Tales from a lost pony

by Zen Gale

Chapter 6: The new rules

High above in a destroyed building a pair of vibrant green eyes sat looking out at the destroied city, or more specifically the pair of ponies that currently slept on one of the skywalks. It had been watching the two ponies for a while now, following them for a couple of days. Now it had managed to wake up before they did, as usual, and was able to watch them for a while before the stirrings of the grey one signaled that she'd woken up. Now she'd have to be more careful. She'd been careful so far, but she still almost got caught once trying to steal some of the food they had. Now though she had enough food, but still she kept watching them. Slowly the grey one rose just a little bit after the sun itself had risen up into the sky. It was durring this time that it still followed out of curiosity, for the grey pony went to a large black weirdly shaped box, and opened it revealing the gleaming brown of the instrument inside. As the grey pony pulled out the instrument and she began to string together notes into a song with her eyes shut peacefully. It wanted to capture moments like these, to cherish them as the beautiful music drifted up the destroyed city scape. After a while the playing slowed before it stopped altogether. It's eyes opened in time to see the pony putting away the instrument, and a small sigh escaped from a set of unseen lips. It'd have to wait till tonight to hear that playing again, so it turned back towards the two ponies down on the walkway below and continued to watch them, for now.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Octavia looked through her saddlebags at the food they'd managed to scavenge so far. They'd been lucky being in one of the more residential areas at the start of their journey, even if it was really far from where they were going. At the rate they were going it was still going to take at least a 3 more days, and thats if they didn't have to double back to find a different route. Sometimes it amazed her that the city could grow so exponentially to the point where it had suburbs developing around it. All the more reason it made it impossible to believe that this crazy pegasus believed he'd actually survived a fall after being shot out of the magi-tech tower. That building was in the center of the city itself, miles away. Still no matter the truth it was helpful to have an extra set of hooves to travel with even if their owner did want to sleep in way too much.

"Zen, wake up. We need to get moving." A mumbled reply was all that escaped the crumpled pile of red clothing. "Zen, if you don't get up I'm going to continue testing the durability of that cello cases enchantment."

At that point the pegasus rapidly shot to his hooves wearing a paniced expression. "I'm up! I'm up!"

"Good" Octavia replied tossing him an apple. "Eat up we need to get moving."

"Whats the rush?"

"Just a feeling, and we're going to need to find some more food soon."

"Ugh, more scavenging."

"Oh be positive, maybe we'll find you something to actually defend yourself with."

"Maybe, maybe we'll finally run into some other ponies." Stated Zen beginning to brighten up as he ate.

"There we go, so let's get going." At Octavia's statement the duo trotted off along the sky walks. They passed by buildings and downed airships, eventually spotting a still standing resturant. "There, think it might have anything still safe to eat."

"Only one way to find out" replied Zen as he stepped into the lead. Pushing open the door brought the ringing of a bell, but they paid it little mind. Rummaging about the shelves they found some boxes of pasta, and some dried fruits. Both of which were quickly deposited into their saddle bags as well as a few bottles of cider. As they were getting ready to leave, Zen eyed the registar. Walking over to it, he hit it a couple of times.

"What are you doing!" Hissed Octavia.

"What's it look like? I doubt anyponie's coming back to get these. They'd be in better use with us."

"But."

"What? We're already stealing."

"But that's just what we need to survive. This....this is different." Octavia exclaimed, stomping her hoof to make her point.

"Sigh, fine I won't take them." Zen said as he looked about for a moment trying to find something else to talk about "Think that'll be enough that we can focus on travelling for a few more days?"

"Probably." Octavia said checking her own saddlebags. "This might even be enough for us to reach the tower, if we don't have to take any more detours."

"Thats good, this quiet is starting to get to me, and I'm dying for a change of scenery."

"I find myself in agreement. The broken buildings with bodies scene is getting rather old." Octavia remarked passively as she looked out the window. "Sometimes it all seems like a dream, all the destruction and death. Oh, are you still having those nightmares?"

After a few moments of no response Octavia turned to look at Zen. He stood still with his head down starring wide eyed at the ground before responding. "Yeah, they still happen. The darkness, the monster, that name...Zalgene? And they're only getting worse."

"Are you going to be alright?" Octavia asked taking a few steps towards the disgruntled pegasus.

Zen violently shook his head for a second before flashing smirk of a smile, "Don't worry I'll be fine. C'mon let's." 'tap.' The sudden noise drew both ponies attentions towards the front of the store where a bunch of ponies were walking past the store, each seemed to be carring some kind of weapon from just a few rocks and bricks to a official solar and lunar guard weapons.

"Oh my dear Celestia, Zen look, Other survivors!" Octavia excitedly exclaimed.

"Yeah, maybe we should be seeing if this place has a back exit." Zen said with much less enthusiasm and actually a bit of nerousness.

"Now why would we do that? Zen these are other ponies, not turned monsters. We should be rushing out to greet them, maybe we could even travel with them."

"Uh-hu, and did you not notice the weapons they're carrying? Octavia I really don't think..."

"HELLO! Hey we're over here, are you all okay? Hey..." At Octavia's yelling the group of ponies began to trot and then gallop towards the store, most holding their weapons high and ready to strike. "Uh Zen, why are they charging towards us like that? Zen?" But the pegasus wasn't in sight. "ZEN?!" Octavia shouted as the mob grew closer and she began franticly searching for her missing companion.

"OCTAVIA! Back here!" Zen suddenly called out from the back of the store. Octavia turned to see that Zen was halfway out a door in the back waving for her to come. She wasted little time in bolting towards the exit trailing just behind Zen. Together they fled the store with the crowd of ponies not far behind. Running down the maze of borken skywalks and through destroyed buildings the pair took every zig-zag turn they could in their atempt to lose their pursuers. Ducking into a building through a shattered window the pair hid while the noise of ponies grew and grew until they were sure the group had found them, and then the noise started to fade. When the commotion dropped to nothing but a faint echo the duo risked a peak outside at the now empty walkway.

Panting Zen spoke out first "I 'pant' I think 'pant' we lost'em. You alright Octavia?"

"Yeah 'pant' who 'pant' were those ponies?"

"I don't know 'pant' probably just some gang. We should move 'pant' try and get as far away from them as possible."

"Alright," Octavia replied as she rose to her hooves before Zen did as well. Cautiously they began to trot away from their hiding place. As they rounded a corner Zen hit the ground. Octavia turned to see Zen sprawled out, with his wings pinned by a large earth pony. "Zen!" Octavia yelled out as she raised her cello case to swing it at the mystery pony only for it to stop over her head. Octavia looked up to see her cello case surrounded in a lime green glow of magic. It began to rise before swinging about wildly, throwing the grey mare head first into a wall.

"Octavia!" Zen yelled out, but the mare didn't respond. "Octa," *THUD* The pony on Zen raised his hooves again. Bringing them down into another haymaker, darkness once more invaded Zen's mind and vision.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was dark. No, that was an understatement. This void was something beyond dark, like it actually drained away all other color till there was nothing left but a blackness devoid of any trace of anything.

Except that red light way off in the distance. 'That wasn't there before?' Cautiously, Zen tried to move closer to the only light in this bleak darkness. Slowly he approached the now pulsing red light. As he drew nearer the light he could see it was coming from some sort of mirror. At first Zen was merely starring at his reflection, moving about to see if the image would copy which at first it did.

When Zen tried to stand on one hind hoof the figure kept all 4 hooves planted and looked at the pegasus quizicly. Zen lowered himself down and began walking closer to the mirror. When he was close enough he reached out a hoof to touch the mirror. As the two hooves neared each other the reflections suddenly reached out taking Zen's hoof in a painful grip while a phycotic grin appeared on it's mouth displaying it's sharp teeth. Zen instinctfully pulled away, but the image only gripped harder and pulled Zen closer. The image's eyes split in the middle both horizontally and vertically forming red plus signs in it's eyes. From the intersection of red lines the color spread out turning the both eyes completely red.

"LET GO!" Zen yelled, but the image only pulled itself closer as Zen continued to struggle in it's grasp. Zen threw his other hoof out at the image, but it passed right through it's face and body, even the arm the held him couldn't be touched. "I SAID LET GO!!!" Zen screamed as he pumped his wings in a last ditch effort to get away from the terrifying image. For a moment the creatures arm was pulled taunt before it realed Zen back in. Face to face it spoke in a hollow raspy voice

"I am Zalgene, and you're holding onto something of mine. Something I want NOW."

"Wah?"

"GIVE. ME. MY. BODY!" Zalgene screamed as the flesh on his face pulled away, revealing a pony skull with two red glowing orbs for eyes and a web work of pulsing veins. Zalgene then threw Zen out into the void. Darkness swallowed him again, and into it he plunged.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Zen" a hushed voice sounded near him, but seemed so far away. "Zen." there it was again, but closer this time. "Zen, wake up already." That one got through...

"Ugh..wah, what happened?" Zen weakly mumbled. He tried to move, but found his limbs bound to his sides. His head was pounding, and there was something else he was leaning against, it felt warm.

"Finally Zen! I don't think I ever realized how much you snore."

"Octavia? what's going on, where are we?" Zen's cloudy mind slowly got up enough speed to realize he was leaning agaisnt a certain grey mare.

"That 'gang' of ponies ambushed us. One of the bigger ruffians nearly beat your skull into the stone. Now we're tied up, are you okay?"

"Not really, my heads pounding, I'm bound in a lunatic camp, and all our stuffs missing."

"Well the first parts are true, but our stuff isn't really missing, It's right over there." Octavia whispered before turning her head to the right, Zen's gaze followed and sure enough there was her cello case and their saddle bags a couple of yards away.

"Well, now we just need to get out of these ropes. You got some way to manage that?"

"Regretably not..."

"....Dang..... Any thoughts on what'll happen to us?" Zen inquired as he continued to squirm in the ropes. The only real success he was having was in making them tighter.

"Well, I only overheard some parts of what they were saying, but suffice it to say, it didn't sound all too pleasent." Octavia winced slightly as her own bounds were suddenly tightened from the stallions struggles. "Ow, would you quit struggling so much. Your just tightening the ropes and they're starting to hurt." At her protest Zen's struggling stopped immediately. "Well that was slightly unexpected, but thank you."

"Umm....Octavia..."

"Yes Zen?" She replied with slight annoyance at his continued questions.

"Do large shards of glass usually just float through the air." Zen said with rising worry creeping into his voice.

"What are you talking about Zen? Did they give you a concussion when they knocked you out, or are you just going crazy?" Octavia hissed at her companion's statement.

"No, I'm fairly certain there's a large piece of glass floating towards us." Zen said completely missing the sarcasim and inssult from Octavia. Octavia twisted her head around to where she could see Zen looking. Following his gaze, her eyes fell on a large piece of glass surrounded in a pale glow of magic slowly floating close the ground and towards the duo. Both ponies were watching in silence as it floated closer to them, pausing just for a moment to re-align itself before moving forward to saw through the rope bonds between them. With the faintest of snaps the ropes fell away. Cautiously lifting his limbs, Zen pulled away at the ropes before shifting over onto his hooves. "Well that was, unexpected?"

"I feel as though I've missed something." Octavia said still locked in shock at their new found freedom.

"Well, if ya don't get a move on, you're going to miss your chance at escaping." Zen spoke quietly but forcefully as he moved over to their belongings.

"Rrright," and with a brief shake of her head Octavia was up and joinging Zen's side as they went through their supplies. Once they made sure they had everything that was theirs, Octavia made to turn and leave hoisting her cello case onto her back.

"Where ya going? There's tons of stuff here." Zen said over his shoulder as he continued to rummage through the remaining supplies.

"The longer we stay, the more danger that we'll be caught."

"Thats why you should help me look through this stuff, it'll go faster."

With a huff Octavia made to turn around, ready with stronger counter argument, but she stopped mid turn as another voice echoed out from behind them both. "Oi, wot you two think ya doin?" called out the thickly accented voice an earth pony. The dulled copper orange of his coat was marred with dirt and scars, but did little to hide the thick muscles that laid beneath. The stallion bent down picking up a piece of piping before trotting towards the duo stopping only a short distance away. He continued speaking through his clenched teeth, "Now you's two are gonna step away from de stuffs, sit your stinking plots down over there, and we're gonna tie you's up again. Even think o' runnin, and I'll knock both of ya out cold."

Zen and Octavia had frozen, Octavia still in her mid turn looking franticly at the stallion, Zen looking over his shoulder with his back still to the other two. Neither moved a muscle at the stallions demands, nor when he repeated them. The copper earth pony snorted before walking up to Octavia who began to cower slightly as the towering stallion stood over her. "I's said MOVE!" he bellowed out swinging the pipe down on the Octavia.

The mare cringed at the coming blow, but the pain never came. There was still the sound of something solid hitting flesh and bone, and when Octavia opened her eyes she saw the Stallion doubled over with a hoof coving his left eye howling in pain. Blood was oozing out beneath the stallions hoof, dripping onto the ground around a bloody brick. In the next instant she heard Zen yelling her name before she felt him pulling at her hooves.

"C'mon Octavia, we gotta go NOW!" Zen all but yelled into Octavia's ear while trying to drag her away from the scene. A second later the pair were fleeing, Zen flying low to the ground and slightly ahead of Octavia who galloped hard to keep up. Behind them, the sounds of their attackers grew as the situation became aparent to more and more ponies.

"Zen" Octavia called up between pants, "where are we going, hay how can you see where you're going?" It was true that outside the decently lit camp, the city itself was mostly dark. A cloudly night like this with no moon or stars fro light left the city almost pitch black.

"I...I don't know," Zen replied while flying the fringes of doubt creeping into his voice. He flew a little farther, rounding another corner before stopping abruptly. "There Octavia," She could just barely see the outline of Zen's hoof pointing towards a downed airship. The vessel was partially resting on the skywalk while the front half sat at the bottom of a large crevise carved out of the side of another building. "We can hide in there, hurry I can still hear them."

As fast as they could, both ponies climbed over the railings of the ship and proceeded inside the hull. The first thing they noticed was roughly the only thing to be noticed, and that was that it was dark. Outside, the clouds had blocked out most of the light creating a very dark atmosphere, but now solid matter stood between the ponies and what meager light had managed to pierce through the less dense clouds. It was also quiet, the solid hull of the ship blocked out all noise except the creak of wood and their own panting breaths.

After a few minutes huddled together in the darkness with nopony breaking down the front door, Octavia began fiddling around with her saddle bags. After a few seconds of searching blindly, she pulled out a small lantern, which illuminated with the pale blue glow of magic when a button on top of its hood was pushed. Grasping the handle with her mouth she held the light high enough so that most of the space was coated in the magical light. The inside of the ship was a mess from the crash. Boxes and crates previously full of supplies were scattered with a few broken, their contents lay sprawled out and about the floor. They were near the stern of the ship, it's reinforced wooden wall still holding firm despite the impact it must have recieved when it fell, while the bow up ahead was still bathed in darkness.

"Think we'll be safe in here?" Zen asked as he began to walk about the space. His tone distracted as he looked about the broken crates.

"I'm not sure, but they don't seem to have found us yet. Still I'd like to keep moving away from their camp, the greater distance between us and those ruffians the better." Octavia replied as she watched Zen look about the room and drift gradualy to the bow. "Where are you going?"

"I want to see if we can get out through the front of the ship and into the building." Zen said after he stopped searching and simply began to walk towards the still darkened part of the ship. Octavia followed after him, letting the light illuminate a few feet in front of Zen. Soon the wooded hull began to close in, only to abruptly change as the rest seemed to be opened up on hinges like a large pair of double doors. "Hah, see it's like a bridge with the deployment doors open. Let's see what this place was," Zen called out as he began to run into the sky scraper.

"Zen wait, we still need to be quiet." Octavia hissed as she followed after him. Zen took a quick turn around a corner only to be launched backwards, sliding across the ground and hitting the wall on the other side of the hallway where he slumped and didn't move. "ZEN!"

"Heh, knew I'd find ya's, dat's for dat brick ya bucker," called out an all to familiar accented voice. Around the corner stepped the same orange pony they'd escaped from before, this time his left eye covered in bandages while the other held Octavia in a fury filled gaze. "An you, you an me is gonna have some fun." The stallion continued taking a few steps towards her.

"No, if...if you try anything." Octavia warned back peddling some while a hoof went to her cello case, but before she could get the cumblesum strap off, the stallion charged her kocking the grey mare to the ground. In a panic Octavia went to buck the Stallion, but he caught her hooves in his own and forced them to the ground standing on them with significant force.

"Now, is dat anyway ta be treatin da pony who gonna be givin ya tah night of yer life?" The earth pony teasingly questioned at Octavia's continued struggles. Protest and curses, all unbecoming of the canterlotian muscian, flew from her muzzle at her attack, but he mearly laughed at them. "Heh, ya's got a bit o' fire' to ya. I like dat." He said giving her a malicious grin. "Now, ow's about we..." The rest of the statement was cut off at the sound of slicing metal. The stallions eyes lost color and rolled up into his head as blood started to pour down his face. Octavia followed the growing stream up to a wicked curved blade sticking out of the ponie's head, it's tip burried somewhere inside. The large body went limp starting to fall towards her, but it shifted and fell to the floor with a thud to her side.

Behind, and now almost pulled on top of the dead pony stood Zen. the shaft of the weapon clutched in his fore hooves. His panting breath is the only noise as shock covers his and Octavia's faces. With a shift of his hooves and a few flaps of his wings to keep him upright, Zen easily pulls the scythe's blade out of the ponie's skull. At first he simply stared at the weapon, particuarly the blood covered blade, in disbelief. Shaking, he let the weapon fall where it clattered noisily on the ground with Zen following suit nearby. The pegasus scooted away from the scythe, as if it would suddenly turn towards him and try to repeat what it had done to the copper stallion. "Zen..." Octavia said, worry filling her voice.

Octavia's voice finally broke his shock. "I...I didn't mean to....to kill him....It's just he was....and you were.....and I couldn't....and oh my Celestia have mercy..." Zen rambled and sputtered on, trying to come up with an excuse he'd believe justified his action.

"Zen." Octavia called to him, but he kept rambling on. "Zen!" this time she'd grabbed his shoulders, forcing him to look her in the eyes. "Thank you. If you hadn't done what you did. It might be me lying there." As her words sunk in, Zen's shaking died down. Gradually his eyes refocused, and the babbling ceased. "There, now let's get moving before those other ponies show up." Weakly Zen nodded before beginning to walk down the hallway. "and bring that lunar guards scythe, we may need it again." If Zen had been more in his mind, he might have objected, but as he was Zen merely obeyed the command. Scooping up the weapon in his hooves while using his wings to move he hefted the weapon onto his shoulder making it easier to carry before following Octavia further into the building.

Author's Note:

Whew, well that took forever. Yeah, I think I'm just going to stop saying 'I should be able to start getting these up faster'. It's just not working well enough, but that doesn't mean I'm quitting. It'll just take a bit longer than I'd planned. Oh well...
Again comments, concerns, and critique are welcome. I'd really like to improve my writing capabilities.

Comments

[Butterkeet]

hmm a unicorn with a green aura... now who do we know like that? is this by any chance an introduction for Mythic?

[Zen Gale]

2982273
Possibly, though you'll have to wait for future chapters to know for sure

[Butterkeet]

2982681 WHYYYYYY

[Zen Gale]

2982788
Because I'm a terrible person , and it gives you an excuse to keep reading my crappy story.