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// ? 
// Story: The Alley Outside of 7/11: An Anthology 
// by The Red Parade 
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“I don’t like it.” 

The  voice was loud and clear over the din of the bar. Around their table, ponies danced and chattered, the air thick with the smell of alcohol and sweat. Shadowy shapes twisted and stumbled through the bar, in between the tables and chairs. 

The yellow stallion sighed, taking a drink from his bottle. “I’m aware. But it’s not like I can just say no.”

Across from him sat a grayish-amber stallion in a cobalt vest. He sighed, tapping a hoof on the table. “So one week? Is that enough time?”

“It’ll have to be,” replied the yellow stallion. 

The amber stallion nodded. “And we all know what to do?”

“Yes.” The yellow stallion’s voice was shaky, but his eyes shone with determination.

“And what if she finds out?” questioned the amber stallion. 

The yellow stallion took another drink from his bottle. “She won’t,” he answered.”She can’t.”

Up on the stage, the curtain rose and a spotlight flicked on to reveal a pony. The crowd gave a rousing cheer, raising their mugs and glasses to the air. The bright yellow mare in a white hat gave a deep bow before rearing up to her rear hooves. She closed her eyes and raised her fiddle, drawing out a long, solemn note.

She took a deep breath and began to sing. 

“Come one, come all to this tragic affair,
No room for hope, all that’s left is despair. 
Forget all the lies, and the battles you’ve fought,
That’s for the living, and living you’re not!

If you’ve taken the world and you’ve seen all to see,
Then build me a coffin, kill and bury me
So come one, come all, let’s give one last goodbye
Why bother living if we’re living to die!” 

The yellow stallion’s ear twitched as the band kicked in, drums and guitars mixing with the fiddle’s melody as it grew and grew in intensity. 

Around them the bar roared with life, as ponies stomped their hooves and yelled, raising their drinks towards the stage.

The mare with the fiddle didn’t react. The music flowed from her fiddle faster and faster, driving the crowd to a frenzy.

“When you’ve given it all and you’ve thrown in the rag
Put your soul in a box and your body in a bag
Broken, defeated, you can’t hear the call
All grown up just to see that you’re nothing at all!”

The amber pony flinched as the fiddle playing became sporadic and desperate, the notes blurring together. The ponies around them were laughing and screaming, climbing over each other as they tried to make their way to the stage.

“SAVE ME!”

The crowd cried and screamed, glasses and bottles crashing to the floor. They reached the hooves towards the stage, falling on top of each other.

“SAVE ME!”

They laughed until tears streamed from their eyes, they screamed until their throats burned and ached. The mare with the fiddle played on. 

“SAVE ME!”

Her eyes shot open, but the music didn’t stop. She smiled, her eyes scanning the crowd around her stage. Their voices blended together, their shouts and screams indecipherable and their pleadings unheard.

“I can’t.” 

The music stopped and the lights went out.