Children of Oonte

by sevenofeleven

Chapter 4

Children of Oonte: Chapter 4
Party, a shootout and refuge.

Ashley Taylor's Flashback

Harley's was jumping tonight, it was full of party goers. This was Ashley's favorite bar, not too small to be cramped, not too large she had to ride a cart to the ladies room, within easy walking distance of her apartment, it was great. So far Ashley did not find anyone to go home with but that was OK, she was not in the mood. Did not want to stay home alone either. After a few drinks she was buzzed and wanted to go home. She paid her tab and went outside. It was a typical NYC summer night but not too hot and muggy. I should be home soon unless I dawdle. Dawdling sounded like a good idea. The neighborhood was pretty safe but Ashley was not afraid of any mugger if one should decide to drop by.

Two blocks away from her home, a man appeared in front of her. He was wearing some sort of rags or robe could not be sure what he had on. She sensed at a gut level that this was no ordinary person, the rags or robe seemed to disguise a bright and powerful light. The light seemed warm somehow and then the feeling faded and it was just a man standing in front of her with nondescript clothing. "Blessings from Oonte to you," the man said.

"Um, thanks," Ashley replied quizzically and she dug in her pocket for her wallet for some money.

"No need, thanks for the thought," the man said and smiled. It was like being touched briefly by a warm ray of sunlight after a cold night. Then the man turned away from Ashley and walked up the block and turned the corner.

Ashley stood for what seemed to be a few minutes and then ran up the block to talk to the strange man, she had saw him go up the block and go around the corner. When she got to the corner the man was gone. How? He was not moving that fast and it was a small alley with no doors. No big deal. Ashley figured she had waited too long and the guy just walked away.

At her apartment Ashley drank as much water as she could. Its going to be "trot to the bathroom" time but at least she will wake up with a little bit of a hangover or maybe none at all. Morning found Ashley curled up in bed and then she had to go pee. Ashley wondered what was wrong with her feet, usually she could feel the too cold tile of the bathroom floor. She looked down at her legs, they were covered in short purple fur, at the end of her feet, hooves? She had shiny dark purple hooves. Ashley checked out her purple furry hands, the fingernails looked like they were made of the same stuff her hooves were made of. After she finished washing up she looked at her face in the bathroom mirror.

A purple unicorn looked back at her from the other side of the mirror. It had almond shaped gray green eyes and a small muzzle. She touched her horn, it was covered with purple skin but the point was sharp. Oh my, I am one of those pony people I see on TV and the internet, well that could be interesting.

The first time she saw a pony person was on YouTube, there was a video of Kiya, a Japanese woman who became a pony. She had brown fur and a brown mane and eyes. She seemed pretty excited about being a pony. Could not understand what she was saying and even the interpreter was left behind because she talked so fast. Later on, Ashley saw more pony people going about their affairs in NYC. Most just looked like bipedal ponies but some had horns and others had wings. Being a New Yorker, she got used to it quickly.

When Ashley tried to pull up her panties, it seemed to get caught on something on her behind and it did not feel right, so she took them off. A quick look in the large mirror in her bedroom solved the mystery, she had a black tail with a light green and a gray green stripe. It was swishing back and forward with excitement. I have a tail, great, better be careful getting out of taxis and revolving doors. At least her tail was not long enough to reach the floor. People would be stomping on that for sure! There was some sort of markings on her hips, she took a picture of the markings using her smart phone. Her stomach grumbled. Its time to eat and I can fuss with that later.

What will I have for breakfast? A sliced steak burrito sounds good. At the thought of steak, Ashley's stomach lurched. Oh yeah, ponies don't eat steak. Guess its scrambled eggs and a muffin. I will miss you bacon! Ashley's stomach lurched a bit harder. Crap, I can't even think of meat!

Present day

Ashley woke up reluctantly to the sound of angry voices. Her legs still felt like lead but something in the voices threatened imminent danger and she could not ignore it and go back to sleep. Flutter shy woke up when Ashley started to sit up. "We have to stop this before it gets more serious," she said tiredly. Fluttershy slowly nodded in agreement.

Downstairs the scene was pretty tense, Sherman, Rich and two other old group members were facing down two of the gang bangers. "Look its the pony dog and her purple unicorn nag girlfriend," The gang banger with the piercings said with a smirk.

"Ha ha, they probably spent all night in each others arms," the blonde gang banger said.

"What do you want?" Ashley asked, trying to keep her voice level and nonthreatening. It was hard to do.

"I want the bag with the human food and the one with the water, that is it. I am not going to live somewhere with pony filth, we will live on our own!" The pierced gang banger said with a swagger. Blondie snickered some more. The other gangers just sat and watched.

Sherman said "No!" The pierced ganger shook his head yes making his jewelry jingle.

"You will give it to us or we will start shooting. I don't care if I live and TJ does not either," The pierced ganger threatened.

The blonde ganger stood up straight at the mention of his name. Ashley could sense Rich's barely contained rage through Ponynet. Rich would start shooting real soon and it would be a mess.

Ashley reached out through Ponynet and asked Rita if she knew any sleep spells. Rita did not know any but she was willing to learn. Ashley quickly taught Rita some basic sleep spells and Rita cast one at TJ and another at the ganger with the piercings. Ashley did not have enough power to cast any spells.

The spells seem to work, both targets started to slump down and their guns lowered until they were aimed at the floor. Then the spells faded and the gangers started to straighten up and then the room was full of the sound of gunfire.

TJ took a round from Rich's gun to the stomach and the pierced ganger got shot in the arm by Sherman. Both gangers dropped their guns when they got shot. The other gangers just stuck their hands in the air and screamed for mercy. "This nonsense has gone on long enough, if you do not want to be with us, leave now!" Ashley said, anger filling her voice.

One of the gangers asked if there was any doctors and or medicine for Mitch, the pierced ganger or TJ. Ashley contacted the DC herd and they replied that they had a doctor but medicine was limited. She relayed that message. Another ganger said that they can't leave their wounded friends behind. Sherman told the gangers that they will go with the group to the DC herd and let the DC herd take care of their wounded friends. If the gangers caused more trouble they would just leave them behind. It was probably a death sentence with CC patrols nosing about for who took out one of their patrols.

Ashley sat down on a chair and Fluttershy went over to the shot gangers to see if she could help. There was not much she could do, gunshots were beyond her experience. The animals that she healed did not shoot each other. Sherman asked Rita to help bind Mitch's wounds. Rich was in no state to help people who had insulted him. Rich asked Fluttershy to come upstairs to his room so he could get the harness and the food and water bags.

"I wanted to kill them both!" Rich said, he could still remember his anger.

"Why?" asked Fluttershy.

"They had made comments about me and my mother! I have ran into those type of people and they hate us," Rich said angrily. Fluttershy had no reply to that. There was a lull in the conversation and then they went up the stairs chatting like old friends.

While Fluttershy and Rich went upstairs, Ashley helped Sherman tend to TJ's wound. It was bad, if they could get to the DC herd in time, maybe they can heal him. There was a good chance TJ could die on the way. "Maybe we could make some sort of sled and have the yellow pony pull it?" Maggie, one of the gangers asked. Ashley wanted to say no but kept her silence.

Sherman replied, "There are enough of you, maybe you can carry him? Carrying him will be better, every jostle and bump will make the wound worse if he is dragged on the ground." Maggie thought about it and suggested looking for something that was big enough to carry Mitch.

Breakfast was quiet and no one was rude to Fluttershy. This leg of the trip was going to be rough. The gangers would be carrying Mitch on a makeshift stretcher and no one had the ability to sense enemies from a distance. Sensing things used very little magical energy but you have to concentrate, its very hard to concentrate to sense things when very exhausted. Ashley was still too tired. Sherman had to pick four people to go on ahead and scout and if the area was clear they would send a runner back and then everyone would meet up with the scouting group.

At 1pm, they had a quick rest and lunch. Sherman wanted to get to the DC herd before Mitch died. He did not look good, he was going into shock. It was just a matter of time. Maggie begged Rita and Ashley to do something but both unicorns were just too tired and powerless to do anything.

Ashley, Rita and Rich were carrying the stretcher so the gangers could rest and also because the ponies could move faster. Time was running out for Mitch, he was quiet and his blood was soaking through the bandages. Some of it was on the stretcher too. Everyone was running now, had been running for a few hours and people were getting tired.

Fluttershy saw the wall of cars first. Somebody had taken cars and flattened them into bricks and made a wall with a gateway. There was a group of people and ponies coming out of the gate. Fluttershy looked back at Ashley. She was carrying the stretcher with other ponies and they started running towards the group coming through the gate. The two groups met and Mitch was put on a gurney and wheeled away. Everyone was assigned a room, except for Fluttershy and Ashley, they would share a room.

Fluttershy woke up to a strange sound, it was one she had not heard in a while since she had left Equestria. It was birds singing! She smiled and opened the cracked door and ran outside. Then she flew slowly up to the tree and tried to talk to the birds.

The birds were surprised to see a flying four legged pony, they had seen some regular ponies but Fluttershy was something new. She was able to win them over and have a nice chat with the birds. Being city birds, they only had a small amount of time to chat before they had to go find food. Fluttershy did find out that birds did not like the feel of the electricity blocking field and avoided it. Fluttershy flew down to the ground and went back up to her room to talk to Ashley but she was still sleeping.

For the next three days, Fluttershy had the same routine, talk with the birds in the morning. Go to the cafeteria, there was always a unicorn there to make food, hang out with Rich and maybe Sherman and help out with some errands. Have lunch, do some more errands and then have dinner and hang out in the cafeteria for a few hours and then go back to her room to sleep. Ashley on the other hand just slept and maybe would eat a little bit of food and then go back to sleep. Fluttershy would just finish off what was left.

One day while she was exploring the DC herd enclave, she heard a pony call her name. Fluttershy turned around to see who it was, right behind her was a pony with gray fur, white mane and gold eyes. "My name is Erica Seward and I am the Seeress for the DC herd" Erica introduced herself. Fluttershy held out her right fore hoof and Erica gingerly shook it.

"Pleased to meet you," Fluttershy said gladly. After the introductions, they went back to the seeress's office. Well, it was more a room but she did work there.

Erica put on a pot of tea and pulled out some shortbread cookies from a cabinet and they discussed all sorts of things. "What does a seeress do?" Fluttershy asked.

"A seeress looks into the future and past and advises the Herd on what she sees," Erica replied. Before Fluttershy could ask another question, Erica asked her if she had any strange dreams. Fluttershy told Erica about her dream of what happened in the NSA. The seeress asked a lot of questions about the flame creature. Even though Fluttershy thought is was just a nightmare, the seeress had a feeling that Fluttershy had sensed something important about the Claw Combine. Will probably have to check the future for that.

Erica asked Fluttershy if she could do an important task for the Herd. "Will it be dangerous?" Fluttershy asked with a bit of fear in her voice.

"No, it will be pretty safe, we need someone to greet the refugees and tell them where everything is so they don't wander around and get frustrated and angry," Erica replied. Erica explained the duties of a greeter to Fluttershy. When refugees show up, the greeter has to tell them what the rules are and where the important places are like the cafeteria, hospital and other places.

"When can I go home?" Fluttershy asked.

"When Ashley has regained enough power to send you back, unless things have changed," Erica replied. Then the seeress shooed Fluttershy out of her office and went back to work. Fluttershy walked to the gate to find who was the greeter for the day.

For now things were pretty nice, not as nice as Equestria but Fluttershy felt pretty good, she had gotten her bath, met some good people and now maybe she could hang out here for a while with the DC herd and not rush back to Equestria.