Cooper led Twilight into a large alleyway between massive buildings with his rifle at the ready. As she followed behind, she couldn't help but crane her neck upward to look at the complete marvel of engineering that was the skyscrapers. She was so lost in her awe, that she managed to walk right into Cooper's leg, nearly knocking him down in the process. He instantly turned around with an angry look on his face that sent a chill down her spine.

"S-sorry..." She mumbled.

"Pay attention. The cities are the most dangerous places to be. Keep your eyes open next time." He scolded.

"Right."

They continued on until arriving at the end of the alleyway. Cooper hugged the wall closely, motioning with his hand for Twilight to do the same. Once she complied, he scooted over to the edge until he could peak his head around the corner and look down the street. With the night quickly approaching, it was hard to discern if there was anyone else watching them down the street, especially with the literally thousands of shattered windows all along the skyscrapers. After only a few moments, Cooper returned fully to cover, a frown clear on his face.

"What's wrong?" Twilight asked.

"Can't tell if someone's watching the road. If there's anybody around here, they were bound to hear the gunshots from those two guys earlier... Mean's they'd probably be watching and setting up another ambush, or at least waiting to see if their buddies made it back with fresh loot." Cooper mused, his brow furrowing even further.

"Well... What should we do then? There isn't really another way through the city aside from just going through each building, right?" She questioned.

"Well... that's an option... Not a very good one, but... I may have another." Cooper replied, as his eyes flicked up to the lettering on the building across the street.

"What's your plan?"

"I'm gonna need you to teleport us across the street to that building that kinda looks like an 'H'." He explained.

"What!?" Twilight exclaimed.

"Quiet! They might hear you!" Cooper angrily whispered.

"Sorry... but teleporting myself is already hard enough, especially after what we already did with the clones. I'm not exactly at my strongest right now." Twilight rebutted, her voice also a whisper.

"Well it's either that, or we have to run across. That's about thirty meters of snow that's about... four feet deep? Maybe five. Take your pick, 'cause if we're running across, I don't think diving into the snow will save us this time around." He explained, with an exasperated sigh.

Twilight's eyes dropped down to the snow at her hooves, and she bit back a growl of frustration at the situation.

"Alright... I'll... I'll try my best." She said, after some time.

Cooper gave her a small nod before she charged her horn. Violet light encircled the man and pony over and over again until they were both glowing with the color. Beads of sweat formed on Twilight's brow as she focused, and her muzzled scrunched up while she tightly closed her eyes. Then, they blinked out of existence, only leaving a small pop of magical energy before reappearing across the street.

Cooper immediately stumbled into the closed door behind him as the nauseous feeling in his head made him loose his balance. Right beside him, Twilight also stumbled before falling into the snow to her left, unconscious. After a moment of righting himself, Cooper let out a slow groan, only to freeze as his eyes fell on Twilight's body beside him.

"Twilight? you okay?" He asked, pushing himself to his feet.

He received no response, and a frown once more formed on his face. He quickly slung his rifle and grabbed the alicorn by her withers. He lightly shook her, only for a pit to form in his stomach at the sight of her body limply shaking in his grasp.

"Oh no.. oh no, no, no, no... Twilight, come on. Wake up." He said, gently grabbing her head and brushing her mane away from her closed eyes.

Once more, she did not respond at all. As he felt his heart beat faster, Cooper quickly pulled her into his arms, placing his ear against her muzzle and two fingers on her jugular. Her heartbeat felt feint, and it took a moment for her breath to reach his ear, forcing a sigh of relief from the rugged man.

"Jesus Christ... Thought I lost you for a second there..." He whispered, still holding her close, "Right, you're unconscious. Come on, let's get you inside."

He lifted her onto his shoulder while simultaneously un-slinging his rifle and aiming it at the doorway from under his armpit. He gave a solid kick to the frame, right next to the handle. The door held firm against the first kick, and the second, forcing an angry grunt from the man as he kicked over and over again. Each sound rang out into the dead quiet world around him, sending a spike of anxiety to the forefront of his mind. Finally, the door broke open, allowing him to see into a darkened hotel lobby.

He quickly made his way into the entrance and toward the spiraling staircase in the center of the large room. With Twilight on his shoulder, he ascended the staircase until arriving at the second floor. He kept his rifle up and ready as he entered what appeared to be a long hallway filled with rooms. Upon arriving at the room labeled "269", he slung his rifle and retrieved a small key from his pocket. He quickly unlocked the door and pushed his way inside, closing and locking it behind him.

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Twilight awoke with a small groan. Her head pounded as she pushed herself to her hooves, and into a long stretch. Immediately, she noticed how much warmer the room felt than the outside world she'd become accustomed to. Once she was standing upright, she took stock of her surroundings. She was standing on a rubber mat, laying in the corner of a small room. Across from her, there was a desk, littered with broken bottles and beakers. To the right of that, there was a large whiteboard with what appeared to be an incomplete complex formula written up. Sitting next to that, with his back to her, was Cooper. His ragged cloak was discarded to the side along with his rifle.

"Cooper?" Twilight asked.

He immediately turned around and let out a quiet sigh.

"Bout time you woke up. It's been over an hour." He said with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Well... Sorry? I told you that I'm not strong enough to be doing that kind of complex teleportation right now." She indignantly replied.

Cooper let out a drawn out sigh.

"Come on. It's warmer over here." He said, gesturing to the spot next to him.

Twilight slowly complied, finding his words to be true as she stepped over to the indicated spot on the floor. She cocked an eyebrow back at him before sitting down.

"Why... why is it so much warmer over here?" She asked.

"Heater." Cooper replied, pointing to a machine with a shiny chrome grill just in front of them.

"W-what?" She cocked her head to the side.

"It's battery powered. I've had it on for the last ten minutes or so. Not sure how much longer it'll last, but I figured it'd be worth it for now." He explained with a shrug.

"That's... that's amazing. I can't believe you have this kind of technology. Here I was starting to think all you had were weapons." She chuckled slightly.

"This building is actually a sepsis research lab. My best friend used to work here. That's how i recognized it."

"I see... Are they..." Twilight began.

"Dead."

She cringed slightly.

"I... I'm so sorry. That's not an easy thing to go through." She offered.

"Yeah..." Cooper glanced away.

"Do... do you want to talk about it?" She asked, lightly.

"Not much to talk about... when the bombs fell, he died with the rest of them." He muttered.

"Bombs? What... what do you mean? What happened?" She pressed.

He let out a long sigh.

"Are you familiar with the acronym 'MAD'?" He asked, after some time.

"Um... I... I don't... think so?" Twilight replied, pursing her lips slightly.

"It stands for Mutually Assured Destruction. It's... basically the nations of the world saying 'If you kill us, we'll kill everyone'." He explained, his eyes downcast the whole time.

"Oh my gosh..." Twilight whispered.

"One country got sick of another county, so they nuked them. Then that county and their allies nuked back. Then the allies of that country nuked the allies of the other country, and so on... Before I knew it, seven billion people were dead." He shook his head.

Twilight's jaw dropped.

"S-seven... billion? As in, with a 'B'?" She asked in shock.

"Not initially... See, when that much shit gets thrown up into the sky from two thousand nukes going off within a few days, the clouds of ash can block out the sun... Makes the world cold... plants and animals starve... and then people starve..."

"I... Oh my gosh..." Twilight shook her head as the weight of the truth settled on her.

"That was about... four years ago now? Only people left alive these days are the ones who had enough supplies to last this long in the first place... or the means to take them." Cooper finished, taking a sobering breath.

"Cooper... I... I'm so sorry that happened... You must have been devastated." Twilight said, gently reaching to his shoulder with a hoof.

Cooper immediately stiffened at her touch, making her pause. After a few moments, Twilight brought her hoof back down to the floor and bit her lip as she looked away.

"I... thanks..." Cooper whispered, pointedly keeping his gaze directed as far away from the lavender alicorn as possible.

An uncomfortable silence filled the air between them for quite some time before Twilight decided to speak up.

"So... Is this the place you wanted to get to in the city? Or are we going to keep looking around for supplies?" She asked.

"No, no we're only here because I recognized the building and thought you could rest here for a bit. It actually worked pretty well since this place has access to the sewers. If we go through there, we might be able to avoid anyone watching the streets. Plus there's no snow down there and all the water is completely frozen, so it should be a little easier to walk around." Cooper replied.

"Well that's great then! Uh, won't it smell really bad though." She said, a squeamish look on her face.

Cooper chuckled.

"No, it shouldn't be too bad. Everything's frozen, remember?"

Twilight sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof.

"Right, right. Just never been a fan of walking into a sewer, hehe."

"They have sewers where you're from?" Cooper asked, tilting his head to the side.

Twilight paused for a moment in thought. She gave a deliberate and critical look his way before slowly answering, much to Cooper's confusion.

"We do. Although that's mostly only in the big cities. Smaller towns just use magic or the old fashioned outhouse to deal with those kinds of things." She explained.

"Huh... Sounds like you've just got your own little pony society, huh?" He responded with some amusement.

"Well we do have some impressive cities... but I don't think anything we have is quite as large as this city." She replied with a shrug.

"What's the weather like? Must be nicer than here." Cooper pressed, showing some genuine interest in the conversation.

"Well, the pegasai decide the weather in most places. Some places just have unicorns using magic to control the weather, but where I live it's pretty much all pegasai." She recounted.

He only blinked owlishly at her for a moment before shaking his head clear.

"Jesus..." He mumbled.

"What?"

"Sorry... Just still trying to come to terms with the fact that unicorns and pegasai exist and can apparently control the weather."

"Well, how does the weather run around here?" Twilight asked.

Cooper chuckled mirthlessly.

"Weather just does what it pleases here. Not like it changes much though. It goes from cold and snowy to colder and snowier." He shrugged.

"Oh... So this whole world is just like the Everfree forest... minus the cold, I suppose." Twilight recollected with a small shiver.

"No idea where or what that is, but I guess." He replied.

"Well, it's a strange place. The clouds move on their own, the animals are dangerous, and the plant life can give you a nasty case of poison joke or worse... Not many ponies want to venture in there just because it's so unpredictable." She replied.

"Makes sense... Almost sounds like Australia." Cooper shrugged.

"Where's that?"

"Other side of the planet."

"I see... I imagine things aren't much better over there than they are here." Twilight discerned.

"Doubt it." He replied.

Another tense silence filled the air between them for several minutes as they thought over what to say. Eventually, Cooper decided to be the one to break the silence.

"So... These pegasai back where you live... how do they control the weather?" He asked.

"Well... usually they just move clouds around from place to place, but depending on what weather is called for, they might have to bring in some specific equipment to make it colder or warmer." Twilight explained.

"They move clouds?" He cocked an eyebrow back.

"Mmhmm." She nodded.

"Huh... How about that... Think they could move the clouds here?" He pressed, glancing out the window.

Twilight bit her lip.

"I... I wish... but no. I tried to move clouds here and I just kept falling through. I'm not sure what it is about your world. The only magic I really have is my unicorn magic, and even then, it takes a lot out of me to affect anything other than myself. Hence why teleporting you took so much out of me." She elaborated.

Cooper's eyes fell to the floor, and he sighed.

"Eh... kinda figured, to be honest. Sounded too good to be true."

"I-I'm sure that there's ways that I could help you fix your world... I mean... Once I get home, I could come back properly equipped to help out, and maybe even figure out how to solve this global winter of yours." Twilight suggested, hopefully.

Cooper didn't reply for a moment. He glanced up at the window once more and frowned. It was small, but Twilight could faintly detect the barest hint of sadness in his eyes.

"I appreciate the idea, but I think we both know you're never coming back to this hellhole if we can get you home." He replied.

"Cooper, I-" She began.

"I haven't seen the sun in four years, Twilight... There's no fixing this. Might as well just stay home and try to forget you were ever here." He cut her off.

"I.. wha- you... but... four years without the sun?" Twilight responded, a deep frown on her face.

"Yeah... Just, tell me one thing." He said.

"Y-yes?"

"What does it feel like? To look up at the sun and feel its warmth? To see birds chirping in a blue sky?" He asked.

"Do... do you not remember?" Twilight fearfully asked.

"Just answer the question... please."

Twilight pursed her lips and looked away. She took a few moments to collect her thoughts before slowly explaining.

"It's... it's beautiful... The warmth fills your whole body, and you feel so light and calm... The birds relax your ears, and the soft breeze just kind of... makes you feel like flying." She responded.

"Good... that sounds nice. I think I'd like to see that again, someday." He wistfully replied, his gaze lingering on the blackened skies outside.

Author's Note

https://youtu.be/HvUBjq7s6Kk

4 years is a loooooooong time