//------------------------------// // Chapter 32 - Welcome Home // Story: The Pony Dreadfuls // by No one is home //------------------------------// Carrot Plate spun around in confusion, and cast a quick light spell. She was standing in a dirty concrete room, a single locked door with a wire-mesh window seemed to be the only way in or out. A metal roll down cage separated her from what was clearly toiletry facilities, though just as clearly not designed for pony use. The familiar monster of a pony beside her heaved a heavy sigh. “Train Wreck? What are you doing here? What am I doing here?” The unicorn began to panic. “Where is here? And what happened to Sour Sweet?” “Carrot, calm down.” The softly glowing behemoth spoke in measured tones. “Something very bad happened. I don’t know what it was, but the Text took me and it… gave me an impossible choice.” “What are you talking about? The text? Where are we?” the red unicorn began trotting around the small room, trying to find some way out, or at least to make sense of it. “The Text said that Iam Noone’s agents were about to kill you, and I could either take you with me back to my world, or I could go back to Z and Diane and let it happen.” Train Wreck bowed his head and as he spoke the words they became real. “God’s in hell. I left them. I left them to deal with that maniac alone! What the hell have I done???” “Iam Noone’s agents?” Carrot’s eyes went wide with realization. “That human hiding gift boxes and handing them out to ponies on campus! We have to go back! I have to warn them! They think it’s just a prank!” “There is no going back. Carrot, there’s nothing we can do to save them. The Text only gave me the option to save one pony.” Angry serpents struck from within the beast’s maw gripping the reinforced door of the observation cell and casually ripping it loose from it’s moorings. “We should get moving.” “It’s not fair!” The unicorn sobbed, drawing a feral snarl from her companion. “Fair?!?! I had to abandon my two daughters and the changeling I love more than anypony in the world, or I had to let you die!” Train Wreck snapped. “Whatever that sick bastard is planning, Diane has to face it by herself because of choice I made!” “M- maybe you should have stayed with them.” Carrot shank back into a ball. “M- maybe it was my destiny to die.” “Carrot… I’m sorry.” The beast’s voice calmed. “Look, it’s not your fault, what happened. I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that.” “Why did you save me?” Carrot lay, sobbing in a miserable heap. “I know you don’t love me, not like you did Surprise, and not like you love Z and Diane.” “I- I couldn’t go back, and look Z in the eyes, knowing that I let her big sister die.” Train worked his mandibles in thought. “Because she really did love you, and you were as much a sister to her as Diane. And… I knew if Surprise were there she’d have told me that Diane and Z were stronger than I could ever believe, and that I had to save the pony that needed saving, even if it cost me everything. So yeah, Carrot, your right, and I know it’s a shit thing to say, but I don’t love you the same way I love Z-978. And that’s why I had to save you. Because letting you die would have broken her heart way more than just not having my ugly mug around the hive. Now come on, I don’t even wanna know what kind of mutant hobos are calling an abandoned looney bin home.” “An abandoned looney bin?” Carrot echoed in confusion. “Human slang,” Train Wreck explained, “Before the plague this was a hospital for the mentally ill. My alma mater, you might say. Luckily the observation rooms aren’t too far in. On the other hoof, it’s been a long time since they locked me up here, so my memory is a little fuzzy on the layout.” “This place is giving me the creeps, is your whole world this broken?” Carrot glanced around nervously. “I dunno… probably? I was only here for the start of the plague, after that the text sent me to Pinkamena’s world, and then Surprise bounced me into your’s.” Train Wreck shrugged. “Time doesn’t run the same in the different worlds though, so it’s impossible to say how long it’s been on this side… hold up, there’s ponies up ahead, four, no wait I think five.” “How can you know that?” Carrot cocked her head to the side. “You couldn’t sense ponies back home.” “It’s not ponies really.” Train Wreck gestured for a stop as he explained. “I can sense the infection. I think it’s because I was infected when Discord changed me, Usagi and Jimmy Jack explained it to me back at the Belfry.” “A… plague royal?” Carrot asked curiously. “Okay, so plague ponies, that’s humans who got turned into ponies by the pink step are a lot like changelings. You’ve got your ferals, and they're basically drones.” Train Wreck continued his explanation. “Really, really frisky drones. They’re really only dangerous if you're not infected. Because they LOVE infecting humans. Really, really, REALLY love it. Basically they’re rape machines. And you’re not infected. So don’t trust strange ponies. And remember they’re ALL strange ponies.” “So, you’re saying your world is full of diseased pony rapists?” Carrot Plate demanded incredulously. “Okay, I know how that sounds.” Train Wreck rubbed the back of his head with a massive hoof. “And it’s even worse because it’s exactly how it sounds. Luckily, like I said, they're like drones, so they pretty much HAVE to do what I say. There’s also higher functioning ferals like the triplets back home. They’re smarter, and not QUITE as frisky, and generally friendly enough unless you’re just uninfected and say, ‘You know what? I’m just gonna go have sex with a semi-retarded pony and catch the plague’. So don’t have sex with any not-so-bright ponies that might hit on you. Because they have the plague.” “Ewww! Train Wreck! That gross. Besides how do you know I’m not infected? I mean it was only that one time, but.. DAMMIT TRAIN WRECK!” Carrot screamed with sudden realization. “YOU DIDN’T TELL ME YOU HAD THE PONY RAPE PLAGUE?!?!?!”