I stared blankly into the dark void that was my mind, unsure of what to think anymore in my limbo state. I had forgotten so many things...and was barely able to clasp onto any of them...
Memories of death and despair...
Burning houses...
Armed Robberies...
I could only make so many accusations to who I was...A mass murderer set on edge? A pony who just couldn't take life anymore, and went insane? Or a disciple of an evil being, sent to this world to set all things right, wrong?
These questions raced through my mind...but then I found a memory I couldn't quite make out...
A hat...My hat to be exact. A white fedora, an ace of spades tucked neatly into the red silk fabric that circled it. It was, supposedly, my fathers hat. Something I wore until the bitter end of my life, whatever that was. I didn't know what to think of it, just that it was a symbol of something, or somepony, I would never forget...Ever.
A began to felt a strange sensation, as if I hadn't been around air in forever. I felt dry, none of my limbs would respond, and my eyes wouldn't open. All I felt was the feeling of hooves grabbing onto me carefully, and taking me into the air, cautiously taking me out of something.
"Careful...don't set off any alarms..." I heard a voice said cautiously. I had no idea what to think, except the fact that I tried to congratulate them on what they're doing, me remembering what I have so far, but my voice had set off no sound at all.
I felt like I was stuffed into something, like a bag of some sorts, along with other various metals and such. I couldn't see a thing, but I could feel all of it, and damn I must have been really flexible!
Soon the entire world began to feel kind of...light. I had been taken out of whatever bag I had been in and I felt this sudden airy sensation, somepony yelling for me to come back in the distance. I must have been weightless or something to be off in space by now, or at least that was what it felt like... I didn't know how long I had been in limbo...but I do know I was going to be taken out and put in a familiar situation...
It happened about two hours later, I'd been floating around for awhile and the only thing I heard other then the wind blowing me away was a loud sound that only someone of my stature could remember so vividly. A gunshot. The memories began to flush through my head as the pitch of the sound echoed in my mind, and all types of guns rang through my non-existent eyes.
The weapon had to be a Desert Griffon. It was a common weapon used by multiple terrorists that I may or may not have come across. It was a very powerful weapon at close range and if taken to the head there was almost zero chance of survival. It took me a moment to realize that there was only one bullet shot, so whoever the pony that fired the shot must have planned an execution, quickly and semi-quietly. The fact that they also used a Desert Griffon in these types of executions must have meant
A) It was friendly turf, anything goes and
B) Somepony owed somepony something of high value, and was unable to pay it in time.
My brain ached as I was able to formulate these things, but have no recollection of where I had learned these things. They just came at random and whenever I try to grasp onto them again my mind goes blank...but that one shot was something I would never forget. Probably how I was sent to limbo probably? I don't know anymore...whatever happened I was going to wake up from it riiiiight....
Now...I felt a large killer headache, I moaned as I attempted against whatever force Celestia had cast on me to get myself on my hooves, which would prove to be quite a problem. My front hooves were tied behind my back... I knew I had been in a situation like this before...but I don't know where... I rolled over, something falling off my head as I attempted to get my hooves infront of me. I payed no attention to it at the time as I was too busy attempting my escape.
After a couple of moments I managed to get into a seated position and slide my hooves under my hind legs and over, allowing me easy access to the rope that was not so neatly tied to my hooves. I gnawed viciously at the knot, pulling at the insides of it with my teeth and pulling it apart.
This went on for a couple of minutes before they had finally given way to my teeth. I smiled as the rope slid off my hooves and the sweet sensation of air rubbed up against my rope-burned hooves. Dear Celestia it was good being a free colt...Or...Mare...I couldn't even remember that part at the time, all I knew was the sweet sensation of freedom as I got up slowly. My headache quickly brought me back down, the pain searing through my brain and entire body. I looked around as I realized just what was going on.
Apparently, I was a failed execution, stuck in a room that was either locked or unlocked, it depended on how much of an idiot the pony who wanted me dead was. I looked up and strangely enough, there was no ceiling, which meant one thing. If I wanted to make a stealthy exit, I needed to climb over a couple of walls. I looked around and something on the ground caught my eye...not one something but indeed two somethings.
There sat a familiar hat at supposedly where I had been sitting earlier, along with a second one, which looked like a brown farmers hat. There happened to be a hole, surprise surprise, in the farmer's hat. I picked both the hats up, putting on the white hat and stuffing the brown one someplace into a nearby bag that had been discarded here, along with whatever waste was here. I slung the one-sided saddlebag onto me and looked for easy exit access out of this dump...
Thank the moon that there was coincidentally a pile of boxes set at the opposite end of the normal exit, which I was pretty sure was guarded in some way. I quickly and quietly began climbing up these boxes and peeked over the wall that was not very securely barb wired... and what I saw was definitely godsend.
I quickly climbed out of the garbage dump, my hooves landing in some soft mud as I landed. I sniffed the air and I could definitely smell it now. Sweet, saucy freedom! But sadly, all hopes of said freedom had vanished, along with my hopes of escaping as I began to see a pair of flashlights. I quickly hid behind a tree and waited for whoever decided it was a good time to mess with my progress at freedom.
"Hey man, you hear about what they say goes on in the dumps?" Said a colt's voice, obviously at a young age.
"No, why what goes on in there?" Said a mare's voice, soft as silk, as fear almost seemed to leech out her vocal chords. "I heard they do certain...'Buisness' here in the dumps..." Said the colts voice, a scaryishness in his voice, in an attempt to scare the mare mildly. I decided that was enough of that as I quickly made my way around them, ducking behind bushes and such. Nothing could stop the inevitable from happening though as I continued through the small forest.
*Crack!*
Everything froze stock still, the wind, my breathing, and the young couple's conversation... "If they blow my cover..." I swore silently at them. "M-maybe we should just go..." The mare said, obviously shaken by the sudden noise. "A-after you..." Said the colt cowardly. I could hear the hooves quickly clopping against the soft mud and onto harder road as they began fast walking, then they began galloping in fear.
If I knew anything about those two, they probably lived somewhere, and that somewhere was where I was headed! The faster I get to civilization the faster I can try to contact my family, whoever they may be, and the faster I can get my head screwed on right!
I quickly galloped after the two at a safe distance, enough to keep me seen but not enough to make a full recognition of me in the darkness that was the nighttime sky.
I swore I saw them look back at me, and their pace almost instantly quickened, and so did mine.
They were scared...I could tell....And I just had the most sickening rush as I chased them down like a rabid dog.
It all played out in my head...
I would follow them until they ran out of breath...
Slowly and painfully start with the mare's fate...
Then chase down the colt, the mare's head in my hoof as I chased him down like a wolf.
I would show him the face of his lover and scar him for life, then let him go so that I would be feared yet again...
My mind stood still for a moment as I attempted to process what I had just said...What in Luna's name did I just say? There was no way, not even on the MOON I would attempt something like that!...But it felt like the thing I would do...
My mind agonized me too much to think about it, there was no way I would do something like that, I needed their help to lead me to civilization...to a hospital even!
I felt something drape down against my face and I quickly tried to wipe it off. I looked at my hoof and it was red. I knew that color way too much...
Blood...
This confirmed it, I was wanted dead by somepony, they had shot me and it was some large stroke of a miracle that I was still alive. There wasn't time to think about this now though, I needed to keep running towards some kind of town, and this couple was going to take me there.
It slowly came into view, the sun was only just beginning to rise...but I was beginning to fall as my vision soon began to go blurry by the loss of blood. I had reached the top of a hill and that's where I stopped to marvel the beauty of the small town.
So close...Yet so far...
I began to stop caring for the two, even as they stopped to turn around and look at me in the new light that was growing amongst the east.
"A-Applejack?!"
The moment those words hit me, it hit me hard enough to send me onto my knees. It felt so easy to lay down and sleep right now...I was just about to hug death himself at this point but...My body told me otherwise though, as my breaths started to shudder as I attempted my best to get up. I could almost feel the two ponies hooves beat on the grass as they made their way up to me to help me get to town.
I almost blacked out just then and there, but I must have been a natural born fighter, as my mind was doing in it's power to stop me from losing myself to death...but it was a losing battle as my vision soon began to go dark as my eyelids slowly caved in on me. I felt myself roll down the hill, and that must have been when I had lost consciousness.
I couldn't help but feel I was meant to be dead...That I shouldn't fight off death's scythe with my own hooves and just let him do his job. It just felt so easy but yet I didn't want to die...My mind was flooded with images I wasn't fully one hundred percent sure how to decipher...
Four ponies stood together in a family photo that had been burned in my mind.
And in the middle stood a pony with a very familiar, brown stetson hat on her head...one that just so happens to have a hole in it as of now as it sits inside my makeshift backpack...