Cinder silently cursed as her leg banged into an open drawer of the desk in the small office, and it seems she wasn't the first to poke her muzzle into this building.

“I heard something this way.” A muffled voice said from beyond the closed door and she gritted her teeth as she heard hoofsteps approaching. She ducked down behind the desk, a 10mm pistol held in her mouth so the light of her horn wouldn't give her away as she heard the door open.

She could hear as somepony entered and her nose was assaulted by the scent of decay and unwashed body that all raiders seemed to have clinging to them. She was still mentally kicking herself for not paying closer attention to her surroundings before entering the building so she did not walk into a dead end.

Now she was playing cat and mouse with ponies that wanted to kill her or worse. They had almost gotten the jump on her but luckily they weren't too bright so couldn't keep their mouths shut before they got to the room she had been in so she had time to run, unfortunately they had a couple of them on the entrance who started shooting as soon as they saw her.

“Nothing here, let's go.” One said and she heard hoofsteps walking away and she held her breath. Then she heard movement behind her. “Found you~~” The voice said and she heard a gun being cock, she did the other thing she could and bucked feeling her back legs connect as a gun went off and the bullet whizzed past her ear as she got up and ran for the door being chased out by a strings of what the raider was going to do to her when he caught her.

Well he’d need to catch her first as she ran around the door and straight into another raider who was swinging a hammer held in his jaws, luckily for her his timing was off so she ran straight into him before he finished swinging and they went tumbling onto the ground.

She landed on top thankfully and used the stallion chest as a springboard to propel herself forward giving herself a small burst of speed and driving what air might have been left in his lungs out.

As she reached the end of the hall a shot rang out and she felt her flank grazed by the bullet before she dove around the corner. She had no choice; she had to get out of here which meant taking her chances with the two at the door.

As she turned another corner she came face to face with the surprised faces of the two raiders who had been a the door, seems they got impatient or came to see what was up with the gunshots she assumed, either way they were surprised to see her charging around the corner which gave her the second she needed to pull the trigger on her pistol. The round wasn't aimed so only caught one of the raiders in the shoulder as the over dove to the side but it gave her the opening to run past.

She burst into the lobby as she heard the clatter of the automatic rifle the raider who dodged was wielding and judging by the spread of the bullets, it either wasn't taken care of or the stallion barely knew how to use it, or both.

Either way he scored a lucky hit as she felt pain explode in her left shoulder and she stumbled slightly but a surge of adrenaline got her hooves back under her as she burst out the open lobby doors and into the street.

She took a hard left just as another burst of gunfire tore through the open lobby door she had just been as she galloped up the street as she heard the whoops and yells of the raiders that were chasing her, seems they either didn't bother to stop to help their injured companion or he had been carrying a healing potion, either was possible and she wasn't about to look as she turned down an alleyway as another bullet barely missed her.

She turned up the street as she reached the end of the alley and could hear the galloping hooves behind her, she used her magic to take the pistol from her mouth and fired 3 shots behind her without aiming and heard a yelp of surprise as the hooves stopped, though it was short lived and her shots were met with two shots and unlike her the raiders could semi aim.

She ran into the street to put a crashed skywagon between her and the raiders to give a few seconds of cover as she dove into another alleyway, her shoulder starting to burn where she had been shot.

She reached the end of the alley and turned down the street running along the buildings with a fence along the other side of the street with dead grass, trees and bushes beyond it and up ahead she saw an open gate in the face with a building not far beyond it with a door open.

Not having much choice to decide between it or the building she ran by with their closed door that may or may not be locked she ran for the gate as another shot ranged out behind her.

She reached the gate and ran through it and as she reached the doorway she heard the hooves behind her skidding to a stop, odd but not one she was going to dwell on as she ran through the door into the building that still had some lights working.

She ran through several doors and not hearing pursuit she slowed ehr gallop and stopped to catch her breath, groaning as the pain in her shoulder was getting worse. She sat on her haunches panting and noticing the floor littered with papers that seem to have spilled over from a stand that was broken, as she caught her breath she read what was on the papers.

WELCOME TO CRYSTAL HAVEN UNIVERSITY!

Cinder’s blood ran cold as she heard a voice from behind her.

“noitnetta lacidem eriuqer uoy od”

She spun around and was met with an expressionless face of a mare with gray fur and silver blue mane cut into a short bob with dark gray eyes wearing a toga, and the other detail about the mare was that Cinder could see the wall through her as she was face to face with the Ghost of Crystal Haven.

Author's Note

Decided to have this one start in the middle of the action as a sort of cold open.