8: Into The Breach

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        Las Pegasus. It used to be the city of lights, where people would go to throw away their money on the hopes to strike the jackpot. Now... its visitors gambled with their very lives. This was the largest frontline, the warhead of the griffin forces, slamming right down on the city. This wasn't the frontal assault that was Appleoosa, this wasn't a desert battle, this was urban combat, and you definitely were new to it. But you had to adapt, since the alternative was a violent death.

        You were in an old dusty building at the moment, you looked out of the broken glass pane in front of you cautiously. The world shook with the occasional far off explosion, which knocked some dust off of the ceiling and caused rocks to shake across the war torn streets. It was mid-morning, yet the streets were covered in shadow by the tall buildings. The city looked dead from the view you had, all the street corners were filled with broken into stores and shops, with nothing but dark abyss inside. You kneel down to feel the ground while keeping an eye on the streets. The low rumble that continued outside of the explosions let you know what you were waiting for.

        “Cover me,” You said to your squad mates behind you, who you told to hold their ground, but when asked why you just silenced them.

        You had just been issued this squad a week before, right when you were sent into the city, the battle plan called for large scale seek and destroy, but the close quarters reduced it down drastically, now, mostly, squads were fighting for blocks or simply waited in ambush of any griffin squads passing by. You were the commanding officer, and considering you went through a couple of squads a month, you didn't bother trying too hard remembering their names. You had a sniper, who was a pegasus, which turned out to be quite handy whenever your squad was pinned down or ambushed themselves, you think his name was Thunder Lane, or something. Then you were issued a medic, along with his medical supplies they gave him a Light machine gun, so the poor kid was weighed down quite a bit, but you knew what he was doing, you think he might have had the word tailor in his name. The last guy was a stereotypical gruff engie guy, a breach loaded rocket launcher on his back and mp5 at his hip, he was good with explosives, or making them at least, you usually handled the administering part of it. You didn't bother remembering his name, but you knew that under his armor he was a Zebra, which weren't all that different from Equestrians besides having tearing stripes across their body and a weird religion and even weirder alchemical powers.

        You leaned down the wall against the window and slowly snuck your way across the bottom of the frame to the doorway. Your squadmates took cover behind the wall and took aim to the streets. You waited for the the distinct roar.

        You take a peek out of the door frame and find your target, a Griffin tank. You pull your head back in, hoping it didn't spot you. You take the lack of a painful death and the grumble of the treads on the asphalt past the building you were in as a good indicator. As soon as the tank was past the shop you dart out from the building and run up to the back of it. You plant the jury-rigged charge you had in your hand onto the back of the tank and dive out of the way, signalling back to the building to blow it. The medic relays the signal and then...

BOOM

The explosion adds to the ones coming from other parts of the city. You look out to see if the blast had the desired effect. No dice. The tank’s engine is still sputtering, but it seems to have lost a tread anyway. You take the opportunity to run up the side of the tank before it can swing the turret around and before someone pops out to man the machine gun and tear you apart.

Making your way up the side of the tank, the hatch suddenly bursts open, presenting a potential threat. The Griffin puts a hand on the machine gun before you surprise him with a .45 bullet to the head from the side. He falls back into the tank, leaving the hatch open. Two other crew members spot you and pull out their sidearms to take aim at you. You jump behind the open hatch as three shots ring off of the metal covering. As the turret begins to move to shake you off, you pull a grenade from your vest and drop the explosive into the hatch without the pin. You rise and kick down the hatch and jump off the tank.

In the background you hear a muffled blast, and you make your way back to the building that contained your squad.

“You know we could’ve helped you, right Sarge?” The medic says to you. You sit against the wall and replace the magazine in your pistol with a fresh one. You never know.

“It was only one,” Tanks were small time, especially just one. You only needed your squad if you were outnumbered maybe 8 to 1. Maybe.

“It was one TANK. We have a demolitions expert for a reason. You're going to get yourself killed!” This kid had a mouth on him, you didn't particularly like it, but you didn't have a choice either. He was new, he'd learn sooner or later to let people who knew what they were doing do what they do.

“Just do what you're told private.” He looked a bit pissed at that, but didn't do anything. “S, anything new on the radio?” You’d grown accustomed to either calling them by rank or position, since you didn't know too many of them for long.

“Let me check sarge.” The sniper pegasus turned the dial on the radio hooked to his belt and listened in to the station from hq.

...Any squads in district A-6 report in...

...Griffin activity shown to be sweeping through area...

...At least twenty foot soldiers spotted...

What do you know, you were in A-6 at the moment. You looked at the sniper expectantly, when he just stood there you snapped at him.

        “Shit, private, answer him.” The pegasus jumped at your scolding and fumbled the radio up to his mouth and answered the operator.

        “This is squad delta 6, reporting from district A-6, any word on how to proceed, over.” You hoped to just let them pass this time, you needed some more ammo and didn't feel like wasting any right now.

        ...Intercept the patrol at all costs...

...medivac is operating in the district on their path...

...stop the advance and give them at least 15...

Well, might as well get started. “Alright, S, get top of the building on the west side of this building and try to pin them down, You, get to the second story of the same building and fire down into the street as best you can.” You pointed at the zebra which complied silently and made his way out, eliciting the pegasus to follow.

“Alright kid, you're with me, get to that pile of rubble over there and provide suppressive fire on my mark.”You pointed out to his destination. He just kind of stood there as if waiting for more. “Uhh...Get movin’,” He jumps and moves into position, you move to the adjacent side of the street and point your rifle down range.

For a moment everything comes to a silence. The distant echoes of shells going off in the town cease and the air seems to hold still for a moment. Focusing out onto the street ahead of you, a thick fog of dust covers any visibility past two hundred yards, so all you could really do is sit and wait. You knew the snipers were doing their job, mostly. That meant that the Griffins were going to be out of the air and walking down the street ahead of you, or so you hoped.

After a what seems like an eternity of tense silence,  you see movement outside of the fog moving towards you. HQ wasn't lying, there seemed to be about twenty of them coming out of the smoke. That was your mark, but you wanted the element of surprise. The medic looked over at you, impatiently waiting for an order to fire, you just wave him the order to wait. You stare at the Griffins directly in the eye, and they look back, taking your stillness as merely part of the rubble, you only expose your head, and diligently wait for the right opportunity to enact the ambush.

When the closest one is nearly fifty feet from you, you turn the dial on the radio on your shirt and whisper into it. “Fire,” you give the order to mainly your sniper and engineer, but the medic follows in suit.

It starts out with a rocket, the projectile whirls into view above you and then impacts into the center of the group, it hits one directly, turning the Griffin into a thick red mist swirling with the kicked up dirt from the blast. The Griffins scatter and take cover behind any available cover. They begin firing back blindly into your direction, a few bullets whizzing past you. Any dumb enough to leave their head unattended quickly lost it between the accurate rifle shots and the barrage of bullets the medic’s Machine gun was laying down. You take aim at any unfortunate enough to hide behind things with thin sheet metal, like cars and fallen roofing, and put a few bullets through the lackluster covering, being rewarded with cries of agony, with some realizing the err of their ways before attempting to make their way to better cover. You keep them pinned down for a good five minutes before one of them yells, “FALL BACK,”.

The Griffins don't fall back as you would expect, but instead make their way into the adjacent alley, bottlenecking themselves into a would be cage of rubble. You smile at the opportunity and motion for the medic to make his way behind you so you can mow them down if they get trapped. As soon as the kid gets to you, you get up and slowly walk toward the alley with your gun at the ready. As you get closer to the opposite side of the ambush site, the smell of the kicked up dust and blood fill your nose. The air seems to move around more rapidly as you walk up to the corner of the concrete building. You give the hand motion to the medic for the countdown to round the corner. Three...Two...One...

You both round the corner to see a single Griffin waiting for you at thirty feet away, you begin to open fire as he throws something at you. You ignore the object that lands at your feet as you see him round the next corner limping from what you expected to be a fresh bullet wound. Taking one step to chase him you immediately realize your mistake. The object at your feet erupts and billows a thick haze of smoke. You pray to celestia it isn't what you think it is as you turn to the medic. As soon as it reaches your mouth, your arms cramp to your sides and you fall to the ground in a violent spasm, to which the medic soon follows suit. You muster all the strength at your disposal to bring your arm up to your neck. After a grueling battle with your own muscles, you jab the syringe attached to your dog tags into your chest. At once the spasms stop, but your world is left in a thick haze. You guess around the ground to find the medic and attempt to give him the rest of the syringe. You're growing weaker by the second and are about to pass out.

With a final swipe of your hand, you find the poor kid rocking in an induced, seizure like state. With the last scrap of energy you could pull forth you yank the chain around your neck and with a fluid motion stab downwards with the needle into the medic. You couldn’t ven tell if you hit your mark or not, as you pass out on top of him.

 (..........................................................................................................)

You open your eyes and find yourself in a familiar bed. You realize that you're back at the apartment and fell asleep early as to get some rest. You look out of the window to the right of the bed and find the sun hasn't come up with you, in fact, the moon still looks to be high in the sky. You figure you         have a couple of hours to do things before you have to go to hoofington in the morning, so you sit up in bed to begin the long day.

Then it rushes back to you, the events just before you fell asleep. You got busted, and it was a bad one too. Now you felt too embarrassed to even leave the room. You wondered if Lyra caught on or not, or if she told Bon Bon, or any number of possible scenarios of what could have possibly happened after you escaped. Lost in ashamed thought, you hear the door click open and Lyra walk in. She is just wearing a T-shirt and a pair of underwear when she walks up to the side of your bed.

“Hey, I guess you aren't asleep.” She says.

“You’d guess right,” You knew this conversation was going to be awkward, but then again, Lyra was always good about remedying that.

“You mind if I...?” She motions toward the bed, wanting to join you.

“Oh, sure thing.” You scoot over a bit as to give her some room to sit down beside you. She crawls into the bed beside you and brings the blanket around her.

“This bed always seemed so much more comfortable...” Lyra says as she leans back into the bed a little more. You know where this conversation was going, but you didn't want to initiate it.

“I ‘spose it is, thank ya’ll for lettin’ me use it.” You say as you stare at the other wall.

“Alright, I guess I’ll just cut to the chase, how much of that did you hear?” She looks to you from her position beside you, not quite looking upset.

“Enough I guess.” You aren't sure where she wants to take it. You feel like a kid who had to admit he did something wrong, but it wasn't like they actually had much control over you though.

“Well...What do you, uh... Think about it?” That certainly wasn't the direction you pictured this conversation going, but you weren't about to complain.

“Well, I ‘spose, all things considered, my loyalties don't really lie anywhere else.” That didn't come out right.

“I..uh...so you would?” She says as she comes out of the blankets a little with a confused look.

“I would love to.” At that she perks up but still looks a bit conflicted.

“Well..It would be...If we did...” She looks down, almost embarrassed.

“Your first time with a guy?” You fill in for her. She just nods and looks away. You put your hand on her cheek and bring her eyes to you.

“You don't have to do anything until you're ready.” You try and reassure her.

“Thats kinda why I wanted Bon Bon to join in, I know shes done it before. I just need a little guidance I guess.” You look at her with confliction. On the one hand you could reassure her and build her up to be confident about her first time, on the other hand, two girls at the same time.

“Well, I'm going to leave tomorrow and be gone for a while. I'm sure youll have enough time to convince her.” You crawl back into the bed like you're going to sleep. You kinda feel like a dick for that one, but you aren't sure what else to say.

“Tonight, would you mind if i...slept with you?” She says in a shaky voice.

“Did Bon Bon kick you out or something?” You roll over to her to speak.

“No, I just...” You cut her off by putting an arm around her and pulling her close to you. The movement produces a surprised yelp and then a shaky sigh of relief as she settles into you. The smell of her hair fills your nose. It smelled as sweet as she looks.

After a couple of minutes you can tell she has passed out hard up next to you. You start to think about any random thing that crosses your mind, since you know you won't be going back to sleep this night.

You thought a lot about the girls in this town. They were extremely quick to except you, even intimately in some cases. It was a sharp contrast from what it was like outside of the town. Even one relationship with the opposite gender like you had here would've taken years to attempt to build up enough trust to just make sure rape was out of the question, even longer to build up a semblance of friendship. Of course most of the women you came across out there were either bandits or whores. The good ones never stayed in one place and never trusted anyone, but you haven't met enough of them to know. But you've only been here for a few days, and you've already made two friends that wanted to sleep with you, not counting the princess, you weren't quite sure if you could have a normal relationship like that with her, since she could kill you with a snap of her fingers. Each day you're more thankful for being able to find this town, it was a blessing from the highest deity to find a place so perfect in this wasteland. Even if you did have to leave the town every couple of days from now one, but you figured that was for the best.

You stare out the dark window and wait for morning, thoughts flying around the room about what your next task may hold and the life you will have here.

.....................

After a couple of hours you watch the sun inch over the horizon, you get out of the bed and leave Lyra there, a lazy grin plastered over her sleeping face. You smile at her as you shut the door behind you and gather your belongings and head out of the front door to the library.

You figure it might be a little early, but you didn't have anything else to do and if you were going to have to walk all that way you might as well get a head start.

You look around the town to find it mostly empty. Ponyville hasn't quite woken up yet while you stride through the streets. A gentle breeze edges you along your path while you continue to gaze through the empty pathway. As the library enters your vision, you finally see someone who isn't still asleep. It was a man, to your surprise. Upon further inspection of the figure sitting on a bench on the other side of the street, you see a leather vest and the hat to make up a stereotypical cowboy, you figure you might strike up a conversation, you could use as many friends as you could get. You rethink your decision as the guy looks up to you, well, not really, he looked through you. You knew that thousand yard stare and the dead expression. It adorned the faces of those who got the worst of the war and didn't make it out with their sanity. That wasn't something you could stand to deal with right now, so you just headed for the library instead, the thought of that look lingering in your mind.

You walk up to the door and think about knocking on it. The sun was barely peeking out above the mountains, and you doubted Twilight was up. You didn't even know if the princess actually slept or not. You just decide to knock on it anyway.

Knock...knock...

You hear it echo through the library, then the door opens for you. Rather than someone standing there to greet you, a blue aura of magic dissipates from the door knob instead, giving you a good indication of who let you in. You walk into the library to greet the Princess. She opens the door to her room and strides toward you.

She gives a majestic yawn and a bit of a stretch before greeting you. “You are most certainly here earlier than expected.” She lets you know.

“My apologies. I didn't wake you did I?” You reply.

“Do not worry dearest soldier, you disturbed no slumber of mine.” She says, shaking herself to alertness.

“Do you...even need to sleep?” You realize too late that was not something that really needed to be discussed right now.

“It is merely a luxury, I may survive without it, but prolonged lack of such can prove to be unpleasant. But no matter, to the task at hand. For the beginning of your journey I have prepared the train again, I know that the tracks to the city of Hoofington have been all but destroyed, but I do not know how far from the Ponyville the obstructions begin, so be aware that you may need to leave the train at a moments notice.” Well, that was better than you having to walk all the way. “I trust the supplies you need will be on the train already. Take this.” She hands you a cylindrical container which you could only guess contained a scroll, which seemed a bit old fashioned. “Give that to Celestia when you find her, she will know what will be necessary.” She said with another yawn following. By the looks of all of the projects and plans in her room, and keeping track of most of Ponyville, you doubt she gets much sleep.

“I'll leave right away. Maybe you should get some sleep Pri...Luna, you look a bit tired.” Any other time of your life and you would never dream of being so forward with the Princess, but you feel like you can get away with it now, you didn't want her to get overworked.

“Perhaps you are right. I shall see thee once thou has returned.” With that she turns to go back to her room to continue whatever she was doing. Leaving you alone in the library. You take that as a cue to leave.

You're about to close the door behind you when you see through the crack, Twilight, standing in her door looking at you solemnly. You close the door and hope she doesn't make any decisions she will soon regret as you make your way to the train.

.......................................

You climb on the same train car that took you on your last mission. It almost felt wrong to be here, like the scene of a crime. You peek into the room you and Rainbow shared, its mostly cleaned up, but you can still see a couple of specks of blood on the sheets. You close the door in distaste as you make your way to the engine room. The hallway between the rooms was adorned with more crates this time, which you'd have to go through for the supplies you'll no doubt need, but save it for later as you walk up to the familiar engine interface.

You punch the power button and the screen boots to life.

POWER SOURCE NEEDED...

Fuck. You completely forgot about that, now how were you supposed to get anywhere? You did not want to go all the way back to the library to get another gem, but you didn't know what else to do. You get up from your crouched position and almost walk out of the door when you spot a small box in the corner. You walk over to it and open it to find a couple of gems ready and waiting. “Convenient,” you say to yourself. You pop one into the extended arms of the engine, and they hungirly take it into the breach.

INITIALIZING...

POWER SOURCE ACCEPTED.

DESTINATION?

You go through the whole drill with selecting a city and ignoring obstructions until the engine roars to life. The cart jerks into action and slowly speeds up to a good pace down the correct track. You had no idea how long you were going to ride like this so you decided to break open those crates.

Sifting through the crates yields more of the same as last time. Food and water, assorted tools, ammunition, the works, but a new one contained some survival gear that you thought was very thoughtful. You pack your bag up with enough food to last you a couple of days, then you throw in some paracord, duct tape, firestarters, a map, it was almost like Hearths Warming Eve with all the nonsense you had at your disposal. You fill your bag with as much as you're comfortable with and then sit with your own thoughts for a while.

The dream you had last night, you hardly remember what comes next.You remember all of it happening, but what follows... gets a little fuzzy. You don't even remembered if that poor kid made it or not, or what happened to your other two squad members. You do remember the taste of that gas though. It was like breathing in a hornets nest. The stinging started with your throat and lungs then almost instantly spread to your muscles, locking them in place. You knew you barely made it out of that one alive. It wouldn't have been the last close call either. Once the Griffins started getting lazy, you started getting cocky, and when the Griffins wised up to it, you didn't change much. You should've died on multiple occasions, but somehow you're here now, might as well make the most of it.

With your reinvigorated attitude, you spent the rest of your time cleaning and polishing your guns, and sharpening your knife. Just giving everything a little touch up while you had the time.

.........................

The train jerks to a stop, jolting you from your stupor. It seems you fell asleep for a moment, or a lot. It was dark outside, you must've been going all day. You push the wonder of why your dreams didn't continue to the side as you look out the window. It was snowing, hard, you could feel the chill through the glass. It wasn't supposed to be like this, it was only early fall. You did not prepare for this, the warmest thing on you is your piece of canvas you use as a duster, and you don't think its going to get you far. But you had a job to do, and you've been up against worse than some snow.

        Throwing caution to the wind, you strode out of the train cart into the almost blizzard, leaving the door with your homemade lock. You bring the duster over your head and use it as a hood as you wrap a thin bandana around your mouth and nose. Clipping the canvas together in the middle you make a wannabe jacket. It keeps the snow off of you, so it'll have to due for now. You take a heavy step into the climbing snow level and try to stay with the tracks in the valley.

        With nothing better to do while walking, and with the harsh wind biting at your bare eyes, you scan the scenery around you. THe tracks are almost concealed by the white powder, so soon you may just have to guess your way through the valley. Its dark, the snow doesn't allow you to see very far ahead of you, which gives you a bit of worry. You would check to the see the position of canterlot to equate your approximate location, and about how far you had to go to the city, but again, it was pretty fucking dark. Not even Luna’s moon cared to illuminate you now.

        You shake off snow as it accumulates on you, the tracks have all but disappeared in your eyesight from the thick blanket of snow covering it, you resort to following the highway instead. One of the few built, mainly to transport raw materials to the war front, it was almost a straight shot to Hoofington, being one of the most industrious cities during the war. You always remember the newest gadget would come out of hoofington. All of the technological resources and researching abilities were in the heart of that city. You had never been to it, but you know how bad the Griffins wanted it. They tore through the countryside to get a supply route to a front at Hoofington. The outer city was likely in ruin, but it was vast. Much larger than the likes of Ponyville, and even more fortified. The concrete buildings and fresh off the line fortifications likely created a gruesome battle. You'd be surprised if half of Hoofington was even standing now.

        You zone out into your thoughts for a while as you walked, getting your mind on something else helped subtract the loss of feeling in your less than protected extremities.

.......................................

        As you walk, the sun begins to seep through the thick cloud layer that has not let up its barrage of snow. There has to be around a foot and a half on the ground right now, making identifying any landmarks necessary to your travel near impossible. You identify the occasional buried truck and car to help you along your path. Traversing the snowy wasteland is leaving you weary, with every step requiring you to barrel either above or through the snow. Sooner or later you might have to improvise some snow shoes.

        You look behind you to find canterlot in halfway piercing the clouds in the distance to the south. Good, that meant you were getting somewhere. Maybe youll find a road sign that hasn't been knocked over to tell you an exact number.

        After another hour or two, you come across a large supermarket looking building, which didn't concern you much. But you might need some rest if Hoofington wasn't close by. You'd also need a fire, which, if that was one of those massive supercenters where you could literally buy anything, it shouldn't be much of a problem. It certainly looked big enough to be, but any indication had fallen off of it long ago. You decide to make your way towards it for shelter for now anyway.

        Getting into the parking lot you notice a brown dot moving amongst the snow covered treeline in the mountains a bit higher above the back of the store. You stop to look for it for a moment, but when no other sign of it shows, you decide to chalk it off as an animal. As if recognizing the thought, your stomach growls, making you clutch it and look off to the right for a moment. In your peripherals, you spot something green and half covered in snow. Its a sign! Literally. You get excited as you pull the bandana down and bring up the rifle scope to read what it says, since its a bit of a ways off.

Hoofington....28

Well, that gave you a good distance indicator, you might be able to make it there within around two days time. Bringing the rifle down you smile to yourself as you see your breath in front of you. Now you could make a plan. You start to think about what you could do when you're suddenly interrupted.

BaCRACK...

The distinct sound of a rifle rings out in the distance, cracking like thunder against the sky. You instinctively jump forward a bit out of reflex wondering for a split second if you accidently pulled your trigger. That question is answered for you when the duster behind your head tears open and the hair on the back of your head gets cut off mere millimeters from the skin. You jump to the nearest car in the parking lot and take cover. The full sprint to get across the parking lot to the car has taken the breath out of you. Your gasping is creating quite a bit of vapor, and you need to think of something quick.

        You put some snow in your mouth to hide the vapors and your exact position. The thin sheet metal of the car would be easy to punch through. You calculate your last position in relation to the new tear in your duster to approximate the location of the shot. The tear is going down, starting from the left, so you were on the right side for cover. You remember the brown spec against the treeline and berate yourself for not checking it out more closely. Of course there would be bandits out here. You needed to get out of the mental security of Ponyville and back into survival mode. It almost just cost you your life.

        Now to deal with this new threat. Whoever it was, they were a good shot. If you didn't jerk forward out of reflex it would've been a clean shot. Dead instantly. You needed to be careful about this. You approximate the appropriate position of the shooter, and ready your rifle. You Prepare to pull a stupid war movie trick, you take your duster off, the tan color being clearly visible against the snow, and put your pack in it, preparing to throw it. You look down to see the black bulletproof material adorning your shirt. This was going to be risky, and you had better get it done fast. You take the shirt off, exposing you almost completely to the harsh elements, and put it around your bag. You lay down into the snow, eliciting a cringe from you, to bring the rifle to bear sideways at your target. You prepare to kick the psuedo you to one side while you look over the tire to your target on the other. You find your target while trying to conceal yourself as best you could. It was almost all white body, with a bit of brown feathers coming out of the back end of the white shroud. The rifle was aimed at the car but not at you.

        You cease the opportunity and forcefully kick your bag to the other side of the car. Your target jerks and fires at the bag. You line up the shot, trying to adjust for bullet drop sideways, and fire. You rack another round and look through the scope. The you misjudged the shot. Instead of a headshot, the bullet fell more than you expected and embedded into the rifle, as you could tell by the erratic hand motions of trying to shake off pain. Instead of taking another shot. You get up and run into the treeline leading up to the position, in case there are other bandits who'll be coming down to you in the meantime.

        Shirtless, you run up the side of the mountain. The foliage beside the store is concealment enough to prevent another shot. You hurry up, since every breath is stinging your lungs and you are losing body heat at a fast rate, you had to make this quick and get into the store as fast as you could, unless you wanted the cold tyo take you the same as any bullet.

        A couple of minutes of uphill running get you to the correct altitude and position. You look to the spot that used to contain the sniper, the snow is disturbed but does not contain a body. That isn't good. You look around to no avail until you hear something in front of you a bit further into the treeline.

“Fuck...Come on...Fucking piece of shit.” A whisper rings through the snowy air. Tracing it back, you see the source, a white bundle wildly trying to cycle the action of its rifle through warped metal and splintered wood. You slid your knife out of its sheath as you slowly make your way to the white mass leaning up against the tree. It doesn't see you as you approach. Painful nipping in your fingers and the off blue color being produced by them told you to hurry it up. You hold the knife with the blade pointing down from your upright fist, as to get the deepest stabbing force possible

Directly behind the tree, you grab the shoulder of the cloak and drag it towards you, bringing the knife down towards its chest. The figure realizes this and jerks out of the way, your knife cutting through the hood of the the cloak. The figure gets up, and you can see the beginnings of white hair out from under the barely clinging hood. You charge it with a swipe of the knife, to which they dodge out under you. Seeing a potential counter you bring a knee up to the figures head, which throws it back, but doesn't knock it down. You bring the knife in again for a lateral stab to the neck, but the figure moves forward into it, the knife goes into the hood again. The figure goes for a hook to your midsection with its right fist but is too slow. You grab the hand with your left and bring your elbow to its neck, and your foot behind its legs, and perform one of the simplest takedowns in the book. You force its weight forward over your leg and bring it to the ground. You pounce immediately, jumping onto the prone figure for the killing blow. The hood falls back and you can see that its a girl. You raise the knife up and grab her by the throat. Her wings attempt to flare out under the cloak, but only get halfway. You look right into her eyes before you bring the knife down.

Shes a Griffin. You can tell by the natural purple eye shadow and the white feathers covering her neck. That only pushed you to a further strength in this battle. You grip the knife harder and tense your body before the strike.Those eyes are filled with fear and regret, she doesn't want to die, you've seen them before, just before you killed another a lot like this.

“No, please, I'm sorry,” the kids cracking voice says out of pure terror as you prepare to take his life from him.

You killed so many of them during the war, you knew what you were doing, it's what you wanted to do. You wanted to kill every last one of them for what they did to Dodge, and by Celestia thats what you were going to do.

But the war ended a long time ago.

You brought the knife down into the figure further away than you initially intended, you embed the blade directly into her wing. She yelps in pain and looks to you hatefully and confused not knowing what to do. You look back down at her with malice, but with less than you would. With a confused mind, you bring your elbow down on her forehead, knocking her out cold.

What you were going to do with her, you didn't know. You should kill her, but for some reason you can't bring yourself to do it. You look down into her face, she didn't look like a bandit, but here she was trying to kill you on the side of the road. You still kneeled over her just looking at her. The wind nipped at your bare skin and you decided to avert your gaze from her.

You tear of her cloak and wrap it around yourself. Theres a couple of gashes in it, but its better than what you had. The Griffin had another jacket on underneath it anyway. An old leather bomber jacket, which didn't fit if she used to be a sniper. You walked over to the broken rifle to take the bullets out of so you might use them later. You really messed the rifle up. half of the action was hit first and it warped the bolt shut, the bullet eventually embedding into the wood. You pry it open as hard as you can to get the action to bend open and release the magazine. There were only two more bullets in the magazine. How did she think she was going to survive off of that? You look over to her still body, perplexed at what she might have been through.

Dropping the rifle you search her clothing. You pat around her body for anymore weapons or anything you may find of use. She only has an old wallet in her back pocket and an empty chain necklace around her neck. You put the wallet in your own pocket. You take a look at your fingers, they're almost freezing over, you needed to get inside now. You begin down the cliffside, but look back to the Griffin. If you leave her here she'll die, but she's only going to slow you down and possibly attempt to kill you again.

You give a grunt of frustration and go to pick her up. She still had your knife anyway. You make your way down to the store and push into the metal door at the back entrance loading dock.

You sift past the stock room with her across your shoulder in search of something you could use to start a fire. You walk through a pair of doors into the showroom. You guessed right. It is one of those massive stores that you could buy almost everything in. Tvs, electronics, food, even furniture. Many of the shelves were stripped clean, but none of that was anything you really needed.

You make your way to the furniture section. Sure enough, in the middle of the platform there was a wood lawn chair set that would due just fine. But you needed a way to start it first. What little light the skylights above provided a show of dark empty shelves, barren of any way to start the wood, so you were going to have to go out to get your pack. You walk up onto the showroom platform where lawn chairs, grills, and quick do-it-yourself gazebos scattered the area and set the unconscious griffin into a chair. Hopefully she wouldn't wake up too soon.

        Tripping around the trashed store, you finally make your way to the front entrance. and push open the would be sliding door to go out into the icy parking lot. The snow has picked up its pace again, and the sun looks darker in the thicker cloud cover, even though you knew it couldn't be any later than noon. Shivering through the snowy parking lot, you find your bag and clothing already collecting a heap of snow. You pick it up and shake it off to find a fresh hole in the top of it. Taking a bag out of the bundle, you find one of the straps has been cut clean through, which was going to make the rest of the journey a bit more annoying. You decided to not think about it at the moment as you turn around and make your way back inside. Walking through the door provides an almost sharp cut off from the cold into a little less chilly building, but its almost bearable.

        You walk back up on the furniture platform and find the Griffin still out thankfully. You begin breaking apart the table and the wooden chairs to make wood for a fire, wadding some cushion cotton up as kindle, and creating a pit with a couple of metal chunks and plates. You pull a magnesium fire starter out of your pack and strike up the fire to its full potential. Now that the issue of warmth was taken care of, now to see to the Griffin.

        You lay her down onto the floor to be able to move her around better. You didn't notice it earlier, but shes extremely light. Most pegasi were light anyway, but this wasn't even that heavy. You pull the knife out of her and put it in your sheath. You clean and dress the wound with some bandages and gauze from the supplies you decided to take. You bit right through the wing, but it didn't hit any bone. She won't be flying for a while, but she'll live. You lift up her shirt under her jacket to check for anything else that might need attention and what you find surprises you. Her ribs are plainly visible and she looked quite emaciated. Now you know why she was trying to kill you. She was starving. She had a bigger frame that most girls, but looked small with the lack of anything to fill it in.

You give a shred of concern for a second, but decide to deal with things when she wakes up. You put her back into the chair and duct tape her arms to the arm rests and her legs to the legs of the chair and bring her up to the fire.

You take up residence in a metal chair on the other side of the fire and warm yourself up. You didn't bother to put any clothes back on, since you'll warm up faster without them, you simply sit up against the chair, with hands outstretched to get some heat.

Bored, you get out the girls wallet and begin to look through it. It was bare, except for some scraps of paper with some poorly written notes you can't make out, and a picture. It was a picture of the Griffin in front of you, but a little younger and muscles filling up her form with her arm around a girl smiling at the camera. A rainbow haired girl.

It was Rainbow Dash.

How the hell did this Griffin now Rainbow Dash? Griffins hardly ever came to Equestria before the war. Yet here they were, right next to each other like the best of friends. You flip the image over to read the words transcribed on the back.

Best buds forever. Never stop being awesome G!

-RD

You look up to the unconscious girl, looking at her incredulously. Small world. Now you want to wake her up to question her. If she was best friends with Rainbow, maybe she wasn't half bad.

“Hey,” You say to the still body. Maybe you accidently killed her. No, her chest is still rising at a steady rate. You throw a wood chip at her and she stirs a bit when it hits her.

“Hey,” You repeat, she looks up lazily and focuses on you. At the sight of you she grimaces and tries to tense out of the chair. Realizing its no use she just looks at you with a frown.

“What's your name?” You say across the fire.

“Fuck off,” She tries to tense out of the chair again. She just gives you another hateful look when shes done.

“Let’s try that again. How do you know Rainbow Dash?” The intensity in her face breaks and she seems perplexed at the name, before looking away from you down to the floor.

“Why didn't you kill me?” she spits out with malice.

“That’s a good question. I don't know. So what's your name?”

“The fuck’s it matter to you asshole?” She was feisty.

“I think I liked you better unconscious.” You tell her with a laugh.

“And i'll like you better dead.” She lets out in anger.

“Whens the last time you've eaten anything?” You try to steer her off her hostility.

“A couple of weeks. I don't know, what's it to you prick?” You get out of your chair and grab a can of beans out of your bag and the paracord and cut off an appropriately long piece. You walk over to her and and take out your knife again. Walking up to her, you cut the duct tape holding her arms. She jumps at you as soon as shes free to grab at the knife, but shes slow. You grab her throat and slam her in the chair to the ground, disorientating her. you put a knee over her throat and tie her hands together tightly. She grunts with lack of air and exertion under you, trying to free herself, but its no use. You pick her back up and set the chair by the fire. Raising the knife up elicits a cringe from her at  the expected blow, but dissipates when you tear the lid off the can of beans instead. You set the open can in her lap and return to your own seat.

“Wh-Why?” She looks at you incredulously, as if you just slapped her.

“Maybe this wasteland would do well to hand out a couple more second chances.” Celestia knows you could have needed them in the past couple of years. Even though you never got any, maybe you could do better for someone.

She tears into the jar like a ravenous dog, you give a small laugh, but she doesn't notice.

This might be the first time you've ever had a positive interaction with a Griffin, ever. You've killed a lot of Griffins, men and women. Not just a lot, maybe hundreds, maybe thousands. Your bloodthirst during the war was unquenchable. If it looked like a Griffin you wanted it dead, you hardly stopped at anything. But its been a long time. You've learned what its like in the wasteland. It takes everything from you. Even your identity, it doesn't matter who you are in this horrible new world, only how fast you were going to die. Two weeks ago you wouldn't have hesitated to put your knife right through her throat. Ponyville had changed you. Time will only tell if it will help you or end up killing you.

You hear the can drop to the ground and look up to see her wiping the residue off of her face. You just open up a can of peaches and throw it to her over the fire. You go back to your thoughts for a moment.

“Gilda.” She says with you half phased out.

“Pardon?” You say.

“Gilda, my name’s Gilda.” Her face has lost some of its anger as she says that.

“Nice to meet you...I guess. The names (your name).” She just goes back to tearing into the can.

You wait until she finishes. Dropping the second can, she looks satiated enough, but you ask her anyway. “Want another?” She just shakes her head, you pull your hand out of your bag.

“What are you doing here?” You question her. You mostly wanted something to pass the time. You also needed to know if you could trust her.

“Enjoying the sights.” Well, she wasn't all that boring.

“Why is a Griffin this far in Equestria? Even still alive for that matter.”  You shoot back at her.

“I got deployed on the Hoofington front just as we stopped getting orders. I'm the only one in my squad who survived the plague in the camp.” She sounded like she just wanted to get that out as fast as she could.

“You were the sniper?”

“No I was the fucking emperor. Of course I was the sniper dipshit. Did the rifle not give it away?” You hoped this hostility didn't transfer to physicality yet again. You just ignored it and continued.

“Well, I carry a rifle and I wasn't a sniper. So you've been here since the war ended? How have you survived this long?”

“Scraps from the old camp, things from this store, unlucky travelers. You are the first one I've tried to rob in a couple months. I tried the city, but its a fucking deathtrap.” That wasn't good news.

“Being a bandit was going to get you killed, you're lucky it was me how came by.”

“No, Lucky would've been a caravan or something. Nobody has been good enough to dodge my shots.” she says smugly.

“Until now. Two weeks ago I would've killed you without a second thought.” You try to bring her ego down.

“If not you, I would've starved anyway.” She says as if she didn't care if you spared her or not.

“Just remember, I didn't miss that shot on purpose.” You give her a stern look and imply you could still kill her if you wanted to.

“Heh, i'll keep it in mind.” She still doesn't seem to care. You go silent for a while in your own thoughts.

You should just plain not like her. Shes rude, brash, and almost killed you. But for some reason, you kinda like the way she talks to you. Treating you more as an opponent than a threat. Its almost a welcome change.

“So what are you doing out here anyway?” She tries to start a conversation, maybe there's hope here yet.

“I'm delivering a message to Princess Celestia in Hoofington.” You say matter of factually.

“Shit, the Princess is in Hoofington? No wonder we tried to hit it so hard. Good luck getting into the city, as I said, it’s a fucking deathtrap.” She says it as she has no faith in reaching the city center.

“I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.” You tell her. The conversation all but ends there.

The two of you stare off into different directions. Each collecting your own thoughts. You put another couple of pieces of furniture into the fire pit and sit back down. Gilda leans over and seems to fall asleep as comfortably as she can strapped to a chair. You make sure your .45 is loaded before you let your guard down. For a while you just watch her, making sure she doesn't try anything.  You relent after a while and doze off a bit yourself. After the harsh journey of the day and almost getting frostbite. Your body finally catches up to you and gives you the intense tiredness that should've hit you hours ago.

Thoughts of what the city may hold and what you are going to do with Gilda fill your drifting mind as you fall into a slumber in the metal lawn chair inside the superstore.