Crossing Anthology Two

The sounds of a train screeching to a halt filled the air at the Ponyville Train Station. Few visiting ponies exited the train, while Halie and Mina hid on top of one of the carts. Their hair was frozen and blown back by the powerful gusts of air that forced it while the train carried them. Halie blinked her dried eyes several times before turning to Mina and asking;

“I cannot believe… we just rode on top a train… that was freaking terrifying…”

Mina formed her hair to its original pose;

“What do I look like? An N64 cartridge? I can’t pay someone 64 ‘bits.’”

Mina jumped off the cart, hitting the wooden surface of the station loudly. Halie carefully climbed herself down, saying;

“Wow, how funny…”

“Ah bite me, Halie! I’m only trying to make the best of a bad situation.”

Halie raised her voice;

“It was a school shooting! How can there be any sort of positive outcome of that?!”

Mina kept her calm attitude;

“Simple, maybe Jonah and Cole caught this guy, and then we can finally leave this planet and go back home.”

“Don’t you care, Mina? Those were little kids, small children, no older than at least nine! I want to help everyone out as much as possible.”

“Well Halie, we’re waiting, you haven’t done jack shit for anyone since we got here!”

Halie became annoyed;

“Well what about you, Mina? What have you done?”

Mina gave a fake chuckle;

“Hm, I would if Jonah had allowed me to go into that school with him and that troll of a friend of his! Plus, I stole food for the team once.”

Mina opened her long coat to reveal what was left of her stolen fruit and other goods.

Halie got furious and got closer to Mina’s face;

“Don’t you ever talk about Cole like that around me! You got it! Cole has been a huge emotional support for me! He helped me get out of something I thought I never could!”

“Oh yeah, you and Cole, you two are the PERFECT couple. The both of you are the cutest pair of blonde haired, National Socialists I’ve ever seen!”

Halie was deprived of any words, she turned and walked away. Halie looked back at Mina and said sternly;

“… Cole was right about you, you ARE an inconvenience, and you ARE a waste of our time. I honestly can’t see what thought crawled into Jonah’s head when he asked you out… I’m going to see Canis, don’t talk to me.”

Halie continued her way to Canis’ office. Mina stood there for a moment, taking in what Halie said; she kicked a tiny stone on the ground in anger. Mina left the scene.

Later:

Halie arrived through the portal into General Canis’ office. She looked around and saw that he was not there; she exited the room and walked down the hall to see if she could find him. Halie became nervous; she had no idea how to explain the horrors she had seen in Fillydelphia, and the heartbreaking sight of children dying. Halie looked into a door to see a book keeper mare working. Halie spoke to the mare, breathing heavily;

“Excuse me, this is an emergency, I need to see General Canis!”

The book keeper looked at Halie with concern; she could tell something was wrong;

“I’m sorry but General Canis has just gone home, he said he was having a terrible migraine.”

Halie was shocked; she did not know what to do. She only asked;

“What time would you think he’d be back?”

“Hm, I wouldn’t know what to tell you. General Canis hasn’t punched out early in thirteen years. But he should be back tomorrow.”

“Thank you.”

Halie returned to the portal where she arrived from. With no other options, she decided to go see Twilight, since she had close relations with both Princesses of Equestria. Halie assumed that Twilight would have wisdom.

She returned to Ponyville and began walking; as she walked he heard a loud “crash” and “bang” from behind her. She jumped at the sound and looked back, head turning rapidly; sweat forming under her soft blonde hair. There was nothing, no one was outside besides her; the only thing she could see was the closed stores and businesses. Halie wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve and continued walking. Remembering the sound, she felt like it was from within herself, and did not seem to echo after she heard it. It was most likely that she only imagined it, and needed rest after such an eventful day.

Halie finally arrived at Twilight’s tree house library, she knocked on the door slowly, trying to remain as calm as possible for the news she knew had to deliver. Twilight opened the door, she smiled, happy to see Halie. Twilight said;

“Oh hello, Halie! How have you and the others been?”

“We’ve been… well…”

Halie was hesitant, she did not know what to say first, and she shrugged and jittered a little in nervousness. Twilight’s smile became a confused gesture, waiting for Halie to respond. Halie finally spoke;

“During our investigation at the warehouse, over in Fillydelphia… we heard a siren coming from a school…”

Halie paused for a moment; Twilight put a hoof on her hand and said;

“Let’s go inside, you look like you need to sit down.”

Halie allowed Twilight to guide her through the front door; Twilight used her magic to pull two stools for Halie and herself to sit down on. Halie sat and continued her report;

“We approached the school, and we heard… we heard…”

Halie choked up a bit. Halie exhaled loudly and concluded;

“… We heard gunshots being fired… from inside the school…”

Twilight froze; she motioned her eyes down, her eyebrows firmed. Twilight only said;

“Um… I don’t… I must have heard you wrong, Halie. Please… come again?”

Halie just remembered how peaceful Equestria was; they had never known a terror such as what had happened. The ponies were not even fully aware of what guns were; Halie spoke again clearer than before;

“The serial killer, he broke into a children’s school in Fillydelphia. He had his shotgun on him; he shot at all the fillies and colts…”

Twilight’s eyes widened and her face became an expression of sadness. Twilight finally understood the situation, she began to weep;

“Are… are you sure…?”

Twilight spoke faster, unable to believe what happened;

“It could have been anything, it might have been a food fight in the cafeteria, or maybe someone’s desk fell over! Maybe it was a colt pretending to be the killer as some sick prank!”

“Twilight, I saw a child being thrown out of a second story window of a school… He had wounds from a shotgun shell…”

Twilight whimpered, she was hardly able to speak;

“Oh…! No, no no. Halie that’s not… Why…? WHERE ARE THE OTHERS!?”

“Jonah and Cole are taking care of it; they are still at the school helping everyone. Mina and I aren’t talking right now, but she’s okay too.”

Twilight rested her face in her hooves, she shook some and sniffled. All of a sudden, a boy’s voice could be heard from upstairs;

“Twilight? What’s the matter? Is everything okay…?”

It was Spike, Twilight’s little assistant. Twilight heard Spike’s voice, immediately a million memories with him ran through her head as if they were a subway train. Twilight spoke loudly;

“STAY UP STAIRS SPIKE…! Stay up stairs…! Stay there until I come up…”

Spike jumped at Twilight’s scolding voice, it corpse through him. He found himself backing away from the stairs slowly, returning to where he once was. Halie became scared, she knew telling Twilight about what happened would be difficult, so she was not too surprised to see Twilight breakdown like she did. Halie stood from the stool she sat on and asked;

“Should I leave now?”

Twilight looked up at Halie, eyes watering and dripping with tears, she mustered up a soothing voice;

“… Um… No, you don’t have to, Halie… Please, take the extra bed upstairs for a few hours… You look exhausted…”

Twilight sunk her head and continued sobbing; Halie neither did nor said nothing to Twilight. Halie only did as Twilight suggested, and walked up stairs. Halie was upstairs, she approached the extra bed provided by Twilight and kicked off her shoes and removed her sweater. Halie laid down on the soft platform, she fell asleep in what seemed like a few seconds.

Horrible actions have been done, and emotions have been shattered. How can the adventure these young heroes carry out get any worse than what they already are? What is next for Twilight? And what of little Spike, what will happen to the little dragon later?