Ouch...
Wow, my head hurts.
My eyes opened and I looked up at the clear sunlight.
Where am I?
I slowly got to my feet and looked around. I was just in some average woods, as far as I could tell. A little dirt trail led between the bright trees. Little rocks and bushes dotted the sides. Still, something seemed... off.
Hmm.
So I started walking, looking around for any sign of well... anything. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary as I followed that little path. Until I came to a rock, that is.
I think it was sedimentary or something (I was never good with rocks), but something else compelled me to look at it further. It was a small rock, maybe a little larger than my fist. Then I realized I had been looking at it for half a minute already. I was about to turn away when a large spider crawled up over the side.
I jumped back a little, since I was really unlearned when it came to spiders. It was a nasty thing, too, with a hairy black abdomen and eight grey legs. It literally had giant red eyes and its fangs were dripping some kind of venom. Needless to say, it was a real lady-killer.
Then it whipped out a bunch of flowers.
Dang.
What do you do about that? Refuse them and hurt his feelings? Or take them and risk touching it. Or perhaps it was a ploy to get me to come closer...
Wait, what?
What was I even thinking about? Spiders don't have feelings and definitely don't plot against humans in such clever ways.
But then, how was it holding flowers like that? His legs shouldn't have enough friction to clutch them in such a way. And yet, they did. Creepy.
Ah wait, this is all just a dream. And a good one at that! And now, since I am aware of such a thing, I have complete and total control over everything.
"YOU!" I dramatically pointed at the spider. "BRING ME YOUR FINEST MILKSHAKE!"
The spider looked devastated. His eyes teared up and he slowly dropped the flowers before scuttling off into the undergrowth beyond the rock.
Hahaha. Now, the sky shall be purple.
I looked up.
It was still blue.
"Purple, I say!"
Blue.
"Darker blue!"
Nothing happened.
Darn it. I pointed at the nearest tree. "Become alive!"
Oh wait, trees are already alive.
"Start walking around and be my super cool bodyguard with mystical powers!"
Nope. Nothing.
Hmm.
This probably wasn't a dream.
So I started walking down the path again. The sun kept shining, birds kept singing, and little animals scurried through the undergrowth. Dang, this place was beautiful. I just had no idea where I was.
Wait, how did I even get wherever "here" is?
Ah, no matter. A question for another time.
So I kept walking.
Probably around an hour or so later, I emerged from the forest. I looked around the grassy plain I was now in and immediately noticed a village to the south, if the sun did indeed rise in the east and set in the west.
I started walking towards it, hoping to maybe get directions back to someplace I knew, or a bigger establishment where I could find an airport or something.
As I came nearer, I noticed some things about the town. First, all its houses were literally made out of painted wood, with what looked like hay for roofs. That's gotta be nice in the rain. Second was windows. I don't know why I thought of windows second, but if they could afford windows, like lots of decent windows, then why did they have hay roofs?! And third, I noticed a smallish red horse pulling one of the houses with an annoyingly thin rope and in short bursts, as if he was... bouncing.
What the heck?
It appeared his target was an extremely garnish building (I lack better words to describe it) and I saw two very small horses digging a hole in front of it with shovels gripped in their teeth. I saw another tiny horse behind the larger red one who was trying stop/slow him down.
My first thought was to go and cut the rope with a knife or something and watch that thing fall on its face. My second was to question my sanity and maybe find a way to kill myself to relieve the grip of this iron dream. Then I decided to just have fun with it while it lasted. I looked around for a knife with which to cut the rope.
Since I was in a grassy field, I did not find a knife in the first 3 seconds of my search.
So as I ran nearer to town, I saw more of these weird horse things, with vibrant colors and pictures of common things stamped on their flank. I have a weird imagination to think of something like that.
Anyway, I got near that moving house that actually happened to leave a trail of ground up dirt in the middle of the already dirt road. Free tilling service!
The orange baby horse still hadn't noticed me yet, but no matter. Lacking a knife, I just bit down on the rope. Maybe dream logic would see me through this one. Nope. Turns out, ropes actually taste pretty bad.
The rope was a lot thicker up close, but still nowhere near the ability to pull a house without snapping. I mean, really. I was then promptly crushed by a moving house.
I woke up with hospital beeps and half-open eyes. I was in a hospital bed, with one of those weird blanket-sheet things over my body. Also, my whole body hurt everywhere.
As the light being applied to my eyes became more manageable, I opened them fully. Uh....
There was a purple horse's face right in my face.
Well, just a few inches away from it.
She (it looked like a she) began looking at my eyes curiously. I looked at her face, because horses aren't supposed to have eyelashes. Also, her eyes were positively massive, like that spider's. I was no science expert, but she should be blinking a lot more to keep those eyes from collecting a whole bunch of dust. Then my mind thought of eyes so large not blinking quite enough. Eww.
Then I realized there was a horse in my face.
"Boo." I said.
"Ahhhh!" She jumped back, and her feminine voice confirmed my assumption.
I sat up and looked around the hospital room. Pretty average, but no TV or mini-fridge. There was another hospital bed in the same room and it looked like a white curtain could separate them. Still, I'm no expert on hospitals, but I was pretty sure patients were supposed to get their own room, not share it with someone who might give them some horrible disease.
The purple horse, which I just realized had a horn on her head, making her some kind of unicorn, was huddling under the other bed. I realized then that the little orange horse had tiny little wings, and not paper clips or something.
"Hi," I said.
"Wh-what are you?"
"Uh... a human, God's blessed beasts on the earth."
"And who is... God?"
"I don't know. Who are you?"
"I— what?"
"Yeah, who are you?"
"Uh... I'm Twilight Sparkle."
"That's your name, or your username or something?"
"I don't know what you're talking about..."
"Oh come now, don't be shy. That username isn't too bad. I've seen much, much worse. So do you spell it with an underscore, a dash...?
She just stared at me blankly. Oh, and she was also out from underneath the bed. "Hmm, so it's your actual name?"
"Yes."
"Do you know anything about technology?"
"Well, I have studied various forms of intense magical technology such as trains, cameras, and large fan operated machines."
"Oh."
"Yes, it's really quite intriguing the way magic is used to force materials into a certain velocity along guided tracks, or to capture light and transfer it permanently to paper, or even to spin blades to create high speed wind."
"That's... great. Where am I? Because this place is definitely a dream, and yet it almost certainly is not."
"You're in Ponyville. And I can understand your nonacceptance of this place, because I have never, ever read anything in any of my books about your species and Princess Celestia told me she hadn't either. She'll be coming here sometime before nightfall to decide what to do with you."
"Is she hot?"
"What!?!" She was flabbergasted. "How could you say something like that!?"
"I don't know. Celestia kind of means 'sun', I think, so that was most certainly what I meant."
"Oh—Okay." She visibly seemed to relax. Seriously? "So, you said you are a human. Where are more?"
"Well, I don't know. I kind of just woke up in some forest north of here."
"Hmm, we'll have to investigate that... Anyway, do you mind if I ask you a few questions about your body?" Her eyes were shining and she had creepy grin.
"Sure...?"
"Why are your eyes so small? And why is one blue, and the other green?"
"My eyes are both normal, yours are just really large. And what do you mean, one's blue and the other is green? My eyes are both green."
"Here." Her horn started glowing pink. Woah. Then a small mirror appeared and was levitating in a pink grasp. Well, why not?
The mirror levitated in my direction so I could see my face. Huh. My right eye was indeed blue, and my left eye was still its normal green.
"Yeah, I have no idea why that is. Is that somewhat common around here?"
"No, not at all. That's why it's so intriguing. I was hoping you would know."
"Well I don't. That's some pretty cool stuff you've got going there with your horn."
"You've never seen magic before? Then again... there would be no focal point for a human to use it with. Do any of your kind have wings or a horn?"
"No, I'm pretty sure no humans have natural wings or horns."
"Hmm... well in that ca—" A nurse opened the door with a red cross stamped on her flank.
"The princess is here to see the strange creature."
Twilight smiled widely. "Alright human, I'm gonna go get Princess Celestia now. She'll decide what we're going to do with you!"
And she and the nurse trotted out the door.
I didn't notice this before, but it looked like I had some sort of healing tubes attached to my body. I was feeling a lot better than I should have been after being crushed by a house. Though I still hurt a lot, as I mentioned before.
Hopefully this Princess Celestia person was not in a real position of power. Princesses usually aren't, but I was never good with royalty. Then again, I was never bad either since I hadn't met any royalty.
So this place had small horses as its main inhabitants it seemed. Ruled by a king and queen, perhaps, in a monarchy. That or they were just figureheads, but where there is a princess, there is a king and a queen. The level of technology was somewhat decent, according to what Twilight said, but based on the town, it was less abundant than necessary to consider this place more than medieval times. And what they did make ran off of magic, rather than electricity. Perhaps they did not develop as much technologically because they lacked the need to, with their fancy magic.
That Celestia should have been here any moment now. I stared at the door, daring her to open it. Instead, I heard a chuckle beside me.
I instantly turned my head and beheld... something. Its body was just messed up, with goat leg, a lion paw, an eagle talon, some reptile's foot, a deer antler, an ibex(?) horn, and a real nice white beard. Red mismatched regarded me calmly from their yellow embrace.
Woah.
"Hello," it said.
"Hi," I said back.
"Well, aren't you a nice fellow." He whipped out some sick shades and put them on slowly. "I'll— hold on..." he looked closer at me. "Well, isn't that a doozie."
"What?"
He pulled out one of those yellow tape measures and started measuring me down as if it were important. "You are definitely an interesting one," he said as he pulled off his now clear glasses. "Hmm, yes, well. I'd better be off now! Ta-ta! Have a nice day."
And with that, he vanished with a white flash.
"Huh."
Then the door opened and in walked... a normal sized horse. She was white and had a long horn coming out of her head. Large wings adorned her back and I couldn't see if there was anything stamped on her flank. But what really got me was that flowing, ethereal hair. It just, flowed on its own wind, with pink and white and light green hairs.
She was about my height, I think, if her neck was all the way straight, and her horn didn't count. Twilight came in beside her.
"I understand that you were recently injured by a... conflict, of sorts." Her voice was like a mother's, but with a honeyed undertone. I almost wanted to say 'No, I wasn't. Who'd you hear that from?', just to contradict what she said, but I was sitting in a hospital bed and I didn't want her to stab me with her horn or something. Words like hers meant that you were always supposed to follow along, and if you didn't there would be big consequences. This princess would be a very dangerous political opponent, especially if she really did have the power that her tone suggested. 12 words, and I got that much from her. I smiled and leaned back.
"Yeah, I was. Is it often that people get crushed by houses around here?"
"No. But there have been similar... incidents around Ponyville lately." Twilight seemed taken aback by that, so I assumed she probably lived in that town, which I was almost certainly in also. "Twilight and her friends have been doing their best to take care of any situations, but I am truly sorry for what happened to you."
"Oh yeah, I forgot to ask. How long was I out before I woke up?"
Twilight spoke up. "Just a few hours. It's nearing night now."
"Ah yes," Celestia said. "I must go back to Canterlot soon to lower the sun. Human, if that is what you call yourself, do you have a name?"
"Uh. No?"
"Do you not remember anything? Surely you aren't a foal?"
"Uh, well I kind of just woke up in some woods north of here. I don't remember anything before that, no."
"Well, I will see what we will do with you tomorrow. Rest well, my little human."
"Ouch. Don't every say something like that again."
But by then she was already out the door, Twilight following her. She kicked the door closed on her way out.
I leaned back on the pillow. These creatures were horses but smaller, kind of like... ponies. Yeah. Ponies, but with wings and horns and gigantic eyes. Great.
Since it was nearing night, I decided to start planning my escape. Sure, I would probably be sought after by that princess and her parents, but no matter. It would be better than going with them and facing whatever this magical ponyland had to offer. I decided it would probably be best if I escaped at midnight, and that way I could get some sleep in before I left.
There was also a tray of some gross-looking food on a little bedside dresser that a nurse had probably left there because I was, you know, asleep.
The food tasted terrible, but I ate it anyway, hoping it wasn't poisoned. After that, I settled down and set the magical alarm clock to 23:59 and smiled. Then I quickly fell asleep with the help of pain in every pore of my body.
When the alarm went off, I thought it was almost too loud, and I quickly slapped the snooze button. Then I disengaged the alarm so it wouldn't go off again. I was feeling considerably better than before, after about 4 hours of sleep.
Getting the healing tubes off me was easy, since I just had yank them off. It was weird because they were stuck on like magnets and somehow pumped healing into my body through my skin of something. Then I got out of the bed and realized I had nothing to take with me but my clothes. Thankfully, I still had them on and not some weird hospital gown.
My clothes were a little battered and dirty from being crushed by that house, but they were still fine.
I made my way to the door and slowly eased it open. It was the last door in the hallway. Then I realized I could probably just go out through the window. I closed the door and walked to the window. Nope. Second floor.
I eased my way back into the hallway, closing the door to stall my disappearance as long as possible. I then made my way down the hallway and to some stairs. I tiptoed down, but tripped on the last step. I landed loudly on the floor, but thankfully, nobody came. I quickly found a back exit on the first floor and exited the building with no problem.
It looked like I was decent ways off from town proper, but I would need to find a train or something else to get out of here fast, so I headed that way, keeping to the shadows. Most ponies would probably be asleep at this time, so I wan't too careful in sneaking around.
I finally found what I was looking for after about a half hour. Two male pegasus ponies were hitching themselves up to kind of wagon, while a female pegasus was loading the last of whatever they were transporting in the back.
I circled round towards the back of the wagon. When she finished, she moved up front to hitch herself up to the wagon with the other two guys. I took that opportunity to sneak out of my cover and try to look in the back of the wagon.
As soon as one of my feet touched the ground near the wagon, bam! A tendril of red magic shot out of the ground and wrapped itself around my foot. My other foot quickly went back and got wrapped by another tendril. I had a feeling I if I put my hands or knees down a similar thing would happen. So I just stood there, awkwardly trying to keep my balance.
A black unicorn with a shaggy red mane came around the corner of the wagon. How did I miss him? "Well, well, well. What do we—what do we have here?" His voice made him seem to slightly older than most of the ponies I had heard so far.
"I'm a human," I said helpfully.
"Huh." By now the three pegasi had come up behind him. "And what were you doing behind our wagon?"
"Uh... watching the stars. I must have taken a wrong step. I'm so very sorry. I'll be on my way now." I struggled against my bindings to no avail.
"Ah yes, of course. You know what, why don't you come with us? We could use somepony like you to protect our goods."
"Hmm, do I get anything out of it?"
"Well, we'd pay you. And you don't really have a choice, anyway."
"Yeah, not really."
"Well then, human. I am Starstone, and I lead a group of mercenaries. We haven't had many jobs lately, so we've taken up selling some... 'goods' in the meantime."
"Aha! I knew it! All that stuff is totally illegal, isn't it!"
"Yes. We didn't make as many sales here as were hoping. Then again, there are very few stallions in this Ponyville anyway." His horn lit up for a moment and the bindings dissolved. "What is your name, human?"
"Uh, I don't have one."
"Oh. Shall we give you one then?"
"No, I'll think of something! How about: The Great Manbearpig!"
"What."
"What?" His withering expression was just the reaction I was hoping for. "How about... Mr. Cool?
"I assure you, you get one more try before I name you something stupid and never stop calling you that."
"Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, oh I know!" His gaze focused back where it had gone down during that moment of contemplation. "My name is Time's Grave."
"Well it's better than what I was going to name you. Come on then, Time." He waved his hoof. "We've got places to go."
Soon enough, we were up in the sky, because magic. I peeked my head out the back cover where I was residing with the 'goods', and watched the stars whisper away above me.
<:---.'.---:>
I woke up as the wagon was stopping. I peeked out the back and saw that it was still night. My body felt much better despite having been crushed by a house quite recently. I got out of the back of the wagon and saw the pegasi ponies unhitching themselves from the wagon. We were in a grassy moor and the cold night wind chilled me to the bones.
Starstone had just gotten off of the front. He walked back towards me. "We're just stopping for the night, Time."
"Didn't we just start going? Looking at your pegasi, it seems like they should have a lot more stamina. When I was in Ponyville back there, I got crushed by a house that a stallion was literally pulling like it was nothing."
"...Seriously?"
"Yeah. And it hurt, too."
"...Okay then. And to answer your question, no, we didn't just start. We've been going for about twenty-four hours straight, a pretty good amount of time when it comes to pegasi with a wagon. I've hired these pullers before, because they're some of the best."
"Oh. They're not your mercenaries?"
"No. My mercenaries just... aren't here right now. I'll tell you about them later, if you prove useful." He walked past me. "I'm gonna make a fire now, if you're cold."
So he made a fire using some wood he brought along for just that. It was pretty nice.
An hour or two later, we got back in the air. Apparently we were going to some village in the Smokey Mountains, wherever that was, and we would be getting their around midday. As we flew, I saw some pretty cool things out of the back of the wagon. I had never flown in an airplane, but it was probably similar to this, except that we were going a lot slower and we were a lot closer to the ground. I was pretty sure I had always like heights and this no was no different.
As we neared the foggy mountains in the distance, I couldn't help but feel... right, like what I was doing was perfectly natural. Then that scared me, because if I was the only human in a world like this with seemingly no way to get back, I should have no right to feel as good as I did.
Then as my thoughts echoed against my brain once again, I realized something horrifying. I didn't remember anything of my life on Earth. I remembered airplanes, mannerisms, ideas, and... and anything else, but I lacked any reason to. It's like the knowledge was there, but none of the experience to go with it. Well, I had probably led a pretty terrible life anyway, so maybe this was God's way of punishing me.
God couldn't think of anything as bad as this.
Since that was clearly out of the question, I decided that I would try and figure out a way to regain my memory and find a way to return to Earth. It was something to do, at the very least.
All them unicorns and them magicks might help. It shouldn't be too hard to rip a hole in the fabric of space and time, right?
Rightttt?
And I was not referring to myself when I said time. I would much rather keep my clothes intact, thank you very much.
Then I realized I did not even know what I was wearing. I looked down at myself. I was wearing random normal clothes that were all dirty from being worn for 40ish hours and which had also been crushed by a house. You'd think I had a hospital gown on, or something, but the hospital probably didn't have anything to fit me properly.
I don't think I would ever forget the house incident. It would come back to haunt me time and time again.
We had just entered the mist at this point. The pegasi had to fly higher so as to avoid any sudden mountains in our path. Starstone had also told me that there were pirates in this area, but we were small enough a target to not be noticed or even worth noticing. He was right, because we made it to the village without a hitch. Well, technically not true, since they pegasi had to get hitched to the wagon to transport it here.
The village was a nice place, if you didn't mind the snow. From what I had seen, it was probably Fall around here. I don't know why some people call it Autumn, because Fall sounds so much better.
Anyway, this place was elevated enough that they had snow in Fall, and the mist really didn't help the temperature feel any better. But then again, they were pony things, so they were probably just fine because of their fur. My fur did not keep me body warm, and the small amount on top of my head did little. The village had maybe around fifty houses, and these were like the houses in Ponyville, except few had windows and the roofs actually made sense. Oh, and paint did not exist up here, save for what looked like the town hall or something.
We slowed down over a small clearing in the village and slowly alighted on the snowy ground. Starstone had told me to that the pegasi would be staying with us until Los Pegasus, since that is where he usually stocks up and where these pullers were from.
I hopped out of the back of the wagon and walked up to the front, where the pegasi were unhitching themselves. Starstone was up there too.
"Alright," he said. "We're going to be up here for two days and two nights. During the day, we act like normal travelers, here to do this, here to do that, that kind of thing. If people seem interested point them toward the wagon and tell them we're open at night."
"Dude, what are you selling, anyway?"
"Drugs," he said simply.
"Oh, okay."
And that was that.
I wandered into the village, thinking. That Celestia person was probably after me for escaping like that, along with that silly purple unicorn that seemed to be highly supportive of her. Since I was the only creature of my kind in the world, and also quite sentient, I would probably be coveted by all who knew me.
Well, I just want to singgg- No, stop that!
I smiled.
Celestia could go eat pigeon crap, for all I cared.
<:---.'.---:>
A dark hallway loomed in front of the chained pony. Little alcoves with candles adorned the sides of the corridor. A shove from behind sent the pony moving once more. Toward oblivion, he might think.
<:---.'.---:>
A random shop caught my eye. It was a blacksmith's shop. I ducked inside, feeling the warm air and creaking floorboards beneath my dusty shoes.
The counter was empty, but my entrance caused a little bell to ring in the back. I looked back at the wooden door and saw a rope tied to the top left corner leading along some hooks in the wall towards the back, where my line of vision was obscured by a wall.
<:---.'.---:>
At the end of the hallway, steps led up to a dim room lit only by a few hanging candles and a beam of moonlight. A small floor rested in front of a large, dark throne. On that throne sat a massive beast, shrouded in shadows, so that he could not clearly be seen.
The pony was led up to the floor and from there, was shoved on to the ground. He got up shakily and could now be clearly seen. He was a dark blue earth pony a windswept bright white mane. A large visor that looked almost like it was made of bone obscured his eyes, reaching down to his mouth and coming up over his ears like little wings. It had flowing brown carvings on it, like some grand puzzle.
A massive growl came from the throne, "Speak, Whisper."
<:---.'.---:>
An old, burly pony came up to the counter. "Whadda you want?"
"You're not surprised to see me?"
He squinted at me. "We get all sorts o' things up here. What makes ya think yur so special?"
"Well, I guess I'm not special." To you, at least.
"So, whadda you want? Besides wastin my time so much, I mean."
"Oh yes, I was wondering if you had any kind of armor or clothing that I might be able to wear."
"Well, we got some gloves for a minotaur. You look like ya have five fingers though, so I don't know how well that would work for you. Nothing else looks like it would remotely fit you, so you'd have ta commission something."
"Well, I guess I'll do that then."
"A rough estimate of your body, and I'd say it'll cost ya upwards of 600 bits if you want a decent set."
"Uh..."
<:---.'.---:>
The pony's voice was little more than a hoarse whisper. "The one you seek is not of this world, but of another."
"But where is he?" the monster growled.
"He—" the pony winced. "He is—" the pony collapsed on the ground.
Two shadows, which were now shown to be massive minotaurs, closed in and hefted the pony to his hooves.
With no support from his own body, the stallion just barely managed to whisper, "Stormfall peak," before his head lolled, held up only by its joints.
<:---.'.---:>
After being rudely told that I could go waste someone else's time and was herded out of the shop, I looked around for something else to do. After meandering for a few more minutes, something caught my eye. It was something black, hurtling out of the sky towards the village. Before I could register properly what it was, it slammed into the middle of the village with a massive explosion, throwing me back onto the ground.
From my daunted position, I had a clear perception of the changing skies above.
Holy smokes.
Three massive, black airships descended out of the sky, rocketing down more of those cursed explosives. Mayhem and general panic ensued all around me. The anarchy was disorienting for a moment, but I cleared my head relatively quickly. I tried doing one of those cool kick up things to get back on my feet, but instead I kind of flopped back down on the cobblestone.
So I got up and looked around, wondering what I should do. My answer came quickly when incoming heat began to bathe my face. I looked skyward and voila! One those explosives was coming straight at me.
I instinctively started to run away as fast as I could in some direction, but I tripped.
I got up again and started running again. BOOM The explosion hit about ten feet away, and I was hurled at a nearby building. I impacted it with sickening crunch.
Why did it all have to come to this? I should've just been crushed by that stupid house, I thought. I lay there at the bottom of the building (which now had crack marks where I impacted), wondering what to do with my life. Fires burned around me, ponies screamed and wailed, and I myself was just having a jolly good time.
You know, like, making jokes about words that I was currently thinking about in my head at that exact moment.
Now that today's quota of silliness was done, I went back to more serious thoughts, like how I could get Starstone to eat bacon if he was back on Earth.
That done, I tried getting up. Annnnddd, my right leg was broken. Fantastic. I had never had a broken leg before, so I didn't know what I was going to do with that once this craziness was over.
Nothing else was broken, except for my right ring finger. I played with it for about three seconds before the pain caught up.
So I shaggily got to my left foot and leaned against a wall of the building. A wall which apparently was not strong enough to bear anything more than a fly now. It collapsed and I fell into the building with it, ruining my shoddy attempt to begin extricating myself from this mess.
This building looked like it was once a funeral home, or an orphanage, or something. Now it was just a blazing inferno. Almost the whole building was made out of wood. The wall I had just collapsed through was close to being set ablaze.
My lungs felt as if they had been pumped full of dry, fraying string. As I struggled to breathe, something in the middle of the charred floor caught my eye. It was a child's toy.
I crawled closer to it and beheld it. It was like a little girl's doll, except a ponified version. Little buttons for eyes, old yarn for its mane, and literally rags that had been sown together finished its bedraggled look. The thing had the posture of being well used, as if it had recently been someone's best friend. But not... anymore.
I reached out and grabbed it. It felt like it could ignite at any moment, so I pulled it close to my chest.
As the raging fire grew around me, I gave up trying to fight the smoke. I curled up around the toy and waited for oblivion.
It never came.