Sin Never Dies

by TheMixtapeHorse

Not Alone

When Max was settled into his temporary home, the first thing he did was to have the curtains shut for him and go to bed. Perhaps if he went back to bed, the nightmare would be over. He had to have fallen asleep in the parking lot when he stopped for food and gas in Bishop. He would wake up in his comfy heated driver’s seat with half a taco sitting on his lap. He would be able to stretch his arms and drive his car into the sunrise. He would be able to call his family and tell them that he’d made it safely back to his little studio apartment in Orleans Square. Everything would be okay.

The young stallion’s snoring ceased. He shuffled around in the dark, messing up the sheets on his bed. He couldn’t see anything in the dark. It was as if his natural night vision had up and vanished. Max moved his fingerless appendages along the side of his bed, hoping to find some kind of light. When Max finally found and pressed the hoof-sized button on his bedside lamp, his heart shattered. He was still a pony. He was still in the rehabilitation center.

His heart hammered in his chest and his breathing came more rapidly. This couldn’t be happening. No, this could not be happening. This was still just a dream. It had to be.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he stumbled to the mirror. Max stared into the mirror with a sense of hysteria and denial.

“No… No! No, no, no, no, no!”

Max began smacking his cheek with a hoof.

“Wake up, wake up, wake up!”

Each hit sent shockwaves of pain through his head, proof that this was certainly not a dream.

With blood dripping from his lip, he fell to the ground and put his forearms over his head.

“It’s just a dream, it’s just a dream, it’s just a dream!” he sobbed.

He lay on the ground, curled up in a ball while tears streamed down his cheeks. Max could no longer repress the fact that everything he held dear and everything he took for granted was gone. He would never graduate. He would never travel across the seas. He would never see his family again.

The door opened and a middle aged earth pony mare found the young stallion sobbing on the floor. She wore white nurse’s fatigues and had her name tag placed on the breast of the shirt. With a compassionate expression, she sat down and petted Max’s back.

“It’s okay Max. This is normal. Just let it all out,” the mare cooed.

As the crying subsided, the stallion rolled onto his stomach and looked up at the cherry red mare. His eyes dilated and the tears soaked his cheeks.

“I have nothing left, Rose!” Max cried out.

Rose was not immune to this kind of emotional torrent, but it was a common occurrence in her job as a refugee therapist. Max was in bad shape, but he was far from the worst case she had come across in her 40 years of service. He wasn’t even the worst this week.

Rose stayed firm as she always did in this kind of situation. She calmly petted his back. “Yes you do, Max. You have a second chance.”

“What's the point of having a second chance if I can never share it with the people I care about?” he asked in a much calmer way. “I could get through this if I still had my family…”

“Your family wouldn’t want you to give up now. They would want you to keep going. For them.” Rose brushed a strand of her cream colored mane out of her face. “I’ll tell you a little secret, Max. I was… I mean I still am, the mother of two pain in the ass teenage boys: Jeffrey and Isaac.”

Max fumbled into a sitting position and listened to his therapist.

“When I greeted you at orientation, you reminded me so much of Isaac. Kind hearted and kind of lost. And your messy brown mane? Hah! Just like that boy. Sorry, I’m digressing.” She poked the ground in front of her with a hoof for a moment. “Forty-five years ago... I had just finished washing the clothes for the night. Isaac had fallen asleep in front of the TV and Jeffery was up, studying. I went to bed without any thought to give either of them a kiss goodnight. The next morning, I woke up sitting in the middle of the desert. My first thought wasn’t ‘How did I get here’ or ‘Why can’t I feel my toes’. It was ‘Where are my boys?’ Being a mother for nineteen years will do that to you. Always putting your children first.”

Rose sighed. “The one thing that always got to me was that I never even said goodnight to them. The last thing I ever said to my boys was 'Do your homework.’ I felt like I would never be able to forgive myself. And honestly, Max…” She looked away from him with a tear falling down her cheek. “I never forgave myself. I didn't move for three whole days. I cried and slept, in that order. By the fourth day, I started to think… if they were watching… would they want to see me slowly killing myself? Of course they wouldn’t. And I would never want to see them do that to themselves.”

She put a hoof on the shoulder of the young earth pony and looked into his eyes. “I would want my boys to live their new life to the fullest. Go on adventures, make friends, fall in love, and most importantly, be happy. Max. This is coming from the caring mother within my soul. Your mother would want nothing less than for you to live a long, happy life. I promise you that.”

The stallion choked on his words before simply wrapping his forelegs around the mare in front of him. After a few moments of silence, he spoke up. “Thank you, Rose.”

“Of course Max. We all need someone to talk to. Keeping things bottled up for too long will make you do horrible things to yourself. I don’t have many patients at the moment, so any time you need to talk, I’ll get here as fast as I can.” She rose to her hooves and half turned toward the door. “Think you can figure out how to get back into bed?”

The stallion rolled his eyes and struggled back onto his mattress. “Of course. It’s not that difficult.”

Rose smiled and headed out the door. Before she completely shut the door, Max asked her, “Did you ever find out anything about your sons?”

Rose stopped. She looked back and nodded. “I found out about thirty-ish years ago. I heard about the extensive record keeping the city had done in the past. They wanted to keep track of all of it’s citizens because thieves often snuck in. Somepony realized that the data might also be useful not only for security but to returnees as well. Maybe a returnee was responsible for the record keeping at the time. Whatever the reason, they started to add a little more information to the entries on the newly arrived."

"So I did some research. After a few days of doing nothing but reading, I found my last name, and what do you know, that last name was connected to my Jeffery. He returned seven centuries ago, back when the city was nothing but a small fortified town. He became a construction worker and helped with a lot of the civil works projects in the 2600’s. He had seven beautiful foals and many more grandchildren.”

She stifled a laugh. “I’m actually best friends with my own great-times-seventeen granddaughter. We treat each other like cousins. She always has me over for the holidays and family game nights. Jeffrey created such a beautiful family. I couldn’t be any more proud of him.” She paused to take a breath. “I’m not sure what happened to Isaac. He could’ve returned long ago or he could still be in the timestream. All I hope is that he was, is, or will be safe and happy.”

Max chuckled. “Well… here’s hoping I don’t fall in love with my great something niece.”

‘That is, if I’ll ever find ponies attractive’

Rose laughed with him and switched off the light for him. “Goodnight, Max.”

----------------

Max awoke with the sun shining in his face. The exhausted stallion shifted his head down the pillow to get away from the morning light peeking through the curtains. He lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. He dared not move another muscle, fearing to find himself not in his human body. He slowly raised his arms above himself and watched his hooves come into his peripheral vision. Max sighed as he let his forelegs flop back to his sides. He was disappointed, but wasn’t surprised. At least now he knew for sure this wasn’t a bad dream.

He slowly rolled out of the bed and onto his hooves.

“Okay… Just like crawling.”

Max walked to his window on trembling legs. He reached out with a hoof and pulled the curtain to the side, almost losing his balance. The rays of Nevada’s morning sun filled the room and blinded the poor stallion. He whinnied and fell back onto his flank. He put a hoof to his face in embarrassment.

“Really? I fucking whinny now?”

While taking in his body’s new, embarrasing reactions, he heard a knock from the door. Rose opened the door and walked up to the disoriented pony with a smile.

“You’re gonna be doing a lot of that from now on!”

Max carefully rose back up and cleared his throat. “Uh, morning, Rose.”

Rose put her hoof under his chin and inspected his face in the clear morning light. “Wow… for some reason you really do look like Isaac.” She shook her head and opened one of the dresser drawers. “Okay, so I know you newbies still like to keep your clothes on, so we have some clean clothes in here for you, if you want.”

Max had already taken off his stained sweatshirt last night, so all he was currently wearing were his ill-fitting work pants. “There any jeans in there, or is it some kind of ‘magic fabric’?”

Rose rummaged through the drawers and threw a pair of jeans shorts at him. “Here. You’ll wanna keep your hooves exposed for the most part. Earth ponies like us need that connection to mother earth or we get… We get nervous and a little queasy if our hooves are trapped. They’ll teach you about your racial magic in a bit.”

Max raised an eyebrow. “Racial magic?”

“Racial magic is the magic in your body that allows you to do things others can't. Unicorns can remotely manipulate their environment, pegasi can manipulate weather and atmospheric conditions, and us earth ponies…” Rose stood tall and stuck her chest out heroically. “We’re strong as steel! Yet, we’re gentle enough to nurture nature's most precious gift, life.”

The young stallion sighed. “I’d label you as certifiably insane if we weren’t talking horses. I’m sorry. Ponies.”

Rose shook her head and walked out into the hallway. “Get dressed, silly. You’ve got a big day ahead of you.”

She leaned up against a wall while the sounds of grunting, crashing, and cursing came from behind the shut door.

“Well… that's still there… for the most part…” mumbled the stallion.

Rose covered her muzzle with a hoof to keep her from giggling like a filly.

After a couple more minutes of struggling, Max stepped outside the door. What he thought were jeans shorts actually looked like full-sized jeans when worn. He also wore a plain white tee. Rose chuckled and straightened his clothes out for him so he didn't look as if he'd tried dressing himself for the first time.

“Looking good, kid!” Rose exclaimed after fixing his mane. “Alright. Let's take a walk. You gotta join in the returnee orientation. Everypony who is well enough goes to these meetings. Think of it as a group therapy session.”

The two walked down the quiet hallways into a large, open atrium. The ceiling was several stories high and all windows faced north, to prevent toasting everyone inside. It looked like a fancy hotel lobby. Planters filled with ferns and flowers surrounded the various sitting areas where ponies, griffins, and even a diamond dog were all chatting.

Rose walked Max through the cold gathering area and to a group of fairly young ponies and griffins. “We’ve grouped ponies here by age groups. We found it easier to do that because they can better relate to each other. You’ll be joining the seventeen to twenty-five group. Your age group and the one before you are in a bit of a tight spot biologically. But they’ll tell you more about that later.”

The group was composed of four ponies and a griffon, along with the group’s head therapist, an older, dark red thestral stallion. The bat pony smiled at Max. “Mornin’ son. Ready for a big day?”

The stallion’s fangs sent a chill through the young stallion. “Oh, uh. Yeah.”

The bat-winged pony scratched his head and closed his lips to a small grin. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I’m not like a vampire or anything like that.”

“You noticed that? I tried to keep a straight face.”

“Ponies are easy to read. Your ears folded back, so I assumed you were a little startled.”

“I’m sorry. I’m not used to my body doing all these subconscious things. I only got here yesterday.”

The cat-like eyes of the counselor went wide. “Wow. Not a lot of ponies here can muster enough courage to come to orientation on their second day. Most returnees here are on their fourth day at the very least.”

Max nodded and sat down in an empty chair next to a quiet unicorn stallion. The blue unicorn glanced over at him and then returned his gaze back on the portable classroom chalkboard in front of the group. Max studied the chalkboard as well. Along the top, written in neat cursive English, it said ‘Marion the bat horse.’ Max chuckled as Marion returned from talking with some other counselors.

“Alright! Everypony who’s able to come to our little meeting is here. Welcome to the future! I’ll be your guide through the magical creature-filled post apocalyptic world. But… before we get into the magical adventures leading up to this point, let's do the stereotypical greeting exercise. Let’s get your name, age, where you’re from, and if you want, a little bit of a backstory. I’ll go first.”

He flared his wings out to grab the attention of everyone. “I’m Marion Gutierrez. I’m forty-eight years old. However, I was twenty-seven when I returned, so I’ve been here for twenty-one years. I was born in Oakland, California in 1988 and moved out here with my parents in the nineties. I attended Chaparral High School and graduated from the University of Nevada: Las Vegas with my doctorate in psychiatry. I was able to get a job in gambling addiction treatment at the Valley Hospital. I was always up long before the sun and always got to work at 3 in the morning. Something about seeing the lights of the city on my way really appealed to me.”

“Anyways, imagine my surprise as I locked my car door and while I walked toward the employee entrance, everything went dark and I was tripping on concrete. I returned in an air pocket of the hospital’s collapsed and buried parking garage. If it wasn’t for my bat-pony night vision, I never would’ve found my way out of that place. I was picked up by a couple pegasi and brought to the old Nellis runway, and long story short, ended up staying here at the rehab center helping people like you.”

Marion folded his wings back to his sides and gestured to the charcoal unicorn mare at the right end of the sitting area. “Now, why don’t you start us off, miss.”

“Hi everyone,” The mare said timidly. “I’m Katie. I’m twenty years old and I’m from Boulder City.” She nervously tapped her forehooves together. “That’s all…”

Marion nodded and gave a toothy grin. “Okay, nice to meet you Katie!”

He nodded to the griffin girl sitting next to Katie “You’re next.”

The griffin held her talons in front of her and took a breath. “I’m Teresa Lloyd. I’m twenty-two years old. I’m from North Las Vegas. I, uh, was cramming for finals when the… thing happened. I was sitting in my chair so I fell backwards with my quantum mechanics textbook in my arms and almost broke one of my… wings. Holy shit, I still can’t believe I have fucking wings!”

The thestral laughed. “Oh I remember when I first realized I had wings. Was kinda disappointed they weren’t fluffy and feathery, but…” He puffed out his chest and spread his wings again. “It makes me look badass!” he exclaimed with a childish grin.

Teresa’s wings ruffled a bit. “Yeah, it still feels really weird to move them. It’s like having a second set of arms… on your back. I’ve seen the other, uh… bird-cat’s?”

“Griffins,” Marion corrected her.

“Griffins flying around when I was rescued. I hope one day I can fly around like that!”

The bat pony nodded “Oh you will! They’ll give you and the other winged species flying lessons for as long as you want to take them.”

Teresa pumped her fists as a purple pegasus stallion next to her spoke up. “Will I be able to fly too? These wings seem a little small for a… pony.”

“It’s all in the racial magic of the pegasus. And no, racial magic isn’t some Nazi euphemism. We’ve gotten a lot of those comments over the years.” Marion chuckled and shrugged it off. “Anyways, you’re next, amigo.”

“Alright,” the pegasus said. “My name is Vance Hofstetter. I’m from the Summerlin neighborhood and I’m seventeen and I was a senior at the Palo Verde High School. I was on the PVHS Panthers baseball team and we had a game at the Foothill High School in Henderson the night of the event. We went to In-n-out after the game and then went home to sleep. And well… I woke up the next morning as a fun-sized horse with wings.” The purple stallion’s feathers seemed to shiver at his sides. “I… don’t want to talk about my first couple days here, if that’s okay.”

Marion cleared his throat. “Of course. We’re not gonna force you to do anything you don’t want to do.”

The grey pegasus mare next to Vance flapped her wings in curiosity, then looked back at the group. “Am I next?” she asked in a slight east coast accent. “My name is Nadia Turner. I’m twenty-one years old. I’m from White Plains, New York and I was here with my girlfriends to celebrate my twenty-first birthday. We were out drinking at the time of the… It’s called the event, right?”

Marion confirmed with a silent nod.

“So there we were, having a good time, dancing to that new Borgeous song at the Omnia club in Caesar’s Palace. Then I do a little spin and I fall into… well… this nice guy.” She gestured to the unicorn stallion sitting between herself and Max.

The unicorn softly spoke up. “I was about to leave the club, ‘cause my date never showed up. Nadia fell on top of me and got beer all over my shirt. She was apologising over and over until we fell into a freefall.”

Nadia put a hoof onto the young stallion’s back. “The club disappeared, as well as the floor beneath us. We must’ve fallen at least ten feet. Luckily sand isn't that hard, but I broke a couple of his ribs when I landed on him.”

The unicorn gave her a reassuring look and began to speak more openly. “When the rescuers took me to the hospital, Nadia fought them until they let her come with me. She hasn’t left my side since. It’s safe to say that she’s my best friend.”

“Aww! That’s one of the most heartwarming stories I’ve heard in awhile,” Marion said with an exaggerated grin. “Not many ponies appear above the ground. Must have been a spell glitch. Maybe it’s ‘cause you two were touching when the spell happened.” He pointed at the unicorn. You still gotta do your own introduction.”

“Oh, right. I’m Jacob. I’m from North Las Vegas and I’m twenty-two years old. And well, you just heard my story,” he said in a much more relaxed tone than when he joined the conversation.

Finally, the thestral turned his gaze to Max. “And last but not least…”

Max returned the gaze awkwardly. “Uh, hi everyone. Everypony? My name is Max Lindenberg. I moved here from Rockford, Illinois a year ago. Well uh, not a year anymore, apparently. I’m nineteen years old and I attended UNLV.”

While he searched for his next words, his mind sifted through the memories of his life. His anxiety began to flair up, but he pushed those feelings back and focused on the group of colorful creatures before him.

“Not really much else to say,” Max lied. There was so much more he wanted to say. So many more emotions he wanted to let out. But this was not the place to do it.

“Well okay then. It’s great to meet you all!” Marion picked up a piece of chalk with a tooth grip on it and began writing on the board. “Now, many yeash ago in Irinoi, a shmal shehelment nam Arecksanria…”

----------------

Hours passed by as the group caught up on what had happened to the world in their absence. The lesson started with the fabled story of Alexandria. No one knew what had happened to the city or if it was even real or not, but the legend said that it had been the source of all knowledge of the new world.

Then came the stories of the plague and dark ages. The time period where returnees were targeted and any human technology was strictly taboo. Eventually, the history lesson became less rumours and more facts. They began discussing the rise of city-states, the struggles of society in the former American Southwest, and the mistreatment of those who returned. The group then discussed the creation of the city.

“Anyone wanna take a guess on why anypony bothered to rebuild the city of Las Vegas? We are in the middle of the desert after all.”

Marion scanned the small gathering until Katie spoke up. “Because of Lake Mead?”

“Precisely! Water is the lifeblood of any civilization. Those who returned here in the valley would never have survived a trip to California, so they headed toward the nearest source of fresh water. Most people had the same idea, and eventually a small farming community was founded. But most ponies in the valley didn’t head straight to the lake immediately. There was another beacon that drew in more refugees.”

Marion drew a sloppy drawing of a freestanding tower on the chalkboard. “Now some of you may have noticed that the Stratosphere Tower is still sticking out of the sand and I don’t think any of you have a clue why.”

“Magic?” Max said with a hint of sarcasm.

“Yep! It’s been structurally preserved by these cool little things called runes.” Marion drew a series of strange letters on the chalkboard. “They have a magical element to them. You don’t even need to be a unicorn the make them. Some will strengthen things, some will manipulate matter and energy, and some will even freeze the decaying process as a whole. This rune right here will trigger an illumination spell. Katie, Jacob, if you want to, we can practice this spell after the session.”

The thestral cleared his throat. “Getting off topic here. The original settlers of the city before the dark ages used the Stratosphere as a radio tower. They apparently didn’t want to bother maintaining it. Over the years though, earthquakes and basic erosion caused parts of the observation deck to collapse. But that can be expected over three-thousand years.”

As Marion erased the picture of the tower, the loudspeakers played a small chime. A mare’s voice spoke firmly, “Code yellow. Please stay alert.”

“What’s code yellow?” Teresa asked.

Marion looked to the window. “Uh. That means there’s a plane in the area.” The group looked among each other in confusion. The bat pony looked back to them nervously. “A returnee plane. One with pilots that have no coordination with their hooves.”

Max looked out the window. The gleam of an aircraft caught his eye. “There! There it is!”

Ponies and other creatures from all the groups rushed to the big window to watch the advancing airliner. The 737 was clearly in distress, descending at an unsafe rate and wobbling from side to side. The airliner banked into a slow turn, away from the facility. The plane straightened out and descended toward what looked like some kind of base to the north of them.

“Looks like they’re taking it to the Dust Devil’s base at the old Nellis runway.” Marion said. “The pilot must be really determined to land.”

The plane looked as if it was going to make a wobbly but successful landing. The airliner wasn’t more than five-hundred feet off the ground when the rocking started to intensify. Sounds of awe were replaced with sounds of terror as the three-hundred ton aluminium tube with wings tilted out of a sway and slammed into the ground. A mighty fireball rose from the desert floor in the distance, followed by a deafening boom that shook the entire building.

Max watched the event before him in horror. He remembered watching footage of the September eleventh attacks in years past, but it was nothing compared to watching an airplane tragedy unfold in front of him. How many lives had just perished because of something completely out of their control? The various returnees displayed every emotion from terror to amazement. But the counselors seemed almost unfazed. Were they so accustomed to death that they didn’t show emotion to it anymore?

Marion put his wing over Max’s back. “Okay… Change of plans. Let’s uh… get you guys back to your personal counselor. They’ll, uh, talk with you if you need to. If your counselor is currently helping another, please stay here with me.”

Katie was the first to break down in tears. Then Jacob started to tear up as well. By then, Max had removed himself from under the thestral’s wing and was walking back towards the hallways without another word. The glowing, red flames of the jet fuel fire behind him was more than he had ever wished to see.

Author's Note:

Oh boy. Little bit of tragedy there.

Sorry for the late update. Stay tuned for Jack and Winter's side of this fiasco!

As always, BIG thank you to Celefin

Comments

[Seeking Dusk]

Well... damn...

edit: Let me give you a better comment. I loved not only the chapter, but the lore and world building. How the returnee facility works as both education and support group. The volume of... residents seems high, but that's a minor issue as it makes for a better story. I'm not sure if Isaac is gonna be an important character or not, but we did focus quite a bit on him so... meh?

Anyway, the class was good, though I don't imagine anypony took notes. The ending though... I mean, we all know it would happen a lot but still...

[Alden MacManx]

A tack I have not thought of looking at. I find it truly fascinating. *chuckles* I was set to move to Las Vegas last year, but the transfer did not go through. Where was I planning on living? Just outside Nellis...

Great work. I'm looking forward to the next. Hope my tale is half as good as yours.

[TheMixtapeHorse]

7904824 The number of returnees there isn't as high as you might think. There's probably about 80 of them at a time, so it's not too crowded. Issac will come in waaaaay later on. Not in this story but the prequel I kinda sorta have planned. And if you thought the ending to that chapter was a real tear jerker, just wait until next chapter.

[bluemoon1996]

I have to admit this hit me in the feels
My family means a hell of a lot to me and Not knowing what happened to them and even if I'd ever see them again (especially considering my two year old nephew would be all alone when he would arrive back )

[Arkonfleight]

>Marion the bat horse
Bat horse, bat horse
Bat horse, bat horse
She runs the rehab center
In the city of sin
Helps the Returnees find
A place to fit in