Anterograde

by Archmage Ludicrous

Chapter 2

My groan was noiseless over the drumming, throbbing pain that coursed through my head. Where was I? I couldn't see—my eyes were closed. Cold, hard, and unforgiving pavement sprawled for miles beneath my crumpled body. Pavement? I opened my eyes, and the flood of blurred images was seared upon my consciousness, causing nausea bubbling up from my abdomen. My eyes snapped shut like the blinders of a paranoiac, blocking out the unrecognizable jumble of bricks, wall, and paving. I lay there for what might have been minutes, or hours, or days. The pain seemed to mount endlessly, but really all that happened was that I grew more understanding of the magnitude of my agony until I reached the point where I was able to bear it.

My thinking was slow to return to me. When I got up, it still hadn't, in a way. Eyes squinted open, I staggered away from a frightening jumble of noise that loudly drifted over my id-driven, pain-slurred consciousness. Head hanging low I slunk further down the alleyway, mind and body protesting at every thought and movement. A turn beckoned to the left, and I took it, my slowly awakening mind telling me that the sounds of what must have been the conversations of dozens of individuals behind me could be lessened by putting some sort of solid wall between me and the noises' source. Turning the corner though only brought more noise to my ears, though, as a gruff voice with a thick but unidentifiable accent grated its way begrudgingly to my eardrums.

"'Ey, sweetie. What's a pretty thing like you doin' here?"

I leaned my head upwards, opening my eyes barely past the squint which I had been operating on previously. A small hood obscured my vision of the skyline, but I was able to see the alleyway ahead of me. The silhouette of a massive stallion took the form of a grey one as he neared me, taking precedence in my eye over the brick walls and the solitary waste bin on my right.

"This ain't so clean a place to be. Hood down, nice clothes, and going through one of the back allies out o' the station... I can only think o' one thing you could be... and that's in trouble."

The stallion approached further, and I staggered back a step. A drum of fear echoed through me, intensifying my heartbeat, and endorphins began to rush through my body.

"S-stay back... I'm not..." I choked out the words with a grimace, halted by a wave of nausea. The world before me began to swim, and I swayed, adding to the visual confusion. My front legs began to tremble, and bile began to creep up my throat—the pain was too intense, even with my body's chemistry doing it's best to dull the pain.

"So who you on the run from, then, missie? The Guard? That hood isn't exactly cheap..." The stallion reached a leg to my chin, lifting my face up to look towards his. It was a dirty face with a disapproving scowl on it.

With his odor stinging my nostrils, I wretched, leaning forward out of his grip. You deserve this. Don't bother mares in alleyways. I thought. Nausea past the point of control, I jerked towards the ground and vomited, spilling a small amount of bile on the ground. I absently noted the bile and lack of substance in the vomit—it meant that I hadn't eaten much at all. Legs shaking, I fell the rest of the way to the ground, eyes closing once again, exhausted from the general horror of the situation.

"Shit, what's wrong with you?" His hooves clattered backwards. "Look lady, I don't know who you are, but you better have a good explanation for all this mess!"

He trotted around the puddle to flip my hood off with his hoof. A quiet 'The fuck?' alerts me to his continued presence. He follows up his expletive with another.

"Fuck, why didn't you say somethin'? Get up, lady, we gotta get you somewhere safe!" A single hoof reaches below my front left leg to bring me to a semi-standing position, leaning against him. "Hurry up, lady! That's no goose egg, but anywhere else, it coulda fooled me!"

I could only groan as he accelerated my hobble, taking me down turns that I quickly lost track of. The thick scents of filth and decay waxed and waned variably as my guide rushed me through the urban jungle. My focus lapsed, and I came to simply understand my travel. Everything aside from that was erased—a trudging walk with no beginning, an event that was all there was. Eventually, we seemed to reach our destination. The stallion leaned me against a wall, my saddlebag digging into me as it held me in place against the earthy-smelling bricks.

"Hold on missie, just a little further." He flipped my hood down over my face, and knocked at a door. He was answered quickly—an irate mare's voice stung my ears, like a rusty wire flossing my brain from one ear to the next as she shrieked at the stallion.

"You back already, Bigs?"

"Yes, Miss House," said the stallion's gruff, but in a voice clearly more regulated than usual. "I—"

The shrill voice of Ms. House interjected. "Brought another filly in, didja Bigs?"

"Yes, Miss—"

"Well have a good time, and don't get any stains anywhere!" Ms. House gabbed on as I silently wished I was conscious enough to strangle her.

I reflected on the self-awareness of that thought. After quickly debating whether or not the pain had stopped, I determined that I simply was too tired to care about the pain. That exhaustion was probably also why I was calm, and not panicking given my current situation of "probably abducted by a stallion who I do not know, and in a place I am unfamiliar with." I allowed myself a trickle of contentment at my understanding of the situation before being pulled into the building and losing consciousness.

Comments

[Misty Spell]

Look lady, I don't know who you are, but you better have a good explanation for all this mess!

Who died and made you the back alley janitor dude?

Well have a good time, and don't get any stains anywhere!

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