After an hour or so of waiting, Rose and Tempest left the storage room of the record shop. They had not mentioned what had happened in its confines and Rose was content to not mention it again. Instead they got another long drink of cool water, then silently stalked through the small shop to the front door. Tempest checked to see if they were clear, and they were.

What had happened in the storage room was dangerous for them both. They had each extolled how letting ponies get close only got them hurt, and yet Tempest had violated that virtue. Rose would not, though. She knew how Tempest felt about her faith and knew it to be for the best to not get close. They had saved each other's lives, they had been through some of the worst things a pony could imagine, and yet Rose could not bear to call her a friend.

The streets were silent, the monsters having long since searched it for the two Wonderbolts and found nothing. Their noises were even more distant and quiet, their dwindling numbers adding to that effect. It was a welcome yet eerie change of pace.

They had no more alleys to use, so that meant trotting down city streets as they were intended to be used. They went to the other side of the street, where the buildings were a little taller and cast a bit more of a shadow, to move westwards down the street. Rose took the lead as she knew the city better and could more easily guide them.

They took a right at the intersection ahead of them, and then they finally saw it. The beautiful north gate was visible now, the high white walls raised high above the walls around it and it beckoned like a forlorn lover. It was still quite a ways off, especially in the heat and in their condition, but it was now visible at least. That meant they were close, it meant freedom was all the more attainable.

Just because the world around them seemed safe didn’t mean it was, not by a long shot. They knew that better than most ponies and they had to act like it. They crept slowly along the sun-baked streets and kept their heads on a swivel. Their hooves never dragged and they never stepped heavily. Even their breaths were as silent as they could make them. If they got spotted this time, it would be through luck on the part of the monsters and not their own gaff.

They made it a few blocks before they finally had to stop. The promise of salvation so close at hoof had pushed them a little more than was wise. Exhaustion came slowly, and then all at once. Time in the storage room had let her coat dry and already it was once again soaked all the way through. With no wind, no reprieve was given from the oppressive heat and before Rose knew it she was stumbling on her hooves.

“Okay let’s get inside somewhere and rest…” Tempest steadied the pegasus and got her right on her hooves. They had been outside for what had to be twenty minutes or less and yet that was all they could manage. Lack of food probably played into that, but Rose couldn’t help but feel upset at herself for not being able to push harder. They were so close!

Physical limitations triumphed over will, though. Rose could feel her strength failing and she could feel her empty stomach call out for sustenance. It was a fool’s gambit to keep pushing oneself on little sleep and nothing to eat. Her head finally won out over her heart and she nodded then guided them towards a little corner store.

It was like something you might see in Manehattan, a simple little corner shop meant for the convenience of those living in the area, but a lot more expensive. The usual convenience fees applied, but to already expensive goods. Bottles of sparkling water, bags of food covered with labels that extolled their healthiness, and dozens of magazines that had now outdated gossip on the front pages littered the small cramped space.

There was a back room and that’s where they would rest, but first they gathered up as much food as they could handle. They also got as many bottles of overpriced water as they could carry on top of it. They were going to have a proper rest, not a panicked one where they weren’t sure if the building was going to come down on top of them or not. They would probably get their fill of whatever they wanted, cool down, and maybe take a quick nap.

The back room was surprisingly spacious. Products neatly lined the walls, some in boxes while others were in little shelving units and ready to replace whatever was out in the main room. A desk was pressed against the far wall with a high backed chair in front of it. On top of the desk was a little digital clock that handily informed them of the time: Eight forty-seven PM.

It was surprising, but easily ignored. In the end, it really meant nothing. Time did not inform anything anymore, from their sleep schedules to the rules those things outside followed. It was all anarchy against the concept of organized time. Rose briefly considered that on a normal day she would be winding down in her bunk and about to sleep, but that was all the consideration it was owed.

Tempest took up residence in the chair while Rose pulled up a milk crate and sat on it. They dumped their haul of goods onto the floor between them and picked through it for what they thought looked good. All of the food was hard or stale by this point and hardly tasty, but it was something. It was fuel that they desperately needed to continue.

“So tell me about your parents.” Tempest asked as Rose was chugging a bottle of expensive and warm water. “They seem to mean a lot to you.” Small talk, or at least an attempt. Rose didn’t want to engage with it, but just ignoring it would only serve to frustrate Tempest. Rose needed her cooperation, otherwise the other mare might rescind their agreement. Rose had to play along for now.

“Nothing much to tell.” Rose said with a shrug before crushing the plastic bottle she had just finished draining. “My father, Solaris, married my mother, Sunflower, sometime in their twenties. We live on land, and in a house, that’s been in my family for generations. We grow roses, it’s where I got my name, to sell along with all of the food we need to live.” Quick concise answer. Would she elaborate if prodded? Maybe.

“Huh.” Tempest answered flatly. “Your parents are both pegasi…?”

“No, my mom’s an earth pony.” Rose shifted uncomfortably and her wing twitched. “They live in the middle of nowhere so they should be safe, if that’s what you were trying to ask.” She thought about her father’s condition, though. Safe, maybe, but was he okay? Her hooves squeezed the plastic between them a little tighter. The house wasn’t the best insulated and could get pretty hot in the summer. In this heat? It would be unbearable…he was already sick and couldn’t fly anymore.

“You okay?” Tempest reached out with a hoof.

Rose snapped out of her spiral and backed away from the approaching mare. She could only nod. “Yeah, just…thinking.” That wasn’t a lie, but it also wasn’t the truth she wanted to get out. “I haven’t seen them in a while, you know?”

“I haven’t seen my parents in over a decade, so yeah.” Tempest nodded and took a big bite from a granola bar. “They’re unicorns, Cream Soda and Cherry Syrup, It was a mostly unicorn village so they’re probably okay just…not themselves.” The names of Tempest’s parents caught her off guard. She was expecting something more edgy and not so sweet sounding. The unicorn’s flanks were still wrapped or else Rose would try to see what her cutie mark was. “It’s a milkshake with a cherry on top.” Tempest chuckled as she saw Rose try to look. “It’s…a long story. What about yours?”

“Mine?” Rose didn’t think about her cutie mark much, or at all really. She looked down at one of her flanks and spotted the white rose that stood out amongst her red fur. “Traditionally, white roses stand for innocence or purity. They’re used for weddings a lot.” She wanted to say it, she had it because she was still pure. Despite everything, she was destined to remain pure of heart and of faith. Her cutie mark even decreed it. Once again, she held back and bit her tongue and uttered another half truth instead. “They were my specialty at home.”

“Hmm. Neat.”

They fell into silence again and picked their little hoard of food clean and drank all the water they could manage. Rose did not want to speak and Tempest wasn’t good with small talk, so they were both happy to focus on more internal matters. Rose was lost in thought about the future and what it held. There was still so much to figure out once they got out of the city. They were already running on nearly empty every day and that was in a city where food could be found. What would they do in the open country before they could rendezvous with Tempest’s allies?

“One of the first days down in the dungeon you said you learned to keep your…beliefs to yourself pretty early on after coming here.” Tempest broke the silence again with more prattle. Rose raised an eyebrow and tried to remember the interaction, she did and she nodded. “What happened? Were ponies really that mean to you over something so…silly?”

Rose’s eye twitched.

“Yeah.” She shook that feeling off and nodded. “I had this necklace-” her hoof went to her neck where it had set for most of her life. She couldn’t seem to help herself and she did spill that precious little tidbit from her personal life. “-it was made of gold and the pendant was shaped like Celestia’s cutie mark with a beautiful ruby at the center.” She could still feel it turn over and over again in her hooves, she could feel its worn edges and curves still. “It was something to use while praying, just something small and comforting. The…the ruby was enchanted to give off warmth.”

Tears started to form in her eyes. There was nothing she could do to fight them off as she remembered the little trinket and the day her father had given it to her. Every moment they spent together out in the sun’s glorious light learning, working and praying had their matching necklaces front and center. Her heart hurt from the thought, and now she knew her father was dying or dead and she would never share any of those things with him again. Now every happy moment was behind them, consigned to memory.

“I was on patrol alone, my first patrol alone.” Rose whispered as the memory kept plowing forward through the defenses she had so rigorously put up. “Some guards saw me praying near one of the ramparts and cornered me. They called me every name in the book and snatched my amulet…then they threw it off of the mountain.” It was the first day she had ever felt the cold, but it wasn’t the last. “I spent days looking for it. I reported it to everypony I could, I tried to get them punished, and instead I was given a demerit for wearing something against regulations while on the job…”

That was it. That was the moment she retreated into her shell, where she kept silent and kept her faith where nopony could see it. Nopony cared, nopony even noticed her as long as she kept to herself. She just did her job from that point on out and nothing more unless it was in direct service to Celestia. She now knew even that was a mistake.

In all of those years since even her thoughts had become chaste and decent to the common ponies, as if they could read her mind and see her faith through her thoughts. How foolish she had been to do so, to suppress herself and cower before the gazes of the nonbelievers that filled the world. How awful it was in retrospect to feel shame for it.

Maybe that was why she had lost her wing. It was her sacrifice for having been so cowardly in her beliefs for so long. What was worse is that she was still doing it, even right now in front of Tempest. Why? Why could she not shake off this veil she insisted on wearing?

“I’m really sorry.” Tempest said before taking a long slow pull from her water bottle. “Ponies suck…” It was obvious that the unicorn didn’t know how to handle or address the little outburst. What she said was true though, so Rose nodded. “Hey listen, why don’t you sleep first? I’ll keep watch.”

Day Twenty-Eight

Rose had slept for a surprising four hours. It was probably the longest she had slept in over a week at this point, maybe since she had lost her wing even. When that was over, she and Tempest had switched places so the unicorn could get some rest in the big soft chair.

The clock now read about two in the ‘morning’ and Tempest was still sleeping. Rose had eaten a few of the granola bars and was now just waiting. Every once in a while her eyes would drift to the door that led out into the main store, but they were mainly focused on her fellow survivor.

That tiny slight from before they had decided to sleep still stuck in Rose’s mind. Just like Parade and Bulwark and Golden, she had called her faith silly. Maybe Rose had been playing it down, but that didn’t make it right. Rose had saved her life and that was the thanks she received. There was not even understanding or acceptance, just more belittling.

It was sickening. It was awful. It was unconscionable.

Rose found herself standing in front of the unicorn and her wing had the heavy glass bottle Tempest had given to her earlier gripped in its feathers. Violent thoughts filled her head, ones she had to beat back down as quickly and savagely as they appeared. Slowly, she backed away and sat back down. There was no need to be rash or violent, after all Rose still needed Tempest. They needed to get to the Storm King.

At least there, surrounded by creatures that weren’t ponies, her faith would be a curiosity and not a point of ridicule. They would see her as a crazy pony, not a crazy pony. Maybe then she could be more open and she extoll the virtues of her faith to others who did not see it as something to be condemned immediately. She could finally be accepted.

Then they would come back to Equestria and she would show everypony else the light. After this how could there be any doubt? The survivors would see them come in and strip the power from the alicorns and the unicorns and they would see divine deliverance. They would see the world as she did: with bright eyes and a heart full of love and faith.

There was no alternative, she was sure of that. If this was cured would the ponies try to piece this mess of a country back together? How? How could any earth pony or pegasus look at a unicorn, a creature that had turned monstrous and whose tribe had killed an unknown but likely staggering amount of the population, and seek peace with them? It was not possible. The ponies of Equestria would need a new way forward, they would need a light to guide them through ponykind’s darkest chapter.

Rose was not that light, but she was willing to show it to them.

Author's Note

Okay I SWEAR we're almost done.

Like 3 more chapters I think. If I do this right and nothing else pops up.