CH. 9: Shade

One step.  Another.

Twilight and her friends had been on the road for what seemed like ages, and had long since run out of food.  Everyone was exhausted, even the hyper Pinkie Pie, who was trotting along slowly.  She hadn't spoken for days.

"Hey Twilight, are you absolutely sure this is the way?"

Twilight looked back to see Rarity trotting along behind her, sweating.  The first time the white mare had begun to perspire, she, like any other time, began to mildly panic.  She yelled to her friends to stop, only to have them laugh at her after she told them her reason.  Apparently Rarity did not find it funny, and at one point her friends had to stop and walk several miles back because they had kept walking when Rarity insisted that she would not walk a single step until she was "properly cooled."

Eventually, her friends found her, still routed to the same spot that she had refused to move from.  They tried to reason with her, even tried to use force (Rainbow Dash can be quite aggressive), but the unicorn refused to budge.  Her friends were almost ready to give up when a small pack of Trotters emerged from the woods.  Instead of killing the few monsters, which would have been easy, Twilight ordered that no one shoot.  The Trotters crept closer and closer to Rarity until she finally sped off in fear, screaming as she went.  After the fashion expert's fearful incident, Twilight and the gang shot the remaining Trotters, and Rarity hadn't complained since.  However, she had been questioning Twilight's sense of direction a bit too excessively.

"Yes, for the hundredth time, Rarity, I know this passage.  We take these train tracks up to Ponyville, and then we keep going to Canterlot."*

Although Twilight's confidence in the truth of what she said was displayed all over her face, Rarity was still unsure.  She was about ask another question nervously when Pinkie Pie spoke for the first time in days.

"Look over there!  It's a house!"

All the mares (except for Lyra, who remained perfectly unphased) gasped, some at the fact that there might be some other pony nearby, some at the fact that there might be supplies in said house, but most simply because Pinkie had said something.  After looking at a very excited-looking Pinkie for some time, those same mares followed the pink mare's gaze.  Sure enough, there was a gray, worn-out, two story house.  Twilight stopped for a moment, then decided to go pay a visit to it with her friends.  Twilight changed the party's course, then hid her weapon and ordered the other armed ponies to so as well.  Most obeyed without question, but, like most times, Rainbow was an exception.

"Why should I?"

Twilight pointed a hoof in the direction the rest of her friends were going and said, "If - not saying there is, but if - there is a mare or colt staying in there, I don't want us to come off as hostile.  We're out to make peace, not start a war."

Rainbow Dash scrunched up her face in confusion and asked, "A war?"

Twilight sighed.  "You know what I mean.  We don't know how many ponies could be in there, and I don't even want to think about how heavily they're armed.  If Applejack-" Twilight shuddered a little as she briefly remembered the orange mare and the guilt accompanied by it, "If Applejack could get hold of guns, you never know who might also have them."

After a bit of consideration, Rainbow Dash nodded her head in agreement.  The two mares ceased conversing and caught up to the rest of the gang, who were quickly approaching the lone home.  They were almost to the small porch in front of the house's front door when its top story windows were lifted.  The collection of mares curiously stopped their advance as a loud, booming voice was broadcasted across the vast plain they occupied.

"STOP, OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE!"

The ponies on the ground looked up to the second floor in confusion as long barrels of guns soon took the place of the emptiness that had occupied the windows' frames moments before.

Although most of the ponies stopped in tracks out of fear, one continued to move.  Twilight quickly maneuvered herself directly in front of Scootaloo to protect her.

After a tension-filled minute, the voice emanating from the house demanded for them to state their business.  Rainbow Dash was the first to respond.

"What's it to you?!"

The menacing barrels took aim at the mare.

Twilight glared at the cyan pegasus.  After the brief moment, she turned to the house  "We are wondering we could come in and talk."

The voice paused for a moment, as if considering something, and then one of barrels in the windows disappeared.  In its place poked out a small gray head with glasses.  Although she could not get good look at the pony, Twilight could see that he was an earthpony, a male, and young.  Not too young, but maybe in his early twenties.

While Twilight was examining him, the stallion yelled out to the group.  "Lay down your bags!"

After a brief confused moment, Twilight Sparkle realized that he didn't trust them.  She supposed that she wouldn't trust herself either if she was in his position, and silently obeyed.  The rest of the pack soon followed.

The head in the window examined them carefully to make sure they had listened, then nodded his head and said, "Alright, you can come in."

As Twilight and her friends all sat down on the red couch in their host's living room, the purple mare caught a good look at him.  From his white mane and tail to his gray body, from his black glasses to his bleached watch, Twilight saw that the stallion was completely devoid of color.  Even his tool vest was totally grayscale.  The only thing that had any color were the tools he was carrying in his vest, the wall behind him, and the sniper rifle slung across his back.

Twilight then realized that he must have trusted them somewhat, otherwise the weapon he had holstered would not have been something so inappropriate for the current situation; snipers weren't exactly best at close range.

"Why are you here?"

Twilight snapped back from her analyzing of the gray colt to cold reality, where she thought about his question.  She knew why she had led her friends into this building, to get supplies, but she couldn't flat out say that; she didn't think the colt in front of her would take to kindly to raiders, no matter how polite they were.  Instead, she attempted to buy time.

"What's your name?"

"Shade.  Now answer."

Twilight looked for something else to distract him with as she tried to think of another reason.  Finally, she settled on his cutie mark; it was a silver gear, with the spokes arranged in a strange pattern.

"What about your cutie mark?"

Shade paused briefly to examine it himself, then shook his head and faced Twilight.  "Tell me why your here."

Twilight realized she had no choice but to answer; the host was not letting up.  With a sigh, Twilight pointed a hoof at her friends and admitted, "We've been out on these plains for around a week, and we've completely run out of, well, everything.  We were wondering...  If you would..."

"Give you some supplies?"

Twilight nodded her head, and Shade put a hoof to his head in thought.  "Maybe," he said after a moment, then added, "I'll have to go check the storage.  Don't move."

As he stepped down into his basement, the mares started to chat.

"You think he's gonna give us anything?"

"Of course, darling."

"I don't know...  He said maybe..."

"That probably means he will."

Twilight interrupted to constant chatter to speak.  "It doesn't matter, girls."  All of the mares turned to face Twilight, who filled the air with her voice.  "If he doesn't have any supplies - or can't give any - I want us all to leave.  Harassing him isn't going to help, and don't forget we're not armed.  Should he decide we're too much of a pain in the flank, we're all defenseless."

"I'm not!"

Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash, who was throwing a combination of punches into an invisible target.  "Shut up, Dash."

When Shade returned from the storage, the eight ponies that were occupying his house were found scattered the living room.  After entering the room and ushering them back to the red couch, he exhaled deeply and reported, "I'm sorry, but we can't spare anything."

Despite Twilight's warning, many of the mares were about to object.  Twilight saw this, and quickly got up.

"Thanks anyway." she spoke, shaking hooves with him in the process.  Shade nodded his head, and the princess's scholar turned to leave.

"But, mom!"

Twilight looked over to the lone objecting voice, and noticed Scootaloo.  Although Twilight knew Scootaloo needed food badly, there was no choice but to leave; she didn't want to push her luck, and she didn't trust the gray stallion any more than he trusted them.

"Come on, Scoots."

"But-"

"Now."

Scootaloo looked down at the ground, silent.  The orange filly was very hungry, and felt that the situation they were currently in was unfair.  However, she knew she couldn't disobey Twilight, so she eventually trudged over to join her.  The other mares soon followed, each remembering and understanding what Twilight had said before Shade gave them the bad news.  Without any form of goodbye from the host, the group gathered on the porch, looking out to the vastness of the empty plains.

That's when they saw the huge horde before them.

That's when the huge horde saw them.

That's when they heard the door click behind them, locked.