//------------------------------// // Her Friends // Story: The Conversion Bureau: A Mare's Tail // by HiddenBrony //------------------------------//         It was better to make camp off an intact exit outside Albuquerque than continue on into the night. Pulling into the parking lot of a Wal-Mart, Violet hastily grabbed a shopping cart that was lazily patrolling the concrete expanse, wheeling it over to the truck bed. Very few words were spoken as Violet fished out some wire cutters from the backseat of the Ford, and haphazardly snapped off the back end of the cart, fashioning a crude wheelchair. Carefully lifting Rose out of the back, the humans plus ponies headed into the abandoned store.         Overturned shelves and flickering lights from whatever was left from the power plant nearby, the four bodies found the furniture section, with a couple beds and chairs intact. Violet helped Rose out of the cart and onto a bed, before setting off into the store alone. Rusty set to work bucking some of the more hardwood chairs into wood for fire, noting that it was to the point where there was little other use for them now. “Sitting,” Rose choked out, a weak smile on her lips. Twinkle chuckled dryly as her horn sparked to life, catching the wood Rusty had broken down on fire. A quick check into the rafters and Twinkle ripped a small hole in the ceiling, before sighing deeply, still exhausted from her efforts earlier.         Violet returned to the group, a small first aid kit in hand, and set about cleaning and dressing Rose's wound properly, a hasty bandage and magic-induced blood stopping spell starting to waver from the road. The awkward silence pertained over the four, neither wishing to break the silence for much of anything. Rose winced and yelped as Violet worked what she could, the two ponies nearby averting their eyes.         “I-I’m gonna go see if I can find some food,” Rusty muttered, groaning as he moved up unto his legs. Violet looked over wearily, giving him a small nod of approval. Rose, on the other hand, was too distracted to care. Twinkle looked up a moment before nodding. “On three hooves, you’ll need someone to help." Manipulating the cart, she brought it over to the stallion, offering him to use it as a crutch. "Here, put your forelimbs up on the cart.” She instructed, taking great care not to move his sprained forehoof. The red colt blushed slightly at the prospect of being babied as he was, but made no rejection to it. “I’ll light the way,” she murmured, her horn sparking to life again as a low, warm light started to emanate from her horn. Looking over to the girls, the unicorn smiled low, but averted her gaze as Rusty struggled forward. Violet leaned back a moment, her back screaming from the hunched over posture she had taken, attending to Rose’s wound. “I think... you’ll be okay.” Catching a look from the other human, she winced slightly. “Physically. He didn’t really nick any major artery, and as far as I can tell, he didn’t damage any tendons...” Violet didn’t want to mention how she could see the bone before she had put the bandage on, or how she had to pick out a metal shard of the knife that had been nicked. “It’s... thanks.” Rose muttered, looking away. She had cried. She had cried her way up to the road. She had cried as she was placed in the truck bed. She had cried most of the way here. Now, she had no more tears. “Thanks for coming back. You had no reason to.” Violet laughed a bit, her voice a little hoarse. “You’re alive. A person. We shot the shit, you and I. It’s been... God, it’s been months since I’ve done so with another girl.” Rubbing her eye, she fought off a small tear. Someone had died today. Killed. And she... ordered it. In the heat of the moment she had ordered someone’s death. “I’m sorry.”         Rose laughed, shaking her head. “For what? Holding my hand while I shot my brother in the head?” It hurt, and she was angry. “Thinking you’re a clever shit, ‘coming back in some form or another’? That’s why he chased you, you know.” Her eyes were hard, and Violet merely shrunk back, not wishing to look her in the eye. Relenting, Rose sighed. Distantly, Rose let her eyes get lost in the darkness of the store. “At least, it might’ve. Fuck, I don’t know. He was crazy.”         “He didn’t... well he did, but... was it me?” Violet mumbled, fiddling with the bedsheet in her hands. Letting it go taunt, pulling it, wrapping it around her fingers. “Did someone just... lying to him like that? Tricking him? Did I...”         Rose chuckled, falling back. She turned her attention to the hole in the ceiling, the crackle of the flames nearby. She closed her eyes, thinking of Richard. “No. Not really. He... he cracked long ago. Probably two... maybe three years, by my count. When the ponies first came around.” Violet’s head shot up, a lost look in her eyes. “He lost his girl then. They’d been dating, thought he was the luckiest guy. Hooked up with the hottest chick in the gang, he said.”         Violet sighed, putting her hands to her head. She was locked on something else. “Three years,” She murmured. Not one. It couldn’t of been one. Too many people were gone for one year. Too much damage. She never noticed. Changing of the seasons, Christmas specials in July, the extreme... lack of people. She stayed in her apartment long after people left. She came to the Tower... They were the last people. Actual people. And she saw them leave. She was the very last. She felt... constricted. Her chest tight, she shook slightly, her back heaving as she found herself sobbing. She didn’t even notice Rose had been talking the entire time.         “Hey... Hey! Violet? Violet what’s... What’s wrong? Violet!” Rose was shaking her now, a gentle hand on her shoulder. She couldn’t believe how selfish she was being, crying about God knows what when this girl just ended her brother’s life. “Come on, Shh...” Rose cooed, leaning forward and bringing Violet in. She continued to cry, tears flowing freely. “Come on, V, I’m sorry for being a bitch to you, I know what happened at the bridge... it couldn’t be helped.” Rose moved the girl’s hair from her eyes, between sobs of ‘I’m Sorry!’ and cries of ‘I’m so selfish!'         Neither knew how long it took, but Rose found herself with silent tears for the girl. She had to admit there was little she knew about Violet, nor anything she went through. But it didn’t much matter. Violet took such claim in Rose’s existence, almost as a foundation for her. Violet let out one least heaving sob as she pulled herself apart from the girl. “I-I’m sorry.” She mumbled again, the blonde shaking her head.         “You confuse me, V.” Rose said bluntly, getting a very strange look from the other girl. “You’re smart, trick me and..." A pause. Rose took a deep breath before continuing. "...Me and Richard, you drove a truck on two wheels, saved my life, cleaned my wounds... and you apologize to me for it.” Her chuckle was dry, but clear. “I don’t know what on Earth possessed you to come back for me, but... I’m grateful. I am. Richard was... he wasn’t the brother I had. I miss him, I’ll grieve him, but girl, why are you crying?”         Sniffing, Violet let out a strangled giggle, wiping her face in the firelight. “I dunno. I just...” Breathing in deeply, she could feel her lungs sore from the breakdown, unused to the physical workout sobbing achieved. “I was just... lost.” Moving her arms, Violet picked herself up, mildly noting she might have to go to the medicine aisle and see if there were any painkillers - for almost everyone. Sitting on the bed with Rose, she sighed and leaned back, catching herself with her left hand. “Lost track of everything. Time. People. Didn’t care anymore. I can’t believe how much I didn’t even care.” Looking down at her legs, dangling off the side of the bed, she closed her eyes. “I didn’t feel anything.”         Rose nodded, bringing her good leg up to her chest and hugging it, letting the other one find it’s own comfort after nearly being cut off. “You don’t... sound like you don’t.”         Violet gave a hollow laugh. “Went to college. Acting, primarily stage. Useless now, like everything else.” Clearing her throat, she could feel it tugging on her voice box, a pulling strain as she rubbed her neck. The clopping of hooves could be heard from not too far off, but it kept a steady distance, never growing near or far. Rose looked off in the darkness toward the sounds, seeing the reflections of light from Twinkle’s horn on the rafters above. “When you’re up on stage, no one picks up on your subtle body language, and only the most basic reactions can be seen. You have to act with your voice, so of course I can sound okay. I’m trained to.” Another hoarse laugh. "Guess I'm just good at sounding real with feelings that belong to someone else."         An eerie silence descended upon the girls, sitting, listening over the crackling of the fire. There was so much out in the open, emotions, feelings, and loss. The weight of it all stuck to the air, thick as the smoke. Violet opened her eyes and leaned off the bed, swinging her arm about as she unlocked it from its position. She added duel to the fire, the flames lapping at the new wood and wicker frame hungrily. Rose watched her, unsure of what to make of it all. She was alone. Both of them, really. Coughing, she found herself desperate for a topic change - too much despair. “So... Rusty? ‘Twinkle’?”         Violet smiled, no longer risking her throat to laugh anymore. “Never met them before today. Only a couple hours, really. Twinkle knocked herself out stopping us from crashing into your barricade - I’ll admit I wasn’t paying attention to the road ahead and... well, Rusty freaked out a bit when we saw the HLF banners. Fell out of the truck and landed on his hoof wrong.” Rose gave a chuckle mixed with a giggle, not one of joy for the red pony’s damage but for the idea of simply falling out of a truck. “They’re so... nice. Pure. Almost like what if like stayed like if we stayed as innocent children.”         Rose pondered the idea, a small smile spreading across her face. “And they’re humans? I mean, used to be?”         “Rusty is. Twinkle was born and raised in Equestria. And now you know as much as I do about them. The truck belonged to Rusty, actually. Guess he’d be kinda sour that it’s all scuffed up.” Violet joked lightly, not wanting to upset her charge by seeming too happy. Rose didn’t react much to it, either not caring for it or having the two realities merge and come out even.         “Violet...” The blonde girl sighed, running a hand through her hair and parting it from her eyes. “Why... did you decide to be a pony? It’s been....” She paused. There seemed to be a dance around the subjects that would darken the discussion, things neither wanted to ponder. Although images of her brother flashed in her mind. The trigger, the blood, the final look that screamed his malicious intents. He didn’t care for her. As she started to sink into her revelry, Violet had picked up on the question, pulling Rose out with her words.         “My last neighbor. A man named Albert. Kinda nuts, but he was a nice man. Vegetarian, but probably not by choice nowadays,” Violet mused, closing her eyes. “He was the first person I really talked to in a long time. Only after Frank died. We had our own little ticks, but... one day he left. I... let it just sort of happen to me. Existed for the next week, and suddenly he was back... as a pony.”         Rose scoffed, averting her eyes from Violet to the crackling flame. “Not real neighborly, taking off like that.” Violet smirked, shaking her head.         “No, it was my fault. Guess he held a little crush on me. Well, not guess...” Reaching into her pocket, Violet unearthed the note. “He left this pinned to his door. For me. I never... once checked on him. He could have been hurt or all sorts of things, but I never once went down there to satisfy my curiosity. Don’t even know if I have curiosity anymore.”         “Don’t say that, V,” Rose muttered, “Curiosity is the human condition. And you’re human, whatever that’s worth.” She echoed the line Violet had spoken earlier. Even then, Violet had only echoed it as Frank’s last words to her. Violet chuckled. She didn’t know why, but the phrase struck her as funny. She laughed. Rose smirked slightly, entertained that she had gotten Violet to laugh - even if on accident.         -----         Rusty paused at one of the aisle’s that wasn’t overturned, giving it a looksee before deciding on it being one worth checking out. The small pitter-patter of Twinkle’s light steps gave him a small smile, her light giving him enough area to see a couple cans of spinach and other low-priority foods still along the shelves. “Jackpot. I’m glad not to see anything like Spam lining these aisle’s.”         Twinkle tilted her head, looking down the metal shelves. She’d never been in a human store, and the idea of the long lanes being lined with food intrigued her. “Spam?” She echoed, a smirk on her face. “Like, electronic mail about longer horns or broader wingspans?” She joked, rolling her eyes a bit.         “Ah, no, it was an old food developed in war time to give to soldiers. Meaty substance, but no one could really be sure what exactly was in it.” Musing about food gave the red colt something to remember about the old world, a small smile on his face as he leaned on his good hoof. The sensation of walking on his back legs was both foreign and familiar, and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy it even the littlest bit. “Not sure how I feel about consuming meat - probably would clash with a pony’s digestive track, actually.”         Twinkle nodded slowly, recalling that humans were, in fact, omnivores. It had been a long time since the Conversion Bureau’s even offered an alternative meat product for the humans, seeing as most meats weren’t processed anymore due to the expansive pony population. “Your taste for meat was likely changed along with your taste for more menial foods, like flowers and grass.” Recalling her old speeches, it seemed like such a point of contention back when they first opened. Still, many were placated at the idea of what all stayed the same - chocolate, peanut butter, bread and the like were popular mainstays of the humans, so if always brought them down from the bitterness of losing meats.         “Suppose you’re right.” Rusty nodded, reaching the end of the aisle, looking different ways, as if he had other shoppers to worry about. The smell of wasted, perishable foods filtered into his nose, telling him that not all the cheese and meats that once lined the shelves have been looted, and what remained was long overdue to be moved. Twinkle’s muzzle reeled back in disgust, scrunching her nose and protecting it with her hoof.         “That’s simply awful!” She exclaimed, rushing toward a different aisle and galloping to the midway point of the next. Rusty held his breath as he pushed the cart behind her, mildly coming to the conclusion that what humans had left these days probably mimicked farm life, at least as far as what they ate and how it was prepared. Probably a lot of salt. As he approached the mare ahead of him, she was looking over a few small bags of treats. “Potato chips. I’ve heard of these. We used to have a shelf for them at the Bureau...” she murmured.         Rusty looked mildly interested, trying to catch the colors or flavors of the abandoned plastic bags. They were the smallest sizes, probably about as low of priority as most looters get. “Lessee, I think that’s salt and vinegar flavored...” Pointing gingerly with his weak hoof, he gestured toward a blue bag of Lays brand chips. Twinkle visibly recoiled, causing a laugh from the red colt. “Yeah, that’s the reaction a lot of folks got. It’s an acquired taste, but a lot of people swore by ‘em.” Wheeling the cart up, he leaned over and snapped the plastic bag up in his teeth, dropping it lightly into the modified cart. “Includin’ me. I hope I still like ‘em, stale or no.” Twinkle gave him an assuming look, but the Earth pony kept his grin as he peered over whatever other bags there were. “Probably should grab ‘em all. Fer’ Violet an’ Rose.” The unicorn nodded and started moving the bags one by one, Rusty forced to wait for the mare as his hoof didn’t really allow him much in the way of movement.         Twinkle peered over to the colt, her eyes shifting about as she considered her opinions of the group. Deciding they were far enough from the humans, she sighed slightly, looking over to Rusty. “What... all happened when I was out? We were about to crash, and next thing I know Violet is hanging over the edge of the roadway, keeping two people from falling... and then... and then...” She choked a bit. She didn’t like what happened next, and she tried to keep herself from thinking about it.         Rusty sighed, shaking his mane about as he pondered how exactly he could say it in a way it could make sense to an Equestrian Pony. To be honest, he didn’t know what all to think himself, his back hooves still hurt from slamming against the grill of the semi repeatedly with his hooves. “The man who... well, he wasn’t right in the head,” he muttered, his eyes trailing ahead. A far off sound, indecipherable in its distance, perked his ears slightly, but he decided to ignore it. “That’s all I could get from it. He was Rose’s sister, and he was actively trying to kill us.” He decided to be blunt about. Twinkle had two years running a Bureau under her belt - she knew what humans could be capable of. “Can’t tell what made him come after us, but he did, and Violet and Rose... they ended it.”         “That’s awful.” Twinkle blinked away tears, the prospect of a sister killing her own brother hung heavy in her head. “What could possess a pony- I mean, a person...” The two walked silently for a time, barely passing glances toward the metal shelves, most of them empty outside of cardboard boxes or ripped containers. Above them, one of the dim lights flickered out of existence for eternity, no one left to replace the bulb. Rusty sighed as he watched it go. “What a sight this had to be. People lining these aisles, talking about their lives and their sports. Children. A real marvel,” Twinkle whispered.         Rusty chuckled, nodding his head. “I guess it was, Twink. I guess it was.” Breathing deeply, he closed his eyes, remembering the last time he had come here. Some ponies were there, walking alongside their human friends. A baby was crying in its cart, its parent on his cell phone complaining about how ‘Susie stole my promotion!’. It was cute, now. He remembered his hands. It had been awhile. Scuffed up, hard. Construction did that to a man. Looking about, the bright lights, the bustling crowd of people. Parting his hair - his bright red hair from his eyes. He missed the tight curls it had, his fiery mane as straight as his tail. He had been here for Ramon Noodles, of all things. Nothing notable for his last trip to the supermarket. No spending his last squandering dollars on a giant TV, or some expensive food he couldn’t afford. No, he just wanted some chicken flavored noodles. Even with his taste buds changed his mouth watered slightly at the memory. It wasn’t even real chicken, he knew that, and so did his mind, apparently.         “What’s that for?” A voice broke him from his memory, his eyes training on the light pink pony before him. She was staring at him with an amused look on her features, lighting pointing a hoof at his face. Pausing, Rusty brought his sprained hoof to his mouth, a steady stream of drool covering his hoof as it made contact to his chin. “Uh,” he mumbled, before bringing up his good hoof and wiping his mouth. “Nothing. Forget it happened. Please.” Twinkle giggled as the red pony’s face got redder in the pale light of her horn, turning about as she helped him preform a u-turn before they got close to the rotten foods again. “It was just... there are foods you don’t see anymore these days. Kinda miss ‘em.”         “I miss a lot of foods back in Equestria. Foreign flowers have this... weird taste in them.” Twinkle shook her head about, her tongue falling out of her mouth at her own memory. Rusty guessed it was the years of pollution or maybe the pesticides, the ponies having only eaten the freshest of flowers their entire lives. “I suppose that’s probably right. I’m glad noponies gotten sick from the local diets.” As they walked, Rusty leaned his head down on his foreleg, growing slightly bored of having to go down the same aisle just to get away from a horrid smell. “So Rusty... How long have you been a pony? What made you go through with it?”         Looking up, he turned his head over to the female pony and smirked. “Oh, nothing too much. Construction started shutting down, and I got my last check in the mail along with my notice that I was fired. I’d of made a fuss, but there really was no point to it.” The stale air of the supermarket was tinged with the rotten food, no matter how they decided to avoid it, and the colt was finding himself wishing to return to the girls at the fire, preferring the scent of wood smoke. “Most of my family had already gone, on the first boats out to Equestria, really.”         “You haven’t joined them?” There was an edge of inquiry to her voice, asking more than what she said.         “Nah, I loved my city. Really did. There’s still things to build, simple things, sure, but I doubt it’ll ever fall into disrepair like the roads have.” The stallion managed, shrugging his shoulders as best a pony could on two legs. “Although I wouldn’t mind heading to Equestria one day. See what all the hubbub is about. Maybe see a Manticore or two. Ha ha...” Rusty trailed, seeing a look of terror over Twinkle’s face. “I kid, I kid, I realize the more magical animals in your kingdom might not exactly be ‘friendly’. I guess... I guess you could align some humans up with those creatures. Sometimes they’re just animals.” He said, unsure of his words. Reading Twinkle’s features, his face grew more confident as she showed she was considering it, and soon found himself believing his own words. “What about you, Twinkle? What brought you outta Equestria and into the Conversion Bureaus? I remember seein’ you there once or twice.”         “Oh, you were a part of my Bureau?” Her voice elated, Twinkle’s smile was hard to hide. “Yes, well, there wasn’t much to tell. I was always a good unicorn, proficient with a wide variety of spellwork, nothing like some of my peers in Canterlot, but I was a bit better rounded...” she sighed, remembering the days where she was surrounded by ponies. She concluded that’s what Rusty had been doing prior, just with humans in his own society. “I suppose I was just lucky. I was near the castle one day when I ran into an important looking pony, and we hit it off. She let me on to some goings on, and I was between jobs...” She cleared her throat, catching a draft of rotten food as she told the story, Coughing, she waived the air in front of her hoof a bit before continuing. “Well, next thing I know she’s at my doorstep with a couple of palace guards. Said I was a perfect pony for a new Equestrian outreach program. It was just when the first ponified humans came in, and she said she was looking for new ponies to run the Bureaus. Said I ‘checked out’.”         “Such a powerful pony, she was. She was there when I made my decision. Did you know some unicorns can teleport? She could do it at will, and bring other ponies with her! Objects too! Next thing I knew we were set outside the first barge out of Equestria, talking amiably. Such a nice pony, but it was obvious no matter how much we talked on the ride to Los Angeles, she was missing her friends in Newark. When we arrived with all the others who were chosen, I didn’t keep her long. She had a lot of ponies to train and it was best en-mass.” Twinkle sighed, brushing a lock of hair from her eyes as she smirked, motioning toward her cutie mark. A small star with even smaller stars all around it, almost as if it was part of some big picture. “I’ve never been much for leading large groups, but a small team, I’m a natural, as they say. A slightly bigger cog in a massive machine.”         Rusty smirked, pausing as they reached the end of the rows of food. It was a menial selection of food in their cart, but the pony gestured to some odd looking shelves toward the back. “That’s one way to look at it. Not exactly the most boastful of ponies, are you?” he chuckled.         “No, no, not at all. But I’ll be glad to return to Equestria after this. I take two steps outside of my Bureau and already I have been unconscious, had somepony try to kill me and kept two poor girls from falling to their deaths, only for a madman to get shot in the head and fall to his, right in front of me,” Twinkle shook her mane about, sighing. “For every ten good humans I find, there is one horrible one that scares me and takes away all the good faith I have for them.” Breathing deeply through her nose, she looked about at the aisle they were in. Most of them were empty, but a couple containers containing a undefined liquid stayed on the shelf, with very generic looking branding. “What’s all this stuff?”         “Soda. Soft drinks.” Rusty said, looking about. Twinkle nodded slowly, hearing humans speak of soda before. “I doubt I can speak for humans much anymore, being a pony now, but the bad humans... they’re few and far between compared the the billions of people there once was. Y’know, before the ponies and destruction,” he mumbled, running his good hoof through his mane. Twinkle nodded sagely, her voice robbed at the mention. Sensing her unease, Rusty shook his head quickly. “I’m not blaming- well of course I didn’t. Still, it was... unexpected.”         “So many lives taken... I agree with you, though. I’ve met too many humans in the Bureaus to even entertain the prospect of humans being so... greedy, evil. It’s just that they seem to be the ones to rise to power in your society.” There was sadness in her voice, a detracted statement that carried some forlorn wish for humanity. Rusty felt it strange that it would come from such an odd source, an Equestrian pony who spent her last couple years helping humans drop that essence and embrace the pony way. “I wish there was some way to have altered that, instead of altering you all.”         Rusty sighed, his hooves growing tired. Dropping off the cart, the red stallion found himself laying lazily upon a small bit of carpeted expanse in what he guessed was once the shoes section. Twinkle eyed him a moment, before noticing the soreness of his hooves. She recalled him mentioning trying to dislodge the truck while she was still out of sorts. Trotting over to the colt, she gave him a once over. “You’ve been walking on those hooves the entire time?” Giving a disapproving stare, Rusty shrugged slightly as he waved his one good hoof.         “Can’t exactly hop around on one leg. Not since my center of gravity shifted.” He iterated, letting his hooves rest and the pressure go down. “It’s a couple cuts and bruises, nothing sinister.” Letting his fur becoming interlocked in the tightly woven threads of the carpet, he padded the ground next to him, inviting Twinkle to take a load off. She rolled her eyes but did as she was invited to do, laying near the male pony. “There’ve been hundreds of sad songs for humanity long before the ponies came around, Twinkle. All your kind did was offer an escape for us sad sacks,” he chuckled dryly. It was only after meeting Violet did he really consider himself the proverbial half-way point of a generation. It had awoken the dormant feelings he had back when he first became a pony. Hell, he was even having trouble walking again, just like when he was a newfoal. “Even if you ponies put good people in charge, it would have reverted back before long. Humans had a saying ‘History repeats itself’. They were right, too. But you ponies... you broke that circle. There’s no going back to what we were. Not with the humans that are left. Violet’s a rare case - hell, maybe that Rose chick, too. Genuine humans, not like the bitter and dangerous HLF.” His voice grew hard, but his expression softened soon after, Twinkle watching his every move. “Although I fear. For families held back by aggressive parents, children raised to hate ponies, violent, horrible people who’d rather see someone die than become a pony-”         “Rusty, please.” There was a silence after that. The red pony’s eyes searched the mare in front of him, a look of dawning etching slowly across his features. “Richard,” he muttered, blinking hard a few times. “I’m sorry, Twinkle. I know that’s not something you want to revisit so soon....”         Shaking her mane, Twinkle’s head came to rest on her outstretched forehooves. “It’s alright. You’re passionate. And after today... I can safely say your fear isn’t unfounded.” The fatal shot that killed the man rang in her ears again, causing her to close her eyes sadly. She had released Violet then, too shocked to pull. She was surprised to see the girl hoist Rose up single-handedly, although it was likely a feat of adrenaline. Twinkle had assisted the last bit, being unable to help herself from taking a look down below. She remembered sobbing at the broken body below. The sobbing of the girl as she clung to Violet’s chest.         She had helped close the wound, with whatever magic she had left. Bolstered Rose’s biological defenses and helped stop the bleeding. The rest was a blur. She had sat in the cabin, looking back at Rusty and Rose who rode in the back. Sighing, the mare opened her eyes at the sudden feeling of warmth on her face. Rusty brushed away tears that had appeared in her revelry. Blushing heatedly, the mare picked herself up quickly, the colt looking confused and slightly embarrassed at her sudden shift. “Sorry,” she mumbled, looking down at her hooves. “Look at me, feeling sorry for myself when I’m the one who’s come out of this smelling like rose-um. Daisies.” Her recovery was weak, but Rusty let it slide.         Returning to his hooves, the male pony winced at the pressure to his back hooves again, but held firm. Using his good hoof, he nabbed the cart’s handlebar and lifted himself back up to leading the vehicle, taking a moment to look over their assorted food. “Chips, vegetables nopony likes, some soda, aaannnd an assortment of probably horrible tasting whatits and whoosits. Fantastic.” Counting it all up, the stallion gave the mare a friendly smile. “Probably should get back to the girls. Can you open cans with your magic?”         Happy to change the subject to something more menial, Twinkle inspected the cans a moment before giving a curt nod. Satisfied, the Earth pony pushed the cart along toward the orange glow from the back of the store.         -----         Rose looked decidedly much better when the ponies returned with the food, a change that did not go without a few cautionary glances from the two. Catching their gazes, Rose sighed out through her nose, her eyes softening at the ponies. “I want to be sad for him,” she started, gathering the notice of Violet as she started. “I miss my brother a lot. But... it’s an old pain. I think... I think my heart knew he was gone a long time before he died. And I’m glad he no longer has to be like that.”         Violet leaned over, raising an eyebrow. “Are you sure? You could still be in shock...”         “Oh please, V, they only ever say that on T.V. I’m... sad, really. And I know I really shouldn’t even be sharing this with a bunch of strangers, let alone ponies and to-be-ponies, but hell, you’re the only good company I’ve had in months.” Rose had a smile on her face, pained, but not placed. Her conflicting emotions were clear, but she made no attempt to hide it. “It’s a happy-sad. You would have liked Richard before that, V. He was kind, almost idealist in his own little way. Naive, too. Felt that young love was the only thing that was really worth a damn. God he was such a fruitcake.” Rubbing her eye, she gave a gentle laugh. “Bastard on the bridge. Wasn’t my Richard. That man cut my foot open with a switchblade and tried to kill a bunch of decent people... and ponies in cold blood. I can’t say I’ll miss that man. A monster in my brother’s skin.”         Violet nodded slowly, returning to her neutral position, looking over her new friends. It felt a bit off, but then again, what did she know? She’d been couped up in a fog for three years. Her eyes shot open a moment when she realized she was older than she remembered she was. Her brain mulled over the thought that she’d get a huge break on her car insurance now, and Violet couldn’t help but snerk at that, luckily being missed by all others present. She looked about a moment as the ponies set themselves up comfortably on another bed, and Twinkle levitated some of the food around, Violet catching a bag of chips while Rose found herself with a bottle of ‘Dr. Thunder’. Shrugging, the humans opened up their processed food items, taking a moment to revel in the old flavors. “That’s something old,” Violet mused, a small smile on her face.         “Oi, to Richard. The old Richard you folks never knew,” Rose muttered, lifting her can of soda up. She got a few looks from the others, but they slowly nodded, accepting her toast.         “To the humans who live new life,” Twinkle added, levitating a small can of vegetables up in the air with a slight tilt. She always liked the small tip of the glass she saw from the humans in the Bureaus when they made their final toasts.         “To new friends,” Rusty smirked, enjoying his addition to toast. Twinkle gave him an appreciative look, which only served to bolster his smirk. The others eyes drifted toward the last of their group. The dyed-purple haired girl.         Violet smiled, raising her crinkling bag of chips into the air, giving each one of her companions a short look. Closing her eyes, her mind drifted toward thoughts of the future. “To new starts.”