The cracked road stretched on endlessly into the distance. The surrounding landscape was quiet and still with the exception of few shrubs and some wild grass that bobbed lazily in the light breeze. Along the road Nexus trotted, the only visible sign of life in the apparently deserted wasteland. She had no idea where she was going, she didn’t even know what lay in this direction. It was simply the direction in which the road stretched.

The breeze kicked up a light haze of dust from the dry soil giving the distant horizon a shimmering effect. There was nothing out here but one pony and an ancient trail. Probably for the best. Nexus didn’t have a gun or any form of weapon. She was hungry and had no food or drink, no caps to buy them either. The limp saddlebag at her side contained few items. A single Dash inhaler she’d found in a burnt out building days back and never got round to selling. A couple of rounds for a gun she couldn’t even begin identify and an assortment of junk she’d picked up while walking. The only thing of interest she carried was the pipbuck attached to her right forehoof. The device was the only indicator of her stable dwelling past. Despite the rough treatment it had received during her years as a slave it remained remarkably intact structurally Sadly the slavers had disabled it when they found it impossible to remove and since then it had been little more than a dead weight at her side.

After what felt like hours, some shapes became apparent in the distance. They looked like structures, crumbled and burnt but still standing. Fortunate timing as well. The wind had steadily picked up over the hours she’d walked and black clouds were drawing in over head. Her trot became a gallop as the rain began to fall but by the time she’d reached the first building her mane and coat were soaked through. Ducking under the charred door frame she took shelter from the deluge in room beyond.

It wasn’t a large space, the ceiling had partly collapsed filling the tiny store room with rubble from the floor above. A little investigation of the surrounding area led Nexus to believe that it had once been some kind of convenience store. It seemed to have long since been cleared of anything valuable but she did manage to find an old bowl which she placed just outside the door to collect water.

Scouring the shelves on the shop floor turned up nothing but wrappers and long moulded foods that even a radroach would turn down. Disappointed she made her way back towards the door hoping to drink whatever had collected in the bowl to at least quench her thirst. Just as she was about to step outside however, the sound of voices caught her attention.

“I’m telling you man, somepoines in there. I came by here 10 minutes ago, no bowl. Now? Bowl. We’re not alone.”

“You sure you din’t just miss it? Ah mean it is a brown bowl on ah brown floor”

“It wasn’t there man. Somepony put it there!”

Nexus heard the faint sound of a gun being loaded even over the driving rain. This wasn’t good. Steadily she began to back her way toward the blown out front windows. If they came in she’d have to make a dash for it. Hiding behind a partly tipped shelf she watched as two stallions stepped through the doorway and into the back room. One of them, a reddish brown unicorn, held a crude looking rifle in his telekinesis, while the other, a dull grey earth pony, held a vicious looking blade in his mouth. Both of them were covered in spiked armour constructed of scrap. Raiders.

Fear gripped Nexus as she watched the two carefully work there way through the upturned shelves, combing the shop for her. The mere thought of what would happen if she was caught terrified the life out of her. She’d have to run.
Using her own telekinesis, wary of the light her horn was producing, she nudged a barely standing shelf on the far side of the room. With satisfyingly loud ‘clang’ the shelf clattered to the floor discarding it’s load of empty soda bottles over the floor. Both raiders turned at once to face the noise and seizing the moment she ran. 

A shout of alarm echoed behind her followed by the crack of the unicorns rifle. The ground to her left erupted sending chips of worn concrete spraying into the air. Glancing back for just a second she was shocked to see both raiders already in pursuit, the unicorn reloading his rifle as he ran. To her growing panic she realised that knife pony was gaining on her closing the gap between them rapidly.

Without even thinking about the potential consequences, Nexus drew the Dash inhaler from her saddle bag, shoved it in her mouth and breathed deeply. The effect was instantaneous. Around her the world seemed to slow. She could see clearly the drops of rain as they crashed into the ground, exploding into tiny flowers on the cracked side walk. Behind her she heard another loud crack as the rifle fired a second shot. Turning she was amazed to see a shock wave of prismatic colours explode from the rifles barrel. The shot again crashed into the ground near by kicking up wet gravel and dirt.

Then she energy rush came. It was like drinking 100.. No 200… No 2000 bottles of sparkle cola. She felt great! Amazing. Ready for anything! Nothing could stop her! She was powered by rainbows. Amazing rainbows. Rainbows and sunshine. Wow rainbows were awesome. No. She was awesome! Rainbows were also awesome. If there was a list of the top 10 most awesome things, 1 with be Nexus, 2 would be rainbows… 3 would probably be something like snack cakes or sparkle cola or sunshine or rainbows… Wait, no, rainbows were number 2!

So great was the rush that she barely acknowledged the third rifle shot. Both raiders were now so far behind her that she barely even registered their existence any more. They were nothing, insignificant. After running a little further, looping behind buildings and down alleyways Nexus was satisfied she had ditched her pursuers and slipped inside a house out of the rain. By this time, the Dash was starting to wear off and she was suddenly feeling incredibly tired. More than that, she really wanted some more. Desperately she tried the inhaler again but to no avail. Disappointed, she made a note to acquire more in the future. It’d be very useful if she ever had to outrun raiders again or anything else in the wasteland for that matter.