Making Headway · 8:47pm Apr 28th, 2016
I've been making some major progress on YHAY:TP Chapter Five. It's going to be a big one, probably the largest of all the chapters. It's packed with backstory, blood, and tension. As a treat, here's a little snippet of the upcoming chapter for you to nibble on.
“Doppler! Hold up!” The shouts of drunken pegasi echoed off of Manehatten’s myriad buildings. Three dark silhouettes flew haphazardly between the brick structures, playing an impromptu game of tag amongst the night. Below them, the sounds of bells ringing and carriages rolling provided a rough estimate of the streets’ closeness.
The pegasus named Doppler flew above her peers, large wings beating furiously as she blew past them. The other pegasus couple regained their bearings and moved to follow, rising steadily upwards towards their friend. It was no use, Doppler had gone too high too fast, and the speed of her ascent was making the couple dizzy. That or the booze.
Making a smart decision, the two pegasi curled up on a nearby fire escape and snuggled closely, sharing small kisses between the two of them. Slowly, they drifted off to sleep, lulled into rest by the shared body heat and the gut-warming liquor inside them. High above, Doppler reached the rooftop, landing daintily on her hooves to peer over the cityscape.
She didn’t mind being the third wheel amongst Morning Dew and Heliopause, maybe she even enjoyed it. Doppler herself was never much for relationships or foals, but seeing her dear friends in love made her happy. She was content far above everything else, on a vertex beyond any earthly problems. The earth ponies had a saying: “be grounded, sure of who and what you are.”
It was a nice sentiment, but for pegasi, the term “grounded” just rubbed them wrong. For pegasi, it was all about the freedom of the flight, the wind, the lightness in descent and the pressure in rising. Doppler thought of all this as she took in the Manehatten skyline, admiring the many lights and sounds that permeated her senses.
On nights like this, she could only sigh and appreciate it all.
A clang from down below her made Doppler’s ears rise suddenly. Some quiet yelps and a few muffled grunts of pain. The voices belonged to Dew and Pause! Looking out over the edge, Doppler only saw the tail end of somepony’s ragged coat disappear inside the window leading to the fire escape. Diving off the edge of the building, the mare widened her wings and slowed to a steady descent, entering into the window easily.
Inside was a seedy apartment complex. Doppler could smell the alcohol and see the mystery stains all over the cheap carpet that lined this floor’s halls. Quiet sobbing or shouts of anger came through the walls as an eerie din that rose Doppler’s hackles. She felt her hoof fall in something damp, and raising it, she saw that it was blood. Fresh blood.
Swallowing her bile, Doppler looked up and followed the trail of her friend, stepping lightly around every corner. The path twisted through the halls and into the stairwell, heading back up. Moving quickly, Doppler found that the trail ended on the top floor, and with little hesitation, she stepped through the door.
The top floor’s lights were dim, its crystals starting to lose their charge after so long. Nopony lived here, looked like water damage had run them out long ago, which meant that it was only a matter of time before that same fate reached the next floor. The trail was barely noticeable against the rotten and water-logged carpeting, and Doppler’s hooves constantly made a ‘squish-squish’ sound as she moved after her hurt friends.
The faint line of blood trailed underneath a closet door, and Doppler dreaded what she might find. At the same time, however, she desperately wanted to help her friends. Letting her morality win out, she galloped to the door and flung it open. There on the floor were Morning Dew and Heliopause, beaten bloody but still breathing.
Doppler shook them, attempting to wake them, but she had no such luck. Her friends’ heads bobbed lazily at her attempts, and she debated leaving them here to get a local guard.
All of these thoughts ceased when something gripped her throat and held her forehooves tightly from behind.
I'll save what happens to poor little Doppler for the chapter.
