Chapter One:
“Lost Memories in the Desert Sands”
Part I
At some point, probably due to exhaustion, sleep did finally claim me, because I awoke the next morning in a cold sweat. Nightmarish images of Monohuman dragging me around the neck by a rope while everyone ignored my screams for help echoed in my head as I leapt out of bed and back into the shower, trying to scald it all away with hot water.
After burning parts of my skin off and accomplishing nothing for my lingering nightmares, I tossed on a fresh set of clothes–which for some reason were duplicates of the outfit I wore the day before, right down to the missing threads in the sweater, as if someone took our outfits and clicked copy and pasted them into our dressers–and proceeded to carefully leave my room.
Never know when one might be planning an ambush.
Sunset must’ve already left because I spotted her door slightly ajar, and poking inside revealed she wasn’t home. I made a note to chastise her for that later; leaving the door open like that is suicide.
It idly occurred to me that I was settling pretty smoothly into this kind of mindset. There was something familiar and comfortable about being in a place where I had to guard against constant danger lurking around every corner.
Maybe losing my memories was a blessing, if this was the way I was used to living.
As I left the dorm, I came across Pear Butter, who was just leaving the other dorm building. “Good morning, Pear Butter,” I said, happy to see at least one person whom I knew would be friendly.
Pear Butter jerked at the sound of my voice, then her eyes locked on me like the descent of a frigid winter blizzard sweeping in with no warning, instantly dumping a foot of snow on my proverbial doorstep. “Miss Blush,” she said, her voice just as cold.
I recoiled, my eyes filling with tears. “Wha–what did I do?”
She opens her mouth as if to answer, then her glare withers further, like smoting me with acid. “Just… stay away from me,” she snapped, before rushing off to the Mess Hall ahead of me.
I watched her go, feeling like my heart had just been stomped on.
“Wow. She’s such a good therapist!” Sour Sweet blurted behind me. “Not!”
Fluttershy stepped up and reached for my hand, which I allowed her to take. “Oh my, are you all right, Wallflower?”
“No. No, I’m not,” I said, squeezing Fluttershy’s hand hard enough I heard her mutter a brief sound of pain, but she didn’t pull away. I winced for her and let out a quiet sigh. “Sorry.”
She patted me gently on the shoulder. “We’re all under a lot of stress right now.”
Sour Sweet crossed her arms and cast Pear Butter’s departing form another glare. “What a bitch.” She turned to me and smiled warmly. “Sooo! You want to hang out with us?”
“We’re going to meet Derpy and eat together for breakfast,” Fluttershy added. “You look like you could use the company.”
“...uh, sure, all right,” I said, shrugging lightly. Normally I’d want to eat with Sunset, but after my brain did whatever it did the previous night, hanging out with others was probably a good idea. And I could trust these two, right?
I eyed Sour Sweet. “Since when do you two hang out together?”
“Oh, well, Pear Butter’s suggestion that we try to avoid people we know seemed like a good one,” Fluttershy said. “And I don’t know Sour Sweet very well.”
“And we have soooo much in common! We’re nice!” Sour Sweet’s face fell. “I’m so nice I forgave how much of a cheater you were at the Friendship Games…”
Fluttershy tittered. “Now now, Sour Sweet, that was ages ago. You’re not still mad about that, are you?”
Sour Sweet rolled her eyes. “Nooo… guess not.”
The two of them kept up a stream of chatter as we walked over to the Mess Hall, passing by various other volunteers as we went.
Volunteers. That’s what we were called, anyway. That we volunteered for this program, which was co-opted by Monohuman. I still couldn’t understand how that was possible without alerting the ponies and whoever else was part of setting this up. Were they just not paying attention? Were we that isolated?
Maybe we were. Maybe that was the point. It’s not like I had any idea where in the world we were. A desert with a mine and all the signs were in English, that’s all I knew. And those could just as easily have been faked, falsified for the sake of the setting. We could be somewhere in the mountains in South Amareica, or the Goatbee Desert, and we’d never know.
As we stepped into the Mess Hall, I saw someone had laid out a buffet table of goodies, with a sign reading, “Courtesy of Monohuman!” But my eyes were especially drawn to one of the nearby tables, where Sunset sat, glowering down at a plate of food. Shining Armor, Juniper Montage, and Autumn Blaze glanced her way, looking concerned, irritated, and frightened in turn.
Upon seeing us, Juniper waved to get our attention. “Oh, thank god, maybe they can get through to her. C’mere!”
The three of us exchanged uncertain glances, and Shining Armor frowned. “Let’s not make a big scene. I’m sure Sunset has her reasons.”
“Reasons!” Juniper squawked. “Hah! It’s sketchy, is what it is. She tells us she survived some big other killing game just like this one, but then won’t tell us any details?!”
“Because you should already know,” Sunset growled.. “It was big news. Everyone knows about the killing game. Something’s made you all forget, but…” She glanced up. I thought for a terrified second she was looking at me, but I realized her gaze extended past us, to the door. I turned; Rarity had just walked in, awkward distress on her face.
Sunset grimaced. “I don’t know why I was left alone with these memories. But it’s better that way. Because the details are dangerous.”
“Sunset…” Shining attempted, but she raised a hand to cut him off.
“Look,” she said. “I know why you’re asking. I get it. If something comes up where a thing from the first game can help us stay safe, I’ll talk about that. Don’t ask about anything else. We cool?” No one looked satisfied, but no one protested, either. She picked up her fork, eyes sad. “Cool. Now just let me eat in peace, okay? Had a long night.”
Glancing around the room, no one seemed to know what to do; everyone just stood there. But with a grunt and an eye-roll, Sour Sweet moved first. She made her way to the buffet and grabbed a plate. That seemed to kick everyone into gear; Juniper and Autumn Blaze went back to their tables, Shining headed to the buffet himself. Fluttershy and I followed a few seconds later.
Shining Armor nodded to us, clearly hoping to totally move on from the half-argument with Sunset. “Good morning, Wallflower, Fluttershy, Sour Sweet,” he said, giving us a polite nod each. He then gestured to the buffet, which really did look sumptuous. “Guess Monohuman still has some of the butler programming in him and decided to serve us some food.”
“Just don’t expect me to make every meal!”
Everyone in the Mess Hall screamed as Monohuman flashed into existence among us, twirling his baton. “After all, it would be downright lazy of you to not do any cooking for yourselves. But I thought, I am still your Caretaker. I can still provide a little bit. So expect complimentary breakfast every morning. Perfect for filling up before whatever shenanigans the day is filled with. And don’t worry; I would never poison the food.”
He tapped the tip of his baton to his mouth. “Puhuhuhu, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t. Hahaha!”
Then he vanished in a swirl of light.
“Is he going to do that a lot?” Derpy wondered as she walked up to join us.
“Probably,” I said with another weary sigh. “He’s a hologram; he can show up wherever and whenever he wants.”
“He waited until his name was mentioned,” Shining grumbled. “Let’s… try to avoid mentioning him unless we have to.”
I braced myself, half-expecting him to pop out and offer a contradiction, but thankfully we failed to invoke a second appearance. So instead I went about grabbing something for breakfast. I’m not normally a big eater, and usually terror robs my appetite, but for once I was famished. Maybe because I hadn’t eaten anything yesterday. So I piled my plate with fruit, toast, hash browns, some eggs, and a cinnamon roll.
I saw Fluttershy nod with approval when she saw me avoid the bacon, ham, and sausage, and a slight frown as Sour Sweet went for a plate almost entirely full of bacon, with a few strawberries of all things to accompany it. “What? I like bacon. Shut up!”
“No one said anything, Sour,” Derpy said as she got her food, also avoiding the meat.
“Uh huh, yeah, but you’re judging me on the inside, aren’t you?” Sour Sweet insisted as we sat down at one of the tables. “You vegetarians always do.”
“I’m not a vegetarian,” Derpy insisted as she ate her eggs. “I just don’t eat pork.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“There’s nothing wrong with eating meat,” Fluttershy insisted, though her own chosen meal was clearly vegetarian. “We evolved to eat meat as part of our diet. We’re omnivores. I could just never do it, because I love animals so much, but I understand when other people do. It’s just natural.”
Fluttershy’s face flushed red. “I used to eat a lot of meat as a kid. So much my parents liked to call me their little carnivore. But I haven’t for a while.”
“Oh.” Sour Sweet snarfed another rasher of bacon, chewing thoughtfully and swallowing it with a glass of orange juice before shrugging and saying, “Okay then. Shows what I know.”
Fluttershy gave her a patient smile, and went back to eating her fruit.
A fork tapped against glass, ringing in the air. “Okay, everyone, may I have your attention, please?”
Groans filled the mess hall as we all turned to Shining Armor, who stood patiently at the head of the table closest to the buffet. “Thank you. So, after talking it over a bit more with Pear Butter, I’ve decided that we need to establish some official rules, outside of the ones that Monohuman is enforcing upon us.”
“Oh. Great. More crap to deal with,” Cranky sneered as he drank his coffee. “Because we don’t have enough of it already.”
Shining shot him a withering glare. “Monohuman’s rules are all about encouraging us to murder. I shouldn’t have to say this, but none of us want to die, right? And I think I can also safely say that none of us want to kill either.”
“Speak for yourself, ACAB,” Juniper muttered.
Shining’s lips thinned, but he continued his speech. “So we’re going to institute a few things. First of all, we need an evening curfew. There’s no lock on the mess hall but I’m going to insist that no one go inside after 10:00 PM: in fact, 10:00 PM should be when everyone’s in bed, period, apart from whomever is designated as guards for the evening.”
“Whoa, hold on,” Cheese Sandwich interrupted. “Guards? What guards?”
“I’m getting to that. There’s two places that are equally dangerous at night: the Mess Hall and the Clinic. Both have far too many things inside that could be used for murder, so my suggestion is that we post two guards for each one, for four hour shifts. This would be a rotating schedule so everyone would end up doing it eventually–”
“Absolutely not!” Rarity objected. “I need at least eight hours of sleep every night if I am to even begin to approach my day with something close to a reasonable energy level.”
“Same, dude,” Zephyr Breeze agreed. “Gotta get my beauty zees if I’m gonna be Zephyr Breeze, know what I mean?”
Shining scowled. “Look, I know it’s asking a lot, but–”
“It won’t work.”
Everyone turned to Sunset, who had a confident, if sad expression on her face. “What do you mean?” Derpy asked her.
Sunset shook her head. “Guards. They won’t work. It’s a waste of time, trust me.” She turned away, saying no more, but scooting her chair closer to Rarity.
But Shining was clearly not satisfied. “Posting guards is the simplest, most basic…”
“You wanted to hear what I learned from the first game, now you’re arguing with it?” Sunset interrupted angrily. “Guards. Won’t. Work. At best, they’re useless; at worst, they’ll just provide opportunities for murders.”
“I’m gonna have to agree with her,” Cranky piped up. “Look, I’m not one to shy from getting things done if it needs to get done, but what good is guarding stuff at night gonna be if everyone’s roaming around free in the daytime anyway? It’s not like someone’s keeping anyone from taking whatever they want from the clinic.”
“He’s right,” Vignette said with a shrug. “It’s pointless. The curfew’s a good idea though.”
“A curfew only works if people bother to obey it,” Shining pointed out. “And without guards how are we supposed to enforce it?”
“Better question: why the hell would we trust anyone to be a guard?” Sour Sweet asked, glaring. “It’s not like we’re gonna be all ‘oh golly gosh darn it, I guess I have a guard partner and that means I can’t go on my murder spree!’” She adopted a sickeningly sweet expression as she spoke before lapsing into her usual scowl. “If anything, giving people guard shifts is begging for them to abuse it.”
Pear Butter raised a hand and stood. “Ah’m sorry, Shinin’...but they’re right. Ah can’t see guards bein’ all that helpful. Ah’m all for the curfew and Ah plan to obey it, but tryin’ to guard things is a waste of time.”
“All right, all right,” Shining said, shaking his head. “Fine. No guards. But we should still have a curfew. I also think people should stay out of the clinic unless they need to be in there, and there should always be two people going with them.”
“Good luck enforcing that,” Cheese said with a sad sigh. “You’ve got the right idea, my friend, but I don’t think you’ll have much luck.”
“Maybe not on my own… I could use an assistant.”
Zephyr shot out of his chair. “Well, well, why didn’t you ask sooner? I’d love to be your assistant, Shining!”
Shining made a face of discomfort. “I… really, Zephyr, I don’t–”
“Need to thank me? I know. I know. I promise, you’ll have the best help you could ever have with me around!”
Shining let out a slight sigh. “Fine. I could use the help.”
“Great!” Zephyr flashed his fingers at Shining. “I won’t let you down, Shiny Hiney.”
“...don’t call me that. Ever.”
“Sure, sure.”
As we went back to eating, I saw Zephyr wander right over to Autumn Blaze and start chatting with her, wrapping his arm around her and gesturing grandly. I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but what little of his lips I could read suggested he was already planning on foisting everything onto her.
I’m a slow eater, so it took me a long time to finish my breakfast–Fluttershy, Sour Sweet, even Derpy were all finished before me and wandered off, leaving just Rarity, me, and Sunset still in the mess hall. This meant that I once again bore witness to an argument between the two.
“Rarity, I don’t understand!” Sunset shouted as she tried to hold on to Rarity’s hand, only for Rarity to toss it away. “Why are you acting like this?”
“That’s what I should be asking you, Sunset Shimmer!” Rarity shot back, her eyes alight with outrage. “Ever since we got here you’ve been running your hands all over me, trying to, to, to kiss me, and you even had the audacity to suggest we share a room! I can recognize if you’ve started to develop some feelings for me–”
“Some feelings?!” Sunset shrieked. “Rarity, I love you!”
“That! That right there!” Rarity pointed a finger right at Sunset’s face. “What… where did this come from? When did this happen? I am a married woman, Sunset!” She held up her hand to show the ring she’d been bequeathed.
“Yeah! To me!” Sunset held up her own hand, only to then gape in horror at the bare fingers. “I know you don’t remember the first game but how could you forget…”
A mighty slapping noise cut her off. Rarity’s face was twisted up in so much rage, so much disbelief, so much anger and hurt I half expected her to lay Sunset out with her fist. But I was still somehow genuinely shocked that she actually struck Sunset at all, even if only with her open hand. “You might be my friend, but something is wrong with you, Sunset Shimmer. You are sick. You need help. And it won’t be from me.”
Rarity marched out of the room, shrieking still in wordless fury.
Sunset fell to her butt on one of the benches, one hand clutching her face, the other held up to her eyes. She looked so lost.
Despite myself I came over to sit next to her. “Hey… you okay?” I ventured.
“I don’t understand,” Sunset said, her eyes filling with tears. “I don’t understand! I…I swore I was…I know I’m married to her.”
“To Rarity? Really?” I raised an eyebrow. “Um, I know I don’t have a lot of memories after high school, but I don’t remember you two ever being all that into each other. I’m pretty sure she was into someone else… some… um…” I winced as the attempt to remember caused a sharp pain instead.
“Applejack,” Sunset said, spitting the name like a curse. “She must still think she’s married to Applejack.” She placed both hands on her face. “We fell in love after the first game. That must be why. No one remembers.”
I placed a hand on her shoulder. “What happened in–”
“I told you, I can’t say,” she insisted. “He’s always listening. Always. It doesn’t matter where we go. There’s no safe spots, no hidden places away from audio or visual recordings, nothing.” She gestured up to the cameras sticking out of the walls and ceiling. “Pear Butter says I’m the one who installed these, to ‘monitor the experiment.’ We’d have all these moments of friendship to show humans. I can’t believe I was so stupid.”
“I don’t think it was,” I mumbled. She looked at me sharply, surprised, and I clarified. “Um. Stupid. I don’t think you were being stupid.” She blinked at me dumbly and I felt my cheeks heating up, but suddenly she grabbed my hand and my cheeks caught fire.
“Thank you,” she said. She gave a quick, tense laugh and I saw her shoulders relax just a little. “I should focus on good things. Friendship. After everything I’ve been through, I’m still lame enough to believe it’ll save us.” I started to argue, but she shook her head. “Good lame. Lame where I’m not just scared.”
I nodded, grateful I was too shy to do what I wanted, which was arguing with her. Just being scared seemed like a pretty good strategy, to me. But she looked so much less miserable, which was scary but nice. “Um,” I said, trying to get off this subject, “I’ve been wondering. I don’t know why I would sign up for this program. Even before it turned into this… game. Do you. Um. Do you know?”
She sighed. “I remember the very start of this. Discussing it, brainstorming. But that was over a year ago. Everything about building it, much less recruiting everyone… it’s gone.” She laughed again, more genuine this time, and ran a shaky hand through her hair. “And Pear Butter says I was the only one who knew who the Equestrians are.”
“What?” I gaped at her. “Just you?”
“Yup. Telling her or the computer might bias things.”
“Well… this is really weird, right?” I ventured. She looked at me quizzically, so I explained: “Monohuman wants to kill the Equestrians. So… so the last thing he’d want is for the only person who knows to have their memory erased. Right?”
“Oh. Yeah.” She grimaced towards her feet. “That occurred to me, too. But I don’t know what to make of it. Or your amnesia. You remember the least, and you get the headaches.” She grunted in frustration, kicking a nearby pebble. “It doesn’t make sense! Everyone else seems to have forgotten the last game. I remember the last game, but forgot most of everything since then. Why are we all different?!”
I didn’t know what to say, but her slide back down into agitation was hard to watch. I decided to try the only potentially useful question I could think of. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
She closed her eyes, sighing. “It’s vague. I was…” She opened her eyes; they were damp. “I was having breakfast with Rarity. We weren’t talking about what happened on the cruise ship, but I was thinking about it. And…” Her forehead clenched with concentration, eyes staring at nothing. “...Something about magic? Equestria. I was going to go through the portal? And I was thinking about my arm…?”
“Your…”
“Oh!” she exclaimed. “That must be it! Healing magic!” She reached over and traced a finger down her own arm, stopping just before the hand that still held mine. “Of course. I was going to go to Equestria for healing magic. That’s how…”
She went silent. She didn’t look distracted or confused or anything, so it felt weird. “Um, that’s how what?”
“Nothing,” she answered quickly. “It’s one of those things I probably shouldn’t say out loud. But this is good; it explains something I’d been confused about since I got here. I was really…” Marveling at her arm, she seemed to suddenly notice for the first time that our hands were clasped. “Ack!” She pulled away, grimacing. “I was touching without asking! I’m sorry.”
My hands were cold without hers in them. Empty. I felt an instinct well up inside me, and I couldn’t help it. I grabbed her hands back. “...It’s okay. I don’t mind.”
She stared back at me, her cheeks aflame just like mine. We held our gazes for a while, before she finally pulled away again. “...sorry,” she repeated. “We um, we should… get out of here. Find something to do.”
I wanted to take her hands again, but the moment was gone, and so was my courage. “...okay. I haven’t seen the kitchen yet.”
She shrugged. “All right, let’s go check that out.”
We wandered over to the kitchen, which was through a set of double doors with inset circular windows, the kind you usually see in fancy restaurants. Stepping through, we were surprised to find Cheese Sandwich and Juniper Montage wiping up the place. There were plenty of dirty, used dishes scattered around the kitchen, which was laid out precisely as I expected it would be, with several prep tables, an industrial sized pair of ovens, a huge hot table line, several stoves, and a huge cleaning area with a built-in dishwasher.
“Oh, hey there, Sunset, Wallflower!” Cheese greeted. “How’s it going?”
“Uh, great… what’re you doing?” Sunset asked.
Juniper rolled her eyes and jabbed a thumb at a door on the far end I hadn’t noticed. “Looks like Monohuman posted a bunch of new rules this morning. Shining noticed it and made Zephyr tell us to clean up.”
“Clean up?” I muttered as I stepped closer to look at this new rule set.
Pantry Rules:
#1: The kitchen must be cleaned up every morning after breakfast.
#2: Any food taken from the pantry that was not part of Monohuman’s breakfast preparations must be consumed in full if opened. No snacking and putting things back!
#3: The pantry and kitchen lock at 10:00 PM and will not reopen until 8:00 AM. Anyone inside the kitchen at this time will be considered a trespasser.
#4: Any instance of trespassing will be met with summary execution.
“Huh, that’s interesting,” Sunset murmured. “It says anyone inside the kitchen will be considered a trespasser. Doesn’t say anything about the pantry.”
“The pantry’s in the kitchen,” I pointed out.
“So why list the pantry and kitchen separately in the first part of the rule if the second part assumes it means both?” Sunset shot back, crossing her arms. “Sorry if that’s pedantic, but shit like that saved my life more than once last time.”
I wasn’t convinced, but I also wasn’t about to argue. So instead I tried to open the pantry door. “Wha–it’s stuck!” I said, tugging on the door several times before I finally managed to push it open.
“Not stuck. Warped,” Sunset pointed out as she examined the door frame. “See, it doesn’t fit in the frame anymore. Good luck getting this door open from the inside if you’re ever… stuck… in…”
She turned deathly pale. “I… we need to get out of here. Please.”
“All right…” I followed her as she fled the kitchen, into the wider Mess Hall, and sat next to her when she collapsed at a table, her whole body sweaty, her face coated in it, heaving and panting like she thought air was going to vanish at any second.
I recognized that sort of reaction right away. Something triggered her, badly. “...I’m here if you need to talk about it.”
She shook her head. “Can’t. But… Thanks for getting me out of there. Let’s, let’s not go in there again unless we have to. Please.”
I nodded, and carefully helped direct her far away from the kitchen, but I wasn’t sure where to go. Faintly, I could hear music, and we found ourselves following it directly into the admin building open wing. Beautifully played intricate notes wafted down the corridor from the vicinity of Pear Butter’s office. I noted with interest the white noise machine wasn’t on; I don’t think I could’ve heard the guitar as clearly if it was.
As much as Pear Butter might be angry with me, I felt the need to listen to her music for a while. She possessed an amazing skill with that guitar, and it was soothing. I saw Sunset react similarly, calming down as she listened to the music.
“Maybe I should play with her sometime, if I can find my guitar,” Sunset said. “I used to be really good with one.”
“Used to be?”
She shrugged. “Well, still am, I think? I’ve not had many chances to practice, especially since I…” Like I noticed yesterday, she took a long moment to stare at her left arm. “...never mind.” She coughed into her hand. “I’m thirsty; want a soda from the machine?”
The thought of bubbly caffeinated sugar water dancing on my tongue sounded pretty good right now, so I agreed. We went into the break room, only to find Cranky sitting there on one of the couches, a half-drunk mug of coffee in his hands. More steaming coffee awaited in the coffee maker, the bitter liquid smelling awful to me.
“...great, it’s you two,” he sighed. “Look, I’m trying to be left alone in here, do you mind? I called this room. It’s my own little cave. Got everything I need. Coffee, music…” He picked up a home decorating magazine and vaguely waved it around. “...reading material.”
I raised an eyebrow. The magazine looked to be at least thirty years old. “Are you really going to read that?”
“Cover to cover! Nice and boring. Boring’s good. Keeps away young people.”
“Sorry, we just wanted a soda,” Sunset said as she strode over to the machine. For a moment I feared we’d need change, or worse, some kind of Monohuman token, but no, the machine simply dispensed without fanfare. She got a standard cola while I went for one with cherry flavor.
“Hmmph,” Cranky harrumphed, his voice sour. “You got your soda. Now get out.”
“Is there a reason you’re being so rude?” Sunset demanded, hands on her hips. “It’s not like you own this room.”
Cranky stared at her for a long moment, working his mouth like a cow chewing a cud, before he set his mug down. “Look. It’s nothing personal. But the whole thing this Monohuman has us doing, trying to get the ponies to show themselves so they can die, it requires us to talk to each other, right? We don’t talk, no one learns anything. And I dunno about you, but I’m not expecting people to start killing at random; people don’t kill unless they have a good reason. So.”
He picked his mug up and brought it up to his lips, taking a drink. “I’m staying in here where I don’t have to talk. That way, I don’t risk anyone trying to kill me… and I avoid any temptation for myself.”
I recoiled, feeling sick. “You didn’t seriously just say you might kill someone.”
He shrugged. “Look, I’m old, kid. I’ve lived a long time. I’ve seen a lot of things go down. I’ve seen people I thought were complete pacifists suddenly start beating the life out of someone. I’ve also seen people fly into a jealous rage over love, or lash out ‘cause they’re afraid. Right now? I’m terrified. Last thing I want is for my life to end in a shitty place like this. So why risk it? I don’t want to hurt anyone, but… if I knew… would I be able to resist?”
He sighed in irritation. “Damn it, this is exactly what I didn’t want to do. Get out before I throw you out…please.”
Sunset looked ready to commit some serious violence as we left the breakroom, her ears practically steaming. “What an ass,” she snarled. “Acting like he owns the place…”
“He’s right about one thing,” I said quietly, cutting off her angry rant before it could really begin. “Anyone is capable of anything… aren’t they?”
Sunset looked back at me, and for a moment I could tell she’d checked out. Like she was reviewing memories, looking things over before returning all of a sudden. “...yeah. You’re right. He’s right. But it’s still a public place… he should stay in his room if that’s what he really wants.”
“Maybe he’s smart enough to realize who the obvious pony is and he’s just biding his time till he can kill you.”
I leapt half a foot in the air as I turned to see Vignette Valencia, a satisfied smile on her face, standing there leaning against the door with her arms crossed. “If I wanted to kill someone to escape, I know it’s what I’d do.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Sunset snapped.
Vignette chuckled, uncrossed her arms, and took a few steps forward to poke Sunset in the chest. “I’m talking about you, Sunny. We all know you’re a pony. Everyone knows it. It’s like the most obvious secret. I’m shocked Monohuman hasn’t just gone ahead and executed you himself; you’re just a walking free chance for a Pure Blackened to escape.”
“E-excuse me?” Sunset replied, her voice quieter, her face pale and drawn.
Vignette shrugged. “Of course, I’m not going to do it, but maybe you should watch out for Wallflower here. You’re spending so much time around someone so quiet… you never know what she might be capable of.”
“Wha–hey!” I objected. “I’d never hurt Sunset! She’s my friend.”
Vignette nodded. “Right, of course. How could I forget? Silly me. It must be the desert heat; it really does a nasty thing to a girl’s brain. Not to mention her hair.” She ran a hand through her hair and sighed.
“I trust Wallflower,” Sunset insisted.
“Mm-hmm, mm-hmm,” Vignette replied, as if she wasn’t even listening. “Look, Sunset, it’s a compliment, really. You’re a special one. You have natural charisma.” She for some reason rolled the r and accented the final syllable. “People have hope when you’re around. You’re not expendable like… certain others.” She did not look in my direction, but somehow the words were clearly directed at me.
“...you’re weird,” Sunset grumbled. “Come on, Wallflower, let’s go.”
Vignette gave me a little wave with the tips of her fingers and blew me a kiss as Sunset took us through the Mess Hall and out into the desert sun.
“Grrph,” Sunset grunted. “What even was that? Was she threatening you, or was she threatening me?”
“She might have a point,” I said after a moment. “Because–”
Sunset hugged me. Hard. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “I don't care what rules we’re subjected to…. You’re still my friend. We’d never hurt each other, right?”
I slowly brought my arms in to hold her. “No… no, we wouldn’t.”
But I couldn’t completely convince myself. I’d hurt Sunset before. And in the years I’d lost, who knows what else I’d done. Did Vignette somehow know more about me than I knew about myself? Did she know about the terrible things I’d done?
Even in the blaring sun, even in Sunset’s embrace, I shivered.
