Equestria Delivery

by JLB

Chapter 5: Denial. END OF PART 1

Ditzy stood on shaky legs, breathing heavily, eyelids coming down to protect her eyes from the noxious vapor filling the storage room. She took a few uneasy steps, wobbling at the knees, reeling at the blur and swirling in her head. Her hooves bumped into the many half-rotten rags and boxes that littered the floor, nearly sending her plunging back onto the dead body she had been standing over. An errant hoof landed on the disheveled homeless pony's sickly blue, stubbled, beaten, bloodstained snout, which used to be brown. It crushed the corpse's morbidly soft jaw and the slurpy crunch echoed in her ears.

The mare tried to gasp, ending up retching from a foul presence in her throat. Tearing up at the eyes, she looked over the room, filled to the brim with trashed, decaying objects, most of them covered in organic refuse. Stumbling, she made her way to a shuttered door, through which rays of scorching sunlight poured into the cramped room. Having seen the sun, Ditzy found herself sweating and swiveling ever harder, as her body caught up with the sweltering heat.

Holding her breath, the pegasus pushed against the door and got it open. The rush of air made her lose balance, and she fell flat on her snout, meeting the harsh stone of the roof. Weakly, the mare rolled over, closed her eyes and took a few careful breaths. Her tongue tasted fresher air, her eyes no longer teared up, and the dark orange glow in front of her eyelids got more defined.

With a breath of relief, Ditzy let air in through her nose. It tasted the irritation of ash, compounded by the sickly sweet smell of plastic and glitter set aflame. Her ears twitched as she listened to the many low grumbles of the flames devouring the buildings nearby. Her eyes opened and looked straight into the sea of moons.

“It should be easy to tell what’s wrong with a pony,” a distant, distorted, deep feminine voice said to her. “We all have skeletons in our closets. Your closet is different.”

Ditzy got up and felt the vaporous touch of the night air among the devouring flames, now ever more distant. Her hoof touched her snout a few times and her eyes darted back and forth, examining the flat rooftop, moving along in unison.

“You’re a very troubled individual. Ponies like you seek help.”

The pegasus turned to glance behind her back and saw a lower crossing. She made her way there, finding herself surrounded by tall cages, littered tiling and the sounds of birds. Her heart beat faster, ears flattening, no longer hearing the idle gurgle of the hungry fires. She walked on, her own shadow projected onto the cages by the four moons in the sky.

“If you want to make things right, we should start with why help has to come to you instead.”

Sensing the voice come from behind her, the grey pegasus turned quickly and found herself looking at the same image, but with an end to the row of cages and bird seed on the ground. The aviary now ended in a glassed, reflective balcony, behind which only inklings of the great fire were seen. Looking down on a lower crossing, forehooves hanging off the railing, was a tall equine figure with both wings and a horn. Its mane sparkled and flowed in place despite the stillness of air within the walled in aviary.

“You know what is happening. You can speak here.”

The pegasus touched her throat, knocking on it a few times, feeling the delayed, distant response. She stared at the figure, which lazily motioned with its hooves, casting bird seed below, causing the echoing noises to intensify. Ditzy stood still, her eyes drilling into the back of the figure’s head. Neither of them did or said anything else. Steadily, the fire devoured more and more of the environment.

“I’m trying to see how you deal with this. I’m… feeding the birds,” the figure said with a sigh, dropping yet more particles downwards. “Look if you want to.” It slid away to the side, staring at Ditzy without moving its head.

Rapidly, the grey mare walked up to the balcony and bent over it to look down, squinting to make out the lower section in the darkness. Both her and the figure watched the birds silently as the great orange flood spilled over more and more of what was behind the glass. The pit was barely visible, but the pegasus saw it in familiar parts. She watched the ducks fight over bits, an owl sat on a perch and stared behind the glass, and a vulture lay pecked to giblets by smaller birds around it. A rooster’s slashed throat sprung out blood. A disemboweled penguin lay twisted by the glass screen. Only a magpie, a hawk, a raven, a crane and an albatross sat atop the blue-faced, disheveled, decayed body of a brown stallion, in the rotten apart pores of which birdseed kept dropping.

“Do you really think all this is necessary?” asked the figure, turning to the pegasus with its enlarged, lifeless rubber head. “Your problems can’t be fixed right away. But you can listen to what there is to say.”

Ditzy’s forehooves shuddered. She rubbed them together and gasped for breath. The noxious, ashen air filled her lungs, making her cough. Her eye twitched and she nearly missed a tiny toy dove within her grasp. Breathing heavily, the mare tucked it under her wing and began to walk, limply, stuffily, away.

“Ditzy?..”

Trying her best, the grey pegasus limped on, but felt restrained evermore. Rough straps constricted around her chest, while her wings were bound with thick cloth.

“You can’t do that here.”

She stopped.

“Why do you think I came to you?”

She ran.

Her eyes adjusted to the darkness, blinking rapidly, seeing only the glisten of metal and tile. The air was damp and lacking. It pressed down on her as much as the thick cloth around her limbs, whereas thick layers of ash filled in the corridors. The mare trotted stiffly down the cramped interior, shuddering as she stared at the environment. Glowing metal spikes emerged from rubber walls, damp rot coated every surface, and the bright orange paint peeled away from the flame. Every path led down sharp, padded corridors.

Ditzy paused, seeing another creature there alongside herself. At first there was one, then three, then over a dozen, almost blocking the corridors. Dark, distorted, misshapen equines, their sterling white outfits contrasting with the featureless black and the crooked fangs. As soon as she saw them, the ash, the smell, the restraints and the haze faded away.

“Ponies like you seek help.”

The nearest creature glanced at the mare with its bright, flaming eyes and opened its mouth, charging for her. It pursued her through more turns and corners, attracting more equines who joined the stampede of dark hooves on tile.

The stuttering mare in the lead pressed on, always just a corner ahead. The further away she got, the more the environment changed. Flames spread further, illuminating the rooms along the way - cells, offices, lockers, a walled off cafeteria. Firefly fire alarm sirens on the ceilings glowed bright red.

A chair sailed through the air from around the corner, striking the nearest creature on the head with a devastating crack. It fell to the ground, slowing down the other monstrosities. Once they cleared the obstacle, they kept dashing after her, where the leading creature received a kick to the face, and gave a piercing howl before its body simply shattered. Its pieces hit the floor with a deafening clatter, but the rest of the horde were undeterred.

They chased the pegasus down a lengthy corridor, only ever seeing her as she passed more sources of fire and glowing lamps. She limped, but limped quickly. They had the advantage of speed, but whenever one would reach her, a swipe of their crooked hooves would be avoided by the mare, and the assailant would be violently thrown aside - often into fire, where they scorched and sizzled, or into the omnipresent electrified spikes, which would pierce through them with a crunching sound.

“If you want to make things right… You are wasting everyone's time.”

By when the pursuing creatures were whittled down to a half, the corridors had visibly changed. They became brighter, more illuminated, less cramped. The fire was stronger, consuming each padded wall, although it stopped spreading. The few other creatures that appeared again often did so in other rooms, the doors of which refused to budge. By the time they broke out to join the thundering chase, the mare was already past them. Twitching in place, creaking with each movement, they cracked their necks in confusion.

Half a dozen of the large fanged things had gathered in a narrow doorway the pegasus had passed through, which led to a room that had no visible way out. It was big, elevated, full of papers, drawers, and lockers. The creatures shoved themselves against the door, and when it finally gave, it swiveled outwards instead, smashing through them where they stood. The mare emerged from behind it, no longer wearing her rags, only a bright, glowing object attached to the side of her forehoof.

Just as the first of the creatures got back up, the last to get knocked down had already had their heads quickly crushed, or their bodies thoroughly fried by the sparks emitting from the object strapped to the mare's hoof.  A stray foreleg swung at her and she backed away before rebounding onto her hind hooves and flinging herself right at the assailants, knocking them back down, their rib cages cracking in he process. Rapidly, she brought her armed foreleg down on their heads, keeping it there to fry them one by one. Within moments, all of the equines were reduced to charred remains, while the mare was already galloping toward a big gate outside. She rammed it open without skipping a beat and escaped the confines of the building.

“You are a very troubled individual.”

Outside, more creatures awaited her, all of them identical to the ones inside. The first pair approached as soon as she was through the gate, quickly being rushed down, their throats getting crushed at the same time with a direct, forceful buck. Long, sharp objects were attached to their sides. They sizzled and disintegrated soon as their carriers died, not giving the mare any time to repurpose them as weapons.

She ran through wide streets and below tall structures consumed by flames, all of them swarming with the dark creatures. Senseless noises filled the air as droves of the attackers filled the sky, seeming to crash into one another just to create the racket. The former white of the stones was drowned out by the deep orange glow of the fire and the dark swarm of the invaders. They crept through the streets and alleys, and the mare would crash into them, violently dispatching whoever got in her way. Some lasted long enough to try and get a blow in, but the pegasus simply hopped back or shoved them to the ground before they could finish. She stomped on their heads, crushed their throats, and smashed their chests, continuing on without a halt.

The mare proceeded on rooftops, smashing idly standing monsters against the railings before they could react, flinging their bodies over the side and onto the pavement. Above them, a glowing purple orb came to life, growing with ecah moemnt, failing to brighten the environment, but highlighting the mare’s rampage through the invaders’ ranks. Few remained to stand in her way - although hundreds were amassed in a mess of colors near the orb's origin, not far below from the rooftops. There was a white marble palace there, charred and smoked, hardly visible behind the innumerable figures and blurry colors. The mare sped past it without a glance, rushing onwards.

Her advance only paused when she saw a larger creature. It was even darker, with a massive horn on its head, jagged and crooked like its fangs. They were both longer, sharper, reaching past its chest. It had large, gaping green eyes, which drowned out all the color and darkness nearby. It stood on a balcony, staring into the chaos, and did not bother turning around to see the mare speed by. The smaller beings that surrounded it took off in the mare’s direction, following her through a flaming marketplace, while the large creature disappeared in the explosion of colors at the square.

Those who followed, despite using their wings and long weapons, failed to dispatch the mare. She struck from around corners, smashing her body into theirs and making them crumble from the impact. By the time she emerged from the snaking pathways, none remained. She began to approach a plaza, with a broken fountain, ruined statues, and crushed archways. The pegasus stared at it for a few seconds, only moving to buck one last creature as it attempted to rush her from behind. Its head shattered, and she galloped forward, to where a bright green light was emitting near the collapsed arch.

“You can’t.”

She ran even faster, hooves ringing sharply on the cobblestone, eyes set on a point in the distance as it began to lose definition. The glowing, lightless sun above her spun in the sky, counting days within seconds. Eventually, the pegasus had taken half-flight, using her wings to propel herself. Ash and debris littered the air around her, although she never took a breath.

Ditzy only made a sound when a crushing, sharp blow hit her in the face, making her convulse. She hissed in pain, gurgling. Her gurgling turned into choking, and her forehooves went for her throat as a wide, unceremonious gash split it open.

“Then keep feeding the birds.”

Ditzy lay in a tangled mess of her bedsheets and blanket, a torn pillow coating her with tiny feathers. Her chest heaved and her limbs shivered, eyes twitching. A small statue of a pigeon, which formerly stood next to the alarm clock on the drawer, had rolled beside her, covered in a few drops of blood. The alarm clock itself hung over the edge on its wires, dangling above the mare’s head, its glass broken. Brightly colored linens, dragging all the way from the bed to the floor, were covered by a tinge of red in places.

A heavy rasp or gurgle came with each breath from the mare, whose eyes stared blankly at the ceiling, unabated by the searing light from the window. Her forehooves escaped from the linens that entangled them, letting her touch her throat. A series of weak coughs came out. Ditzy rubbed a small bruise on the side of her head.

She lay there for some time, until another coughing fit overtook her. The good eye kept watching the idle fan on the ceiling, while the bad one rolled off to the side. Tears welled up in them from how long she kept them open, so the mare slowly closed them and gave a labored sigh. Parts of her body still twitched weakly, too stiff to move.

The door to her room creaked faintly and swiveled open.

“Mom?.. Mom?!”

What parts of the pegasus were not numb suddenly felt a little warmer, though they still convulsed. She tried to wave her foreleg, but only ended up pushing against her own throat, eyes clenched in pain.

“Oh, oh, oh shoot… No, no, not again… Okay, calm down!”

Just as the pegasus’ throat seemed to have cleared, a sore, rending coughing fit took her over, as if all of the dust in the room had settled within her mouth. She tried to tilt her head upwards and keep her airways clear, but her muscles did not respond. Her eye widened when she faintly felt a pair of little hooves help her instead, and she gasped for air. To the best of her ability, Ditzy let her body relax.

“Okay… okay… how did I do it last time? H-how did I do it last time?! Okay! Right, right, right… R-right…”

Another seizure had a massive cramp spread through her body, tensing muscles up to where they rubbed painfully against each other, so tight that the bones threatened to snap. With all the effort she could muster, as well as a good deal of help from the filly, she kept a steady breath and intact bones.

“It’s okay, it’s all fine, it’s okay, it’s all fine, it’s okay-it’s okay-it’s okaaay…”

The mare was almost hit by another seizure, foam starting to form in her mouth, but somehow, her body managed to calm down. Despite immense pressure, it did not cave to the twitching impulse and remained still. Only heavy breaths, panicked sobs, and the outside noises of a beach on Sunday filled the room.

“See? See, it’s all okay. You, you always get through it okay. There’s… there’s nothing to worry about. There’s never anything to fear. I’m… I’m okay, you’re okay. Please be calm. Please be okay…”

Ditzy coughed up the last of the foam from her mouth before pulling the child in for a hug. She returned it happily, ignoring the sweat covering her mother all over. They lay next to each other, both sighing happily, surrounded by sweaty, blooded bedsheets, banknotes of foreign currency having spilled from the drawer, the disconnected alarm clock still hanging by its wires, and a police siren sounding off in the distance.

...that at least six more locations had been subject to highly facetious activity, are less than founded. In my editorial, and personal, opinions, while the post-Wedding War fear had fueled our paranoia rightly, this is no longer the time for drastic conclusions. According to the CCPD, there is nothing tying together the incidents at Dasher Station, the Belle docks and multiple locations at Starling Avenue. The devastation of the Seashore Suites Hotel and the carnage at the Griffon-Equestrian Deposits Bank, also roped into the discussion by many panicking individuals, have been clarified and confirmed, being an issue of great discomfort for us all. The severe damage to our city that was done, and continues to be done, is massive.

However, I ask not to be misunderstood - I bear no lack of respect for those damaged in the tragedies brought on us by the deplorable post-effects of the Wedding War and the ensuing atrocity inflicted upon our lost brethren. Yet, it is not this that I intend to touch upon, but the decline of our morale, manifested in the dangerous, panic-inducing rumors that would best be dispelled. Unfortunately, is the as of yet unconnected incidents that rile minds the most. Even the exact nature of those incidents differs greatly, as the forensics experts and active officers had stated and proved. The only link between the, undoubtedly, horrendous happenings, are the body counts of our innocent citizens. This is doubtlessly a cause of major concern, as such violent sprees are a nation-wide precedent we would wish to leave in the past. The severity of the situation, compounded by the undisputed fact that those protected by the Prejudice Rock pact happened to be within each area, no doubt gives our police department plenty of motivation and leads.

Whoever continues to perpetrate the disgusting rumors of our peaceful citizens performing streaks of vicious mob killings is simply showing disrespect for the lives lost and damaged. Disrespect for the police officers that undertook a number of the operations assigned to the nonexistent, exaggerated killers. I would even risk saying that the terrorist organization ES/AS, which has recently begun to take root in this city, deserves a small amount of it, as they too have been striking the mob, if even for unethical, intrinsically wrong reasons. Be it the virtues of our police, or the ruthlessness and unponylike abuse of technology, there has indeed been much damage dealt to the already waning criminal underworld. It is insane to consider that a group of regular citizens wearing masks and armed with random objects could stand a chance against the vile Tunnel Snakes or their like. More troubling yet is the increase in vocality among proponents of this idea, all too similar to the public unrest that preceded the events in Packsmulle and San Franciscolt. However, one thing has to remain in all our minds, even as the worst of fortune seems to have befallen the city.

We did not emerge victorious from the terror and paranoia of the Wedding War by being rash, or disorganized, or apprehensive. We were a whole, and yet we were individuals, each of our own, beautiful in our own right. Through this intricacy and unity, we secured our future. It would be unfitting for any of you proud citizens of Equestria, of Carol City, to discard those values and give in to scurrying like a brood of hens without a rooster. Remain alert, remain thinking and remain aware.

Remain open to all possibilities, both the best and the worst. Our goal remains to keep nothing hidden and tell nothing but the truth, to prevent noxious speculation. For this reason, I would like to announce that next week we will have had a conversation with a certain controversial figure, a pony involved in the investigation of the incidents that had been plaguing Carol City: a former officer of the CCPD, whose identity will remain anonymous, who has come forward claiming to have the answers to the questions that have been plaguing this city. Paranoid overthinking, inconclusive evidence, or a bright spot in a web of ignorance?

Whatever and whoever, if anything, is behind this, remember that we are all a wholesome unity of wonderful individuals, and nothing will change that.

Chief Editor Willow Wings and Interspecies Relations Expert Gabriel Engels