> The Conversion Bureau: A Mare's Tail
>  by HiddenBrony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Her City
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Author's Note


I don't really do these Author's note bits, but I feel I should make mention of this. A Mare's Tail is an early work of mine, and as such, there are a lot of rookie errors that I might not have caught when I cleaned this up for FiMFiction. Not to mention that the story itself is getting a full rewrite, with new chapters, an alternate ending, and all sorts of goodies. However, that won't be finished for a long time, and I've had people ask me to bring this story up on FiMFiction, so here it is.

This is also one of the early works of the Conversion Bureau universe, so we were all stretching our minds for what it all was. The Human Conservation Front(My error in calling it the HLF coincided with others, and our accidents gave rise to the now accepted name of the Human Liberation Front, which doesn't make any gorram sense to me) wasn't really an established entity between fics, and the IHSA was just starting to see use among other fics. Both Yellowstone and LHS were being written alongside Mare's Tail, and you might see call outs and references to each here. 

But mostly, I had written this story because we had never seen a female protagonist in the series, and at the time when I wrote the first chapter, all of the substantial fictions were self-insert. Except, as it turns out, LMS, and then Yellowstone very shortly after. So at that point TCB kicked off. Mare's Tail was a rather quiet fic, ending to no great fanfare, but it always seemed to hold a #2 spot on many a TCB lovers list, stuck between Yellowstones and LMS's and the occasional Ten Rounds(<3 you Mids). It was enough reason to consider putting up here for FimFic.

It's an old fic, so suspend what you know about conventional TCB and enjoy it for what it is.

Thanks.

------------------------------------

        Violet expelled her breath long and deep, staring up at the ceiling above. Glow in the dark stars speckled her room in the idea of making it more like sleeping outside, but it hadn’t worked it’s magic on her in years. Now they were just familiar - a commodity that had become rare in recent time. Ever since the Conversion Bureau’s opened, nothing was the same - her best friend had run off to them quickly, sending her a letter every day she could - until all that came back one day was a hoof print and a horribly scrawled ‘Come with me!’ that Violet could only guess was written by her now pastel friend. 

        Slipping sideways off her bed, Violet cast her eyes toward her curtain, bordered by magnificent sunlight that tasted the edges of her window. She casually glanced toward her alarm clock, always ten minutes fast, and instinctively slammed her open palm unto it, the final digit changing the time to nine o’ clock as she hit it, cutting the alarm before it had time to screech out the grinding tones. Taking a deep breath, she idly remarked the air smelled like warm root beer, before realizing that she had left a bottle of the stuff opened near the foot of her breath. Giving it a cautionary glance, she picked up the two liter and drained the rest of the flat liquid.

        “Breakfast of Champions,” Violet muttered under her breath. Gathering her courage, she stood up, rubbing the slight muffin top that extended over her pajama bottoms. She had actually been losing weight, but then again it was easier to eat healthy now that most restaurants had cheap and easy food that was somehow more healthy than anything she normally chewed on. As she remarked on her slimming figure, her stomach growled as the soda reached it, obviously unhappy with it’s first meal. “Oh, quiet you. I’ll give you something good in a bit.” 

        She sighed. A year ago that would have meant Fruit Loops and a muffin. Glancing wistfully toward her curtain, she grabbed the bottom and pulled. Blinding light filled the room, illuminating the cleanly mess she claimed property over. What used to be pizza boxes were now simple cardboard boxes, stuffed with memories and pictures of those who left her behind. Her eyes adjusting to the light, she bent down and picked up a loose rectangle, flipping it over.

        Graduation day. There she was, cap and gown, right next to a strong, chiseled young man. To her left were two odd-balls, a short, chubby young man in glasses and the eccentric actor that made up her little group of friends. She closed her eyes, remembering them, their faces, their voices. She could hear Evan’s voice, so unfitting his stocky physique. “I guess I could go into radio, I hear I’m not supposed to sound like how I look!” How apt that was now, she admitted. The anatomically poor man had been one of the frontrunners to the Bureau, his self-confidence had always been held back by his physical shape.

        What came out was a blue-gray stallion pegasus that, while a bit wider around the flank, was just as tall as anyone. Or anypony, as the little horses liked to say. Shaking her head mercilessly, she tossed the picture off to the side. The others, like Evan, were all... different now. Looking toward her door, she pushed it open, most places no longer having locks or knobs anymore. It had been replaced before she moved in here - apparently the last tenant had thrown an absolute fit and got himself thrown out, but not before breaking what he could.

        The rest of Violet’s apartment was in far contrast to her room. Clean and tidy, one would believe it was almost up for sale. The floor opened up into something spacious, with plenty of room to dance, hop, skip, or jump... none of which Violet would partake in. Not without someone else. The sound of her apartment was deafening to her - this silence all encompassing. Not a knock or a slam or the muffled arguments of a family could be heard anywhere beyond her walls. Violet stomped her foot loudly, as was her custom, and waited for a response that never came.
        
        -----

        A month ago, she had a meeting with the other tenants. It happened on a foggy day that was just like any other. An old couple named Judy and Harold, an eccentric music man named Alfred, and the superintendent. When she arrived into the room, she had been taken aback slightly - not to see so few people, but rather - so many! They sat comfortably in their own ways, Judy and Harold sat pleasantly in their chairs, while Alfred sat on a table, using a chair as a footrest and a wall as his leaning apparatus. The super merely sat behind an important looking chair, his mustache unkempt and his old, gray hair scruffy from weeks of ignoring simple brushing techniques. 

        “Ooohhh...” chided the old maid. Violet spun to look at her, and could see the woman was analyzing her and forming her own opinions. Judy looked nice enough, her blue sundress was ironed just so that it seemed she stepped off the set an old film. Violet felt hot under the collar being examined, and quickly made her way behind a table to keep herself from being fully watched, as if the oak table could save her from the old marm’s opinion.

        “Well, would you look at that, another one joins us in ‘high society’!” Laughed the music man, his polka dot shirt unbuttoned and revealing an extremely hairy chest. It wasn’t hard to avert her eyes from anything but his wild expression, but as she gave it more scrutiny, she could see he meant no harm. “Hey super, when you said we had another tenant I thought you were finally letting ponies in.” Leaning his head forward, Alfred slipped his hands behind him and replaced his head against the wall. “Maybe I’d have some neeeeeiiiiigh-bors.” The pun was awful, but Violet could hear a chuckle emanate from the old couple.

        The superintendent shook his head, but soon leaned forward. “No...” he breathed. Even from here, the sour stench of alcohol hung on his lips. “This is my building. No goddammed ponies will be in my building. It was built for humans, for fuck’s sake,” he cursed, slamming a fist against the table, a loud snap could be heard from the maple desk, but the super paid it no mind. “And it’ll stay that way ‘till my fuckin’ last breath.”

        Violet shifted uncomfortably. She always did around anyone angry - it didn’t even have to be at her. She never watched movies with angry people, either. The idea of hate for hate’s sake. Violet eyed the superintendent’s vest a moment. Adorned on it was something that took her breath away as suddenly as a lightning strike.

The seal of the HLF. 

She had heard about them from the news and radio reports on her commutes to work, how they claimed to want to save the humans from the ponies and denied any radical involvement from attacks on pony kind. While Violet was certain not all of them were primarily evil, or hate filled, or whatever... She knew that kind rage at the mere mention of the new sentient race was enough to send a shiver down her spine.

“Hey, you, Viola or whatever.” The superintendent spat, saliva and alcohol spraying over his desk. “You lookin’ at my badge?” he challenged. A strange look adorned his vision as he looked at her up and down. 

“Violet,” she corrected, trying to keep her cool. “And no, not really. Caught my eye for a second,” she lied, mentally berating herself for staring like a deer in the headlights. Her mind wandered against her will, wondering if the man before her tried to do that with any ponies, but she banished the idea as the superintendent stood up suddenly, causing her to jump slightly.

He wasn’t a large man, as it turned out. To be honest, she had only come over to the building from phone calls, and he seemed so happy to hear from her. But now - he seemed dangerous. Still, his less imposing size littled him in front of Violet. Calming her nerves, she let herself meet his gaze unassumingly, if only for a moment.

“Hey now, Freddie, calm down, we’re cool with ya,” Alfred chuckled, switching his feet around on the chair. Harold seemed to be more interested in what little was happening outside of the window. With such contrasts over the room, Violet didn’t know what to expect, but to her appeasement the super sat back down, huffing slightly.

“Fuckin’ pony-lovin’ bitch,” he swore, eliciting an eye-roll from the young woman. It was just like her father, really. “But yer human, so I guess it counts for something.” He coughed, lightly at first, but it quickly devolved into huge gasps followed by whooping coughs. It escalated so quickly that Violet didn’t realize it when Alfred jumped to his feet, running over to Fred and trying to help him calm down. “Geddawayfrome!” the super shouted, before coughing harder.

Harold continued to stare out into the city, his gaze fixed on a floating pegasus, mailbags strapped to it’s side as it flew overhead. Violet stood up slowly, heading to the phone cautiously. As soon as Fred’s cough turned to a hack, and blood started to mix with his spit, she made the call.

-----

Judy and Harold left after that, and Alfred stayed with Fred for awhile before he died of complications. Apparently years of smoking and other nasty habits had nearly torn his lungs apart, and the culmination had finally broken down and taken his body. After that Alfred and Violet spent every other day just reminiscing on old times, what lives they had led before the escape of ponyism took away their dying world. Now it was silent, even in this high rise apartment, where only the wealthiest of people could have lived. It no longer creaked and groaned with life. She used to stomp her foot hard against the ground, the music man responding in kind, to give the place some semblance of life - but that had stopped a week ago. Her whole building seemed to have stopped.

Violet stared out at her city. Albuquerque used to be so beautiful to her, but now most of the buildings seemed vacant. The lifeless eyes of her city stared at her in her tower of man. Walking over to a sliding glass door, she stepped out into the open air, taking in the smells of her city. It was different now - so very different. The sounds of motorists were faint if not nonexistent. 

At least I’m human. For whatever that’s worth. She scanned the city, specks of pastel pegasus dotting the skies as they played or worked from what she could see through a fog. Some were simply enjoying the wind beneath their wings as they cruised the cityscape, leaving Violet with an empty feeling that matched her city. Turning, she made for the inside of her home.

“Down bellloooowww!” cried a voice, causing the pajama-clad girl to whip violently around to see a clumsy pegasi fluttering about, trying to get the hang of descending. Violet looked wildly about, trying to find something to help the pegasus’ landing, but her balcony had been bare since she moved in - the idea of enjoying her city had fallen through once she had felt it stare back at her. Rushing to find an aid, she didn’t get very far before the full force of pony collided with her back as they rolled through her door and into the padded carpeting of her home. 

It took a moment for Violet to react further, feathers strewn about and hanging from her untidy hair, she rubbed her nose slightly as her mind focused on what happened. “Total wipeout.” the pegasus whined, causing Violet’s mind to sharpen. Spinning around, she stared down the pegasus, hands on her hips as she gave him a look that could freeze time.

“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?!” she screamed, pointing toward the door. “Get the hell outta my home before I rip your feathers off and punt you off my balcony!” Violet threatened, her mind not going over the logistics on how that might not exactly work. She was pissed - and she had every right to be.

“Whooooa, girly.” Ignoring the seething human, the orange pegasus laughed, getting up on four hooves, a smile playing on his expression. The way his hooves hit the carpet made a lovely swooshing sound that Violet decided to ignore. “No need to get uppity with me.”

“Get. Out.” Violet punctuated her command by taking a, hopefully, threatening step forward.

        The stallion laughed slightly, which hit a chord with Violet. It seemed familiar. Catching sight of the wild expression, the gears in her head started to crank into motion. Slamming a hoof against the ground, it reverberated the apartment slightly as he cracked a smile. “Come on, Violet, I’m still new to the whole flying thing!”

        “Al...” she breathed, slamming a hand to her forehead. The pony in question spun around on four hooves a couple times, as if proudly displaying himself like a model. His tail swooshed around every which way, but what was probably the most striking feature was his mane, which like his human self, was full of curls and unkempt strands sticking out at odd angles.

        “Look, Violet, I didn’t mean to crash into ya like this, but I couldn’t get into my apartment through my window and and... Well, the scanners outside don’t let me in,” he muttered sheepishly. Violet kept her stare on as she briefly considered if a pony could be a sheep, but realized a person could give a sheepish look, so a pony could too. “I’m kinda surprised you’re still here though, I woulda thought after my note-”

        Violet’s eyes widened slightly. “Note?” she echoed.

        Alfred turned his head slightly before continuing. “Yeah, V, my note. I stuck it on my door before leaving for the camp - didn’t you check?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. Violet looked a bit sheepish - which really just proved her earlier assumption - as she shook her head. “You didn’t check.” he said, his voice deadpan.

        “Hey now, you could have stuck it on my door!” she defended, pointing to the door to her apartment as she did. “You stopped responding in the morning, so I thought you just plain left after Fred died, Alfred! You two were friends, or something!” Waving her hands about wildly, Alfred followed her fingers, raising a hoof and inspecting it thoughtfully. “You’re not even listening!” she cried, once again slamming a palm against her face.

        “What? Oh, yes I was. Sorta. Look.” Flapping his wings a couple times, he made a gesture with his hooves that cut the line of thought before landing on his hooves again. “I shoulda come by and told ya, but I wasn’t even sure I was going to go through with it. But when I got there - guess who I saw?”

        Violet raised an eyebrow, shaking her head and shrugging. “I dunno, Al, who did you see?”

        “Harold and Judy! And Harold was as lucid as can be!” Alfred exclaimed, hoping a bit on his hooves. Violet looked taken aback - she hadn’t really noticed that Harold wasn’t all there - just quiet. She didn’t know any of the tenants, really, before the meeting... or after. Except Alfred, really. “We shot the shit for a bit and they convinced me to give it a try-”

        “A try? There’s no going back from being a pony, Al. There’s only doing and not doing. And you most certainly did!” Violet’s outburst surprised even her, and her hand moved from her forehead to her mouth, before shaking violently. “I’m- I’m sorry. I don’t know where that came from. This is just... well, I thought I wasn’t gonna see anyone I knew again,” she admitted, working her way over to the couch. She sat there awhile, Alfred looking her over a bit before walking to the edge of the furniture and sitting on his haunches. “Are they coming back here too? Harold and Judy. Now that Fred, y’know...”

        The orange pony shook his head. “Nah, they mentioned about heading to their summer home and picking up some things. Pictures or something like that. Then they’re heading off to Equestria.” He said sadly, shaking his mane.

        Violet looked up, having been cradling her head in her hands. “Is that what you are here to do, too?” She sniffed. She hadn’t expected this to hit her like it did. Her friends had left to tears, sure, but it always got easier. These were people she barely knew, and now... Now it hurt all over again. “Are you just pick up your stuff and... leave?” she choked out, trying to regain herself. It wasn’t working. 

        Al shook his head sadly. There was no use lying about it. Gathering herself into a straight face, Violet nodded slowly, her neck stiff. “Alright then.” She shot to her feet, Al calling after her to wait a moment. Ignoring him, she made for the door, opening it and looking back. “Come on, you aren’t going to be able to open the damn door without me.” Her voice like stone, Al sighed and followed behind.

        -----

        Her arms were crossed, but they were grasping at her sides like a tight hug. Violet watched Alfred go about slowly, pulling out a pair of saddlebags he had bought prior to ponification. “Bullshit...” Violet coughed. There was no letter on the door when she got there, although the pegasi had flown ahead. Al was going to get ponified the moment he left. He must of been. Sniffing as softly as she could, she still caught the attention of Alfred, who shook his head sadly, wishing she would just leave him now - but to be honest he’d be trapped in his own apartment if she closed the door behind her, so he endured her cold stare. As he went about moving things, he found himself caring less and less for things he thought he couldn’t live without, but still he nabbed a few pictures off the shelf, for sentimental value. Doing so earned a scoff from Violet, and Alfred sighed.

        “I... am sorry, V. For not telling you upfront,” he confessed, placing what he believed to be his final item in the saddlebag. “I just...”

        “Save it, Alfred. You wanted to be a pony, and you didn’t care about some girl in the floor above you.” Her voice was ice, Alfred wincing as she spoke. “Are you finished yet? I’d like to get back home.” Violet’s cold look sent a shiver down Al’s spine. The pegasus merely nodded slowly, then turned to his saddlebags, eyeing them. Stick his nose through, he attempted to move himself into the bags, but found himself with some difficulty. 

Slamming his hoof down, he tussled and wrestled with the bags until he found himself on his back, his wings and tail completely tangled. Struggling for a bit, he found he had somehow got two hooves stuck in one of the straps and had pulled the strap tight around them, severely limiting his movement and, in all essences, gotten stuck. “Wha?” he breathed, flailing his wing around in an attempt to swing himself around. “Oh crimany.” Violet looked on in amusement as the orange pony rattled against the ground, the sounds of him hitting the floor resonating in her ears. Closing her eyes, she stomped a foot down on the ground in unconscious response. Alfred paused, swiveling his neck around to view Violet, whose frigid expression had melted to that of a content smile. After a moment’s hesitation, he lay against the ground, lifting his good back hoof up, supporting his weight, before crashing his flank on the ground again with a dull thump.

Violet slammed the ground a second time with her feet. And thus he did again, and she stomped again. They did that routine for close to five minutes, simply hitting their bodies against the ground, tears of merriment raining down from Violet’s closed eyes. 

Finally Alfred fell to the ground in a slump, his leg too tired and his flank too bruised to continue. Opening her eyes, Violet could see the poor colt heaving tiredly from the effort, and smiled warmly. Walking over to him, she tutted mockingly. “How will you ever survive in Equestria? You can’t fly, you can’t dress yourself, you can’t even stand up right!” she laughed once, before dissolving into a giggling fit as she knelt down to Alfred, helping untangle the pony from his trap.

A low chuckle escaped from Alfred as he lay his head on the ground. “Yeah. But I can make people laugh.” Violet took a moment, leaning looking over at Alfred’s face. A couple tears rolled down his face as a large, closed smile was pressed on his equine features. 

        Pulling a strap back, Alfred felt his hooves free, and Violet extracted the saddlebags. As she did, an envelope fell out the side, causing the woman to lean over and pick it up. “Now what’s this...?” she said, raising it up for Alfred to see. “To Violet. Ah, your letter to me! I got a letter!” she sang, giving Alfred an unreadable look.

        “Well, it’s nothing much, Violet, I’m here right now so I can tell you the contents of it easily. You can trash the gosh darn thing right away-” Silenced by a rip in the paper, Violet did the opposite as she was told as she extracted the letter. Alfred winced visibly as she unfolded one third of it, causing her to look at him with amusement.

        “Why, Alfred, I could say that you don’t want me to read it now,” she teased, before folding it back. He nodded slowly, his cheeks blushing madly. Sensing it was a fairly personal letter, she decided it could wait - people always tended to do weird things before making a massive change in their life. In Alfred’s case, it was becoming a three foot tall pegasus. “Well alright, but I’m keeping my hands on it,” she informed, opening up her shirt and sticking it between her skin and bra. “Where you won’t dare reach for it with your only working appendage,” she mentioned, chattering her teeth to prove a point.

        “Yeesh, alright!” Alfred cried, his orange color turning a pink shade along his muzzle. However, his thoughts were interrupted as once again Violet’s hands were on him, this time setting the saddlebags on straight. “Oh! Ahem. Well, thanks,” he muttered, wincing as she pressed against his bruised flank.

        “No problem. Nice cutie mark, by the way, I didn’t notice it before. Suits you,” she mentioned idly, tightening the last strap. However, as she didn’t have time to actually let go of it before it was ripped from her hand as the colt was currently spinning in place violently.

“My cutie mark?!” he exclaimed, craning his neck. “Confound these wings! What’s it look like!?” Violet merely sat back, shaking her head.

“It’s a sign from theater,” she mentioned, giving it a poke as he passed by, which caused him to yelp and jump straight up and down. “Whoops, sorry. Anyway, there are generally two plays, tragedy and comedy. You, sir Alfred, have comedy plastered on your ass!” she laughed, shaking her head. “Which really, tragedy would have fit just as well.” Teasing Alfred sent Violet into another giggling fit, much to Alfred’s displeasure. He looked back at his mark, this time moving his wing out of the way. 

There it was, wrapped with ribbon around it, was the image for a smiling face - which looked just fine, stylized like an equine. Allowing Violet finish her much needed giggles, he let her pick herself up and dust off her pants. “Thank you, Violet,” he said simply, before gesturing toward the door with his hoof. “After you.”

Violet turned toward the door, and then back to her friend, waving her arms in a ‘no way’ fashion. “You forgot your other saddlebag. You’ve only got the one on,” she said, gesturing toward the empty bag in the corner. Alfred turned to look at it, and shrugged.

“I didn’t get it for me,” he said simply, trotting out the door. Violet looked blankly on for a moment, before dawning came over her features. Jogging over, she picked up the saddlebag and slung it over her shoulder, unsure of what to do with it. Maybe she would need it down the line, but first she was going to go beat Alfred for such a cheesy line.

-----

“So, now that I have a matching bruise...” Alfred glared at the amused woman who sat at her kitchen counter. “I think it’s time to take my leave.” A cold wind filled the room from the open glass door, echoing his finality. The smile started to fade from Violet’s face. Looking at the pegasus pony, she nodded slowly. “Well...” he began, as if he didn’t know where to end.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“I’m sorry?” Alfred asked, taken aback.

Violet rolled her eyes. “Your pony name. Almost everypony I’ve talked to changed their name to something whimsical. Not many ponies native to Equestria are gonna react well to a pegasus named Alfred.”

Regretfully, the pegasus shrugged his shoulders. “I haven’t given it any thought.” Tilting his head, the pony’s face brightened. “How about ‘Mousse’? I love that stuff.” Violet’s eyes feel to half-moons as she gave the orange pegasus a once over. “Aaaaah - alright then, how about, um...”

“Chuckles,” Violet blurted, “you got the laughing thing there, and it’ll let you revert to Chuck. It’s a far cry from Alfred, sure, but you got something normal to your ears,” She argued.

“Chuckles,” he echoed, dead pan. “Chuckles. Really.” His face melted, though, as he kept saying it. “Chuckles. Chuck-les. Well alrighty, Mr. Chuckles.” Breaking out in a smile, he applauded his hooves along the ground. “I guess I’m Chuckles again.” The pegasus nodded his head to the idea.

“Yeah, but you’re Alfred while you’re here. Speaking of Alfred...” She produced the letter that was addressed to her. “An Alfred gave me this here letter. Now I wonder what it says...”

Looking up, Alfred read her face, a look of fear spreading on his own. “AHEM!” she shouted. “DEAR VIOLET!” she warned, looking from the letter to the pegasus, but the pony in question had already bolted, a speck along the city skyline. Placing the letter down, she walked toward the glass shutter, sliding it closed as she saw the pegasi dot the sky. “Heh. See ya, Chuckles.”

Violet saw her city once more, looking at it differently than she had previous. Her city was dead. But the signs of life she was looking for where all wrong to what was in front of her. It wasn’t her city. Closing her eyes, she nodded in affirmation. This city lived. Differently now, but it was alive all the same.

Lowering her head, a small smile crept on her features as she slammed her leg against the ground one last time, letting the silence of the action rain down on her. A tear rolling down her face, she walked back to the table picking up the letter. She gave it a quick look, before standing up and stretching. Looking out the large plate glass windows, her smiled grew.

Turning, she raised the letter up to her face to read as she approached her door, opened it, and took off into the clear, sunny day.

Her saddlebag draped across her shoulders.
> Her Decision
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        The lights were dim inside the Conversion Bureau, and not a soul could be seen inside, pony or otherwise. Violet’s head against the glass, she hit it with a dull thud as she weepishly looked on inside as she stood there. Woebegone, Violet felt her knees buckle under her as she slammed against the ground, her face betraying no pain as the impact bloodied her knee. “Too late...” she breathed. Casting another forlorn glance toward the Bureau, she felt a hot anger consume her, but it fluttered out in the very second it had appeared, replacing it with feelings of helplessness. Tears flowed freely, but she made no whimper. She felt nothing.

        Weighted down, Violet spun around, her head glaring down at the sidewalk around her. She wanted it to be an angry stare, but all she could muster was the intensity - none of the feelings. Passersby, Earth pony and unicorn, gazed gazes of dull surprise toward the human girl, the tears on her face staining her cheeks with a salty residue. The wind blew briskly around her, the tides of Autumn chilling her slightly, but provoked no movement, a dense fog enveloping her, holding her still.

        Violet didn’t know how long she sat there, how many ponies past her saddened shape. She didn’t care. Everyone was gone, anyway. Soon she would be to, she guessed. There was no reason to return to her home, if she could even call it that. It was more of a place where she ate, slept, and whittled away the day before repeating the process ad infinitum. She had hoped that moving to where the last vestiges of man would remove her from the creeping grip of loneliness she had succumbed to prior.

        Nothing flowed for her. The only remnants of her long forgotten life had left long ago, the feeling of connection with other people... A stallion walked by, casting a strange look to the female before him. Pausing, the pony stopped. “Um... ‘Scuze me miss, but uh... Aren’t you going to... party like the rest of them?” he asked, every word he said was squeezed out slowly, carefully. 

        Snapping up, she eyed the red pony intensely, causing him to take a few steps away. “Look, I don’t want any trouble from your organization, I was just asking-”

        “Organization?” she echoed accusingly, before catching herself. The colt was about to bolt, that much was obvious, but his eyes scanned her face. Violet admitted that she didn’t let herself see it much with Alfred, but ponies had gigantic eyes. Large, imposing- but caring eyes. “I-I’m sorry,” she choked, her head leaning back. She was never like this. Never so much of... well, a bitch. Maybe to her friends when she wanted to elicit a laugh for an overreaction, but to yell with such- malice. “I’m so sorry...” New feelings of shame reigned inside. Who was she, anyway? What right did she have to be angry? The entire reason she was here was her fault - never choosing to become a pony like her friends. Her family. Her entire race. What was she?

        The colt shook his head a moment, taking the picture before him in. “Whoa, whoa, hold on lil’ girl, it’s alright,” he cooed, walking alongside the human. “Calm down - I’m sorry to have assumed you were in league with them.”

        “With who?!” Violet’s voice cracked, holding on to the end of her rope. “I-I...” she paused. The last month, Alfred was her only human friend. Before that, she had been the only human remaining in her apartment complex. So she had moved somewhere more posh; more high class for humans. Humans. She kept coming to that distinction. The stallion in front of her probably wasn’t a pony for more than a year - she was sure of it, with a human hacksaw adorned on his flank. Human... Violet choked for a moment, holding a hand to her mouth. She hadn’t seen a single human in all of Albuquerque in more than three months outside of her new complex. It’s why she had left her old one. “I’m the only one,” she breathed, a panic in her voice.

        “You’re not... the only one,” the colt sighed, drumming his hooves on the ground. “I’m sorry, I thought you were with some of the HLF. They’ve been having a big party on the other side of town, I don’t know much - no reason to be in that area. The Conversion Bureau closed because the last couple of humans that came through mentioned that they were the only ones they knew left, really. Well, one with funny hair seemed sad - he said there might be one more-”

        “Alfred...” Violet breathed. She wasn’t stupid - it wasn’t hard to come to terms with the idea that he had wanted her to follow. Reaching into her pocket, her hand ripped out a small note that the now-pegasus had wrote her. “What all did you write...?” The colt beside her leaned over, but Violet didn’t mind. The action reminded her of the way things used to be with her friends.

        -----

        Dear Violet,

        Heh. Dear. I sound so... Shakespearean. Or something. Thouest Violeth, I am betrothed... um... thee Hamlet, forsooth! Crazy how things change over time. Although I guess that’s why I’ve come to this place I am. I got a letter in the mail today - the pegasus who dropped it off said she had almost given up looking for me, seeing as she couldn’t get in to my mailbox - Ol’ Fred never left anyone the keys. Probably took ‘em to the grave, the old bastard.

Anyway, um, so - ponies. It’s why I’m writing this. I got a letter from a friend of mine today that he was finally going through with it, and wanted to let me know my parents went in for it earlier today. Apparently their old dog died and they felt like nothing was holding them back. Don’t know why I didn’t get a letter from them myself but - oh geez I’m rambling. It took me three hours to find a goddamn pen that still works and I’m wasting it by whining and complaining.

Look, Violet, I’m going to go become a pony. Maybe today, maybe in a week, I don’t know. I’m playing this by ear. I want you to know this has nothing to do with you. Or everything. I mean... Oh, I would scratch that out but I’ve got nothing to lose. I don’t want to go alone, so by the time you read this I’ll probably be waiting, or in there already. Please, come with me. I know I’m boisterous and loud, but I’m really quite a coward when it comes to these things, but I’ve really come to like you, V, and I kinda want to be a pony alongside you. I guess that might be creepy, seeing as we’ve talked maybe three weeks, but as the last vestiges of man and woman left here in I’ll Be Quirky that’s not part of the HLF... I dunno, I thought we might have grown close.

So I’m going to go now. Oh shoot, the ink is running out. Um, if you don’t come I’ll be sad? 
-Love,
Alfred.

-----


Violet smirked, a tear rolling down her cheek. He could have said as much at her apartment. The hastily scrawled note dropped from her hand and unto her midriff. Even on the blank side of the page, she could see an indent of Alfred’s name as he tried desperately for more ink to sign his name in by pressing hard on the paper. Her cheeks felt hot, and her stomach felt... disastrously weak, but really, she was glad to start feeling again.

“Owowow...” she complained suddenly, her hands shooting out to her knees where she had fallen on them before. By this point they had mostly clotted, her joints try and aching from the force of her earlier fall. It didn’t make them any less painful, though.

“You okay then, Violet?” The colt asked, having read part of the note, and gathering her name from it. A couple more ponies that had been passing had stopped to see the human girl conversing in what looked to be a friendly chat with a pony. “I kinda read a little bit of the note and-”

“No, I’m not!” she laughed, wiping away tears. “But maybe I could be,” she sniffed, experimenting her movement by bending her knees. They smarted, but they were functional, as expected. “Do you know where the ponies at the clinic went?”

A pastel pink unicorn, the single one from the bunch of ponies whom had gathered, moved a hoof step forward, craning her neck slightly to look at Violet better. “Why... you want to be a pony?” she asked carefully.

Violet hesitated. It’s why she was here. It’s why she left her apartment. It’s why she had been crying... right? She could feel herself slipping somewhat, so she did the only thing she felt she could do in response, and nodded her head violently. “More than anything.” 

Looking at the other ponies, she lifted a hoof, as if asking them to leave. Some did so, glad to have avoided a confrontation with a rogue HLF member too far from the others. “Well, my name is Twinkle. I’m a unicorn from Equestria and... well, up until this morning I was in charge of this Bureau,” she admitted, looking toward the colt next to Violet. “Do you two know each other?”

The colt shook his head, “No, I just saw her sitting here outside. She’s not from the HLF - she’s just human.” The light pink pony nodded, removing the last of any doubt from her face. 

“For whatever that’s worth,” Violet chuckled despite herself. The girl looked both ways, not entirely wishing to lock eyes with a pony again - their eyes were too happy, too full of life, she didn’t feel like she could take much more of it so soon. She had felt devoid of it for so long. It was like taking a bit drink of water after thirsting for so long - too fast and it was painful all the way down.

Violet leaned back, her eyes closed. The city was quiet. A light fog rolled from the hills down toward her position. There was life - wonderful, moving life, but there was no familiar sound. Construction, vehicles, the angry horns and wailing sirens... there wasn’t any of it. How could such a thing be real - that these ponies lived like they needed each other. It was beyond them - that base human instinct.

        “Please...” she heard herself say. “If there is any way...”

        Twinkle looked about, her single highlight bouncing as she did. The other ponies that had gathered and not heeded her gesture to leave peered at her with pleading eyes. Save the girl. She wanted to, Twinkle really did, but she had no means, not anymore. The sedative, the magic she wasn’t capable of... 

        “I know a way,” the colt mentioned, standing up from his haunches. A rushed whisper grew from the other ponies as he stood. “I may have been one of the firsts here, but I remember what it’s like to be human.” The unnamed pony started to walk around the corner, before flicking his head. “Come on, Violet, you can drive, right?”

        Looking up, the girl nodded, galvanizing into action. Twinkle followed suit, intent on finding out what this red pony meant, the fog which threatened to roll down had dissipated as just as fast as it had appeared.

        -----

        “I’ve never actually been in one of these before.” Twinkle called from the bed of the pick-up truck as it cruised down the city streets at a lazy pace. The streets were clean but cracked, the air whipping by, playing with the hair of all those present. Violet relished in the idea of one last road trip, going off into lands unknown. She had never ventured far from the city limits, instead choosing to grow up and live her life in her city to her last breath. 

But she had since given up the keys up to that dream. She had a new one, and her eye sharpened as her mind pulled away from the fog that had rolled into town when the Conversion Bureau’s did. The road was clear in front of them - free of traffic, people, crashes - the few ponies that were walking along the roads gladly headed to the side, the loud engine of the pick-up giving more than enough forewarning. 
        
        Violet chuckled to herself as she caught Twinkle admiring the vehicle. It was clear that despite the multitudes of humans she had seen through her branch, she never much got out to look at the large metal machines. “It’s a relic of a bygone age, Twink. The 2011 Ford F-150. 6.2 L engine, Four-hundred horsepower, over four hundred pounds of torque.” The beast shifted gears as Violet let the engine roar a moment, Twinkle looking a bit frightened as she stuck her head in from the back window. “What that means,” Violet paused, a gratifying smirk on her face, “is power!” Violet laughed as she added an English accent to the last sentence, a detail that seemed lost on Twinkle, but the red colt next to her seemed to chuckle a bit. Sure there had been better cars - the American musclecars, the European Supercars- but Violet had a soft spot for the ol’ red-blooded pick-up truck, her grandfather owning a ford out in the countryside of New Mexico. Memories of off-roading left Violet with a twinge of longing for her grandfather. Her nostalgia filled her with a welcome change to the usual.

        “I’m Rusty, by the way,” the stallion called from the side seat, putting his head in from the window. The colt’s amiable smile caught on to Violet, who stuck out a free hand to his hoof. Soft skin met with harried hoof as Violet took note of how strange a pony’s hoof felt, and made a note to check how it felt after she had one of her own.

        “Pleased to meet ya, Rusty. You can call me Violet as you have, but my friend’s call me ‘V’.” Keeping an eye on the road, Violet’s eyes caught sight of an exit towards the east. “Where we actually goin’? I don’t know where other Bureau’s are,” she said, a faint glint in her eye.

        “Well,” Twinkle started, looking between Violet and Rusty. “I’m sure my report will hold another Bureau open for at least a little while longer. Closest one is in...” She paused, tilting her head. “Colorado Springs, I think.”

        “Colorado Springs! Hey, my cousin just went in yesterday. Finally if you ask me,” Rusty interrupted, catching sight of Violet’s expression as Twinkle was talking. “Apparently a lot of folks flow to that one rather ‘n local ones for the scenic trip to take before turnin’ into ponies. My cuz said that he was the third one that day. Sounded pretty excited on the phone.” There was a pause as the red stallion looked out the window. “Didn’t know that was the closest open Bureau around out here. This is gonna be a long trip.”
        
        Violet’s expression molded into something between bliss and apprehension, her mind wallowing in the details of being with... sentients of like mind. Checking her fuel guage, Violet spun unto the entrance toward Colorado Springs. Looking back, she raised an eyebrow toward Twinkle. “So, is this alright? You know, for you to just up and road trip like this?” Violet asked, shrugging her shoulder a bit.

        “Oh, yes, like I said, my report explained everything,” Twinkle said, a smile on her face.

        “But... shouldn’t you have waited, for you know, permission? You said you helped run the Albuquerque Bureau. Aren’t you... important?”

        Twinkle shook her head, her hair sparkling in the sun. Violet had made mental note to ignore too much about the pony, but was finding the empty road on the old expressway to be lacking. The slight bubblegum smell, the shimmering mane... did all ponies really look so beautiful? Why had she waited? Wh-

        “Eyes on the road, V,” Rusty called, “I’m excited to ride in my truck again for the first time in a long while, but I’d rather you keep it intact until we reach Colorado Springs,” he stated calmly, staring out the window. 

        “Can do, Red.” Violet smirked, deciding on her pet name for the red horse. Rusty bleated in displeasure at the simplicity, but said no more. 

        For a good while Violet and her assorted ponies merely enjoyed the view of Albuquerque go by, Rusty enjoying the sight of the thousands of pegasi which littered the skies, stretching their wings, many learning how to do tricks and really stretch their limits. 

Twinkle, on the other hand, had retreated to the back of the truck bed, enjoying the wind in her mane. She absolutely adored the sights of the human city, even if it belonged to the ponies now. “Such architecture!” she breathed, the howling winds around her stealing her sounds. While she had lived here for the past year, Twinkle was never one to get out much. Cruising down the expressway at a cool and dangerous eighty miles per hour, she picked herself up, her horn glowing slightly as she approached the cabin. Sticking her head through the back window, she looked between the two a moment before smiling. “So, what kind of pony do you want to be, Violet?”

The human in question put a relaxed hand on her chin as she gave the idea mild thought. “I don’t really care, although a pegasi would be neat. To fly all day...” She breathed in deep, but shook her head. “I’d be fine with being a bare bones pony though, like Red here,” she teased, causing the pony to smirk.

“Bare bones, eh? This bare bones pony could buck you to next week and back!” he challenged, which only got a laugh from Violet.

“Not in this car, you won’t, unless you want to go careening out of control,” she warned. Looking about the cabin, Violet had decided the next boredom killer on her to do list was the magic of snooping. However, all she could find from a few casual glances was general repair work - some tools, rope, twine... it reminded her of her grandpa’s old set of wheels, although a little cleaner and didn’t smell of two year old french fries. “Say Red, what’d you do for a living?”

Rusty looked annoyed for a moment, but let it pass. “Pre-pony is the same as newfoal. I work on building things. The scale has shrunk, obviously, and a lot of what I do gets sent to Equestria or more rural areas.” Violet pursed her lips, obviously unamused with the answer, but let it slide. There were other things she could ask.

“So why you letting me take your truck? Or why are you coming along? This all seemed rather sudden - Twink here not included. Y’know, you still baffle me, Twink,” Violet accused, a small smile playing on her lips. The unicorn shrugged slightly as she turned to Rusty, who had looked almost relieved that the attention had diverted off of him.

“Well, I told you my cousin went in recently. I wanna be there for him when he gets himself a new pair of legs,” Rusty commented, before chuckling. “Well, a pair of a pair of legs.” Quite pleased with himself, the red stallion turned his head back out the window. “Sure beats walking there, not a whole lot of ponies are into retrofitting vehicles, as you can see. Ain’t a job anymore, V, working on cars. It’s a passion. That’s somethin’ you learn real quick when you go pony - not a whole lot is expected of you and everypony is fine with that. Stick to what’s on your flank and you’ll find your way.” Rusty tilted his head expertly, checking on the handsaw that adorned his flank. “Hear it’s even easier in Equestria,” he added, continuing his thought.

“Sounds like a perfect world, to me,” Violet muttered, a bit too darkly for Twinkle’s taste.

“And what is wrong with a little perfection, Violet? Everypony is discovering who they are, what they love, and pursuing it... I don’t understand where it could go wrong,” Twinkle laughed. Her attitude, while helpful, was wearing a bit thin for Violet's taste. A bit too sunshine and rainbows.  

“N-nothing’s wrong with it. Just sounds too good to be true,” Violet stammered, wishing to end the train of thought. “Remember the position I was in, okay? So drop it.” 

“Hold on there, V, slow down!”

“Hold on? What do you mean hold on? That I can’t be a littl-” 

“No! I mean slow the hell down!” Rusty yelled, causing Violet to look forward. A line of cars, trucks, and semi’s were lined up side by side and they were bearing on them. Slamming on the breaks, the pickup stopped hard, the powerful truck coming to a screeching halt. The glow around Twinkle increased tenfold as her spell took effect, the cause for her glowing horn becoming clear as all three around the vehicle felt themselves come to a comfortable halt. “Cheese ‘n Rice, V! Watch where you’re goin’ next time!”

Violet was trying to catch her breath from the near fatal accident, but Twinkle’s spell had taken most of the physical complications out of the equation. “I’m sorry! I didn’t think I needed to pay much attention! Twink! Are you okay?” Violet spun around to see the tired looking unicorn wink at her. She was panting heavily, but looked fine for what she had pulled off so quickly. “Twinkle... Thank you.”

“No problem...” Twinkle breathed slowly, closing her eyes. 

Violet spun around in her chair, slamming the sides of the wheel in her hands. “Now just what kind of uncultured baboon would set up a road block in the middle of the goddamn expressway!?” Violet shouted, looking over the vehicles with a critical eye. However, what adorned their vision before them caused the three travelers to collectively start praying.

There, adorned crudely in paint on the side of a semi, was the logo of the Human Liberation Front.

> Her Dilemma
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        “Shitshitshitshitshit...” Her head was in a daze, quickly looking over the scene before her. HLF insignia’s adorned everything, from the side of a semi to a number of tattered flags that lazily flapped in the wind. It never occurred to her that the HLF had merchandising, but it made sense - they had to pull more and more money back in the day. The almighty dollar was pittance compared to the Equestria bit. And here she was - with two ponies. In front of who knows what disposition of man. Something told her they wouldn’t exactly be ecstatic to see them.

        Turning to her comrades, she saw that Twinkle had completely passed out. Be it shock or exhaustion, her magical abilities would be useless now that she wasn’t an active participant. Rusty, on the otherhand, was up and rummaging through what he could in what the saddest excuse of a back seat Violet had ever seen in a truck. “What are you doing? You can’t expect to-” She cut herself off as she lost what she was trying to say. What wild theory could the colt provide with human tools against humans? Realizing that she was not clever enough to make a quip in the scenario, she quickly looked ahead to see if any humans had appeared. “Ruuuusty, please tell me you have a plan with whatever you’re doing...!”

        A grunt of satisfaction issued from the stallion as the red pony poked his head into the front, in his mouth a ball of what looked to be thread. “Rowph!”

        “....Twine?” Violet breathed raising an eyebrow. “What, you want me to run around whoever is gonna come out from behind that blockade and hope they stand still long enough to wrap them up?” She muttered sarcastically, her face back to scanning the walls of metal. They had made a lot of noise... Maybe there wasn’t any humans on the other side? Maybe they just blocked it all off for... whatever reason? They had such a ways to go, the prospect of walking didn’t much- the ball of twine hit her in the head, interrupting her thoughts. Bouncing down, the twine rested at her feet next to the gas pedal. Whipping about, her thoughts turned to rage as she glared at the colt. “What the hell did you do that for!?”

        “Tie me up, you lout!” Rusty yelled, struggling with the handle of the truck. “Tie me up, throw me in the back - hurry!” he cried, the door opening as he looked at her. His face turned from desperation to fear as he realized he had been leaning on the door, and the pony ungracefully fell out of the cab. 

        “Rusty! I- what!?” The human quickly undid her seatbelt and kicked open her door, momentarily catching a glimpse of the red colt who had so unceremoniously tumbled out of the truck. Sweeping up the twine in her hand, Violet dashed toward Rusty, surveying the colt quickly. “Are you alright? You aren’t hurt, are you?” Sliding to a halt, the stallion fidgeted slightly at her words.

        Rusty kicked out his free leg instinctively and bumped the tire of the truck. “Fell on my flank - kinda hurt. Think I’m fine-” Checking his other hooves, the colt winced as he tested his forehoof. “Damn it!” he seethed, his hoof retracting close to his chest.

        “You’re hurt!” Violet cursed, whipping her head around. She could hear it now. Movement, voices. People on the other side of the barricade were coming to investigate. “Ooooohhhhhh fuckme.” Slamming her fist against the truck, she closed her eyes tightly, her mouth repeating the last phrase continuously.

        “Violet! Shut up! Tie me up, I’m fine, it’s just a sprain, I’m sure!” Rusty whispered quickly, kicking her knee with his good hoof. “If you can tie me and Twinkle up, it’ll look like you’re taking us out of the city or something!”

        Shaking her head, Violet couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Out of the city? The city was overrun with ponies - she couldn’t exactly get this far without being overtaken by pegasi. “What the hell for!?”

        “I don’t know! Think of something. Lie, I don’t know, but we’re gonna be in huge trouble-” Violet’s hands started on automatic, ripping the ball of twine apart and starting to unravel and tie the pony up as she went, taking no heed to the sprained hoof. “-Yikes, watch it, Violet!”

        “Shut up, pony. You’re my prisoner now,” Violet screamed, her eyes shut hard. She was operating only on touch, her hands running up and down the colt’s legs as she tried to tie him up believably. The colt had a strange expression on his face, but he quieted, intent on seeing what she was up to. “Trying to break into my building, huh? Bet you never saw the frying pan coming. I’m sure you’re, uh... mate didn’t either, got it nasty in the head. Shame I didn’t crack her horn...!” She wasn’t very believable yet, but she was trying to talk hard. He could hear the other humans now, adjusting and moving the metal that barred them access to the girl. 

        “That’s it, now around my mouth. There’s some tools in the back to help you cut the string so you can get Twinnng-” The line led from his back hoof to his mouth as Violet kept tears of fear from streaming out of her eyes. Put in a uncomfortable position, the colt was starting to feel a bit silly for the idea, instead realizing that with Twinkle out of it, he could of simply acted like he was unconscious as well - the twine was a bit much, really. 

        “That’ll teach you...!” Standing up, Violet opened her eyes, trying to steel herself for the coming humans. Rusty looked up to see the trembling visage of the girl before him, her vision clouded and foggy as she hugged herself tightly. “Stupid pony. Almost got yourself killed.” Her mind was moving a mile a minute, piecing together a story she could act out. Spinning around, Violet could see fiery red hair move out from a gap created from a moving semi truck. Wiping her tears, Violet struggled to put on a brave face, straightening herself up as the man approached.

        “Oi, Who’ you?” he called, his accent unidentifiable. “Ain’t no one I seen before.” His head looked her up and down, pausing briefly at her long, dyed hair that just so happened to rest on her chest. Snorting, the man rubbed his nose along his arm as he tried to make an opinion of her. Tilting his head back, he gave a slight nod. “‘Ey! Rose! Git out here, we gotta a human with a fukkin’ pony captive!”

        “S’at so?” Another voice called, prompting Violet to jerk slightly. People. She was seeing people. Not person, not pony or ponies. People. “An’ what she doin’ out here?”

        “‘EY!” The fire headed man shouted at Violet, as if not taking into account she was so close to him. “What you doin’ here, bitch? Playin’ some sick S&M with yer pony friends? Arright, I can dig it.”

        “Shut the hell up, asshole.” Violet’s mouth exploded, her words seething out, her eyes turning into hard glare. The man stepped back, putting his hands up to defend himself from her words. A light mist floated past as a blonde female showed up from behind the gap of the semi - she was obviously the driver who moved it for the red-headed man. His overalls and cheap cologne stung her nose slightly as his dirty demeanor fed her desperate persona. “While you’ve been up her shacking it up with this dumb bitch of yours-”

        “Yo, she my sistah!”

        “Fuck if I care what you’re into, dickhead. What the hell is up with this fucking metal wall?” Violet stepped forward, pushing the man back another foot. “I’m trying to get this damn ponies out of Freddie’s tower.” Pointing toward the city, she picked out the tall tower that could be seen even from the freeway. “Fuckers thought ‘cause he was dead that suddenly allowed them to stink it up with their shit. Entitled pricks.” Turning slightly, Violet spat in Rusty’s direction, the colt doing his part to look angry as he flopped along the ground.

        “Oi, Freddie’s dead?” The woman, Rose, came striding up. “I didn’t think the old bastard’s hate would let him die. Somethin’ about spitin’ the rest of us,” she laughed, obviously unfazed by Violet’s abusive speech. “That mean you’re in control of it now, girly?”

        “Fuck, I’m the only one left. Rest of ‘em went and became these sacks of shit.” Gesturing with her thumb, Violet moved from one to the other, the knocked out Twinkle shuddering slightly, but staying still. “Name’s Violet, by the way. You’re Rose, I know already from dickhead here.”

        “Richard.” The man said, indignant. "You say the old man's dead?"

        Violet ignored his question, sneering, “Oh hey, you really are a Dick!” This caused a bit of merriment between the two girls, the only human male in question turning a deep shade of red as his own uncomfortable featured become more pronounced. “Oi, lookit that!” Mimicking his accent, Violet bent forward with an expectant look. “His ‘ol head is gettin’ a stiffy!” Poking his chest, the girl turned to the other female with the flower name. “So is it just you two out here?” she asked, her hard demeanor fading slightly.

        “Aw, no, not really. We’re just holdin’ down the fort while everyone’s partyin’. They shut down those 'sins against nature' today.” Violet nodded slowly at Rose’s words, turning toward the city. If she strained her ears, some gunshots could be heard. Celebratory, sure, but something felt as if some of the men down there were aiming their skyward shots. Their rolling thunder shook Violet some, but she kept herself from over thinking it. Rusty, on the other hand, started flailing a bit harder, as if he was actively trying to free himself. “Hey, what’s with the pony, anyway? Why you bringin’ him all the way out here?”

        Violet shrugged and pointed in some obscure direction. “Neither of ‘em are pegasi, so I though a little reward for trying to sneak in the high rise would be a nice little nap and a bit of a rodeo.” Smirking, she turned from the two and let her face drop, her panicked expression written all over. “I, uh, there’s a second one in the bed. Unicorn. Took her out with a frying pan, if you’d believe it. Shame I missed the horn. Heh.” Coughing, she closed her eyes. She wasn’t able to see the city anymore - the mist had become too thick around them. “So I’m bringing them out into the country, S’far as half a tank goes. See if they’ll enjoy the company of some feral dogs or something - see if that one can really put some of that magical shit to good use.” Her laugh was hollow, but the brother and sister seemed to accept it well enough. Striding over to the truck bed, the exhausted and unconscious Twinkle lay, her head slightly in the back window.

        “‘Ey, what’s the red one doing outta your car, anyway?” the man spoke. 

        “Saw ‘em trying to climb out on the highway. Fool thought he could escape going sixty.” Giving him a swift kick to the abdomen, Violet halted her foot just barely before making contact. Rusty, for his part, did an admirable job faking taking the hit, and doubled over slightly. “Hit the breaks and he fell out. Stupid fucker. ‘Ere, help me with him, would you, Dick?”

        “Richard, V.” In the next instant, the dickhead found himself reeling back, a red mark clear on his face. Violet was in a huff, breathing erratically. “Shite, stupid bitch! Whaddafuk was dat for?”

        “Only my friends call me V, dickhead. Remember that!” she threatened, causing an amused chuckle to emanate from Richard’s sister. “You were dick before you were Richard.” It still seemed fairly hypocritical, but fearing a matching pair of red marks, the man dropped it. Turning slightly to Rose, Violet smirked. “You may call be V, or Vio, if you want.”

        “Will do, V, will do. Hey, Richy the Dick, pick up that pony and move him back into the bed. Rough as you like,” Rose ordered. Richard looked defiant, but a moment longer and he caved under his sister’s gaze. The wind picked up slightly, clearing the area for Violet to see. The city found itself visible around them, the afternoon sun gleaming over the skyscrapers that dotted the city, their glares illuminating the city streets below in pale yellow light. In it, Violet felt a small connection to how it was before. Back when the city had the life of humans. Cars and construction... However, her thoughts were pulled away as the pony grunted and groaned under Richard’s attempts to pick him up.

        “Hey, Dicky, careful with his arm - leg - thing. It’s sprained or something,” she said, not giving the action much thought on the outside.

        Rose’s smile flickered. “Now how you go and know that, V?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. “All his little hoofsies are tied up...” Trailing, she looked over the job. “Haphazardly, too,” she smirked, walking past the other humans and bending over.

Violet froze, unsure of what to think. Unsure of what to do. Her breathing slowed as she stared out into the city. But the fog was returning, coming in thick as ever as she hastily scrambled for anything that made sense. “‘F-Fore you got here. Was looking him over. Had to straighten up some of his bonds, and he seemed sore about me touchin’ that hoof.” Turning over to Rose, she put a quick smile on her face that she hoped meant trouble. “‘Course, the screamin’ helped too.” Violet flashed a wicked smile.

“Boy, you’re one cold-hearted bitch, V,” Rose chided, shaking her head, a small smirk on her features. Leaning down, she looked the stallion in the eye a moment before shrugging. “Don’t know what makes a man give up his life like that.”

        Violet paused, giving a shrug. “Family, curiosity, who knows, really. Fuck if I care, though,” she muttered, crossing her arms. “All I know is that Freddie wouldn’t want them in his place, and I swear I don’t want them in this city. It’s my city.” Turning back to the truck, she started moving around it slowly, intent on getting off the freeway while she could. “Sooner or later we’re gonna have to start the City Liberation Front.”

        “Lame joke, V, very lame. But still... I have to agree,” Rose sighed wistfully, turning to look upon the cloudless day. “I remember you’d have to be a freak and a half to walk along this freeway. Too many cars. The smell of exhaust and the shrieks of car horns,” she murmured as the truck jolted slightly as Richard finally succeeded in putting Rusty in the back. Violet studied Rose’s features, trying to understand where the other girl’s life had gone to make her so proud of what was so very little now. Perhaps it made it easier, in a way. Was that way of life so good to remember it so fondly? 

        “Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck me, he’s heavy.” Richard complained, wiping his brow. Violet turned to the red-headed man and shot him a sour look. “Whoda thunk a three foot horse could weigh dat much.” Continuing, he was making it clear he didn’t want to just be in the sidelines of the conversation.

        “Stop complainin’, I put the two back there myself, Dick.” Revving the engine slightly, Violet gave Rose a small wink. “Well, I’d love to stay and chat, but I gotta-” Suddenly the radio started again as she turned the truck on again, causing an embarrassed Violet to immediately switch it off with a small smile.

        “Been a long time since I heard somethin’ like that. Who is it?” Rose hung in to the open window, her arm laying lazily along the inside of the cabin. Violet shrugged and turned away, trying to look aloof as she felt her cover slipping slightly.

        “Dunno, just was in the truck. Jacked it from the Bureau a while back. Beats trying to find a fill station that still worked in my area.” Coughing, Violet didn’t even notice her pattern of speech had changed to something much softer. Rose raised an eyebrow, but decided to drop it. “So, uh, why have you guys been operating here instead of at the exits? And uh... Freddie never said, before he went - Loudly I might add -” This elicited a chuckle from Rose, who pointed for her brother to return to the semi. Richard paused, giving the unicorn a look, none to pleased to see her unbound. Violet caught his reaction through the tinted window and did the best eye roll she could muster. “She’s out like a light, Dick.” The red-haired man shot her a look, but crumbled under the stare Rose gave him in return.

        “Fuck! You girls don’ know eachudder fahve minutes an’ you’re fukkin' against me!” he mumbled under his breath, taking off for the barricade, finding solace in the cabin of the semi. 

        Rose watched him go a moment before sighing and shaking her head. The red pony in the back slammed a bit against the sides for effect, distracting the HLF member and cutting off whatever train of thought she was working on. “Stay still, you, or you’ll find you and your girlfriend there off this lady’s shoulders and off this expressway.” Gesturing the guarding wall alongside the road, she leapt one hand over it to signify dumping the ponies right off the road and down several stories to their deaths. Violet’s stomach visibly dropped, and she couldn’t hide her expression from Rose this time. “Oi, V, what’s the matter wit’ you?”

        Shaking her head, her eyes were closed tight. “N-nothing. I just... well, they used to be human, you know?” Violet realized her head wasn’t thing only thing shaking, as her knuckles were white, holding unto the wheel with all her might to stop them. “I mean... it’s sick what they’ve done to themselves,” she covered, bolstering her long bluff. “But... I can’t kill them.”

        “Shoot girl, didn’t know yoo were bleedin’ heart fer dese pones'," Richard called back. "I don' know if'n ya knew this, but humans went 'n killed humans, too,” 

Rose smirked at her brother, drumming her knuckles against the hard plastic on the inside of the truck. Catching Violet’s disturbed look, she dismissed it with a wave of her hand. “Joke, V. Yeesh, lighten up a little. We ain't really killers. Although I’m surprised...” There was a slight twinkle in her eye as she turned to the two pastel ponies in the back. Rusty stared defiantly at the girl. “Considering what you’ve done to them already.”

        “Defending my home.” Violet’s mouth was on automatic again, much to her reprieve. She couldn’t keep this up mentally, that hatred that crawled under the skin. Every word exchanged hinted toward a malicious intent, keeping her mind in this distant place so she could accurately portray herself in the way they wanted. “And keeping with a stupid old man’s wish.” 

"Better'n I did when my old man was alive, it seems." Rose shrugged as she looked over to her brother's semi. "Thanks fer letting me know what happened to 'em. No love for the bastard, but it's... good to know."

"He died in the HLF hospital," Violet's informed, her voice low. She hadn't gathered that Rich and Rose were related to Fred, but she had to admit- there weren't many humans left around here. It was probably more likely to run into relatives than not.

Releasing her hands from the wheel, Violet shook her head slightly. Rose misread it as a look of regret, of grievance of the old HLF staff member. “So, uh,” Violet coughed, shifting gears. “Can’t idle for long, you know. Never know when this one is gonna wake, you know?” Violet shrugged a shoulder toward Twinkle, who’s mouth moved slightly in whatever dreamlike state magic exhaustion gave.

        “Eh, smack her again if you can.” Rose waved it off, but released her grip on the truck door. The black beast rumbled slightly in response as Violet tested the gas a moment. “So when can we expect you back this way? You gotta use this route anyway, seeing as the entrance..” Rose paused, gesturing to the partnering concrete structure alongside the stone divider, “to Albuquerque has fallen apart. It’s not safe - could give away any moment.” 

        Violet nodded very slowly. Could such disrepair even happen in just over a year? Then again, it hadn’t seen much work before the Bureau’s, so maybe it was a timing issue. Considering the fact that if her story was true, then Violet the HLF member would of died a rather karmic death. Rubbing the mental image from her mind, she glued her eyes forward. “Thanks. And... hey Rose?”

        “Yeah, V? What’s up?” The blonde haired human asked, crossing her arms. 

        Violet paused, trying to find the right words. “If I hit some goddamned dear going 90, and I’m not back in four hours, take care of the tower for m-....For Freddie. You’re human, for whatever it’s worth nowadays.”

        Rose paused, nodding her head slightly. “Well arright. But I don’t see how anything could take this beast and hurt you at all,” she smirked, patting the machine on it’s side.

        “A tree then.” Violet rebutted, catching Rose off-guard. “I’ve never really traveled all that far from here, and I might do a little sight-seeing, what’s left of what there is to see, anyway.” Violet kept still, her eyes moving up slightly as the road in front of her cleared itself. Clicking the audio system on again, she rolled the volume down slightly as she sighed. The next song on the CD hummed to life as she looked over to Rose. The girl looked like she was starting to piece things together. “Tell me... why didn’t any of the HLF outside of Fred come to the Tower? I hadn’t seen more than five humans the last three months.”

        Rose gave a hesitant look as she peered over to her brother, far off into the barricade. “The Tower... well, it...” Clearing her throat, she shrugged. “It’s too far in. You have to go by so much of pony-occupied territory... I’m surprised you could even go outside.”

        “I didn’t... much. It’s dangerous business, going out your front door.” Violet gave a smirk, alluding to the music that played for them now. Rose shook her head incredulously, in a ‘you-did-not-just-make-that-joke’ fashion. The song droned on a bit, before Violet gave a bit of a shrug, dismissing the topic. “It’s not bad though. Nothing you don’t get anywhere else now.” Trailing, Violet moved the truck from it’s current position into drive, sighing slightly. “The sunsets are beautiful, you can see them beyond the city skyline from up there.” A tear dropped unexpectedly from her eye, but she ignored it - Rose, on the other hand, couldn’t help but draw her attention to it. Her expression changed, although it was unreadable as far as Violet was concerned.

        “Violet... are you... You’re not coming back, are you?” she breathed, as if she was talking to someone who was admitting that they were going to commit suicide.

        “Oh, I’m sure I will. Heh.” A pained laugh, a new tear fell slid across her face and hung on her cheek. “In some form or another.” Shrugging, she released the break and moved forward, leaving the bewildered Rose to connect the dots. Violet hoped the other flower child would take a little while, as there was no telling what her reaction would be. Acknowledgement? Rage? There was something behind that girl’s front, Violet had connected with it, if only briefly. They were similar in some aspects, and Violet was certain had they have met years ago, they’d have been friends in some way. Dismissing her facade, the human felt a weight lift from her shoulders as she smirked. She hadn’t the chance to act in years, and even though she wasn’t trained in improv, she was relatively pleased with the result. 

        Rolling past Richard, Violet gave him a smile and a wink, catching a completely bemused expression on his face before putting her foot down and accelerating past the HLF barricade. Catching sight of the sides, the girl checked to see how her pony passengers were doing. Rusty seemed lost in thought, trying to make the best of the strange position he was in, and Twinkle remained with her head stuck in the cabin, her hoof supporting her head on the threshold. Violet couldn’t go too fast with both ponies in her care having no way of bracing themselves, and that gave her time to view the area in front of her.

        The concrete was cracked in some places, and in others the rails had completely fallen apart. There was no way this was a weathered occurrence, Violet assumed, sticking her head out the window to get a better look. There were tell tale signs of explosive powders and brown splotches of color every couple of feet, as if... Violet couldn’t guess what. Keeping her eyes on the road, the human navigated the cracked and weakened road, catching sight of small encampments that were starting to light up in the afternoon sun. It was going to be dark soon, and that meant any surprises along the road were going to be met in only the lights of her truck. 

        She wanted to know what happened here. What kind of life did the HLF lead that there would be blood stains and explosives on a road? The idea of sects, different units within the group, may have been in unrest with how the group was heading. Humans always did have a knack for fighting each other in even the most grim of moments. The dark cracks of the road warned her of weakness, a testament of human history. Blood-soaked, crumbled, with the only guiding light going out, and leaving her to deal with only what could be seen in the short term. 

        She was so lost in her revelry she didn’t even notice the eighteen wheeler approaching from behind, the sounds of a distressed Earth Pony muffled over her own engine.
> Her Race
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Violet exhaled long and slow, feeling her nerves melt away. She liked Rose well enough, and almost felt sad that she was stuck back there, holding onto the last vestiges of man. Chuckling despite herself, the human drummed the steering wheel a bit as she reflected that not more than a day had passed since she, too, was the same way. 

Or rather, maybe not. Her eyes focused ahead. She never really cared about it much when it started. A movement, that’s all she took it for. Meant different faces in the crowds. She smiled as she remembered them. The crowds. All the people, shining eyes bright upon the world’s stage, buying into the stories, the theater. Violet shook her head. It had been over a year since then. A year... How had it felt so long? Sniffing the night breeze, a loud clang caught her attention as she turned her head. There, in front of her, was a rather wild eyed pony struggling against his bonds. But it wasn’t him what caught her attention. It was a metal monstrosity of a semi-truck that was on a collision course with her that did.

“The shit...?” Without a second thought her foot slammed down on the gas, lurching the car forward as the engine roared in a ferocious din. Catching a glance in her mirrors, the truck behind her was still catching up quickly, it having the time it needed to build up the speed available to it. The sound of metal on metal rang as the semi clashed against the back of the truck, lifting up the back tires. The truck dangerously swerved at the loss of weight and wheel. In the window she saw a darkened face, one of anger and what seemed to be... “Dickhead!” Violet screamed, slamming her palm into the 4x4 button. The back wheels roared to life as they spun mercilessly in the air, the semi’s attempt to spin the truck sideways thwarted by the wheels as they touched concrete. Spinning the wheel in a frenzy, the girl attempted with all her might to keep focused. Her instructor’s words a faint echo in her mind, their words indecipherable about how to keep traction. 

-----

Rusty spun himself slightly, his neck and face finding different points in the truck for leverage. He took note that he never thought himself capable of such a position, using his chin to push himself every which way. As he spun, he looked at the groaning face of Twinkle, the poor unicorn mare that was so unaware of the present dangers. The red colt’s eyes narrowed. She only wanted to help. She was an Equestrian pony; she never deserved something like this happen and have no say in the matter. 

He missed the irony of the situation when he deemed the idea inhuman. Struggling against his bonds, his sprained limb searing with pain, hot tears of pain beading on his eyes. Rusty felt something snap, at first believing it to be his own leg, but on further inspection he found that the twine used to tie himself up had become caught on a screw that had not been completely drilled in. Against his movement, coupled with the giant swerves and strain the semi was jostling in to the mix, the head of the screw had helped shear the twine clean in two, and the colt found his good forehoof freed. Quickly sliding the twine off his muzzle, the freed space of the twine started to come apart at the seams, much to his pleasure. 

        A crack against the frame of the truck robbed that pleasure from him as he slammed against the bed of the car, his body cushioning Twinkle as she collided with him. Groaning slightly, he didn’t let the idea of being skewered by her horn last in his mind lest he be so unlucky if he was to be rammed against again. “Violet!” He yelled, looking forward at the driver. The human seemed busy with keeping the truck safe, the front wheels alone not enough to speed the truck away from the male driver of the semi. Turning around, the wind whipped his hair around merciless, the tiny strands like miniature whips along the sides of his face. Richard looked down at him, a sick look on his face. Looking about the cabin, Rusty saw the girl too, Rose, arguing and yelling at her brother for Celestia knows what reason. He hoped it had something to do with his current active attempt at triple homicide.

        Spinning about, the Earth Pony rushed forward, taking great care not to use his hurt hoof. He failed spectacularly, falling three times with the swaying of the truck in the two feet he had to cover. Sticking his head through the window Twinkle had been dislodged from, he took stock of the situation in the cabin. “Violet! You’re doing fine!”

        “The hell you get free back there?!” she screamed, a look of fear and desperation plastered on the girl’s face.

        “Priorities, girl!” Rusty shouted over the din of both engines, the truck swerving dangerously to the side. Violet spun the wheel accordingly, the back wheels barely touching the ground and fighting against the semi’s powerful force. “We’ve got to go faster!”

        “You bloody well think?!” Violet’s foot pressed harder on the petal already stuck on the floor, the wheels dangerously swerving out in front. “The road’s getting bad, Rusty! It’s not safe for even us to be on it much anymore, not to mention fucktard Magee over there in a fucking Semi! I can’t get loose!” Slamming her fist into the wheel, a short, ill-tempered horn blasted from the truck’s hood.

        Rusty looked back. The arguing in the cabin of the semi seemed to be getting more intense by the second, as Rose was visibly grabbing Richard’s arm now. Something was wrong in more ways than one. Realizing that dwelling on it did him nothing, he looked at the grill of the semi. A good buck might... “Try and keep her even!”

        “What?!”

        “Keep her even! I’m gonna try to buck the semi and free us!” Rusty cried, the truck swerving despite his instruction otherwise. “Shoot! Violet, please, hold her steady!”

        “It’s not fucking me! I barely know how to drive, let alone with two wheels and a semi actively trying to kill us.” Violet's tears streamed down her face, the fear so plainly on her face. “I can’t do this! I can’t!”

        “What do you mean?" Rusty felt his sprained hoof give, but his neck propped him up against the window before he went careening off. "You’re doing a great job! Just keep it up, I just need twenty seconds!” Rusty shouted, shooting his sprained hoof forward as he attempted to calm her. “I’ll give that Dick a good buck and we’ll free ourselves, then it’s clear sailing. No way he can keep up with us!”

        Red knew there was no chance, no matter how strong a pony might be. Dislodging a semi from hooking metal on metal on a truck, he was sure Violet thought he was crazy. But she just nodded, obeying the pony. Rusty breathed deeply. He had just wanted to help someone. Not fight a lorrie. “Just be careful!” Violet shouted back at him. The words hit his ears only slightly, but the stallion gave a smirk and a nod. Violet was being strong, so what did he care if his leg hurt like nothing else? You didn’t buck with your forehooves.

        -----

        “The fuck you doin’!?” Rose shouted, giving her brother a look. Turning around, Richard pointed at the hastily disappearing truck. They had just let Violet go, and Rose had mentioned that Violet wanted them to take care of the Tower if she didn’t come back.

        “The fuck yoo ‘dink? She played us, Rose. Bitch runnin’ off to be a horse!” Ripping open the door, the older sibling jumped in. A quick run around the semi and he found himself with a copilot as the large truck roared to life, the driver taking it forward as he played with the gears. “Eighteen fookin’ gears, da fuck dey thinkin’.” He groaned as the truck began to move forward. “I ain’t lettin’ her git ‘way. No sir.” 

        “You don’t know that, bro!” Rose muttered, shaking her head. Violet had seemed a bit.. off toward the end. Not so cold hearted as she initially seemed. Rose had written it off as how she dealt with strangers, but people... people were a limited resource nowadays. “She could be just... seein’ what there is ta see.” 

        “I dun’t buy it, nought fer a sec’nd.” The properly named dick slammed on the gas as the machine lurched forward. Rose was adequately surprised the machine didn’t shut off immediately from the misuse of the gearbox, but they picked up speed quickly, the speck the truck had been quickly growing larger. “Ah’ll git ‘er now.”

        Rose shook her head. “Careful now, Rich,” she muttered.

        “Oh, iz Rich now iz ‘et?” he scoffed, dismissing her wiles.
        
        “Really, bro! Careful! The road ain’t what it used ta be.” 

        “Dun’t tink I dun’t know dat? I fuckin’ set them charges. Keepin’ folks from leavin’. Shoulda been defennen’ our city,” he seethed, his eyes darkening.

        Rose looked visibly upset, slamming a hard fist into her brother’s shoulder. “Don’t lie about that, Richard! Mum an’ Dad we’re-” A hard slap along the side of her face was more than unexpected, the girl reeling back as she held her hand on her face.

        “Dhey were weak, Rose. Dey ran from ‘et. Ran from us. Holed up in that fukkin' Tower.” Slamming his fist on the register, Richard’s eyes were furrowed, dark, and uncompromising, the lightest tears betraying his face. “Dhey shouldn’t ah... shouldn’t ah ran.” 

        “Fucker!” Rose screamed, but found herself again smacked away, this time a closed fist alongside her eye. Her head slammed against the closed window, her vision blurred and fogged. “Ya killed...”

        “Ah did what it took. Strong’st survive. You ‘n me, sis, we’re strong!” he breathed, his voice level. “Freddie was weak, he made sure none of his residents left ta become ponies. But that was it. Sick and dying after mom croaked in the hospital. Fuckin’ Violet shoulda known if she was really a human. Woulda said. Fuck her.” The truck was between the headlights now. Rose tried to keep her mind conscious. The roar of the semi, the breathing, the heavy breathing of her brother, anything to keep her in the game. “Fuck her.” He was repeating himself now. “Shoulda jus’ shot ‘em. Fuckin’ ponies. Fuckin’ Violet.”

        “Richard... God... why would you...?” Rose muttered weakly. There was a jolt, a crash. She didn’t know what, but she didn’t like it. A victorious smirk developed upon her brother’s face. It wasn’t good. “What’re you...?” She saw the truck caught in the metal grill of the semi, but it somehow managed to hold on.

        “Bitch knows how ta drive.” he snarled. Rose never heard him snarl like that before. It seemed... animistic. As if he was on a hunt. “Can’t git’ ‘er sideways. Fuck, I’da liked dat truck,” he chuckled. Rose didn’t like that either. Running her hand off the side of her head, she soon found specks of glass in her hair. Looking alongside her, the passenger window was awash with cracks, impacted in a delicate spiderweb from where her head collided. Red specks ran through them, digging deep into the spaces between the breaks.

        “Bleedin’...” Rose muttered. No wonder it was so hard to keep focused. Screaming. Something was screaming. Looking forward, she saw the red pony muscling around on the truck bed before her. They had crashed into the truck. He was trying to run her over, or off the road. There was something she was saying before. “The bombs...”

        “Charges, sis.” Richard corrected, yanking the wheel again, watching the red pony collide with the side of the truck before being sandwiched by the unicorn. “Know da damn dif’rence.”

        “Road,” she mused, holding the back of her head. It was warm and sticky. Cuts from the class filled her hair and she could barely see out her left eye, it all hurt. She didn’t notice how much it hurt a moment ago. Probably a good sign. “The road, Rich.”

        “Fuck da road, it cin handl‘et!” It sounded like screaming. Everything felt so loud to Rose. The engine, her brother, breathing, wind... even the seat felt loud. “Ah cin handl’et!” Rose winced, unsure of what to do. For all his social weakness, Richard was a violent man. But he was never violent with her. Never to family... well, she had thought. The bastard had caused... it was her parents whom were part of the cares that came through her, leaving the city. They didn’t like the ponies much either, but... they were just settling someplace else. They didn’t need to.... He killed them. He killed mom and left her father to die, sick and withered in the Tower.

        “Bastard...” she mumbled. Her eyes narrowed. She needed to do something. Her parents were dead. No one else needed to die anymore. "Don't kill 'em, Rich. She's human!"

        “Peh, hum’ns kill hum’ns all da time, rem’ber?” It hit her like another punch. The tinge of regret, the idea that even when she said it, it might have held some truth. “I’m savin’ ‘er.” A cold tinge of fear ran down Rose’s spine. It crawled its way to her heart, gripping it and squeezing. “‘Fore she kills ‘erself.” 

        “Can’t be....” Rose focused her mind. “Tha’ can’t be what you think.” 

        Richard laughed. It was deep and dark, a laugh of a man who had nothing. Why didn’t he have anything? He had his sister. This didn’t seem right, not her brother. “It is, sis.” Not her brother... “Dey’re killin’ themselves. Whut comes out ain’t what gaws in.” His fist hit the register again. “Monsters. All of ‘em.”

"They aren't, Richard. They can't be!" Rose choked, looking away from her brother.

        “They are!” he shouted. Rose felt herself spun around against her will, Richard holding her shoulder. His eyes were fierce, blazing into her. She could see it in him. She could see what wasn’t there. Her brother, he wasn’t there anymore. She saw madness. She saw loss, and pain. “They're all monsters, Rose!” Rose could feel the realization creeping in. Loss. 

Richard had been part of a gang. Back in the day. Real small, only encompassed a neighborhood, and some friends from around town. Just protection, almost noble in a way. Cops, clean and crooked, often ended up there one way or another, but a community protected its own. But they moved from that place. 

        They moved because of the ponies. Rose hadn’t thought of it much. They all lost friends to transition. But they had made new ones. But Richard had a girlfriend in the gang. She was one of the first casualties. Rose remembered there were rumors of a pregnancy. “Richard, please, they aren’t Dawna.” A loud steely sound emanated from the front. The pony was bucking, trying to remove the semi from the Ford. “Let them go!”

        “Fuck you.” Shifted into another gear. There was a loud sound. This one wasn’t from the trucks. It was louder. Rumbling. Falling. “What’re dey doin’?” he seethed. “Ponies ain’t that strong!”

        Rose looked about wildly, the pain in her head ignored. Fear was gripping at her. “It ain’t the pony! It’s the road!” she screamed, pointing toward the mirrors. The concrete was crumbling, the effects of the battle and the charges from before had finally started what was due to happen months ago. 

The roadway was collapsing. “Richard!”

        “Shut da fuck up!” Richard screamed, struggling against the gearbox. There was a crash as the semi suddenly dropped speed. The cabin rumbled, the steel roared and groaned under increased pressure. “Da hell’s goin’ on!?” Rose quickly undid her seatbelt, struggling to open the door. Richard peered over, his eyes alight with insanity. “Da hell you think that’ll do?” The truck shrank suddenly, lifting up. The front wheels lost their traction as the Ford broke free of the front with a final crunch of metal and steel. 

Rose screamed.

        -----

        “That did it!” Rusty shouted, his hooves bruised and bleeding from bucking against the grill of the semi. “I got it!”

        “No fucking way!” Violet cheered, spinning her head to look. The truck was far behind them now. Almost as if it had stopped. Or rather... as if it was still fighting to go forward. “Rusty! What’s going on?”

        The red colt paused, feeling the truck slow down. Looking forward, he noticed Violet struggling to get a look at the semi, and he spun about to see for himself. “It’s...” the colt gasped slightly, “the roadway, Violet! It’s collapsing under them!” He shouted, moving forward. His forehoof screamed in pain as his legs gave out from under him, causing the pony to unceremoniously fall unto his side. “They’re going down!”

        Violet screeched to a halt, pushing Rusty up against the glass of the back window. Twinkle came to rest beside him. Shooting out his good hoof, he checked the mare for any damage. She seemed fine - bruises, a scrape or two from the loose screw. Minor cuts, but unharmed. “Thank Celestia. Violet! Why have we stoppe-” The car spun around, approaching the teetering semi. “Violet! What are you doing!?”

        To be honest, the girl didn’t know herself. But the roadway had stopped collapsing, at least for the most part, but the semi was hanging in space, some piece of metal still caught on to a strong stone edge. Violet stopped short of the semi, ripping herself from the wheel and going out on foot. “Stay here, Rusty!”

        The stallion rolled his eyes. “Oh sure, because I’m going places.” Turning back to the light pink mare before him, he sighed. “At least the view ain’t bad. Buck my feet hurt. Hooves. Whatever.” 

        -----

        Rose opened the door, feeling her breath stolen away as she looked out. The angle she was at kept her at a strange position, but below her was nothing but gravel and empty cars. Looking about, she could see pegasi flying about, nowhere near them to assist properly. Probably those who could weren’t too happy with what their vehicle was doing not moment ago. “Rose!” She heard her name. She heard it twice. She felt something grab her leg as she searched for the second voice, turning to see her brother grabbing at her. “Fuckin’ seatbelt’s stuck again!” Kicking her leg, she sought to free herself.

        “Rose!” Her name again, coming from a female voice. No way. “Rose can you hear me in there?!” 

        “Violet!” she shouted. How that girl had the capacity to turn back after all that and - The semi lurched. Backwards. “Oh God...” she muttered, catching a look from Richard. His eyes weren’t filled with fear. It wasn’t even filled with normal human emotion. It was devoid of that, but his arm held firm. “Help me, please!” Kicking out, she struck her brother’s face, but his hand wouldn’t move. 

        Violet looked around. She didn’t know why she would care, but here she was trying to help someone who for all she knew wished her dead not a minute before. “I can’t- What can I do!?” she yelled. The semi lurched again. The concrete started to give away. Violet backed away a few steps, unsure of when the stone would loose.

        Rose heard a click. The seatbelt had come undone. Looking back, her brother now latched on to her other foot with his free hand. “Yer comin’ with me, sis. We’re gonna be free. I’ll save ya.” 

        “Get offa me you... monster!” She kicked her feet in vain, feeling the semi start to topple, the concrete giving away. Richard smiled peculiarly as he released her. Taking her moment, Rose did all she could do, fighting against gravity. She heard her name shouted again. “Violet!” she screamed, scrambling over her seat as she truck spun to its side and off the expressway. As she pushed off the seat, clearing the door in a jump, Rose could see her. Violet, standing on the edge of the collapsed concrete. Her arm outstretched. She knew. Rose knew she had nothing below her. She reached out, in hope. A fool's hope.

        But hope is hope. A hand clasped around her. A scream - the pony in the truck. He screamed for Violet. Rose smirked. Guess Violet was a pony-lover after all. Rose felt her weight as she started to come down. Rose was going to fall. Violet bent at the knees, her shoes catching a crack in the stone as Rose’s weight began to fall on her arm. To say the blonde was surprised that the girl could hold her without tumbling off herself would be an understatement as Violet's free hand braced herself against the jagged edge. 

        The brace was tested two-fold. As Rose's weight collapsed on her, in both body and spirit, Violet fell forward, her chest slamming against the pavement above as she was forced down. Rose could feel another body on the chain. Rose looked down, her fears affirmed. “Richard!”

        The man struggled a smile, his free arm reaching into his pocket. “Dis ain’t salvation, Rosie.” His hand pulled out a small metal object. A switchblade. “Fall, Rose! Bring yer friend, too!”

        Looking between the two, Rose looked up with pleasing eyes. “Violet! I-I’m sorry! I didn’t know he’d... I tried to...”

        Violet didn’t know what to think. She didn’t care. She wasn’t going to let people die if she could help it. “Save it!” Her arm was stretched thin, wondering if it was possible for it to come apart. Dislocating, sure, but maybe even ripping clean off. She tried to banish the idea, but it was fairly prevalent. “I can’t- pull you up! The hell is wrong with Dick?”

        Rose felt streaming tears on her chin. She hadn’t noticed them before. “He’s... I don’t know! He’s not the same!” She looked down. Rose didn’t like what she saw. “I don’t think... he’s been the same for awhile now.” She unlocked her eyes, looking at a long blur. 

His arm in an arc, she found out too late what he planned to do with his knife. Cutting into her ankle, the blade slide across her bone. Rose screamed out in pain. Violet looked on in horror as the man tried to use the incision to pull himself up, merely accomplishing to gash her foot as the blade came loose, a torrent of blood falling freshly unto his face. 

        “ Oh God! Hold on, Rose! Please, hold on!” Violet looked around as best she could, but only could see a few curious pegasi flying further than a rifle's range away from the disaster. "

        “Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucking Bastard!” Rose shouted, her feet going into overdrive as she kicked at him with her free foot. She couldn’t see him as her brother now. He was a murderer. He killed her family. He killed her mom, her dad...  she felt this thing had killed her brother. Whoever this man who hung from her now was, Rose was certain he killed her brother. “Let go of me!” she screamed.

        “Violet!” A shout rang out. Another female voice. Unfamiliar to Rose, but Violet seemed relieved, even if her face was red from the effort. There was a sound of trotting as another body joined the midst, the pink mare. “Are you okay?”

        “No I’m not okay, Twinkle! Help me!” Violet yelled. Peering over the edge, Rose caught sight of the light pink pony. She struggled a smile, but it was insincere - she was bleeding out of the foot. Swinging her leg, it barely saved her another puncture as Richard swung and missed, his body jolting her. She felt a slip. Not her, not Richard, but Violet. “Shit!”

        “Violet - I don’t - I mean - I can’t.” Twinkle mumbled. Violet let out a frustrated groan, not intending to let go. Twinkle gave a pained face as she nipped at Violet’s belt, pulling back with all her might. The frail pony didn’t give much, but she gave enough as Violet felt the pressure come off her abdomen, her face starting to fade from the red color it was starting to take.

        “Rose! Get him off of you!”

        The blonde looked about, trying to figure something out. Her free arm fell along her side. It fell along something metal. Gripping it in her hand, she felt her hand grasp the trigger. “I-I have a gun!”

        Violet opened her eyes, locking eyes with Rose. There was a moments silence as Violet communicated her thoughts. "Shoot!" Violet shouted. “Shoot him!”

        Rose gave a panicked look down. Richard didn’t look pleased, but he had some smile. Some maniacal smile that contrasted his hard eyes. Dark eyes. Another jolt, her vision blurred as she shrunk down closer to the ground. Violet yelped as her chest hit the pavement hard again. “You can’t!” The voice from above called. “That’s-”

        “He fucking stabbed her foot, she’s bleeding! He just tried to kill us during your little nap!” Violet screamed. “I’m plenty sure it’s justified, Twinkle!” There was some hesitation from the other side, but eventually Rose could feel herself lifted up another inch.

        “MONSTER!” The shout came from below. Richard was looking about violently, causing Rose to catch a look about. The pegasi she had seen - some of them had started to draw near. Richard was flailing now. Something had snapped deep within him when he was on the truck. Maybe even before. Rose was feeling her grip weaken, whether from fatigue or blood loss she could be sure. She needed to act. Bringing the weapon to her eyes, she opened the safety against her teeth and let her arm hang limply from her side. Violet spun somewhat, grasping Rose’s arm with her free hand, now that Twinkle held firm on her belt.

        “Do it, Rose. I can’t pull you both up.” Violet murmured, closing her eyes. 

        Rose looked from both sides. Her brother, or what was left of him, wildly screaming and flailing. Above her, Violet. A girl she just met. A pony-loving liar. Holding her arm. Trying to save her. Putting her life on the line. She felt the gun’s weight. “I... haven’t killed anyone before..!” she choked out.

        “Neither have I. But... well, humans kill humans, right?” Violet, tried, shaking her head. 

        Rose felt a laugh escape her. In spite of herself, despite the pain, the blood, and the possible mild concussion, she laughed. Looking up through tear stained eyes, Rose gave her a defeated smirk. “Heh. No wonder you want to go pony.” New, fresh tears ran down her face as she judged her brother. Pointing the barrel, she sighed. A tear rolled down her cheek and hung on her chin as she looked at her brother. “Richard!” she called gently, cooing for the sibling she had lost. 

        The tear fell. The man looked up, expecting anything. His eyes feral. “This is for my brother!” she whispered.

        The sound of thunder. He released. Blood streamed freely from his forehead. Raining down below, his body fell limply, the wind playing with the fabric as he fell. Like a doll falling from a girl’s arms, Richard hit the ground with a sickening crack. The setting sun disappeared behind the horizon. 

        Rose’s tear landed between his eyes, trailing down his face, crying for him.
> Her Friends
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        It was better to make camp off an intact exit outside Albuquerque than continue on into the night. Pulling into the parking lot of a Wal-Mart, Violet hastily grabbed a shopping cart that was lazily patrolling the concrete expanse, wheeling it over to the truck bed. Very few words were spoken as Violet fished out some wire cutters from the backseat of the Ford, and haphazardly snapped off the back end of the cart, fashioning a crude wheelchair. Carefully lifting Rose out of the back, the humans plus ponies headed into the abandoned store.

        Overturned shelves and flickering lights from whatever was left from the power plant nearby, the four bodies found the furniture section, with a couple beds and chairs intact. Violet helped Rose out of the cart and onto a bed, before setting off into the store alone. Rusty set to work bucking some of the more hardwood chairs into wood for fire, noting that it was to the point where there was little other use for them now. “Sitting,” Rose choked out, a weak smile on her lips. Twinkle chuckled dryly as her horn sparked to life, catching the wood Rusty had broken down on fire. A quick check into the rafters and Twinkle ripped a small hole in the ceiling, before sighing deeply, still exhausted from her efforts earlier.

        Violet returned to the group, a small first aid kit in hand, and set about cleaning and dressing Rose's wound properly, a hasty bandage and magic-induced blood stopping spell starting to waver from the road. The awkward silence pertained over the four, neither wishing to break the silence for much of anything. Rose winced and yelped as Violet worked what she could, the two ponies nearby averting their eyes.

        “I-I’m gonna go see if I can find some food,” Rusty muttered, groaning as he moved up unto his legs. Violet looked over wearily, giving him a small nod of approval. Rose, on the other hand, was too distracted to care.

Twinkle looked up a moment before nodding. “On three hooves, you’ll need someone to help." Manipulating the cart, she brought it over to the stallion, offering him to use it as a crutch. "Here, put your forelimbs up on the cart.” She instructed, taking great care not to move his sprained forehoof. The red colt blushed slightly at the prospect of being babied as he was, but made no rejection to it. “I’ll light the way,” she murmured, her horn sparking to life again as a low, warm light started to emanate from her horn. Looking over to the girls, the unicorn smiled low, but averted her gaze as Rusty struggled forward. 

Violet leaned back a moment, her back screaming from the hunched over posture she had taken, attending to Rose’s wound. “I think... you’ll be okay.” Catching a look from the other human, she winced slightly. “Physically. He didn’t really nick any major artery, and as far as I can tell, he didn’t damage any tendons...” Violet didn’t want to mention how she could see the bone before she had put the bandage on, or how she had to pick out a metal shard of the knife that had been nicked. 

“It’s... thanks.” Rose muttered, looking away. She had cried. She had cried her way up to the road. She had cried as she was placed in the truck bed. She had cried most of the way here. Now, she had no more tears. “Thanks for coming back. You had no reason to.”

Violet laughed a bit, her voice a little hoarse. “You’re alive. A person. We shot the shit, you and I. It’s been... God, it’s been months since I’ve done so with another girl.” Rubbing her eye, she fought off a small tear. Someone had died today. Killed. And she... ordered it. In the heat of the moment she had ordered someone’s death. “I’m sorry.”

        Rose laughed, shaking her head. “For what? Holding my hand while I shot my brother in the head?” It hurt, and she was angry. “Thinking you’re a clever shit, ‘coming back in some form or another’? That’s why he chased you, you know.” Her eyes were hard, and Violet merely shrunk back, not wishing to look her in the eye. Relenting, Rose sighed. Distantly, Rose let her eyes get lost in the darkness of the store. “At least, it might’ve. Fuck, I don’t know. He was crazy.”

        “He didn’t... well he did, but... was it me?” Violet mumbled, fiddling with the bedsheet in her hands. Letting it go taunt, pulling it, wrapping it around her fingers. “Did someone just... lying to him like that? Tricking him? Did I...”

        Rose chuckled, falling back. She turned her attention to the hole in the ceiling, the crackle of the flames nearby. She closed her eyes, thinking of Richard. “No. Not really. He... he cracked long ago. Probably two... maybe three years, by my count. When the ponies first came around.” Violet’s head shot up, a lost look in her eyes. “He lost his girl then. They’d been dating, thought he was the luckiest guy. Hooked up with the hottest chick in the gang, he said.”

        Violet sighed, putting her hands to her head. She was locked on something else. “Three years,” She murmured. Not one. It couldn’t of been one. Too many people were gone for one year. Too much damage. She never noticed. Changing of the seasons, Christmas specials in July, the extreme... lack of people. She stayed in her apartment long after people left. She came to the Tower... They were the last people. Actual people. And she saw them leave. She was the very last. She felt... constricted. Her chest tight, she shook slightly, her back heaving as she found herself sobbing. She didn’t even notice Rose had been talking the entire time.

        “Hey... Hey! Violet? Violet what’s... What’s wrong? Violet!” Rose was shaking her now, a gentle hand on her shoulder. She couldn’t believe how selfish she was being, crying about God knows what when this girl just ended her brother’s life. “Come on, Shh...” Rose cooed, leaning forward and bringing Violet in. She continued to cry, tears flowing freely. “Come on, V, I’m sorry for being a bitch to you, I know what happened at the bridge... it couldn’t be helped.” Rose moved the girl’s hair from her eyes, between sobs of ‘I’m Sorry!’ and cries of ‘I’m so selfish!'

        Neither knew how long it took, but Rose found herself with silent tears for the girl. She had to admit there was little she knew about Violet, nor anything she went through. But it didn’t much matter. Violet took such claim in Rose’s existence, almost as a foundation for her. Violet let out one least heaving sob as she pulled herself apart from the girl. “I-I’m sorry.” She mumbled again, the blonde shaking her head.

        “You confuse me, V.” Rose said bluntly, getting a very strange look from the other girl. “You’re smart, trick me and..." A pause. Rose took a deep breath before continuing. "...Me and Richard, you drove a truck on two wheels, saved my life, cleaned my wounds... and you apologize to me for it.” Her chuckle was dry, but clear. “I don’t know what on Earth possessed you to come back for me, but... I’m grateful. I am. Richard was... he wasn’t the brother I had. I miss him, I’ll grieve him, but girl, why are you crying?”

        Sniffing, Violet let out a strangled giggle, wiping her face in the firelight. “I dunno. I just...” Breathing in deeply, she could feel her lungs sore from the breakdown, unused to the physical workout sobbing achieved. “I was just... lost.” Moving her arms, Violet picked herself up, mildly noting she might have to go to the medicine aisle and see if there were any painkillers - for almost everyone. Sitting on the bed with Rose, she sighed and leaned back, catching herself with her left hand. “Lost track of everything. Time. People. Didn’t care anymore. I can’t believe how much I didn’t even care.” Looking down at her legs, dangling off the side of the bed, she closed her eyes. “I didn’t feel anything.”

        Rose nodded, bringing her good leg up to her chest and hugging it, letting the other one find it’s own comfort after nearly being cut off. “You don’t... sound like you don’t.” 

        Violet gave a hollow laugh. “Went to college. Acting, primarily stage. Useless now, like everything else.” Clearing her throat, she could feel it tugging on her voice box, a pulling strain as she rubbed her neck. The clopping of hooves could be heard from not too far off, but it kept a steady distance, never growing near or far. Rose looked off in the darkness toward the sounds, seeing the reflections of light from Twinkle’s horn on the rafters above. “When you’re up on stage, no one picks up on your subtle body language, and only the most basic reactions can be seen. You have to act with your voice, so of course I can sound okay. I’m trained to.” Another hoarse laugh. "Guess I'm just good at sounding real with feelings that belong to someone else."

        An eerie silence descended upon the girls, sitting, listening over the crackling of the fire. There was so much out in the open, emotions, feelings, and loss. The weight of it all stuck to the air, thick as the smoke. Violet opened her eyes and leaned off the bed, swinging her arm about as she unlocked it from its position. She added duel to the fire, the flames lapping at the new wood and wicker frame hungrily. Rose watched her, unsure of what to make of it all. She was alone. Both of them, really. Coughing, she found herself desperate for a topic change - too much despair. “So... Rusty? ‘Twinkle’?”

        Violet smiled, no longer risking her throat to laugh anymore. “Never met them before today. Only a couple hours, really. Twinkle knocked herself out stopping us from crashing into your barricade - I’ll admit I wasn’t paying attention to the road ahead and... well, Rusty freaked out a bit when we saw the HLF banners. Fell out of the truck and landed on his hoof wrong.” Rose gave a chuckle mixed with a giggle, not one of joy for the red pony’s damage but for the idea of simply falling out of a truck. “They’re so... nice. Pure. Almost like what if like stayed like if we stayed as innocent children.”

        Rose pondered the idea, a small smile spreading across her face. “And they’re humans? I mean, used to be?”

        “Rusty is. Twinkle was born and raised in Equestria. And now you know as much as I do about them. The truck belonged to Rusty, actually. Guess he’d be kinda sour that it’s all scuffed up.” Violet joked lightly, not wanting to upset her charge by seeming too happy. Rose didn’t react much to it, either not caring for it or having the two realities merge and come out even. 

        “Violet...” The blonde girl sighed, running a hand through her hair and parting it from her eyes. “Why... did you decide to be a pony? It’s been....” She paused. There seemed to be a dance around the subjects that would darken the discussion, things neither wanted to ponder. Although images of her brother flashed in her mind. The trigger, the blood, the final look that screamed his malicious intents. He didn’t care for her. As she started to sink into her revelry, Violet had picked up on the question, pulling Rose out with her words.

        “My last neighbor. A man named Albert. Kinda nuts, but he was a nice man. Vegetarian, but probably not by choice nowadays,” Violet mused, closing her eyes. “He was the first person I really talked to in a long time. Only after Frank died. We had our own little ticks, but... one day he left. I... let it just sort of happen to me. Existed for the next week, and suddenly he was back... as a pony.”

        Rose scoffed, averting her eyes from Violet to the crackling flame. “Not real neighborly, taking off like that.” Violet smirked, shaking her head.

        “No, it was my fault. Guess he held a little crush on me. Well, not guess...” Reaching into her pocket, Violet unearthed the note. “He left this pinned to his door. For me. I never... once checked on him. He could have been hurt or all sorts of things, but I never once went down there to satisfy my curiosity. Don’t even know if I have curiosity anymore.” 

        “Don’t say that, V,” Rose muttered, “Curiosity is the human condition. And you’re human, whatever that’s worth.” She echoed the line Violet had spoken earlier. Even then, Violet had only echoed it as Frank’s last words to her. Violet chuckled. She didn’t know why, but the phrase struck her as funny. She laughed. Rose smirked slightly, entertained that she had gotten Violet to laugh - even if on accident. 

        -----

        Rusty paused at one of the aisle’s that wasn’t overturned, giving it a looksee before deciding on it being one worth checking out. The small pitter-patter of Twinkle’s light steps gave him a small smile, her light giving him enough area to see a couple cans of spinach and other low-priority foods still along the shelves. “Jackpot. I’m glad not to see anything like Spam lining these aisle’s.”

        Twinkle tilted her head, looking down the metal shelves. She’d never been in a human store, and the idea of the long lanes being lined with food intrigued her. “Spam?” She echoed, a smirk on her face. “Like, electronic mail about longer horns or broader wingspans?” She joked, rolling her eyes a bit.

        “Ah, no, it was an old food developed in war time to give to soldiers. Meaty substance, but no one could really be sure what exactly was in it.” Musing about food gave the red colt something to remember about the old world, a small smile on his face as he leaned on his good hoof. The sensation of walking on his back legs was both foreign and familiar, and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy it even the littlest bit. “Not sure how I feel about consuming meat - probably would clash with a pony’s digestive track, actually.”

        Twinkle nodded slowly, recalling that humans were, in fact, omnivores. It had been a long time since the Conversion Bureau’s even offered an alternative meat product for the humans, seeing as most meats weren’t processed anymore due to the expansive pony population. “Your taste for meat was likely changed along with your taste for more menial foods, like flowers and grass.” Recalling her old speeches, it seemed like such a point of contention back when they first opened. Still, many were placated at the idea of what all stayed the same - chocolate, peanut butter, bread and the like were popular mainstays of the humans, so if always brought them down from the bitterness of losing meats.

        “Suppose you’re right.” Rusty nodded, reaching the end of the aisle, looking different ways, as if he had other shoppers to worry about. The smell of wasted, perishable foods filtered into his nose, telling him that not all the cheese and meats that once lined the shelves have been looted, and what remained was long overdue to be moved. Twinkle’s muzzle reeled back in disgust, scrunching her nose and protecting it with her hoof.

        “That’s simply awful!” She exclaimed, rushing toward a different aisle and galloping to the midway point of the next. Rusty held his breath as he pushed the cart behind her, mildly coming to the conclusion that what humans had left these days probably mimicked farm life, at least as far as what they ate and how it was prepared. Probably a lot of salt. As he approached the mare ahead of him, she was looking over a few small bags of treats. “Potato chips. I’ve heard of these. We used to have a shelf for them at the Bureau...” she murmured.

        Rusty looked mildly interested, trying to catch the colors or flavors of the abandoned plastic bags. They were the smallest sizes, probably about as low of priority as most looters get. “Lessee, I think that’s salt and vinegar flavored...” Pointing gingerly with his weak hoof, he gestured toward a blue bag of Lays brand chips. Twinkle visibly recoiled, causing a laugh from the red colt. “Yeah, that’s the reaction a lot of folks got. It’s an acquired taste, but a lot of people swore by ‘em.” Wheeling the cart up, he leaned over and snapped the plastic bag up in his teeth, dropping it lightly into the modified cart. “Includin’ me. I hope I still like ‘em, stale or no.” Twinkle gave him an assuming look, but the Earth pony kept his grin as he peered over whatever other bags there were. “Probably should grab ‘em all. Fer’ Violet an’ Rose.” The unicorn nodded and started moving the bags one by one, Rusty forced to wait for the mare as his hoof didn’t really allow him much in the way of movement. 

        Twinkle peered over to the colt, her eyes shifting about as she considered her opinions of the group. Deciding they were far enough from the humans, she sighed slightly, looking over to Rusty. “What... all happened when I was out? We were about to crash, and next thing I know Violet is hanging over the edge of the roadway, keeping two people from falling... and then... and then...” She choked a bit. She didn’t like what happened next, and she tried to keep herself from thinking about it.

        Rusty sighed, shaking his mane about as he pondered how exactly he could say it in a way it could make sense to an Equestrian Pony. To be honest, he didn’t know what all to think himself, his back hooves still hurt from slamming against the grill of the semi repeatedly with his hooves. “The man who... well, he wasn’t right in the head,” he muttered, his eyes trailing ahead. A far off sound, indecipherable in its distance, perked his ears slightly, but he decided to ignore it. “That’s all I could get from it. He was Rose’s sister, and he was actively trying to kill us.” He decided to be blunt about. Twinkle had two years running a Bureau under her belt - she knew what humans could be capable of. “Can’t tell what made him come after us, but he did, and Violet and Rose... they ended it.”

        “That’s awful.” Twinkle blinked away tears, the prospect of a sister killing her own brother hung heavy in her head. “What could possess a pony- I mean, a person...” The two walked silently for a time, barely passing glances toward the metal shelves, most of them empty outside of cardboard boxes or ripped containers. Above them, one of the dim lights flickered out of existence for eternity, no one left to replace the bulb. Rusty sighed as he watched it go. “What a sight this had to be. People lining these aisles, talking about their lives and their sports. Children. A real marvel,” Twinkle whispered. 

        Rusty chuckled, nodding his head. “I guess it was, Twink. I guess it was.” Breathing deeply, he closed his eyes, remembering the last time he had come here. Some ponies were there, walking alongside their human friends. A baby was crying in its cart, its parent on his cell phone complaining about how ‘Susie stole my promotion!’. It was cute, now. He remembered his hands. It had been awhile. Scuffed up, hard. Construction did that to a man. Looking about, the bright lights, the bustling crowd of people. Parting his hair - his bright red hair from his eyes. He missed the tight curls it had, his fiery mane as straight as his tail. He had been here for Ramon Noodles, of all things. Nothing notable for his last trip to the supermarket. No spending his last squandering dollars on a giant TV, or some expensive food he couldn’t afford. No, he just wanted some chicken flavored noodles. Even with his taste buds changed his mouth watered slightly at the memory. It wasn’t even real chicken, he knew that, and so did his mind, apparently. 

        “What’s that for?” A voice broke him from his memory, his eyes training on the light pink pony before him. She was staring at him with an amused look on her features, lighting pointing a hoof at his face. Pausing, Rusty brought his sprained hoof to his mouth, a steady stream of drool covering his hoof as it made contact to his chin. “Uh,” he mumbled, before bringing up his good hoof and wiping his mouth. “Nothing. Forget it happened. Please.” Twinkle giggled as the red pony’s face got redder in the pale light of her horn, turning about as she helped him preform a u-turn before they got close to the rotten foods again. “It was just... there are foods you don’t see anymore these days. Kinda miss ‘em.”

        “I miss a lot of foods back in Equestria. Foreign flowers have this... weird taste in them.” Twinkle shook her head about, her tongue falling out of her mouth at her own memory. Rusty guessed it was the years of pollution or maybe the pesticides, the ponies having only eaten the freshest of flowers their entire lives. “I suppose that’s probably right. I’m glad noponies gotten sick from the local diets.” As they walked, Rusty leaned his head down on his foreleg, growing slightly bored of having to go down the same aisle just to get away from a horrid smell. “So Rusty... How long have you been a pony? What made you go through with it?”

        Looking up, he turned his head over to the female pony and smirked. “Oh, nothing too much. Construction started shutting down, and I got my last check in the mail along with my notice that I was fired. I’d of made a fuss, but there really was no point to it.” The stale air of the supermarket was tinged with the rotten food, no matter how they decided to avoid it, and the colt was finding himself wishing to return to the girls at the fire, preferring the scent of wood smoke. “Most of my family had already gone, on the first boats out to Equestria, really.”

        “You haven’t joined them?” There was an edge of inquiry to her voice, asking more than what she said.

        “Nah, I loved my city. Really did. There’s still things to build, simple things, sure, but I doubt it’ll ever fall into disrepair like the roads have.” The stallion managed, shrugging his shoulders as best a pony could on two legs. “Although I wouldn’t mind heading to Equestria one day. See what all the hubbub is about. Maybe see a Manticore or two. Ha ha...” Rusty trailed, seeing a look of terror over Twinkle’s face. “I kid, I kid, I realize the more magical animals in your kingdom might not exactly be ‘friendly’. I guess... I guess you could align some humans up with those creatures. Sometimes they’re just animals.” He said, unsure of his words. Reading Twinkle’s features, his face grew more confident as she showed she was considering it, and soon found himself believing his own words. “What about you, Twinkle? What brought you outta Equestria and into the Conversion Bureaus? I remember seein’ you there once or twice.”

        “Oh, you were a part of my Bureau?” Her voice elated, Twinkle’s smile was hard to hide. “Yes, well, there wasn’t much to tell. I was always a good unicorn, proficient with a wide variety of spellwork, nothing like some of my peers in Canterlot, but I was a bit better rounded...” she sighed, remembering the days where she was surrounded by ponies. She concluded that’s what Rusty had been doing prior, just with humans in his own society. “I suppose I was just lucky. I was near the castle one day when I ran into an important looking pony, and we hit it off. She let me on to some goings on, and I was between jobs...” She cleared her throat, catching a draft of rotten food as she told the story, Coughing, she waived the air in front of her hoof a bit before continuing. “Well, next thing I know she’s at my doorstep with a couple of palace guards. Said I was a perfect pony for a new Equestrian outreach program. It was just when the first ponified humans came in, and she said she was looking for new ponies to run the Bureaus. Said I ‘checked out’.” 

        “Such a powerful pony, she was. She was there when I made my decision. Did you know some unicorns can teleport? She could do it at will, and bring other ponies with her! Objects too! Next thing I knew we were set outside the first barge out of Equestria, talking amiably. Such a nice pony, but it was obvious no matter how much we talked on the ride to Los Angeles, she was missing her friends in Newark. When we arrived with all the others who were chosen, I didn’t keep her long. She had a lot of ponies to train and it was best en-mass.” Twinkle sighed, brushing a lock of hair from her eyes as she smirked, motioning toward her cutie mark. A small star with even smaller stars all around it, almost as if it was part of some big picture. “I’ve never been much for leading large groups, but a small team, I’m a natural, as they say. A slightly bigger cog in a massive machine.”

        Rusty smirked, pausing as they reached the end of the rows of food. It was a menial selection of food in their cart, but the pony gestured to some odd looking shelves toward the back. “That’s one way to look at it. Not exactly the most boastful of ponies, are you?” he chuckled.

        “No, no, not at all. But I’ll be glad to return to Equestria after this. I take two steps outside of my Bureau and already I have been unconscious, had somepony try to kill me and kept two poor girls from falling to their deaths, only for a madman to get shot in the head and fall to his, right in front of me,” Twinkle shook her mane about, sighing. “For every ten good humans I find, there is one horrible one that scares me and takes away all the good faith I have for them.” Breathing deeply through her nose, she looked about at the aisle they were in. Most of them were empty, but a couple containers containing a undefined liquid stayed on the shelf, with very generic looking branding. “What’s all this stuff?”

        “Soda. Soft drinks.” Rusty said, looking about. Twinkle nodded slowly, hearing humans speak of soda before. “I doubt I can speak for humans much anymore, being a pony now, but the bad humans... they’re few and far between compared the the billions of people there once was. Y’know, before the ponies and destruction,” he mumbled, running his good hoof through his mane. Twinkle nodded sagely, her voice robbed at the mention. Sensing her unease, Rusty shook his head quickly. “I’m not blaming- well of course I didn’t. Still, it was... unexpected.”

        “So many lives taken... I agree with you, though. I’ve met too many humans in the Bureaus to even entertain the prospect of humans being so... greedy, evil. It’s just that they seem to be the ones to rise to power in your society.” There was sadness in her voice, a detracted statement that carried some forlorn wish for humanity. Rusty felt it strange that it would come from such an odd source, an Equestrian pony who spent her last couple years helping humans drop that essence and embrace the pony way. “I wish there was some way to have altered that, instead of altering you all.”

        Rusty sighed, his hooves growing tired. Dropping off the cart, the red stallion found himself laying lazily upon a small bit of carpeted expanse in what he guessed was once the shoes section. Twinkle eyed him a moment, before noticing the soreness of his hooves. She recalled him mentioning trying to dislodge the truck while she was still out of sorts. Trotting over to the colt, she gave him a once over. “You’ve been walking on those hooves the entire time?” Giving a disapproving stare, Rusty shrugged slightly as he waved his one good hoof.

        “Can’t exactly hop around on one leg. Not since my center of gravity shifted.” He iterated, letting his hooves rest and the pressure go down. “It’s a couple cuts and bruises, nothing sinister.” Letting his fur becoming interlocked in the tightly woven threads of the carpet, he padded the ground next to him, inviting Twinkle to take a load off. She rolled her eyes but did as she was invited to do, laying near the male pony. “There’ve been hundreds of sad songs for humanity long before the ponies came around, Twinkle. All your kind did was offer an escape for us sad sacks,” he chuckled dryly. It was only after meeting Violet did he really consider himself the proverbial half-way point of a generation. It had awoken the dormant feelings he had back when he first became a pony. Hell, he was even having trouble walking again, just like when he was a newfoal. “Even if you ponies put good people in charge, it would have reverted back before long. Humans had a saying ‘History repeats itself’. They were right, too. But you ponies... you broke that circle. There’s no going back to what we were. Not with the humans that are left. Violet’s a rare case - hell, maybe that Rose chick, too. Genuine humans, not like the bitter and dangerous HLF.” His voice grew hard, but his expression softened soon after, Twinkle watching his every move. “Although I fear. For families held back by aggressive parents, children raised to hate ponies, violent, horrible people who’d rather see someone die than become a pony-”

        “Rusty, please.” There was a silence after that. The red pony’s eyes searched the mare in front of him, a look of dawning etching slowly across his features. “Richard,” he muttered, blinking hard a few times. “I’m sorry, Twinkle. I know that’s not something you want to revisit so soon....”

        Shaking her mane, Twinkle’s head came to rest on her outstretched forehooves. “It’s alright. You’re passionate. And after today... I can safely say your fear isn’t unfounded.” The fatal shot that killed the man rang in her ears again, causing her to close her eyes sadly. She had released Violet then, too shocked to pull. She was surprised to see the girl hoist Rose up single-handedly, although it was likely a feat of adrenaline. Twinkle had assisted the last bit, being unable to help herself from taking a look down below. She remembered sobbing at the broken body below. The sobbing of the girl as she clung to Violet’s chest.

        She had helped close the wound, with whatever magic she had left. Bolstered Rose’s biological defenses and helped stop the bleeding. The rest was a blur. She had sat in the cabin, looking back at Rusty and Rose who rode in the back. Sighing, the mare opened her eyes at the sudden feeling of warmth on her face. Rusty brushed away tears that had appeared in her revelry. Blushing heatedly, the mare picked herself up quickly, the colt looking confused and slightly embarrassed at her sudden shift. “Sorry,” she mumbled, looking down at her hooves. “Look at me, feeling sorry for myself when I’m the one who’s come out of this smelling like rose-um. Daisies.” Her recovery was weak, but Rusty let it slide. 

        Returning to his hooves, the male pony winced at the pressure to his back hooves again, but held firm. Using his good hoof, he nabbed the cart’s handlebar and lifted himself back up to leading the vehicle, taking a moment to look over their assorted food. “Chips, vegetables nopony likes, some soda, aaannnd an assortment of probably horrible tasting whatits and whoosits. Fantastic.” Counting it all up, the stallion gave the mare a friendly smile. “Probably should get back to the girls. Can you open cans with your magic?”

        Happy to change the subject to something more menial, Twinkle inspected the cans a moment before giving a curt nod. Satisfied, the Earth pony pushed the cart along toward the orange glow from the back of the store.

        -----

        Rose looked decidedly much better when the ponies returned with the food, a change that did not go without a few cautionary glances from the two. Catching their gazes, Rose sighed out through her nose, her eyes softening at the ponies. “I want to be sad for him,” she started, gathering the notice of Violet as she started. “I miss my brother a lot. But... it’s an old pain. I think... I think my heart knew he was gone a long time before he died. And I’m glad he no longer has to be like that.”

        Violet leaned over, raising an eyebrow. “Are you sure? You could still be in shock...”

        “Oh please, V, they only ever say that on T.V. I’m... sad, really. And I know I really shouldn’t even be sharing this with a bunch of strangers, let alone ponies and to-be-ponies, but hell, you’re the only good company I’ve had in months.” Rose had a smile on her face, pained, but not placed. Her conflicting emotions were clear, but she made no attempt to hide it. “It’s a happy-sad. You would have liked Richard before that, V. He was kind, almost idealist in his own little way. Naive, too. Felt that young love was the only thing that was really worth a damn. God he was such a fruitcake.” Rubbing her eye, she gave a gentle laugh. “Bastard on the bridge. Wasn’t my Richard. That man cut my foot open with a switchblade and tried to kill a bunch of decent people... and ponies in cold blood. I can’t say I’ll miss that man. A monster in my brother’s skin.”

        Violet nodded slowly, returning to her neutral position, looking over her new friends. It felt a bit off, but then again, what did she know? She’d been couped up in a fog for three years. Her eyes shot open a moment when she realized she was older than she remembered she was. Her brain mulled over the thought that she’d get a huge break on her car insurance now, and Violet couldn’t help but snerk at that, luckily being missed by all others present. She looked about a moment as the ponies set themselves up comfortably on another bed, and Twinkle levitated some of the food around, Violet catching a bag of chips while Rose found herself with a bottle of ‘Dr. Thunder’. Shrugging, the humans opened up their processed food items, taking a moment to revel in the old flavors. “That’s something old,” Violet mused, a small smile on her face.

        “Oi, to Richard. The old Richard you folks never knew,” Rose muttered, lifting her can of soda up. She got a few looks from the others, but they slowly nodded, accepting her toast.

        “To the humans who live new life,” Twinkle added, levitating a small can of vegetables up in the air with a slight tilt. She always liked the small tip of the glass she saw from the humans in the Bureaus when they made their final toasts.

        “To new friends,” Rusty smirked, enjoying his addition to toast. Twinkle gave him an appreciative look, which only served to bolster his smirk. The others eyes drifted toward the last of their group. The dyed-purple haired girl.

        Violet smiled, raising her crinkling bag of chips into the air, giving each one of her companions a short look. Closing her eyes, her mind drifted toward thoughts of the future. “To new starts.”
> Her Past
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Author's Note


    Man, it's been a long time since I thought of this chapter. This is where Mare's Tail firmly disestablishes itself from the rest of The Conversion Bureau series. In case it hadn't been clear, this story took place many years before most others, due to a lack of technology and other such sci-fi edges the others took, and the fact that my Equestria showed up in the Pacific, rather than the Atlantic, ala the much subscribed First Contact story.

    Chapter six is a bit of a hiccup in that it was written off the cuff, in a vague attempt to fill holes in my story. Mare's Tail was written mostly as a stream of consciousness, so it has the most variance between good writing and gaping plot holes. I just hope you're ready for it, because it's about to take a turn. Hope you didn't think this held a 'Dark' tag just for the scene with the semi...

    -----


Years earlier...

        The lights flickered on, taking a customary moment to warm up, electricity surging through the fluorescent tubes. The sound of a door closing echoed in the halls aside the tiny apartment as a girl of only twenty-one threw her bookbag on the floor. Lifting her arm up with a jarring stop, a lavender and blue purse sailed through the air and landed roughly on the kitchen table. The girl was a bit pudgy, but her clothing choice hid it well enough, even if it was a bit unflattering. Decked out in a gray hoodie and a pair of matching sweats, Violet didn’t much care for her last class of the week, brushing aside her fluorescent pink hair. Dyed, of course, and it wasn’t the first time. Brunette roots started to threaten the very base of her hair, and out of her purse rolled a small tube of hair dye - this one a violet purple, much like her namesake. 

        Brushing her hair aside, Violet breathed in deep as she took in the final rays of sun that filtered through the blinds on her window. Spinning the long white plastic rod, she denied the sun access to her apartment, taking delight in the fact that she had already had her time in the sun today, and now was the time to sit in front of her computer and browse the internet for hours. Without class in the morning, Violet checked her phone as she confirmed she’d have at least five hours of unadulterated nothingness. Sighing contentedly, the girl raided her fridge and took a seat in her rolling chair, spinning about a couple times as she scanned her desk for her remote and booted up her desktop. Snatching the sleek, black plastic block, she turned on the television so she could subsequently ignore it. Throwing on the news, her eyes scanned the screen for today’s highlights, but found it had cut to commercial. Sighing through her nose, the girl’s eyes scanned her computer, still in the boot process, and she picked up a half of a sandwich she had thrown in the fridge two days ago that she couldn’t finish on a recent night out with some friends.

        “To microwave, or not to microwave, that is the question,” she murmured, leaning on her elbow as she brought the food under her gaze. A loud crack issued from outside, drawing her attention briefly. “Someone must of forgotten something...” she mused, covering other reasons for such a rush in her head, most of them too dirty for words. However, she was surprised when the door to her own apartment shot open, a short, nerdy looking man wearing a Nintendo shirt looking about wildly until he found Violet on her chair. The girl had one eyebrow raised as she quickly dismissed her thoughts, not entirely wishing to add her friend to those mental images. “Evan, you make me regret giving you a key to the apartment.”

        “Television!” he gasped, letting Violet on to the fact the out-of-shape geek was completely out of breath, as if he had run all the way to her apartment. Considering she lived on the second floor, he did make it from the front door to her place in a surprisingly short amount of time. “Ponies!”

        Her thoughts ceased. “Ponies?” The rotund little man navigated the sharp corners that made up Violet’s apartment and looked to the TV, his eyebrow furrowed as he brought a hand up to his chin. Spinning in her seat, Violet saw that the commercials had ended, and the news had continued with its ‘Top Story’. What she didn’t expect was to see six three-feet tall, pastel ponies on the screen. There were two others that stood out, one a deep blue, but another with multicolored hair which stood at the same height as any person - or rather, any horse. Violet could feel her mind trying and subsequently failing to grasp how a horse’s mane could flow with colors like that, and turned her head to her friend. “Uh, so, is that some new Japanese fiber optics shit?”

        Passing a glare towards his friend, Evan was still heaving slightly as his breath tried to return to him. “No V, those things are real! Look at their sides, there are little marks and everything! Look! One of them is speaking right now! Like, English!”

        Violet’s head spun on a pivot as her hair passed in front of her face. Blowing it out of her face dejectedly, she craned her neck back toward her little black box. Indeed, one of the ponies had approached the podium, and at this point she had realized it was a live feed in the same area of the Presidential Address. “Wait, like, this is for real?”

        “Yes! It’s fucking real!” Evan nearly shouted, earning himself some ire in the form of a cold glance. Ignoring it, Evan reached forward and turned up the volume. Violet sat, dumbfounded, at the events unfolding in front of her. This pony, this ‘Princess Celestia’, had come from a magical land where she and her ponies lived. The conference carried on, with questions, concerns, and some talks of how the anatomy worked in comparison to horses. “So, how do they speak English?” Violet heard Evan ask, to which a reporter on screen echoed his sentiment exactly. The regal Princess lowered her head, to which, for the first time, Violet noticed a couple things.

        “They're Unicorns!” Her eyes scanned the rest of her body. Along her side were two giant wings, folded neatly against her, almost like a bird’s own feathers. “With wings!” she shouted, her fist slamming against the table in her excitement. She liked the idea of unicorns, magical talking horses and all that when she was growing up, and the fact one was on screen - with wings no less - it was all she could do not to leap up on her feet and possibly throw her sandwich.

        Evan scoffed slightly. “Look behind the big one - there are a couple of those ponies with just wings or just horns. And look, that pink one doesn’t have either. And she’s chatting to that white one, with the... curls. Okay, curls? And look, that one is wearing a hat! A freakin’ cowboy hat!” 

        “Details!” Violet shushed, waving her hand about as she listened to the broadcast. The regal white pony with the flowing hair explained to all those listening in that it was innate magic, earning herself some scrutiny from those in attendance, Evan included. Violet smirked, “Oh, so the talking pony with wings and a freakin’ horn is suddenly less realistic once she says she’s magical.” Evan shook his head, but his eyes were focused on the screen. Violet had to make special note that she rarely saw her friend with such intensity in his eyes - normally only when he was fighting a fairly difficult boss in a video game, or was brought down to his last couple lives in some Mario game. 

        The two sat in silence for the rest of the conference, with some of the other ponies getting a word in, cementing the fact that even the bubbly pink one could talk English - or rather, talk a common language. At least for what Violet could understand, the pink one was hard to follow. The regal Princess confirmed that their words could be understood by all those listening in, much to the awe of some of the reporters, some of which remarked that their words reverberated in their heads more than through their ears. 

        Suddenly, the white ‘alicorn’, as Violet’s checks to the internet during the conference had claimed, put on a more serious face. Evan tapped Violet’s shoulder lightly, bringing her away from the glowing computer monitor long enough to take notice of her change in demeanor. “I’ve become accustomed to the curiosity and the cynicism in humans over the past six months as I’ve spoken to your world leaders. War, starvation, greed, and pollution have left your world, our world, a shadow of the paradise it once was and could be.”

        “As such, I, along with many others from many nations, have agreed to do something about it. Your nature, your human condition, is a wonderful thing, and I can see advancements here that ponykind has only dreamt about. But there are things humans do that are... obscene. Nightmarish things. Your wars, those of you who become  pirates that sail the waters... these are things that are not innate in our society. Ponies exist in harmony. We are loyal, kind, generous, honest, and jovial. It is through this that we have come to develop our magic.”

        There was a pause as the reporters were unsure of what to make of her speech. What did she plan to say? Plan to do? Clearing her throat, the smaller ‘alicorn’ stepped forward. “What my sister means to say is that while our land is a pristine paradise, yours is a dying world, one we have looked out and seen and wish to help. Not in any terrible way, but through choice. We have been aware of each other for some time - two years, in fact. Our lands have recently started to suffer from overpopulation, and it was through your human leaders that we have developed a new plan. Twilight, if you please...”

        A lavender pony strode forward, a single strip of pink hair consumed by a straight mane of purple. Casting a casual glance over to her purse, Violet’s eye caught sight of her hair dye, and subsequently focused on her own dyed head of hair. Shrugging nonchalantly, Evan’s attention was drawn to his friend. “This is kinda crazy, huh?”

        “Crazy isn’t even a word for it,” Violet chuckled, running her hand through her hair. “Figures! We graduate in a week and now no one is gonna care,” she laughed, leaning forward in her creaking roll chair. The unicorn’s horn sparkled, the first real show of magical skill from these ponies. All watched as the lavender mare brought her notes together in mid-air, placing them neatly on the shortened podium next to the large one her Princesses used just prior.

        “Hello everyone,” she began. Twilight looked out over the crowd. Violet could tell she was nervous, and shook her head, a small smile on her face. Her mind raced through all the instruction, all the lessons she had learned in her time with theatre. Project your emotion through your voice. Keep calm. Imagine the audience in their underwear. Peering back towards the unicorn, Violet had to make note that none of these ponies wore clothes, so that old trick would likely fall flat. Imagine your orange friend without her hat, then!

        “Humankind is destroying their planet, and the Princesses have already confirmed that there isn’t much time left in your world before major climate shifts not only kill many of your ‘third world’ countries, but destroy and condemn the rest of you to a squandered existence. The loss of such life and technology... we could not abide.” Twilight stared out in the crowd, hoping her words had curried some favor, or at the very least some introspection. Clearing her throat, the unicorn continued with her speech. “As such, your United Nations, in conjunction with ponykind, have developed a serum that will turn any human into a equine, or pony, with their memories and personality intact.” There was many murmurs circulating in the audience. 

Were some of the girls behind the unicorn actual products of that serum? Is that why one of them wore a hat? Did the rainbow pegasus know she looked like a gay pride banner made real? These were some of the questions flying through not only Violet’s head, but through the congregation of reporters in front of the lavender pony. Closing her eyes, the mare steeled herself for her next line. “I, among with many magic and science majors of both pony and humankind, have developed this method to remove much of the selfish nature of a human without touching what we call the ‘soul’ of a person, and have them reborn,” Twilight sighed, letting her words sink in to the audience. “We need to do this-” She was interrupted by a shout from the audience gathered.

        There was an uproar on screen as Violet reached for her remote and slammed down on the mute button. Her cellphone rang and vibrated, a hundred different calls and texts trying to make their way through to her. Evan stared at the screen, his breathing even but his hand to his chin in a contemplative manner. Looking between it and his friend, Evan exhaled long and hard. “Well, that was...”

        “What.” Violet finished, shaking her head. “That was simply what.’

        -----
Elsewhere, merely 45 minutes after the speech.

        The buzzing sounds of children and cell phones surrounded a flaming red-haired man. It was packed in these long aisles, people grabbing food off the shelves, in fashions and flavors he’d never heard of. Nearby, men were shouting across long distances to their mates - their more romantically inclined mates - but it hardly bothered him. It was like this on most Fridays after the paychecks were firmly in hand. However, he had to admit that this was just far more than that, as it almost seemed like it was some super Saturday sale. Musing that WalMart didn’t actually have those kinds of sales, he decided to allow himself a moment to reflect on the time of day it was. Or rather, the time of night. The store was packed almost wall to wall with people, with clothes being ripped off racks and food torn from the shelves. 

        Robert “Rusty” O’Brien wasn’t a built man, or what anyone would say as overtly attractive, but he was normal enough in his own regard to be completely and utterly ignored in the mass of flesh that had rushed to the stores following the announcement of magical, sentient beings. To say that the initial reaction was panicked would be putting it lightly, but as the red-haired construction worker milled about, waiting for room to move his cart full of Ramon ahead and out of the aisle, he found himself reaching for his pocket and grasping a long length of line. Drawing it out, the line revealed itself to be a wire, and on one end was unearthed to be an ear piece, the connecting socket found way to a cheap looking cell phone that popped out of his fairly tight blue jeans. Nabbing the technology out of the air before the connection loosened and he’d be forced to scramble the ground looking for however many parts the old phone would have burst into, Robert took a look at its screen.

        Four missed calls.

        “Not entirely surprising,” he murmured, shaking his head. The ponies had been quite a start, but few people he cared about would have reason to call him, as Rob never was one for answering the phone. However, as he fitted the ear piece, the phone shook rapidly in his hand. Checking the vibrating block of plastic, a freckled hand answered the call, Robert not finding much else to do while he wheeled his cart an extra two feet that had opened up. “Y’ellow?”

        “Robert! Thank God you answered! Have you heard the news?” A panicked, yet slightly elated female voice reached him over the din. Robert silently thanked his sister a moment for the ear piece, which made calling on the job a lot easier while keeping his hands free. It made spending time on the high rises far less boring, as the fear of falling started to wear thin when he proved himself so good at not doing it. “There are like, magical ponies or some shit!”

        Chuckling, Robert nodded, a smile playing on his features. “Eeyup, there certainly are. Guess I wasn’t alone in thinking this is some End of the World scenario. This place is certainly filled to the brim.” The man looked left and right as he found himself at the edge of the aisle, freeing himself from the enclosed space to the somewhat more open main floor. Taking a moment to get a feel for his position, Robert pushed forward into the Woman’s Lingerie, knowing that he could cut through the linens faster than the aisle’s at this point. “So what’s your take on this?” Robert’s smile faltered slightly at an almost knowing pause issued from the other end. “Delia?”

        Delia sighed audibly on the other end of the phone. “I don’t know. It’s kind of interesting, really, Bobby.” The term of endearment struck a chord within her brother, but Robert kept silent, allowing his sister to continue. “I mean, it couldn’t have fallen at a better time...”

        “You lost your job, Delia. There are more of them out there, you know?” Robert shook his head as he expelled a long, hard breath. “It’s not exactly the kind of situation where you up and drop everything at the first easy solution.”

        “Robert, it’s not like that! You know me, I don’t take my life lightly!” she seethed into the phone, giving the red-haired man pause. Considering her, until recently, job as an accountant, his sister wasn’t well known for being the impulsive type. Even her marriage had taken two years of dating and almost just as long finding a good time for the wedding. “It’s just... things are different now.”

        The man stopped his cart, despite making good time as he stood upon the outskirts of the main stretch of emptiness before the cashiers. Robert took note that many of the shoppers were heading straight through the door, with only a few employees trying to stop them, while others simply shrugged it off. A few of the higher functioning paranoids among them were lost in thought, wondering if the next paycheck was truly worth it. “I can agree about difference,” the man pushed on, finding himself in a surprisingly empty aisle, reaching for his wallet. The clerk seemed surprised that he wasn’t simply going to loot the place, and helped him with the groceries. Robert noticed continued silence on the other line, and gestured toward the clerk that he needed a second. “‘Lia? ‘Lia you there?”

        “I’m here, Bobby...” It was further away, but still clear in his ear. “It’s different in more ways than you think. James lost his job today. Under an hour ago, actually. The news shook his company to the core and his boss ripped it apart from the inside. Their stocks diminished and he’s stuck with the pieces. God, you should see him in the study, rushing through papers. I wish I could help, but I’ve been feeling a bit... under the weather recently.”

        Robert felt his heart skip a few beats. Delia suffered from a weak immune system, and even a cold could be dangerous for the girl.  “Under the weather? Oh God, you’re not sick are you? Oh no, ‘Lia, I’ll be right there, just hold tight-”

        “No, Bobby, nothing like that. Just a little morning sickness, usually. I actually just woke up from a nap...” There was a strangled laugh on the other end, with Robert’s mind working overtime as he deconstructed what she said. 

        “Wait, morning sickness..?” Even the clerk could see the lightbulb turn on behind his eyes as his hand shot up on and over his head. “Delia, Are you saying...!”

        “We found out a week ago, but we wanted to be sure. Surprise! You’re an uncle!”

        Spinning in place, the red-haired man yelped out a few surprising laugh, the woman clerk taking a step back, wide-eyed with one of the most amused faces she could muster. She suddenly found herself grabbed at her shoulders, a look of merriment plastered over Robert’s face. “Oh my God I’m going to be an Uncle! Like, sister’s pregnant! Oh my Gooood. ‘Lia! This is wonderful news! Names! We have to think of names. Oh joy, look, I’m going to be right over, okay?” In a tizzy of enjoyment, Robert slapped his card down next to the clerk, finally released from his hold and muttering a few strangled ‘congratulations’. However, it wasn’t long before the other pieces started to fall into place. “But you don’t have a job. James doesn’t either. How are you going to pay for a baby? Oh dear God twins run in our family! What if you have two!?”

        There was a laugh on the other end that did wonders for his nerves. “Then I’ll have two wonderful children, Bobby. That’s why... that’s why this news couldn’t have fallen at a better time. I’ve continued listening to these ponies and their proposals. They’re setting up these clinics that make a person into a pony, and I’ve already seen a couple of the post-op ponies - they look every bit the same as one of the others. And pregnancy is safe, the children are safe, and they’ve mentioned that this process can even make the blind see and the deaf hear-”

        “Well so can stem cells, and we’re doing so good with those,” Robert sighed, bringing his hand up to his eyes and pushing them in, his head moving on a swivel. “Of course, I’d be willing to bet this is some weird magical stem cell thing,” he mused, trying to take his mind of the fact his now pregnant sister was talking about becoming an equine.

        “Bobby, listen. I’m not gonna be going until I see it for myself, and Albuquerque isn’t on the initial list of these ‘Conversion Bureaus’. But when it is... I think I’m going. And I want you to as well, and mom, and dad, and cousin Mary, and...”

        Robert laughed, taking his card from the clerk who thanked him for his patronage. “Alright, alright, let’s talk about this later, alright? The whole world is losing its head and I’d rather not dwell on it. So what I’m gonna do, now, is hop in my shiny new truck, head over to your house, and spoil the shit outta my twin sister. Kapeesh?”

        “No arguments here.”

        -----

Flashback a half an hour and across town...

        Evan stuck his head out of the fridge, pulling a 20 oz of soda, giving it a parsing look before shutting the door and striding over to the window, watching large groups of people gathering on the lawn outside the apartment building. The crowd had been growing there since the initial uproar almost fifteen minutes back. “They’re still out there,” Evan sighed, pulling the blinds, “Ever since the pony said they developed a way to turn people into... that. A lot of them look... scared. Think they might do something?”

Violet rolled her seat over to the window next to Evan, mildly noting he smelled of too much body spray. “Nah, they’re college students. They can’t afford to do anything too stupid.” Cynicism at its finest, the female slid back to her computer and opened a couple tabs in her browser, checking a few news sites and a couple more personal stomping grounds. 

Evan sighed through his nose, peeling his eyes from the gathering crowd of people outside. Making his way to an empty seat, there was trash and different articles strewn about its base from when he cleared it off enough to sit on shortly after the reporters started shouting questions at the unicorn after her revealing broadcast. With a satisfying ‘Ksssh’, he cracked open the pop and turned to Violet. On screen, officials at the gathering attempted to calm the reporters so the now flustered unicorn coud finish what she came to do. “What’s the damage?” he said, his eyes drifting over to Violet. The officials were finally making progress, many of the men and women were calming down, the reporters finding their way back to their seats while the lavender mare was seen nervously peering toward her Princesses. The blue one shrugged, a blank expression on her face, which gave Evan a chuckle, drawing the attention of his host.

        “Well, 4chan’s ablaze. First time I’ve ever seen /b/ devoid of porn.” Violet sighed, running her fingers through her hair front to back. “Oh, there’s some photo-shopped breasts on a screen cap of the white pony queen. God Bless 4chan.” Leaning back, the pink-haired girl leaned her arms on either side of her chair. “All in all, no one knows what the hell is going on, or what this potion thing is supposed to accomplish outside of turning someone into a horse. Maybe it’s a takeover from aliens.”

        “Ponies,” Evan corrected, a smug smile on his face. “Kinda like that indoctrinating crap that used to pass as cartoons in the 80’s and 90’s.” Taking a long sip from his drink, Evan leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, his face in thought. “Still though, that was a pretty poor way of putting it. I mean, yeah, the world’s in bad shape right now, but I don’t think there’s an express need to... well, do whatever the hell they’re suggesting.”

“I know, right?” Violet laughed. “What do they take us for? Oh hey, be a pony, you might get wings or horns at the cost of hands and the ability to turn a doorknob.” Drumming her fingers on the table for effect, she pointed toward a pink pony on screen with a completely unkempt hairstyle. “Look at that one. She’ll have to open doors with her mouth or something.” Laughing it off, she caught a look from Evan that expressed amusement, but not the amount of laughter she was calling for. Dropping it, she gestured toward the television. “Look, the reporters are shutting up. Let’s just listen. History in the making, might as well be good little Americans and listen.”

        Twilight Sparkle, as she was to be called, cleared her throat in front of millions, perhaps billions of viewers now with their eyes glued on her. Breathing in deeply, she seemed to remark something about a ‘rainboom’ and how it seemed easy in comparison, to which a rainbow-maned pegasus behind her seemed to scoff at. “Ahem. I’m sorry I wasn’t clear with my last statement. I’ve had difficulty trying to grasp our culture gap and am trying very hard to compensate for it. I suppose we all just need some getting used to.” 

        Violet nodded in response, deciding swiftly to give the pony a second chance. “Well, she isn’t wrong. I’m watching a purple pony move her yap and I hear Raven from Teen Titans!” she coughed, remarking how she’ll never see the dark sorceress the same way again. “Still though, she does magic too, so it’s not that much of a stretch.” Hearing a shush behind her, she threw a cocky smile toward Evan before bringing her attention back to the unicorn. 

        “But don’t misunderstand me. We came out here not only to alleviate stress on our borders, but to begin healing the world around us. I know what we’re asking is steep, to undergo a change in not only physical appearance but also a change in outlook. To become a pony is to become part of the herd. And we look out for our herd. Our friends.” She turned her head slightly, in a direction not caught by the camera’s on location. However, Violet noticed the five smaller ponies like her gave her big smiles and the pink one even cheered. As she turned back, billions of people noticed the small tear of joy in her eye that was quickly rubbed away. She cleared her throat, steeling herself for some message that was to come. “Your world is in shambles. I know that it’s hard to look at it, as it’s everything you’ve known, but even your leaders agree. Wars are being started over singular resources. You are killing your own over differences of opinion. I’ve been informed that this is concurrent through your history. It scares me that you see those as barbaric times, when these years it is much the same as before, with just more advanced... weapons.” The very idea of advancing in a culture meant to kill more efficiently seemed to shake the pony to her very core, and Violet frowned a bit. Not because she was angry, but because the outsider was right. All of the advancements in technology had been for the war effort. Even so far as predicting the weather had been developed for means of war. She was so lost in thought she almost missed the next part of the speech.

“Furthermore, the magic of Equestria is expanding. There is no way to stop this, but don’t fear - it is gradual. It won’t be for many years before its borders reach human soil. However, in meeting with your President and other leaders, it has become increasingly apparent that the human body has become intolerant to the latent magic, and it is like poison to their bodies.” Turning to her Princesses, Twilight received a reassuring nod from the older Princess, and returned her gaze toward the camera. “Magic can be swept up like dust, and as such there will be times with your Jet Stream will sprinkle over the United States the magic of our land as it seeps out, so it is imperative that we open up Conversion Bureaus over the next couple of weeks.” Sighing, Twilight let her papers dropped as she opened her large purple eyes to the cameras. “I know how this sounds, but please believe us when we say we do not bring news of the end for the human race. This is to preserve your lives, and your family’s, for as long as possible.”

“Thank you for your time.”

        -----
        Two and a half weeks after first Conversion in Albuquerque...
        Nine months after public contact.

        Robert, now designated ‘Rusty’ by both the ponies and his fellow ‘patients’, or ‘Uncle Rusty’ by his sister when playing with her newborn foal, sat agitated, looking about the Bureau’s cafeteria for a familiar face. However, most of the familiar faces these days were ponies more than people. Most of the friends he had seen and made the past couple days had been ponified and either sent home, or were out practicing their new skills, be it flight or magic. 

Clenching his fist together and releasing it, his freckled hands waved about in front of his face. “So you’ll be hooves soon, huh. Nigh indistinguishable from my feet.” He was talking to himself, sure, but they say mental illnesses were cured by ponification, so he hardly worried about it. “Gonna miss grabbing things naturally.” Leaning over his food, Robert slammed his open palms into the sides of his tray as he leaned down and grabbed the apple in his teeth alone, lifting it up and sinking his teeth deeper into the pulpy flesh of the fruit. Finding himself at a loss of what to do with the apple once he bit down, he remarked that pony lips were thicker and fuller than human lips, and may be able to hold an apple easily enough without the use of his teeth. That, or as he had already seen, down an apple in a single bite. Relenting this, Rusty nabbed the apple out of his mouth with his hand, taking a joyous bite of the flavorful fruit. “Sweet Apple Crisp. My favorite.” Enjoyed that it would continue to be so, Rusty spun the fruit in the air between his hands, wasting his last hours as a human on simple nothings, not wishing to have it any other way. 

        Sifting his gaze from his partially consumed meal, Rusty caught sight of a light pink pony with purple highlights in her otherwise startlingly straight white mane. She ran the Bureau, and she was the one who initially convinced him to stick with his nickname on premises, stating that it worked well as a pony name, and something he needn’t train himself to respond to. His roommate, already ponified at the time, had asked him about it almost as soon as he set his suitcase on his bed.

        “Just an old schoolyard name, really. Got it back when you could remember what the hell ‘recess’ was,” Richard said, a wry smile on his face.

        The blue pony laughed, putting a hoof over his face as his wings flapped jovially. “Oh man, recess! I forgot that even existed!” Rusty smirked at this, and nodded his head in agreement. Shifting on his bed, he had lain down to relate the rest of his story. 

“There was an old junkyard not too far from the school. Two miles, on the way home for me and a group of my buddies. Lots of dangerous, rusted metal everywhere. Made a nice dust though. Me and a couple of my friends liked to play there, looking for hiding spots, when the parents weren’t worried about where we were, and the man who ran the place didn’t care. Said, ‘I ain’t liable for none of you gettin’ hurt. I know you kids come in from that hole in the fence, and I’m just an ignorant old man’. Didn’t stand up in court a couple years later when a kid fell and cut a two inch gap from his shoulder blade to his neck, but the parents dropped the charges when the kid lied and said the old man tried to stop him when he saw him.” Rubbing the back of his neck, Rusty decided it was best not to show the pegasus the scar in question, as the offending piece of information would likely be gone in a couple days. “Either way, back then I ended up hitting my head on some flimsy piece of rusted out metal, and all that rust rained on me and turned me as brown as a negro.” Laughing, Rusty didn’t much mind the more nervous laugh of his compatriot. “Got in my coat and clothes and wouldn’t come off. Sister likes to say that’s why my hair is red to this day.” Laughing, Rusty felt his hair run through his fingers. He was going to miss that sensation. “So, what’s you’re name?”

        The pegasus flipped up onto his belly and put a hoof up to his chin. “Haven’t had time to really think of a name. I was thinking of something like ‘Skychaser’ or something like that. For now, you can call me Evan.” A hoof hung loosely over the bunk bed, which Rust graciously shook with his hand. There was a visible shudder from the pegasus, along with accompanying dialogue, “Ooo, human hands feel weird on hooves. Gotta remember that.”

        “Duly noted.”

        Robert broke from his memory as a loud crash tore everyone’s attention to the doors. A human female, looking horridly distressed, shouted for everyone to get into the lounge room. “It’s an emergency! The whole world’s going to hell!” Shooting to his feet, Rusty relented a moment and reached for his apple, hoping that whatever she meant wouldn’t rob him of his appetite. 

        He was wrong.

        -----

The ponies had underestimated the destruction they had predicted just ten months earlier. While many nations had predicted a climate change, there was no one in the world capable of predicting the disasters that were to come. All across the ‘Ring of Fire’, the fault line that encompassed the Pacific seaboard, earthquakes and massive waves of water thrashed and destroyed civilizations there, parts of Japan and California disappearing into the water. Contact with Hawaii was lost.

However, even that paled in comparison to what happened just hours after. Cracks ran across the Himalayian mountain range, the mountains moving and shifting as the whole of India started to dislodge from the mainland, giant shocks leveling mountains and cutting away at the land. The torrent of water which splashed in from the Indian Ocean into the newest ravine helped battle the tsunami of water that was pushed away, but people along the Austraillian coastline could only prepare or escape as the news came in of the major shift, having only hours before the wall of water would come and rip their homes apart.

Along the Middle East, whispers could be heard in the ears of all present. No one and nopony could tell of their origin, but the best and brightest started to piece together the cause for these rampant and destructive phenomenons. 

Magic.        

In the British empire, deep within one of their nuclear bases, a team of ponies and men worked around the clock to disarm a warhead that had suddenly and horrifically armed itself deep within their own soil. Calling in the help of the both Germany and America, scientists could only barely disarm one before another would trigger unexpectedly. It wasn’t long at all before the governments of the United Nations decreed that all weaponry of the nuclear persuasion were to be dismantled and done away with as quickly and safely as possible. Reluctant to give up such a superpower, it was Celestia and her ponies which were able to convince the council to give up their missiles. There was no use for war, now. 

However, such was not the case for terrorist groups across the world. And for that, they would pay dearly. With few scientists that could work on an unstable warhead on their own, it was less than three days before the world saw the true terror of nuclear war, and no country could be blamed.

The bombs went off in tandem the next couple of days, the chaos and destruction leaving no clear way to cut down on the loss of life or keep Black Market missiles from continuing to explode all over the world. Even places thought to be safe, such as Greenland or the Eastern parts of Russia, were damaged by the occurrence. Countless lives, human, pony, plant and animal, were lost. Celestia and her sister, with a large contingent of unicorn ponies, worked around the clock to do what they could to save lives from radiation poisoning and redirecting much of the offending particles into space. Celestia remarked to her sister to send them toward the sun, the destructive powers of the bombs were nothing in comparison to the mighty explosions that made up the stars. 

        The Middle East was left a smouldering crater, much of the sand turned to warped landscape with dirty, jagged glass covering the land. Much of Russia was left more inhabitable than it had already been, the cold weather turning even colder, breaking countless records as it became an even colder place than Antarctica. Many blamed the ponies, to which none could speak up against. Truly, their peaceful agenda hadn’t been accepted by many, and developed nations had taken steps against violent lashes against them, but in turn had become less focused on keeping others safe.

        The population of Earth had been more than decimated, as not all could be saved of the radiation they endured before the ponies could step in. Many reports mentioned the highest casualties in both Africa and Eastern Asia, with even the heart of darkness becoming a giant sinkhole. Even the cultural center of India, New Delhi, had been wiped from the map during the earthquakes.

Many hailed the ponies as heroes, saving the planet from nuclear winter. Others called them the horsemen of the Apocalypse, which literary scholars often scoffed at, while others ended up chuckling despite themselves and the situation the Earth found itself in. Beaten, damaged, with far less life in it than most would care to admit. Many humans found themselves with much less than before, and others decided that life might be better behind Equestria’s borders, their magic shield having protected the country from the force of nature that battered the pony’s land. 

But it was clear to many - the world would never be the same.

Celestia had since returned to her palace in Equestria, deciding to further research into a plan to revitalize the planet. Luna decided to stay in New York among the United Nations, to help politically move them whilst dealing with the fear and the loss of the people. Conversion Bureaus surprisingly spread quicker and faster after this, with some cities receiving up to five new buildings for conversion. Albuquerque, too, saw three Bureaus running at once. 

-----

In front of his flickering screen, a man stared numbly into the blue glow of the news reel depicting the destruction of New Delhi in India. The cathode ray tube flickered a moment, before dying out as the man weakly pressed the button on a nearby remote. Distressed, the young man slowly walked to the window, peering out into the streets. He could hear panic, gunfire, and shouting as the police tried to rally everyone to calm down. Surprisingly, a local sect of a gang were working side by side with the police, some even stopping would-be looters before they approached store windows. But he didn’t care about that.

Slowly reaching into his pocket, he drew out a small note, attached to it a small picture of a black female, with short straight hair and a soft, happy look on her face. Beside her was a minty green unicorn, her own ponified brother, and they stood near the entrance of the Forbidden Temple in China, posing together. The woman was holding her stomach, a knowing smile on her lips as she seemed to be staring at him. Flipping the note over, he looked over the words written on the page with dying eyes. 

        Hey handsome! Hope you miss me less than I miss you~!

        China is fantastic, me and Charlie are having a wonderful time,
        Even if he’s shorter than me for the first time in fifteen years. Ha ha.
        It’s so beautiful, and in the envelope you’ll find a picture of me and
        him in front of the Forbidden Temple. Kinda funny that’s a tourist
        spot now, huh? Ha! Anyway, bro and I are gonna head off a bit more
        west, toward India, near Delhi. Then we should be home and I’ll
        tell you all about my adventure around the world! I hope you’ve 
        thought of a few names for my belly while I’ve been gone! 
                                                Hope to see you soon, XOXO
                                                        Michelle~
                                                        P.S. Say hi to your sister Rose for me!


-





> Her Departure
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        The morning came like any other. Groggily, purple hair poked itself out from under a comforter, knowing full well the blast of sunlight that would greet it’s sensitive vision. Shuffling a moment, the ideas of ‘five more minutes’ fell flat on the girl’s wishes when memories of the day before flooded her senses, causing the human girl to shoot up in her bed, looking about wildly. “Three years...” Violet murmured. The concept was so new still - that she had let it all run together for three years without pause - she dreamed of her old life. Smiling, she leaned her hands back on the bed staring up at the hole at the top of the Wal-Mart that Twinkle tore open in the night. She missed her friends. Evan, Keenan, Christina... Perhaps, once she got to Colorado Springs, toward the final Conversion Bureau’s in the nation, she could see them again.

        “‘Bout time you got up, V,” a light hearted voice called out. Spinning slightly, Violet found Rusty muddling about in the shopping cart, looking about for food. “It’s been a silent morning. Outside of Twinkle’s snoring.” Violet turned to see the pale pink pony in the bed next to hers, the formerly silent unicorn belting out a uncharacteristic snore that echoed throughout the store.

        “Jesus...!” Violet breathed, a chuckle playing on her lips. “I didn’t think anyone could snore that loud.” Spinning her body slightly, she quickly felt the warmth of the bed leave her, and she looked back upon it. Next to her lay the prone form of Rose, the girl who’s own life changed drastically over the last two days as well. Hesitating to move much more in fear of waking her, Violet eventually shifted herself to the tones of another monster snore. Her bare feet grazed upon the ground below, the ripped carpeting reminding her of her own back at the apartment. A sad smile found itself on her lips, one that didn’t go unnoticed by the red Earth pony.

        “Say, Violet, I’ve been meaning to ask you, what are your plans?” Rusty mused, trying to get a dialogue going. Gently moving his hooves so the most force was on his forelegs, Violet was reminded of the wounds he scored during the excitement the day before. Rushing forward, Violet found herself in the confusing position of wanting to help him, but being completely unable to fathom how. Rusty chuckled as he simply fell to his haunches and splayed his legs, his forehooves falling forward and covering his underbelly. Violet smirked slightly, and keeping her eyes from wandering on curiosity, slid her back down on Twinkle’s bed as she sat next to the stallion.

        “Plans...” She echoed, running her hand through the frazzles strands of hair on her head. She had been almost unconsciously dying her hair for a long time, and it felt exactly how she’d expected three years of dye jobs to feel. Shaking her head, Violet shrugged. “No plans. Never had a plan in life. Act, perform, and live. S’far as I ever really let myself think.” Her head fell back on the soft bed, reminding her skin of the bed and triggering her laziness. Closing her eyes, she tried to imagine what she’d look like as a pony, trying to keep herself to the idea of just a simple Earth pony. “Ponies never seem to have plans, though. Just... happy gallivanting. It’s a surprise it took me so long to consider it for myself,” Violet mentioned, picking her head off the bed. Another snore issued from Twinkle above her, causing a chuckle and a giggle to emanate from the two new friends. Sighing longingly, Violet elbowed Rusty playfully. “How about you? You never really told me what your plan was; simply hopping in a truck with some crybaby human girl? What’s the angle there? Hoping to get with me once I go pony?” 

        Cheeks red from the teasing, although completely unseen under his natural color, Rusty shook his head violently from the accusation. “No! Not my angle! Um.” As he defended himself, the pony’s mind drew a blank, allowing an awkward silence to permeate the area a bit as he coughed uneasily.

        Chuckling, Violet again pushed against the red pony. “Aw, don’t be like that, Red.” Her hand reached out and tossed Rusty’s mane about, his entire being a beacon for ‘ginger ponies’, almost as much as he was when he was a human. “Just lemme in on your reasoning here. You gotta admit, taking off on a one-way trip with a chick and a pony you don’t know? Kinda sketchy.”

        Rusty smirked, starting to understand the girl’s standard of humor for once. “I wouldn’t call it one way, Violet. I planned on coming back.”

        “How so?” Violet interrupted, an assuming smile playing on her features. Rusty turned to her with a confused look, mane scraping along the edge of the bed as another one of Twinkle’s snores vibrated the bed frame. “You can’t exactly drive a truck.”

        Rusty paused, putting a hoof to his snout. “Can’t... exactly.... Damn it.” Face falling, the pony realized a fairly large hole in his logic. “I can’t...”

        Violet laughed heartily, covering her mouth a moment later for the sake of Rose and Twinkle. Rusty averted his eyes completely from the laughing human, and he could feel his cheeks radiating red from the mistake. “You mean.... to tell me you forgot you couldn’t drive?”

        “No! Not... exactly.” Rusty cut in, shaking his mane about. “I just... forgot you wouldn’t be able to drive back.” Sighing through his nose, the pony finally leaned his head back on the bedspread, his neck craning up toward the ceiling. “I guess Twinkle could push the gas down and I could drive - or you could, if you go unicorn. Or maybe...”

        “Maybe...?” Violet echoed, her face returning to the assuming smile. Rusty was quickly learning not to like that look. 

        Exhaling briefly, the pony’s forelimb draped lazily along the ground, falling off his chin. “Well, my sister moved to Equestria about two years back, she and her family. I’ve always been meaning to go - get to see my little niece... Conversion Bureau’s always have shuttles to Equestria for the newfoals.”

        “So you wanna see your sissy and her little pony. Cute.” Violet smirked. There was a moment of silence between the two, sitting in the morning light through the hole in the ceiling. Eventually, however, Rusty felt a knock on his skull, and he turned to see Violet shaking her head and smiling. “Don’t give me that ‘no plan’ shit. You knew as soon as Twinkie here said there was still a Bureau in Colorado Springs that you were losing your easy shot to see your family,” Violet gathered, remembering Twinkle’s Bureau was the last to close in Albuquerque. 

        Rusty gave her a look, but it softened slowly as he nodded his head. “That makes sense, doesn’t it?” He laughed, putting his forehooves together in a clop. “I guess you’re probably right, there was little reason else to just... up and go like that.”

        “You mean to tell me you don’t even know what you’re up to half the time? Sounds dangerous, even for a pony,” Violet teased, picking herself up off the ground. Stretching her limbs, the human girl found that the snoring had stopped as she spread herself out in a five-point star. 

        Rusty rolled his head around in response, stifling a yawn as he did so. “Keeps things interesting, I guess. I think you’re right though, I am Equestria bound.” 

        “Mmmmmmmmmreally...?” The strained, half yawn, half stretched voice of Twinkle filled the air around them as the sleeping unicorn attempted to remove herself from the sheets. Failing that, the pink pony rustled up next to the end of the bed and peered down at the resting Earth pony and his human friend. “That’s where I was going, too.”

        Rusty chuckled, shaking his mane. “I figured that. Good morning, Twinkle.”

        Violet echoed his sentiments, which Twinkle responded to in kind. “Good morning, all. Mm!” She stretched, her horn sputtering to life as she attempted a second time to remove herself from the sheets. “How long have we been asleep for?” Greeted with a chorus of negative responses regarding the time, the unicorn chuckled. “Well, I suppose that’s to be expected. Humans never seemed to wear watches by the time we came around. Just those celled phones.”

        Violet smirked. “Cell phones. Really, Twinkle, how long have you been running a Bureau?” The question brought the concept of her earlier conversation to its new recipient, and Twinkle brought a hoof to her chin in much the way Rusty did.

        “Well, Violet, I believe the key lies in the question. I ran Bureaus, but I never got to really interact with the people there as much as I’d like to.” Yawning, the unicorn finally pulled the sheet from around her limbs, and the shaky pony leapt off the bed and unto the floor with a muffled pitapat of hooves. A slight bag still hung under the filly’s eyes, remnants of the dark events that transpired the day before. “I really only have a vague understanding of human novelties, so you’ll have to forgive me if I seem a bit dull to start.”

        Violet smiled warmly, bending her knees as she crouched next to Twinkle. “You aren’t that dull at all, Twink. A little ‘tea on the lawn’, but that’s just the way you are.” Pressing against the unicorn’s horn a bit with her finger, Violet took note of the strange sensation the magical appendage delivered to her hand as she touched it. “Besides, with a brilliant little tool this is, no one is gonna think you’re anything short of stellar.”

        “Thank you for the compliment, Violet. Always nice to start the morning feeling appreciated.” Placing a hoof on Violet’s shoulder, she delicately tapped Violet’s forehead with her horn as a sign of affection for the human girl. “Might I add you are simply extraordinary yourself, hearing about your exploits yesterday. Excuse me if I say, of course, that I am quite happy I was not at all ‘there’, so to speak’, for it.” Her eyes darkened slightly, averting her gaze from the form on the bed nearby. Violet peered over to the sleeping girl, sitting on the bed next to her.

        “It’s not something I want to relive,” Violet murmured. “I just reacted. It’s what I’ve always done. I hope she can forgive me.” Reaching out, Violet stopped from touching Rose just barely, drawing her hand back as she sighed and shook her head. “I wonder what she’ll do now.”

        Rusty pondered this himself, shrugging his shoulders slightly. “I suppose she can go back to the rest of the humans. She’s shown that we were still a pretty good bunch, she and you, despite some of the vocal ones.” Sliding a hoof along the ground, he winced slightly at the unwelcome pain that issued from his back hoof. “There must be friendly people she can stay with.”

        Violet nodded solemnly. She wasn’t in agreement with the idea, but there was little she could add to it. “I wonder what they thought of her brother. She’ll have to probably answer to that, if they didn’t already find his body. A semi-truck falling a hundred feet and crashing an expressway doesn’t exactly go unnoticed.” Scratching her chin, Violet looked over to the ponies, pondering the ideas for the human girl. “Maybe we can pass by an IHSA branch...”

        Twinkle paused her, giving a confused look toward the girl. “IHSA?” The way it came out of her mouth was, “Ehsa”, drawing befuddlement from the two Equines. 

        “International Human Survival Alliance, y’know, IHSA,” Violet muttered, shaking her head. “Y’know, kinda like the HLF except not trying to kill you?” 

        Rusty chuckled. “No, we know who they are, I don’t think we ever heard someone say ehsa when referring to the I-H-S-A.” Picking himself up, the red pony winced visibly, but waived off the girls as she made move to put him back on his haunches. “Girls, I gotta be able to go to point A and point B, so just drop it - I’ll live with the bruises.” As he spoke, he kept lifting a limb and leaning on his forelimbs, trying to keep himself from dealing with too much at once as he hopped on the bed, taking comfort in the bed’s soft cushions. “I don’t think they’re active in New Mexico, but I do know they’re western branch is in Colorado Springs.”

        Violet’s eyes widened in surprise. “Really? That’s... horridly convenient.” Rusty chuckled, shaking his head slowly as he lay on his belly. 

        Twinkle, however, was the one to speak up. “Not exactly. The IHSA often helps ponies and people both, with no catches. In fact, some of the higher ups out here are ponies themselves. I have a friend there who I’ve wanted to see for awhile.”

        Violet smirked. “So that’s why you decided to tag along?”

        “That, and to help you, Violet,” Twinkle related, causing the human to be embarrassed slightly. Sensing her discomfort in being the main reason, Twinkle merely shrugged with a sheepish smile. “You looked so downtrodden, Violet, I felt like I had to help.”

        Violet sighed. “I know, and you have another reason. Just don’t really feel like being a charity case.” Shrugging it off, Violet reached out to Rose a second time, placing a hand on the other girls’ shoulder. “Well, I think we’d best just ask her what she feels like doing. Not like we have any say in the matter.”

        “Best Goddamned idea I’ve heard all morning,” Rose muttered, suddenly shifting in the bed to look at Violet. It was clear the girl hadn’t been asleep for a length of time. “But I appreciate your concern. You’re all looking better,” she muttered, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as they adjusted to the light from the ceiling. 

        “You bitch, how long have you been up?” Violet muttered, feeling a slight twang of regret the moment she finished her thought. 

        Rose’s arm shot over and snatched up the pillow Violet had used, and propped herself up on her own tower of pillows. “Long enough not to care about being called a bitch in the morning, thanks.”

        Rusty pawed at the side of his bed, trying not to think about what Twinkle thought about all the language being tossed around. “So, Rose, uhm... holding up alright?” he guessed, figuring it was best to get the elephant out of the Wal-Mart as quick as possible.

        The girl sighed through her nose slowly, shaking her head. “As alright as it’s gonna be for awhile, pony. Although thanks for the tact.” Rolling her eyes, Rose moved herself around checking her leg a moment as it popped out of cover. “Look, I know this is gonna sound weird, but I’d rather not think about my brother for awhile, so the less you bring him up, the happier I’ll be.” Flicking her bandage a moment, she gaped at how much the subtle reaction hurt, prompting Violet to grab her shoulder quickly to check if she was alright. “Fine! God, Jesus Christ... Yeah, just, don’t fucking touch that if you can help it.” Cursing a couple more times, the blonde human shook herself a couple times to compose the rest of her. “God, we’re gonna have to redress it and everything in a bit. Uhm, Twinkle, right?”

        “Yes, you’re right,” Twinkle responded, her horn glowing softly. “Don’t worry about the pain too much, I’ll try and handle what I can with magic. Although we should get you somewhere that can help stitch it up better than what we’ve done...” she trailed, averting her eyes from the wound. The blood had leaked through the outer layer of bandage, the dried red-brown liquid making the unicorn’s stomach queasy.

        Rusty, on the other hand, found it a bit more difficult to actually look away from it. “Sorry I can’t help with that, Rose,” he explained, “But really, I don’t think we should hang around here much longer. Do you have any place to be? Want us to... take you anywhere in particular?” There was a soft silence that descended after his words, the group of four considering the ideas presented previous. Being Rose’s decision, the others kept their mouths shut.

        Rose eventually sighed. “Fuck it, let’s go to Colorado Springs. Maybe the old lift up to Pike’s Peak still works. Always wanted to see that.” Twinkle greeted this with a flashing smile, but Violet seemed a bit on edge about it. Regardless, it was Rusty who gathered the girls up and galvanized them into action. 

        “Well, Twinkle, Violet, bein’ the only two of sound mind and body, I believe you two have a little work to do so your poor, damaged, weak companions can get from here to the car in relative comfort...” Rusty murmured, throwing on some mock sadness for the girls. Twinkle looked a bit unsure, but Violet got up and rapped him one right above the mane. “Yowch! Yeesh, kidding, kidding!”

        “Yeah, I bet you were. Come on Twink, let’s help Mr. Poor and Weak to his wheelchair,” Violet muttered, pushing against the red pony and flipping him on his side, Rusty complaining the entire way.

        -----

        Wound re-bandaged and ponies in back, the black truck took off from the parking lot as the clock on board let the group of four take off into the afternoon sun with its human passengers sitting in the cabin. At first, Rusty argued the fact, but the point of the matter relied on Violet’s assessment of seatbelts and damaged hooves. Rusty was still dealing with a damaged forelimb, no matter how he tried to hide it, and a hasty stop would see him without a seatbelt and having to hold himself on the dashboard. At least in the back he could rest up against the back of the truck. Beaten and literally bruised, the red pony took to the back with the help of Twinkle and Violet, and found himself quite happy with an assortment of pillows and comforters that Twinkle had lined the back with, including a mattress for them to lay on.

        “I’m actually kind of jealous of them, now.” Rose muttered to herself, leaning her seat back slightly as she adjusted it to her more human settings. “A mattress, pillows, blankets... Why the hell was he complaining?” she whined, much to Violet’s pleasure. Whining was a state of normalcy to the elder human, and showed that Rose was telling the truth about her brother - she wasn’t all that close to the monster that stalked the roadway. “So, Violet, pretty sure to say you’re gonna be a pony by next week.”

        Violet gave Rose a sad, apologetic look, but the blonde waved it away. “Yeah, yeah I guess I am. I never was against the whole thing, I just... never saw much reason. I’m human, y’know? No reason not to be.”

        Rose nodded a couple times, digesting the idea. “So what’s changed? For you, I mean. What’s the big reason that turns a healthy looking girl with purple hair and a history in theatre from people to pony?” Violet raised an eyebrow as she turned unto the main expressway again, this time on the lookout for blockades and damaged stonework. “What I mean is... why now? Is it really ‘cause of your friend, Albert?” 

        “Ah.” Violet breathed, running a hand through her hair. “Well... Geez, I’m not... It was yesterday, I guess.” Rose gave Violet a look, but she quickly backtracked. “Before, um, that happened. It was Albert, just... not really him.” Placing a hand on her head, the girl closed her eyes a moment as the road straightened out before them. “He was... the last one. The last human I knew. The rest all left. And then it kinda... hit me when he came back for me. I could never get it out of my head, Rose. That the people... the ponies coming out of the Bureau’s... They’re still the same people. They’ll still love movies, books, video games - stupid videos you find online.”

        Rose chuckled at that, her arm raised up and leaned on the open window, cradling her head lightly. “So you don’t mind that they no longer have those ‘negative emotions’ shtick?” she needled, not turning her head at all toward Violet. 

        “It’s bullshit.” That got Rose’s attention. “I’ve already seen more than enough ponies to see the seven deadly sins in any of them, let alone 'dark' emotions. They’re just, I dunno, more balanced. Less likely to go off the deep end in any scenario, good or bad.” Checking the fuel gauge, Violet started to experiment with all the little gadgets at the truck’s disposal, but paid more mind to the idea of MPG than anything else. “I just never cared about any of that, really. You could get something akin to that by never leaving your apartment for three years.”

        As they drove on, Rose became more silent, her mind elsewhere. The truck roared along the road, Violet keeping her eyes on the road for a change.

        -----

        “It’s kinda windy.” Twinkle sighed, trying to cover herself more completely into the blanket. Violet had helped tuck the two ponies in, using the mattress and the ponies own body weight to keep the bed and the blankets intact during the drive. Rusty smirked as she nestled closer to him, attempting to pass the time while also keeping warm. However, their heads were near the edge of the truck nearest the window, and in such their heads floated in a cone of air that wasn’t threatened by screaming wind. “Why did today have to be cold?”

        “‘Cause here, we only predict the weather, not change it,” Rusty joked, testing his forelimb slightly against the side of the truck bed. It hurt, but nothing like it had the day before. He probably had Twinkle’s medical magic to thank for it, he mused, before spinning back to face the unicorn in question. “Although don’t you have some kinda spell you can use to... I dunno, cancel the wind?”

        Twinkle looked a little cross, but relented as she shook her head. “No, Rusty. I know I have magic, but it’s really not all encompassing. There are plenty of things I can do... but so much more I can’t. And wind cancelling is one of the things. I. Can’t. Do.” As she ended her sentence, her hooves hit Rusty’s stomach in succession. Not hard, but the chilly appendages found warmth against the flailing hooves of the red pony, much to the gleeful giggling of the unicorn. “But you can cancel the wind’s effects quite nicely!” She screamed over his convulsions, warming her chilled hooves against his warm, soft underbelly.

        “Not fair! Not fair! Knocking a colt when he’s down! I thought ponies were nice! You’re cruel! Evil!” Rusty complained, his hooves flying every which way but towards Twinkle, the two enjoying the moment - one obviously more than the other. As the two tussled about, a short rapping came from the front, interrupting the two ponies moment of childlike fun. Raising his last good hoof out, Rusty slid the back window open, allowing the two in the front to communicate. “Uh. What’s up... up... there?” Twinkle giggled at the embarrassed ponies speech, which really didn’t help the colt’s disposition.

        Violet’s voice cut the wind quite well. “We got a helicopter incoming. Can’t tell from here if they’re with the HLF at all. Cover yourselves up a bit better, don’t want to attract unwanted attention!” The two ponies stared at each other, Twinkle’s pale blue eyes showing she had no intention of reliving yesterday’s struggle, despite being out for most of it. Horn sparking to life, the unicorn evened the blanket out a quarter inch above their bodies, making the back of the truck bed look completely devoid of life. As a result, however, the wind over the ponies was cut down dramatically, only allowing a faint wisp grace their pastel coats.

        “Well there’s your wind cancel spell.” Rusty joked. Twinkle stuck her tongue out at him in response, giving the Earth pony a slight kick to his stomach, which shut him up quickly as he leaned forward. “‘Kay... Gotcha...”

        The whirring blades of the helicopter came gently over the sound of the wind, Violet taking no time to slow down to let an investigative pilot catch much more than a passing glimpse on them. She wanted no trouble, and by George, she wasn’t gonna let them make any for her. As they sped along, the helicopter got louder, the tracking eyes of Twinkle trying to follow the sounds as best as she could with an inquisitive ear. 

        Rusty watched her inquisitively, trying to gather just what he was seeing on her. Apprehension? Fear? “No...” he breathed. It was something else. Underlying, just below the surface. Reaching out, Rusty laid his good hoof on her shoulder. She was fidgeting. However, it was clear to him as her eyes shifted from the edges of the blanket to the pony sharing the back with her. It was terror. She only had a taste of things yesterday, and it didn’t suit her one bit. And yet, here they were, again looking down another dangerous situation. Another chance of the unknown. Rusty cooed slightly, attempting to calm the mare. “Hang on, it’ll just pass, Twinkle. It’s just going to pass. Everything will be fine.” His eyes held hers firmly. He wasn’t going to let her look away. “It’s just going to past. Everything is going to be just fine.” The blades whirled closer, the noise seemingly deafening. The engine of the helicopter could be heard now. That high pitched whine penetrating their cotton defense. The whirling turned into a roar. 

        And then it passed. The copter flew by overhead, apparently uninterested in the lone truck that was northeasterly bound for out of the city’s suburbs. The vehicle itself seemed to relax as the wheels laxed slightly, Violet’s white knuckle grip on the wheel relaxing as the purple haired human watched the helicopter in the side-view mirror. Rose breathed out slowly, a soft smile playing on her lips as she shook her head incredulously. “Huh. I haven’t seen a helicopter in years,” she breathed. Turning to look at the ponies in the back, all the blonde could see was the straightened sheet on the back. “Alright, ponies. You see anything interesting about that thing?”

Relaxing her spell slowly, Twinkle and Rusty caught sight of the helicopter, bearing an insignia unlike that of the Human Liberation Front. Twinkle was the first to breath a sigh of relief before giving the all-clear. “Nothing to report, it wasn’t HLF, though!” she called, relaxing her blanket back to its natural position, attempting to tuck the sheet in again with her magic. Rusty caught the apprehensive look she still held, though, and quickly set about helping out where he could with his one good hoof.

        “Good to know. Recognize the symbol on it?” Rose called, taking over for Violet to relay commands. There was a minor argument between the two girls, before finally Rusty overheard a “Eyes on the road, V!” The two ponies chuckled at the reprimand, much to Violet’s chagrin.

        Rusty shook his head, earning an equal response from Twinkle. “Nah! Didn’t get a good angle on it, but it wasn’t anything like the HLF’s. Kinda blue, I guess?” Rusty shrugged his limbs, which, again, Twinkle mimicked herself. 

        “I think it was familiar, but I can’t put a hoof on it. Maybe it was the United States seal for something?” Twinkle guessed, calling loudly. This seemed to placate the humans in the front seat well enough. Feeling the cold wind again, Twinkle rolled closer to Rusty, working off his body heat. “Don’t get any ideas, Rusty. I’m cold, okay?”

        “No complaints here, Twinkle.” This earned him a playful shove, but the pale pink pony immediately nuzzled closer to the male pony, whom noticed the unicorn was shivering somewhat. Guessing she was colder than she let on, Rusty was reminded that unicorns tended to be a bit more frail compared to other ponies, and as such, she was likely more likely to get cold than a hardened Earth pony like himself. “Kinda wondered why you waited so long.”

        Twinkle smirked. Looking up at him a moment, she gave him an unreadable smile before leaning down again, her eyes closing as she leaned her horn against his neck. “Makes you think, huh?”

        As the truck drove off into the distance, the quartet left Albuquerque, destined to never see its borders again. Under the rumble of the engine, Violet spoke of her days as an actress. Rose related her days dealing with various unsuitable boyfriends. Rusty spoke about his work with carpentry, complementing the idea of how oddly easy it was to use a human hammer in his mouth. Twinkle spoke of her family back in Equestria, her parents who she hadn’t seen in years. 

        Behind them, the mysterious aerial vehicle carried on under the whir of its own engine. Letting loose a stream of purple, quickly evaporating liquid upon the city, it aimed for the headquarters of the HLF. The stream of dissolving purple mist splashed down, sizzled and spit as it infiltrated every corner of the network of structures. It moved itself toward the humans as if sentient, preying over those still recovering after a night celebrating the end of consented ponification. The few that were aware of it fled, their screams of terror muted under the rumble of the vehicles engines.

> Her Respite
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        The basic hum of the road didn’t much alleviate from the drumming boredom that had settled upon the quartet as they drove down the I-25 North in the only car on the highway. The vast, dusty plains held nothing but dotted specks on the horizon, the sight of a bird, a vulture, at one point a pegasus or two broke the monotony of driving in a straight line. Violet mused on the standards of the road, which had kept up quite well over the years, as opposed the the raised concrete expressways that she had seen snaking through her city, like arteries for the heart of her city. Smirking lightly, she likened the cars to blood cells, the police and ambulances the white cells. The sound of sirens was such a foreign thing now - most pony emergencies were dealt with by trained pegasi, with serious injury dealt with a team of unicorns pulled by pegasi carriage. It was a unique thing to see in the sky, an ornate box pulled by winged beasts through the misty skies. She had spoken to Alfred about it once, she remembered. He asked her if she missed the sounds of the city.

        She hadn’t answered.

        Turning to the only other human companion she’d had in years, Violet raised a curious eyebrow toward the girl. “So whaddya think that was?” Rose’s eyes opened wide in surprise, her mind elsewhere on the do-nothing road. Looking about, Rose seemed occupied in what Violet was talking about, prompting the purple haired woman to snicker at her compatriots confusion. “The helicopter, Rose. I hadn’t seen one in month-years, even. Maybe two years.” Violet kept mentally reminding herself that more time had passed then she remembered, and it was still a jarring proposal. “What do you think it was for?”

        Rose shook her head. “Hell if I know, not even the HLF has many of those birds flying around anymore. Finding the fuel is hard to come by these days, so whatever it was must have been... had to be important.” Violet nodded in agreement, leaning her head on her arm. The long flatlands yielded nothing for the girls on the road, Rose taking a momentary look back towards the truck bed. Smirking slightly, the girl bounced back to a forward facing position. “Well, we lost a lump.”

        Violet raised an eyebrow. “A lump?”

        “Yep,” Rose nodded, mimicking Violet’s headrest technique, cradling the side of her head in her hand as she leaned on the windowsill. “We used to have two lumps in the back. Now, we have one big one.” Violet hadn’t noticed it before in the dark, but Rose liked to talk with her hands a lot. Swinging her forearms rapidly, she made seemingly random motions that somehow made context in what she said.

        Thusly, Violet’s eyes went wide. “Y-you’re not saying they’re... in the back...!” 

        Rose laughed - high pitched, but pure - shaking her head violently. “No! No, aw, V, you gotta get your head out of the gutter!” Spinning a cautionary look back, Rose solidified her claim as a pony’s head looked up curiously to find out what the girls were talking about. The long, orange mane flew crazily in the wind, and a pale pink unicorn’s horn shot up next to him, tapping him lightly on the cheek. Looking down, Rusty smirked as he leaned back down. Rose rolled her eyes, but her smile was betraying her real emotion. “Although if we’re not careful...”

        Violet let loose a single laugh, shaking her head in her hand. “Oh, geez, that’s what I need. Baby-making at 80 miles per hour.” She stifled future laughing, her eyes scrolling the horizon. As they drove along, Rose let loose a question.

        “Do you think unicorns have contraceptive magic?” The blonde asked, bringing a hand to her chin.

        “Wwwwhat?” Violet asked incredulously. She honestly didn’t see the subject coming, but she shook her head. “I, I guess? I don’t know.” As she thought about the subject, she did notice that ponies didn’t seem to have very large family’s regardless, and almost never did she see unwanted fillies and colts. Of course, she never got out much.

        Rose scratched her chin, moving up to her cheek a bit as she opened her mouth into an ‘O’ shape, as if it made a difference to the itch. “Guess it’s been on my mind. There are only so many condoms left in the world, V, and a girl’s gotta be careful.”

        Violet couldn’t help but guffaw, girlish giggling never really holding true to her style. “Oh Gaaaawd, Rose, really? Really?” Holding her hand over her mouth, she struggled to keep a hand on the wheel as the truck barreled down the road. “You know what else there’s a shortage of? Boys,” Violet mentioned, trying to remember how many she had seen that didn’t go pony or eventually try and kill her. “Not that that’s going to be my problem by next week.”

        Rose stuck her tongue out at the girl, deciding to pay more attention to the road ahead. “Yeah, you’ll have colts and stallions to attend to. I’ll probably just latch next to the first single guy I see that isn’t a total monster.” She said, pondering her options. “I’d suppose there aren’t gonna be a lot of total monsters at Colorado Springs, or else they’d have gone pony or gone to work for the HLF.”

        “Yeah, and there’s always the IHSA branch out there that Twinkle mentioned.” Violet peered her eyes ahead, seeing some sort of vague shape on the horizon that didn’t seem to be just a part of the roadway. She looked to her sides a moment, seeing that the flat expanses - not to mention the numerous roads that ran alongside the I-25, meant that a blockade would probably be useless. “So... you know... there’s that- What is that up ahead?”

        Passing a sign that read Sante Fe - 2 miles ahead with the appropriate exit number below, Rose leaned forward, her arms leaning against the dashboard, her palm resting over the portion that read AIR BAG in stylized caps. “I think it’s a... tent?” She guessed. Violet echoed her sentiments, but Rose squinted her eyes against the sunlight. “It’s a... big white tent.”

        Violet raised an eyebrow, her foot subconsciously pouring on the gas as the truck accelerated toward the anomaly. 

        -----

        As the truck approached, Twinkle peered ahead over the roof of the cabin. While her horn was less than ideal for peering over surfaces, she hoped her lighter scheme of color would go relatively unnoticed against the cloudy sky. However, the group needn’t be in feet long, as the unicorn smiled hugely. Sticking her head into the cabin, the girl pony reported her findings. “That’s the IHSA insignia on the side of the tent!” she said, smiling. There was a passed glance between the human girls, their minds mulling over every old movie cliche in the book. “We’re completely safe.”

        Rose was the first to speak up. “I’d hide regardless, pony.” The blonde leaned closed toward the window as she looked over the collection of white tents and vehicles. As they had neared, the girls in the front of the truck had started to pick out the shapes, noticing the gleam of windows and the like. “They could be in disguise.”

        Twinkle giggled softly. “Disguise? To what end? We’re in the middle of nowhere, girls. Do you really think that the HLF would go so far as to camp out somewhere to take ponies hostage off the roads?” Rose and Violet exchanged glances, each one fairly unsure of how much things should be taken at face value.

        “Short answer? Yes,” Violet muttered. Rose scoffed slightly, herself being a part of the HLF until recent events, if only as a member due to family. Not that she honored such anymore. “Look, it’s probably safer if you and Rusty hide out back there anyway - just in case,” Violet asked, earning her a soft sigh from the unicorn. Regardless, the pink pony disappeared out to the back, pulling the blanket over herself and the red stallion. 

        Rose looked back a moment before shaking her head. “I’m not saying it’s not, but I didn’t hear anything about a group camping out next to roads, dressed up in tents with the IHSA symbol on them. For the most part, we’re kinda friendly with the IHSA - well, not ‘we’, but...” she trailed, her voice cracking slightly. Violet passed a worried glance over to her friend, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Rose chuckled and shook her hand. “It’s alright, I’m not gonna break open like a fountain on you...” She trailed.

        Violet sighed, but her eyes were trained on the encampment as it neared. “Even still, Rose.” She didn’t feel the need to say much else. As far as Violet was concerned, her friendships were made by trial by fire, and each one was forged well enough. Slowing the vehicle, she could see humans moving among the camp, some of them noticing the truck at the distance. “Think they’ll do anything...?”

        Rose cleared her throat as she pointed at a figure walking towards the road. As he strode, an orange square could be seen near him, in what resembled a flag as the truck got close. Sure enough, the man raised his arm, holding a fluorescent orange signal flag as he waved the truck down. “I guess... we should stop.”

        Violet looked over, but Rose simply shrugged. “They’ll get plenty suspicious if we don’t,” she mused. Forced to agree, the purple haired girl slowed down even more as she started to pull over to the side of the road, the man dropping the flag as he gave a friendly wave. The gesture was enough to make Violet feel less nervous as they approached, her biting anxiety starting to wane as the man smiled. Pulling alongside the man, Violet gave a curt wave toward him. Rose smiled, giving a more vocal response. “Hey, old man! You with the IHSA?”

        “Sure am, little lady. Name’s Jorge. That’s J-o-rge, no that I expect you to spell it out,” he chuckled. He was a large man, with a naturally dark tan to his skin. A light beard punctuated his jawline, but none of it more than a couple millimeters long - just enough to show on his face. His broad shoulders meant he was no stranger to the weight room, either. Leaning against Violet’s open window, he winked at the girls as he knocked on the roof of the truck. “I don’t see many trucks on the road these days. Where you girls hailing from?” He smirked as he looked back at the truck bed, seeing the mattress and blankets. “And who’re your pony friends?”

        Twinkle audibly groaned as the blanket went slack, revealing vaguely pony shapes under the covers. Shifting herself unto her hooves, she peered at the man in front of her. Vaguely military, she mused, but otherwise she deemed trustworthy. “Hello there, sir, I am Twinkle, and my friend here is Rusty,” she mentioned quickly, flicking the blanket off the red Earth pony in the back. 

The others held their breath. 

        Yet, Jorge laughed heartily as he reached a hand out, which Twinkle gracefully met with her hoof, shaking their appendages. “Good to meet you, Twinkle. Is that a single name, or are you one of those dual-name unicorns? I’m Jorge. Jorge Cutler.” His smile was huge, and Violet mirrored it, giving Rose an expectant look. The blonde shrugged and gave a fleeting thumbs up, giving a light shrug as she looked over the other men and women at the camp.

        “Just Twinkle is fine, Jorge. I hope you don’t wish to be referred to as Mr. Cutler,” Twinkle started, but the shaking head of the man clued her in.

        “No, no. Mr. Cutler was my father,” Jorge chuckled. 

        Rusty pushed himself up on his good hoof, raising an eyebrow. “I’m sorry to hear that, Jorge,” he said, stabilizing himself. He had caught the was easily enough.

        Jorge laughed and shook his head. “Oh, don’t worry about it, ‘Rusty’. That’s a human gone pony name if I’ve ever heard one. No, my dear old dad goes by the name Sledge, like the hammer on your flank there. ‘Course, he’s got a grenade on his. Old war veteran into an old war pony. Mom’s happy as a lark now that she’s a pegasus, though. Ha!” Jorge smiled down at the red pony, taking note of his damaged forelimb. “Eh? What happened to your hoof, there?”

        Violet cleared her throat quickly, feeling ostracized from the conversation thus far. “We had a bit of trouble, and he fell out of the cabin and landed wrong on his hoof.” She informed, having no reason to lie to the man. Rose nodded slowly, deciding not to dwell on it. “Oh, and I’m Violet, and this is Rose.”

        Jorge held out his hand to each of the girls, where each quite graciously accepted. Shaking his hand was an almost foreign experience, having not had to go through such pleasantries in years. Jorge waved down a couple of his friends and they came by. Rose was the first to notice a couple carried weapons, but Violet didn’t think much of it - feral animals tended to stalk the open fields these days. “Well girls, if you aren’t in a rush, would you like to have some company for a little while? We don’t have much to offer in terms a’ food, but we can help ya. Whaddya out here for?”

        Violet looked over to Rose, who was focused on the guns of the people on the base. “I could ask the same question, Jorge. What are you all out here for? It’s not like Sante Fe or something got hit with some big disaster. I can see it from here,” Rose quiped, gaining the attention of the large man. “Seems a bit off with the tents and jeeps and the semi over there.” Rose pointed toward the makeshift parking lot, where a large semi - fortunately much unlike the kind they had seen previously - were parked.

        Jorge hesitated a moment, but shrugged and smiled. “Field tests, really. We’re out and about on a convoy to test a couple things out here. Don’t let the guns fool you - they’re just for the wild animals out there. Things have been getting riled up as of late - the brass says it’s the magic in the atmosphere, makin’ things go wild! It’s why most of the west has vacated, I hear,” he mentioned. 

        Twinkle nodded slowly. “Yes, I hear it can be quite dangerous further north, where the Jet Stream is more prevalent year round.” She mentioned. Violet took a moment to digest the idea of dangerous, magically enhanced animals, but banished the thought from her mind. 

        Rusty looked about at all the IHSA members, and echoed something he had heard Jorge say. “You said something about ‘the brass’. Are you a military group?”

        “Sure am. We’re a branch of the IHSA devoted at... keepin’ the peace between pony and person. I can guess you all are familiar with how the HLF can be. Killin’ you pony folk for the sake of killin’. Shame we lack a centralized force to deal with ‘em these days, but you know what they say about stupid people in groups.”

        “Call it a government.” Rose smirked, much to the amusement of Jorge. Rose nodded her head slightly at the man as she gestured toward the parking lot. “What do you say, guys? Stick around?”

        Violet didn’t mind, as she was quite enjoying the man’s company. The ponies agreed as well, and soon Jorge was gesturing toward the gathering of vehicles. “Well, go ahead and park. Like I said, we don’t have much, but we’re willing to share with you all should you need something.” And with that, the group headed toward the parking lot, Violet taking the decision to park far enough away from the lorry truck for Rose’s sake.

        Jorge met them alongside another member, introduced him as Carl Juniper, and they finished a whole meet and greet. Violet shook Carl’s hand, but found unlike his companion, Carl was a bit more cold and militaristic about it. This didn’t earn  him many points with the quartet, but they didn’t quite mind it. Stepping out of the vehicle, Violet rounded the truck and started to help Rose out, before Jorge stepped in. “Whoa, Whoa there little lady. My, that is a nasty looking job there on your ankle, child,” he murmured. “What happened there?”

        Violet cut in before Rose could, sensing a delicate situation. “Well, she... It’s kind of a private matter, but we did everything we could for it,” she said. Jorge gave a passing glance over her, but nodded his head. “Well, I’ll see if we can’t help you get fixed up then.” Passing a look over to the red pony who was gingerly getting down off the bed with Twinkle’s help, he pointed at the stallion. “You too, Rusty.”

        “Many- oof, thanks Twinkle - Many thanks.” Rusty chuckled, nearly falling all over the unicorn. She threatened to skewer the colt if he tripped up again, and he simply grinned while apologizing. 

        Sticking a thumb over to the ponies, Jorge raised an eyebrow. “Not meaning to pry, but are those two ponies together?”

        Violet chuckled. “Give ‘em another day. Two, tops.”

        -----

        In the white tent, Violet found herself separated from Rose and Rusty for a little bit while she, Twinkle, and Jorge spoke about various things. Violet found it all to be an odd sensation, to be sitting around humans and ponies alike, shooting the breeze like the world had always been this way. She kept glancing over to Carl, though, the stoic man merely sitting nearby. Jorge, however, was dominating the conversation, apparently quite happy to have some new souls to talk to. “So then we were deported off to Australia to help with relief efforts, moving many of the sick to hospitals before eventually even those were just converted to Conversion Bureaus,” he said, pulling out a stick of gum.

        Offering it to the girls, Twinkle refused it while Violet grabbed a piece, more than excited to have some gum for the first time in years. Twinkle tapped her hoof thoughtfully as her human companion tore into the wrapper and chewed viciously on the pink stick. “So they replaced human hospitals with Conversion Bureaus out there?” she asked, shaking her mane about. “I can see why - ponification deals with many illnesses, both mental and physical, but to simply use our serum as an outlet for a case of pneumonia...”

        Jorge shook his head. “The unicorns and the like did their best, Twink, but many humans still succumbed to radiation poisoning and cancers from all the disturbed dust and bombs. It’s unfortunate, but any case that was deemed malignant was sent to a Conversion Bureau.” Leaning back, the built man kicked a foot up over his knee and let it rest there as he closed his eyes in recollection. “There were cases that seemed manageable, but with dwindling supplies and a sure-fire cure available, it was a mass exodus for humankind.” Stroking his chin, Jorge turned to crack his back a few times. “Outside of almost losing some of California to the Pacific, there wasn’t as much need for it in the Americas.” 

        Violet nodded slowly, events from the day of disaster slowly coming to light in her mind. “So you said you’re a military unit?” She asked, her eyes glancing over to Carl. The man in question had taken out his gun and began to disassemble it, taking a look at the pieces as he thought to clean them. Jorge looked over to his compatriot, only to roll his eyes and wave him him. 

        “Don’t think much of Carl there. He says little and thinks even less.” At this, the man nearby pointed the large section of the gun toward Jorge, pulling the trigger with a resolute click. Violet and Twinkle visibly winced, but Jorge didn’t even flinch. “Don’t you know that there still could have been a bullet in the chamber? One of these days you could kill me and bring the general IQ of this place down thirty points.”

        “Fuck you,” Carl spat, before placing the gun down and walking away.

        Jorge shook his head. “Always a treat, that one.” As they watched the angry man push his way through some of the other men and women on the base, they were rewarded with the sight of a blonde girl with crutches. Rose made her way toward the group, popping around people and chairs like an old pro. “You used to crutches, child?”

        Rose chuckled. “A bit, actually. Broke my leg about five years ago in an accident, so I’m used to getting around on one foot and two artificial ones.” Violet coughed slightly, bringing the attention over to herself.

“You’re about one working leg short of a pony,” Violet teased, earning a hiss from her friend as the blonde found a place to sit. She saw a gun in a number of pieces on the floor next to it, but found herself seated regardless. “I guess I’m jealous. Not for too long, though.”

        Jorge looked over at Violet in surprise. “Ah, you’re going in for ponification? Fantastic, girl.” Clapping a large hang against the girl’s back, Violet nearly doubled over into the ground as he did so. Catching herself, Violet just gave a sheepish grin toward the man as Twinkle cleared her throat.

        “Jorge, if you don’t mind my asking, but I’m confused. I’ve worked with the IHSA for the last couple years, quite closely, but I don’t recognize anyone from this encampment.” Rose looked about at the people working around them, expecting some sort of staring contest from them, but each one basically ignored them. Violet seemed to notice this as well, finding that it seemed just as odd. “Not to mention you’re in it for the preservation of human survival.”

        “Hey, y’know, not for nothing Twinkle, but could you try not to make me feel incriminated here?” Violet exhaled hard, crossing her arms in mock indignation. Her mind was buzzing, her sense of acting coming to the forefront. “It’s been a long run, but I’ve got nothing left as a person. I hope you understand, Jorge.” Deciding whether or not to flutter her eyelashes was a difficult decision, but the burning sensation on her back where Jorge jovially ‘patted’ her gave her cause not to.

        “Ah, it’s of no concern of mine, little lady. I’m just living out my duty to the brass, but I can see myself as a pony someday. Don’t confuse us with the HLF - we like what the ponies are doing for our race.” Jorge rubbed his cheek slightly, his hand moving up as he slid his fingers through his short, brown hair. “All of humanity that is left is either the best of us or the worst of us. Makes it easy to point a gun when things go bad.”

        Twinkle choked on her own saliva, a fact Violet realized was the first time she had ever seen a pony do that. Still, the graveness of the statement Jorge made hung heavy in the air. Clearing her throat, Violet passed a glance over to Rose a moment before continuing on. “But, I thought the HLF and the IHSA were on good terms...?”

        “Openly, maybe, but they’ve started to see a lot of us as shepherds for humans who want to go pony. And they don’t like that.” Jorge harrumphed loudly, but brought a thumb across his nose before continuing. “There have been... hostilities, that we have to take care of sometimes.”

        “Is that why you’re down here, then? To take care of hostilities?” Rose butted in, her eyes sharpened. Jorge paid it little mind, but merely started to stroke his beard. Violet noticed he had a physical tick to his speech, as his hands really couldn’t seem to leave his face. “What about the family members that don’t know any better? Sons and daughters?”

        Jorge shrugged. “As long as they aren’t hostile, we never shoot first.” His voice held something that Violet didn’t like. Her years in theatre could tell her that there was a hint in his voice that didn’t sound entirely truthful. “There is a fundamental difference in our theologies, so it’s best to talk to a child early to avoid problems.” Violet kept running his words through her head. Inflections, stresses. There was something in his voice that she knew he was trying to let them in on, and it was starting to drive her crazy. A rhythmic throbbing started to slam against her ears as she pursued the knowledge, but her thoughts were interrupted as a red stallion entered the tent, a splint on his hoof and what looked to be little slippers or shoes for his back legs. 

        Rose greeted the stallion first, but quickly turned to Violet. “You hear that sound?” Violet’s eyes snapped open as she realized the throbbing wasn’t in her head, but was actually a sound. The tent started to flap about violently around them as Jorge leaned back, unfazed by the interruption. 

        Rusty, on the other hand, shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, it’s that helicopter we saw earlier,” he mentioned idly, a small grin on his face. “Check it out, girls, they gave me little shoes for my feet. I can’t even begin to tell you how much better it feels to walk now.”

        Jorge quickly leaned forward, his eye furrowed. “Say again, Rusty? You said you saw our helicopter?” His face had quickly turned to stone, an unreadable expression over his face. The red colt gave a quick grin, bouncing his head from side to side, ignoring the warning looks from the human girls.

        “Yeah, when we were leaving Albuquerque we saw a helicopter fly overhead toward the city. I recognize the insignia on the side now. Man, we were so scared when we saw it overhead, I couldn’t get a good look at your little symbol.” Taking a seat next to Twinkle, Rusty turned to the unicorn and showed off his splint. “Looks like I can walk a bit normally now. I gotta be careful on this hoof, but they said if you help with some magic from time to time, I could be good in a couple days.”

        Jorge stood up in one fluid motion, rolling his shoulder slightly as he cleared his throat. “I didn’t know you girls came from Albuquerque. Heard only HLF kids lived there.” Rose averted her eyes at the mention. “If you all had stayed a bit longer, we could have shortened your trip for you, Violet. Rose.”

        Rose kept her eyes away from the large man, running her arm against her forehead. “Well, V’s the one getting ponied, I’m just along for the ride, really.”

        “Oh, I’m sure there’s more to it than just that,” a voice called, unfamiliar to the assembled group outside one. A man strode in, flanked on one side by Carl, and on the other was a woman in dark sunglasses. Adorned on his jacket were numerous medals, and it didn’t take Violet long to recognize an insignia emblazoned upon his suit coat. “Hello there, guests. I am Lieutenant Samuel Standish. I’m in charge of this operation and I’ve just been informed of your arrival. Ah, hello there Twinkle, how nice to see you again.”

        The unicorn in question gave a small, sheepish smile. “Ah, hello Lieutenant. Fancy meeting you out here.”

        Violet looked between the two and raised a hand expectantly. “Uh, ‘scuse me, but ah, you two know each other?”

        “Vaguely. The Lt. here helped with the closing days of the Bureau before we shut down. He’s been responsible for the transportation of our serum and sedatives for the past month,” Twinkle exposited, her voice shaky. Now it seemed like everyone was starting to hide something, and it wasn’t sitting well with the purple-haired human.

        “That’s correct. Lovely you remember me, Twinkle.” Standish smiled, giving the collected group a shared grimace to how unnaturally white his teeth were. “Of course, that’s not everything you remember me for, now is it?”

        Violet’s stomach dropped as he continued to stare at the unicorn, but couldn’t help but stay silent. She was curious as to what he meant - perhaps dangerously so. There was a reason curiosity killed the cat. Rose looked between the assembled people, taking note that the others who had surrounded them weren’t looking at them - they weren’t even there at all. Jorge and the two guards that had come with Standish were the only people within eyesight, the whining sound of the helicopters engines shutting down was the only thing that clued the others to life outside the tent.

        Twinkle cleared her throat. “As it stands, Lt. Standish never delivered the potion or the sedatives to IHSA Headquarters in Colorado Springs. We had thought he had been taken prisoner by HLF forces, and we were forced to shut down all of our Bureau’s entirely.” Rose and Violet spun their heads on a swivel as Twinkle spoke, the pale pink pony locking eyes with Violet. “That’s why I couldn’t of made the simple exception to bring you in back in Albuquerque - we had no way of trusting our final reserves were safe from tampering.”

        Violet felt a rush of indignant, but she soon quelled it, realizing the how and the way held little in terms of where she was now. “I understand. But... my friend, Albert. He turned into a pegasus just fine-”

        “Excuse me, but I hate to be ignored.” Standish chided, bringing his sweeping gaze to rest upon the blonde haired girl. “Besides, I have so much to say still. Sharla, be a dear and escort these ponies to their vehicle. And do keep watch on them, would you?” 

        Rusty cocked his head to one side. “What? Hey now, why the sudden seriousness?” Looking about, he started to read the expressions on everyone’s faces. “What’s going on?”

        “Sharla, please. Give them a little motivation.” As the lieutenant spoke, the woman brought out a sparking tool of electricity, pointing the taser toward the ponies. 

        “Come with me ponies, I promise no harm will come to you.” Sharla, as she was called, soon started to herd the two ponies out of the room, Carl and Samuel watching the two confused ponies as they were brought outside. Violet couldn’t even begin to express her fear as she turned to Rose, the other girl simply not looking away from the ground. Violet wished she could be so simple, her eyes looking up toward Jorge. The friendly man she had seen before was stone-faced, his hand resting on the handgun at his side. 

        “So... what’re you going to do? We haven’t done anything!” Violet eventually choked out, to which she was responded to with a laugh. Spinning to look over to the lieutenant, the man grinned down to her with hidden malice.

        “Do to you? Nothing at all... Violet. Correct?” Samuel turned toward Carl, who only grunted in response. “One means yes.” Standish chuckled, his eyes training once again on the blonde girl before them. Standing over her, he ran a hand through his jet-black hair as roughly grabbed the wounded girl’s arm, his hand slipping down to his side. Bringing out a small device, he stuck a needle into Rose’s neck, dripping sedative straight into the girl’s veins. Violet shot to her feet quickly, but soon found herself restrained by Jorge, who grabbed her arms and held her back. “No, Violet, you’re safe. However, I think I and my men have a little issue with your HLF spy here.”

        Dropping the medical instrument, Lt. Standish released Rose, the girl struggling to stand on her good foot. Violet screamed out for her friend, but the girl soon collapsed on the ground in front of her. Standish gestured mutely toward Rose, Carl picking her prone form up. Standish turned toward Violet, who struggled uselessly against the strong arms of the military man behind her. “Now then, Violet. I believe we should have a small talk about a man named Fred.” Violet’s eyes bulged at the mention of the Tower’s keeper.

> Her Horror
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Violet was pushed along through the encampment, the strong arms of Jorge keeping her from resisting Lieutenant Standish’s orders. In front of her lay the limp form of Rose, the blonde girl who’s life she had saved, however briefly it may seem now. As they walked, Violet could hear the footsteps of purpose emanating from the Lieutenant as he walked behind them. Her eyes trained around the camp, catching sight of only a few others. As it stood, the entire area likely only had around ten people at most, a fact she found surprising, if not dulled by the fact she was a captive by all definitions. As she was forced along, she could see Rusty and Twinkle on the other side of the field in their truck as they themselves approached the semi on their side of the lot. Struggling against Jorge, Violet seethed under his grip.

        “Why...? What’s going on Jorge? I thought... you weren’t like this!” Violet pleaded, pushing against his arms. The man behind her sighed as he kept her moving, the girl not seeing the man shake his head. 

        “Orders are orders, child.” The tall man said, his voice subdued. 

        Violet tried to pry at his disapproval. “Please, you must know she’s not bad! You talked to her, she’s a nice girl, really! A bit rough around the edges, a bit of a mouth, but who doesn’t?”

        “Violet!” It was a light shout, but the girl in question turned to see Rusty pushing up against the female human who held him and Twinkle at bay. She threatened the stallion with her taser, her other hand held firmly on her side, right above a holster. Violet could do nothing but look on helplessly as her friends were shepherded toward the car, Sharla pushing the two inside the truck’s cabin. 

        Grunting, Violet tried to look back, but a jostle from Jorge kept her looking straight at Rose’s unconscious face as they were brought along. “Just what do you want to know about Fred anyway? He was an HLF member who died. Heart attack or something, nothing more,” she spat back, only to hear a light chuckle come from behind.

        “Nothing more? Oh, Violet, that simply isn’t the case. Especially when you’re driving around with a couple ponies and the daughter of a high ranking HLF member.” Standish laughed, but Violet stayed silent, her brain working on unwrapping what he just said. Before she could think much further, however, Carl broke from the group, moving toward a large door on the side of the semi, while the others kept walking toward the back.

        “Hey now- where are you taking her!?” Violet yelled, earning her another unceremonious shake from Jorge. She was really starting to dislike that man. “Please, don’t separate us, she just lost her brother-”

        Clearing his throat, Lt. Standish straightened his uniform as he continued on. “I’m well aware of that. His body was found this morning, mangled with a large hole through his head. Apparently their festivities were cut short when a large lorry ended up driving off a crumbling expressway and it killed their new commanding officer.”

        Violet again wrestled against Jorge, this time the man relenting slightly in allowing the girl to see the Lieutenant. “What are you talking about? Richard wasn’t-”

        “Ah, and there’s the admission of knowledge. Lovely how that works.” Standish continued to smile as he passed by Violet, grabbing hold of the back doors of the semi and opening them. “Jorge, if you’d be so helpful...” Nodding, the large man forced Violet up and into the back of the truck, Carl appearing nearby to help the man with the job. Violet yelled at the men, but soon found herself pushed back into the dark chamber, the door slamming shut behind her. “Be back real soon. Just have to tie up a couple loose ends.”

        -----

        Rusty swore loudly, much to Twinkle’s displeasure. Catching a look from the pony, he sighed wistfully and slammed his head against the top of the steering wheel. “Well it’s all a bunch of manure, anyway. We were all just sitting there, enjoying ourselves, and then that rat bastard walks in an’ just... What the hell is going on?” Looking over to the unicorn, Twinkle couldn’t help but shrug.

        “Hey, quiet down in there.” Sharla called from outside. Rusty rolled his eyes.

        “Oh fuck off! We can’t do anything in here.” Rusty called, placing a hoof on the ignition. As he did, he felt the keys jingle underneath his hooves, and the stallion looked over to Twinkle a moment, a sparkle in his eyes. Pushing the key a little bit, the battery hummed to life as an assortment of dings and air came on, much to the human’s displeasure. 

        “Hey, I said quiet down! Turn your damn car off of I’ll-” Rusty pushed a button on the sound deck and suddenly the air was filled with the calm sounds of some old music CD.

        “It’s some music, Sharla. I think you can agree that’s not exactly world-ending.” Without warning, Rusty slammed his hoof on the door locks and rolled the window up in front of the IHSA member. “Thank god for power windows...!”

        Twinkle gave the colt a confused glance, raising her eyebrow. “What are you hoping to accomplish, Rusty? We can’t do anything in here, and now you’ve just made her angry!” Looking past the red pony, Twinkle saw the girl slamming on the window and mutely calling for the stallion to roll down his window now. Giving a goofy grin, Rusty raised his splinted hoof to his ear and mouthed a ‘I-can’t-hear-you’ at the girl. Despite the danger, Twinkle couldn’t help but giggle slightly. “Well, if she wasn’t before...”

        “Ah, screw her. They promised not to harm us, so she can’t do anything until Lt. High-and-Mighty gives the say so,” Rusty scoffed, tapping a hoof on the side of his head. “Odd that they’d lock us up in our own car.”

        Twinkle looked about the vehicle, having not a lot of space to maneuver, she was having a hard time agreeing with Rusty’s plan. “Well it’s not like ponies can drive, Rusty. Besides, what’s the idea when Standish does give an order to harm us?” Placing a hoof on the stereo system, she dabbled with the controls a moment before spinning the knob on the deck, quieting the music.

        Rusty was currently rubbing the back of his neck with his good hoof. “Yeah, I hadn’t really thought that far, but I’d doubt that Sharla out there is keen on leaving us all alone in here, so she’s not about to get any new orders until he gets here.” As he spoke, he could see the Lieutenant in question far across the field, fortunately not hearing the calls from his agent. Looking over the group, his eyes narrowed. “Not exactly the most able-bodied militaristic group,” he mused.

        “Excuse me? They have guns and helicopters, isn’t that good enough?” Twinkle gathered, her eyes trained on the helicopter nearby. She never wanted to be on the bad side of an organization that had one of those. She never wanted to be on anyone’s bad idea at all! She wasn’t used to this kind of thing. And as she looked about, her panic was slightly quelled by the sudden fear that she was becoming used to it. 

        However, Rusty brought her back from her revelry by shaking his hoof at the scene before them. “Not entirely. They have the hardware, but outside of Jorge I haven’t been seeing much in the way of efficiency around here. I saw a gun lying in pieces in the tent we were in, and there aren’t any radios or anything. I got to look around at most of the place when one of the medics were helping my leg.” Shaking his head, he laid his forehead on the steering wheel, unsure of what to think. “It doesn’t make any sense, Twinkle. One moment they’re helping, the next we’re separated and locked up.”

        “To be fair, you did lock us in the truck,“ Twinkle teased despite the situation, earning her a giant grin from the red stallion. Looking about, she sighed as she saw a couple members of the IHSA approach Sharla. “Well, I guess we’re gonna have some trouble soon,” she muttered. Rusty looked on to see a Sharla start to relate the message to her compatriots, much to his displeasure. “I don’t suppose you have a plan yet...?”

        Rusty eyed the keys in the ignition and his eyes tracked over to Twinkle’s horn. Technically, he did still have his license... Although the mugshot wouldn’t win him any contests. Shifting himself into an extremely uncomfortable position for a pony, Rusty cursed his short stature as his hooves didn’t reach the gas or brakes, sliding himself back up to his sitting position. Looking over towards Twinkle, he passed a glance back at Sharla as he opened his mouth. “Lemme tell you about something called ‘the clutch’.”

        -----

        Violet huddled in some dark corner, unsure of what to expect. Rose was somewhere in the truck with her, but there was no way to talk to her, or communicate. She was likely still under the effect of the sedatives. Violet looked back at the action taken by the lieutenant, making note that it didn’t seem like there was much sedative in his little needle. Maybe Rose was conscious. Laying her hand down, her skin brushed against the floor slightly. Only now did she even start to contemplate her surroundings. She had only got a glimpse when they had thrown her in here before shutting the doors, and had seen a table and chairs upon a carpeted floor. There was some reflective surface toward the back - where she was leaning against right now, actually. However, noises from outside brought her attention up as the door swung open, the afternoon sun shining bright in her eyes as she moved to cover them. 

        Stepping into the semi, there was a tittering sound as she recognized the voice of Lieutenant Standish. “Hm. I seem to have forgotten to turn the lights on in here. How embarrassing. Carl, if you would?” There was a short shuffling sound followed by a light click. Moments later, Fluorescent lights flickered on inside the truck as Violet’s eyes tried to adjust to the light. Along the walls were some wood paneling, obviously fake, but it was enough to give the room a homey feel to it. She was right about the table and chairs, but the reflective surface behind her just gave way into some dark room that held no light. Frowning, Violet looked up at the walls, where various gas masks littered the sides of the compartment. The lieutenant gestured over to the large tanned man beside him. “Ah, there we are. Jorge, if you’d be so kind as to bring her to the table, I’d like to speak with her like civilized people.” 

        Violet stood up as Jorge approached, but she rebuked him as he neared her. “I’m not Goddamned animal, I know when I don’t have the upper hand,” she seethed, moving toward the chair and sitting down. “I don’t know what you want from me, Standish. I’m just trying to get to the Bureau with my friends. We don’t deserve to be locked up like this.”

        The lieutenant chuckled dryly, wiping away a tear of merriment that wasn’t really there. “Oh, I agree and I disagree. I had to be safe, you see. Your pony friends check out, as do you, of course. You’re an anomaly, though, that’s for certain. A little girl, living alone in some big tower where the head of the Albuquerque HLF branch lived.”

        “What?” Violet gaped, shaking her head. “Is that why you brought up Fred? Look, I don’t know what you’re smoking out here, but he wasn’t the head of the HLF out there - he was just some old bitter man,” she argued. Still, Standish just wore that infuriating smile. Narrowing her eyes, she sighed loudly. “Okay, say he was. I didn’t know that, okay? I was just... looking for some place to be. With people. I didn’t even know he was HLF until I saw him at some meeting!” Violet wasn’t pleased by the lack of information they gave her, but she was more infuriated with how this asshole just sat there and expected the world. Not to mention something else weighed on her mind. “Where is Rose? What did you do to her? I swear if you laid a finger on her-”

        “Do to her?” Standish interrupted. “Nothing, yet. Although I plan to. In fact...” Bringing out a small glass box, he placed it on the table. It was a simple box, clear on all sides but the bottom. Inside it was a large red button. Violet hated big red buttons. There was a hinge as well, obviously for flipping open and pressing that big red button. “I will be doing something quite soon. And don’t get any ideas, Violet, there really is nothing you can do.”

        Violet fumed under his gaze, but betrayed nothing. “Then what do you want. I’m just a girl; I’m nothing important!”

        The man laughed, shaking his head as Carl walked to the other side of the table behind Violet, standing next to Jorge as he did. “I agree with you, you are rather worthless, but that’s neither here nor there. Really, I’m just keeping you around because I’m curious as to how and why a girl who doesn’t make sense just so happens to show up in my camp and deliver the new head of the western branch of the HLF.” Chuckling to himself, he watched Violet’s face contort into something that resembled confusion and rage.

        “I don’t fucking know what you think you’re talking about, but Rose is just a girl who wants to get on with her life. Her brother’s dead and he tried to kill her before he went, okay? She’s no head of the HLF-” Violet began, but she was cut off.

        “She’s more or less the defacto head, considering there aren’t any more out there.” Violet shook her head, unsure of what he meant. As she did, however, he produced a vial of purple serum and placed it on the table. “Your unicorn friend said I disappeared awhile ago with her stock of ponification potion. That’s mostly true, but it wasn’t all finished, and drinkable potion is so hard to force upon others. So we’ve been testing new versions out here in the open air. We haven’t had many problems.” Jorge coughed uneasily behind him, but Lt. Standish ignored it. “At least not since our first batch. Had they been sedated I’m sure it would have been a lot less mess to clean up.” Chuckling dryly, Violet shook her head.

        “Why... why are you even telling me this? I don’t want to know this!” Violet’s body was shaking now, be it from fear or anger, or some other emotion that got itself tied into the mix. Standish shook his head.

        “Because you’re the most interesting thing that’s happened all month. A solitary truck in an otherwise empty pony wasteland? Bringing me Fred’s sole remaining family? The last of the western branch of the HLF? Really now, if you hadn’t escaped our gassing run in Albuquerque I’d of never had the day I’ve had. So thank you.” Lieutenant Samuel Standish stood up, approaching the dark window. “Carl, if you’d be so kind as to light up the next room?” There was another click as the other room lit up, revealing an empty metal room save for the unconscious girl within. “And there she is. You know, I really can’t stand the Human Liberation Front, and those pussyfoots in charge of the IHSA are just happy to let them roam free these days. Well, I’m sick of seeing pony and people alike killed over being friendly. So, I’m stopping the hate where it starts.”

        Violet stood up, seeing the prone form of her friend in the other room. Rushing forward, she felt her arms get nabbed by the men behind her, holding her against her will and best efforts. “Stop! Don’t- Don’t kill her! She hasn’t done anything wrong! She isn’t part of the HLF anymore! She wants to be part of the IHSA!”

        The Lieutenant smiled plainly, shaking his head. “Kill her? Whatever think I’d do that on purpose? If I did that I’d be no better than the scum of the Earth she was born from.” Looking down at the girl in the other room, his eyes narrowed into a malicious smile. “No, Violet. I’m going to fix her.”

        -----

        Twinkle shook her head, trying to wrap her head around the vehicle. “So, the one on the left is the clutch, which you hit when you want to change gears, and that’s the gas, and that one is the brake-”

        “Which you won’t need until the very end.” Rusty said, looking over toward the congregation of IHSA members. Quite a few had started to circle the truck, but Rusty had ordered Twinkle to make her horn glow in a threatening manner. It had worked for the most part, each member not daring to get too close to the truck. As Rusty looked around, he noticed a couple plots not too far off, upturned dirt and large stones placed near them. He visibly swallowed as he looked about, regretting his word choice about ‘the very end’. Apparently, these people were no strangers to death, and he didn’t want to think about who occupied those fresh graves. 

        Twinkle whined slightly, her horn sparking to life again as she looked at an approaching member. “Rusty, I don’t know how much longer this is going to work...” she whispered. The red stallion agreed himself, but didn’t show it. “I don’t think I have it in me to do anything bad to them...”

        “You won’t have to... I don’t think,” Rusty replied nervously, putting his hooves on the wheel. “Just... keep your eyes on the prize and stick to the plan.” Twinkle eyed him a moment, shaking her mane. As she did, one of the members of IHSA made a dash for the car, Rusty taking a moment to shout and point with his hoof toward the man. Twinkle wheeled about and caught the man in her sights, her horn sparking. 

        “WhatdoIdoWhatdoIdoWhatdoIdo!” Twinkle screeched, her bluff called as the man continued to approach. “I can’t do anything!”

        Rusty drummed his hoof on the dashboard, trying to think of something. “I don’t know- Surround the truck! Make it glow! You don’t have to do anything with it, just make it look good!” His mouth was running as his hoof reached for the keys in the ignition. It took some doing, but he finally managed to turn the ignition and the engine roared to life. Twinkle shot him a look of panic as she surrounded the truck in her glow, the man backing off slightly as the truck started to levitate upwards. “Ack! Twinkle! Make it stop! Make it stop!” 

        Releasing the Ford, the tires bounced against the ground as Rusty bellowed instructions toward the pale pink unicorn. “Okay! Gas! Clutch! More gas! Good! First gear! Alright! Gas! Gas! Clutch!” Before them, Lieutenant Standish exited the semi truck, being met with a couple of his agents as they gestured toward the ponies in the truck. Cursing loudly, the man started to walk forward alongside his second in command as the approached the ponies. 

        “Clutch! More gas! Second gear! Keep going! We’re doing great!” Rusty shouted. 

        “Stop yelling!” Twinkle screamed, her concentration being spent on just trying to follow the instructions, let alone decipher them with all the noise Rusty was making. 

        “Sorry! Gas! Clutch! Third gear!” Hooves on the wheel, Rusty did his best to navigate the cars, jeeps, and personnel of the camp while keeping a steady stream of instructions to follow, his eyes trying to watch the ‘road’ and the dashboard as he did. “How did I ever drive this thing!?” As the duo made their way across the field, the semi was in sight as they accelerated closer and closer. 

        “Ruuuusssty! What do I do now?” Twinkle screamed over the sound of the engine, the sound of the radio, which just so happened to click unto a polka tune. “We’re gonna crash!”

        Rusty turned to Twinkle with a smile on his face. “That’s the plan!”

        “What?!”

        Rusty gave a sheepish smile as he shrugged his shoulders. “If we knock over the truck, we might be able to get the girls out!” 

        “If we survive!” Twinkle shouted, looking forward to towards the looming side of the semi. “Hold on - I’ve got an idea!” Her horn shimmering even brighter, Rusty suddenly felt the wheel go slack against the ground as the Ford lifted up into the air, its momentum bringing it up towards the side of the thin metal walls. “Here we go!”

        -----

        Minutes Earlier...

        “No! Stop! Please, let her go!” Violet screamed, the two men alongside her restraining her by the arms. She looked on helplessly as the dazed girl in the other room slowly came to her senses, taking a look at her surroundings. A metal cage, a glass window she couldn’t see through. Violet wished the same could be said for her. Turning to her right, she struggled against her captors as she pleaded with the man. “Listen to me! Listen to me, please! She’s not like him! She’s not with them anymore!”

The man’s eyes glanced over toward Violet, his body language unreadable. Violet’s tears ran openly down her face, and yet all he seemed was... bored. Calm, completely dead to her screams as he reached down to a glass box. “Really now, Violet. You’re one of the good girls. We like you and what you’re trying to do. But this young specimen is a blight to our species, and really, we must remove infections before they spread further.” His hand reached down to the glass box, flipping the offending cage over on its hinges.

“Violet?” The blonde called out weakly, holding her head. “Twinkle? Rusty? Wh-where am I?” She asked, bringing herself to her feet. Violet looked on, stunned. “Am I in... what is this shit? Jail? Why am I in jail?”

“Rose!” Violet screamed. Lt. Standish peered over, a small smile on his face. The girl in the adjacent room spun about, as if hearing some phantom sound.

Chuckling lightly, Standish placed his palm on the red button and pushed it down. “Weep for the wicked no more.” Pushing against one of the men and managing to kick the other in his family jewels, Violet wrenched herself free. Bull rushing toward her offender, she quickly learned that earning the rank of Lieutenant tends to come with some sort of physical training as she quickly found herself floored, the wind knocked from her lungs. Grabbing her by her shirt, the middle-aged man lifted her and slammed the girl against the glass. “Look at her!”

Violet struggled, grasping for air as she struggled to remain focused. Before her, a purple mist started to descend into the room where the blonde girl spun about in confusion. “H-Hey!” She called, backing herself away from the offending smoke. “What the hell is this? Don’t I get a trial!? What the fuck is this!?” Turning her head toward the glass, she couldn’t help but notice it shaking and knocking. “H-hey! Look, I get it! I’ll be good, just- God, what is this stu-h... stu...” She blinked, her mind starting to blank.

Violet could only choke out her friend’s name. “Rose...!” she whimpered, slamming against the glass. Rose could only look vaguely toward the glass window, feeling the vibrations against her palms.

Lt. Standish released Violet, smirking to himself as he saw a waft of purple smoke enter into the blonde girl. “There we are.” Pushing Violet into the glass one last time, the man turned to check on his bodyguards, a sarcastic smile on his face. “Ah, Carl, how’re the kids? Hopefully you can still have them. Jorge, keep an eye on her, make sure she watches the whole thing. I’m going to get something to eat. I’m thinking... Apples.”

Violet glared at the man through flowing tears, looking for some way to stop what was happening. There had to be a way. “Rose...” She coughed, her lungs starting to function again. In the other room, the blonde girl couldn’t help but breathe in the purple mist, her legs weakening with every breath as she collapsed to her hands and knees.

“Oh god... it... hurts.” Rose coughed, purple phlegm sticking to the floor. Looking around, tears brimmed on the side of her eyes. “I’m... going to die?” she convulsed, her arm sliding against the floor. Violet spun around, her eyes searching for something - anything - to get Rose out of her predicament. Eyes focusing on a wooden chair, Jorge watched her bolt for the furniture, only taking a moment to reach for a gun at his side. Uncaring, the purple haired girl hurled the chair at the glass. To her horrid surprise, the chair bounced harmlessly off the offending glass, the reflective surface only shuddering under the trauma.

“Bulletproof glass. One way mirror.” Jorge muttered darkly. Violet rubbed her eyes quickly as she turned toward the darker toned man. “For the more emotional audience.” His voice hid a sad darkness. Violet approached him, but he slowly drew out his gun, shaking his head. “Nuh ah-uh. No closer, darling.”

Violet stared at him, her eyes brimming with tears. “Please...” she said, looking over to Rose as her body started to convulse. “Help her...”

Jorge sighed, shaking his head. “I’m sorry.” Violet opened her mouth, but instead ran to the window, looking on toward her friend. “I’m under orders. It’s too late anyway, she breathed the serum in.” Violet glanced back at him, her tears dropping on her shirt. “There isn’t anything I can do, child.”

Rose’s body was on fire. Her head slammed against the ground as she writhed. She could hear some vague banging, her eyes tracking falsely to the door. “V-Violet..!” she breathed. And then, a sickening crack. Rose’s limbs shot out in a feral rage, her fingers snapping and fusing as magic started to work. It burned her. Her veins were like gasoline, and the magic a match, igniting from within. Rose screamed.

Violet could only watch in a stunned silence as she watched her friend twitch and break in front of her. Her bones snapped loudly, her skin glowing unnaturally. Along her skin Violet could see the veins blackened along Rose’s body as her hair shimmered and even sparked. Her tanned, peach skin starting to fade into a pink hue, the color crawling from bulging arteries along her body. The passages of blood snaked across her body, repositioning themselves as her bones started to move in her body. And her screaming became like drowning, her lungs being stretched and skewed in unreal ways. Violet couldn’t look away - she couldn’t stand to see it, but she couldn’t look away.

And then it happened. Rose’s back arched, the skin next to her shoulder blades pushing out. Something was trying to escape, a creature clawing out from her insides. The skin ripped and tore as growing bones whipped out into the air, covered in blood and dripping fluids over the floor. Violet’s stomach did a cartwheel as she keeled over slightly, her hand on the glass the only thing keeping her upright. The skeletal appendage was draped in loose skin that shimmered and started to stretch over the white ivory, the puce color spreading. A tail started to grow, splitting out of her spine as a thin bit of bone shot out. As the gruesome display continued, Violet couldn’t help but notice Jorge nearby, his hand over his heart.

“What...?” she called, her mind sick at the thought of what was happening before her.

“Paying my respects. There is little chance for survival,” he said, sighing as he holstered his gun. “There is little left now. She won’t feel it much longer.” Jorge averted his gaze as Rose’s head started to bulge slightly, the skin around her eyes stretching out. Violet couldn’t hold it anymore as she dry heaved, what little substance she had in her stomach unable to make its way up her throat. Jorge gave her a forlorn gaze, watching the last of the purple mist start to evacuate the room.

Violet turned to look at the pony on floor in the room. Rose’s hair ceased to shimmer as it dulled into a turquoise blue, her puce skin starting to sprout a coat of similarly hued hairs. Feathers grew at an exponential rate, little twigs popping out of her wings, growing into brilliant feathers in minutes. Blood was splashed along the floor and drenched the fur along her backside. As the loud murmur of the ventilation started to subside and the purple mist gone from the room, a loud rumble continued throughout the area. Looking up, Violet’s tear-stained face looked about in confusion. “What... What now!? What’s that noise?”

Jorge paused at the doorway, looking around him. “I... don’t know.” As it growled and roared, Violet’s ears rang with the familiar sound. She spun slowly as she looked at the man, who was already running forward. “Get down!” he shouted, catching Violet in a full bodied tackle. The roar of the Ford’s engines at full pedal-to-the-medal speeds bellowed as the metal truck slammed through the makeshift walls of the chamber, the slightly airborne vehicle brushing against Jorge’s back as it crashed through the semi-trucks thin metal exterior. There was a screech of metal and a crash of glass as shards rained down upon the two humans, the heavy truck clearing one side of the truck and ripping through the other. Violet could hear the terrified screeching of Twinkle as it went by, the smell of magic in the air as the levitated vehicle came crashing down back on the ground on the other side of the lorry.

The wave of confusion and delirious rushes that came after was like a horrible nightmare. Her ears ringing and her chest heaving, Violet pushed herself off the ground as Jorge rolled over, his body pelted with glass and still recovering from being hit by the flying truck. Stumbling toward the broken window, Violet climbed over the jagged edge, glass cutting into her hands as she fell over her broken friend. Grabbing the unfamiliar face, Violet brought it to her chest and looked it in the eye. The eyes were open, wide, and tears were simply streaming down Rose’s face. “Rose...!” Cradling her friend in her arms, the purple-haired girl wept over the limp pony. “Come on, Rose... please...”

There was a ripping sound as the door to the chamber ripped off its hinges, a pale pink pony rushing in from the side. “Violet! Violet, you’re okay! Rusty! She’s in here - you missed her you red ponce!” she cried, galloping over toward the kneeling girl. “Violet, who-” She started as the red Earth pony came in at full gallop.

“Violet! Oh thank Celestia... Come on, we gotta go - those IHSA members are gonna mobilize real soon here and we still gotta find Rose!” Rusty proceeded to approach the girls, his eyes training on the puce pony in Violet’s arms. “Who is that?” He asked, his face contorting as he looked about. There really wasn’t a lot of places in the encampment to hide people. As the human girl cradled and sobbed over the blue-maned pony, Rusty stepped forward again. “Violet... Who is this pony...?”

Twinkle gasped openly as her eyes trained over the bloody spot over the pegasus’ wings and the floor nearby, her mind connecting the dots. She had seen hundreds of conversions, ghastly things that were meant to be done while the patient was unconscious, but the look, the far-away fear and pain in the pony’s eyes. “Rusty...” she choked. The red pony looked over to Twinkle, his eyes fogged. “Rusty... It’s her...”

Violet could hear them now. The voices outside. The sounds of engines and metal. She could hear Lt. Standish screaming at his men. The light sound of snapping glass. Her eyes snapped open at the last sound. Standing on the other side of the now open window, Jorge stood, hunched over, his gun trained on the human girl. Glass shards were poking out of his back as he looked over them, his eyes glazed as he looked about the truck. Above him, a broken pipe spewed out purple serum into the open air, brushed away by the wind, but heavy as it started to rain on him. Rusty stepped forward, but the sound of the gun’s safety being clicked off stopped him dead in his tracks, instead opting to just glare angrily at the man.

“Hasn’t she suffered enough?” Rusty growled. Jorge’s eyes flashed up at the descending cloud and back to the girl. His hand moved behind a rend in the metal, picking a gas mask up off the wall. Rusty’s eyes sharpened as her snorted. “Hmph. Human survival, at any means.”

The mask flopped next to Violet’s hand. The collected group silently looked between it and the man, a look of confusion between them. Jorge coughed, blood splattering over his teeth as the shard in his back penetrated his lung. “Go on...” he called. Violet numbly reached out, grabbing the mask as Jorge openly winced as the purple mist started to pool around his nostrils. Looking down at the pony, Violet gently laid a hand on Twinkle as the unicorn nodded slowly, her horn sparking, lifting the prone form of Rose’s pony body. Strapping the mask on her face, Violet stood up, her hands bleeding from the glass. “Hide your hands, child... don’t let the mist-” he coughed, again, a loud snapping sound issuing from his left arm as it broke. “Damn! Get out of here, child,” Jorge warned. As he did, the other bodyguard ran into the destroyed holding cell, Jorge spinning around at him. As Carl pointed his weapon at Violet, Jorge fired a round into the agent’s head, his blood splattering on the wall behind him. Violet gasped sharply, but Jorge ignored it, slamming the gun into the girl’s hands.

“Violet! We gotta go! Now!” Rusty shouted, the stallion pushing the girl into action. Spinning about, Twinkle was out the door with Rose as Rusty brought up the rear. Tensely looking at the gun in her hand, Violet spun about to see feet and wheels starting to mobilize on the other side of the semi. Jorge had fallen over. Backwards. His body twitched and snapped still, but his face was slack already.

Turning toward the damaged Ford, Violet saw Rusty starting to slow down from his damaged forehoof, but otherwise doggedly trying to help the others. She saw Rose - poor Rose. Sprinting for the drivers seat, the engine was already roaring as Twinkle helped herself into the passenger’s sear, Rose and Rusty set in the back on the mattress.

Twinkle’s eyes were flowing with new tears. “Violet, I don’t think - I think Rose is...” Violet didn’t let her finish, grabbing the gear shift and pouring on the gas. Tires ripping into the soft earth below it, the truck wretched itself from the ground as it tore off toward the highway, the collecting forces. Violet could feel the mist in the back of her mind. It consumed her, choked her. The fog that cloaked her mind. And now? It had been given corporal form. It tracked her - it never wanted to leave her alone. Breathing heavily into the mask, Violet focused as best she could on the road ahead.

The truck bumped and skidded unto the expressway, the various vehicles of the IHSA branch tearing behind her as she shifted into a new gear. Rusty braced himself on his good hoof as he leaned on the side of the truck, looking back at the cars that gave chase. His hooves burned from the last time they had to run, and now he was chased by the something even scarier. Looking back toward the girls, his eyes fell on Rose, the poor girl. Scooting along the bed, Rusty pushed his head through the window toward Twinkle. “We’ve got company. Plans?”

Violet shook her head. “Drive. Run. Until we can’t anymore.” Rusty’s eyes trained over to the fuel gauge, the truck part way through its journey. A full on push would eat gas like nothing else, but a slow drive would mean certain death. In Violet’s white knuckled grip was the gun Jorge handed her, her mind buzzing at the implications of what he must have expected her to do with it. Protect herself. Aim it. Kill with it.

Shifting into top gear, the engine drank greedily from its reserves. She was the only human now. And she had to prove everything that was worth. 

> Her Ultimatum
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Rubber hit pavement as the Ford hit the road, gunning it toward the expanse of buildings ahead. In the back seat, which jostled every which way as the black vehicle aimed to outrun it’s pursuers, Rusty and the now ponified and prone form of Rose. Twinkle kept looking back at Rusty and the cars of the IHSA as they gave chase, trying to make sense of the last half-hour. “Is it always this way with humans outside of cities!?”

        Violet grimaced as the pale pink pony probed for answers, even at this time. “Never, or almost never! Now shut up unless you have something useful to say!” Violet ordered, her voice muffled under the gas mask that Jorge had thrown her. Her eyes flashed toward the mirrors as the car took on an exit toward the city center, bouncing about at the various cracks in the road impeded their progress as best they could. As they roared along the concrete, behind them a multitude of vehicles started to stabilize themselves, acting under orders from one very pissed off Lieutenant Samuel Standish.

        Rusty kept moving from the back of the truck bed over to the new pony among their ranks, the mare’s eyes still wide open, with tears dried from the whipping wind around them. Counting the vehicles, Rusty was dumbfounded to see the semi truck they tore through barreling down the road behind the rest of the cars, torn metal shooting sparks up as it clashed against the highway. Staying low, the red stallion crawled past Rose and slid open the back window. “We’ve got five on us, including the damn semi truck we tore through!”

        “Are you fucking serious?!” Violet nearly screamed in frustration. She was not going to ever get used to the horrible trend that seemed to have appeared since she left the Tower. “The semi. Goddammit.” Reaching a hand back, the girl hastily ripped off the gas mask and tossed it in the space between her and Twinkle. Drinking in fresh air, the girl wiped her eyes and tried to get a better look at the cityscape they were approaching.

        “Son of a Bitch they’ve got the helicopter up,” Rusty commented, his tone unamused as the black shape of the military chopper took to the air. Violet shook her head violently her eyes finally registered what was in her hand. Looking at the gun Jorge had handed her, she spun and looked back, her mind screaming for plans and escapes.

        Twinkle gave the red colt a reluctant look as she shook her head. “I can’t say I’m a fan of your language today, Rusty,” she sighed, having nothing to offer the conversation. The stallion shook his head in amused disbelief.

        “There’s a time to be a pony and a time to act a bit more like a human, and right now we’re being chased by armed and trained men with guns and a fucking helicopter. Twinkle, I know you’re an Equestria girl, but gain a little perspective - a dirty mouth is not on my list of issues right now!” Rusty sighed as he popped his head out of cabin as he watched the helicopter start to overtake the other vehicles, and quickly latched himself to the bed as Violet spun the wheel unto the city streets of Sante Fe.

        The car bumped along as it hit the abandoned streets, Violet’s eyes looking for sharp turns and tall buildings in which to lose their hunters, trying to get a feel for the truck’s ability for dangerous maneuvers. Screeching the tires as the truck made a hard left, the group could feel a couple wheels fall off the world as the truck became a two-wheeled car. “Twinkle, need a little help here!” Galvanized, the unicorn’s horn screamed to life as it hastily pushed a counter force against the truck, popping it back on four wheels as the sound of a whirling blades started to near. Rusty pushed up against the turquoise-maned pegasus, making sure the action hadn’t... done anything more to the girl he couldn’t be sure was even there anymore. 

        “I bet you hate how you keep finding yourself in such shit, eh, Rose?” Rusty chuckled hoarsely as he looked on behind. One of the cars had spun out completely on the corner, while the others had merely slowed down, deciding not to attempt such a sharp corner without magical air. Smoke issued from both wheels and engine from the failed car, giving Rusty slight hope in their ability to evade their pursuers. Looking back at the pony before him, he couldn’t help but notice that her large eyes were dominated by iris’s of her namesake - rose-colored. And they were staring right at him. 

        Bull rushing the back window, Rusty nicked his head a bit on the top piece of plastic, but otherwise he face had a silly little grin. “I’ve got a reaction!”

        “A what?” Twinkle guessed.

        “Little busy, need a bit more than that, Rusty!” Violet called out, again refusing to slow down as the truck spun around another corner. “Twinkle! Push!” she shouted, the truck again groaning as it felt its grip to the road giving away, and again the exasperated unicorn pushed against the broadside of the vehicle.

        “What is with human transportation and its ability to make anypony piloting it a bossy little bitch!” Twinkle shouted, the engine suddenly silent as both Violet and Rusty stopped their trains of thought to look at the pink unicorn. Realizing what she said, the embarrassed mare put a hoof to her mouth. “Oh! Um-”

        “Now that’s more like it!” Rusty cheered playfully, Violet shaking her head - in the middle of a life-and-death struggle, these ponies seemed to find light in the situation. Looking to his side a moment, Rusty once again saw the form of Rose and tapped the girls. “I saw something! Rose was looking at me! Right at me with her big ol’ eyes!”

        Twinkle looked back pushing the red colt’s head straight out of her way as Violet tried to keep her truck on the road. However, the moving pony proved to be a bit of a distraction for the purple-haired driver, so she shot a hand out and pushed the unicorn back to her seat. “Steady, Twinkle! I don’t even want to think about anything other than getting somewhere safe! Or at least somewhere to hide...!” 

        Heeding her terms, the unicorn kept herself forward focused and task oriented, instead opting to stick her head out the window and look up. “Violet, that helicopter is still up there. We need to find higher buildings or something-”

        “Sante Fe doesn’t have taller buildings!” Rusty cut in, Violet shaking her head violently. Screeching the wheels again, Twinkle was starting to believe the purple-haired female was turning sharply just to shut everypony up, her horn keeping the truck steady as it flew through the intersections, the sound of gunfire behind them as a number of vehicles attempted to make a mark on the truck. However, it didn’t make Rusty any happier. “Bullets! They’re shooting at us! Goddamn, why are they this pissed at us!?”

        “You did nearly run a couple over!” Twinkle shouted at the stallion. The red pony contemplated this, but only ended up shrugging and looking a bit sheepish. 

        Violet looked back a moment, her mind racing with questions. They were just a group of ponies - plus one human. There wasn’t that much of a need to track them down - Not even under some vague idea of Rose being important to the HLF. But then again.... Reaching for the gas mask, Violet brought it close to her chest as her other hand steered the gar, still white knuckling her. “I’ve got an idea why.”

        Twinkle’s eyes flashed as she eyed the gas mask. “Violet, why do you have that thing, anyway? What’s so important about it?” She paused as her brain started to work. “And why are they chasing us!?”

        “It’s that ponification serum - the kind from your Bureau. They’ve been modifying it. Making it gaseous. It’s what they did to Rose.” Violet said, her voice deadpan as she found a curved road to turn unto. They had already lost three vehicles - the semi among the first to go. But two very capable cars were still on their tail, and the helicopter above keeping an eye on them - before long the others who were still working would be on them thanks to it. “It doesn’t have any sedatives in it, so they did it to her when she was... she was conscious, Twinkle.”

        “Mongrels!” the unicorn spat. Violet raised her brow at the visceral response, but made no effort to stop it. “There’s a reason why we never made chambers for mass conversion - nevermind the parallels to your World War II villains.” Twinkle looked up above towards the helicopter, her eyes narrowing before she stuck her head back in the cabin. “There’s no way to portion gas right - especially for inhalation. They were liable to kill her, not to mention- Oh sweet Celestia, Violet, I need to get back there!” Twinkle suddenly shifted herself, but the human pushed her back down. “Violet! She needs attention! The amount of strain a mind goes through-”

        “I know. I saw it. They made me watch!” Violet screamed, not tearing her eyes of the road. Twinkle could only huff in disbelief, shaking her head in alarm. Violet slammed on the accelerator with all she had as she drove the car into another side street, this time clashing up against a wall instead of relying on Twinkle’s magic. Sickening scrapes caused Rusty to cover himself and Rose with a blanket as sparks flew alongside the truck, the driver side mirror completely scrapped as its shards rained out upon the sidewalk beside it. Thanking whatever deity she could think of, the Ford’s wheels squealed as it rocked back onto the street, before Violet spotted a building before a fork in the road. 

        Rusty stuck his head in, shaking some debris from his mane as he looked about. “The hell was that for!?” he called, before Violet gestured weakly with her thumb. 

        “Last second turn, didn’t really think about it. Did those bastards make it?” she asked, not daring to turn and look. And it’s not like she could use her side view mirror. However, Rusty had the courage to look, and was gratified to see an orange Taurus find itself wedged inside of a streetlamp as he turned to see. Giving a shout, Rusty’s positive attitude was short lived as a dark black truck like their own barreled into the turn, narrowly dodging the the broken car. 

        “One of them did,” Rusty reported, before leaning down next to the pegasus. Succumbing to the fact he was little more than lookout at the moment, his head trailed up into the sky, catching sight of spinning blades as the helicopter ducked out of sight behind some buildings. Resting his head down, he checked over the puce pony. Bringing a hoof to her face, the red pony pushed it from side to side, trying to get a better look at the girl. “Oh, you poor, poor thing. The world’s falling apart around you and it’s not giving you room to breathe,” he sighed, laying his head down. He could hear Twinkle and Violet conversing in ever escalating tones, shaking his head slightly. “You know, Rose, I’ve got a niece I was going to see, too. A wonderful little pegasus, like yourself.”

        “I remember the day she was born. I was still a human then. Oh, if you could have held a baby foal in your hands, Rose.” Rusty lifted his head, the truck in the distance wasn’t really catching up, but it wasn’t getting any further away. Tears beaded around his eyes as he felt the truck take another sharp turn. “Oh my, and those little wings. She tried to flap them the moment she was delivered. Born to fly, that one.” Rusty chuckled at the memory, or maybe it was the fact he was sitting in the back of a truck during a car chase, and the only thing on his mind was the family he’d leave behind when they... if they failed to get away. “She’s turning four soon. By Celestia, how they grow.” Placing his head down, the pony averted his gaze toward the sky, hoping he wouldn’t see the hovering helicopter overhead, despite hearing the throbbing sounds echoing over the city. Closing his eyes, Rusty reflected on his niece. “I haven’t seen her in so long...”

        Sighing deeply, his ear turned toward the cabin, trying to gather what the girls were talking about. Probably some plan to lose the last vehicle, but unless they caused them all to eventually crash while avoiding to do the same, eventually the other vehicles would find them again thanks to the helicopter. He wondered if he’d have ever really gotten around to going had he not met Violet. He loved his family dearly, but they were so far away, and Equestria... anypony he met that went there had only sent him mail and postcards claiming what a paradise it was, and rarely returned stateside. It seemed so foreign to him, and yet... it was the only world his niece knew. None of the pain and death and car chases and forced ponification and feral animals and guns or any of that. The worst she would have by the end of this day was likely to have an uncle she never really knew. But his sister would tell her. Tell her he loved her. Tell her he held her the day she was born and promised that he’d do anything to keep her safe.

“What was her name?”

        Rusty blinked, his thoughts dashed by a new yet familiar voice. Jerking his head towards the source, he was caught off-guard by the blinking rose-colored orbs that stared at him.

        “Your niece... What was her name?”

        Clearing his throat, the stallion couldn’t suppress his smile even if he wanted to. “Prairie Fire,” he choked out, blinking away tears. “Her name is Prairie Fire. She’s the most beautiful little thing in the world. Orangish Red coat, just a bit lighter than mine, and a crazy little mop of blue-green hair for a mane, little curls everywhere. Her mom says it’ll straighten out in time - all of us did growing up. Except me, of course, before I went pony.”

        Rose nodded weakly, her eyes trailing over the flashing scenery. Her body ached and her vision was blurry at best, but she could recognize her friend, even if she could have never considered him such just a short twenty four hours ago. “Violet... Where’s Violet...?” she breathed, as if she had some warning for her.

        Rusty sighed and shook his mane. “Piloting the truck, of course. But uh... this is hard to explain, but we’re on the run for our lives...”

        Violet’s voice cut the air between them as her hand landed on the gearshift. “Okay, everypony,” she shouted, a small smirk playing on her lips as she uttered the pony-only phrase. “Hang on! Rusty, keep Rose safe as best you can, ‘cause we got a plan!”

        “We do not have a plan and you are not-” Twinkle roared, before the car made a stunted jerk forward before slowing down considerably. Violet spun her hands around the wheel until it could go no more, and the truck lurched into an insane spin, its forward momentum impeded. Forcing itself to move, the truck shifted right some as the four wheels screeched and left trails of burnt rubber on the tarmac, the faraway black truck closing in on them. Violet kept the company of ponies intact, her thoughts idling out to her grandfather who had taught her to drive. As the truck came to a sudden and jerky stop, Violet’s hands patted down every part of her body to make sure she was all there, before feeling a hoof become hard pressed on her side, the unicorn giving a halfhearted buck in the cramped space. “Don’t you dare do that again!” she shouted, but Violet could only shake her head with a smile on her face. 

        “Just stay there a moment, Twinkle, and wait for my signal.” Violet breathed, closing her eyes a moment. Nodding her head, she opened the door, much to the protests of the unicorn.

        “You’re going to get yourself killed!” the unicorn shouted, but the girl just shrugged it off.

        “I’ll leave that up to you, sorry!” Violet replied in a sing-song voice, covering her nerves up. As she walked out into the open, she saw Rusty looking about confused. “Hey there, Red. Sorry about this in advance, but we couldn’t keep driving like this - we’re nearly out of gas as it is. You bought a hell of a gas guzzler.”

        “Violet..?” Rose called out, gingerly lifting herself up. At her mere voice, Violet slammed up against the truck bed and peered into the back. Rose’s wings moved awkwardly as she tried to move to her hooves, finding difficulty. “Shit, I thought it would be like crawling on your hands and feet...”

        Twinkle had her head stuck out of the back, her voice soft as she gave advice. “Just... take it slow dear, the magic helps you get around it. Just try moving naturally and it should come easier to you.”

        Rose gave a dry chuckle. “Natural... right.”

        “Rose. Oh... I thought you were- he said there was only a small chance...” Violet couldn’t think of anything, but instead captured the girl’s head in her arms and brought her in for a hug. “Thank goodness you’re alright!” Rose struggled against the girl’s arms, but soon melted into the gesture, sighing hard. 

        “For at least another five seconds. Violet, we have company.” Rusty cut in, pointing a hoof towards the black truck. It slowed down nearby, two men in uniform could be seen through its windows. Above, the helicopter passed, Violet looking on as she recognized the man who stood, framed by its own side entrance. Looking back down to the two men who were mobilizing, Violet’s arms raised up high as she stepped forward. 

        “Heads down, ponies, Rose.” Violet muttered under her breath, her mind not making the distinction for her once-human friend. Taking a few steps toward the other black truck, the doors soon flew open as one of the men came out, brandishing a service issue handgun. 

        “Stop right there.” Violet’s feet stopped short as she eyed the man. The driver of the vehicle soon stepped out of the car as well, although he had no weapon to call his own. Instead, he brandished a night stick, likely pillaged from some abandoned police station. “Don’t take another step,” he bellowed, earning him a look of disgust from the girl.

        “Yes, because I’m so likely to disobey a direct order from a man holding a gun,” she chided, shaking her head. “Look buddy, I don’t know what’s going on here, but you all had no right to hold any of my friends hostage, or do what you did to Rose.”

        The driver shrugged it off, paying little mind toward her words. “Orders is orders, ma’am. Maybe when you put fifteen years of service into the army an’ then get screwed into handling domestic disputes fer the last three years, maybe we’ll listen to what you have ta say.” The other soldier shot him a look, but he ignored it. As he stood, a voice crackled over the black trucks radio, Violet recognizing the tones as belonging to Lt. Standish.

        Still, she might as well run her mouth. “So that’s that? If your orders are to kill innocent people, whose only crime is that they’re related to some bad apple, it’s justified? You’re with the IHSA-”

        “The what?”

        “Ugh.” Violet slapped her hand on her forehead. “The I-H-S-A. “

        The driver looked over to his companion, a look of bemusement on his face. “‘The fuck calls it the ‘Ehhsah’?” The gun toting soldier shrugged as he entered the cabin of his truck, intent on answering Standish’s call. 

        Cheeks red with embarrassment, the purple-haired girl pressed on. “It doesn’t matter how it’s called! You’re supposed to protect humanity’s survival! Not kill them! That’s the opposite of what you’re called to do!” She looked about, her ears hearing the helicopter above, but she couldn’t see him among the buildings. Smirking, she shook her head. “Don’t you think that’s hypocritical?”

        The driver shrugged, “Hey, we’re not trying to kill anyone. We’re just trying to remove the humans that aren’t beneficial from the future. Through ponification. They still live... sometimes. But we’ll get it right sooner or later.”

        The gunman exited the cab, rolling his head around his neck as he turned toward Violet. “Orders from Standish. Kill the girl, and the ponies.” The human girl was taken aback by the candid answer, but shook off her shock quickly.

        “Well, nevermind. I guess we are in the killing business again!” The driver chuckled, gesturing from the gunman to Violet, a sick smile on his face. “It’s nothing personal, love. Orders is orders, y’know.” As he spoke, the man raised his weapon up to Violet, his hand clicking the safety off.

        Violet’s face darkened, her expression changing from fear to a dire grimness. “Yeah.” A faint purple sparkle appeared around the firearm, giving the gunman pause before the offending weapon was ripped from his hands by an invisible force. As it soared through the air, Violet reached into her pocket and brought out Jorge’s gun, aiming it toward the gunman and firing. She missed the first two shots, but connected with his head with the next. The driver scarcely had time to turn around before a bullet collided with his back, downing the man immediately. “Nothing personal.”

        Violet wanted to throw up.

        Twinkle did.

        Rusty popped his head out from the back, fearing the worst as he soon saw Violet standing still out in the open, the drumming of heartbeats coinciding with the throbbing of helicopter blades. Keeping on his good hooves, the red stallion rushed to Twinkle’s aid, who was currently hanging out of the truck window on the passenger’s side. Rose kept looking at her hooves, then over to her wings, the appendages twitching oddly as she tried to figure out how they moved. Numbly, Violet spun about and approached the truck bed, placing her hand on its edge. Looking over the assembled group of ponies, she silently turned to see the helicopter in the distance. She saw the form of Lieutenant Standish, and shot him the finger in a flare of anger. 

        Suddenly, she felt a hoof on her hand, turning to see Rose. The girl seemed worse for wear, but she was nothing tragic, at least on the surface. No words were shared between the two, merely taking solace in the fact that they were both, for lack of a better word, okay. Spinning on her heels, Violet pointed to the other truck, putting on a thin smirk. “We got gas.” 

        -----

        Piling into the new truck, Violet took little time in acquainting herself to the mildly different controls and quickly noticed she was dealing with an automatic rather than a manual, much to her pleasure. Twinkle and Violet even brought the mattress over, even though it didn’t fit as well. There was little discussion on seats, Rusty taking the passenger’s seat while the mares took the truck bed, Rose unfurling her wings and shrugging. Violet removed the holster from one of the agent’s belts, taking note that the driver had a holster himself, but no gun with it. Still, gas mask in hand, she grabbed some of the tools from Rusty’s truck and threw it in the space between the seats and the truck bed.

However, the barking voice of Lt. Standish coming from the radio was certainly a problem, as the human turned to her pony friends as they all got themselves in mildly comfortable positions. Turning the vehicle on, the truck started to move out, just as the IHSA members in the crashed Taurus were coming around. 

        Grabbing the radio receiver, Violet thumbed the response button in her hand as they drove. Standish had to know, even from a distance, that things had not worked out to his advantage. Violet and the ponies were up to three guns now, the one they had taken from the soldier, Jorge’s, and the weapon used to kill Richard. If anything, Violet figured she had enough ammo to justify missing a few shots. “Hey, Jackass.” Violet called out to Standish, giving the others pause. She honestly didn’t know what she was doing, but she was playing it by ear. “I’ve been coming to terms about just what the hell you think you’re doing, and I’ve got a basic idea on how bad you’ve fucked up today.”

        There was silence on the other end as the truck continued on, the blades of the chopper close behind as Standish ordered his pilot to continue on. Trading glances with Rusty, Violet shook her head. Despite this, an answer called out from the radio. “Yeah, and how do you figure?”

        Violet smirked, “Well, for one, you failed on your assassination attempt; Bravo there, let a witness get away from you; Two, actually, counting one pony; And lost a number of your agents, all of which seems pretty bad from where I’m standing.” Although Violet had to admit, a lot of what she had gotten away with today was due to her pony friends, Twinkle in particular. Feeling mildly pleased with herself, the purple haired human smirked.

        “Oh you think you’re so smart, huh? Stupid little bitch, well let me tell you something! I’ve got loads of goddamn gas on this thing, enough to coat three square miles of this fucking city! You think you’re getting away from that?!” Violet raised an eyebrow, passing a glance over to Rusty. The pony looked in the back, spotting the gas mask among the other tools. Standish continued his little tirade over the coms as Violet reached back with a lazy hand, nabbing the headgear as she gave a short smirk.

        “You’re bluffing. There could be a hundred people left in Sante Fe still, are you really going to risk killing all of them just to get to three nondescript ponies and a little girl? Not to mention some of your men may still be alive down here.” Violet’s tone was as sweet as it was sickening, the red stallion giving the girl a smirk as he looked back at the mare’s in the back. Twinkle seemed interested in the conversation, but Rose was far more interesting. Despite driving at some fifty miles per hour, the new pony was on all four limbs, wings outstretched as she felt the wind rush beneath her wings, the sensation of flying so great that a look of serene calm was crossed over the ponies features. 

        Violet took a stare at the radio a moment as she looked about the truck, seeing if she could catch the helicopter which burned in her ears. Perhaps her last threat had won her the day? Turning off to a side street, the only sentient with jeans still on was soon cut off from her fleeting moment of triumph. “They’re expendable. Besides, haven’t you seen this city? Empty! Not a man nor pony among its walls. The homeless are all ponies,  and the humans have left for bigger and better things. Those that are here are like roaches. Useless to humanity. Maybe they’ll do better as ponies.”

        Twinkle gasped sharply at the thought of the lieutenant releasing such a weapon on his own men, shuddering in disgust. “Doesn’t he have any loyalty?” she exclaimed, putting a hoof to her mouth.

        “If he had any of that, we wouldn’t be in this mess. He literally thinks he’s helping the IHSA cause,” Rusty muttered darkly, catching sight of the helicopter for a brief moment before Violet turned a corner. 

        Twinkle nodded. “Either way, we can’t call his bluff, if somepony is living here- I mean, if some person, human, is living here, then we can’t just let him dump the potion! They could be hurt, or killed!” Shaking her mane about, the unicorn felt helpless. “Violet, you have to stop him!”

        Rose opened an eye, bending her knees slightly to cut herself away from the wind. However, her back legs fell wrong and she ended up falling into a laying position, her wings still outstretched and picking up the wind from the sides of the vehicle. Noting her comfort in such a position, the pegasus tapped her hoof against Twinkle’s back left limb, causing the unicorn to look back. “Tell the fucker we’ll meet him somewhere.”

        Twinkle stared at the girl, but soon shook her head as she turned to Violet and related the idea. “Rose says to orchestrate a meeting with him.”

        Violet looked back at Twinkle, her face awash in confusion. “What? Seriously?”

        “That’s not what I said! Twinkle, tell ‘er what I said word-for-word.”

        Twinkle shot a glare back at the pegasus, but relented, her mind filling with guilt over the pegasus’ circumstance. “Ahem... what she said was... ‘Tell the fucker we’ll meet him somewhere’,” she still ended up staring daggers at the pegasus. “Good?”

        “Great,” Rose said, looking pleased with herself.

        Violet gaped momentarily, but soon shook her head. Mulling over the details, she at least could keep the conversation going. “Well, fine. Let’s see where this goes...” She mused, shaking her head. Clicking the radio, she kept her voice level as she delivered on the idea. “Okay, Standish. You called my bluff. We’ll meet you somewhere, and we’ll try to talk this out. No one else has to die.”

        However, this time Standish was quick to reply. “That’s Lieutenant Standish, girl. But let’s make this very clear, I can’t have you or your friends live, so let’s get this straight - you will be dying. It’s just whether or not you want the gas to kill you and leave your friends stranded as well as play roulette with the humans left in the city, or to just die heroically. That said, meet me at Arovista Park in an hour. Thank you Violet, it’s been a pleasure.”

        There was a silence in the truck after a very resolute sounding click, causing the truck to slow to a stop, Violet eventually turning off the engine as she stared blankly at the assembled ponies. “Well... shit.”

        -----

        Violet sat on the sidewalk, resting her arm over her knee as she heard the passing helicopter above. It had only been fifteen minutes since the announcement, and since then she had parked inside a store, taking no mind of the fact she drove through the glass doors to do so. However, seated under an awning, she had little reason to fear being seen. Alongside her sat the pegasus Rose, the girl apparently taking her transformation in stride. As she stared at the pony, Violet sighed wistfully. “Doesn’t it... bother you?” She began, trying to find the best words.

        Rose looked up, her eyes lit in tempered curiosity. “What? Being forcefully turned into what I considered a sin against nature less than twenty-four hours ago? Back when I had a fucking brother and, until you showed up, blissfully unaware of the fact my dad had died?”

        Violet sighed, running her hand through her hair. “I was gonna find a better time to bring that up, but yeah. Here you are, sitting on a sidewalk, wings sticking out of your back... You’re a pony,” she breathed, laying her head against the wall. “And I saw you awake during the conversion. That’s not... I mean... shouldn’t you be...”

        “Psycho? Broken? Dead inside?” Violet simply nodded. “What, did you forget that he shot me up full of chemicals before I nearly choked to death on purple smoke?” Rose questioned. Violet’s eyes shot up, but Rose looked away. “I don’t like it, and it did hurt, but only as much as a really bad sneeze that you feel in your arms. But being awake for it? Listening and watching as your own bones snap and reposition themselves, seeing yourself light up like a fuckin’ Christmas Tree? Yeah, it shocked me.”

        Violet cringed horridly, in which Rose smirked. “Yeah, kinda the reaction I got out of it. Except a lot worse,” she chided, before instinctively trying to run a hoof through her hair. Taking a moment to realize she had no fingers in which the hair to go through, she placed her hoof back down and stood up - a bit more stably this time. “Still though, can’t complain too much. I’ve got wings, and once I get used to doing the whole flapping thing... Well, you’ll be hard pressed to get much complaints from me. Thank God I didn’t become an Earth pony. Or is that ‘Thank Celestia’ now?”

        “You could say Luna, too. Mix it up a little,” Violet teased, a sad smile still on her face. As she leaned her head back, the human closed her eyes. “Rose... when I said Fred was dead... I didn’t know he was your dad. Or that he was head of the HLF. I’m so sorry...”

        Rose bleated, catching herself in mid-motion as she chuckled at the equine mannerism. “Don’t worry about it. I didn’t get along with dear ‘ol Dad much anyway. Or hear from him, Richard neither. He was as much the ‘head’ of the Human Liberation Front as the Queen of England ‘ran’ Britain. More a figurehead to respect if anything.” Exhaling, it was clear the topic didn’t much interest the puce pegasus, but she went on. “God, he owned that title though. He actually thought everyone and their mom had to treat him like a king! Like it was worth bein’ the head of what basically was a terrorist group.” Shaking her mane, Rose quit the motion quickly, her eyes narrowing. Giving it some thought, the pegasus slowly gave a full head shake, unused to the pony equivalent. “That said, I do seem to be in the business for some new family.”

        Violet’s eyes opened incredulously, her face breaking out into a huge grin. “Just like that, you’re gonna get over all of this?” she mused, coughing slightly as a brisk wind stole her breath away. “Sure that’s not the ponification talking?”

        Rose sighed, bringing herself up on four hooves, which only brought her slightly above Violet’s head where she sat. “Actually, to be honest? I’m pretty sure it is.” The human’s eyebrows shot up, but Rose continued, “But I’m okay with that. My life is hugely fucked up right now, and if anything helps me get through it, I’ll take it.” Giving an experimental flap of the from her new extremities, the pegasus laughed for a change. “Plus, you know, wings.”

        “Ah yes, wings, the great equalizer!” Violet laughed, rubbing her back against the wall and feeling her shoulder blades clash with the concrete surface. “I hope I can be a pegasus once this is over,” she said, looking down at the ground. The admission caught the pegasus off-guard, her face melding into one of intrigue.

        “Wait, I thought we were gonna die here in a half an hour,” she admitted, shaking her head. “You know, to save the goddamn shut-ins and incidentals.”

        Violet smirked, shaking her head. “Oh, I have no intentions on dying, Rose. Call it that ol’ human need to survive, but I feel like throwing a couple wrenches where I can and seeing what happens.” Standing up, the girl drew herself to her full height as she watched Rusty and Twinkle appear outside, taking cautious steps around the glass until they were outside. “Even if it does mean a little pony gas here and there,” she finished, drawing the attention of the ponies nearby.

        Twinkle cast a lazy eye over to Violet, but she simply ended up rolling it at the girl. “I don’t know what you’re planning, I don’t want to know what you’re planning.” Shaking her mane, the unicorn bleated in displeasure. “I already know I’m not going to change your mind, and I know you’re going to need me.” 

        Rose chuckled openly at this, giving Twinkle a once over. “Well well, a far cry from yesterday. What’s got you in such an open mood?” At this, Twinkle gave a smirk as Rusty innocently whistled off the corner of his mouth, drawing blank stares over the flower duo. “Wait. Waaaiit.” Rose shook her head violently, her mind suddenly awash in mental imagery.

        “Hm? What was it you said Rusty? Mmm, being chased around and having your life put on the line... is a time to be distinctly un-pony, correct?” Twinkle said with a smile, “So given our situation, I did the most human thing I can think of!” Swishing her tail back and forth, the mare decided now was as good of a time as any to make her way back through into the building where the truck lay. 

        Violet let out a loud snerk, covering her mouth as she kept herself from giggling further. Rusty let loose a second innocent whistle, swaggering toward the doorway. But before he got too far he found himself blocked off by a fully erect pair of wings, barring his entrance back inside. In Rose’s eyes held an intensity that scared him as she stepped forward. “Hold it right there buddy, I got a question for you.”

        Rusty gulped loudly, running his eyes left and right in an attempt to avert the gaze Rose was inflicting on him. “Y-yes?”

        Narrowing her eyes, Rose outlined her query very cleanly. “Do unicorns have contraceptive magic?”

> Her Finale
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Fifteen minutes until the requested time, Violet finally clicked the radio of the Toyota off and ran her hand through her hair. It was everything she could do to not pay attention in any way, shape, or form to the back of the truck bed as she did, not wishing to even see the tousled sheets and blankets. “Just over a day,” she mused, but then again, Twinkle had decided that she would act decidedly non-pony. And after running a Conversion Bureau where there were bound to be couples arriving, and more specifically, new couples leaving after a night of ‘christening’ their pony bodies, Violet didn’t much blame the unicorn for her limited view of humans.

        It was just embarrassing that she was right about their behavior. 

        Still, she holstered her handgun she received from Jorge and checked her gas mask. If things went down a bad way, she wanted to be ready. And considering unless the good Lieutenant felt like being a friendly guy and came quietly, she expected some sort of bullets to fly. Likely at her, but that was just something she had to deal with. 

        It’s not like it would be a change of pace for her at this point. Sighing through her nose, Violet mentally berated herself for not taking her hour to sleep soundly, or at least try, but all things considered she had been rather productive. She had found which magazines were interchangeable, finding that Jorge’s gun and the gun of the fallen soldier were not, but somehow the gunman’s magazine was the exact fit for Rose’s handgun. Spinning in her seat, Violet reached over and turned the truck on, shifting the headlights on in the failing daylight. Catching sight and sound, the ponies who were mulling about got up and moved toward the truck, Rose taking a moment to stop Rusty from getting in the cabin.

        “No way, no how lover-boy. You sit in the back, where it smells of you,” Rose ordered, tripping over her hooves as she struggled to figure out which limb went where when it came to seating herself in a place meant for humans. Still, she ended up in a very close approximation of how Twinkle and Rusty sat, and soon reached a hoof out and closed the door, sighing wistfully as she did. “Don’t crash into anything, I don’t know how airbags react to ponies.”

        Looking about the cabin, Violet shrugged. “Neither do I, Rose. Wouldn’t it be fun to find out?” she teased, but the ponified girl merely stuck her tongue out at the human - a comparatively tame response to her usual fare. Leaning back, Violet slipped the back window open as she saw Rusty assisted into the back with Twinkle. “Hey Twinkle, how good are you at enchanting ropes into a lasso?”

        The pink pony in question hopped up onto the bed in the back, giving Violet an odd look. “Completely and utterly useless,” she said, deadpan. A moment later, she slapped a hoof to her face in exasperation, “Oh sweet Celestia you’re rubbing off on me.”

        “Relish in it, girl!” Rose called back, her head forward as she drummed her hoof on the dashboard. “So, Violet, you were on that radio for awhile, I take it the Lieutenant was a hard sell?” Violet turned to meet her gaze, but soon shrugged it off. “Not really, I haven’t even contacted him yet, but right now the worst case scenario is on a hairpin trigger, and the only thing I’ve got right now is my voice.”

        Rose grimaced, putting a hoof in her face as she rubbed it around. “So you’re gonna have to talk a madman down, or he’ll dump what is basically poison all over Santa Fe. Great plan, V. Real foolproof.” Violet smirked, reaching down for the radio as she shifted channels. Rose raised an eyebrow, turning over to the human. “So wait, I heard you talking - who were you talking to?”

        With a smile, Violet gave a soft wink. “It really wasn’t that hard to guess what was going on, so I asked Twinkle about how she used to get in contact with the IHSA, and I kinda... extrapolated from there.” Pulling out of the store, the light sound of helicopter blades could still be heard as the truck started its trek through the city. “However, there are two things I need to get cleared out of the way, and the rest I’ll explain along the way.” 

        Making sure everything was set accordingly, the girl popped her radio on as she raised the receiver to her mouth. “Alright, Lt. Standish, I got a couple demands, and if you don’t mind, I’m just gonna go ahead and give them. See, turns out having a crack team of pony professionals with me is great for the karma, and things have been really working out in my favor since you said you wanted me dead. Oh, and thanks for the warning and an hour to prepare, great military genius that is.”

        “Of course, you’re not really in the military. Not anymore, Sammy. Funny thing about going rogue, kinda strips you of your rank and pisses a lot of people off. So don’t think you’re safe out east anymore where the magic’s a bit thinner than here.” Violet watched the look on Rose’s face, gauging her reaction as she spoke. “Also, how’s the gas up there? You didn’t have time to refuel what little resources you had back at base, and I know you don’t have any AI units laying around to automate that shit. So let’s see, a trip to Albuquerque, a trip back, and now you’ve been hovering over Sante Fe for almost an hour after a rousing game of cat and mouse - where the mouse happened to kill a number of cats with a gun and a pick-up.”

        “So here’s the deal, Standish. You meet me at the Bataan Building. Then we’ll kinda go from there. And as an incentive not to throw a bitch fit, this is literally the only option you have in staying alive to see the sunset. Toodles!” Clicking the radio off, the girl hung the receiver up and turned the radio off, taking all her willpower in not throwing the device out the window to prove a point. 

        However, that all didn’t quite sit well with a certain puce pegasus. “The hell was that?”

        Violet smirked, pouring on the accelerator. “Common sense. He didn’t have any to start, so why not use my own against him?” Violet spent the next ten minutes outlining her plan, and then spent the next two hundred feet toward the building. “And lastly, I haven’t the slightest clue where the hell Arovista Park is.”

        -----

        Violet stood on the lower roof of the Bataan building, taking great pride in her state; to have built such a monument that, unlike some of the other fixtures of society, had decidedly stayed strong despite weathering and misuse. She felt almost bad that it was likely not to look as nice as it did when she arrived. “Mom would be furious,” she tittered, remembering her mother’s old motto. Always leave things how you left it... “Ponies not withstanding, Mom.”

        Keeping an eye to the sky, eventually the girl saw the incoming helicopter, popping up from below a low hilltop. Violet felt quite proud of herself for evading capture in such a city - there weren’t too many tall buildings in Sante Fe, having only just released the restrictions on building heights a couple years prior to first contact. It made her smile, despite her given situation, a last shred of pride to take from this day. Her grandpa would be proud of her.

        Making herself seen on the roof of the building, Violet soon brought herself close to a wall that would separate her and the helicopter, not allowing the man to take any sort of pot shot at her from his flying perch. The chopper circled the building a couple times before a low whine exhumed from the vehicle, and it wasn’t long at all before the human found herself with some company on the rooftops. Stepping out a little bit, Violet watched the man carefully as he exited the helicopter, his normal demeanor completely removed. However, he didn’t have a gun immediately drawn, so Violet took a step out into the open. She smirked as she resisted the urge to cross her arms, keeping her hand glued to her side, near the holster. “Good to see you, Sammy.”

        “Lieutenant Standish, bitch,” the man seethed, his hand reaching for his gun. Just as quickly, Violet grabbed hold of the agent’s grip, raising her hand out and shaking her finger.

“Nah-uh-uh, Sammy.” Her eyes flashed toward the pilot, who was obviously making no moves to interact between the two. She was glad that he was narcissistic enough to ride along in the helicopter. “I’m here to give you one chance to surrender, come quietly, and maybe you can live the rest of your days in jail. Or, you can die here, today, with no hope of a future, and your name to be tarnished from the records of history.”

Standish shook his head through gritted teeth, his hand coming to rest on his gun. “You have no idea what you’re doing, girl! There are bigger things at play here, and you won’t stop it! Humanity is a dying breed, and it will go out gloriously! There will only be the best there is when we finally burn out. I’m doing good work.”

“You’re doing shit other than committing genocide. Where else have you made your little test runs? There are tons of little towns and cities around here with dwindling human populations. They can’t all of been HLF!” Violet defended, her hand coming in full grips with the metal beneath it. 

“What was left either were or they refused us. Sloths! Roaches!” Standish barked his words like an animal, giving Violet legitimate pause. “You haven’t seen them, these useless bones, dwindling their days on what was, instead of what is! I tried to save them - ponies are a salvation for the pests! They weed out the weak and make them strong!” He was shaking now, his head nodding in agreement to his own words. Violet took a step back, her eyes furrowed. Her mind echoed the words of Jorge as she felt his gun concealed behind her, held there by her belt.

Things have been getting riled up as of late - the brass says it’s the magic in the atmosphere, makin’ things go wild! 

        “Samuel, look-” Violet began, but soon found her words cut off as the sound of engines caught her ear. Looking about, the girl saw a number of cars, trucks, and the damaged semi coming up the road. “Oh sweet Christ... Tell me you didn’t...” 

        The ex-Lieutenant laughed aloud, “Oh, say my choices are to die or go peacefully? Well lemme present option number three - where you die, and I get back to my superiors and tell them our little mess has been cleaned up.” Drawing out his gun, Violet quickly withdrew her own and pointed at the man, turning herself sideways as she did. At the moment, the man merely chuckled. “What, you think standing that way makes you look good shootin’, hunny?” 

        “Not really, but I’m the one with the gun trained on you, so any sudden movements and I’ll blow your head off-” However, Violet wasn’t actually prepared for any sudden movements, and Standish quickly fired his gun, missing by a mile as the bullet collided with the wall behind Violet as he emptied his clip willy-nilly at the girl. Dashing toward some cover, Violet aimed down the sights of her weapon and shot off a couple rounds until she heard the tell-tale click of an empty chamber, swearing lightly as she dropped the magazine and put in Rose’s ammo clip, having expected the soldier’s clip to have held more bullets. “Son of a Bitch runs a shit ship,” she cursed, peering from behind cover. As she did, she reached behind her back and produced the gas mask.

        “You’re a damn poor shot, hunny.” Standish laughed, the engines nearby roaring as they neared the building. “It’s a good thing my men are trained shots. It won’t take them long to down a couple of fuckin’ ponies.”

        Violet smirked, keeping her head down. “Who said they were here?” As she kept behind the wall that kept her from Standish’s bullets, she heard a loud, high pitched ‘pssssh’ sound that could only come from a leaky gas valve. “And what makes you think I was aiming for you?”

Or in her case, a crack caused by a bullet in an otherwise pressurized container full of gaseous ponification serum that was currently leaking into the air. Strapping her mask on, Violet took a second to peer at the hissing container, before ducking back under cover at the sound of gunfire.

        Turning around, Standish could see the crack in the container, and that much pressure trying to force itself out of one container could only mean one thing. Taking her chance, the girl only had one shot to make it count, her mind buzzing with the idea that with all the men surrounding the building, her friends weren’t going to survive an attack, no matter her bluff toward the Lieutenant. 

Looking down her sights, the girl reflected how yesterday had started out like any other these past few years. Always in a fog, never remembering one moment after another. She barely remembered her time at the Tower, except for Alfred. He must be worried sick by now, she mused, her eye trained on the plume of purple smoke as the militarily dressed man started to wheel about. What an awful time she had over the last two days. Breaking down and crying in front of so many ponies in front of the Bureau... not to mention in front of Rusty and Twinkle. And then she was chased down by a semi-truck! But it wasn’t all bad. She saved the life of Rose, and she made friends with two very special ponies. She felt herself inwardly laugh. Guess it was three very special ponies now. 

The hammer fell, her gun twitching with the recoil of the explosion in her hand. To be fair, it reminded her of the initial hit of the semi against the back of Rusty’s Ford. That poor stallion, his feet are still bruised from bucking that grill, and no amount of modified socks is going to change that for at least a week. Still, he did eventually help dislodge the semi, instead of taking the truck with it. Violet wondered if she had thanked him for it. Twinkle sure had, that’s for sure. To think, only a day had gone by since some self-imposed imprisonment, and here she was, shooting at the best made plans by some terrorist cell. What a tale this was.

The bullet collided perfectly along the crack, exposing a much larger hole in the exterior of the container, fitted just inside the open door of the helicopter that Standish so graciously left open for her. The hole created, the pressure was let out in an explosive manner as the metal casing exploded inside the helicopter. Standish threw himself to the ground, a wave of purple mist washing over him as another explosion erupted from the helicopter, and another - every tank of serum had exploded, until the entire aerial vehicle erupted in a fireball, its fuel tank gauged by flying metal shards. 

Making sure her mask was on proper, the girl let herself get washed in the mist, the thick fog raining over the building and cascading down toward the vehicles below. Three square miles of ponification serum all dumped in one spot, the cloud made its way around the assembled soldiers, completely taken off-guard by the rushing debris that fell over them.

Despite the mask, Violet breathed very little, unsure if the headgear could take sure high amounts of potion, and she was unwilling to test its limits. All she knew was that there was little else to see outside the mist, and very slowly picked herself up to her feet. Looking about, the purple haired girl could hear the screams of the soldiers below as the were forcefully put through ponification. She didn’t wish such a fate on them, but she knew it was them or her friends, and there was no silver lining that could save both groups. Exhaling deeply, the girl replaced a little air in her lungs as she moved toward the burning wreckage next to the tower. The helicopter had literally blown a hole through the wall, exposing the staircase within. If anything, it gave Violet another way down. Tossing Rose’s gun to the side, she didn’t much think there were bullets left in it anyway.

“Violet?” a voice called, the human girl identifying it as the voice of Twinkle. The unicorn appeared nearby, her head just barely above the ponification smoke around her, the thick gas barreling past them as Twinkle made her way over to her friend. “What the hell happened to the plan? I was going to rip the gun from like I did the agent, and we could have stopped him!”

        Violet sighed deeply, shaking her head in response. “He surrounded us, Twinkle. There was so little we could do with all of his forces here, I had to make a decision - them, or us. It may have meant less lives... but I’m not going to regret it. Besides, maybe some of them will live on as ponies.”

        Twinkle gave her a very disapproving stage, but Violet ignored it as best she could. “Sometimes, Twinkle, you have to take what little victories you can. He wasn’t... right, in the head. I don’t think there was any reasoning with him, gun or no.”

        Twinkle sighed openly, but soon waived her hoof around, pushing the smoke this way and that. “I’m sure all this potion isn’t healthy for anypony, even you in your mask. Do you think we should just leave Standish up here-”

        Bang.

        There was a scream as a bits of pale pink pony flew off of Twinkle, the pony dropping to the ground under a mist of purple. Spinning around, Violet could see the form of a man in a gas mask, heaving deeply as he held a gun in his hand as a low chuckle emanated from below his mask.

        “You will call me by my proper name and rank! Lieutenant Standish!” he bellowed as Violet stumbled back. Her mind clicking into fight or flight mode, Violet reached for the gun Jorge gave her and whipped it out, firing a blind shot toward the Lieutenant. Clipping his side, the bullet cut the man along his waistline, causing him to fall to his knee a moment. However, before Violet had time to react, Standish pointed his gun at her again, and she could feel the bullet whiz through her hair.

        Breathing Twinkle’s name, the girl spun about, taking off for the hole in the wall, trying her best to ignore the heat coming from the burning wreckage or the bullets as they collided with the wall next to her. As she reached the stairs, Violet instinctively started to head down the steps, before pausing as her foot hit the first stair. Rose and Rusty were still inside, and she couldn’t rightly lead Standish to them. Looking up, Violet dashed up the steps along the tower wall and checked the magazine Jorge had left for her. Just a single bullet left, she could feel it. Taking off up the stairs, she could hear the heavy footsteps of the man she had come to hate so much come stumbling up the stairs after her. “Come here, hunny! Option three is still open, bitch! We gave your plan a try, now give mine! It’s only fair!”

        “Fuck off!” 

        Reaching the roof of the tower, Violet looked about in a tizzy. Head high above the weighty purple serum, Violet couldn’t stand the restricted breathing the mask was giving her. Ripping off the mask, Violet took great gulps of fresh air as she eyed the entrance she came by, waiting, watching for her antagonist. Her eyes scanned the roof below, the billowing smoke and purple mist making it hard to see. Down below, however, she could see the a faint outline of the fallen unicorn, bolstering Violet’s resolve. She would see this through. Crouching low, her mind suddenly through of the mist, and she suddenly jumped to her feet. She didn’t even know if she was safe anymore. 

        “What took you so long, Violet?” The girl felt a shiver run down her spine as Standish called up to her. “It’s been so many years. Why now?” Violet wiped her forehead with her forearm and kept her gun trained on the entrance to the roof. “I think I know why. It’s because you’re just like them. Another weak and pathetic sloth. You’re a blight on humanity. You’re worse than the HLF! You are worthless.”

        Violet froze. She was not. She had driven the truck from the maw of the lorry. She had saved Rose from the fall off the expressway. She evaded trained personnel in an urban setting and outsmarted an officer. She was so not worthless. Aiming the weapon, the girl strode forward, catching glimpse of the man’s upper body as she called upon thunder. Pulling the trigger, Violet’s bullet cut itself through the man’s collarbone cracking his left side. Holding the weapon where she fired it, Violet stared hard at the man as he took another step forward. And another.

        And another.
        
        Fear welled in her heart as Standish kept moving, his body bleeding profusely. Stepping unto the top of the tower, he raised his gun at Violet, his left hand reaching up and tearing his mask off his face. “Ahh... Fresh air...!” he called out, his eyes unfocused. “Hello, Violet. I’m here to kill you.”

        Violet remained still, her eyes hard on Standish’s face. “Yeah, I gathered that much. I’m just happy you’ll die long before you get attention for that wound,” she snorted, the man’s face contorting to anger.

        “No! I am strong! I am the best humanity has to offer!” he shouted, his gun starting to tremble in his hand.

        “Then humanity isn’t worth anything.”

        “Violet!” Rose shouted, the pitterpatter of hooves signifying the rush that Rusty and Rose were making up the stairs. “We can’t find Twinkle and-” The ponies stopped short of the entrance, seeing Standish move his gun toward Rose’s forehead.

        Standish’s smile never wavered. “If I am worth nothing, these ponies are worth less than nothing!” Violet felt everything at once. Pain, anger, sadness... Rose had had enough happen. She was going to be okay. She would will it into existence if she had to, but that pegasus would live! 

Standish went to pull the trigger.

A loud snap.

A scream.

Holding his left arm, Standish felt another unnatural snap issue forth from his forearm, his fingers on his left hand starting to meld into his palms. “W-what is-” Along his side, the cut where Violet’s bullet had torn into his skin shimmered and bubbled with serum, providing direct access to his bloodstream. “N-no! I can’t! I’m the best!” His right arm shot out again, the gun again trained upon Rose. “I. Am. The. Best!”

Violet couldn’t care less. Lunging forward, the girl collided with the man, pushing his hand out of the way as the bullet fired harmlessly into space. However, the two kept going, crashing into the old wooden railing. Their momentum shared, the two humans tumbled over the side, the screams of dismay coming from both pegasus pony and Earth pony. The two humans found themselves plummeting towards the ground.

Violet sighed as she found herself falling through the air, closing her eyes as she dreamed she could fly. She really did want to be a pegasus; to fly through the air, not a care in the world. Standing on clouds would be cool too, taking naps on assembled droplets of water. And she could fly to and from Equestria as she pleased - she never really had to leave her home, just visit people, places. She’d soar through the air, maybe see if she couldn’t gather up a bunch of pegasi and make a city out in the Atlantic, or in the Pacific near Hawaii. Maybe she’d even take Albert up on that date. His letter had alluded as much. 

She hoped he’d find a mare that would actually appreciate him a bit more than she did, though. When he disappeared, Violet didn’t even go looking for him. That’s why she was in this mess in the first place, really. Because she had gone and let herself be closed off to the world. Violet smirked. Well, never again, she promised herself. For as long as she lived, she’d be very open with everyone, and actually try and enjoy life this time around.

Violet got a chuckle out of that. What was there to enjoy in the time it took the hit the sidewalk? Certainly not classical music, she’d never make it through a... what was it called? Certainly not a verse, or a line. Oh, she was never any good at music. But she could act. Perhaps she could admire the works of Sir Anthony Hopkins? Now there was an actor who could command a stage or a film. 

Violet wondered if ponies had movies, or actors. She remembered having some conversation with Albert about it. It was like it was yesterday.

Ah, it actually was yesterday. It’s how he got his cutie mark. 

It was comedy.

Opening her eyes, Violet looked toward the direction gravity was pulling her, her body encompassed in the gas below. 

Funny.

Violet guessed hers would have been tragedy.

> Epilogue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        They say that when you die, there is a white light at the end of a long tunnel. Some say there’s a nothingness that consumes the world. Those who cross the threshold and come back reference Godly things. Some say they witness the supernatural. Science can explain some of this away, claiming hallucinations of an oxygen deprived mind. 

        She actually never gave this much thought. If you had asked, you probably wouldn’t have gotten an answer, either. A faraway stare is all most people got. She hated the concept of death, not so much a fear of it, though. Perhaps living in such a lifestyle had deadened her to the concept, or maybe she simply accepted it - but she never liked it. It was simply something no one knew for sure, and to that end, no one should try and stuff it down her throat about what it was.

        And yet, facing it now? She found she really quite liked it. All around her, she could feel a rush. No, a flow about her as she felt the warmth of the sunshine through the soft glow of the stars. All around her, there were others - she couldn’t see their faces, but she recognized them none-the-less. Family, friends, people she hadn’t seen in years, all gathered around her. They cheered her appearance among them, welcoming her. 

        It didn’t matter that they were ponies. It was her afterlife and it was what she wanted it to be. What she wanted to be. Brought along the flow, the girl soon left her friends, her family, scooting along toward a place she felt she needed to be. It was somewhere far off, but she knew she’d see all of them again. She wasn’t sad. She was at peace with herself. Ever approaching her destination, she knew it was important to be there. To meet them. Who they were didn’t matter, and where she was going she couldn’t be sure. 

        But she was going there, and not a force in the universe would stop her.

        -----

Rose and Rusty stood on the top of the Bataar Building, gazing down at the mist below where it had consumed the last two humans they knew. The screams of the men below had ceased long ago, and all that was left was a deathly silence. Detaching herself from the railing, Rose finally stepped back from the ledge, shaking her head numbly as her wings furled to her sides. Rusty sighed through his nose as he blinked hard, looking slowly about the area. He hadn’t heard nor seen Twinkle either, and right now he already knew what happened, if Standish still had a weapon and Violet had to... He didn’t want to think about it.

        “She... she didn’t have to,” Rose choked. Her head was shaking from side to side as Rusty stared up at her. “She.. could have just let him shoot me. Could have punched him after. Wrenched the gun away from him while he was distracted.” Closing her eyes, tears started to flow freely down her face. Rusty walked over, embracing the poor girl in his hooves as she placed his head on hers.

        “Shh...sh-sh-shhh... You know she couldn’t have done that. Violet... she wouldn’t have let you get hurt anymore,” Rusty cooed, tears beading on the side of his eyes. “She knew she had to try. She always tried for us, eh? Goddamn, she tried with all she had.” He brushed a hoof through the girl’s hair, cradling the girl as she sobbed openly. She tried when they met Richard. She tried when she kept the truck on the road. She tried when she saved Rose. She tried when Rose was taken. She tried when they were chased. She tried when Standish tried to kill them. “She tried so everyone else could have a chance. A chance at a new life, a chance to see family.” 

        Rose heaved slightly, trying to control her sobs. “It’s not...not fair! She didn’t deserve any of it!” she challenged, her eyes turning angry. However, the Earth pony quelled her rage as he hugged her close, the girl reached a hoof up and grabbing his arm, holding it close like a daughter would hold her father’s hand. “It was me. I was the one who triggered all this. I should have just... died with Richard! Then she’d still be here. She’d be alive. She’d be a pony, like she wanted...”

        Rusty swallowed the pressure he felt in his throat as her shook his head. “Come on, Rose. Don’t say that. Don’t ever say that. Violet hated seeing people go. She wanted to cry for every bullet she fired. I could feel it. But she was stronger than that.” Patting the pegasus on the back, he started to release the girl as he returned to his four hooves. “Now we have to be strong.”

        Rose sniffed loudly, but got on her feet. Downtrodden, the puce pony stepped weakly toward the stairs, Rusty taking the lead as the two moved for the roof, intent on seeing the damage. His eyes focused stiffly ahead as he took it one hoof at a time, his mind not daring to think about the pale pink unicorn. She had been missing, and he didn’t dare let Rose think about it. He looked back at the pegasus, her own head bent straight down, not lifting an eye from the floor below. Her hair was so much like his niece’s, he mused, a feeling of protectiveness filling the Earth pony. He didn’t need to dwell on the facts any more than what was necessary. 

        -----

        She was running now. Soaring, even, as she made her way through the stars and hills around her. Everything was so different here, she felt in tune with everything. Not on some godly plain, but just more alive. Which, she mused, was actually fairly amusing given the circumstances. However, as she came through the aether, she could finally see her destination. A crystal palace, both transparent and completely opaque to her vision, in which the sun and moon themselves seemed to orbit continually. 

        Laughing in some innocent joy, the girl rushed through the entrance without a care in the world, taking no time in seeing what there was to see. Colors dances around her, each surface sparkling a new shade of a color as she passed. She could hear music. A beautiful ballad as sung by a duet. She wanted to meet them, the singers. She would meet them, she would see them and then...

        Well, she really didn’t know what after that. But her heart pulled at her, pushing her on and on as she ran ever forward through this ancient palace of magic. 

        -----

        Rose and Rusty stepped out into the rooftop, walking around the burning wreckage of the helicopter that had somehow managed to blow itself up while they were huddled inside. Rusty didn’t much feel like scoping out the area, but his interest grew with every step, his contemplation and curiosity completely insatiable as his heart needed to know what happened to the unicorn from the Bureau. Stepping softly, the potion which coated the area started to subside, only a minor leak coming out of the helicopter now. Rose passed by him, her eyes catching something just above the surface of the cloud. “Twinkle...!” she choked out, her hooves pushing her on as she took no thoughts in her steps, the pegasus galloping toward the prone form on the ground.

        Rusty stopped cold, his eyes catching sight of the pale pink form popping just out of the subsiding mist. His mind raced with a million possibilities as Rose began to weakly shake the unicorn, calling out her name. Taking a leaden step forward, the Earth pony approached the body slowly, the lump in his throat returning in full force as tears started to fall from his cheeks. He didn’t want to know. He didn’t want to know. He didn’t want to know. He needed to know.

        Walking around the mare, the red pony reached a hoof out, placing it gently under her neck. As he saw, there was no wound on her side, but her head had been submerged under the potion - harmless to ponies, but likely no good for the lungs. Steeling himself, he lifted the unicorn’s face above the mist. Rose gasped as she took in a sharp intake of breath as her foot hit something nearby.

        It was a horn.

        Lifting Twinkle’s head above the cloud, Rusty could see now that the mare’s horn was completely cracked off, the bullet having completely shattered the magical appendage, the girl’s mint-green hair falling gently over the abscess. While Rusty looked over the mare, a high pitched whine issued from the Twinkle’s lungs. Rusty belted out a laugh despite himself, positioning himself on the roof so Twinkle’s head could rest on something above the magical mist. Rose smiled weakly, blinking away the pain she felt for Violet as she let herself rejoice in the fact Twinkle was alive.

        It took a few minutes, but the unicorn in question finally started to come around, her eyes blinking hard a few times before focusing on the pegasus in front of her. What was odd about it was that Rose was continually picking her hoof up and bringing it down, almost as if she was playing around in water. At once, she hopped up, her hooves touching the top of the mist and holding there, but she soon sank through the mist, a look of contemplation on her face. “Rose...? What are you doing?”

        Rusty fidgeted at the sound of her voice, but not daring to move as he served as the mare’s pillow. “You’re awake! Thank Celestia...!” he breathed, stroking a hoof through her hair unconsciously. Looking up at Rusty, Twinkle smiled softly at him before craning her head around. 

        “I don’t know what happened... I was talking to Violet and suddenly I heard a loud-.” After a quick intake of breath, the mare picked herself off of the red stallion and spun about. “Violet! Where’s Violet!? Whe-wha...” A nauseated feeling took the unicorn by surprise, and the unicorn fell against Rusty again, bringing a hoof up to her head. “I feel so light-headed, what happened-”

        A long pause.

        “My horn...?”

        Rose gave a weak smile. “I think I felt some of it over there...?” She gestured, the smoke starting to clear around them. There were parts of the roof that were actually visible under the smoke, and pieces of a pale pink horn could be seen nearby. The unicorn groaned loudly, but she didn’t dwell on it long. 

        “That... doesn’t matter. Horns grow back. Violet. Where’s Violet?” she sounded resolutely. Rusty coughed uneasily as Rose averted her gaze. An awkward silence permeated the area as Twinkle slowly got the point. “Oh- Oh sweet Celestia no...” Putting a hoof up to her mouth, the mare suppressed her tears as she kept looking from both of the ponies with her. “But she was fine when I... I was the one who was shot-!” Rusty cut her off silently, shaking his head in sadness. 

        He quickly explained what Twinkle needed to know, telling of how the girl had sacrificed herself to save himself and Rose. 

        Allowing Twinkle the time she needed to digest the information, Rose started to wander about the rooftop, her mind trying to cover what all had happened. Stepping near the ledge, the pegasus’ wings unfurled as she waved some of the smoke around her away, feeling the wind catch underneath it. Looking back at the other ponies, she started to wonder what they’d do now - none of them could drive, and they were fairly far from anywhere. Sighing deeply, she guessed they’d have to walk.

        And then, at the faintest edges of her hearing, she could hear it.

        The whirling of blades, the whine of an engine, that throbbing sound of a heartbeat as Rose looked out into the cityscape, watching a helicopter bound on their position from the northeast. Taking a cautionary step back, the pegasus returned to her friends, shaking her head grimly. “Guys... we have company.” The two ponies paused, exchanging glances as they looked out over the city. Pointing with her hoof, the two tracked her direction until they saw the helicopter, and soon noticed two others tailing it as it approached the flaming beacon of smoke from their own burning chopper. “What do we do?”

        Rusty sighed, shaking his head as the purple mist around them started to clear. “What can we do, Rose? We can’t drive... I can’t run, you can’t fly and you’re still getting used to your hooves. Twinkle’s been shot...”

        The unicorn noticed his complete deterrence from mentioning the human of their group. However, she sighed gratefully as she watched the last of the purple gas start to taper off around them. “We don’t need to run. Vi-... Violet called the IHSA branch proper before we came here. She asked me about it when we captured the radio, and started bugging them about all of this. Lieutenant Standish apparently faked his and his squad’s deaths, as news of his being alive spooked them. That right there... is the IHSA. The real IHSA. They’ve been trying to track this terrorist group for weeks, apparently. Evacuating cities and towns they felt were threatened.”

        Rose turned to the edge, catching sight of various forms sticking out over the surface of the smoke. “A little late. Violet killed them all. Every last one of them. Ha. Bet they never saw her coming.”

        Twinkle winced at the pegasus’ voice against their enemies life, but found herself regretfully agreeing with every word. “I guess so. The gas here was thick - too thick, I think. That much magic to a person’s system so quickly would have shocked a body to death. Those poor men - acting under orders of a mad man.”

        “Mad?” Rusty echoed, but he found it more or less suited the Lieutenant. Twinkle sighed and nodded, prompting the red stallion to shift himself slowly. “So I guess that might explain a lot. Any chance those men are just... ponies?”

        Twinkle shook her head. “The clouds too thick. It’s closer to the equivalent of ten vials of potion for as long as they were covered in it. They likely died of magic shock.” Picking herself up to her hooves, the unicorn could hear the beat of the helicopters as they got ever closer, their loud engines drowning out her compatriots voices as the wind brought down from the blades pushed and dispersed the serum and into the air in manageable quantities.

        -----

        She approached the room. Not regally or respectfully. She ran, galloped into the Great Hall of this palace. Two forms sang their song, hauntingly beautiful as it beckoned her forward. Not needing a second invitation, she approached the regal forms, looking between them as she smiled. “So this is what it’s like then? Can’t say I’m not impressed. Everything here is so... perfect. Your song was beautiful.”

        The tall figure ceased its tune alongside the shorter one, the great form shooting its wings out over the hall. “Thank you.” It called, its smile bursting with the sun’s brilliance.

        The shorter, darker form approached her, a small smile playing over her visage, less motherly but all the same graceful and loving. “We sing it for all those who pass.”

        The girl laughed, shaking her head. “Well, if they don’t thank you, I will. Is all of this because of you? This world? I’ve never seen it all so... clear. So crisp.”

        The tall figure nodded. “Yes, this spiritual place is much our doing, but is merely a reflection of our work.”

        The shorter, darker form laughed, her voice like that of a nightingale. “But it is nice to hear. Most pass by and accept their fate without a word. It’s really quite boring sometimes.”

        The girl tilted her head, but she soon felt a wave of vertigo as she did, feeling her entire being shift with her. “So, I suppose I’m at the end of my rope, then? Glad I get to be me about it, I’d really hate to go about this all somber and stuff. Although, I’m surprised I’m so alone here - I really thought I took that rat bastard with me.”

        The taller form frowned, her eyes growing sad. “No, I don’t believe any of those souls will be passing through our domain.”

        -----

        The helicopter touched down on the roof a fair distance from the wreckage of the other, the other two choppers circling the area, looking for suitable places to land as they’re blades pushed away the mist that still lingered around the building. Cutting the engines, the door to the chopper opened, and two ponies leapt out, followed by a young man in a blue coat. The man in question was wearing sunglasses, but quickly took them off as the last rays of the sun cast its fingers over the mountains nearby. Catching sight of the three ponies on the roof with him, the man surveyed the area, catching sight of pony bodies on the ground nearby, bloated sickeningly by magic. Averting his gaze, he soon jogged over to the ponies present, giving them a lookover. “Ah. My name is John. John Smith. I take it you all are...” Pointing a finger at the red Earth pony, he went down the line. “Rusty, Twinkle, aaannnd Rose, correct?”

        Twinkle, being the one more used to talking, stepped forward, nodding her head. “Yes sir, that’s correct. Our fourth... well, we don’t have a fourth anymore, sir,” she said, a strain on her voice. The man visibly frowned, a sad look taking over his face as he took off his hat, placing it over his chest.

        “My... sincerest apologies. We tried to get here as fast as we could. We wanted to prevent this.” Sighing deeply, the pegasus moved to her hooves as she started to walk toward the hole in the wall, John lifting his head and reaching out to her. “Miss Rose? Where are you going?”

        Rose looked back, her eyes blinking repeatedly as she shook her head solemnly. “I’m going to find Violet. She at least deserves... to be buried. Or something. I just... want to see her,” she said, and before John could react, Rusty and Twinkle were on their feet as well. 

        “You can debrief us later, Mr. Smith,” Rusty called back, the man merely nodding and tugging on his sleeve. “We won’t be going anywhere.”

        John nodded in completely understanding. “Take all the time you need. My men and ponies won’t bother you.” Reaching for his side, the man drew out his walkie-talkie as he gave the order to his personnel to search for any living being, pony or otherwise, and to start rounding up the bodies if they could, but only after the three ponies found their friend.

        Reaching the stairs, Rose, Twinkle and Rusty passed by the truck on their way through the building. Violet had driven through the glass double doors, her one escape plan should things have gone south when they got here. And yet, not a one of them could even look at the driver’s seat, the memory of their purple-haired friend too fresh in their minds. Rose picked up to a trot, much to the surprise of Twinkle, who followed suit, Rusty finding himself forced into some three-legged hop as he attempted to keep up with the girls.

        Outside, Rose looked over to see the tower, and quickly galloped over to its base. Circling around the wall, the puce pony stopped her gallop as she saw it. The prone form of the purple-haired girl, laying on her side. Her amber skin shimmering in the last vestiges of the sun. 

Nearby, the cracked and broken body of Lieutenant Standish lay split on the walkway. He was a grotesque display, his chest bulged out and his arms cracked and splintered. One side of his body was hooved, as his right side held stunted fingers. His face, fortunately, was nothing but ground meat, having fallen face first.

        Twinkle turned the corner, seeing the display in front of her, but at least managing to keep what little she had left in her stomach inside. Approaching the still body of the girl she had come to know, she looked over her as she fought back tears. Limping toward the girls, Rusty came upon her as well, a small, pained smile on his face.

        “Well, her hair stayed purple.”

        The pony before them was amber in color, her skin shimmering with the color of the sunset.  Her mane and tail were the same color of violet purple it had always been since they met her, a strangled chuckle coming from Rose as she stroked part of it away from her friend’s face, tears flowing freely down her face. Adorned on her side were a pair of wings, sharp yet graceful, furled closed on her sides. Kneeling down next to her face, Rose smiled weakly. “Hello Violet. We’re here for you, the day you became a pony. And guess what? You’re a pegasus! You know what that means, right? We get to fly together, Violet. You ‘n me. Even that Albert fella you like. Isn’t that grand?” Her face contorted, a strangled laugh issuing from her throat. “Oh God, Violet..!” Her sobs reverberated against the walls as she moved closer to the prone pony, Rusty and Twinkle crying silently at her side.

        -----

“So does that mean I screwed up then? They’re all still alive?” The girl looked back for the first time, feeling the need to go back. “How did that guy even survive the fall when I didn’t-”

        “He didn’t. None of them survived.” The darker form called out. “They all perished with their unnatural concoctions. It’s a pity, but the magic they had lived with in your world had settled in their veins - the potion was like poison to almost all of them.”

        The taller, brighter form started to take on a more definite shape, its long, slender legs stretching out toward the girl. “Those who could have survived drowned in the fog of magic. We haven’t had many come through our domain recently.”

        Feeling a rush of guilt, the girl wiped her eyes. “So I could have saved some of them. I should have waited, or ran, or something. I don’t... I’m sorry.” Falling down, the girl shook her head. “I’m sorry, but... but...” Looking up, her face was awash in confusion. “If they’re dead, why aren’t they here? What did I do to deny them this afterlife?”

        “Afterlife?” The darker form echoed, a trace of mirth carrying in her voice. Stepping forward, a midnight blue hoof reached out to the girl. “Violet, don’t you see? This isn’t the afterlife.”

        “It’s... not? But t-then H-how do you know my name?” She asked, her eyes focusing on the figures, trying to make out their details. 

        There was a low chuckle, the face of a Princess beaming down on her subject. “No, it’s no afterlife, Violet. This is where souls undergo what is needed. A soul must be tempered to live in magic, and while many used come through here so quickly, it’s nice to stop and chat once in awhile. We just had a kind gentlecolt come through not more than two hours ago. He told us you’d be coming.”

        Violet was dumbfounded, her arm reaching out and grabbing Luna’s who helped her to her feet. “So you’re saying this isn’t some perfect afterlife with all my friends and family? That I’m still.. I’m alive?”

        “Afraid so.” The midnight Princess shrugged, gesturing toward a third light that had appeared in the room. “Sorry to disappoint.” As she spoke, her features became defined as her equine face smiled down at Violet. 

        Looking between the two alicorns, Violet slapped a hoof to her head. “You two! You’re the-”

        “Yes.” Celestia said, nodding.

        There was a moment of silence, before Violet put her leg down. Looking between them, the girl chuckled and shook her head. “Are you two always this... I mean... you’re not gonna hunt me down for being all candid and stuff, are you?”

        Luna laughed heartily, taking great joy in the girl’s lack of tact when it came to the royal sisters. “Oh my Celly, there’s very little going to be different with her when she wakes up, is there?”

        Celestia shook her head as the third light came nearer to the pegasus among them, Violet taking note of her form for the first time. “Holy shit! I’m a pegasus! That means- I can- I get to fly with Al and-” The light came forward, growing and enveloping the pony. Violet looking on as the smiling faces of the Princesses carried with them a soft song, welcoming her into the world.

        -----

      “-Rose...” Violet coughed, earning herself the pleasure of hearing three ponies simultaneously gasp, and was greeted with the sight of a fainting pale pink pony, collapsing into the hoofs of a red stallion. Blinking hard, the amber pegasus slowly moved her head as she caught sight of the puce pony beside her. “Rose..! I... I get to fly with you.”

        Suddenly enveloped in hooves, the new pegasus found herself hugged hard by the turquiose-maned mare as she tackled the already grounded pony. “Violet! I swear to Celestia I’m gonna kill you! Don’t you ever, ever, ever-ever-ever-ever do that again!” Her sobs were mixed with laughter as the very confused pegasus started to line up everything that happened.

        “What’s with all the-” she muttered, but soon found herself noticing the hubbub around her. “Guys? Rusty? What’s going on...?” She saw the mutilated form of Standish, which made her stomach turn a cartwheel, but she was more interested in the multitude of ponies and humans who were walking around them. “Is that the IHSA?” Her tongue still refusing to say anything other than 'ehsa.'

        Rose let go of her friend a moment as she wiped her tears away with a hoof. “I-H-S-A, Violet. Are you ever going to get that right?” she teased, a strangled laugh issuing from the tired pegasus. Violet looked down her hooves, feeling a weird sensation at the bottoms of her feet. “Better late than never, eh?”

        Violet looked up, nodding assuredly. “Yeah, I guess so. I’m so glad you’re alright, Rose. I heard the gunshot when I tackled Standish - I thought I might have been too late.”

        Rose shook her mane incredulously as she closed her eyes. “That is so you, Violet. You throw yourself off a damn roof and then you look to see if everypony is alright. We are, thank you, although Twinkle lost her horn,” she muttered, gesturing toward the unicorn. The memory of the gunshot filled Violet’s senses, but seeing the fainted pony, she could tell she was alright.. for the most part. 

        Rusty smiled as he struggled slightly under Twinkle, having somehow trapped himself under her body. Still, he wasn’t complaining about it. “Hey there, V. Good to see you. I’m just, y’know... bein’ a pillow,” he chuckled, shaking his head. “I honestly don’t understand, Violet. You threw yourself from the tower, and... well, the fall should have killed you. And yet you’re standing around - doesn’t it hurt?”

        Blinking, the pony turned from Rose to Rusty, giving a mild shrug. “It feels a little like I’m on fire, but nothing broken to report. God I am sore, though,” she said animatedly, earning a laugh from those conscious. As they spoke, the man in the blue coat approached them.

        “Four ponies? You’re not part of my unit. Who’re you?”

        Violet turned around, a small smirk on her face. “Violet. I’m a pony, for all that’s worth.”

-----

Author's Notes


And thus ends A Mare's Tail, 64K words worth of transforming pony goodness all wrapped up in a bunch of death and stuff. I never knew what story I was writing when I decided to write a TCB, only that my initial plans were a two chapter idea where a girl goes through the conversion process and she isn't responsible for saving Equestria or something.

Well I think I messed that idea up somewhere along the way. 

The epilogue was written in mind as an alternate ending of sorts to the story. However, as I finished it, I really didn't think it was fair to write different endings. As said in my original notes at the start of this FiMFiction version, this story is going to see a rewrite eventually; with more chapters, more time spent, and a bit more movement. Don't worry, though, Rusty, Twinkle, and Rose are all returning alongside Violet, and their personalities largely intact.

So what of this epilogue? Why wasn't Violet killed? There are a number of reasons, thematically, but the reason I had her survive was that ponification has often been touted as a miracle cure for a lot of things. A three story fall, while potentially deadly, has actually been survived by a great many people without magical aid. So while Lt. Standish happened to land on his head, Violet landed on her stomach. I actually had it where Standish's shot had connected with Violet once, and she would have bled out and died, but that was pulled from the final version. The impact made her unconscious, and her low, steady breathing as a result gave her an appropriate dosage of the serum. The reason Standish didn't survive was, firstly, he took in too much of the serum through his cut abdomen. But regardless his transformation was cut short when his head turned to hamburger.

Personally, I like this story, mostly towards the end. I love how Twinkle turned out. I loved Rose's realism with her situation. And Violet? Well, her hair's purple. How cool is that? And Rusty is a bro. Standish is mad. Jorge is a more than his orders. And Al? Totally was an in-joke to myself. He's supposed to be a parody of Weird Al. Your mind. It has been blown?

Well, I hope you enjoyed the tale. I only did quick edits for the story, and man there were some serious hiccups in both dialogue, plot, and who knows what else I fixed in my brief runs. Still, that was A Mare's Tail. It's been half a year now since I first wrote it, and I still quite like it. For whatever that's worth.

-Hyde Edenborough Knee
(HiddenBrony)