"Hey Mom, can I go with Mel to the parade today? It'll be lots of fun!" I asked.
"No, my little Rain-drop." My mother bent down to get face-to-face with me before continuing. "The factories are all working harder during things like parades, so the air isn't as clean."
"Aww, but Mom!"
"No buts, sweetie. I don't want you getting sick out there."
"Aw, c'mon let her go." Dad had been relaxing after some mandatory physical training early in the morning. He had just stepped into the conversation and stood beside me, wrapping a foreleg comfortingly around my neck. "The air is always filthy here, we've just gotten used to it! Isn't that right, Rain?"
"Yeah!" I exclaimed, enthusiastically.
"Oh, alright. But bring your mask in case it gets too bad!" Crystal warned.
"Yay! Thanks Mom! Thanks Dad!" I gave both Crystal and Sleet a warm hug and a kiss on the cheek before preparing my one small saddlebag.
"Anytime, cupcake," my father said.
I grabbed my lunch out of the refrigerator, as well as my breathing mask, and dropped them both in my bag. It was recently my sixth birthday, so my mother and father went out a bought me an aluminum baseball bat that read IND across one side of it. I took that with me too, because I heard there would be a couple of ponies playing softball after the parade.
- - - -x-x-x- - - -
"Rain, pack up, we're leaving soon."
I sat up, more quickly and with more force than I thought I did, knocking Red in the jaw with my head. Oops.
"Gah, Rain, what's gotten into you?!" He backed up, rubbing his chin with his hoof.
"Heh, sorry." I said, scratching my head with my own hoof. "Just had a crazy nightmare, is all."
"Well, you can tell me about it later, if you want. The other Remnants came by and picked up the supplies this morning. I, however, have been assigned to another task. They're sending me to Baltimare, where I will be staying with a friend in order to keep watch over the town. Luckily, it's not governed by the Trade Company, so it'll most likely a relaxing job. The only thing I'll have to do is report anything unusual. I know you've been under the most stress in the past couple of weeks than in your whole life, so maybe it’ll be a new beginning from here on out. I'm giving you and Pounce a choice. Do you want to come with me to Baltimare, or would you rather stay at Canon? I already asked Pounce, and she said it's up to you."
This was sudden. I was really hoping to relax and maybe do a little bit of reading, but that wasn't going to happen for a while. However, Pounce needs me, and I need Red. If I don't come, there will be a weak link between the three of us. I would also like to find out more about my father and his whereabouts. I am hoping Baltimare will have enough information to point me in the right direction. If not, then I can always have a nice place to stay in and do some exploring of the city. I made my decision.
"I'll go." I stated bluntly, breaking a still silence.
"What?" Red replied, as if he were in shock. "After the hell you've been through?"
"Yeah. I think I need an adventure like this. I want to see more of the world. I know beyond Ponyville and Canon there is more than just dirt, sand, and bandits. And I want to experience it for myself. Besides, I would be completely useless here."
Red paused for a minute, thinking."Well, alright, if you say so." He agreed while scratching his head with a forehoof. "A convoy of remnants will be coming shortly with a vehicle we'll be using to get there. The drive will be maybe... eight hours? I suggest you bring a few things to do, because it’s going to be awhile before we get where we need to go. I’m also going to bring some music in case we end up getting bored of listening to the sound of tires on sand and asphalt.”
“What about the stuff I had in our room back at Canon?”
“The Remnants knew I would take you with me, so I asked that they bring your stuff with them. It’s sitting next to where Pounce is sleeping.”
One thing was for sure: I had loads of reading to do. There were a couple books I already had in my bags, as well as more upstairs. I could only bring what I could carry, so I stuck with the science and history books. There was still some leftover room, so I took the tome of useless spells with me, which I thought I could get a good laugh from.
“Is Pounce okay?” I noticed she wasn’t in the cot next to me where she was asleep the night before. I couldn’t help but to worry about her and think that her injury was my fault. I kept having to remind myself that it was not my fault, that things like this always happen in battle, but I couldn’t help but feel responsible for everything that’s happened to her. Had I just been there earlier in her life, she wouldn’t be such a wreck. If I hadn’t taken advantage of her pure hatred and let her flank the bandits yesterday, she wouldn’t have a wound in her side.
“Oh, yeah, she’s fine. She’s up and about. I think she’s eating breakfast if you want to go say good morning to her.” Red gave me a reassuring smile.
“Thanks. For everything.” I said in a dull, but grateful tone, as I positioned myself comfortably to sit up on the bed. “I’m going to get ready to go.” I stepped off of the bed, and walked past Red, returning the smile. I wanted to see Pounce before I did anything else.
That’s exactly what I did. I made my way into the dining area, which happened to be a room like any other, haphazardly furnished with scattered tables. I found Pounce at one of them, gleefully tossing a salad in her hooves and then allowing it to drop onto a dinner plate. She performed this process over and over again before she noticed me looking at her as I stood in the doorway.
“Oh, good morning!” Pounce looked up from her mixed plate of leafy greens, giving me a gleeful expression. “Look, I made us a salad!”
I returned her smile with a content, satisfied glare. I was glad to see her okay and well, and even more so to see her happy again. I wondered where she got the ingredients to throw together such a thing, but I have learned to expect nothing less from such an eccentric, resourceful pony.
“Good morning, Pounce.” I took a seat next to her. “Whatcha makin’?”
“Oh, I’m making a salad for us. I offered to share with Red, but he said he already ate and insisted that I share it with you.” She started to move the plate around and prod at objects in her pile of greens with her hooves. “Look, I found some cherry tomatoes and bread crumbs that the bandits left, so I decided to put them in!”
Pounce lifted the plate up to reveal a second one. She split the contents of the first one in half, put the division of salad on the second, and slid it in front of me. “Eat up,” she said.
It wasn’t too bad of a breakfast. It tasted pretty dehydrated, but the tomatoes made up for it and it was loads better than eating polluted apple slices. I was hungry and wanted to shove it all down my throat at once, but that would’ve been rude and I wanted to savor the food.
“Listen, Rain...” Pounce’s tone was more serious than normal, but not alarmingly so. “I want to talk to you about yesterday.”
I lifted my head up from my vegetarian feast. “What about?”
“You know. The way I acted so recklessly.”
“Pounce, you don’t need to worry about that. I understand perfectly.” I explained this as I used a nearby napkin to wipe tomato juice from my mouth. “Horrible things happened when you were little, and it’s ruined you on the inside. It’s starting to have its toll you, as well as those you want to seek revenge on. I know it hurts to talk about, Pounce, but you know I’m here for you, always, even if I haven’t been for a majority of your life.”
My sappy monologue was concluded when Pounce threw her forelegs around me, embracing me in a warm hug. “Thanks, Rain, I knew deep down inside you’d find me one day.” She receded back to sit in her chair. “But one day, I must’ve lost all sense of who I was, and I became this bipolar mess of anger and fake happiness.”
I looked glumly at my now empty plate. It’s a shame that such a thing has happened to Pounce. She never really deserved any of it, and she’s suffering even greater from post-trauma than the events themselves. Red walked into the room, bursting my bubble of thought. He stood at the table, looking over us with a relaxed expression similar to mine.
“Hey, you two. A humvee is here for us to take down to Baltimare. They brought your gear, too, like they promised. Meet me outside when you’re ready to head out. Oh, also, here.” He shoved his muzzle into his coat, and raised his head to reveal a metallic-looking object, about the diameter of his hoof, and placed it on the table. “I brought my Stableware music player for you to listen to.”
Pounce and I didn’t have much as it was, so we were pretty much packed and ready. When I was sure Pounce was prepared, we mustered up our things and headed outside. We were immediately greeted by some rusty-looking Remnants, the humvee, and gear in boxes sprawled across the ground, in the midst of being loaded into the vehicle by Remnants.
The colossal humvee appeared to be extremely sturdy and could easily accommodate Pounce, Red and me, as well as a few Remnants. However, based on what Red had told me, it was just going to be the three of us. The off-road vehicle had been painted a desert camouflage, presumably to match the desert biome that surrounds us. I prepared my belongings to be loaded alongside my possessions from Canon.
One of the loaders, an earth pony, emerged from behind the humvee and trotted up to me. “I’ll take those for ya!” He insisted, removing my saddlebags and weapons and strapping them around his neck to be placed in our vehicle for the upcoming trip. “Nice to meetcha Rain, name’s Mango Smoothie!” He ended the sentence by shaking my hoof vigorously.
Although a little shaken, I returned his energy with a smile. “Likewise.” The pony looked to be about my age. He donned a very vivid yellow coat and a brown mane. Pounce slithered out from under me and returned his energy with a Pounce-sized dose of exuberant hoofshakes.
“Hi! Nice to meet you! My name is Pounce Scratch!” Her energetic hoof-shakes turned into tackling the poor colt to the ground. “You’re name’s Mango Smoothie? I like mangos and smoothies. You should let me drink you someti—”
“Pounce!” I said, briskly but assertively. “Get off of him.” She stood up off the terribly-shaken Mango.
“Oh, right, that’d be a good idea. A squished mango is never tasty.” She receded from him, flailing herself back to my side.
“Unhh...” mumbled Mango Smoothie as he picked his rattled self up off the ground and dusted himself off. “Nice to meetcha too, there, Pounce Scratch.”
He turned to me. “So, you’re that girl from the town out southeast, huh? Heard a lot about you. Too bad I didn’t see much of ya back at the base.” His gaze turned upward, as if reminiscing, and he scratched his chin with a forehoof. “Well, I’ll get out of your manes. Most of your stuff is loaded, so you’re all ready to go.”
----------
The convoy of remnants that got us ready for the trip ahead with supplies and a vehicle waved to us as they disappeared over the horizon through the rear humvee window. I turned to face the front and slouched in my seat. I currently had my earbuds in, attempting to block out the world with rich, fluid sounds that calmed the soul. It felt like the only escape from the unruly, violent world we call home.
I gazed out the side of the passenger window at the sand that blanketed all of Equestria. Dead shrubs zoomed past the window as the humvee moved forward towards our destination. Mountains loomed in the distance. I thought about how the environment analogized with my own life.
We could be headed for a goal that will forever seem distant or even be a desert mirage; but whatever our goals are and will be, we’re going to keep chasing them. It’s a feeling I know of, and even though we don’t have many of our sights set now, challenges still await.
I foresee my friends coming and going out of sight quite like the landmarks and shrubs do outside of my window. Not something I want to see happen, as friendly people are going to be scarce out here. Not knowing why, I slouched in my seat even farther than I already had, and gave out an angry snort.
“What’s wrong, Rain?” Pounce said with a mouthful of sandwich from the seat opposite mine. I have no clue where she got the sandwich.
“Oh, nothing, just bored is all.” In fact, there were a couple things on my mind that did bother me somewhat.
Among them was the nightmare I had the night previous. To dream like that was just unnatural, and I’ve never had a dream like that before. It almost felt as if the skeleton mare spoke the truth. Most dreams I remember bits and pieces of, but this one remained clear to me. What had she meant by “possessing a gift”? “Unlocking potential”? It hadn’t made much sense to me. Even though it was a dream, it still bothered me. A robed skeleton talking to me about my potential on the “edge of reality” is unsettling.
Another thing I had been thinking about was the letter I found under the computer back at the Bandits’ hideout. There was something unnatural about the letter that’s making it feel wrong to read it. To attempt to figure out what it was, I grabbed it out of my bag and read it once again.
Mayor,
Yes, we know you need the money. We're trying to scrape up a couple bits as fast as we can to transfer them over to you, but we just don't have them. Please give us a little more time. Also, about your resident disappearance problem? I heard Crocodile's gang has been rousing up ponies from Ponyville and selling them off Celesta-knows-where. Damned bandits... You should “talk” to them.
As for sending ponies up to Baltimare, I heavily advise against such an action. The Arisen Dusk cult have been creating these weird monsters that look like living shadows. They're pretty freaky. Our station has been calling them Ethershadows.
Sincerely,
Drab
Red had been warned about the Ethershadow creatures, and he didn’t seem to worry about them. The idea of them was sinister, but I didn’t worry either, especially while being in an armored vehicle. However, something else bothered me. It must have been the writer’s attitude towards... bandits. It made me wonder whether or not the writer was one herself, and if we had done what we had actually intended to. The elements of the letter were unsettling.
“Red,” I said, breaking the silence. “Who were those ponies at the camp that we attacked?”
He casually exhaled, and said: “They were just a couple of ponies that were making a living, employed by the wrong people. They were all stationed at a Trading Company outpost.”
“But wouldn’t they be in uniform, or at least look the part?” I asked quizzically.
“Not necessarily,” Red said, while keeping his eyes on the dusty road ahead. “They didn’t need to be in uniform for the jobs they did. They were primarily scavengers, but they also kept watch on the area for the Company. They like to know what’s going on in as many areas as possible, and that’s why we’re going to be posted in Baltimare.”
I slouched in my seat even further. My face was now pressing against the window. I wanted to drift off to sleep for reasons already mentioned and to be able to pass the time. The earphones that I had in made the ride a bit more tolerable, and to have time to do nothing but think helped too. I wondered about all things: Baltimare, Industead, Canon, and everything in between. That was my world. I knew there was much more to see around my little piece of Equestria, but I did not know what lie beyond its borders. I didn’t even understand what lie within it, either. Deception and mystery are woven through these lands like barbed wire on a fence, sealing out the answers to my questions just as Industead had.
I managed to doze off with my head propped up on my hoof, against the window, and with a mind full of thoughts.
----------
I awoke to the sound and was jostled by the impact of large metal structures clashing with one another.
My head rocked back and forth once and collided violently with the window that I had dozed off against. The sound of metal-on-metal was still ringing through my ears, and my head ached from hitting the inside of the humvee.
“What the hell, Red...?” I muttered loudly as I rubbed my scalp with a hoof. Pounce was still to my left, and clung onto the seat in a gleeful manner. Red had a calm, determined look on his face, but I could see some worry.
“Uh, look out the window, sleepyhead,” Red said as he jerked the steering wheel to the right, recreating the same sensation that woke me up.
CRASH!
Turning my gaze to the right, I could only see the side of a slate-colored vehicle for it stretched out to all four corners of my window. In the middle of the dark grey wall that plagued my window’s vision was a black tinted window. I made out a silhouette of a sinister-looking pony, right before it disappeared from the window. Shortly afterwards, a loud boom rocked the vehicle, the source of impact being the roof.
“Pounce, Rain, get up there and get ‘em off!” Red yelled while focusing and maintaining his eyes on the road ahead.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I said, worriedly. “I’m still waking up, man...”
“Just do it!” he roared above the sound of screeching metal, and the humvee shook violently and in a fury of sparks as the vehicle to our left rammed us into the wall on the left side of the road. We looked to be in a canyon pass, but the only thing to the right, just beyond our assailants, was open space. A cliff gave way, allowing just enough space for the road and a guard rail. Beyond that looked to be a drop. Couldn’t tell how far down yet, though.
After quickly fetching a pistol and knife out of my stuff, I popped open the sunroof carefully to take a look.
BAM!
Right in the face. I suffered a good bucking to the left cheek. I flew back to the front passenger’s seat, with part of me resting in Red’s lap as he drove. “What are you doing? Get back up there!”
“Red, if you weren’t the only thing keeping us alive right now, I’d kick the shit out of you.” grabbing my weapons once again, despite incredible pain and disorientation, I prepared for a skirmish. That changed when the body of my attacker flew onto the hood of our vehicle, and then out in front of it. The sound of a pony getting run over was mortifying.
“Good job, Pounce!” I called through the still-open sunroof. Okay, take two. I pulled myself up through the sunroof once again, this time uninterrupted. I turned my head to face the opposite vehicle. I prepared for a fight, for another one of our attackers were standing on top of it.
This time I was able to get a good look at their appearance. They wore a black, weathered business suit, complete with the jacket, tie, and armored plating on the shoulders and legs. This particular pony wore one of a set of greaves on the right foreleg. The left one had a black work-glove. As for the head, this pony had on a mask similar to Mare-Do-Well’s mask and a typical blackened wide-brimmed desperado hat.
These must be Company mercenaries of some sort.
After a short pause and analyzation of his appearance, the pony took the first strike. He made a mistake, missing an initial punch with his foreleg. Grabbing it, I attempted to haul him over the side of our humvee using my back. That plan quickly failed when the pony... dematerialized?
In the midst of my throw, my hooves were suddenly holding nothing. The pony turned into a black haze, and the particles of the ‘gas’ reformed behind me. After re-forming as a pony, my opponent grabbed me from behind and threw me on the opposite car.
What the hell?
I laid there for a moment, and caught the other pony by surprise by firing three rounds from my silenced pistol. The first two hit, but the last went straight through as the assassin turned into a mist around the third bullet. I could tell he was in serious pain when he hunched over and blood poured out from his chest. He tried to flee, but I landed a knife into his throat before he could do so. Ugh. What a mess.
I could finally get my thoughts together. I couldn’t do that the past few minutes, since I just recently woke up. I could finally pay attention to the breathtaking scenery of the canyon pass. The drop mentioned earlier was almost infinite—we were driving on top of a canyon. The environment rocked my world, for I had never seen anything like this. My world had been Industead ever since I could remember, and it’s all I had ever known. Now, I can see the world—for the price of my general well-being and health. Ever since I left, I’ve been shot and stabbed at. This canyon view was almost worth it.
I turned to the body of my attacker. I wanted to loot him of any information or anything valuable. His armor also appealed to me, but wasn’t very effective if you got hit in most places. Getting up closer, I realized that one of the patches of armor is actually a device of some sort. Well, it was a device. One of my pistol rounds went straight through it, letting bits of its circuitry hang out. I could not tell what its purpose was, but it contained a purple jewel that was about three-fourths used. Searching through the few items on him, all I managed to scrounge up was a couple of bits, a note, and a very thin-looking sword, one that could easily be hidden from plain sight. I had to take these things carefully and in record time, because I knew there would probably be more than just that one pony that would come up and attack.
It wasn’t another pony I should have had my attention on. Suddenly, the car jerked upward and to the side, kicking me off to the other car like a rodeo bull. I tried to scramble back onto my domain vehicle, but it was too late. The humvees were separated from one another by a fork in the canyon pass. I figured that eventually the roads would meet up and that our assassins would finish the job, but the vehicles didn’t meet up, even after two minutes. They just drifted apart more and more. The new path was at a lower elevation whereas our old route was at a greater one, and looked as though it drifted to the left. The roads were growing further apart. And here I was, away from my friends, on top of a Company humvee traveling around sixty miles an hour on some unknown road.
I wanted to go into panic mode, but I managed to compose myself. If I was going to get out of this dilemma, then I was going to need to focus. My initiative to focus was shot when I saw another black mist appear and condense into a pony before me.
Shit.
He or she—I can never tell the difference with these masked assassins—took the first swing with a bandaged foreleg. To my appreciation, it missed when I ducked out of the way, but the second foreleg came by surprise for my legs—this time the blow succeeded. I fell on my side, hitting the hot, dark body of the vehicle. My own body began to slide off the vehicle as the vehicle veered to the left. Panicked, I grabbed as best of a hold as I could obtain on the roof.
I thought of the hundreds of feet of open space below me as I dangled above it. I was truly above the drop that stunned me when I first stood on top of our humvee. One slip and I was dead. There was no sugarcoating it, no reassuring myself that I can get out of this, no telling myself that things will work. They won’t. I’m dangling on a humvee that is thousands of feet above the air and a bloodthirsty Company killer that wants me dead is directly above me.
I knew there was something I could do. Thinking like a survivor rather than the pessimist I grew up to be, I shifted some of my weight onto the rear-view mirror mounted on the side. When the dense metal hoof that I thought would decide my fate came crashing down, I moved my hoof—the intended target—and wrapped it around that same foreleg of my enemy and brought my weight back down on it.
With all of my might, I kicked the rear-view mirror free of its position. Astonishingly, it gave. Before the mirror could fall into the vast forest below, I grabbed it with my telekinesis and shot it with all the arcane force I could exert towards the head of my enemy. It hit with such force that it disoriented and staggered the pony, sending them a pace or two back. I needed I quick way to safety, so I took the same dislodged mirror and struck it through the window, giving me an entry point.
To my surprise, nopony was driving the car. It was on autopilot. Good. I used this opportunity to try and knock this pony off the car as they had tried to do the same to me. That would be the last of these Company attackers.
I took the wheel and jerked it back and forth, hitting both the canyon wall and the guard rail, on the left and right sides of the road respectively. This was a bad idea, considering it had ill effect on the masked marauder, who swung through the open window to give me a fierce blow with its hind legs while I was still in the driver’s seat.
After wincing and before I could properly defend myself, The pony positioned itself in the passenger’s seat and rammed my head into the steering wheel, violently shaking my brain. I used my forelegs to brace myself before it was rammed into the steering wheel a second time. However, I had bigger fish to fry... the car was swerving out of control and headed straight for the rail that lined the right side of the road; the only thing protecting us from certain death.
We both realized this and the pony stopped my cranial beatdown to try and escape the car, but it was too late. The humvee plowed through the rail and rocketed downward towards our inevitable doom. Through the destroyed windshield, the world outside the vehicle transformed from the cloudy, cyan skies that had taken my breath away when I took my first step outside of Industead to the vast woodland below: the sea of evergreen that would be my grave.
The other pony had used me to push off and fly through the open window. Its reason for doing so, I was not aware of. We were both pretty much dead, unless... it had a parachute. Thinking quickly but irrationally, I gripped its hind leg and flew out of the plummeting vehicle along with the Company attacker.
The pony tried kicking me off, but it had not worked. It wasn’t going to work. The last pony I would ever see wasn’t going to push me away like my peers of the past had. The Company has destroyed everything I ever cared about. They had ripped me from my friends, family, and destroyed the home and life I never had. Now, because of this special division of these bastards, I am falling nearly at terminal velocity towards my unavoidable death.
In a fit of oppressing anger and rage, I crawled up the black leathered-wrapped killer, and we met by constricting each others’ necks as we fell. The stronger pony began to dominate, which, of course, was not me. I was never dominating, just a subordinate tool to everyone, and I would die for it.
Consciousness was fading. The grip was getting tighter. There was some way I could save myself, some way I can continue life... and it lay within the pony’s waistband. In yet another futile last-ditch effort to save my own life, I reached my own forelegs up and broke the chokehold, and kicked the pony violently with a hind leg. I reversed our circumstances by pushing the pony back under me in my favor. Then saw how close we were getting to the ground. Panicking, I did the only thing I thought might work—I pressed the fearful cloaking device that had astounded me before and hugged onto the owner of it as tightly as possible while the device mysteriously whisked me away.
We dematerialized into a vapor just like the Company ponies had when they used the device. I maintained my eyesight even though the rest of my body existed as a gas, and to be weightless over a vast and beautiful expanse such as this was... simply stunning. It had been just so when I first laid my eyes upon it when I emerged from the humvee that was now miles away. It seemed I could control where the gas drifted, and I had the urge to reconstruct myself. Not yet, though.
There was another force tugging on me... it must have belonged to the other pony that was also involved in this transformation. However, it was clear to the both of us that we needed to head toward ground. I had a feeling I would be working with somepony in the near future and not be happy about it.
We made our descent to the ground, and hovered above it. I wasn’t sure how to control myself, as this was obviously a completely new experience. I felt supernatural and ghastly, just like I presumed how our attackers felt when they used the same device.
The gas we were impersonating came together, about to form back as a solid object. Sensing myself being rebuilt was undesirable. In other words, it stung quite a bit. Before we knew it, we were solid again. It took several seconds to recover my senses. I tried to move my left foreleg up to rub my eyes, but it was anchored for some reason. When I looked down to see what the problem was, I was astonished.
My left foreleg was conjoined with my attacker’s. I lifted it up, bent at the foreleg, and put it back down. I hyperventilated for a few seconds, but I needed to keep my cool. I was panicking with a pony that was probably about to turn around and slit my throat.
However, the pony refrained from doing so. When we recovered, we shot each other a glare and held it. It was hard to stare at eyes hidden behind a full mask. Instead, I stared into the visor-like eyes of the helmet itself... and saw my own.
What I saw was not something I ever expected to see, or wanted to see in myself. I witnessed the eyes of a determined Rain, a Rain of triumph. On the other hoof, I saw eyes of anger. Hatred. Destruction. Animosity. Things that dealt with the very reasons as to why I was here. I could blame neither the Company, Red, nor the pony standing before me. The only one I had to blame was... myself. Shifting perspectives again, the only reason I was standing here alive was me.
It wasn’t just my eyes themselves that were different about me. My own blood trickled heavily down my face. It showed my destructiveness and how reckless I was, as well as lack of concern for my own well being. It scared me.
Still, I searched for the eyes of the pony opposite. I wanted to know more about him or her, or whatever it was. I understood that the eyes were always the windows to the soul, but how could I see through the window to the eyes?
The pony seized the moment to take me down. I was thrown to the ground by my chest. The pony grabbed its rapier-like weapon and held it to my throat.
“I’ve been sent here to kill you.” A muffled but somewhat feminine voice said hatefully from behind the emotionless helmet. The fact that she was most likely a female made it almost comforting that she was straddling me.
“I had no idea,” I said, sarcastically. “Look, I hate you too. But if we’re going to get out of this mess, we’re going to have to work together for a little while.”
“But it is my duty—”
“If you kill me, you kill yourself. You’ll get picked clean by whatever is in these woods if you go by yourself, even with whatever training you may have. If we go together—which we’re forced to do—we can minimize the chance of that happening.” I telekinetically grabbed the foil of her weapon and to my expectancies I could bend it any direction I wanted it to. I chose to wrap it around her neck. It caught her with enough surprise that I was able to swap our positions: I was now on top of her.
“Okay, I get your point,” she grumbled from behind the mask. “Now get off, you freak.”
----------
Walking under these huge... ‘trees’ was breathtaking. They were so tall, so still, yet so full of life, both physically and visually. Animals could be seen running all over its branches, on the ground, everywhere. They’d playfully walk up to us and greet us, then scurry away. It was, for lack of a better word, awesome. At some points, I would just stop and stare upwards dizzily and in awe. My Company companion would get angry and have to tug me along.
“C’mon, if we’re going to get anywhere at all, we have to use our hooves! “Hustle up!”
“Oh, sorry,” I apologized while in one of my trances, probably the third. I shifted my head towards the things that were chasing each other earlier. “It’s just that... ooh, what are those things?”
“You really have been living under a rock.”
“Yep, pretty much. Industead is a Company establishment, after all.”
She shot me a look, and I was not sure if it would be worse with or without the helmet on. “They’re called squirrels,” she said, somewhat condescendingly.
Her animosity towards me hadn’t phased me at all. I was rather used to it. My focus was to get unbound from her so that we may go our separate ways. However, that was obscured by the divinity of my surroundings. I couldn’t take my eyes and thoughts off of them.
Our route that we agreed to trot through had been very open. It allowed for a lot of space to move through and, of course, sightsee. Speaking of trotting and moving, it took us quite a while to work out how we would walk with a shared foreleg. By no means was it easy, but we worked out a musical system in which one of us—typically the Company mare—would hum a tune and we would both march to it, giving us synchronization. It has been working rather well so far.
Despite our success in walking, our destination was nowhere. Neither of us knew these woods, and I didn’t even know what woods were. We were drifting in the green mass of which I previously looked upon from the top of the canyon. I began to wonder what terrible luck somepony would need to have in order for that to happen. Oh wait, that would be mine.
My thoughts were interrupted by a loud “Contact!” roared from my companion. She was suddenly at attention drew a pistol that I did not know she had, pointing it at some bushes.
“Contact?” I questioned, stupidly. “What does that mea—”
“You idiot! That means you need to draw your weapon, we have company!” She roared once again. I smothered my pistol with my telekinesis and drew it. I saw shapes of ponies that seemed to have markings on them, but I wasn’t sure what kind. I checked the ammunition in the pistol. Three shots. Hopefully that’s enough, because the only thing I have to fight with other than that was my knife. All of my other equipment and belongings were still in the humvee with Red and Pounce.
One of them lunged out of the bushes and into full view. What I saw was horrific. An off-white mare with a bedraggled, navy mane. Its coat was stained with streams of blood and bore fluorescently-colored patch armor. A single bone was woven in its mane, and its symmetricality with the rest of its body seemed to be the only thing organized about her. She clenched a dagger in her teeth and a gauntlet that was nowhere near as subtle as Pounce’s. However, probably the most unworldly thing about her... was her eyes.
They were not the eyes of a normal pony. They were... absent. They were bloodshot and empty. I’ve heard before that the eyes are the window to the soul. However, she seemed so... soulless. They caught me off guard. They overpowered me. The constricted me. I wanted to fall to the ground and let her kill me, to end this horrible journey.
The murderous excuse of a pony lunged at me, taking her eyes off mine and locking them on my throat. I was not ready.
To my surprise, my companion’s hind leg protruded out in front of me, performing an extremely forceful buck to the chest of my attacker. I felt some of her blood trickle onto my face on impact. She tumbled backward and was done for.
They must have seen my companion as a greater threat, so three more of these psychopaths came lunging out of the bush directed toward her. Thinking quickly and protectively, I unloaded three rounds in total, one for each of their heads, before they could get too close for comfort.
She jerked her head to allow her stoic mask to stare me down. I knew she was surprised, and secretly grateful.
“I’m more competent than you think. And don’t mention it. Ever.” Upon saying this, I threw my emptied pistol off into the verdant scenery. “Who, or what, are these creeps, anyways?”
“No idea,” she said, with more of a calm and focused tone than my own. “Probably a bunch of cannibals.”
This made my heart sink. The idea of these ponies being cannibals worried me sick, and I couldn’t run away. Focus level: “Panic” was imminent. I thought perhaps my Sleep Shot spell would be somewhat useful, but it only focused on one pony at a time, and wouldn’t affect them much. Not only this, but I had no experience with the spell whatsoever. I decided not to risk it. Instead, I used my magic to grab the knife and waited for our next attacker. It sure was a good thing that none of them had firearms of any kind.
I only made out about two or three figures in the plant life, but they receded. We stood there in a defensive position for a while to be sure, but the time during was uneventful. Finally, we could relax.
The sun was setting, and with startling speed... The forest was not somewhere I wanted to be at night, and my companion seconded the notion.
We spotted a nearby tree with two branches that were parallel to each other and neither too far off the ground nor too close. Getting up was a tribulation in itself, and I had to strain myself to have enough arcane output to take some of the weight off of our bodies as we climbed. We nestled ourselves onto the tree’s branches.
I looked to the sky, the same multi-chromatically-colored quilt woven by Celestia herself that I had looked up at during my time in Industead, Ponyville, and Canon. I always knew that no matter where I was, I would always be gazing up at the same sky that my friends are. And that was comforting enough for me.
----------
Nightfall.
I relaxed and savored the moment. I was sore, and had only fifty-percent control over my left foreleg, but things were okay now. My Company companion hadn’t killed me yet, and the cannibals hadn’t ripped my throat out.
I continued to feast my eyes upon the soft, bright sky of Equestria. It was a clear night, but the treetops obscured my vision. We listened to the sound of various animals and insects executing their nightly routines. It was comforting. I had a ridiculous urge to navigate the webs of branches that made up the treetops and introduce myself to all the new species I was not aware of. I chuckled a little as I thought of myself saying: “Hello, Mr. Blue Jay. My name is Rain!”
A tinny, artificial voice broke my thoughts. “Thanks,” my companion said.
“For what?” I replied, turning to face her—or her mask, rather.
I could detect a soft reluctance behind her voice. “Saving me. I mean us. Yeah. You know, being a team player and all that.” She turned her head to the left, somewhat away from me, just enough that I could not see the reflective lenses on her helmet.
“Um. Sure.”
“Yeah. Well, need to get some shut-eye.” She said, facing directly upwards once again. She folded her left foreleg over her chest.
“I agree. ‘Night.”
I didn’t get a response.
<========= o—o—o—0—0—0—O—O—O—O—0—0—0—o—o—o =========>
The skeleton mare stepped literally out of nothing, and into view. She wore the same attire as our last meeting.
“I do not believe a formal introduction is necessary.” The mare’s voice reverberated familiarly in the darkness.
“I agree,” my non-existent body uttered. “What have you called me here to discuss?”
“Ah, so good to see you more personable and refined in your speech. I have come to point you in the right direction. I am surprised to see you traveling while fused to an assassin belonging Ironpony Trading Company.”
“Yes, it is an odd turn of events,” I said. My words echoed very similarly to the skeleton mare’s. “What direction would you be pointing me in?”
“There is a tribal village west of your location. Where you gaze upon the sunset is where you shall go.” The mare stopped to look in the distance. “There, you will find a kind man who can help you with your predicament. He can also assist in numerous other ways.”
“Other ways?”
“You’ll see.” The skeleton turned its stare towards me. It felt like she was extracting my soul with her empty eye sockets.
“I do not feel like a formal closing is necessary either.”
<========= o—o—o—0—0—0—O—O—O—O—0—0—0—o—o—o =========>
I did not rouse as peacefully as I drifted off.
I awoke dazed, confused, and scared, as if recovering from a nightmare. My head shot up in that fashion, and I found myself hyperventilating. I turned to my companion, who was whittling a piece of wood with her knife, and had one hind leg crossed over the other. She was evidently far more relaxed than I was.
“Bad dream?” She replicated my thoughts exactly.
“Uh. Kind of, but not really.” My ability to speak in the morning really does suck. “We need to go west from here,” I said, throwing my hoof in the opposite direction of the rising sun, which was to my right. I know now that dreams like those are not dreams.
“How do you figure?” she asked flatly. I blinked at her.
“We just do. There’s a village in that direction that should be able to help us. Let’s go.”
“Again. How do you figure?”
“Oh, just trust me. I can’t explain it.”
We methodically climbed back down the tree, undoing all of our steps to get up in the first place. That is, until halfway down, where we just agreed to leap down the rest of the way. Sadly, the canopy of the forest wasn’t dense or sturdy enough to navigate on top of. Otherwise, we would be taking a much safer route.
It was evident that she still had not trusted me, and with good reason. For all she knew, I was some crazy pony moving into the heart of danger, and trying to bring her with me. Then again, if the Company knew enough about me to find me as a threat, I would think she would know just as much. I believe she may have at least a glimmer of trust in my abilities.
----------
We had pushed into dense greenery for what felt like the better part of an hour. Our legs grew tired, especially with one of each of ours being bound into one.
Finally, I had a reason to stop that didn’t sound like complaining.
“Ssh,” I say to my companion. “Listen, I think I hear something.”
I crouch low to the ground, and my companion follows suit. My ears sorted through the sounds of birds and crickets, and picked out the sound of... voices. Calm ones. Ones that weren’t shouting and trying to brutalize somepony.
“Do you hear that?” I said, turning to her.
Her ominous-looking helmet leaned towards me, but locked its gaze straight ahead. Her voice dropped to a tinny whisper. “Yeah, I hear it. My sensors are picking up friendlies.”
Her helmet can do that? Track ponies? That’s... scary. I assumed “friendlies” meant “those that didn’t want to eat me”. That was good enough.
We nodded to each other and moved forward through the brush, being sure to keep as silent as possible. By now, we had movement down to a science. We had definitely gotten attuned to each other quite well, and trotting was a breeze.
We approached a point where speckles of light could be seen through a thick wall of brush, and my hoof brushed it aside to get a better look.
My heart filled with warmth and hope at the sight I saw before me. A whole village of friendly tribal-looking ponies, roaming about and eating breakfast around a doused fire pit.
I smiled brightly and wanted with all my heart to trot forward and introduce myself to the new community. However, our hoof was anchored in place, and would not budge.
“C’mon,” I nudged. “We need their help if we plan on getting back to normal.”
“Not a chance.” My companion protestingly stomped her only independent hoof. “It’s already weird enough you knew this place was here, but I refuse to deal with primitive tribals.”
“We have to. Or we’ll die out here. It’s either these tribals or the ones that want to eat us.”
“No. My standards are higher. I refuse their help even if it were given to me on a silver platter.”
“Damn you governmental types,” I said, angrily. “You all need a reality check.”
“It is you that needs a reality check. You think bandits like yourself live long enough to escape the Ironpony Trading Co.? Not likely.”
“Get a grip. The Company is just a group of selfish egomaniacs,” I said, cockily. How dare her?
Our voices must’ve gotten louder than we intended them to, because to our surprise, the brush opened up to reveal a strong-looking pony in tribal tattoos. He loomed over us as he spoke. “Um,” he started, sounding confused. “You must be two of them Traders!”
“Uh, no!” I said, loudly.”
“Yes,” she said.
“We have a little bit of explaining to do, I suppose,” I said, sheepishly. I gave a matching grin, and tried to look as friendly as I possibly could, sitting there pathetically in the bushes next to a Company assassin. From what I perceived, we looked like spies.