//------------------------------// // Just a sip // Story: Not Here // by ulcuran //------------------------------// The streets are mostly empty except for the odd pony, looks like these guys are not very nocturnal and since it is still night time even if there is a pony out on the street they probably can’t see my face with blood dripping down it but still, I take extra caution and use the backstreets and if I can’t I try to keep my distance from any pony I can see. ‘’Wha… is that a building?’’ While passing by through the main street I see an odd-looking building it kinda looks like a cake but it has windows and a door, wait it has a sign too which has a cupcake on it? Huh. Guess this is a pastry shop, looking inside through a window proves me correct and I see candies, cakes, and all other sweet stuff lining the shelves. ‘’No, don’t try it, too risky, everyone will hear it.’’ I try to keep my stomach from ruling over my mind since all I ate was three total apples since I came to this weird and unnatural place. I hold my stomach when it aches a little but still, I can’t try anything right in the middle of the town. Maybe later, but not now. I turned around and continued my journey to find a hospital or any kind of medical care, I spotted another weird structure and it kind of resembled Flutter's house, with a green top an- wait is that just a tree? ‘’Yep, a tree.’’ Taking a closer look, it literally is just a tree with windows, balconies, a door, and another sign that has a book on it, I guess a bookstore or a library? How can even ponies read books? Can these hooves turn pages? They probably can since even though I had some trouble at first I could hold a bottle and even the glass shard. Eh, no use thinking about it now. Turning my head a little to the right out of the corner of my eye I see the red cross sign at the bottom of a huge building seems like I found my target and a cross. Did they have a pony Jesus and pony Christianity? Ugh, even more questions I most likely won’t get answers to. I started walking to the hospital but just when I was about to leave the bookstore I noticed a little something at the back of the building going to investigate I stumbled upon something amazing and my ticket out of this town. ‘’No way, is that what I think is?’’ Whispering to myself and getting closer to the object and… yes! It is what I think is! A hot air balloon! Hahaha! I can just fly away even if it takes me somewhere random, I just want to get out of this weird town maybe there are more normal ones. While celebrating my little fortune, I touch my head and realize that I am still bleeding and need to go to the hospital and get this treated. ‘’Fuck… what do I do now? The hospital or the balloon?’’ Looking over the balloon and then the hospital, do I have enough time to go to the hospital and then make my escape with the balloon? Looking at the sky proves useless since the moon has been sitting at the same place for hours and I have no way of knowing when the sun will rise again. Biting my lip, I make my decision and get into the ballon, I will get it treated in another place there are two ponies looking for me in this town the blue one and the angry orange one what if I get forced to stay in the hospital until morning and one of them finds me? No, I am not taking that risk. Alright, there is plenty of room in this basket, I can at least get comfortable while in the air. Looking upside I see the burner and pull it for some time to get this balloon in the air. Finally airborne I let go of the burner and sit on the ground of the basket. Looking inside the basket it looks like I dirtied it with my blood. Getting up and looking out of the basket it seems like my mighty steed and I am heading into a city with a huge castle on top that totally looks like it came out straight from a fairy tale. ‘’Woah, is that a waterfall going through the castle?’’ The winds don’t change ways and I slowly make my way to the castle. Oh, there we go, goodbye Lady Moon. There really wasn’t that much time I am glad I picked the balloon over the hospital if I did go to the hospital I would have lost this balloon. Annnd here comes the sun, all in the span of five or so minutes. That is going to take a lot to get over. Well, at least now I can see the city more clearly and it is larger than I thought it was, I can blend in more easily there. Relaxing for the first time this day I lay back on the basket and start singing a little to cheer myself up a little. ‘’If I had a hat, and a woolen coat, and I didn’t have a headache, If I had vodka, just a sip of vodka, anything else I don’t care!’’ Ah, if only I took the cider from earlier I could have myself a sip. ‘’If I had a flat and just a bit of luck, and if my flat had my nice things, if I had just a jacket and a neighbor, anything else I don- Woah!’’ The winds pick up suddenly and the basket shakes, getting up I see that I am heading straight into the castle. ‘’No, no, no, stop! Slow down!’’ I try to look for anything to stop the ballon but come up empty-handed. The vent! These balloons should have some kind of vent to release air and slow down to land! Looking up I see a handle next to the burner and pull it, I am not going to crash and die inside a goddamn air balloon, not here. ‘’Come on, come on!’’ The vent releases air and it slows down a bit but the winds are ferocious. Taking a quick glance towards the castle to see if there is any distance lef- Fuck! It’s gonna crash right into the huge window! At the last moment, I hold onto the edge of the basket and brace myself. *CRASH!* The balloon crashes right through the window and the basket gets thrown to the side violently, which causes my grip to falter and me to be tossed inside with the same force. ‘’Agh!’’ The basket comes to a stop and screams fill the room. I slowly open my eyes and see that the basket flipped over. ‘’Ugh, that hurts.’’ I got turned into a bug inside the basket and it felt like a kid was playing with me. Groaning I lift the basket with the little strength that I have and crawl outside to see what happened. I come face to face with a disaster, the room I am in is huge and the fabric is the balloon is covering the side of the window I crash into. Ponies who have armor are forming a circle around a throne. A throne? Fuck me, did I crash into the throne room of the pony royalty? I should have picked the hospital. At the throne, I see a big white pony who has a horn and wings, and is that a crown? Squinting my eyes to see more clearly and yep, that is a crown, well… I might have just lost my privilege of being alive. Getting up with blood all around me, I decide to take the best course of action. ‘’Uhhh… Hello?’’ No, I don’t try to run away. I fucking greet the pony monarch. Great job me. Suddenly a guard from behind me tries to jump me and I panic using my back legs I kick him as hard as I can and he gets thrown to the ground. In my panic, I start running away as fast as these legs can carry me and run to the door. ‘’Stop!’’ Some of the guards shout and begin chasing me. Just as I was about to reach the doors to my escape my vision was filled with a slight yellowish colour and I was suddenly on the air. ‘’What the fuck!’’ Hovering in the air I try to get out of this… whatever it is but come up empty-handed. ‘’Hello, my little pony are you alright?’’ I get turned around and now I am face to face with the big white one and her horn is glowing yellow too. And did she just call me her little pony? ‘’Yeah! I am okay can you let go now?’’ I don’t like this, I can’t do anything just flail around in the air. ‘’You seem hurt,’’ she replies right back with a motherly tone. ‘’I just seem hurt, but I am fine just let me go now!’’ I shout back to make her let me go but it doesn’t do anything. ‘’You just crashed through my window, you can’t be okay!’’ Damn, she is not backing down, alright let’s try this. ‘’Okay! Okay, I am not fine everything hurts! So can you let me down and let me see a doctor or something?’’ I am getting the hell out of here the moment I touch the ground. ‘’And let you walk in this state? Let me take you to the infirmary, and on the way we can even talk about how you got my student's ballon and crashed it.’’ FUCK! Just how unlucky can I be? Of course, I take the queen's student’s ballon of fucking course! ‘’...’’ I don’t reply and look away. ‘’Well?’’ She doesn’t let me down and starts walking out of the room with me floating beside her. ‘’I… borrowed it.’’ I try my best not to sound guilty. ‘’You borrowed it?’’ She replied in an inquisitive tone, oh yeah she totally doesn’t believe that. ‘’Yeah, I borrowed it, now can you let me go?’’ A drop of blood lands on the ground and we both look at it then each other… Yeah her eyes are all the answer that I am going to need. This is bad, real bad. How can I get out of this? I can’t do anything while in this glow, and she is the one doing this, maybe if I break her concentration it will go away? But the moment I am free I need to escape to somewhere where she can’t see me maybe near a door… yeah that can work. ‘’I have a hard time belie-’’ Once we get close enough to a door I suddenly scream. ‘’GAHHHH!’’ It worked! She gets surprised and I am dropped to the ground. I throw myself through the doors and close them behind me. Looking around the room I spot a bed and quickly crawl under it. The door opens and the white one walks in, I bury myself deeper under the bed and hold my breath. Once she gets to the other side of the room I will make my escape. ‘’Hello, sister have you seen a pony go inside?’’ What. Sister? There was someone else inside? Suddenly I get pulled out from under the bed and now looking at very annoyed a dark blue pony with wings and a horn too. ‘’Is this the one, sister?’’ She holds her gaze on me and replies to her sister. ‘’Yes, that's the one sister, now why would you do that?’’ She looks at me with a smug smile. Ugh. ‘’...’’ Not replying again I once get enveloped in a yellow light… wait I can’t even move my limbs! What did she do?! ‘’What the hell did you do!’’ At least my mouth can move. ‘’To keep you away from hurting yourself more.’’ She replies and takes me out of the room. Once again I get levitated beside her and she starts walking through the corridors again. Talking isn’t going to get me anywhere and she probably won’t fall for the same trick twice so holding my tongue and not even replying seems like the best option. ‘’That gave me quite the fright, well not like your crash but still… why did you do that?’’ She says while looking at me. ‘’...’’ Nope, not gonna say anything. ‘’Not in the mood to talk more?’’ Turning her head around she continues walking. ‘’That’s okay we can talk a lot after you get treated.’’ Uh-huh, yeah, that ain’t happening. ‘’...’’ ‘’Here we go, now be a good little pony alright?’’ She goes through a door and I look around the room filled with white beds and medical equipment, huh, she really did get me to get treated? She sets me up on a bed and calls for a doctor. The doctor arrives and he is a pony with a horn and a stethoscope around his neck. ‘’What happened princess?’’ Oh, so she is a princess and not the queen. Was the king or queen away for her to be sitting on the throne? I tune out the conversation and look around the room to see if there is anything that I can use to escape. The room is just like a normal hospital room it even has a window. Can I jump out the window? If it's too high I would most likely fall to my death but would that be so bad? I burst through the window of the fucking royalty, and I tried to hide under the bed of one of them. She is probably going to execute me publicly or even torture me. ‘’Now, I’m going to let you go so the doctor can look at you, so stay still, please.’’ Her horn stops glowing and I can finally move my limbs, Stretching my limbs I look over to the princess and smile at her, and she smiles back. When the doctor gets close I leap out of bed and jump towards the window. ‘’No!’’ I hear the princess yell but I already jumped out and crashed through the window the shattered glass pieces cutting up my body as I start falling to the ground into my imminent death. ‘’Well… I got this far at least.’’ Looking over I see the princess leap out the same window too, oh right, she had wings didn’t she? She flies towards me and I once again get enveloped in the same yellow light.