Excerpt from Chapter Eight (Fo:E) · 10:40pm Jan 6th, 2017
(This is pre-edit)
A sombre atmosphere had settled over everything inside. I’d buried myself away as I always had. I could still smell it… the putrid scent of flesh that wasn’t quite right. Of infection that was barely staved off via drugs and frequent washes.
“Fate it seems, is not without a sense of irony.”
Those words were heavy. They weighed on me, and I could tell by the tone that they weighed on him. But I don’t deal with this crap. I just… I don’t. I buried myself in some tail, forced myself to forget it all, and when the tail was gone, I placed myself at the trigger end of a gun. Worse… I let myself feel proud.
I’d manipulated the Overmare. Forced her hoof, made her sacrifice her people, and in the end, we walked away happily. Having gained a place to come back to, all the water we could ever need, and supplies for our journey; while the Stable we had visited had lost so much, yet watched us go with thanks and hopes of our return.
And all it had cost me was one of my comrade’s hooves.
As we stepped from Stable 101, I resisted the urge to glance back up until the last second. The sound of that screeching cog door rolling into place invited my head to turn. And as I did, I saw through the last crevice of light the look on Futurity’s face. A face that held anger for the world. Anger, hidden behind a smile. I was its mirror.
The sun had just risen over the horizon, its light still bathing the Everfree forest before us in a crimson glow.
“Hey Tome,” called Aero. I didn’t look at him. I stared firmly at the sunrise in front of me, watching as the tree’s swayed back and forth with the gentle breeze. “I heard ya talkin’ to the Overmare. Somethin’ about a personal business after the Tower?”
A chuckle broke from my throat. It sounded genuine… it wasn’t. “Yeah, just somewhere I’m due to go, an errand.”
An errand.
I told him the errand was back home. I didn’t say where home was. I didn’t tell him home was with her. I should head there right now, I should go there first and leave the tower to wait. It could wait, she couldn’t. But I chose the tower instead. I buried myself again.
I turned to my comrades. The filly, Sonnet, stood beside me donned in clean barding. Her mane glistened and she looked healthy for the first time in weeks. She wore a brave expression on her face, staring out to the horizon as though it held everything she needed.
I looked to Aero, his helmet down, facing the world braver than most could hope for. No longer hiding behind his helmet, his eyes were fixed upon the horizon too. Fixed upon his quest. Losing a hoof had not swayed him, it had deepened his resolve.
And beside him was Stranger. Stranger wasn’t looking at the horizon. He was looking at me. He saw into me when the others didn’t.
I smiled a ghost of a smile at the others, knowing that one-eyed ghoul saw through it like he always did. I turned back to the Horizon, and like my comrades, stared bravely.
When inside I buried myself.
Like a fucking coward.
*
A lime-green stallion took another swig of his drink. Empty glasses were stacked beside him, as he downed the rest of the one he was holding. He tapped the bar.
A gruff pony with a light blue coat and a dark blue mane and beard placed the bottle of alcohol next to him and looked expectantly at the drunk stallion. Lucky reached into his pocket, pulled out a pouch of caps and threw them on the counter. The bartender took them wordlessly. Lucky watched him go for a moment before picking up the bottle.
Plop.
The soft sound of something dropping into liquid, and the sensation through the bottle made Lucky turn towards me. My hoof was over the head of the bottle. I pulled my hoof back, pulling on the rope and slipping the talisman out of the bottle. I sat down beside him, smiling broadly.
Lucky looked from me to the bottle suspiciously.
“Water talisman.” I explained. “Purifies any liquid.”
Lucky looked from my smug expression back to the bottle before taking a swig directly from the tip. He licked his lips after pulling it back, his expression changing from a range of surprise and sourness.
“You turned my wine, into water.” I nodded as he sighed. “You are such an asshole.” He grumbled, pushing the bottle away and staring at his empty glass.
Hope you like the first peak, don’t be afraid to give me your thoughts. If you want to catch up on everything thats happened in the story thus far, you can read it here:
