After the 3 teens managed to make their way to the next route exit through the tunnel, Applejack took the lead as she pushed another hidden passage in the walls.

She ducked down and peeked outside, still signaling Rainbow Dash and her girlfriend to stay put while she scans the area.

heavy footsteps were being heard outside the hidden tunnel, most of them scattered near the hole where Applejack and her team were hidden.

There she saw dozens of the Canterlot soldiers were scouting around the area, holding their assault rifles close to them.

"Hold on." Applejack commanded before Rainbow Dash could peek through the hole. "Patrol's scoutin' the place, we need to wait."

Rarity stepped up, moving closer to her girlfriend. "How many? We can take them done if we are cautious, darling."

"No, Rares. There's too many of them! It's best if we just stay put till they leave."

"Screw them, we can outrun it!" Rainbow Dash crossed her arms, giving Applejack a serious look.

The cowgirl laughed sarcastically. "Sure, if you want to be shredded by hundreds of high-velocity bullets, be my guess and step right ahead."

"Geez, no need to be a jerk, you jerk."

Rarity rolled her eyes before taking out a compass in her pocket. "Look, if we continue going straight, this can lead us to the second route."

Her lover moved a bit closer to the fashionista, gently grabbing her hand to make her move the compas closer in her sight.

"You're right," Aj replied while following the direction of its arrow. "We can go straight ahead after the scouts leave. But we have to be quick about it."

Rainbow Dash butted in. "Pf, relax Apples. Fast is my middle name. It's best If I take the lead for this one."

"I thought 'Being a complete skittle-haired asshole' was your middle name?" The blonde teen answered while arching an eyebrow at Rainbow Dash.

The teen scoffed and looked away from Applejack's eyes. "W-whatever, what's yours anyway? Is 'Being stuck with a slutty as girlfriend in this pandemic' your middle name?"

With that being said, Applejack's eyes quickly went wide at Rainbow's harmless insult. She then held the cover with one hand as her other one grabbed Rainbow Dash's shirt.

The poor multi-colored haired teen gasped at the touch before the cowgirl could even pull her closer to her.

"Say somethin' about my girl again. Come on, I dare you." Applejack laughed with a sinister voice.

Rainbow gritted her teeth and held Applejack's hand to make it loosen its grip. But after a few tries of pushing her away, she sadly failed on her every attempt.

"D-dude it was a joke, come on!" She tried to explain, voice filled with slight fear towards Applejack.

Rarity, on the other hand, ignored Rainbow Dash's insult. Instead, she only walked away and grabbed one part of the cover to maintain its opening.

It seems like she didn't care about the two fighting. She didn't stop nor interfere with the two. And this made Rainbow cautious of her.

Moments later, the angered teen finally loosened her grip on their cargo's shirt, allowing Rainbow Dash to slap her hand and back away.

Applejack let out a sigh, turning her attention back to Rarity. "R-Rarity, you okay?"

Her lover tilted her head, showing slight confusion. "Huh? Yes darling, why wouldn't I be okay?"

The blonde teen chuckled and patted Rarity's hair. "That's me-" She paused, hesitating to say the last word.

But when Rarity arched an eyebrow at her, Applejack gulped and looked away. "I.. I'm sorry." She stuttered out.

"Sorry for what? All you did was defend me, Aj."

Applejack forced out a weakened smile before peeking through the hole again. "W-we should get ready to strike, any minute now." She started, completely ignoring Rarity's question.

When Rarity was about to respond, she felt Rainbow Dash push her aside, running and sliding through the open hole afterward.

The blonde teen's eyes widened as she tried to pull the stranger back to hide their cover. But she was too late.

"R-Rainbow Dash! Come back here!" Applejack whispered-shouted to the teen outside, giving her repeated hand signals to avoid suspicion from the patrolling soldiers.

Rainbow Dash weakly smiled at her before running away, leaving Rarity and Applejack alone in the hidden tunnel.

"Adios, assholes." She lastly laughed with a broken tone in her voice. It sounds like she was about to cry, according to Applejack of course.

The cowgirl gritted her teeth, showing anger for a reaction. Rarity, on the other hand, was angered as well.

"Rainbow, come back!" She yelled out again.

Now that their "cargo", Rainbow Dash is out in the open, the risk of all of them getting caught has increased.

"Goddammit, she escaped! I knew this would happen!"

And with that, Applejack didn't hesitate to throw the cover aside to fully opened the exit route which exposed their current location.

Luckily none of the soldiers were near to suspect them which gave the cowgirl an opportunity to run into cover.

But before she could step foot on the ledge, Rarity suddenly held her wrist, pulling her back into cover.

"Applejack, darling, no! We can't just charge their without any ranged weapons!" Rarity warned her lover.

"And that's why we need to get you one. We can't just let that kid go!" She started while grabbing her gun from her holster. "By the way, That knife of yers ain't gonna go through their bulletproof vest." She added.

Rarity nodded. "I guess so, mind fetching me one?." She cutely giggled before taking a peek through the hole. "Where did that little rascal go?"

"She went west, across that truck. And stop giggling, this ain't no time to fool around, Rarity! We just lost our cargo and now she might tell our location to the soldiers!"

Rarity sighed, crossing her arms to her chest. "It was just a giggle, darling. You're sounding so annoyed."

"Are we seriously gonna have this conversation now? We have that kid runnin' out there! Waiting for her to sell us out is not in the goddam plan!"

Rarity just stayed silent, not responding to any of her girlfriend's continuous warns about them.

After Applejack finally calms down, she first took one last deep breath before crawling out of the exit.

Without saying any word, Rarity followed from behind after she took out her pocket knife from her bag.

Now that the two are in plain sight, Applejack immediately covered the secret tunnel before grabbing Rarity's hand to run for cover.

It was clear that the two were still mad at each other, the tension between them was somehow deadly whenever the two couple looks in each other's eyes.

But for Applejack, getting Rainbow Dash back was her main priority. She didn't know why she argued with her girl, but when Rainbow abandoned them, something in her just snapped.

Was it fear, anger, anxiety? All mixed feelings confused the cowgirl. All she can do now was run for cover as her lover followed from behind.

And it wasn't long for Rarity to notice this strange behavior from the cowgirl. Even though Applejack kept looking away to hide her expression, Rarity knew she was scared about losing someone important.

"Something's up with her, she can't possibly care for that stranger. You just met her today, Applejack." Rarity thought to herself.

After the two finally made it to a cover, Applejack removed the safety pin of her gun before taking a peek to her right.

And there she saw a small passageway which leads to the second part of this district.

She gave Rarity a quick nod. "I bet she went there, this is the only route outta this District."

Her lover rolled her eyes. "I know, can we just get that b*tch and be over with this mission?"

"All we want us the guns, Rare. As soon as we find her, we'll deliver her to the Shadowbolts and end this mission." Applejack started before continuing to walk her path.

But she suddenly paused mid-way while her grip on her gun tightened. "After this crap is over, we need to talk about our relationship.."

Rarity's eyes widened in disbelief as her heart felt like breaking into a million pieces. The poor teen covered her true emotions with a forced fake smile.

"We really should." She stammered out her reply, still forcing out a smile.

Applejack weakly smiled and nodded at her again. "Thanks, we need to move, now." She continued to walk in her direction.

With Rarity still following her from behind, the two eventually made it across the passageway, only for them to encounter someone.

A smile formed on the cowgirl's face but she quickly covered it with an angered one.

There through the passage is where they saw Rainbow Dash. She was seen walking by the passageway, bringing an armed assault rifle in her hand.

Applejack then quickly charged up to her, grabbing her shirt once again to pin her to the wall.

"You son of a b*tch!" She cried out after she successfully pinned the Rainbow-haired teen to the wall, causing her to drop her gun.

"Argh!" She gasped, looking into Aj's emerald eyes after. "The hell, dude!? How did you even fi-"

Before Rainbow could even finish her sentence, she was cut off when Applejack unexpectedly delivered a quick punch to her face.

"You idiot! You can't just run off like that, you'll blow away our goddam cover!"

Rainbow wiped the blood drip from her mouth. "I know, I know! Calm your ass down and just listen."

Applejack gritted her teeth in a state of anger, releasing her grip on Rainbow Dash's wrist.

"You have 10 seconds to explain or else I ain't gonna hesitate to put you in a leash in this whole cargo mission!"

"Danm sounds sexy." She wiggled her eyebrows.

"5 F*CKING SECONDS OR YOUR DEAD."

"Alright, alright!" She started, walking away from Applejack. "Look you said we need guns, so I snapped a bunch of soldier's neck and stole their guns," Rainbow added, sounding casual.

Applejack's eyes widened. "You did what?! Y-you just ran off for like, 3 minutes ahead of us and now you already killed 2 men?!"

"6." Rainbow proudly interrupted.

When Applejack was about to ask another question, a light suddenly flashed in the distance, making the 3 teens gasp at the sighting.

"Sh*t, they're onto us, we have to go!"

"Too late, cowgirl." A male voice responded behind her.

When the 3 girls looked around, there they saw 2 soldiers with loaded assault rifles, pointing directly at them.

"Well, sh*t."

Before Applejack could even point her gun back at them, another batch of soldiers ran up to them in the opposite direction.

"Get down to your knees, now!" One soldier commanded.

Applejack and her friends had no choice but to follow their orders. If not, they'll surely be shot right in the head like all the other civilians who crossed here.

"Alright, don't do anything stupid." Rarity nervously chuckled while getting on her knees.

Same with Rainbow Dash and Applejack, they slowly placed their hands on the back of their heads as ordered.

One soldier approached them, making the others lower their guns. "This is officer Alpha hoof from district 7. We have 3 stragglers here near District 3, please respond."

As the town's protocol suggested, the tasked soldiers must scan the 3 teen's neck using a highly advanced scanner used for the infected.

"Scan them, Octavia." A female voice told her partner.

The tasked one nodded in agreement before walking up to the 3. First was Rarity, the soldier gently placed her scanner near her neck.

"Clear," Octavia called as soon as a green outlined word flashed on her screen.

Next to her was Applejack. The soldier at hand did the same routine to her, also resulting to a negative clear sign in her device.

"This one's safe." She announced before walking to the last person, Rainbow Dash.

But as soon Octavia placed her scanner to Rainbow's neck, it immediately rang its emergency alarm.

With the sound being triggered, Rainbow quickly took the chance to strike the soldier's leg with a pocket knife.

"S-sorry!" She yelled put after pulling out the knife from the soldier's foot.

"Fire!" Their captain yelled when she saw the sudden attack of the Rainbow haired teen. But before he could even raise her assault rifle, Applejack quickly charged at her, pinning her to the ground afterward.

With two of the strangers occupied, Rarity took care of the rest as she grabbed one of the soldier's pistols and shot all of them, directly in the head.

Applejack, on the other hand, finished the last one by putting a bullet through its head, causing Octavia's blood to scatter all over the cowgirl's face.

Rainbow Dash kept hyperventilating while backing away from the scene until she got stopped by a wall near the passageway.

The blonde teen gritted her teeth, standing up to wipe the blood on her face. "W-what the hell, Rainbow Dash?! You nearly cost us our lives back there!"

"I-- I don't know.. I thought they were just k-kidding and maybe, I- I'm sorry okay?!" She stuttered out a few words with the sound of her voice filled with fear and nervousness.

While Applejack kept yelling at the teen who started all the mess, Rarity walked up to one of the dead soldiers and grabbed the scanner near its corpse.

And what she saw shocked her, causing her eyes to go wide. "A-Applejack, darling.."

"The hell do you want now, Rarity?" Applejack asked, still raging out.

Rarity sighed and threw the scanner to her girlfriend. "Maybe this will answer your question."

When Applejack successfully caught it, she leaned closer to read the words displayed on the screen.

And same with Rarity, her reaction quickly turned into a shock yet angered one.

"Wait, this can't be right.." She muttered while facing Rainbow Dash.

"You're infected?!"