//------------------------------// // Chapter Eleven: A New Dawn // Story: Fallout Equestria: Tales of Transylvania // by MeetSouder //------------------------------// Chapter Eleven: A New Dawn Scarlet Rose <><><> I folded my wings and dove to gain more speed while I raced toward town center. After Captain Angel thanked me for my service, she immediately ordered me to the front with some ponies from a settlement called Rafael. Apparently the heavy-machine gun wielding ponies that saved my arse were mercenaries that came to help us just in the nick of time. Unlike the mercenary fliers, the Renaissance guards just weren’t equipped well enough for aerial combat. The majority of guards had bolt action earth pony rifles which were nearly impossible to operate under wing. The Night Watch were forced to fight on the ground, and because of this, the Daylight managed to out maneuver them. Not to mention we were outnumbered two to one. Luckily for me, I had a small automatic carbine, meaning I didn’t have to cycle the bolt and I could hold it with just my jaw. So airborne I was. I banked and wove along the road below the rooftops. Ahead, two mercenary ponies led me toward the battle. Both stallions carried battle-saddle mounted IS16s with drum magazines and tracer ammunition. The long guns were basically the bigger cousin of my carbine; lightweight and fully automatic, perfect for aerial combat. Their tracers helped their aim when strafing the ground at high speed, no need to line up any sights. I didn’t know how I felt about fighting alongside ponies who made money from killing, but these bucks were trained in combat, which was infinitely more than myself. I figured I’d save my ethical introspection for later if that meant these ponies kept me alive right now. We suddenly climbed and skimmed over a rooftop, diving back down a new road and out of the dawn’s early light. This road led directly toward the fountain in the middle of town. I quickly scanned a group of guards below as they took cover in the street corners. I couldn’t find the telltale blue fur of my pegabat companion. I fought to keep the creeping sense of worry for Midnight out of my mind. I hadn’t seen him for hours. But, I couldn’t let my emotions take hold of me. He was doing his part and I sure as bloody tartarus was gonna do mine too. One of the thestral stallion’s guiding me looked back and nodded, his expression unreadable behind the shaded visor of his flight helmet. Their job to lead me here was done. They both banked and peeled off, heading toward their own targets. I narrowed my eyes and dove lower into the alley. This was the last stretch before the town center. The close confinement quickly gave way to the open center, I flared my wings and softly let down just at the street corner. Ahead, I could clearly see both sides of the fight as ponies traded a crossfire. Bullets struck the statue in the middle, even chipping the sword held in its jaw. As I peered across the battlefield, I caught sight of a blue stallion and a shorter white colt. Midnight and Ballpoint. They were completely on the opposite side of the square but they weren’t taking any fire. I sighed in relief, I didn’t realize how much it mattered to me to see Midnight was okay. I needed to regroup with him, for no other reason than just being by him again. But how am I supposed to get over there… With the crossfire, I was sure to turn my flank into holed cheese. I nervously watched as Midnight and the colt seemed to be bickering silently. I shifted my gaze to the Daylight forces briefly, watching a pair of thestrals dive out of the skies and strafe the ranks, causing them all to take cover in the buildings. The light rattle of their IS16s told me they were the stallions I flew in with. The Daylight soldiers quickly redirected their fire upward and I could see the tracer ammunition streak into the sky around the pair. Bullets tore through the wings of one of the ponies and he plummeted onto a rooftop, striking it at high speed and sliding off, falling two stories below. I felt myself begin to tremble slightly, Good goddess, I’m not cut out for this kind of stuff.  I quickly averted my gaze back to my friends but before I was able to think of a plan, the two idiots across the street suddenly charged right down the middle of town square. I muffled a cry of shock with my hoof while I watched them take fire from everypony in town. Amazingly, Midnight’s wings ignited with a magical aura of white light, just like before. He suddenly kicked forward like a rocket, bullets seemingly bouncing off of the glowing air around him and saving Ballpoint who struggled to keep up with him in tow.  The two of them darted clear across the open square and slammed into a building near me. I hate that buck, I breathed heavily, relieved he was unharmed but hurt by how careless he was. Heʼd get himself killed one day if he kept this up.  I had no bloody clue why he did what he did, but at least he was on my side of the battlefield. I peeked around the corner of the building and guessed my chances seemed probable. But I was going to be a smart pony about this. I spread my wings and flew backwards until I was behind enough cover. I turned and climbed over the rooftop to my right, directly on top of the cluster of buildings where Midnight had gone in. From my vantage, I spotted a formation of four ponies quickly diving towards me. I hurriedly raised my carbine, but immediately huffed at my own paranoia. Flying ponies were the good guys. I watched as they let down on the street below, spotting Silver Dusk, Aurora Borealis and two other ponies I didn’t recognize. A black-maned gray mare and a dark blue stallion. “Oi, lassie, you alright?” Aurora called up as they quickly cantered over to my building. “Aurora! Silver!” I cried down at them, “Luna’s grace, am I glad to see you guys. I’m trying to get to Midnight, he’s inside,” I explained and gestured to the roof below me with a wingtip. “In my house? Well, I know I extended an invitation but now’s hardly the time for tea and Fancy Buck cakes,” Aurora chuckled, “let’s get in there and help your special somepony, eh?” he winked and unslung his rifle. I rolled my eyes but didn’t say anything. Nothing was going to change the old stallion’s mind and we had more important things to worry about. Silver turned to the other thestral guards with them,“Sergeants Orion, Breeze, take your squads and try to flush out the culty-bastards. We’ve got the numbers and the element of surprise on them, so make it count.” “You got it sir, c’mon Breezie,” the black maned mare, Orion, saluted and both ponies flew back up the road toward a group of a dozen new guards. “Alright let’s head on-” Aurora was cut off when the report of a familiar gun went off in a room below me, followed by the sound of shattering glass. I leaned over the rooftop, watching a multicolored shower plummet toward the streets below. Silver and Aurora fluttered their wings and jumped back, avoiding being maimed by a rainbow of splattering glass.  “That sounded like Midnight’s pistol!” I yelled and we all took flight towards the window. *BANG* Another shot echoed into the night. This time accompanied by a spray of blood smattering the broken stained-glass. I could only assume things were not going well for Midnight. Oh Luna, I hoped it was Midnight who did the shooting and not vice-versa. Just as we cleared the windowsill, Aurora suddenly stiffened and planted both of his hind hooves on the shoulders of myself and Silver. He powerfully bucked us backward and pushed off of us. We both yelped in surprise as we fell back toward the street below. “Hey!” I screamed as I tumbled backwards and hit the ground, hard, followed by Silver off my right. I rolled and came to a stop against the glass window of a storefront, groaning as I laid on my back. I wearily watched Aurora fold his wings and dive into the shattered window. What the bloody tartarus is wrong with him?! I mentally yelled to myself. Middy could be hurt! Suddenly, Aurora burst back out of the window. His wings were folded in a near-suicidal dive for how close he was to the ground. Then something in his teeth caught my eyes: a bandolier of magical high explosives. It dawned on me just what Aurora was doing. The world seemed to slow down as I focused on him; the faint report of rifles firing from my left, Silver’s desperate voice yelling from my right, the Daylight fighting off a surprise attack down the street. All ignored as I watched Aurora dive vertically downward, his eyes shut tight. The explosion fell on deaf ears. I wasn’t able to register the sound as the enormous shockwave washed over me. Aurora’s figure simply vanished within the fireball. I shut my eyes from the blast, rolling over against the storefront and shivering as shattered glass rained onto my back. I laid there for a moment, my ears ringing and my heart pounding in my head. The shock from the explosion left me completely stupid, I couldn’t open my eyes no matter how hard I tried. Sound suddenly rushed back all at once as I began to process what just happened. Aurora must have seen the bomb up there. It would have killed us all. He sacrificed himself for us. My chest tightened with grief and terror. I fluttered my eyes open, coughing from a thick cloud of dust, trying to get my bearings. I was shaken from my thoughts when I spotted the figures of ponies emerging from the quickly collapsing house. A young buck, nearly all black covered in soot, limped from the smoke and flames. Upon his back was a bloodied heap of blue fur and feathers. I quickly scrambled to my hooves, flapping my wings to keep my balance as I dashed over to the colt. Ignoring the incoming fire from the Daylight’s retreat, I galloped next to the young guard and helped prop him up with my shoulder. We cantered as quickly as he could toward one of the many alleyways that connected the streets. I began blurting in a panic, “Please tell me he’s alive, please, please don’t let Aurora’s-” my voice caught in my throat. I couldn’t believe it was even true. “Don’t let his sacrifice be in vain…” We stopped in the alley and I stared down at the bloodied form of Midnight, his eyes closed as he lay unconscious. My heart ached, don’t let me lose the only pony I have left. Ballpoint began to go through his saddlebags for medical supplies. Midnight was covered in a series of wounds that bled readily, shrapnel must have raked up his side. I began to prance around them in a panic, I had no bloody clue what to do. “Oi-” Ballpoint coughed and began to rapidly stuff bandages into the bleeding wounds that dotted Midnight’s body. “Oi! Move your flanks, lass! Cover me! Can ye do that instead of prancing about like a useless filly?!” he yelled in a hoarse voice. I awoke from my shock and blinked rapidly, nodding. For now, Midnight was alive. If I wanted it to stay that way I was going to need to keep the Daylight off of us until he was stable enough to move to the field hospital. I was not going to let him down. I grabbed the IS4’s bit with near-practiced ease and peered around the corner of the alley, watching the remainder of the Daylight’s forces head toward us. With Silver and the other guards’ return, the battle had severely tipped in our favor. The Daylight had lost a considerable number and it looked like victory was nearly upon us. The remaining seven or so soldiers were galloping full speed on the street our alley intersected. My heart raced as I looked at them. It pounded in my ears with anger and grief. I took the opportunity to enact my revenge and made sure my fire selector was still on ‘auto.’ I propped a hoof on the corner of the building and braced my carbine, lining the sights right onto the chest of one of the soldiers who was fearfully galloping my way. I pressed the trigger. *crack, crack, crack, crack, crack.* I held the trigger on him, sweeping the sights onto the mare beside him when he stumbled over. Shell casings rang onto the cobblestone at my hooves as I relentlessly unloaded the entire magazine. When the bolt locked open, I quickly ejected the magazine and slammed a new one in from my chest sling, slapping the bolt release and repeating the uncontrolled automatic fire into the group. The citizens of Renaissance took advantage of the retreating soldiers, now that they were no longer a force to be reckoned with. From rooftops, windows, and cellar doors, ponies began to fire from the spots they were previously hiding within. Countless small arms fire sparked off the combat barding of the Daylight soldiers. I continued to empty magazines with a barrage of lead, reloading for the fifth time as a bloody bastard stumbled and fell just a few hooves away from me. I aimed the carbine, point blank, and held the trigger. The suppressor at the end of my barrel was nearly red hot, smoke and gas blasting in my face and mane as thirty more rounds rapidly left the rifle. Sparks and flames shot out of the overheated suppressor but I barely paid attention to it. “Scarlet!” Ballpoint’s voice was washed out beside me. The carbine ceased fire and I grabbed my last magazine, shaking as I struggled to shove it into the gun. The firing bit in my mouth was so hot, it almost burnt my tongue. The last mag found its mark and I slammed the bolt closed, aiming at the bloodied corpses of the Daylight that littered the street and pressed the trigger again. “Scarlet, hold your fire!” Ballpoint hollered into my ear, but I ignored him. Thirty more rounds slapped into their dead bodies and chipped at the cobblestone streets. Bullets ricocheted past them, sparking off into houses and toward the morning skies. The suppressor had nearly given up on me, barely muffling any muzzle blast and blinding me with bright flashes as the last of my ammunition erupted from my fiery barrel. The recoil finally halted and I stumbled forward from barcing it so hard. I screamed in frustration and threw the smoking gun at the corpse in front of me. The cherry-hot suppressor sizzled and steamed in the pool of blood on the street, its white vapors carried away silently into the frozen autumn morning. I collapsed against the wall, my legs splashing the hundred brass casings that littered around me. I sat, staring at Midnight’s laying form. The poor buck was barely alive. Tears were falling freely down my muzzle. I shuddered as I closed my eyes and cried. This was too much. Aurora. Midnight. The ponies of Renaissance. The only ponies out here in this Celestia forsaken hellhole that gave me any hope. Ruined, battered, bleeding, dead. Why? What was so important to those bastards that would lead to all this? “Scarlet,” Ballpoint's voice gently said before me, “we need to get him to the hospital, lass, come on.” I opened my eyes and sniffled. The battered colt was sitting before me, his face smeared with soot and blood. His expression was solemn with understanding but determined. Midnight was laying behind him, covered in blood and bandages. His chest moved slowly as he took shallow breaths. The growing morning light cast long shadows on the silent streets. The town was finally quiet once again, only the chirping of morning birds and the soft clopping of hooves echoed from the buildings as ponies began to emerge from cover and squint in the early sun’s light. The citizens of Renaissance began to slowly mingle back out into the streets to grab a firm perspective of what happened. Many began to loot the soldiers, others attended to the wounded or bodies of those that didn’t make it. The battle however, was not over for me yet. I stood and wiped my face with a foreleg, nodding to Ballpoint. He had managed to bandage the superficial wounds that covered Midnight’s body, but his condition was only going to get worse if we didn’t move him soon.  Without a word, the young guard and I lifted Midnight across both our backs and we quickly began cantering toward the field hospital. My legs and body protested from the weight, but I shut it out as I steeled my gaze on the road ahead. Captain Angel had better have an open bed for Midnight, otherwise I’d throw her maps on the ground and use her own bloody table myself. The piercing morning light tickled my exhausted eyes. Dusk felt like forever ago. When the night began, I never would have expected events like this to unfold. It was all happening too quickly. I looked over at Midnight as he laid across my back, his eyes shut tightly. I took solace with his presence in my life. I couldn’t do this without him. I felt a few tears begin to slide down my face thinking about what Aurora did for him. For us. It was a deed so noble, yet so wrong at the same time. Aurora was the first pony who accepted both Midnight and I. Now he was the first friend we lost. How many more would soon follow? We bobbed and weaved through the rubble and crowds of thestral ponies. All around, families were silently looking upon the destruction of their homes. There weren’t as many civilian casualties as the guard, but there were enough for every street to be filled with mourning of the wounded and deceased. Somehow, Renaissance successfully fended off the Daylight’s attack. A force of well armed, well trained, and determined soldiers. But at the cost of maybe more than half the guard, it didn’t feel like a victory at all. The unknown motive from the Daylight just added salt to the wound and made their actions hurt so much more. If this was only a fraction of the Daylight’s many waves that were destroying thestral settlements across Transylvania, I feared this was only but a taste of the war that was soon to come. <><><> The next day was a blur of activity around me. Captain Angel and Nurse Penumbra worked around the clock, caring for as many ponies as they could while the citizens of Renaissance attempted to rebuild. Dr. Bone was absent, I could only imagine the worst had happened.  After leaving Midnight in the care of the medics, I immediately fell asleep in the straw packing of an empty explosives crate in the supply chariot. I was too physically and emotionally exhausted to keep my eyes open a moment longer. I slept clear through the day and part way through the night before Silver and Ballpoint paid a visit. The two bucks barely had a chance to rest themselves. I awoke to the bed of the chariot swaying as both ponies hopped up to have a seat. Far above, the nearly full moon was halfway across the sky and the air was absolutely frigid. I missed my winter jacket. “Howʼs your pegasus doing?” Silver asked ambiently. He was sitting on the tailgate of the chariot, drinking from a canteen.  He had stripped his uniform and barding down to just a bag and a rifle. His white mane and maroon coat was disheveled and filthy from the clean up efforts. I finally got a chance to see his cutiemark, a quill and paper, of all things. Maybe he was a writer.  “Pegabat,” Ballpoint corrected beside him, flicking ashes from a cigarette balanced on his wing claw. The colt was in a similar state, his own cutiemark was unsurprisingly a red crosshair. I doubted a colt his age should be smoking, but at this rate, who cared?  I groaned and rolled out from the crate and onto my hooves. My body was so sore I could barely move. I fluttered my wings, clearing straw that clung to my matted coat and tucked my loose mane behind an ear. I delicately stepped past the resting bucks and down from the bed of the chariot.  Silver cocked a brow down at me and offered his canteen. I gratefully accepted it and took a swig, sputtering and coughing as the foul fluid stung my throat and nose. “Luna’s moon, what is that?” I choked and shoved the canteen back at the chuckling buck.  “Apricot moonshine,” Silver took another swig and capped the bottle. “What, never had alcohol before?”  “No, I’m not old enough,” I said plainly. Ponies weren’t allowed to drink strong alcohol in the stable until three years after graduation. Obviously.  Ballpoint slapped Silver’s shoulder and cackled in laughter, coughing from his cigarette smoke and wiping his eyes, “the lass isn’t old enough! You hear that, mate? How old are ya, Scarlet?” “Eighteen?” “Ah! She’s fair game for ya, lad,” Ballpoint nudged Silver, who just shoved him back in return.  I rolled my eyes and stood up, “I’m gonna check on Middy.” Ballpoint and Silver shared a look from the chariot bed.  “Ooo, you hear that, mate, ‘Middy?’” Ballpoint cooed. Silver smirked, “maybe not fair game after all.” I groaned and waved a wing at the chuckling pair, making my way toward the hospital tents. They were just stupid colts.  “Oi, lass, we’re joking!” Ballpoint cried from behind me. “Besides, Silver fancies himself a particular nurse-” his voice was cut off with the sounds of a struggle. I looked back at the two, Silver had tackled him, grunting that Ballpoint ‘keep quiet,’ and they began wrestling against the metal flooring of the chariot. Colts.  I cantered past the dozen or so tents that made up the field hospital. Each of them was filled with the lucky ponies who survived the battle. Most of the injuries were from the artillery barrage, others from direct fire from the sun-loving bastards. I couldn’t wrap my head around such a careless and unnecessary attack on innocent lives. I nosed my way into one of the tents, passing cots and makeshift beds of sleeping patients until I came across the furthest corner. A blue stallion was laying on his back, his eyes closed gently with various bandages wrapped around his head and body. Midnight wind. A stallion I never imagined I’d grow to care this much about, yet here we were. I lit an alcohol lantern on the tent post by his bed, bathing us in a warm orange glow. I sat and looked him over, this wasn’t the first time I stood by while he was unconscious. He was in decent condition, no major wounds thankfully. But he must have hit his head hard. He hadn’t woken up for an entire day. Captain Angel mentioned that these bouts of unconsciousness, comas really, could be life threatening. Thankfully, his breathing was normal and he was at least stable for the time being. I frowned as I watched him, he looked like he was just asleep, like the slightest thing could wake him up at any moment. I carefully reached a hoof forward and nudged his shoulder, “Midnight,” I whispered. “Midnight, please wake up.” I felt my lip quiver, he completely ignored my touch. I prayed that Luna would finally release him from his slumber. He belonged in this world, not hers. Not yet at least. “I tried that, Scarlet,” the familiar voice of Penumbra startled me. I found it odd for a thestral like herself to have an Equestrian accent unlike the rest of us. I quickly stood, and faced the dark green mare. Her white-highlited and periwinkle mane was pinned up in a ponytail. Her golden eyes were exhausted behind her black glasses, she had probably stayed up all day and into tonight. She wore a faded lab coat down her whole body and had a surgical tray with various instruments balanced on her back. “Is there anything we can do?” I asked, stepping aside as I let the nurse check up on Midnight. Penumbra set the tray down on a nearby table and held a stethoscope in her mouth to Midnight’s chest, listening to his heart and breathing. She shook her head and undid the device, letting it rest around her neck. “No, not here with what we have.” I felt my ears dip at her words, watching as she pulled out a syringe and took his blood from a foreleg. “But,” she drew the crimson fluid into the cylinder. Pulling it and inspecting it closely, “I have my predictions on what may be going on.” “Like?” “Magic, of course.” Penumbra ejected the needle onto the tray and capped the syringe. She eyed me curiously, “What happened to his wing? Last I remember our stallion here was mostly pegasus. Now, he’s a little bit more like you and I.” I sat back against the tent wall, “O- oh,” I tapped my hooves on the cobblestone. “Um, I was giving him lots of health potions, you know, like Dr. Bone said.” Penumbra hummed as she tinkered with what looked like an older model of our PipBucks on the table. She attached another device to an input port and began scrolling through the mini-computer’s functions. She paused and looked at me over her glasses, “And?” “Right,” I looked down at my hooves, “well one of the potions was, uh, tainted.” Penumbra’s hooves froze, she spoke without looking back at me, “Tainted? How so?” I gulped nervously, I knew this was going to sound terrible out of context. I tapped my hooves together, “W- with, I.M.P.” Penumbra reeled and whipped around, nearly knocking over the side table with her tail, “You fed him Impelled Metamorphosis Potion?!” I fluttered my wings and quickly stood, “it was an accident!” I blurted, “there was a taint leak at the firearms warehouse. I couldn’t see that it seeped into one of the first aid kits. I was so busy trying to help Midnight but instead I-” I looked down at his thestral bat wing, “instead it did that.” Penumbra stared at me with a panicked look, she quickly turned and began inspecting Midnight’s wing then his whole body. She pushed her glasses back straight across her muzzle and quickly began scrolling through her old PipBuck. “It’s bad, isn’t it?” I whispered. “You have no idea,” Penumbra spoke, “but somehow, he’s alive. And that means something.” She grabbed the blood filled syringe in a wing and uncapped it, delicately placing a drop on a shim of plastic and inserting it into the device attached to the PipBuck. She selected a program and a loading bar began to slowly crawl across the screen. Satisfied, she left the device on the table and packed up the rest of her medical supplies. “I’m going to take a nap while this processes. Don’t touch it.” I felt my throat tighten as she looked at me with untrusting eyes. She had to know I didn’t mean to do that to Midnight. It was an honest mistake. But if it was part of the reason he was in this extensive coma, then Luna knew what damned fate I gave him. “I recommend you make yourself useful and help out around town,” Penumbra spoke as she made her way to the tent flap. “Midnight isn’t going anywhere.” I watched her leave, shaken by her distaste for me. I felt responsible, yes, but the buck hit his head when falling through a bloody building. Surely she didn’t blame everything on me, right? I took one more look over Midnight’s laying form, my heart aching in a way that felt so foreign to me. He had to pull through. He was all I had. I cantered out of the tent and followed Penumbra’s advice. If I wasn’t able to help my companion, then the least I could do was help the ponies around me. <><><> Over the next few nights, I did everything I could to help rebuild Renaissance to a fraction of its former cheerful splendor. From ferrying water from a nearby river – which was questionably safe given the clicks emitting from my PipBuck, to shoveling rubble and helping ponies lift new wooden beams upon their repaired houses. Everypony was involved one way or another in saving the settlement and I slowly began to feel like a part of the community. I spent time with the Night Watch, listening in on their dawn meetings before everypony went to bed. They were worried, understandably so, that the Daylight would mount an offensive and catch us while we were busy repairing. New ponies at the top of command were stewing up a plan to get more help from across Transylvania, and whatever they were planning, I was going to make sure I was a part of it. Despite the new command, Starline’s betrayal hit every guard hard. It raised questions nopony had answers to and Ballpoint’s testimony only made everyone more skeptical about my unconscious pegabat friend. The only one in town who may have had an inkling of understanding was Amber Night, but out of respect for her family, we gave her the space she needed to mourn. The loss of Aurora Borealis was impossible to ignore. His cheerful mark was left on the minds of every guard in town. Each of us dealt with our grief in our own ways, myself just trying to bury it under more work and doing good where I could. His wife and daughter, Amber Night and Aurora Australis, were seldom seen. Their house was one of the first to be repaired but nothing could replace the missing piece of the loving father that once held them together. When all was said and done at the end of each night, I would return to Midnight’s tent and tell him about the progress happening around town. It had been four nights and his condition hadn’t changed at all. Penumbra told me she was on the brink of understanding something big, but she wouldn’t explain further until she could speak with Amber about it. She decided to move him to the repaired hospital where she could study his condition more closely to her lab. Most of the ponies in the field hospital had either recovered or perished anyway, he was practically the last one left. For now, on the fifth night, I sat by Midnight’s side in late Dr. Bone’s hospital. The doctor was one of the first killed by the blasts. I should have felt worse than I did for him, but the sudden loss of a debt and one less hateful pony in the wasteland didn’t feel as bad as it probably should have. I sat alone on a tall pile of pillows I had set up next to Midnight’s bed, hoping to lay a bit more level beside him. We were the only ponies on the upper floor of the hospital, so I felt comfortable rambling about whatever things came to mind. It was therapeutic in a way. I liked talking to him, even if he couldn’t understand me at all. “You’d hope this stuff is made of fish or something,” I chuckled, spooning another salty mouthful of ‘Flam’ with an aluminum spork in my wing. These preserved pre-war canned goods were simultaneously delicious and disturbing. “I mean, you pegasi eat fish, right? Well, I guess your great-great-great-” I took another bite and continued with a full mouth, “great-great grandmare probably ate fish. Like, before civilization and all.”  I looked down at the tin in the dim firelight emitting from a lantern. I read the words written on the side, ‘Flim-Flam Brothers Presents: Flam! Now made with 100% protein (some ponies were harmed in the process of making this product).’ I skewed an eyebrow at it and set it aside, maybe I had enough of that. I opted to try the ‘Fancy Buck’ snack cakes instead. “Well, maybe your thestral half would prefer one of these, eh? Look, it even says cherry on it, surely that’s real. Us bats like fruit you know,” I tore open a package and took a bite. My eyes widened in wonder. “Oh no, you’d hate this, trust me. You definitely don’t need to eat any of these and you can give them all to me,” I giggled and took another bite. The preserved cherry filling was absolutely divine. “These sure beat the bland apple-everything we had back in the Stable,” I mumbled and laid down. I snuggled my back into the musty pillows, staring at the ceiling while I ate. “Back in the Stable…” I trailed in thought. With recent events, I almost forgot about life in our concrete home. Or maybe I intentionally buried it. I sighed and spoke my thoughts aloud, “Life wasn’t great for me there either. Shade’s an overbearing sociopath and I was always kept in seclusion because of her or because of my ‘condition.’” “See,” I took another bite and continued, “even in the stable, ponies were wary of my scarlet mane too. Dr. Red said it’s a genetic anomaly brought by leaked balefire radiation. Others thought it was some omen for the end of times, as if that didnʼt happen already,” I rolled my eyes, “Regardless, Stable ponies are more than happy to hide the things they’re scared of, as I’m sure you know.” “Mum used to always say it was special though,” I spoke ambiently, staring at the red threads of hair I held up in a hoof. “She said it meant ‘the goddess chose me to be a shining star’ among everypony else.” I popped the last bit of snack cake in my mouth and shook my head, “I sure don’t feel bloody chosen right now.” I looked over at Midnight’s laying form beside me and rolled over, hugging a pillow between my forelegs as I watched him, “I miss her. Mum, I mean. She would have loved to see the world out here. Despite the worst of it, this place is everything she said it should have been. The stars, the moon, the forest. She always told me about how thestrals thrived in these woods, how we were more in tune with the magic of the night sky than even pegasi and their clouds.” I reached a hoof and gently tucked a red lock of Midnight’s mane aside, “kinda like you, now that I think about it.” My hoof stopped near his still head and I felt my eyes begin to water lightly, “I miss you too, Middy,” I huffed and cracked a small smile, “I’m glad you can’t really hear any of this, cause Luna knows how much I’ll deny it. But,” I cleared my throat and laid my head close to his, “I need you, Midnight. You’re all I have left from home. I’m sorry we started off on the wrong hoof, but you’re a great buck.” My smile faded, “I’m leaving tomorrow night. The ponies in charge want a few of us to go to Rafael and spread the word about the Daylight and see what can be done. I promise I’ll be right back, but in case things get complicated, I just need to let you know… how I've been feeling.” I felt my ears warm while I ambiently pet my mane against the pillow, “I- um, I think I'm starting like you... a lot. So please wake up soon, okay? Maybe one day I’ll tell you again, when you can actually understand me, but you’ve gotta keep treating me like a mare. No more of that coltish snarky stuff, alright, mister?” My words fell on his deaf ears but my chest clung onto the warm feeling of hearing them aloud for the first time. I said them more for myself than anything. This world was awful. Death stood at every corner and reaped any soul unfortunate enough to cross its path. If things were bleak in my future, I wasn’t going to waste my time now being a nervous filly around the colt I fancied. We only knew each other for such a short time but I knew what was happening in my heart. I wasn’t going to stop it. I leaned forward and kissed Midnight’s cheek gently. “I’ll see you when you’re awake,” I sighed softly. Midnight’s gentle breathing and the rising morning light creeping in from the curtained windows weighed my tired eyes until they closed. I held the pillow lightly in my legs as I drifted to sleep. For the first time, wishing it was Midnight’s embrace instead. XXX