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March 14th - The Other Side29,916 words

March 14th 20XX

Alleys

A My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Fan Fiction

Written by: Goober Trooper

With assistance from: Ozpakko & Icrus Team 402

March 14th 20XX

The dull rhythmic platter of raindrops falling onto my box, and the decrease in temperature, disturbed me from my restless sleep. I groggily sat up and unzipped my pack, blundering through its contents as I sought my green hoodie. I belatedly remembered I had lost it in a scam on the Market last week... Curse me and my curiosity. I let out a husky sigh, as I resorted to wearing a dark blue long sleeved shirt. I tossed my pack over my feet to keep them warm. I shuddered as I curled into a fetal-like position and tried to return to sleep.

Meowing awakened me. I managed to sprawl out of my fetal position during my sleep, but more surprising though, a gray and white cat was standing on my stomach looking down at my face and meowing. I shook my head with drowsy startledness. Not only was I being suddenly awakened by a creature but a cat no less! Needless to say, cats weren't very common in these Slums. Either because they didn't exist much in these parts anyways or because they were good eating. I didn't know, but I was more inclined to believe the latter, which suddenly tossed me into internal conflict.

My group needed food and here was this cat, sitting on my stomach and meowing at me expectantly. As if I had raised it, and he knew he could get his MeowMix from me. But it kept acting like I had raised it! Not to mention it was completely adorable with it's strangely round blue eyes, and bright pink nose that was speckled with dirt and grime. It meowed again, forcing my stomach growl.

"I'm horrible at making decisions." I thought as I looked at the cat with a troubled expression.

Too eat or not to eat? That was the question. I refrained from petting the cat or even touching it. I didn't want to get attached to it in any way if I decided to consume it. I sighed and stared into the blue eyes of this cat. He mewed again.
I placed my right and left hands on either side of the cat's head and took a sharp breath as I steeled myself.
I twisted the cat's head until I heard the sick crunch of bones breaking. My conscience felt cold and filthy. I will not lie. I allowed a few tears to fall from my eyes, as I tossed the cat's corpse out of my box. It reminded me too much of the cat I had when I was a boy, but I was desperate for food and had to make the hard choice... That was my excuse.

I sniffed as I quickly stuffed my belongings into my backpack and followed the same procedure I had executed the previous morning. The top and sides of my box were soggy from the rain, but it kept me dry through the night. I only hoped it would dry out before evening came around again. I folded it and slid it behind the dumpster, as I turned to pick up the dead cat. I carried it over my shoulder with a grip on it's tail as I sadly strolled out of the alleyway.

The rain had lightened considerably since the early morning hours. It was merely coming down in a steady drizzle, as I entered Blugar's Park. I was cautious with the wet and slippery sidewalks to avoid faceplanting on more garbage. It didn't take me long to arrive at our clearing. I was the second person here. Apparently, Elijah shows up early. He was leaning against a tree with both of his hands in the middle pouch of his black hoodie. I tend to show up later since I haven't seen a need to be early, but today... Well, today we were having breakfast burritos. I nodded to Elijah and slumped against my tree. I tossed the cat in front of me, as Elijah made a slightly impressed expression and walked over.

"Nice find." He said cautiously when he had approached.

I nodded and looked up to his young brown face.

"I guess so. May as well start gutting and skinnin' this lil' guy if you got a clean knife. Mine's all rusted and stuff. Probably wouldn't be a good idea to use it... You do have a knife right?" I replied and queried.

"Yes, but why now? Shouldn't we wait for the rest of the group?" He asked.

"Well for one it's gonna take time to gut this thing because... Well... I haven't done anything like this before. In the meantime, you could grab some firewood so we can roast this sucker and have feline breakfast burritos." I responded.

"That also supports my... Point. If we wait, somebody with better experience might be able to gut it, and we don't want to waste any food, but I'll go ahead and get the firewood. It's your kill so it's your call." Elijah replied.

I sighed and made a dismissive gesture as I put the side of my right hand to the corner of my brow, and evaluated my options.

"Gut it now, have food sooner. Gut it later, have food later, but maybe more food. Pah. I'm just going to gut it now. Get it over with while I still can. Besides I'm the only guy that I can trust to actually share this... Maybe I shouldn't? No it's too late, Elijah's already seen it. What if I split it with him? He probably wouldn't tell others if he got a chunk of- Riiight. Redge's got the burritos. Not that I need the burritos, but that'd just make it all the more complete."

Once I had finished my mental rambling I stood, and hailed Elijah down who was walking around the edges of the clearing, as he gathered some more or less drier wood.

"Hey, uhm, I'm gonna need your knife if I'm gonna gut that cat." I requested.

"Heh. Goin' to do it yourself anyways? Alright, just give me a second..." Elijah answered.

He shifted the small bundle of sticks he had collected under his left arm so he could hold them all with one hand. He felt along the right side of his hip, as he looked up into the mostly bare trees above. His pink tongue peaked out between his lips. It made a stark contrast with the rest of his dark skinned face.

I stared at it like a weirdo. I was strangely fascinated by this. I'm not racist unless I can find mutual humor in it, but it never occurred to me that they'd have tongues that pink. For no reason I expected them to be darker. My enthrallment with his mouth muscle was hastily hidden when he spoke up as he handed me a multi-tool.

"Here you go."

I nodded to him, as I took the multi-tool. I opened the knife attachment as I walked back to cat's corpse.

I flipped the cat onto it's belly and straddled it, then flipped it onto its side again then onto it's back.

"I really have no clue what I'm doing... I never thought I'd regret turning down working in the meat department." I thought remorsefully.

I reconsidered my previous decision but shook it off. I had killed this cat with a guilt filled soul I may as well see it through, and I sure as hell wanted to eat it now that it was dead. I wasn't about to trust somebody else with that. I decided that taking the guts out would be as good of a start as any.

I placed the blade at the top of the cat's chest, and applied a little pressure behind the tip of the knife with hope that it would easily slide into the flesh so I could begin my cut, but the skin resisted the slight pressure. I put more effort behind the blade, and it suddenly sank into the cat. I wasn't sure if that was a bad thing, but I guessed that the knife went all the way to the sternum. I tried to slide the knife back towards myself. Again, I expected the flesh to easily part, but I was thrown into frustration as it cut barely a centimeter before it refused to slice.

After several minutes of vigorous yanking and thrashing on both the multi-tool and carcase, I was finally able to make a long and rough incision. Through which I could retrieve the cat's organs. It briefly occurred to me that I should probably consider hygiene. I glanced down at my hands which were stained with a greyish brown color, although a little red had now been mixed in. If I was going to be handling people's food I definitely needed to wash these hands. I twisted to my right and snatched a bottle of spring water out of a side pouch on my pack.

I stood and took a few steps away from the cat and poured a little of the water onto my hands. I rubbed them together hastily and viewed my results. They were only slightly cleaner, probably cleaner then they had been for months, but it was as good as I would be able to get them. I turned back to the cat, brought it around so it's belly faced me, sat down on my legs, and began gutting the cat.

It was... An incredibly disgusting and messy job. Not something I would desire to repeat ever again but I got it done. With a small pile of cat innards next to me, I stupidly stared at the significantly deflated corpse, as I attempted to devise a way to steal it's muscles. Redge and Mike stumbled into the clearing during this time.

"That's some food you got there, Luke." Redge said in a typical emotionless tone, as he looked down at my horrible attempt at being a butcher.

I'll admit. I hoped he would be a bit more excited than that.

"Well I intend to share it. In fact, uh, Elijah was gathering wood for a fire. So I was thinkin' we could cook this fella up and have some breakfast burritos or somethin'. Before we all head out." I replied.

"Sounds good to me. You're damn lucky I didn't portion out those tortillas last night." Redge told me, as he swung his pack around and dug through it.

Redge got the package of tortillas and plopped it onto the ground in front of me.

"I'll go find Elijah and get that fire started. Mike, go build a fire ring." Redge informed me, and ordered.

"Alright." Mike replied, as he walked back out of the clearing.

I returned my attention back to the cat. I had absolutely no clue what I was doing, and I began to regret not following Elijah's advice. Not only may I get less meat for us to eat, but I may look like an idiot doing so. I sighed as I shook my head.

"Just get this over with, bro." I mentally told myself, as I plunged the knife into the cat's flesh behind it's skull and attempted to follow the spine to the tail.

After half an hour of what felt like senseless cutting, slicing, and yanking I finally had several furry strips of meat. The majority of my fellow group member's arrived during this time including Carla, who I was able to recruit in assisting me with slicing the skin away from the meat. I won't lie. My heart got a little skippy and my stomach felt a little giddy when she obliged.

We squatted over a paper plate, that one of our colleagues lent us, and piled the strips of good meat onto it. Redge and Elijah had managed to start a fire, but from what I overheard Redge didn't want attention being drawn to us by smoke so he enforced that the fire be kept small. I glanced up in that direction, and took notice of the 6 other people sitting around the fire's warmth in quiet conversation. I brought my focus back down to the bloody multi-tool and cat muscles, and tried to start up a conversation with Carla. Just because I wasn't interested in having a relationship with her didn't mean we couldn't be friends, right?

"You got any experience with this?" I asked her.

"Not really..." She said in a quiet voice, but she cleared her throat and repeated the same message in a slightly deeper and stronger tone.

I raised my eyebrow at that, and continued to cut fur away from muscles.

"My father was an active hunter so there was a lot of animals being gutted around my house. I didn't... Participate in that, but I saw it happen a lot." She continued to tell me.

"Really? I can't say my dad did the same, but what did he hunt?" I inquired.

"Oh... All sorts of things. I mean, one time he came home with a full on buck. Although, my mother wasn't too fond of a dead deer taking up all the garage space." She chuckled lightly as I assumed she remembered the memory.

"They fought for days about that deer. Eventually my dad lugged it into the backyard and took care of it there. I don't think he went hunting for deer again after that." She continued.

"I'd imagine so." I replied, as I laughed quietly at the thought of a guy dragging a half gutted deer into his backyard.

"After that he mostly stuck to small game and fowl. I don't know if he hunts anymore now... He was trending away from it when the Regulation came about. Inflation was already really high." She said with hinted longing.

"Really? You guys must have had a decent amount of dough if he could keep up his hunting passion when Inflation was beginning to max out." I responded.

She cut a few more slices of meat off the fur, then looked up to me. I've never been this close to her. I noticed she had blue eyes, almost teal, and a large patch of freckles planted across her nose and cheekbones.

"It's not like we were wealthy. I mean, he saved a lot. Like, he'd put the majority of his paycheck into savings. So even when prices went up we still had a good amount of cash." She spoke, then turned her head down and continued to cut Kitten Steaks.

"What about you?" She asked me.

"Pah! I wanted to go hunting a couple times, even had friends that did so pretty regularly, but I never did get the chance to go." I replied.

I really didn't know how to keep the conversation going after that, but conveniently we ran out of meat to skin.

"Thanks for your help." I told her appreciatively.

"Not a problem, let me know if you got anything else you need help with." She responded with a slight smile.

"Oooh. I'm definitely gonna get back to you on that one." I thought. I was so tempted to say that aloud and wiggle my eyebrows suggestively, but I figured my acne plagued face would ruin it.

I grabbed the meat laden paper plate and walked over to the fire.

"So... How are we gonna cook this?" I asked, once I arrived at the flames.

The majority of the others looked at me with raised eyebrows or confused expression.

"I was under the impression you were in charge of that." Chuck spoke up.

He was right, and I didn't want to look like a fool so I made a quick call... Why didn't I think this far ahead?

"Right. Eli hold on to this while I find something for us to cook on." I requested, Elijah looked up to me at the mention of his shortened name.

"I assumed we would be roasting them like marshmallows, so I got a bunch of cleanish sticks that we can roast the meat on." Eli told me as he revealed a pile of gigantic twigs to me.

"That'll work great." I said with all to apparent appreciation, as I lowered the plate to the ground. "I guess you guys can go ahead and grab a stick and start roastin'."

"Be quick about it, though." Redge spoke up as he waited for everyone to get their stick and Kitten Steaks first.

While everyone else tried to get their meat roasted I returned to the tortillas, grabbed them, and returned to the fire. I tore open the package, and found a spot in the fire where a small flame slowly burned a thin branch. I held a tortilla over the flame and warmed it. I continued like this for several minutes until Melinda came over and asked for a tortilla. I handed her one of the warm ones and she went about making her food.

Eventually we all sat back and enjoyed our meaty burritos. The meat wasn't like what I expected it to be. It was very lean, soft, and easy to consume. It was an extremely good meal. None of us had eaten anything freshly cooked in at least a month. In my case it was... I think it was 3 months ago that I had some veggie soup, but that costed a fortune. After we had consumed most of our Mexican Cat Burgers, as Mike called them, Redge decided to go ahead with this day's briefing.

"Today's gonna be pretty simple. Since Luke isn't that great on his own, Elijah you get to go with him. Luke, try to teach him the ropes. Everyone else, myself included, is on Guard Duty over at the Sedan. If shit happens today we need as many people as we can get over there. Luke, Elijah. Same general area as yesterday. Just go look for food in the Northern part of these Slums, and if we got some empty bottles give them to either Elijah or Luke before they leave so they can fill 'em up at Luke's puddle."

"Redge, there is hardly any food up there. Why do you expect us to find some?" I inquired.

This was really starting to piss me off. He sends me up to the Northern part of our Poverty Zone which is pretty much tapped out on everything, then blames me for not finding any. What kind of logic is that?

"Multiple reasons." He replied ambigiously.

I let out a frustrated sigh and shook my head. I was sorely tempted to start an argument over this, but I'd rather not lower the morale I'd raised with the cat. As people finished their burritos they tossed me their empty bottles, and I stuffed them where I could in my backpack. Elijah also took a few.

"Don't wait on us, if you and Elijah here are ready to go then go, we'll be moving out together once Melinda here as finished gumsucking what's left of her Mexican Cat Burger." Redge told us.

"I ain't gumsuckin' I still gotta few good tefh left!" Melinda cried back with humorous offense.

I looked over to Eli with a raised eyebrow that asked if he was ready. He nodded back to me as he shouldered his pack. I did the same, as I stood. I didn't wait any longer and turned to jog out of the clearing.

I begrudgingly turned left down an alleyway in direction towards the Riverfront. I still didn't know what to make of yesterday's encounter, but it was certainly... Odd. And I wasn't too excited about having the possibility of a repeat.

"So... Why exactly haven't we stopped to loot yet?" Eli asked from behind me in his typical cautiousness.

We were jogging down the sidewalks towards my Puddle, as Redge so kindly put it. Personally, I would have preferred Spring, but I guess Redge wouldn't be himself if he wasn't blunt like that. I glanced over my shoulder and sent a response back to Elijah.

" 'Cause we're gonna go get these bottles filled as quickly as possible. After that we'll go north a bit more, do some light looting on our way up there, then typical scavenging on our way back."

I saw Eli nod as I brought my head back around to focus on where I was going. It took us several more minutes to find where I entered the river bottoms the previous day. I took caution this time to ensure I didn't tear my clothing to shreds. Even then it was another solid 15 minutes, at least, until we got to the spring. I bent down as I slung my backpack off my shoulders and retrieved the empty bottles within. I began filling them one at a time. Eli started to kneel down to do the same.

"No! You need to watch my back. If both of us are filling up bottles, then it only takes one guy to kill us both if he gets the jump on us." I instructed and explained.

"Ah. Alright, sorry. Yea. Uh, I'll do that." Eli replied awkwardly.

"But get your water bottles out and toss them to me." I ordered.

Eli nodded quickly and complied.

Eventually, I had filled eight bottles with the cleanish water. I split them evenly with Elijah. The four extra water bottles added a considerable amount of weight to my pack, and left me only a minor amount of room to store additional items. Not for the first time did I wish I could hold more in this pack, but there was a necessity to keeping my belongings with me. It wasn't uncommon to leave items near where you slept and come back only to realize that they'd been stolen.

I stood, turned, and approached Eli with his portion of the extra bottles. He picked his nose briefly, as he stared out into the swamp. I halted my advance and watched him for a moment. He continued to stare in that same direction for an entire minute. I resumed my advance and nudged his back.

"Here, carry these." I told him.

He nodded and took the bottles out of my arms.

"You do realize that anybody following us would most likely not come at us from the direction you're facing, right?" I inquired.

Eli shot me a quizzical glance as he stuffed the bottles into his spacious pack, which was odd. He had a regular school backpack and that was roughly the same size as mine. Once he had finished, he straightened and put his hands on his hips.

"Yea. Why?" He asked.

"Well you just stared out at the way we came in; Didn't even look to your left or right in case anybody was approaching from a different angle." I told him.

"Oh. I see. I'll work on that." Elijah replied.

"No. You won't work on that. You'll correct it. I want to leave this swamp knowing that you'll be lookin' in all directions. Not just the direction my ass is facing. Clear?" I said, to ensure that he wouldn't mess up again.

"Eeyup." He responded.

I furrowed my brows at that. Why did that sound familiar? It felt like there was a hole in my brain where I used to know something... I shook it off and hiked my pack up onto my back again.

"You ready then?" I queried.

He nodded and slung his pack over his shoulders.

"Then let's go." I spoke to him as I trudged back down the path we had made from the road.

I cautiously peeked out of the brush and glanced to the right and left for anyone else. I was suddenly bumped from behind, which caused me to stumble out onto the sidewalk. I caught myself on a tireless car and spun about to face the reason.

"You clumsy clown!" I called back to Elijah.

It was difficult to keep a grin from spreading across my face. I've wanted to use that line for the longest time.

"I'm sorry! Is the coast clear?" He asked.

"I'd imagine so since I'm not dead." I answered.

He blundered out of the brush and joined me on the sidewalk.

"We're stickin' with the plan, but I don't want to be near these river banks if I can help it." I told Elijah.

"Why's that?" He queried.

I stupidly didn't anticipate him to ask that.

"I- Well, uh, Don't like them. Yea..." I responded in a totally convincing statement.

"Mhm." Eli hummed with a skeptical expression.

I looked around hesitantly, then back up to Eli with a mildly annoyed expression.

"Okay, fine. I don't want to stick around here because what did happen here yesterday still has me..." I paused and made a clucking sound with my tongue as I searched for the right word. "Dismayed." I finished.

"Well, you could always tell me about it. Essentially nobody knows what exactly went on there." Elijah suggested.

I thought it was pretty obvious that I didn't want to chat about it, but I considered his suggestion briefly.

"He could validate me either being insane or not." I briefly evaluated.

It suddenly occurred to me that I was in a situation repeated millions of times in movies and books. The person that was being queried would always withhold information based on how they thought they other would receive the news, but the other would end up getting that information anyways. To avoid succumbing to that and being a, cliché I decided to be straight up with the guy. If he thought I was nutters, tough. Apparently I don't mind being insane. Hah. Mind being insane. That amuses me.

Elijah was looking at me with an expectant expression. I didn't realize how awkwardly long my silence had become.

"Right, well... Take it how you want this is what happened..." I told him, as I recounted my encounter with nothing held back.

I watched Elijah's reactions to my tale. When I mentioned the singing, the scratchy voiced female, and the quiet voice. His eyes obtained a momentarily distant look, as he thought about something else. I assume that, the information triggered such a reaction. He pursed his lips and knitted his eyebrows, as I told him of the pink trail. When I mentioned the feathers his eyebrows jerked up in poorly prevented shock. He hastily hid these reactions though.

"Do you still have those feathers?" He asked after I had finished.

"Funny. I thought you'd have told me I was nuts." I replied.

Elijah made a dismissive gesture beneath his nose. That or he must have farted.

"No, no, no, no. From what I know, that doesn't sound like an adventure an insane person would have had." He responded.

As much as I like to tell myself that I don't get my hopes up. I felt assurance and relief flow through me. Heh. So much for not being cliché.

"Alright. And to answer your question, I do have them. My guess is that you'd like to see them?" I queried after replying.

"Yes, please." Elijah said with subtle eagerness.

What made Elijah eager about these feathers wasn't known to me. I didn't have a use for them, and he might have a chance of identifying what animal they might have come from. I brought my pack off my shoulders, unzipped the front pouch, and removed the two large feathers from where they had been stored. I held them out to Eli. He picked them up at the quill with some sort of reverence. This time around he didn't hide his amazement. He stared at the sky blue and cream yellow feathers for a long time. He mumbled something that I couldn't hear.

"You know what bird these come from?" I asked.

He glanced down to me with an expression that was too serious.

"Not a clue." He told me.

Right. That would totally fool me.

"Mhm." I hummed with the exact same expression he used earlier.

An offended look appeared on his face, as he raised both of his hands with a feather in each.

"What! I don't know anything about these! I'm as stumped as you are!" He replied hotly.

"Hmph. Fine." I said.

"Just as it plays out in the books and movies so shall it play out in reality. I'll find out what you're keepin' from me eventually." I told him in my mind.

"Whatever. Let's get across the street and on with our job." I spoke as I brought the backpack back onto my back.

"You can keep those, by the way. I don't have a need for them." I continued while I jogged across the street.

"Oh... Thank you!" He replied with a near awed appreciation.

I shrugged as I jogged into an alleyway and onto the street beyond with Eli in tow.

"Now, 'Light Looting' is basically glancing through the garbage as we run to our turn around point." I told Elijah as we jogged north.

"Acknowledged." I heard him reply.

On our way north we only found a small package of peanuts. We split them and consumed them as we journeyed Northwards. After an hour or two of jogging we finally reached our turnaround point.

We were a couple blocks away from The Edge when I had decided this was far enough into the North to turn around and begin scavenging on our way back. My plan was to work in a Southwesterly direction towards Blugar's Park. If we went at a casual and thorough pace we would hopefully get enough food to last these guys another day, and be back at Blugar's park about an hour before dusk. I began to follow through with my plan, as I angled left and jogged back down the opposite side of the street. I turned right and stopped at the entrance of an alleyway. I glanced over my right shoulder to ensure that Elijah had followed me. He quietly stopped at my left side.

"Alright. This is how we loot. I watch and make sure nobody sneaks up. While you dig through the garbage and find anything remotely useful or edible. Got it?" I told Elijah.

"Uh, Yea. That's it? Nothing else?" He asked me cautiously.

"Well, the faster you do it the better, and don't be a pansy about getting dirty. You're already as filthy as shit anyways." I said.

"I doubt you're any cleaner than me." Elijah retorted, as he walked towards the nearest rubbish bin.

"Didn't say I was." I replied with a smug grin.

I was beyond filthy and no shits were given about it.

While he went through the garbage I leaned against a door and watched both of the entrances to the alley. We proceeded like this for a few hours, occasionally swamping roles. During those hours of work we scored a half consumed jar of Skippy Peanut Butter, a moldy and soggy loaf of french bead, a can of fruit cocktail, and an unopened sleeve of cracked crackers. When lunch rolled around we took shelter on the porch of a no-longer-named business.

"This isn't much..." Elijah said, as I went through what meager items we had collected.

"Now you know how I feel." I replied. "It still beats me as to why Redge wants to send us up here."

Elijah didn't say anything and I glanced up at the street. The drizzling rain was finally beginning to let up but it was still cold. A shiver jumped through myself. Since we'd stopped moving I was quickly becoming cold.

"How does the fruit cocktail sound to you?" I asked Eli.

"I'd eat it." He responded.

I shrugged and tossed him the can.

"Go ahead and open it. I'll see if I can find a spoon in my pack, and we'll share it. A spoonful at a time, ya know?" I told him.

He nodded as he pulled his multi-tool out and began working on prying the can opener attachment out.

I directed my attention at obtaining warmth while he toiled at that. I reached into my backpack and withdrew the Mountain Dew T-Shirt and a white plastic spoon. I put the shirt on over what I was already wearing. It did hardly anything. My arms were still cold. My hands were wrinkly, wet, and nearly numb. My hair was soggy, and my clothes were thoroughly damp. I shuddered again and stuck my hands into my armpits as I watched Eli work on opening the can.

"How long've you been in here?" I asked, feeling like an inmate by poising that question.

"Well..." Eli began, as he put his lips together and considered the question. I imagined that he was preforming calculations.

"7 Months now." He said.

"Ah. So you're what? 19?" I queried.

He labored on the can opener for a few seconds, then responded to my question.

"Yea. What about yourself?" He inquired.

"I was Regulated when the Transfers started. That was about a year ago so... I'm 24 now." I answered.

I'm not sure whether to be proud that I've survived a year here or depressed about an entire year of my life has been wasted. Regardless, Elijah had finished opening the can and handed it to me while he retrieved his utensil. I took a spoonful of the variety of fruits and shoved them into my mouth and chewed. They didn't taste great, but fruit of any kind was few and far between these days. I passed the can back to Eli once he had obtained his spoon. He scooped a spoonful into his mouth and passed the can back. We proceeded like this in silence until the can was empty, and Elijah had slurped out the juices that remained after the fruit had been devoured. He tossed me the empty can and I carelessly chucked it to my right. I heard it land in some bush. It doesn't matter where your trash goes these days. It's not like the garbage service comes on Tuesdays anymore.

"Yo, Luke. I hear voices." Elijah said abruptly in a whisper, as he scooted over to where I was seated.

"Get your pack on. Quick." I ordered, as I tossed my spoon into the pack and followed my own instructions.

Eli quickly tossed his on and looked to me as he waited for his next instructions. I could hear the voices now too. Fortunately, they weren't what I had heard yesterday. These were definitely male and were coming from the North. They would bypass us pretty soon. Going through the building wasn't an option. It was locked up, and it would be too noisy to attempt a break in.

"I take it you want to live, right?" I asked Eli, already guessing what the response would be.

"Of course." He responded.

"Then do everything I tell you to, when I tell you... And follow me, alright?" I instructed.

He nodded and lowered himself slightly. Ready to do anything that asked him at a moment's notice.

"We're running. Stay as close as you can." I told him before I booked it down the steps.

I heard Elijah following behind me as I ran straight across the road. I glanced to my right. Two guys in dirty yellow rain jackets with red and green stripes on the sleeves were strolling down the street. One was tall, big, and wide like a football player. Whereas, the second was of average height, but slightly below typical weight.

The big fella had a crowbar, the smaller one had a wooden baseball bat with nails punched through the top. They both paused in their conversation then pursued us. I brought my head around and focused on pacing my steps with my breathing. I heard one of them shout from behind us.

"Hey! Wait!"

I didn't know what their intention was, but assuming it was hostile had kept me alive so far. Of course I didn't falter, but I glanced over my left shoulder to see if Eli did. Thankfully he hadn't, or if he did it was very brief. We entered an alleyway, then turned left once I had exited it. I know I was fast, or at least had the will power to push through the pain in my lungs, and Elijah wouldn't have been on the scouting team if he was slow.

We ran for what seemed to be a long time, as we headed back to the Park to either lose our pursuit or get assistance in dispatching it. I paused and looked over my shoulder. My lungs were heaving while my pulse pounded through my chest and head. I had brought us to Riverfront Dr. The street that ran right next to the river bottoms. To our left would be our route to Blugar's park. Behind us was the alley we had just exited and right was North. A direction I didn't want to go.

I bent over and placed my hands on my knees as I panted.

"Are... They fo- Foll... Following?" I said with what little breath I could keep in my lungs.

I glanced up to Elijah and he shook his head. We waited for around a minute or three as we tried to completely catch our breath.

"I swear... They ca... Came this way!" I heard someone speak loudly, but from a distance, to my right. They must have been in the next alley down.

I jerked my head up to Eli and mouthed "Oh shit." to him, and dived into the alley we had just exited. Eli followed my lead.

"Well obviously... They aren't here!" I heard somebody else shout. It sounded similar to the voice that had requested us to wait. I could only imagine that those two blokes actually did follow us. They just ended up in the wrong alley.

I heard footsteps coming down the sidewalk towards our alley. I motioned for Eli to stand at the corner, and whispered to him.

"When they come down the sidewalk, you step out and smack them in the face with your bat. It's got a much farther reach than my pipe. Then I'll jump out and get the other while he's shocked." I whispered to Elijah.

"No way! We don't have to fight these guys. Look, let's try these doors; See if we can hide in one of the buildings." He disagreed in an equally low tone.

"Do you want to live or not!?" I asked in frustration.

He agreed to do what I told him to do! Why was he committing insubordination?

"Yes, but not like that! No way ,bro. That's- That's cowardly, there's no honor or fairness in that! It's ruthless!" He replied in a heated whisper.

"Then give me the bat at least!" I demanded. I was barely able to keep my tone in check now.

They'd be on us in any minute. Any chance of escape was gone now. I had to take this advantage otherwise I'd be taken advantage of.

He began to shake his head and that was enough of a signal for me. I leaped forward and pushed him against the wall. I reached up for the bat's handle that poked out of his pack, but I was too short. My fingertips touched it but not enough of my hand could get around it before Eli pushed me off him.

"What the hell, man?! I'm not going to support your..." Eli began, but I didn't listen to what he had to say.

I had to go with my plan. I reached up and yanked my pipe free of my pack, then slid over to the corner. I counted two footsteps before I lunged out of the alley already in a swing that started from above my left shoulder. All I had to do was direct it.

The shorter guy was in front as I had hoped. He was completely unprepared for an engagement and held his nail bat too low to protect himself. A terrified and shocked expression began to change his features but a pipe crashing through his right temple ceased the action. His bat tumbled off my left leg. I was incredibly fortunate that the nails did not impale themselves onto my thigh. I quickly slid the pipe out of his skull and allowed his body to collapse and flop into the gutter with his bat.

His companion was caught off guard with the sudden attack but he had been given plenty of time to regain his awareness. He spread his feet in an offensive stance, and held his crowbar in his right hand near the bottom. He was massive from my perspective. He was a full head and neck taller than myself, and I could easily assume he had a large reserve of stamina. Along with his thick arms, it was obvious that if he hit me once I would be screwed sideways and up a wall. I was intimidated by his sheer size and took several steps back while I sought for a way to defeat this individual but none readily occurred to me.

He abruptly took a large step forward, raised his crowbar, and swung in a diagonal attack aimed for my neck. I quickly jumped backwards to avoid the assault. The miss left my opponent off balanced and I sent a careless jab at his head. My foe expected this and hastily stumbled backwards. With the crowbar on his left side he twisted it in his grip, and made a swipe at my mid-section.

I dashed to my right and barely avoided the attack. However, I had forgotten that there was a building in that direction, and my head smashed into the gray stucco. My own pipe clubbed me in the gut as my entire body smacked into the wall with it. My adversary took advantage of this and pounded me on the back with a strike from his left fist.

"Game over red rover." I thought as I expected the football player to begin brain surgery with his crowbar.

Of course, I didn't die.

"Hey, knuckle head!" Eli shouted.

I heard a crunch, as a thick liquid landed on my neck and back. There was a large thump as I assumed my heavy foe fell onto the wet sidewalk. I stumbled away from the wall in a light daze. My right eyebrow and cheek were in dull agony, while my middle back suffered from intense pain. I turned around to see Eli stooped over, as he cleaned his bat off on the pants of the could-have- been-football player. His forehead had been crushed.

"Thanks." I mumbled.

Elijah looked up to me with a solemn expression.

"I'd rather not be thanked for murder." He replied.

I shook my head and placed my hand to my aching face, as I stumbled into the alley we had been in a moment before. I had a weak grip on my pipe, and I tossed it to the side as I sat against the wall. My legs shook as my body attempted to reabsorb the adrenaline that was floating through my body. Eli came into the alley shortly afterwards and sat across from me. I rested my head against the wall and looked up to the sky. The clouds were beginning to clear up, and the sun was starting to shine through the gaps. I slid my head to the left, and I saw something bright pink duck quickly behind the edge of a white building with red trim. I was thrown into an uproar. I was entirely annoyed and fed up with this pink stuff always being just out of view.

"Damn it! I'm going to figure this shit out!" I said angrily, as I stood abruptly.

Elijah quickly stood too and walked over to me with a concerned expression.

"What-" Elijah began.

He was interrupted as we heard distant gunshots from the South. Gunshots weren't common sounds but neither were they rare. When I realized they weren't advancing in our direction I allowed myself to relax.

"Did... Did those sound like they were coming from the Blugar's Park area?" Eli queried.

"They could have been. I guess we can only hope that it's not at the Sedan." I replied.

My curiosity engaged my desires in a bout of tug-of-war. I desperately wanted to discover what in hell this bizarre pink phenomenon was, but on the other hand I wanted to find the source of the gunfire to ensure that it wasn't our comrades becoming fleshy Swiss cheese. I concluded that I would go insane if I didn't figure out what this pink shit was.

"In the meantime... I'm gonna figure this shit out." I told Eli.

I stooped, picked up my blood stained pipe, and made for a door into the white painted building.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on. Explain to me." Elijah said, as he gripped my right arm.

"I saw something pink hide itself on the roof. And I'll be damned if I don't let myself figure this out." I explained. I jerked my arm out of his grasp.

There was a sudden alarmed look in his eyes, but it was hastily disguised.

"You know what it is. I know you know! You can't keep it from me. I'll find out eventually. That's always how it always happens! You can't hide things from me!" I yelled.

The disappointment and anger I had with Eli, that had vacated my mind during the engagement, was resurfacing as he prevented my desire to understand with his lack of cooperation and lying.

"I don't know! I swear! But look, that was more likely then not our guys with the Sedan. We need to hightail it over there and see if everything's alright." Elijah replied. His point about the Sedan seemed fairly convincing.

I was seething with frustration and wrath, but with great difficultly I attempted to consider his point.

"I want to solve this. To know the answer behind this reoccurring pink! It's with in my ability to do so right mow, but his lack of cooperation. His lying prevents me from knowing! That's it! Ahaha! He wants to leave, but I'll get what I want in the end. Just like I said! I will discover what this pink stuff is through him. I won't blunder through a building trying to sneak up on this thing again. He know, so I will sate my inquiring mind with his knowledge." I let out a breath as I accepted my plan, and allowed my face to shift into a more or less neutral expression.

"We're going to talk about what happened here, later. Understand? Otherwise I'm staying put and figuring this out. I am certain you are holding something back from me about this. You know what this is, and it infuriates me that you lie to my face and claim not to know when you do. You-" I began ranting, but Elijah cut me off.

"I agree to that condition. Our group could very well be dieing right now and I will not waste my time, or theirs, with being yelled at." Elijah replied tersely.

I pursed my lips and nodded to Elijah. He accepted my response without a reaction, and jogged out of the alley. He turned left and headed south towards Blugar's Park. I grabbed a wad of toilet paper that was too common in these alleyways as I ran out after him. I whipped my pipe clean and slid it back into the pack. I felt my face shift into a sullen expression. Even though I was satisfied with having a chat with him later I felt so close at making a discovery that I eagerly desired to accomplish, and once again it was taken from me. I felt hollow and bitter about it.

The approximately 20 minute dash to the park allowed me to reflect on my actions and reactions back in that alley. I realized that I had requested Elijah to do something that went against his being. Just as Eli prevented me from discovering what I desired to know; I had requested Eli to commit murder at a moment's notice. Something he was against doing. But he did it in the end... Even though I got furious at him and tried to steal his weapon to kill the guy. He could have easily let me get killed instead and have taken off without pursuit. I'll have to ask him why he chose to save my pathetic life.

I let my poorly based anger dissipate as we jogged into Blugar's Park. We made a beeline straight for the clearing, but I already knew what to expect when I didn't hear quiet conversations as I blundered through the thicket and into the open. Elijah was ahead of me. He took a quick glance around the empty clearing then faced me. Eli didn't bear an angry expression when he regarded me.

"This isn't good..." Elijah told me, nor did he have a hostile tone to his voice.

I placed a hand over my mouth and considered what this could mean.

"I suppose he had time to reflect just as I had. Perhaps he, like me, forgot his anger as he came to a similar realization, but I doubt this. That would be assuming he thought like me which is completely preposterous. Not everybody is like me." I concluded.

I glanced up to Eli and gave him my thought on the lack of people.

"It's still some time before we're all supposed to be here, anyways." I replied, as I returned the hand to my side and looked up to Eli.

"Well... What do you suppose we do?" He asked me.

"We could wait or go down to the Sedan. I haven't been to the Sedan though, so I'm inclined to wait." I replied.

"I can get to it. I've gone past it once or twice when Redge's sent me into the Suburbs to the south." Eli responded.

"Well in that case, lead the way." I told him.

He nodded and jogged out of the clearing. I pushed off with my left foot as I pursued him.

It was only a 10 minute jog from the clearing and the sight we were approaching disintegrated any optimism I had. Elijah stopped and waited for me to catch up. Once I had he followed behind me a slower pace. There were a few corpses in the street and the very faint, sweet smell of smoke floated around the scene. Several still and bloody bodies were located within the parking lot. Me and Elijah grimly walked into the area as we glanced at the corpses.

A couple were unfamiliar to me, but it was startling to see a few familiar faces from only a few months ago. The people that went with Dozer on that raid so long ago... Most of them had perished to gruesome melee wounds, whereas a few had succumbed to bullets. I recognized a certain corpse extremely well, even if his head was cleaved in half.

"Found him." I called.

"Found who?" Elijah queried, as he came up.

I glanced over to him and saw him shield his eyes from the gruesome sight as he turned away.

"Oh god..." Eli muttered.

"You... Get accustomed to it after a while." I poorly assured him.

"I don't want to get accustomed to this." He replied quietly.

I nodded slowly as I recalled myself making similar thoughts when I was first Regulated.

"Who is it though?" Elijah asked.

"Frank." I replied simply.

"Oh... Do you think he showed up to help?" Eli inquired.

"Doubt it. I'll bet he was the guy Mike saw yesterday. Probably in it with Dozer's gang and ours. However he managed to pull that off." I said.

"Dozer...?" Elijah asked, again.

Damn he was curious and that was supposed to my job!

I stepped over Frank's corpse as I walked towards the Workshop. I glanced at corpses on my way over. I noticed a couple bodies that seemed to be people from our group, but I never took the effort to remember their names. I guess that's a good thing now, since I didn't know them well enough to mourn them.

"He was some guy that went by the name of Dozer. He co-ran the group around a year ago. Him and Redge disagreed about making a raid on some gang's drug stash. So Dozer mustered up half of our group at the time and went after it anyways. They never returned. Redge said we were better off without them, but when that gang came after us a week later. Well... That wasn't a nice sight to walk up on." I recounted.

Elijah didn't have anything to say to that.

By now we had reached the Workshop. It was a beige building with a single garage on the left and a office of sorts on the right. The glass windows that were parallel to the office doors had been shattered. The garage was open and lacked a car. There were four corpses around where the Sedan should have been. Clichély enough, these were the corpses that mattered the most.

The first I noticed was Chuck then Mike not far from him. Both seemed to have died from gunshot wounds. The third was Carla. I hastily looked away and tightened my expression as my gut chilled. No romantic relationships for me. No getting back to her on that offer. Nothing to hope for. Nothing to dream about. Nothing to... I just... Can't dwell on it. I hardly even knew her. I didn't want a relationship anyways. The last corpse wasn't familiar to me as it's entire head had disappeared, but Eli recognized it. His face was becoming pale. I hoped he wouldn't puke...

"That's Bill." He said quietly.

"I only made an effort to remember five names. So I don't know who this Bill is." I told him.

"We camped out in an abandoned apartment building near the Riverfront McDonalds. He was one of the few trustworthy guy's I'd met, and suggested I join this group. He was a great guy..." Eli said in a sorrow filled voice.

I lowered my head and looked at the ground for a few moments, then brought it up to the ceiling when I realized that nasty stuff was on the floor.

"I think I'm gonna be sick." Eli moaned as he stumbled over to a wall.

"Oh god. Not puking! Not puking! Get away! Get away!" I mentally panicked, as I ran for the door that led into the office.

Able to beat a defenseless drunk's head in with a pipe? I can do that.
Able to kill adorable cats, then gut them? Yes. Albeit with guilt.
Able to jump people and smash their heads without warning? Already done.
Able to walk through a parking lot full of maimed and gruesome corpses? Mission Complete.
Able to hear a guy puke? God. Help me. Please.

I was closing the door to the office when I heard the "Blaaaagh..." that Eli issued forth.

"So close..." I thought as the door shut behind me.

I couldn't get the sound of Eli regurgitating and the sick splatter of cat meat, peanuts, and fruit cocktail landing on the floor out of my memory. I leaned onto the counter. I could feel that my face had gone pale and the sweat trickling down my face and neck. My stomach was ice cold with fear and terror. The simple thought of someone disgorging the contents of their stomach completely unnerved me.

No. I was terrified of it. Once it was down it should stay down. There wasn't a need for it to come back out in a disgustingly horrific manner and form. When I heard Eli vomit again I knew I was done. A sick feeling creeped into my belly and agitated my stomach. I felt it climbing higher. It was coming up to my lungs. Pure terror made my heart beat incredibly fast. My lungs were drawing in and blowing out air too quickly. I must have been hyperventilating.

"Do not puke." I thought.

I puked anyways.

Needless to say, I was extremely horrified when the stream of repulsive matter poured out of my own mouth and onto the opposite side of the counter. Once my body had expelled the food contents it held I groped for a water bottle in a side pouch. I retrieved one and took a swig then spat it out as quickly as I could in an attempt to wash the putrid taste from my mouth. I stumbled over to a bench and sat on it, as I bent over and rested my elbows on my knees. I put my head on my arms and held the water bottle off to one side. I took deep shuddering breaths and tried to calm myself over the dilemma I had just endured. I heard the door open and glanced up to see Eli coming in.

"Yo. What's da mattah?" He said in a deeper voice than usual, then suddenly he cleared his throat.

"Sorry... What's bothering you?" He asked again.

I shook my head in my arms then brought it up to take a drink from my bottle to hopefully rid the traces of that disgusting taste from my mouth. Elijah looked at me expectantly and I waved my left hand dismissively.

"I just puked, that's all." I said to him.

"Really? You seemed pretty stone faced about all of this." Eli told me as he gestured outside to the corpses.

"I... I have a fear of people vomiting. Then the fear becomes overwhelming and I puke." I replied.

Elijah chose not to say anything, which was wise on his part. He decided to sit down on the bench next to me and wait. After some time I felt well enough to put the bottle back into it's side pouch and stand.

"You still got some around your mouth." Eli informed me as he stood up to join me.

I swiftly glanced around the office for anything to clean my mouth with. There was a scrap of paper next to the bench. I darted over to it and hastily wiped my mouth with it. I chucked the paper as far away from me as I could once all the vomit was removed. I heard Eli fail to restrain short chuckle. I rounded on him and sent him the most furious glower I could muster, but I believe it just amused him more. I shook my head and sighed.

"I didn't see Redge's corpse. Did you?" I asked Eli in an attempt to get the topic away from my phobia.

"No I didn't. Do you think he got away?" Eli replied.

"Doubted. He had a sense of honor and would fight for what he believed in. It's more likely that Dozer captured him for whatever reason." I said.

Eli nodded slowly.

"I didn't see Melinda's body either." Elijah pointed out.

"I wouldn't be surprised if that scag snuck off when the first enemy showed up." I responded.

There were a few moments of silence then Eli inquired about my plans.

"What do you plan on doing now...?"

The gravity of this event didn't smack me until now. The entire group I had been with for many months was dead. All of them except for Eli. Redge could easily be dead but I would probably never know for sure. Melinda probably booked it and went God knows where. But what now? I could search for another group but that was just the same shit every time. Personally, I was tired of drifting from one team to the next.

"I don't have a clue. I guess, I might go solo for a while. I'm weary of changing groups." I told Elijah.

A conflicted look appeared on Eli's features.

"I had hoped that we could stick together. Maybe recruit a few other people, but just me and you at least. To be honest, you're the only guy I can trust now, and I'd rather count you as a friend instead of... Well, not having any." Elijah replied.

I briefly considered this.

"There are several benefits for staying together. It's always good to have another pair of eyes watching out for you, even better if it's somebody I can trust. More so, he's fast and can keep up with me. If not go faster than myself and he doesn't complain much. He seems pretty legit but he has that chivalry and inexperience that all good hearted newbies have... I haven't seen many of them last long on their own." I mulled it over for a moment then came to a decision.

"It'll be best if we stay together, I guess. It's always good to have a partner that I can hopefully trust. Besides, you wouldn't make it long on your own and I can't exactly dump you. Well I could, but I'd hate myself for it. I kind of like to think of myself as a good guy, ya know?" I said.

"Heh. Right. Jump around a corner and hit people in the face without warning. Sure. You're a good guy." Eli replied, but he bit his lip and looked down apologetically.

I brushed off the comment. People say stupid things all the time it's not necessary to get my jimmies rustled over it. If that meme was still going around...

"I'm desperate. I do what it takes to survive. Now let's get goin' before other scavengers show up." I told Eli.

"You got it." He replied.

I stepped past him and pushed open the office doors. A small bell tinkled as I exited the building and jogged towards the sidewalk and down the street.

I waited outside an abandoned red brick apartment complex that was stained with cyan and black graffiti. Elijah had darted inside to grab his belongings. Like the inexperienced guy he was he stored most of his items by where he slept, but by the way this building looked, and smelled it was clear that not many people had used it besides Eli and Bill. I leaned next to the door and tapped my foot on the concrete sidewalk.

A couple walked past on the other side of the street. The man's left arm was around the woman's shoulders. They were in hushed conversation and I didn't trouble them. They didn't bother me either when they did notice myself. I watched them walk past and turn left into an alleyway. I only had a little envy for the man's success regarding a relationship, but I was never much interested in one anyways... Or so I keep telling myself. I chuckled as a thought came to mind.

"Do what you want cause being single is free! You are a loner! Yar har fiddle dee dee! Being single is alright with me! Do what you want because being single is free! You are a loner!"

I continued to laugh quietly until the music for You are a pirate! faded away from my memory. I heard Elijah coming down the stairs from inside the building to, unintentionally, save me from mulling over Carla's passing. I pushed away from the wall and faced the doors when he came out with a substantially fuller backpack.

"I dumped those extra water bottles upstairs. Figured we didn't need them anymore." Eli informed me.

I nodded to him.

"Good call. Mind opening my pack and taking my extra bottles out?" I requested.

"Sure." Elijah replied.

I turned my back to him and heard him unzip the backpack. He simply tossed the bottles out onto the sidewalk. Once he had fulfilled my request I turned back around to him.

"The sun's beginning to go down. We're gonna go grab my box and find a spot to sleep." I informed him.

"Alright, but what about me? I don't really have something to sleep in." He asked.

I shrugged.

"Just try to stay warm we'll get it sorted out tomorrow. It's not like the box keeps me much warmer anyways. It's just something to keep the rain off." I responded.

"Alright. Let's get going then. We got some stuff to talk about." Eli said, as he bounced on the tips of his feet with what seemed like nervous energy.

I nodded yet again, and took off in the direction of my cardboard home.

It didn't take us long to arrive at my box. I slid it out from behind the dumpster and continued jogging down the alley. I didn't have a specific location in mind so I ran two blocks north and east. I found a suitable location between two dumpsters and tossed my box there. I slid my pack off my shoulders and leaned it against one of the dumpsters.

"I imagine you move your sleeping spot every evening to avoid someone finding it then coming back later?" Elijah guessed, as he also took his pack off and leaned it against the wall.

Elijah stretched, sat down, and rested against his pack. I did them same and relaxed next to my backpack.

"Yea. That's about it." I said, as I dug through my pack for the peanut butter and crackers.

I quickly found the items and took out my plastic spoon to spread the brown butter with.

"We'll split these. Go ahead and help yourself." I told Eli, as I tossed the peanut butter, spoon, and crackers to him.

He was able to catch the butter and crackers, but the spoon bounced off his left arm and onto the grimy concrete. Elijah shrugged, took the spoon, and wiped it off on his pants. He then began scooping out peanut butter onto his crackers.I grinned as the moment I had waited for had finally arrived.

"I believe you need to explain something to me, yes?" I asked Elijah.

He immediately stopped spreading his peanut butter and refused to look up to me when he replied.

"Yes... Can it wait until I have eaten? I'd like some time to formulate my thoughts." Eli responded.

My grin fell away as I nodded my understanding. I rested my head against the faded gray dumpster and waited for him to consume his dinner. It was several minutes until he offered the food and spoon back to me. I retrieved them from him, and began making my peanut butter cracker sandwiches. I had downed two of them by the time Eli made his statement.

"I'm a Brony or was one... I assume you know what that means?" Elijah asked me with a serious expression.

"Yes." I replied simply.

"When I was Regulated, the show had long since been canceled. Inflation made it too difficult for it to be funded, but the Fandom did their best with continuing the show. They even manage to produce an entire 23 episode season." Elijah's features shifted to a more sad look. He gazed down at the filthy asphalt between us.

"But the Regulation passed, and the majority of us didn't have work, like everyone else at the time. Those that didn't have a job stopped everything they were doing and focused on obtaining one. Of course, as you probably knew, the job market was horrible at the time. Employers couldn't afford new employees and not many achieved a job. This sent well over half of the fandom packing." He took a pause as he continued ordering this thoughts.

"The Brony Community slowly began dieing out. People gradually lost interest and decided to focus their time on being more productive in their work. To earn as much money as they could to avoid being sent into a Poverty Zone. Those that remained dedicated did so more as a tribute to the memories they had, of the show, of conventions, of friends, and to those that had been Regulated. Many of the websites that we gathered around were near closure when I had to leave. It was becoming too expensive to pay for servers, and the pathetic amount of talent and new content coming through was more than enough reason to close down. I can only imagine that such would have happened by now." Elijah finished.

I was taking in this information with a neutral mind and held my tongue until Elijah was well and truly done. I had finished off the crackers and peanut butter and tossed it over my head into the dumpster.

"How this relates to now. Too me lying to you. When you shared your encounter with me. I... I foolishly believed that there was hope. That somehow... The Mane 6 had come to aid us, but I instantly came to the realization that they were a cartoon. There was no such possibility, and I discarded the poorly based hope. When I tell you I do not know what animal the feathers belong too I am not lying. When you mentioned the pink... thing later I suddenly doubted my earlier thought. What if, somehow, it was possible for them to be here? But I pushed it off again. They were created from our minds. It is impossible for a show to become incarnate in our world. So go ahead. Call me a fool, a faggot, gay, or retarded. I'm beyond caring. I enjoyed what I did and that was that." Elijah finished.

He looked up to me with a sad but defiant expression. As if he expected me to insult him with one of those terms.

"Too this day I still approach the Bronies with the philosophy of 'Too each their own.' In fact, I have some respect for you guys. To blatantly disregard societies standards and pursue what you enjoy. It was something I hadn't either the balls or desire to do. Take your pick but I appreciate the honesty in the end. Just know that I don't think any less of ya, but still expect the same from you." I responded.

Elijah's mood lifted considerably and allowed his mouth to curl into a grin which grew into a smile of relief. He muttered something under his breath, but his immense relief made the words louder than he intended.

"Heh. I guess friendship still is magical."

I respected his desire for me to not have heard him and acted as if I had not. The sun had already sunk behind the skyscrapers on the other side of the river. There was very little daylight left, and I still needed to write today's events. I actually had forgotten about my journal until that moment. I glanced back up to Elijah.

"I'm gonna hit it. You can go ahead and take first watch or just go to sleep. I don't care." I told him.

"Alright. I suppose the things I have to tell you can wait until morning. G'Night." He responded.

"Yea. Good night." I said to him, as I tossed my backpack into my box and crawled inside.

I got comfortable in a similar manner as I had done the previous evening, and hastily wrote what had occurred this day. Even now I hear Eli snoring on the other side of the alleyway. Damn, is he loud but staying awake any longer isn't going to discover what Elijah has to tell me sooner. So off to sleep it is for me.

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