Once a large city, now nothing but a manufacturing wasteland… yet it is labeled as one of the cleanest places to be. Compared to everywhere else, it definitely seems that way; you could actually see the ground and look up and see the tops of some tall buildings.
My father knew someone who was able to let me rest in their home if I ever needed it… and right now, I may as well. At least from down-below, Canterlot is concealed above the thick grey clouds that rested just above the bottom of these mountains. I don’t quite remember his name, but all I knew was that this mystery friend that I never met used to work for F&F, but has recently been in hiding.
Keeping my eyes ahead, I could hear around me conversations interrupted with coughing. Mucous coughs, pained, dry coughs, not a minute passed by without one interrupting someone’s talking. Cries of young foals and fillies, who's coughs tugged heartstrings of those who could hear it… especially mine. It wouldn’t be long until the population dwindled down, as the apocalypse of Equestria seemed to have already started. Passing by eroding shop upon green, rotting acid-stained store and café, most of them either turned into livable shops to sell the bit-hoarding twin’s goods.
Ponies darted past me with no care as to where they were going, as I arrived near the center of the city, barely on the outskirts of the colossal factory “skyscrapers” that seemed to reach to the mountaintop. Once all grey metal, now covered in soot and slowly rotting away from nature’s curse.
I lowered my scarf down a little. The smoke was not as bad the closer you got to a main factory unit… and that’s probably the only positive fact about this place. Looking up, the tower was all black, with small silhouettes of the ponies outside of the building, working to keep the factory from falling apart.
Sirens blasted through the air, ponies started rushing past me as a loud bang in the distance in the factory. My hooves told me to run, but my guts forced me to stay still, that if I ran, I would miss my chance.
A shadow appeared through the fog and quickly became bigger as it was only a blur as it passed me. Shouting being heard in the distance. The figure fell to the ground after tripping not that far away from where I was. They looked behind them with wide eyes at incoming, hurried hoofsteps of the guards. If I knew any better, that would be my cue to get the heck out of Dodge.
But I’m not at Dodge Junction, and this was my time to send a little message to the brothers.
As three or four more armor-clad shadows of guards came out of the fog and pursued after the pony, my horn glowed bright as I closed as my eyes. I firmly grabbed the ground, a loud whoosh was accompanied by the guard’s grunts as the attack stunned them in their place. I skidded a few feet backwards before I opened my eyes, only taking one look at the paralyzed ponies on the ground before looking back at the once-fleeing figure. They got back on all fours and looked right at me, surprised that I attacked the guards. It was a stallion, although their colors blended in with the brown fog and the only thing I can distinguish was their blue eyes and that they were carrying a knapsack in their mouth.
And of course, the first feature they saw on me was my tails… always the tails…
“You’re…”
“-that one pony who got her tail and lungs ruined, yes.” I huffed and glanced back at the guards, who were starting to shift their legs to stand up again, “RUN!”
I heard his hoofsteps catching up behind me as we ran far down the street, my heart pounding at the rush of the shouting. The sirens still blaring overhead from the factory, along with the near dodging of the approaching guard’s flashlights. I wanted to speak to them as many questions went through my mind, but now was not the time.
“Any place you know you can hide?” I asked, the guards shouted behind us as they attempted to follow through the dense fog.
The stallion nodded and took the lead as we took a sharp turn to another street, then again leading me to an alleyway with a door at the end. Both of us panted from the sudden run, my eyes scanned the area while my ears swiveled around for incoming danger. The lights still flashed from the guard’s harsh flashlights, talking on their walkie-talkies of an “escapee”.
“Thanks… by the way…” I heard him say, breath finally coming back to him as he put down the bag.
I smiled, “Not a problem…” Wait… his cutie mark… “Time Turner?”
He looked up at me at the name, “Wait… you know my name?”
I’m not the only one who can’t remember names and appearances off the top of their head…. feels good not to be alone. “Does the name Atlas sound familiar?”
He looked down in thought and had that lightbulb moment. “You’re his daughter?”
I nodded and sort of rolled my eyes, “…Yet another one who sees me as a celebrity, and yes…” I looked back at my furless, snake-like tails. One of them being as long as me and purple, the other one being shorter and a toxic green. “I know I’m not the same as many might remember a famous explorer’s daughter looking like.”
Time Turner looked at me with sympathy, “I’m sorry-”
I had to cut him off, “No need to apologize, it wasn’t anyone’s fault exactly… well… besides the brother’s that is.” I looked towards the door, “We should probably continue this inside…”
“Oh! Yes, right, of course.” He knocked at the door, “Dinky, I’m home~”
Tiny, excited hoofsteps could be heard on the other side. The door opened, and a filly appeared on the other side who used her magic to grab the doorknob. She smiled up at Time Turner, then turned her golden gaze towards me, taking a step back in fright at the sight of me. Or, more so at my tails. “It’s alright, she helped me get out.” He reassured her, grabbing the bag again before we made our way inside.
The door quietly closed behind us, and the filly named Dinky looked up at me, unsure what to make of me. “You h-helped Daddy?” Her innocent voice asked, still staying a cautious distance away from me before a high-pitched sneeze escaped from her lungs.
“Yes, some guards started chasing after him…” I looked towards Time Turner, who put the bag to the side and put something on a desk. Some sort of gas mask. “What’s that?” Now I was just as curious as the filly was about me.
Dinky’s eyes seemed to glow with joy as she ran up and tried to reach for the mask, but it was a bit too far into the desk. A bit too far for Dinky’s hooves to get a firm grip. She sat down on the floor in defeat as Time Turner made his way to my side and kept his voice low, “Watch.”
Dinky looked at him for a moment with a ‘Can I?’ expression, and he nodded back. Turning back to the mask, the filly shut her eyes tight, her horn glowing in sync with the mask. It budged a little before…
“Ah… achoo! Ouf…” She fell forward, sniffling and standing up only to give out a few more high-pitched sneezes, the glow of the levitation spell now disappeared. Dinky looked up at the item again, now with a look of determination. Her horn glowed yellow again and focused on the mask, it now slowly making its way towards the filly before falling off the desk, it being caught just an inch off the ground. The magic made it float towards her and placed it on top of her head sideways before she turned to us with a wide smile, “Ta-da!”
Time Turner chuckled, and I couldn’t help but raise a hoof to hide a smile. She’s adorable, and may be that one filly in her class that makes her teacher smile as well in these dark times. He walked over to the lavender filly and adjusted the mask, with her fidgeting from being able to do something that I guess was very difficult for her to do.
“And… there!” Time Turner backed away a step.
The mask was exactly like I sort-of predicted, except with a hole at the top for the horn that looked like it was cut out and not part of the original mask. The mask was leather and looked a bit uncomfortable on her, but it didn’t seem to bother the filly as I could hear a faint whirring sound coming from the mouthpiece. She squealed and bounced around both me and Time Turner in a figure-eight fashion, “I can breathe I can breathe I can breathe~!” Her voice was muffled a little by the mask, but her excitement refused to be distorted.
I couldn’t help but giggle at her actions, and once she came around back to me I put my hoof on top of her head, stopping her hopping around, “You may want to be careful before you may end up damaging that.” I warned, and she looked up at me and nodded before making her way to a heavily patched-up sofa to the left of us and hopping down on it, a few more built-up giggles still escaping her.
“Is she yours?” I asked, turning to Time Turner as he stood beside me again.
He shook his head, “Not exactly, I’m more of her caretaker. A… close friend of mine is her mother, but she left a while back to work in Ponyville as a mail carrier… and I agreed to look after Dinky while she was away.”
“How long has it been?”
Time Turner looked down and sighed, “A year has passed, still no word from her.”
“Same here for my parents… usually we send letters to each other, but as of late I never really got to see them that much.”
“Your father… I can’t believe after all this time, he still has the energy to stand up through all this mess,” he managed to laugh at that, “For as long as I’ve known him, he never really lost a chance of doing something just for the sake of doing something.”
I rolled my eyes, and it did not help the fact that I still had more questions… more of them being what the heck happened. The house… or what looked like more of an apartment but on the ground floor… was still dusty with little furnishing to it. There was a small, wired old TV across from where Dinky is, and the rest of the room we were in was mostly just boxes that seemed to be hastily thrown there.
“Who are you?” Dinky’s muffled voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I turned to her, the filly’s front hoofs on the back of the sofa as she stood on her hind legs. “... n-not many ponies have that…” she pointed at my mutated tails. The tails I wished to hide, as they often were the first thing that grabs others attention.
“I’m Evelien.” I said, seeing that Dinky wasn’t as nervous around me anymore… and as I said that, she climbed down and walked over to me, getting a closer look at my tails. If it was anyone else, I would’ve backed off… but she was only curious, and what could a little filly really do?
“...what happened?” Dinky looked up at me, her curiosity mixed with just a bit of sympathy. It did look like it hurt.
The question seemed to grab Time Turner’s attention as well as he stepped back into the room, probably just about to get Dinky away from asking any more questions. "It's alright, I’m used to it.” I reassured him, smiling slightly as he nodded back, but stayed where he was.
I returned my attention to the filly, her eyes looking impatiently into mine. I didn’t want to destroy her innocence, as memories of what happened so long ago flashed through my mind. Suffering for weeks inside a hospital room, not being able to move without agonizing pain, a million needles stabbing around the base of my tail…
“Evelien?”
“Huh?” I looked down at Dinky, who’s voice once again brought me out of my thoughts.
“You were spacing off again~” she giggled, her tail swaying side to side excitedly, “Story~?” She asked again as she expected me to be an elderly pony sharing “when I was your age” stories to a group of ponies her age.
Ironically, I did feel like that as I was her age when that happened.
“... there isn’t that much to tell, actually…” I wanted to keep it to where I would satisfy her curiosity… but not traumatize the poor filly over something that happened to some stranger before she was born. “Near my old home, there was a small, hidden cove near a river, and me and my friends like playing in that cove… we were all about your age. One time, I was racing a couple of my friends to the cove, and I got there first. Once I sat down though near the edge of the water, my tail got soaked and it started hurting badly.”
“Did you have to go to the doctor?” Dinky’s eyes widened in concern as her head tilted to the side slightly. I nodded.
“Yes. My friends saw me and one ran to get help while the other stayed behind to pull me away from the water. I had to stay in bed for a very long time afterwards before I was able to move again… even with the doctor’s help, all they could do was keep the infection from spreading to the rest of my body. Turns out the cove was contaminated with acid, really nasty stuff if it gets inside you.”
“Yuck!” Dinky made a face of disgust, and I couldn’t see much behind the mask besides her eyes squeezed shut. Golden eyes looked back up at me for a moment, more curiosity peeking through her voice. “Does… does it hurt now? Can you move your tails?”
“It doesn’t hurt anymore, luckily the pain went away a long time ago.” I moved the longer, purple tail and swayed it slightly side to side, the green tail stayed in place as I grabbed a nearby box. The tail curled around it, barely wrapping around it once as I picked it up before it slipped and fell back to the floor. “... I’m still practicing how to use it, as I can’t feel anything. I just know there’s a muscle there and that I can feel the pressure, but not much else.”
Dinky’s gaze looked over what I was doing with my tail, “You.... can’t feel anything?” She walked over and gently placed a hoof on my tail, luckily not that close to the base. The mutation twitched a little in reaction.. She pulled away and stepped back, startled. “S-sorry I didn’t mean-”
“It’s fine… it twitches sometimes. It doesn't hurt.” I said, not wanting to frighten her.
The voices of news ponies caught me off-guard, and when my gaze shifted over to the TV, the camera changed to who the anchors claimed to be the P.R of F&F Co. She had a yellow-white coat, her maroon mane in a tight bun fastened to the back of her head, a poised posture and wearing that red vest every supervisor wears.
"The incident at the Canterlot factory will not be forgotten, as it is the first time this has happened for the past three years. The brothers do not see it as something to be concerned about. This 'Time Turner' will be brought to justice for what he cost that factory. I know his position, I know he was a great asset to the assembly of the gifts that the Flim Flam brothers have all given us - the best goods bits can buy in this world - but a rogue is a rogue. An outcast... or in this case, a thief."
My heart dropped. Dinky was also staring at the TV, her eyes wide in disbelief as she ran to a shivering and speechless Time Turner, sitting beside him on the couch and hugging him tightly. The TV spoke again as the pony on the screen continued. This time, her tone grew more stern, as she faced the camera and gazed down the lens... as if she knew she was speaking to said pony directly.
"If he dares to return, he will not be greeted with open hooves for betraying not only the factory, but the brothers and Equestria as well. He is no immediate threat. For now, his only label is a backstabbing, selfish robber, his targets only being buildings that belong directly to Flim and Flam Industries. Any further action from him will be seen and recorded, for the greater good of the company and those who live their lives helping others get the best care and products they can get. That is all."