The HAYngover

by TJW

The Awakening

In the distant horizon, the sun protruded a thin golden arch over the peaks of the mountains. The more the sun rose, the more of the land that became illuminated. The landscape was cold and empty, nothing but occasional waves of sand animated the surroundings, as well as reducing the sense of dead silence. The rising sun promised the chillingly cold air would soon become a sweltering heat wave, punishing any living soul that was not adequately prepared for it. Though the land bore no distinguishing features which could help identify its exact location; one thing was for sure, this was not Canterlot. At first glances, one would think this place would be void of life of any kind and normally, this would be the case, but not today. Three figures lay dormant, half buried under the merciless sand, as if it had tried to engulf them.

Another hour passed, nothing had changed in the scenery but the position of the sun in the sky, though not very noticeably. As the sun rose fully over the horizon, a strong burst of wind swept through the sand, creating a wave that closely resembled the ocean shore. As the gust blew over the figures, the sand that was covering them was hastily wafted away, leaving them now completely exposed to the elements, namely the sun's heavy rays and blinding brightness. This change seemed ineffective on the ponies current state as they still laid motionless on the ground, until eventually, there was a twitch, followed by slightly broader movement, leading to incomprehensible mumbling, then finally the pony shot bolt upright, screaming in shock. This was an orange/cream pegasus with a blue mane, featuring a blue shield and lightning bolt cutiemark that adjourned his flank. The pony sat still, not fully conscious yet and trying to focus his vision into something that resembled something other that a blur. His pulse beat heavy in his chest, but beside this, only other thing he could feel was a sharp pain that enveloped the right side of his back. Once he could fully realise that he did in fact exist, his attention now turned to his current location, where was he? The vague void he currently resided would baffle even the most adept geographers, so for the likes of Flash Sentry here, it might as well have been another universe. Lost and seemingly alone, naturally the feeling of panic began to set in. Hyperventilating heavily, he span in place desperately searching for some signs of other life, to no avail. He rose to all four hooves, sprinting around the immediate area until a solution just fell right in front of him. Several minutes passed and all hope began to disintegrate; tears filling his eyes. Just as he reached the last of his energy, a large red lump appeared at his feet, causing him to be launched forward until he came to a crash landing, on his face

Flash dug his head out of the sand to try and identify the red lump, though it now actually seemed to be moving slightly as it rose out of the sand. A wide grin edged it's way across Flash's face, it was another pony! A red pony with a dirty orange mane and a cutiemark of a large apple.

"Excuse me! Are you alright?", Flash attempted to apologise for essentially kicking him, however when he met the pony's gaze, a feeling of dread sat deep in his stomach.

"Nope!" The red pony grunted before lunging itself at Flash, clearly much larger and stronger than him.

Flash's dread was now full blown terror as he desperately tried to free himself from the other stallion's grasp, "what are you doing?" He cried out.

"You think you can attack me when I'm out cold? You thought wrong boy!" His grip tightening around Flash to a lethal degree. As his life faded away, Flash managed to gurgle out his appeal,

"I didn't attack you! I'm l-lost just l-like you, and if you k-kill me, you'll be o-out here alone!" The stallion released his grip on Flash, who promptly gasped for air.

Flash was the one to break the now lingering awkward silence between the two, "so, do you have any idea why we might be out here? Mr...",

"the names Big Macintosh, you can call me Mac for short".

Flash was somewhat relieved to hear the name of the stallion who nearly ended his life, "so Mac, Do you remember anything from last night?",

Mac bluntly responded "nope",

Flash thought hard about a follow up question, "well, do you remember anything from the night before?",

Mac responded in the same tone of voice "only that I joined a group of stallions at a bar to let the groom know about his menu options for his wedding. I decided to buy a drink while I was there, took a sip, then woke up here".

This was new to Flash, but seemed to unlock a series of previous memories of his own, "wait! Shining Armour's party? I was there! We were there for his pre wedding party! Strange, my memories of this also end when I took a sip from a drink from the bar!". Big Mac, only half listening to Flash, scanned the proximity around him, then spotted a strange pink strap sticking out of the ground. He approached the strap, bit down on it and effortlessly pulled it out of the sand to reveal a fluffy orange bag designed for mares. After little examination, Mac turned back to Flash,

"err Flash, I think I've found your bag",

Flash hastily attempted to disprove ownership of the bag,"what? No! That's not mine!", Mac just glared at Flash as he turned the bag around to display Flash's cutiemark boasted across the strap,

"pfft, lots of soldiers have a cutiemark like that! Doesn't prove that it's mine!",

Mac's glare deepened, opening the outside flap to show the bold, labelled text on the inside which read 'if lost, please return to Mummy's little soldier a.k.a Flash 'Flashykins' Sentry'.

Flash surrendered his efforts, "fine! It's my bag! Don't judge me!",

Mac stifled his laughter as he tried to reassure the pegasus, "actually Flashykins, I was going to see if what's inside could help shed some light on our situation!". The two gather around the bag as it was stripped of all its contents, which were as follows: 16 empty bottles of Applejack Daniels, 1 pair of broken hoofcuffs, one green and one pink fluffy neck scarf, one torn cowboy hat, one cross country train ticket, one fight club medal with and address scribbled on it, but most noticeably, a photograph of the two of them, along with Shining Armour who seemed to be getting chased by some ponies.

Big Mac, stared down at the scattered items, but was drawn to the torn hat, "this looks like my sister's, was Applejack with us last night? What happened to her?",

It was Flash's turn to disregard Mac as he stared at the picture, "Shining Armour was with us last night! Where is he now? Do you think he's around here somewhere?",

Mac just stared at something over Flash's shoulder, "Eeyup!".

Flash quickly swivelled around to spot a pony staggering towards them. "ZOMBIE!", Flash made an attempt to run, but Mac just back-hoofed him in the head, aiding him to realise this was in fact Shining Armour here with them.

Both ponies rushed towards their new companion, before bombarding him with various questions;

"how did we get here?"
"What happened last night?"
"Is my sister here?"
"Are we lost?".

Shining just kept his head held low, in clear signals of a hangover "lost? You could say that. You want to know where we are?". The other two were silenced immediately as their gaze was met by Shining's, "I'm getting married in three days, and we're in Saddle, Bucking, Arabia!"

Comments

[Walking Dead Fanboy]

Is their going to be a Doug and Black Doug in this?

[A7X Camerooni]

4410357

I was thinking the exact same thing!

But I think Shining is supposed to be Doug, so...I dunno.