Two Horse Town
A security computer was the only light to be found in a dark room deep within the fire hazard of the mall’s employee hallway system. A lone bat pony and her dog watched as the day’s security feed played back footage from May 23rd.
The original plan was to find where the golf carts had disappeared to, but the allure of answers was too great to ignore once that objective had been finished. She knew someone had come to the mall on the night of the great de-handening. Their reasons for doing so were likely less than lawful, but that really didn't matter anymore.
Only a few minutes after they started looking did they find the time stamp they needed. At 3:14 AM on the 24th of May, four people suddenly disappeared from the security cams view. The pony’s ear noticeably twitched as she started to scan the cam feeds that faced the street at the time, though with no luck.
"It was way too late for there to be a lot of drivers... DAMN IT! This tells me NOTHING. One frame there, one frame GONE!" she yelled as she slammed a hoof into the table.
She allowed her chair to spin in place as she started to think. 'I don't think God would kick the rapture off at pi o’clock. That's a bit too funny. Then what the hell happened? And how do pony-like aliens fit into it all?'
She did a small, unsuccessful hop off the chair to land flat on the ground. She hastily picked herself up and started to head to the door.
"Well, the answers aren't here. Come on Cotton, let's find a golf cart and get out of--" Her command was lost to a distinctive “pop” sound that echoed into the room from the mall proper.
The event made the pony jump in their skin. The place had been deathly silent for a good while. Guesswork behind the sound started to race through her mind.
'Speakers turning on. Pipes clearing air out of the system. The souls of the damned trying to communicate... Most likely nothing to worry about...'
Before she could carry on with her mission, a shriek punctured the silence. While the pony stood frozen for a moment, her dog was quicker to react. Cotton took off, barking all the way towards the sound.
Watching her dog race deeper into the mall snapped the pony back to her wits, and she gave chase.
"Cotton! Get back here!" She hissed.
Cotton had no desire to follow her instructions, however. She proceeded to run with her pony owner lagging further behind.
She rounded the corner and managed to escape the hallway’s labyrinthian walls to see her dog growling at another pony lying on the ground, huddled up as best they can, covering their head. They were lying next to a large backpack and a harshly bright lantern, which allowed the bat pony to notice a pair of feathered wings tucked close to their body.
"Cotton! Get over here NOW!" She yelled sharply, spicing her voice with some anger and stomping her front hoof into the tiled floor.
Cotton, to both ponies’ relief, lowered her head and quickly retreated behind her owner.
Hiccups and sobs choked up from the light blue pony in her corner on the floor, mumbles that would have been hard for most to hear at that distance. ‘Didn’t want this’ and ‘Please don’t hurt me’ were some of the words interspersed between the noises she made.
After making sure Cotton was relaxing at her side, the bat pony turned to the mumbling person on the ground. “I’m really sure Cotton wouldn’t hurt you. She is 100% bark and no bite. So... you can chill a bit.”
She finally managed to make her unfold from the corner, looking up and back at the pony behind her. Her eyes traced their way to the voice, “L-look, I’ll surrender, just don’t… don’t…” Her eyes locked onto the person behind her, and she pushed up against the wall. “S-sweet fuck, what are you!?”
The bat pony considered her answer carefully while looking over the pony. It reminded her of the mythical Pegasus. “A Halloween knockoff of whatever you are,” she answered with a smirk. “As for surrendering, I think that would be a bit pointless considering the details of today.”
Words were mouthed, but nothing came out for a moment. “I-- That’s not-- You’re not helping! This is terrible! What the hell is going on!? Stop toying with me!” Her accusatory gesture would have probably been more dramatic had it not merely looked like she was holding her own hoof out in front of herself.
“We might look like a child’s toys, but I am not toying with you,” the bat pony answered with a shrug. “That was the best answer I could come up with.”
“That’s… But-- I can’t. This-- This isn’t right. I’m not this thing. I don’t even know what this thing is. All I want-- uh, I--” The pony stopped and scrambled for more words, but came up empty this time.
“Yeah, it’s not right, I will give you that one,” she empathized with a slight sigh. “But with that said, you’re a hundred times better off than I was. I woke up alone.”
She looked around, back at her sack in the corner, then to the shape in the shadows, quivering as she thought back. “I don’t remember sleeping. There was-- I saw everything go white and… This. It just… Happened?” She began to shudder more as she thought on it. “I’m-- Do I really look like you? Do I look that, uh, creepy?”
The bat pony gave a shake of her head before her response. “No. That said, I don’t think I look that bad, but I think the shadows are doing me wonders on the scary front. Look, let’s move this to a room with better lighting, because I’m going to assume you’re not seeing what I am seeing.”
“How do you move, I mean, I thought-- um… It-- nothing works right. I can’t use my phone, these tools are all useless, I-- I’m useless.”
“Tch, nothing is useless, but you will need to fall on your face a lot before you start walking. I have had at least 50 meetings with the ground over you, and I still suck at walking... Let me go get a flat cart to push you around in.” Her set of hooves echoed through the mall as she made her way to back the employee corridor, dog in tow.
It was quiet for the new pony, left alone in the dark with just a small lantern. She could hear muffled talking from the darkness and a few crashes before a loud rolling sound approached her. “This place was going to kill people with that hallway one day.”
-
It didn’t take but a few minutes to get back to the security office. The most the bat pony could do was turn on the light for the pegasus and let them see the extent of the damage. She left her there on the cart while getting the computer ready to show what she had managed to find. “I don’t have much in the way of answers for you. I can tell you that the city was empty and I haven't been able to get a hold of anyone save a few friends, but everything shut down a few hours ago, so I lost contact.”
Gears were turning. There was perhaps a moment where fear managed to take a passenger's seat as the new pony tried to make sense of the situation. Confusion lit up instead, facts no longer lining up for her. “No, that can’t be right… I was just online before you, uh… found me. It can’t have been more than an hour.”
The bat pony answered with a few clicks of a mouse to enlarge a video. “Had a feeling that would be your story after you told me what you remembered. This next part might be a bit hard to digest, but it’s been a few days since you saw that white flash. I’ve got the proof right here for you.”
Silence.
There was nothing anyone could say to that, no words to deny it and no fact to disprove it. There she was, 3 feet shorter and on all fours, and even the vaguest hope that there might be help out there looked out of her reach. This was what it was, this was reality. The efforts of the night before were pointless. Maybe everything before. She sat in shock for a few minutes before speaking up again.
It was a hollow chuckle that broke her silence. “I g-guess I d-don’t have to w-worry about getting in trouble for all this. There’s… How many people are left out there? How many of us are there? You didn’t make it sound like a lot.”
“I have no way of knowing, and no, I don’t think you have THAT to worry about,” she agreed, giving a weak smile. “Look, things are... not great, but me and my friends have a plan and we are good at coming up with plans. You can, and should, come with me.”
There was no reason to lie, no reason for trickery. There was no point to it. Not with both of them like this. It took the bat pony enough time to get here that they seemed nearly as bad off. Everyone was gone. Even then, there was hesitance, because the only reason she could think of was because this other person was all she had right now. “Fine… For now.”
“Heh, okay-- for now. So my plan was to get a golf cart from here. That plan has not changed since I don’t want to push you around everywhere,” she said, looking down at the pegasus. “That said, what do you want me to call you?”
"Learning to walk needs to happen sooner, not later." She looked down at the ground and gave it a frustrated stare. She had softened her glare before returning her gaze to the bat pony. "My name is Jessie."
"Your name is Jessie? And you're a cat burglar?" the bat pony inquired with a smile slowly creeping on her face.
"Do I want to know why you’re asking that?" Her softer stare had become one that more represented daggers.
The bat pony blinked and repressed her smile. "Oh, uh, no reason. Anyways, if you want to learn to walk, it might be better for me to get you outside. The lights are still on out there and you will have some more space out on the grass patches."
Jessie maintained her stare for a while longer before deciding to speak. "Why are you taking this all so easily? From the moment you met me, you've been trying to be funny or in some form of good spirits. It doesn't make any sense and it’s a little unsettling."
The bat pony gave a little shrug. "Panic isn't something I do. I seem to rise to the occasion more than fall down to base instincts... Or it could also be that I watched a lot of Animorphs as a kid? It's really anyone's guess."
"I-- why-- no, you know what, that type of answer is all I should expect from you, I guess," Jessie grumbled with a slight hint of annoyance. "Doesn't matter. What's your name anyways? You never told me."
"Didn't tell you because you didn't ask... and I didn't have a good answer," The bat pony answered while getting ready to push the cart that Jessie rested on. "Can't really say I am that same person."
Jessie rolled her eyes. "Of course you wouldn't have a simple answer. Everything is vague, stupid, silly, or nonsense with you, isn't it?"
“Well, I can explain that one a bit. This is an interesting chance at something: new bodies, new world, and a new perspective. I want to be able to define myself as something more. I haven’t come up with a name I want to use yet.”
The endeavor of getting Jessie outside didn't take too long, though navigating the mostly blocked up hallways was a chore for one of them. After they reached the outside, a small grassy area was only a few feet away.
"This will have to do. I wish I could offer some good advice, but I'm working off of forced muscle memory as it is," the bat pony lamented.
Jessie gave a few nods. "Right, I'm sure I can figure it out. A few years of gymnastics training has to be useful in this somehow."
"Gymnastics? Huh, that's neat. I will leave you to that, then, while I go find a golf cart," she began as she walked off. "Try not to wander too far without me!"
"That's really not funny!" Jessie shouted.
Jessie was left alone with her wobbly steps. Years of finely tuned balance and body control had been stolen from them in an instant. Her sole hope that it was all a dream was dashed after the dull pain of her first collision with the ground.
She was well onto her fourth attempt when her focus was shattered by a sudden banging sound echoing into the night sky. It sounded like a few good hits before it was replaced by the sounds of an electric motor.
It didn't take too long for the motor to reach Jessie. The bat pony was driving a golf cart to her, her dog panting happily in the passenger seat. She was operating a speed level with one hoof, with the other hooked around a spoke on the steering wheel.
"We got super lucky! They had these things chained up with a master lock," the bat pony beamed like it was some huge victory.
"Wooo-hoo?" Jessie offered.
"It's going to help us get across town to an RV dealership. The meetup point for my friends is kinda far, and I have a lot of stuff that needs to be packed for the ride," the bat pony explained.
Jessie stared at them for a moment. "Okay, so how do you plan on driving an RV? That's not an 'oh I will just go and do this' skill, to say nothing of your current state. Unless you forgot that you’re kinda short and don't have hands?"
The bat pony tapped her hooves together for a second. “Well, I do have a couple of hours driving large trucks and camper trailers... The roads are also super empty, so it's not THAT big of a deal. As for being short, I was kinda hoping that Camping World would have a hand pedal adapter kit," she explained through a small smile.
"What, you mean like the stuff paralyzed people use? Hell no, Camping World isn't going to have that type of shit. Heck, you would be lucky if Sears had anything like that." Jessie quickly countered.
The bat pony's ears flopped down for a moment as her victory was stolen away. Her disappointment didn't last long as she soon got an idea. "Sears, huh? There is a Sears in this mall."
Jessie shot her a questioning look. "Yeah? So what, the place is locked up tighter than a rhino's ass."
"Yeah, but you and your friends were going to break into the stores right? You should have a--" the bat pony didn't even get to finish before Jessie cut her off.
"No, we had a way into a FEW stores," Jessie chided, "which we cased and had inside help for. I don't have anything for Sears."
"Well then, does your friend’s truck have a gas can anywhere?" The bat pony inquired with a smirk.
"It's my truck, and yes, you don't have a getaway ride without a few gas cans ready. Why?"
The smirk bloomed into a sly grin. "Well then, isn't that lucky."
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Great to see this story back! Now he has a new friend how will the survive together I wonder.
Thank you so much for continuing this!
I really need to get to back to mine as well.
Chuckles were had.
Beautiful line.
The pair has a locked store to get into, Jessie has some gas cans and 'haven't come up with new name yet' has a bright idea? This gone be good.
Do carry on.
I had to refresh my memory of the previous chapters before reading this one. Nice to see some progress made. I do hope that another chapter isn't so far away this time though.
7574053
Oh, holy crap it's Goldfur.
I didn't know you were reading this story. I've been a fan of your work for a while!
Welcome back. I'm looking forward to reading more chapters in the future
Your protagonists should travel to the nearest fire department station and get their “KNOX-BOX Rapid Entry System” keys. These fire department keys will give them access to the wall-mounted safes that holds the building keys for all the mall stores.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knox_Box
Is it possible that your protagonists can find a firefighter turned griffon that used the KNOX-BOX Rapid Entry System keys to already get into the Sears store?
7576975
Shit. You know I should have thought of this and its a bit too late now.
Whhaaa I wrote this off as dead, nice to see you're still kicking.
". Or it could also be that I watched a lot of Animorphs as a kid? It's really anyone's guess."
What year is this anyways... cus I distantly remember watching animorphs and reading the books... But good chapter over all, I started confused because I didn't reread past chapters over all that time but, I digress, nice job. Oh yeah happy Halloween