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// 2 - Run 
// Story: Devil with the Silver Tongue 
// by Jigsaw 
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Run! the voice said.

Run! I obeyed.

The word repeated in my mind. I retraced my path, and somehow, I had subconsciously ran almost halfway to the train station. I analyzed the route I had taken, as well as the path forward, if only to keep my thoughts off the newly surging pain in my hooves.

I forced my way through panicked crowds as my hooves slammed on the ground and looked back, whether to find the mad stallion chasing me or the stranger whose voice sent me sprinting out of that alley.

I dabbed at the moistness on my cheek and, glancing at my hoof, realized it was still bleeding quite vigorously.

As I brought my hoof back to the ground, an orange mare began sprinting beside me. "Why are we running?" she asked, genuinely curious.

My breathing was only barely in control from the running, and I found it difficult to wheeze out my response, "What?"

Yeah, it was real slick. Apparently she saw the redness on my cheek, as she recoiled and exclaimed, "Whoa, what happened to your face?"

The situation was ludicrous, and one-word responses seemed to be all I was capable of. Either that or panic was keeping me from thinking straight. Either way, my response was still, "What?"

Her curious expression drifted into concern as she tried to put the pieces together. "Are you in trouble," she asked, "Can I do something to-" Her ears swiveled forward, her eyes jolting open as she yelled, "DUCK!"

Again, whether it was panic or sheer confusion, I obeyed. I dropped to my knees just in time to see a flash of blue inches over my head. I stayed there for a second before bringing myself to my hooves and continuing my sprint.

A few nearby ponies glared and swore at the passing pecgasus, and the mare spoke up again, "Whoa, who was that? You must've really pissed him off!"

I slowed my run and my breathing momentarily, and the two of us spoke in unison.

"Hey, listen. I've got to get to the train station," I panted.

"Alright, I'll get you to the train station," she muttered.

I stared at her for a moment before realizing getting out of town while a mad-pony is chasing you is a pretty common thought. I looked ahead, and reasoned that the repetition was a coincidence.

We made it another block before she spoke again. She grabbed me with a hoof and pulled me into a small antiques store, yelling, "C'mon! I know a shortcut!"

Still dragging me be the ear, she called out to the mare behind the store's counter, who waved back without looking up from her crusty book. We weaved through the store's aisles, and she nudged the back door open, dropping us off into the end of an alley.

She dropped me, and despite dragging a full-grown stallion through the store, she didn't seem at all tired. I, on the other hoof, lay on the concrete beside her panting.

"Wait," I breathed out between gasps for breath, "Who are you?"

"My name's Radar," she joyously replied, "You?"

"Silver Tongue," I answered with a nervous glance down the alley.

I slowly made it to my hooves, still gasping as I noticed a large red splotch underneath a hoof. It took me a half second to realize that the trail of red hoof-prints could trace me easily to the front of the store. Radar, by some miracle, had broken a trail I hadn't noticed.

While the situation was odd enough, she and I spoke in unison once again.

I turned to Radar and asked, "Could you find me a rag?"

Radar held a brown bath towel in a hoof, "Here, I found you a rag."

I snatched it from her hoof, and now genuinely wierded out, wiped the blood off my hoof and tied the makeshift bandage around my face.

"Alright," she said, already going to answer my next thought, "If we keep going down the alley, we'll end up about a block from the train station."

No single pony had confused me this much since that pink one from that old farming town. This mare was one of two who had ever confused me to the point of anger.

"Alright, how are you doing that?" I asked, trying to keep it out of my voice.

She shrugged, as if it answered everything.

"No," I said a bit more forcefully than I would have liked, "I need to know. How in the hay are you doing that?"

She responded with a little bit of fear, "I- I really don't know. I just, kinda do. I've always been able to do it. I can't really explain how."

"Seriously?" I half-said, half-yelled.

As if on cue, her body seemed to jerk. Her ears pointed up, and her eyes scanned the sky. "C'mon. We've gotta' go."

She ran off down the alley, and a half second after I realized what was happening, a midnight-blue comet crashed into the concrete in front of me.

The mad stallion pulled his head out of the concrete with a feral snarl etched upon his face, and his eyes seemed to stare into my very soul.

My mother would kill me if she heard what I said in response.

His head twisted, mouth clamping down onto the sword stashed in his cloak. The blade shrieked as it was pulled from its holster, and was whipped around to face my throat.

My mind raced to find a way out, my body twitched to find somewhere to run, but the stallion kept my body pinned in a corner and my mind full of fear. I shrinked back into the corner, trying to go anywhere- to do anything.

That was, until the stallion tried to yell through gritted teeth. Looking back, he was probably trying to say, 'It's time to die!', but what came out sounded like, "Ish tem tuh deh!"

In that second, enough fear dissipated for me to speak. "What was that?" I asked, stalling if nothing else.

He tried to speak with the blade in his mouth again, this time, "Ah sheh, ISH TEM TUH-"

I cut him off, "I really don't understand what you're saying!"

Fortunately for me, he was smart enough to figure out the problem. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't smart enough to think of the other options before he spat his sword out and started trying to speak again.

This time, I cut him off by sprinting past him in all my bandaged glory. He may have tried to yell something else after me, but I was already too far down the alley, and too ecstatic about my survival to care.

A block down, I replayed the events in my head. With every step I took, the funnier it became until I reached the end of the alley cackling like a mad-pony. That raucous laughter mixed with having just ran a quarter of the way through Manehatten left me gasping for air.

I dabbed at the makeshift rag covering half my face, and my laughter slowed. I composed myself and quickly scanned the crowd for Radar. I swiftly located the bouncing blob of orange attempting to see over the crowd, and I began making my way toward her.

As I crossed the street, I yelled, "Radar!"

She called out to me, "Silver? Are you alright?"

"I'm alright," I said, glancing at my surroundings, "Hey, you were right. We're just about a block from the train station."

She leaped over a couple passing stallions and ran toward me, "I'm so glad you're alright! I mean, I ran, and I thought you ran, but I got here, and you weren't behind me, and-"

"Radar!" I said sternly, quieting her rant, "I'm fine. Now, let's get out of here. We've only got a couple minutes before that stallion finds a way to ambush us. Until we get on a train, we are still in trouble." She nodded, and we began to jog down the sidewalk. "Hey, how many bits do you have on you?"

She snatched a small brown bag from nowhere and sifted through its contents. "About twenty, I think."She tossed me the bag, “Here. You need them more than I do right now.”

I smiled, “I’ve got plenty of bits from this afternoon. I’m just wondering how we’ll pay for your fare.”

She rolled her eyes, “Oh, come on. I’m just a secretary, what could I do?”

“First of all, I have a few questions I would like to have answered. Besides, you could detect that stallion before I ever could. You’re amazing, Radar! Why wouldn’t I want you?”

It was a lie, of course. Her sensory thing was incredibly useful, but I could think of reasons why she shouldn’t come with. At the moment, though, it would be best to have a little insurance. I smiled to accentuate the point, and she blushed. Secretary, poor self-esteem, and a power I can use.

“Ah, alright,” she said, “I guess I could come with, at least through the train ride.”

My smile widened as we approached the train station. Alright, this is great. Now, let’s get out of dodge. With a nervous glance behind me, I held the door for Radar as we made our way to the terminal. The cashier pointed us toward the hospital. I laughed.

“No, no. When is the first train leaving?” I asked sternly.

The mare stared at my reddening bandage for a moment before turning back to her ledger, “Uhh.. Let’s see. Ah, here we go. A train to Baltimare is leaving in five minutes. Tickets are, umm..”

She glanced at the terrified look on Radar’s face, then to my bandage, “You know what? I’ll pencil you in. You’re being, like chased or something, right?”

I laughed, “How’d you guess?” Great. Movie geek. Though, given the situation, he may supply us with something simply out of the ‘help the hero’ principle.

“It’s obvious, really,” she said, tearing off two tickets from the strip, “Here. Now, get going. Terminal number five.”

I thanked him and grabbed our tickets as we made our way into the terminal. We boarded the train just as the brakes released. I had just survived my first day on the run, and I was ecstatic.