Old Wounds

by Sylpheed Dashstep

Act I; Scene IV: Another Perspective

She had been chasing him for five years now and she was going to finally catch him. It was July twenty-ninth and it was all about to be over. She had never been able to catch him, ever. No matter how close she was. She had been to all of his concerts, trying to get close. But something always happened. She got escorted out by bodyguards, the crowd pushed her away, but one time, one time, whe had gotten so close. If he had leaned back her hooves wold have wrapped aound him. The crowd was reallly loud, so he couldn't hear her, but she had almost gotten him! That...thing showed up. It was a shadow type thing and it had been in her dreams ever since that one night years ago. The night she had been told to run and never look back. It came out of nowhere and just simply tossed her away from the stage. The crowd thought she was crowdsurfing and only succeeded in pushing her back farther.

She realized then that this wasn't just something ordinary. There was something wrong here. She had to meet him in Ponyville. So she sat here waiting on the edge of the town. She didn't know where he would come in, but there were only two entrances in and out, so he had to go through one. She sighed and leaned against the wall she was beside, swaying slightly. She passed it off as being tired, and kept watch out for Alex. Something appeared off in the distance, a bit farther into town. She squinted her eyes and focused on the figure. There were two figures. Both walking towards her. Her heart skipped a beat as she recognized Alex and she rushed forward, falling flat onto her face. She struggled to get up and watched as Alex fell to his side, a few hundred meters away. No not again she screamed in her mind and tears began to well up at the edge of her vision. The pink mare beside Alex ran to get help and Anna pushed herself up onto her hooves before swaying a little and covering a few meters before falling to the ground again, this time near the edge of consciousness. The pink mare came back with a red stallion and the two picked up the figure that was her old filly friend and began trotting to the farm off in the distance.

She awoke in a room, her eyes flying open, scanning her surroundings but not actually taking anything in. She got out of the bed she was in and trotted to the only visible door in the room. She needed to find Alex. Her mind was made up on that at least, unlike the rest of the turmoil her mind was in. She trotted down the stairs in front of her and called out, "Hello?"

A crashing resounded from downstairs followed by a slight yelp and she rushed down the rest of the stairs to find a pile of books with somepony's flank sticking out of the books. A voice came from the pile as the legs tried to scramble free, "Hey, who's there, I-I'll get Twilight."

Anna giggled and moved the books off the squirming figure to reveal a baby Dragon. "Why hello there," she said cheerfully, taking a quick glance over him. He was purple and he had a slightly pale underbelly. The ridges on his back were a dark green color and his eyes were the same color as them. She began to pick up the books and asked him, "So what's your name?"

He leaned down to help her pick up the books and said to her, "Well I'm Spike, Twilights assistant. This is Twi's library," he said as he gestured around. She nodded her head and Spike said, "So what brings you to Ponyville?"

Anna's eyes took on a glazed over look and she said, "I've been looking for somepony. Been looking for a while now. But I haven't had much luck. Things have been getting in the way every time." She shook her head and smiled at the baby Dragon, "You don't need to worry about that though, it's my problem."

He grinned back and asked, "How have you been getting bits. If you've been traveling you can't have a normal job."

She looked away from the Dragon, letting her mane cover her face and hide her from him, "I-I'd rather not talk about it, I've done some things I'm not proud of, ok Spike?" The Dragon nodded his head and she said, "You promise not to ask me about it anymore?"

Spike reluctantly said, "I promise." He looked at the pile of books on the floor and said, "I thinks we can leave this and clean it up later, how about I take you out into the town."

Anna giggled and said, "Fine, but I'm paying." She gave Spike a look that said challenge me, I dare you to then began to laugh when she saw the look on Spike's face. "Come on," she said, "I'm just playing with you, you can pay for me if you want you little gentleman."

Spike walked over to the door and opened it, "Ladies first," he said as he motioned for her to exit. Then he stopped as though he remembered something, "Oh! Wait right here, I have to get your saddle bags." He rushed off, returning minutes later with a black saddle bag, the Velcro strap being white with a bark blue musical note on the end of it.

She smiled and reached a hoof out for it, her hoof coming in contact with his hand. ...kind of cute she heard. No, she thought, not now. She had learned long ago that she could hear ponies thoughts by touching them, and from time to time, she forgot about them. She yanked her hoof back, taking her saddlebags with it. Spike gave her a weird look and said, "Well, we best be going."

Anna nodded her head and said, "Yeah, sure lead the way." Spike walked out the door and Anna followed her, closing the door as she walked out. They walked through the town and they passed by a news stand, Anna barely catching sight of the newspaper on the top of the pile. She stopped and looked at it, staring blankly at the date. It was August second. "Spike," she said, "where's Sweet Apple Acres?"

Spike looked at her as if she had gone crazy and said, "It's over there." He pointed to a path up ahead and Anna began running blindly towards it, Spike stumbling after her. "Hey, wait a minute," he said, "what are you doing?"

She arrived in front of the forest later and Anna saw a dark shape flittering in between the trees. "Spike," she said hesitantly, "whatever you do, don't follow me in there ok?" Spike nodded his head and opened his mouth to say something but Anna began chasing the figure through the trees before he got anything out. The darkness was instantaneous and Anna squinted her eyes, trying to distinguish the shadows from the form she had seen a few seconds ago. It shifted through the trees again and it stopped in between two trees, watching her. It's body shifted figures and seemed to stop as it became a filly. Maybe this is just a filly and I'm insane she thought. It hissed and then flitted through the trees again. Nope, she thought grimly not a filly. She hesitantly trotted after it, her mind a warzone as to what she should do. The thing disappeared and she could see a break in the trees. She trotted towards it, looking through the gap. Her heart nearly stopped as she saw Alex.

She spotted an apple at her hooves and picked it up, throwing it at his retreating figure. He turned around and yelled out, "Hey, tell me who's there and I might not have to kick your flank." She giggled a little and picked up another apple, launching it at him. He dodged it and she turned to look for another apple. There was one lying a few feet behind her and she trotted back to pick it up. She heard his voice say, "I'll see you later then." She threw the apple and he turned his head, the apple catching his jaw. She busted out laughing and Alex said, "You asked for it," and hopped into the trees. He stopped after he got into the forest and she threw another apple at him, saying, "Catch me if you can!" He began chasing her and she kept running until the crashing behind her stopped. She turned around and saw snow falling in between the trees. She slowly walked forward and the trees grew thinner, allowing her to see past the layer of leaves and trunks. She saw a town, not just any town though. She slowly walked past the tree line and into the town. It was Fillydelphea. She looked at the street she was standing on and saw snow stretching the length of it. She turned to look behind her and saw only the exit to the town. She could leave right now and not have to relive this horrible memory. But something told her it wasn't just a memory. No this was something real. Something she had to follow perfectly otherwise they would all go down in flames. She trotted towards her old home. Seeing it brought back tears to her eyes. The last time she had seen it was five years ago. She walked to the door and knocked on it, sending it open a few inches after the first knock. It hadn't been closed all the way. She hurried inside to find her father and mother laying in a pool of blood, and neither of them seemed alive. A sob escaped her throat. She could have done something, she could have stopped it. But she couldn't have. A flashback appeared before her eyes and she gasped.

She was laying in her bed and there had been a sound outside her door. She got up and cautiously creeped to the door, hoping not to disturb her parents, she was supposed to be asleep after all. She inched the door open with her snout to find a shadow standing over the figure of her mother and father. It turned to her and said, "Go to sleep now child, this is nothing but a dream." She nodded and went back to her bed, not because she believed him, but because she didn't want to believe what she had seen.

A shifting sound brought her out of her daydream and she looked to the source. Her dad was laying on the ground gawking at her. "A-Anna," he questioned and then cringed, a look of pain overtaking his facial features.

Tears came to her eyes as she watched her dad struggle to keep a straight face, "It...It's me dad, I'm here." She rushed to his side and hugged him, pulling away when she heard him gasp from the pain she had caused him. "Sorry," she exclaimed quickly.

He smiled and hugged her back. She could see that he was trying to hold back a look of pain and he pulled back after a few minutes, "Don't be, so am I hallucinating or are you really here?"

She smiled and said, "I'm really here dad, don't worry, I get out of here perfectly fine. Your baby girl grows up into this." As she said this tears came to her eyes and she tried to hold them back. She failed and they cascaded down her cheeks, choked sobs coming with them.

"It's nice to see that you get to live your life," he coughed, blood dripping out of his mouth in a string, "it's the best present a parent can ever get, to see their child grow up. Even when they don't get to see it happen..." He trailed off and Anna dried her eyes, clearing her vision to see the light had faded from her fathers eyes.

"N-NO! Dad, please come back. I don't want to go any farther without you," she said, tears forming again as she leaned down, burying her face in his coat. After a few minutes she got up and walked over to her old bedroom door, knowing what she had to do. She pulled the cloak from the wall and put it on, covering her face. She walked over to the bed and shook the figure in it, "Anna, get up, you have to go to the town square."

The figure turned to look at her and said tiredly, "What?"

Anna shook her head and pulled the blanked off of the filly, "You have to go to town square, now!" An urgent tone creeped into her voice and the filly got up.

"Alright, alright, I'm going, calm down," the filly said. Anna nodded her head and turned around to go, heading to the door, when a voice interrupted her, "Miss, who are you?"

Anna gave a slight giggle, "You'll find out sooner or later." And with that she slipped out the door, the cloak coming off and falling onto the floor, giving the filly a slight peek of the mare. Anna looked around the clearing where she was to see herself back in the apple grove. She gave a sigh of relief and then her eyes landed on the figure in front of her. Alex was laying there. Suddenly his eyes opened.

Author's Note:

Sorry about taking so long with updating this, I had a lot to do and not a whole lot of computer time. Most of the time was taken up helping my mother plan her wedding so here you go finally. I decided I couldn't just throw in another character without just explaining how she got there so I decided to tell her story.
~Sylpheed Dashstep
p.s. I still have no editor, so the job is still open to anyone who wants it.

Comments

[Iridescence T Wind]

So far so good though you might want to fix that wall of text near the end into several more paragraphs of four to six sentances or at the bits of conversation ending.

So instead of "blah blah blah" haha. Nah nah nah, "clap clap"

Try:

"Blah blah blah," haha.

Nah Nah Nah, "Clap clap"

Sorry for the insentient word if they are gibberish. Just thought to let ya know it looks cleaner and easier to read than a wall of letters. Otherwise a fun read and Can't wait for the next chapter.(Well I can wait, don't need to rush quality over quanity.)

[Sylpheed Dashstep]

2259473 I already have chapter 5 written, I just don't have it typed up yet, and probably won't untill I get up this story my friend Nick is making me write (read latest blog post for reference).