Kyle groaned as his eyes groggily opened, facing the wall of his dorm. He slowly got out of bed, shut off his alarm, and stretched, turning to see that Scootaloo wasn’t in her bed.

Kyle shrugged and figured that she got called in early. He quickly dressed for the fall weather thanks to clothes from the old Lost and Found boxes. He holstered his mother’s revolver and slung his baseball bat on his back. He opened the door and made his way down the hall.

“Morning, Kyle.” A student waved to his left.

He waved back and made his way down the stairs. He didn’t waste any time as he made his way into the cafeteria, where a relatively small line was formed. The wait wasn’t as long as he thought it was going to be, and was given a small package of peanut butter crackers. He decided to save them for later, not feeling hungry at the moment.

He marched out of the cafeteria and made his way to the armory- a small classroom at the end of the hall labelled as such. Keeping inventory was Wiz Kid.

“Hey, Wiz.” He said, reaching for his usual weapon of choice—an M16 rifle.

“Morning, Kyle. You’re up early.” Wiz said, writing the rifle as withdrew.

“Yeah... well, you know, ‘early bird gets the worm' and all that,” He grabbed a few loaded mags, “Hey, isn’t your anniversary with Curly Winds coming up, soon? Got anything planned?”

Wiz smiled.

“Yeah-- next week, and, no, not really. I mean, what can we really do, you know? Share crackers over candlelight?”

Kyle chuckled at that.

“I mean, the little things count, right? See you in a bit.” He said, slinging the rifle over his back.

Kyle made his way outside, towards the guard tower on the western corner of the wall, where one of the soldiers stationed at the school climbed down.

“Morning, Kyle—it's all yours.” He gestured.

Kyle nodded.

"Thank you, sir."

He climbed up the ladder, sitting atop the two-story tower, and looked out into the horizon for any threats.

The sun stood brightly right in the center of the sky as Kyle spotted his relief—Rainbow Dash.

“Hey, Rainbow! Why did they put you on wall duty?” He asked her.

Rainbow sighed.

“Button Mash came down with something. We think it’s just a cold, but we can’t take the risk... so I took his shift.”

Kyle hummed.

“Hope he gets better. Hey, have you seen Scootaloo?”

Rainbow sighed.

“Let her tell you.” She said, making her way up the ladder.

Kyle shrugged and went to turn in his rifle. On his way, he spotted three soldiers talking with Celestia in a classroom with the door cracked open.

“I'm sorry, Celestia... the mansion’s gone. Someone must’ve torched it at some point... We didn’t find any bodies, so there’s a chance that maybe--”

“Let’s not get our hopes up. Thank you for going out that far.” Celestia said to them.

Kyle heard footsteps and quickly went towards the armory, not wanting to start any trouble...

He returned his rifle to Wiz Kid and went back upstairs and into his room, where Scootaloo was back and still sketching.

“Hey...” She said, stopping her drawing and turning towards him.

“Hey.” He said back, sitting on the sofa they scavenged about a week ago.

Scootaloo set down her sketch book and walked to the couch, sitting next to Kyle.

“So how was sitting in that boring tower all afternoon?”

Kyle chuckled.

“Couldn’t have been as exciting as whatever you were up to...”

She smirked and reached into her pack, holding up an old GameStation console and two controllers.

“I... was up to this.”

Kyle’s eyes widened as Scootaloo got up and started hooking them up.

“Hey, whoa, whoa—you think we’re cleared to plug that in?”

Scootaloo playfully rolled her eyes.

“2 hours a day while the power is on, that was the deal Celestia and I made.” She said.

Kyle smiled.

“Where did you even get that thing? I haven’t seen any of them since I was, like, 8.”

Scootaloo winced.

“I... kinda went on the run, today.”

Kyle jumped.

“You went on the run?!”

Scootaloo held up her hands.

“Yeah, sorry, didn’t think it’d make you all jealous.” She laughed.

“No-- just... worried. You know it’s only getting worse, out there.”

Scootaloo’s smile faded.

“Yeah, I know... I just—I don’t know, I don’t wanna spend the rest of my life cooped up in this tiny little building with the same people, you know? I thought this thing was gonna play out in a few weeks and we’d go back to normal, and maybe laugh about it all years from now... but that’s looking less and less likely...”

Kyle’s panic faded, and worry quickly took its place.

She turned and saw Kyle’s face.

“Sorry-- guess I had to get that outta my system...”

“No, no, don’t be—we're roomies, remember? It’s kinda our second job to vent to each other...”

Scootaloo chuckled.

“Yeah... wanna vent over some Dragon Wizard Skateboard Fighters?” She waved the controller towards him.

Kyle smirked and took the controller.

“You’re on.”

The sun had set, allowing darkness to set in over the high school. The lights inside the room were off save for two lit candles, and the two sat on the couch, going through old magazines.

“Hey, did you know that this celebrity decided to divorce this celebrity? Oh, the humanity!” Scootaloo giggled.

“Careful, don’t let Rarity hear you mocking her people...” Kyle joked.

They both shared a laugh.

“Good one...”

The two sighed and sat in silence.

“I never really asked you, but... do you know what happened to Twilight?”

Scootaloo stayed quiet.

“You don’t wanna know, Kyle... you really don’t.”

Before Kyle could say anything back, a single shot rang out from outside.

“The fuck was that?!” Kyle asked, springing up and starting to make his way out the door.

“Kyle, wait!” Scootaloo whisper-shouted, grabbing his arm and pulling him back in.

“What, what is it?”

She signaled him to be quiet and Kyle nodded, looking out their window to see headlights from the main gate.

“...know the drill.” He heard a voice from the gate say.

One-by-one, the doors to the classrooms opened, and several students made their way down the stairs.

“Hey, what’s going on?” He tried to ask one of them, who ignored him and went on her way.

Scootaloo tried to step towards him to stop him, but he was already out the door, following the commotion.

He peeked out the window and saw as the students each stood in a row, lining themselves up.

“What the fuck...?” He asked himself.

He carefully snuck down the steps and saw a few students watching from inside. He noticed that they were either men or kids around his age, boys and girls...

“Hey... what’s the plan, here?” He asked them.

They all looked to him and started whispering to each other.

“No-one told him...?”

“What do we say?”

A male student took a breath.

“Just stay in here, no matter what happens... and we’ll get through it.”

He went to ask why, but he looked outside and saw as two men went down the rows. One of them let out a dragged-out whistle.

“It never ceases to amaze me with the options you have, here, Celly...”

Kyle turned to see Celestia watching the scene unfold.

He saw Sunset and the others, making his way towards them.

“Hey-- what the hell’s happening?”

They each looked at him and hung their heads.

“The exchange...”

He looked back out and saw as one man pointed at one of the women lined up.

“That one.”

She immediately shouted as the other two grabbed her, starting to pull her away.

“No! Let go of me!” She shouted, desperately trying to break free.

Celestia hung her head, knowing there was nothing she could do.

“Celestia, do something, please...!” The woman wailed, but to no response.

Celestia looked away, a gesture that caused Kyle to start stepping out and reaching for his mother’s revolver. Only for Sunset and Rainbow to hold him back.

“Don’t... just stay hidden...” Sunset told him.

She continued to kick and scream to no avail as they finally got her out of the gates.

"She's gonna be a fun one... I can tell already. See you next week, Celly, and remember-- we got eyes everywhere..." The ringleader laughed, closing the gates behind him.

Her screams were still audible as she was loaded up and their vehicle began driving away...

The dust settled, with Celestia raising her head at last.

“Everyone back to their rooms... it’s over.”

Not an hour later, Kyle pounded on Celestia’s door, absolutely furious.

“Celestia!” He called out, knocking some more.

The door opened, and Celestia stood in front of Kyle.

“I understand you have some questions--”

“Questions?! Oh, I’m way past that—you let those freaks just take that girl away! You turned your back on her!” He shouted.

“Kyle, please try to understand, there’s nothing we could do about--”

“’Nothing we could do’? Yeah, the girl who can make force fields out of diamond from thin air or the other one who can bend solid steel or the one who can run laps around the state in minutes can’t put up a fight--”

“We tried, Kyle...”

Kyle paused. He heard murmuring behind him and turned to see that a crowd had formed to see the commotion he was causing.

“Come inside... I’ll explain everything.” Celestia said, making her way to her seat.

Kyle decided to oblige, closing the door behind him.

Once the door was closed, Celestia held her head in her hands.

“It was a few weeks into it. We dug in, soldiers were with us, we felt safe… But then they arrived. The Caribou, they call themselves. They came to our gates, just like they did today, and demanded whatever and whoever they wanted. We said no, and put up a fight. But no matter what we did, it just wasn’t enough. We fought... we fought like hell, but nothing worked... they always came back and hit us, with weapons and technology we just can’t compete with.”

Kyle leaned back, taking in everything Celestia was saying.

“Twilight was our heavy hitter. She was able to lift objects with her mind—no matter the size... cars, tanks, guns, she took it all away from them... but somehow, they took her down. They came in while we were sleeping, and took her away overnight.”

Kyle’s eyes widened.

“Twilight was... kidnapped?”

Celestia nodded, her eyes starting to water.

“When she was gone, none of us stood much of a chance. Rarity helped, as well as Applejack, but without means of directly stopping them, we were sitting ducks. They came back and offered a... ‘trade’.” Her voice shook but deepened on her last word.

“...What was it?”

Celestia deeply inhaled.

“Weekly, we have to give someone to them. Any one person that they choose... along with a portion of our supplies.”

Kyle stayed silent, reflecting on the situation.

“We had too. If we didn’t... then they would’ve taken all of us, or worse. I allowed anyone who wanted to leave to do so, but they quickly caught on to that. When it started, my sister Luna and my niece... they both volunteered to delay students being taken, but that was over a month ago...” Her voice was shaking as her throat began to burn.

Tears flowed freely, now, and Kyle leaned in.

“So, now, we’re stuck here... As far as I know, they have eyes everywhere—maybe even in the school. If we try to leave, they will know... all we can do is dig in and hope someone... stronger takes them out.”

Kyle stayed silent.

“I’m sorry... I had no idea.”

“It’s fine. How would you? If you wish to leave, I understand...”

Kyle shrugged.

“And what, just walk away? Not happening. I came here, I’m seeing it through. I’d rather deal with those creeps than zombies, any day.”

Celestia chuckled, a sound that caught Kyle off-guard.

“Easy for you to say, they won’t take you...”

Morning quickly came as Kyle made his way back toward the guard tower, still uncertain of what to think over last night...

He climbed up top, looking down on the small desk inside and spotting a carving into the wood.

“A.B was here”.

Kyle pondered on the initials for a brief moment, having never noticed them, before... As he looked, he heard someone climbing up the ladder and turned to see Celestia.

“Hello, Kyle...”

Kyle jumped a bit, surprised.

“Hey...”

Kyle glanced back out the horizon for a moment.

“I wanted to check up on you after last night... I apologize for keeping you in the dark for as long as I did... I should’ve told you the moment we found you.”

Kyle shook his head.

“Don’t worry about it... what can you do?”

She nodded and the two sat in silence for a moment.

“So, Jason attended here?”

Celestia nodded.

“Yes... he was a fine student, never got in too much trouble.”

Kyle nodded.

"I didn't wanna say anything back there, but your niece... was her name Cadence?"

Celestia smiled.

"I had a suspicion you were that Kyle..."

Kyle laughed, excited to hear that his suspicion was right.

"I remember her watching Twilight and me when we were kids!"

Celestia smiled.

"I know she loved looking after others. It's good to remember the good things, especially nowadays..."

Kyle nodded.

"Yeah... I'm sorry about what happened to her."

"Thank you..."

The two fell silent again until Kyle looked back at the etching.

“So, who left this?” He asked her.

She looked and deeply sighed.

“Apple Bloom. Applejack’s sister...”

He perked up, he never knew Applejack had a sister...

“Let me guess, those bastards took her?”

Celestia shook her head.

“No. She disappeared shortly after Twilight was kidnapped.”

Kyle nodded but quickly froze.

“Wait... Celestia, was she on duty when the Caribou took Twilight?”

She hesitated.

“Yes... I believe she was. Why...?”

Kyle clicked his tongue.

“I don't know... call it a hunch," He said, beginning to form a theory but knowing he will need more to work with before jumping to conclusions, "I appreciate the concern, Celestia, but... I'll be okay."

With that, she started climbing down the tower, leaving Kyle to peer out into the horizon, his mind also wandering and trying to make sense of the entire situation...

He reached and held the packet of peanut butter crackers. He opened the package and started eating when an idea hit him.

An idea he had for a while but could never pull off before... but maybe, just maybe... he could now.

He looked out the tower and saw Celestia starting to enter the building. He quickly climbed back down and sprinted to her.

“Wait!”

Celestia paused and turned to him.

“What if we had more to offer them? More than people... what if we had an entire supermarket’s worth of supplies...?”

Celestia hesitated to speak for a moment.

“You have my attention...”

Author's Note

Already taking advantage of a full reset!

The Caribou, the main antagonists in the Fall of Equestria universe, was included near the very end of my original telling of the story, so I decided why not include them here? To those who know, you have a basic idea of what's to come. Those who don't, stay tuned...