//------------------------------// // Chapter 2.) What I Remember // Story: Blaze // by Blazing_Mane01 //------------------------------// Mmm... I haven't slept that well in weeks. I wonder how long I was out of it? It must've been a relatively long time, because my wing feels a lot better. I open my eyes to try and see what it looked like. As I expected, it was wrapped in bandages. I was in a hospital. "Ey y'all! He's wakin' up, now!" The thunderous voice didn't give me any announcement, so I guess it's natural I flip over and land on my broken wing. "Ouch!! Good God! Hey, how about a little warning before you make my ears fall off!? Or maybe my wing!?" About five other ponies had stormed in before I could finish my point. They all heard every bit of it -- One of them even screeched and ducked behind a table! "You'll have to forgive her, darling," a white pony with a regal appearance and accent had stepped forward, "she pays an extremely low amount of attention to essential details." "Beg ya pardon?" the one with the hat said in response. "Absolutely, darling. You've got it." "Ah raightly doubt that! "Enough, both of you!" a surprisingly familiar voice rang from across the room. "Arguing isn't going to help our wounded guest! In fact, you're probably giving him a headache!" It's that purple one! The one I saw before I blacked out! I wonder why I'm so excited to see her? "Uhh, raight... Sorry, Twi," she hid half her face with her hat as she turned to me. "Sorry 'bout that. No hard feelins, sugarcube." "Me too, darling. Ugh, what a horrible first impression..." "Yea, it's, uhh, okay..." I am in a hospital bed, they don't even know who I am (I think), and she's worried about making friends? Are they all like this here? "Now that that's out of the way," the purple pony approached the bedside with a notepad and quill, "I'm sure we both have questions for each other, so let us waste no more time! Everypony in this town is talking about you, and how you made your appearance. Could you possibly shed some light on the topic of how you got here? Maybe we can help you?" "Umm, okay sure." I don't see any harm in telling them. "See, it all started like this..." The sun was high and the warm air felt so refreshing as it brushed against our manes. My friend, Faded Ivory, and I had decided to spend the day fishing at the lake. We'd catch a couple and bring them back to the village for the young fillies and colts running around playing. The thought of the look on their estatic faces was our motivation. We had caught a TON of big fish, small fish, wide fish, scrawny fish -- There was this one fish Ivory had hooked I had to fly in and push 'im to shore! But anyway, night had quickly settled in and we were both really tired. As a raincloud found its way over our campfire, we both knew that was the sign to retire for the day. When we got settled in, Ivory had said, "I can already see the look on the elder's face when we drag THIS trophy into the village!" I gave a quick laugh, but I was cut off by a yawn. She returned the laugh with slightly more vigor, but having had been her friend for a short twelve years, I knew she was also battling against the Z's. After a few minutes, she broke the silence with, "You know, Blaze, you've grown up and lived in that place since you can remember. And not once had you ever seen OR heard of any pony civilization outside. I've actually started wondering if you thought we were the only group of ponies in Equestria..." The question had totally caught me off guard. I never paid enough attention to that kind of stuff to think we may be the only of our kind alive! I always figured some ponies were out there somewhere, living pony lives, doing pony things... I responded to her statement. "You have a point, but I know that's not true. I figured they're out there, and maybe someday we can go out there and meet them." The look on her face suggested I had said something completely wrong. "That's not exactly what I was getting at. I gathered enough common sense loooonnng ago to figure out our village was one of thousands, maybe millions in the world. No, what I meant was, maybe the elder is hiding something from us? Every time I ask him, he just coughs and says that it's nothing for me to dwell on." That sounded like a pretty harsh sentence to come out of the elder's lips. I shook my head and said, "He's right. You don't have to find out what's out there when you have all you need to be happy here." She responded rather quickly. "But I don't have you, Blaze. Not truly. Not the way... I want..." Her ears dropped along with her smile, and she lowered her head. My mind reeled at what I thought she meant. She... loved me? It took me a few seconds to gather the breath to say something sarcastic, "Then let's start another life, away from home. Just you and me." At this, a giggle left her mouth, followed by a "Yeah, that's a whole lot better..." She then rolled over and succumbed to her heavy eyelids... Sunrise hit our tent really early, so we reluctantly got up and prepared the trip home with black rings around our eyes. Ivory hadn't said a word since last night. I wondered if I had put a bigger dent in her life than I thought? We were almost to the village when the smell of burning wood caught my attention. I looked around in the air frantically for any sign of smoke, but the trees and the thick canopy they form, I couldn't make sense of anything above them. So we continued walking while the smell got stronger and thicker. I quickly realized this was no ordinary morning bonfire. No, the flame was much bigger than that. My steps burst into a full-out gallop for fear of what I might see. My family. The children. The elder. Every step brought me closer to the tumbling flames. "NOOOO!!" Ivory had instantly overtaken me and sprinted toward her house, which was being swallowed by the inferno. My house no longer existed, but I still lunged in with hope. "MOM!! DAD!!" I dug at each plank and straw at record speed... only to find their fried skeletons. My mouth processes this information faster than my mind can, when I say, "Mom... Dad... I'll get them back, I promise..." I turned to find Faded Ivory feet away from me with distinct glimmer in her eyes. That was enough to tell me that she was also unfortunate in her findings. A crack from a nearby building catches us both off guard as huge planks shot out at us. I evaded the first two, but a third jabbed against my wing, pushing at least three bones out of place. Pain shoots up and off the scale tenfold. I had let out my defeated cry just before a thunderous roar and a shock wave made it seem minor. We then saw what was responsible for these crimes. A shadow stood over 50 feet tall above the elder's house. With another roar, it throws a massive left hook. I braced myself for impact when Ivory lunged in front of me. The claws of our death tore over half her body away, and the cry that escaped her lips afterwards was unbearable. I jumped forward and caught her. "I gotcha! Hang on, we can get out of this!" Ivory choked out, "No! What are you doing!? Get outta here!! Save... *cough cough* Save yourself!!" "Ivory, don't talk like --" Our vague discussion was cut off by a RRRAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRR!!!!!! She squirmed out of my hooves. "GO!! HURRY!! GET AWAY!!" My heart fractured into a thousand pieces when she spoke. Another swipe of the monstrous hand grabbed her up. "IVORY, NOOOO!!!" "JUST GO, DAMN IT!! Don't... worry... about... about me...." Her final sentence struggled to make sense before the creature squeezed the last breath out of her. Not wanting to put her sacrifice in vain, I turned and sprinted from the scene. The crush of her bones brought tears to my eyes as I ran... "And, well, here I am."