Tales from a lost pony

by Zen Gale

Chapter 5: One step at a time

The sun rose slowly the next day. As it's rays fell upon the quarentined city the light passed through the barrier only to bathe the city in it's purplish tint. When the sun finally rose high enough for the rays to pierce through the windows of the clothes store Octavia woke with her ground in routine. She rose quietly and checked to see if her cello was still by her side. Thankfully it was, she sighed with the relief that she wouldn't have to do what she did the one time she awoke to find her cello in the process of being moved. Standing up she cranned her next to one side and then the other eliciting a series of cracks and pops from the stiff joints. Looking about the store her eyes fell on the only other source of noise in the room. A light snorring sound was coming from a red coat and hat laying on the floor, rising and falling with the sound.

Octavia walked over to the sleeping form and lifted off the hat to reveal a still soundly asleep Zen. Coughly lightly to clear her throat, "Zen, we'd best be going now, wake up." The sleeping Zen raised a hoof weakly and lightly flailed it at this before rolling over and mutterring something incoherent. "Zen, get up. It's light out and we need to get some ground covered," but he only seemed to start snorring louder. Octavia sighed before using a hoof to bring Zen's face back towards her, and then proceeded to send the other hoof across his muzzle with enough force to whip it back around and bounce off the floor. That had a very instant effect she speculated as the flabbergasted pegasus's eyes shot open.

"Oww! What the hay Octavia?" He started to rub the side of his face. "That really hurt ya know."

She replied while turning her head up slightly "Well, you wouldn't wake up."

"But did ya have to bounce my head off the floor?"

"It worked, didn't it?" When all she got was a annoyed glare she continued, "besides we need to get moving. The rest of city should still just be starting to wake up and I'd like to get on the move before somepony or something decides to check out this store."

"Oh, think this'll work for cover" asked Zen as he grabbed the hat and set it back on his head with a slightl flourish. "Doesn't look half bad if I say so myself."

"You couldn't have found something that didn't stand out so much?"

"Geeze are you alergic to a little fun?"

Octavia hesitated for a second. "No, I'm alergic to dying."

The moments hesitation however went by without being noticed. "Well sorry, but this isn't exactly where you'd go to get camoflauge clothes." At Octavia's disapproving look Zen went on, "And I'm the one dealing with being a monster here, so cut me some slack."

"Sigh, fine but if something does spot you and starts chasing us. You find your own hiding place."

"Heh, deal. So where are we going again?"

"The tower, we need to get some answers and that seems like the best place to get any." Octavia replied while walking back to her cello.

"Hmm, think I should grab a weapon?" Zen asked while remembering his first encounter with the grey earth pony.

"It couldn't hurt, just make sure you know how to use whatever you find. I've seen ponies try and swing things far too heavy only to leave themselves more vulnerable."

As Zen began to look about the store for a makeshift weapon something in his mind fought for attention. "Octavia, it keeps sounding like you were with some ponies before we met. What happened to them?"

Zen didn't see her freeze up, or hear the slight crack in her voice, but when she spoke it held enough of a different tone that he stopped what he was doing to give her a concerned look. "A turned attacked us. I got seperated. I'm not sure if they made it or not."

"Oh, I...I'm sorry, were any of them close to ya?"

"A few were. Some good friends from the ochestra." Her ears layed flat against her head as it drooped. "We might run into them if they survived. We were going to the tower as well."

"Well then what are we waitin for? Let's get going!"

"Wern't you going to grab a weapon?"

"Eh, nothing in here that wouldn't break to easily. I'll just keep my eyes open while we walk."

"Alright then, Let's...." Octavia's eyes widened. "Zen.....RUN!!" She yelled before turning around and sprinting to the door.

Zen looked at the mare in confusion before looking back to the rest of the darkened store. 'What the hay? Wait, dark store, there should be a circle of light from the hole I made. Where is...' His thought process ended as he looked up to see a pony's head looking back at him with a manic grin that revealed far sharper teeth than what should ever be in a ponies mouth. The rest of the head looked almost normal, but the neck it was connected too was long and streched downward like a serpent. The thing continued to look at him before rearing back slightly and lunging forward. Zen barely jumped to the side as the head struck the ground open mouthed. At the thought of the creature having just broken those teeth a grin spread across his face only to disappear a second later when the head rose, looked at him, and smiled again revealing it still had the entire set of sharp pointed teeth. As the head struck again Zen dodged before turning to the door and running towards it as well.

Bursting through he caught sight of Octavia running down a skywalk quite a ways ahead. Zen tried to spread his wings only to be met with an unfamiliar resistance. As he looked back he could see where his wings were trying to spread out under the coat that was unintentionally making flight an impossibility.

A feral roar drew his gaze upward to the top of the store to where the creature was. It wasn't much bigger than an average pony, but was deffinately longer. The body was elongated and wrapped about the store. With several sets of hooves dotted along it like a centipeed. At the tail twitched a large set of mandibles while at the other end the neck split showing that the creature actually had two heads. One was being pulled out of the hole in the stores roof while the other was looking at the pegasus with savage hunger.

When the other head finally pulled itself out of the store, the creature let out another roar from both heads and began to decend the building, it's dozens of hooves all clicking along the buildings surface. Zen turned and ran after the trailing form of Octavia while his wings still tried to work their way out of their cloth cage.

Ahead Octavia disappeared around a corner. Zen struggled harder to speed up, behind he could hear the monster catching up, giving him more than enough motivation to keep going. He rounded the corner he saw Ocatavia disappear behind only to have a second before his vision was obscurred by a rather familiar large black object. 'Not again,' he thought as he ran face first into the cello case.

The blow stopped his upper body instantly while the rest tried to continue it's forward momentum ending with the pegasus on his back. While Zen layed on his back stunned, Octavia wasted little time in dragging the semi-consciouse pony into the building she was hiding in. The creatures roars passed by closely, she even saw it's shadow on the far wall. It paused in front of the building, the shadows of it's twin heads dancing about as it search for it's prey. Octavia held her breath for what seemed to be hours before the creature twisted about and took off down the walkway, probably after soom other unlucky pony Octavia mused before turning her attention to the waking pegasus.

"Ugh, wah......ow?"

"Shhhh, it went away, but could easily come back." Octavia whispered turning back to the window. "We should probably wait for a little bit before moving on."

"Ugh, why did you hit me again?"

"I didn't hit you, I held out my cello and you ran into it. Besides I needed to stop you, and this cello case is heavy enough to stop most ponies."

Zen glared at her irritatedly before speaking. "Why do you even carry that thing around? There's got to be something lighter you could use."

She simply gawked at his question. "Get....Get rid of my cello? Why I never! I could never get rid of my cello. It's just too important." She said the last part of her outbust with a downward cast gaze.

"Then why swing it around like an oversized hammer?"

"Ugh, the case is enchanted to protect it from harm."

"Looks pretty shoddy to me. Sure it'll hold?"

"I know it will, this case was a gift from somepony who knows how important my cello is to me."

"Whatever you say."

"Hmph, I suppose I couldn't get you to understand. You're what a college student? Probably still too young and stupid to get it."

"Get what?.......Oh! You've got a special somepony, don't you?" He asked with a sly grin. "Must have been quite the stallion to capture your cold heart."

"I don't have a cold heart!" She snapped.

"You've hit me with a cello case, twice."

"And...it wasn't a stallion." She said in a much quieter voice while a small smile tugged at her lips.

"Oh? Wow, not only has Octavia finally said something without glaring at me," which did earn him a glare, but he continued without noticing, "but a mare has stolen her heart as well. I would have never guessed with how you are."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" This time Octavia was nearly yelling.

"Well, it's just that usually the aristocracy and higher ups usually embrace that traditional values crap."

"They havn't been the most accepting crowd..." Octavia sadly remarked.

"Huh? How so?"

"Sigh, it's not important now, let's just get moving again. If that thing was coming back it'd be here by now." Octavia said before re-shouldering his cello case, and walking towards the door.

"So, who is the lucky mare?" Asked Zen, Octavia didn't reply. "You're not going to leave me in the dark are you?" He asked, but Octavia was still silent as they once more set off down a skywalk, being sure to take a different path than the turned disappeared down. The duo trotted past broken buildings and downed airships as they made their way deeper into the cities heart.

Despite the destruction, the city was eeriely quiet as to two walked on. The silence stretched on well past a point of awkwardness until Zen felt compelled to speak. "Is this mystery mare the reason you're trying to hard to get out of here?"

"Yes."

"Great, and we're back to the simple emotionless remarks."

"Then change the subject."

"Why? It's not as if I care who you choose to date."

"You don't?"

"Why should I, let alone why should you care? In your own words I'm a young and stupid college student." His statement laced with teasing sarcasm.

"Right, sorry about that. I've just caught a lot of grief and torment because of it. Even my career has suffered because of it."

"Eh, don't worry about it. You're not the first fillyfo-oh," Zen stopped mid speech when he noticed her glare. "Sorry."

"It's fine, just don't say that derogitory word again. Although, what about yourself?"

"What about me?"

"There a special somepony you're trying to get back to?"

"Oh, uh no. I mean there was a few cuties back at the tower, but I wasn't too close to a lot of them. Except Sugar...." Zen trailed off as his gaze fell in sadness.

"Who?"

"Sugar Song, she was a friend of mine. I'm not really sure what happened to her, but....it wasn't pretty."

"What happened?" Octavia asked showing genuine interest.

"That sphere of light, I don't know, disolved her? Whatever it touched it erased, or disintgrated. Either way, she's gone." Zen stated with obvious irritation, "Let's just change the subject."

"Okay," Octavia said but her mind had gone blank from the sudden shift in Zen's demeanor. Just as silence was beginning to dominate the area Zen spoke up.

"Sorry."

"For what?"

"For snapping at you, guess I'm still in a bit of shock."

"Now now, it's no problem. I shouldn't have pushed you to talk about it."

"Okay then. Subject change, you play the cello, professionally?"

Octavia swelled with pride as she answered. "Why yes, I've played in the grand symphony orchestra, as well as being comissioned to play at a variety of other highly reputable establishments. I've even had the prestigious honor of playing at the Grand Galloping Gala a few times."

"The Grand Galloping Gala?" When Octavia nodded he continued first with a whistle, "Wow, so that means you've met the three princesses?"

"Well, Celestia and Luna I've had the incredible pleasure of having a full conversation with. Princess Twilight however I have met, and recieving her compliments are always an honor, but she always seemed to be burried in a list of some sort. It's almost a bit off-putting how she can be addressing you without ever actually looking at you."

"I'd heard she can get a bit caught up in those lists. Course running Magi-tech, that kind of organization probably helped a lot."

"Still, it'd be nice to have her actually look at the pony she was talking to."

"I know that story."

Octavia shot him a questioning glance, "you've met her in person as well?"

"What, oh no, but working in a lab with a bunch of scientist who are far too busy with their work to look at anything else, unless its in frustration at questions. They never did seem to get that we were just interns and didn't know everything."

Lightly chuckling Octavia replied "you have no idea how many directors have that same mind set."

The two continued their conversation as they walked further into the destroyed city. Light laughs occasionally worming their way in almost as often as awkward silences. Oblivious to the dangers they were walking towards or the ones that were watching from a broken window.