Cooper and Twilight reeled from the blast in the doorway of the room.

Cooper and Twilight's ears rang as they struggled to get to their feet and hooves. Cooper slowly pushed himself up to his knees, before stumbling and falling back down onto the floor. Twilight shook her head to try to clear it of the dull ringing before grabbing Cooper's shoulder with her hooves and shaking him.

"Cooper, come on!"

Her voice barely registered against the new ringing and aching in his head. Cooper turned to see the source of his shaking, only to find a pair of dark purple eyes staring fearfully down at him.

"Oh my gosh... Your leg's bleeding!

Cooper squinted as the barely perceptible voice reached his ears.

"What!?" He shouted, his own voice coming out raspy and foggy to his ear.

"Hold on!" She shouted, just an inch away from his ear.

Twilight's horn lit up in a magenta aura that quickly wrapped around Cooper's leg. He sluggishly glanced down at the leg in question to see his pants turning a dark shade of crimson. Several distinct holes were visible along his thigh and calf as blood slowly leaked out and onto the floor below.

"Fuck me..." Cooper whispered, his hearing having returned somewhat.

After a few more seconds of Twilight working on his leg, Cooper felt multiple twinges of pain flare up along where her magical aura touched him. He hissed in pain as seven distinct pieces of shrapnel were pulled out from his wounds. He then watched in awe as the shards of metal and wood were discarded to the side and the wounds quickly closed.

Not a second later, Twilight collapsed next to him, panting heavily.

"Twilight!" Cooper cried, grabbing her by her withers.

Twilight looked up to him with a small smile as she took deep breaths, "I'm okay... I'm okay. How are you? Does it still hurt? I got every piece I could feel. They weren't as deep as any of mine, so I think you should be fine." She explained.

"I'm good. Jesus, you're amazing. Can you walk." Cooper replied, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Y-yeah. That took a lot out of me, but I think I can at least walk and keep up with you. Just, don't expect me to use my magic any time soon." Twilight responded.

"Good enough for me. Let's go." Cooper smiled as he got to his feet.

"What about Gabe?" Twilight inquired, looking back at the destroyed room.

"Fuck him. We need to move, now." He dismissed, grabbing his rifle from the floor and shouldering it.

Cooper headed out of the doorway with Twilight close behind. He looked down both sides of the long corridor and let out a small sigh of relief at the lack of any hostile forces. He gave her a small nod as he moved out into the hallway and away from the burning fires. They quickly reached the end of the floor and entered the fire escape stairway on the far side of the building

Quickly moving down the steps, Cooper and Twilight made their way down to the first floor and to the fire exit doorway. Upon reaching the door, Cooper cautiously pushed the door open while peeking outside with his rifle at the ready. He found no immediate sign of the raiders as he opened the door fully. With a rusty creak, the door stopped at the fully open position, allowing both of them a clear route to the next few buildings leading away from the settlement.

"Alright, think you can keep up? We're gonna have to run for it." Cooper explained, eyeing the route carefully.

"I'll do my best. My leg still hurts, but it's not as bad as before." Twilight replied, her eyes flicking back and forth between Cooper and the exit.

"Let's just try to stick close to the buildings. I don't think they got to them yet, so they should be a good amount of cover." Cooper elaborated.

"Right... Cooper, are you sure we should just leave these people though? I mean, obviously not Gabe, but everyone else was nice though. I don't think they deserve this." Twilight reasoned with a small frown.

"Nothing we can do to help them. Right now, we need to get the hell out of here before we end up just like them. It's a miracle they don't have the whole camp surrounded right now as is. We need to go before that changes." Cooper answered, shaking his head.

"I-I get that... but I still feel like we should do something. Anything. Almost every person here was just trying to get by and survive." She pressed.

Cooper paused for a moment before looking down at the ground. He let out a quiet sigh as he dropped down to one knee and looked Twilight in the eye.

"Twilight... you have a good heart. Probably the best out of anyone still left on this Earth," Cooper bit his lip and looked away, "but sometimes, there just isn't anything you can do. Sometimes... you just have to walk away."

Twilight gave him a pleading look, "Can't we do anything?"

Cooper shook his head, "The only thing we can do is live to fight another day. That's all."

Twilight looked down to the floor with a defeated expression on her face, "Okay... let's go." She whispered.

Cooper hesitated for just a moment before gently patting her wither with his hand. "Twilight, I know it's hard; but trust me, it's the right call. Like I said, you have a good heart, and don't ever lose that. Just, know that sometimes there are things that you just can't do, no matter how badly you want to." He said, comforting her with his words.

Twilight looked up to him with a somber expression as she nodded, "Okay."

Cooper smiled weakly, "Then let's go."