Sweet and Sour

Frostinilla was back home, back in her pony form. Vanilla Bean was sitting in front of her smiling at her mirror. Frostinilla was had a brush in her hoof and combed through her sister's hair. They joked and laughed about senseless things. Frostinilla was happy to be home, happy to have her sister. She would never take anything for granted again. With as little as she had, she had everything she needed.

“Dinner’s almost ready,” Frostinilla’s mother called.

Frostinilla’s snapped up at the sound of her mother’s voice.

“Hey,” Vanilla Bean whined. “Why’d you stop?”

Frostinilla looked down at her little sister. “Didn’t you hear that?”

“She said it’s almost ready.” Vanilla Bean said. “We don’t have to go right away.”

“But,” Frostinilla was confused. How had Vanilla Bean not realized? “It was mom. She was just talking. Mom died. How could she be talking?”

Vanilla Bean wrinkled her forehead. “What are you talking about?”

Frostinilla stared at her little sister. “Don’t tell me you forgot.” Frostinilla’s head was spinning. How could her mother be back? The more she thought into it, the less it made sense. She realized that she wasn't even sure how she got to that point. How had she gotten home?

“Forgot what?”

Frostinilla’s mother called out to them again. “Girls! Dinner’s done!”

Frostinilla ran towards her mother’s voice. Everything in the past must have been part of some twisted dream. The past events didn't even make sense, so why would she believe that it had really happened? What made sense to her now was that she was home. Her mother was waiting for her just around the corner, and she would give her the biggest hug she’d ever had.

A white pony with a white mane tied up in a bun was setting the table. She looked up at Frostinilla and gave her a bright smile. The smile seemed to show that she missed Frostinilla just as much as Frostinilla missed her. Frostinilla ran over to her, her mother was about to speak, but her voice was lost.

A sudden bang erupted and the house began to shake violently. Frostinilla caught herself on the table and look up to see her mother fall to the floor. There was another bang and Frostinilla’s vision began to fade out. Her head was filled with the sound of her mother’s scream as her mother disappeared from before her.

“Wake up!” Cinnamon Twist’s voice broke into Frostinilla’s subconsciousness. There was another bang and a muffled yell of a male’s voice. Cinnamon Twist snapped. “Get up!”

Frostinilla felt herself being tugged and was ripped out of her dreams. Blinding light stung her eyes but they widened in fear when another bang was heard.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing in my shed?” A large burly man boomed. He had a shotgun in hand and was shooting in the general direction of each of the girls taking shelter in his shed. Whether he was only aiming to scare them or he simply had bad aim wasn’t certain, but the girls were scrambling to their feet and Cinnamon Twist was doing her best to pull Frostinilla up to hers.

A bullet whizzed past Frostinilla’s leg and dug itself into the wooden floor beside her, leaving a small hole with blackened edges. Frostinilla, still dazed and confused, stared at it with complete shock.

“By Celestia! Pull yourself together!” Cinnamon Twist snapped.

“Hurry!” Frostinilla heard Lemon Drop’s voice from behind.

Lemon Drop pushed Chippy Chocolate forward and past the other two. Lemon Drop ran ahead and gave the large man a shove. A gunshot fired through the roof of the shed as the man was shoved back. The girls let out squeals of panic. Chippy Chocolate and Lemon Drop rushed out but the man had blocked the door again before Frostinilla and Chippy Chocolate could make their escape.

The man took a step inside and Cinnamon Twist grabbed a hold of Frostinilla’s shoulder. She pulled her back as the man approached and stood in front of her defensively. Frostinilla could hardly believe that Cinnamon Twist would do such a thing. She knew she was brave, but didn’t realize that she was selfless.

As the man continued forward with his gun pointed at the two frightened girls, Cinnamon Twist backed away, pushing Frostinilla into the wall. When there was nowhere else to go, Cinnamon Twist raised her hands before her as if they would protect her. Her eyes clenched tightly shut as she prepared for the worst.

“Hey!” the man shouted. “What the fuck is this? What do you think you’re doing you little bitch?”

Frostinilla watched as the man’s anger transitioned to fear. He was suspended off of the ground, his feet dangling. He writhed in frustration as if he thought that he could break loose, but Frostinilla knew better. Cinnamon Twist’s magic had apparently transferred over to this world along with her.

The man pointed his gun at Cinnamon Twist. Frostinilla’s stomach churned and she shoved Cinnamon Twist forward. They flew forward below the man floating in the air, but her magic lost connection. Luckily, they had fallen on the other side by the time the man hit the ground.

“Get up!” Frostinilla yelled as she tugged on Cinnamon Twist’s arm.

They got up and ran out of the shed. Chippy Chocolate had been waiting at the other side of the large house in front of the shed, their heads poking around the corner as they waited. Relief was obvious on their faces as they joined and ran off down the street.

“You better run!” the man hollered from behind. “You fucking cowards!”

The Cupcakes ran as fast as they could, barely paying any attention to their surroundings. They crossed a few empty streets as they headed down town. When they reached the crowds, nobody paid attention to them as they pushed through. They all kept their hands locked together to avoid separation.

“Watch where you’re going!” a tall man with a phone to his ear snapped when Frostinilla brushed by.

They ignored him and he scowled at them as they continued to run away. No one knew whether or not the man with the gun had followed. They were too afraid to look back and realize that even if he had, it would have been near impossible for him to keep track of them through the crowd. None of them had any idea as to where they could possibly hide.

Frostinilla felt Cinnamon Twist’s grip tighten on her wrist. After a few minutes of constricted circulation, her fingers began to tingle. She kept a firm grip on Lemon Drop, who was right behind her, but made sure not to squeeze too tightly. They were lead by Cinnamon Twist around corners and eventually down an alley. Cinnamon Twist came to a sudden stop and the others ran into each other.

Cinnamon Twist was looking down the alley as the others callapsed to the ground, struggling to catch their breaths. Frostinilla sat on the black pavement and leaned her back against a brick wall. She pushed her hair back away from her face and whipped away the moisture clinging to her face.

“I think we’re safe,” Cinnamon Twist said through heavy breaths.

“Safe?” Chippy Chocolate asked. “How are we safe? We don’t know where we are? We are surrounded by these things! We are these things!!”

“Well the only important thing now is that we are still alive,” Lemon Drop told her.

“Yeah, but what now?” Chippy Chocolate asked. She removed the strap from over her shoulder and threw the bag at Cinnamon Twist. “That’s all we have left.”

Cinnamon Twist looked at the bag with a grave expression. “We’ll figure something out,” she said, sounding unconvinced of her own claim. “We always figure something out.”

Frostinilla took the bag and placed it on her lap. She undid the simple clasp and rummaged through the little that they had. They still had the masks. Frostinilla thought that they should probably get rid of them; They were nothing more than extra baggage, but she knew that Chippy Chocolate was attached to them. She couldn’t blame her; They didn’t have much else left from home.

Under the masks, Frostinilla found only two sandwiches. “We should probably share these later today,” Frostinilla said as she showed the others that they did have some food.

“We’d be better off eating them now so that we could have the energy we may need to get more food,” Cinnamon Twist said.

“I don’t know,” Lemon Drop intervened. “I think Frostinilla’s right. If we eat that now, we can’t be sure we’ll find anything else. We should save those until we know of a way to get more.”

“Can’t we go back and get more from where we got those?” Chippy Chocolate asked.

“I don’t think so,” Cinnamon Twist. “If we left any traces the last time, we’d just be walking into trouble.”

Chippy Chocolate pouted and averted her gaze to Frostinilla, as if expecting her to give her support.

“She’s right,” Frostinilla said. “We shouldn’t go back there. If anything, that should be a last resort.”

“Do you think we could find anything similar?” Lemon Drop asked.

“We might as well look around,” Cinnamon Twist said. “We’re more likely to find food doing just about anything other than sitting around here.”

Just as that was said, Chippy Chocolate looked down the alley with a sudden jerk of her head. “I smell something,” she said, sniffing the air, “and it smells amazing.”

“I smell it too,” Lemon Drop said, following Chippy Chocolate’s gaze.

Chippy Chocolate hopped back up onto her feet.

“Wait!” Cinnamon Twist called out as Chippy Chocolate dashed down the alleyway.

Frostinilla jumped up and ran after her, followed by Lemon Drop and Cinnamon Twist. Chippy Chocolate made a sudden right turn. Frostinilla made the turn and immediately crashed into Chippy Chocolate, who fell forward into someone else. Frostinilla managed to catch her balance, but Chippy Chocolate fell onto a man who lost grip of a cardboard box.

“Ooww,” the young man groaned.

Chippy Chocolate let out a scream and smacked the man across the head with a closed fist. He didn’t see it coming and his face jerked awkwardly to left and his red hat flew off as he lost consciousness. Frostinilla took hold of Chippy Chocolate and helped her up. They both staggered backwards, afraid that the man would come back to life and attack them. He didn’t; He simply stayed on the ground, completely immobile except for the slow rise and fall of his chest as he breathed.

“Did you kill it?” Lemon Drop asked in shock from behind.

“I-I-” Chippy Chocolate didn’t say anymore.

Frostinilla wasn’t sure herself, but she pointed out, “It’s still breathing.”

As the three stared at the strange creature lying unconscious on the sidewalk, Cinnamon Twist walked passed them and stepped over him. She walked over to the cardboard box that had slid down the sidewalk and picked it up. She examined the sides and bottom before picking at the tabs, releasing the lid so that she could peek inside. She smiled at what she had found and brought the pizza over to the others.

“Looks like we have food,” she said.

Chippy Chocolate smiled at the thought, but Lemon Drop was otherwise concerned. “What about-”

“It deserved it,” Cinnamon Twist said bluntly. “They all deserve that.”

“But-”

“But what?” Cinnamon Twist dared Lemon Drop to challenge.

Lemon Drop still went on. “We don’t know that that particular one deserved it. What did it do?”

“What kind of creature do you know that would kill ponies in the dead of night and take them away for no apparent reason?” Cinnamon Twist questioned.

“None,” Lemon Drop said with a look of both defeat and understanding.

Frostinilla looked down at the odd and still somewhat revolting creature. She wondered if it was any different from the ones that had broken into her home and dragged her parent’s lifeless bodies away from her. She wondered if he was possibly involved.She couldn’t think of any sort of justification for such sickening crimes. She felt a compelling urge to kick the man as he lie there, but held back.

“You coming?” Cinnamon Twist asked, tapping Frostinilla’s back.

Frostinilla looked away from the man and to her friends. They were all waiting for her to join them.

“Sorry.” Frostinilla sighed. “I guess I’m having hard time keeping my mind straight after all of this. She gave the man one last glance before following the others back down to the end of the alley.

They sat together around the box and each grabbed a slice. The cent filled Frostinilla’s nostrils and she suddenly understood why it had driven Chippy Chocolate to take off in such a rush. It was wonderful. The first bite had her taste buds dancing.

“By Celestia!” Chippy Chocolate said. “It’s so good!”

Lemon Drop laughed at her friend as she chowed down on her slice. Cinnamon Twist enjoyed her own in silence. Between the four of them, one slice each had taken half of the pizza. It didn’t take long at all for them all to devour their food. At the end of their pieces, they all looked back down at the box.

“We should probably save this for later, huh?” Chippy Chocolate asked.

“Well, we don’t exactly have anywhere to keep it,” Cinnamon Twist said. “Carrying around a box could become a burden.”

Chippy Chocolate’s eyes lit up and she grabbed another slice. She didn’t need any more convincing than that. “I hope we find this again soon,” she said with full mouth.

“I’m sure we’ll reach a point where any food will be great food,” Lemon Drop said as she reached for another piece of her own.

“Most likely,” Cinnamon Twist said reaching for one as well.

“Well,” Frostinilla grabbed the last slice. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

They enjoyed their surprisingly wonderful meal. By the end, they were all smiling and ready to take on what the day would throw at them. They decided that the best way to survive was to see how others survived. In order to fit in, they needed to know how these creatures lived. They walked hand in hand, through the bustling city.

They weren’t exactly sure how to respond to any of it.

There wasn’t much to observe from their point of view. Everyone was just rushing past, off to Celestia knows where, to do Celestia knows what. What they did see, were people talking to strange devices, people getting into large mechanical carriages, and people walking in and out of many shops. No one seemed to communicate with each other. The strange mechanical carriages seemed to ignore all the possible casualties they all seemed likely to cause. No one seemed to care about anything besides wherever they were off to.

They did, however, notice three girls walking together and laughing. Frostinilla was slightly appalled by how little they were wearing. The lack of a coat was bad enough. It was like walking naked. Clothing was a must with so little fur to cover the body. These girls didn’t seem to care. They walked with short tube tops, and shorts that, well, didn’t seem to be more than undergarments.

“This is an odd place,” Cimmanon Twist said, noticing the same thing that Frostinilla had.

“Very,” Frostinilla agreed aloud.

The girls that they were watching walked into a shop with an assortment of clothing lined up along the windows. Frostinilla looked down at her dress. It was slightly ripped at the bottom and it had been ravaged by dirt and, as of recently, pizza sauce.

“Do you think our lack of hygiene is going to attract unwanted attention,” Frostinilla asked Cinnamon Twist as quietly as she could.

Cinnamon Twist looked down at her own dress. It wasn’t in as bad a condition, but it wasn’t exactly clean either. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I mean, if you look around, it seems like there are quite a few that don’t really care about hygene. Still, it seems that the females do put more effort towards it.”

Frostinilla nodded her head. “Any suggestions on what we do about it?”

“Steal,” Cinnamon Twist asnwered.

“You sure about that?” Frostinilla asked.

“Well, I don’t see why not.” Cinnamon Twist was beggining to sound a little aggrivated. “We seem to have fallen into a world lacking morality, so why should we live by it?”

Frostinilla looked around. She couldn’t come up with a single argument against that. “I guess, but whether morality is an issue or not, what do we do if we’re caught?”

Cinnamon Twist was quite for a bit. “Well, what do you suggest then?”

“I suggest we figure out how the others here take care of things. Maybe we can somehow fit ourselves into the equation.”

Cinnamon Twist thought it through. “And if we can’t?”

“We steal,” Frostinilla said, simply.

They spent the day observing more. They ventured into a few stores. They seemed to run the same way as they did at home, only the currency was a little different. Dollars as well as coins of different sizes and a couple different colors. Once they realized how goods and needs were payed for, they just needed to figure out how to get a hold of the needed money. Cinnamon Twist had gone back to her suggestion of stealing, but Frostinilla didn’t think one form of stealing would make up for another. By the time the sun was setting, everyone was exhausted from a full day of walking around.

“Can we eat now?” Chippy Chocolate asked as they walked down another empty alley.

“We already ate today,” Cinnamon Twist said.

“But we were walking so much!” Chippy Chocolate complained. “I’m starving!”

Cinnamon Twist sighed.

“Well, we don’t really know how long these sandwiches will last,” Frostinilla said.

“I guess you’re right,” Cinnamon Twist admitted grudgingly.

Chippy Chocolate handed Frostinilla a sandwich and split the other with Lemon Drop. Frostinilla ripped hers in half and handed one of the halves to Cinnamon Twist. She took a bite of her half and cringed. It didn’t taste bad, but the bread had gotten soggy and it was like mush against her tongue. She shivered at the feeling, but forced herself to finish the rest.

“You can have it,” Chippy Chocolate said, handing her half to Lemon Drop.

“No, you need to eat,” Lemon Drop told her. “You were the one that wanted to eat now, so eat it. Besides, we have no idea when we will be able to eat again.”

Chippy Chocolate sighed and nibbled at her sandwich half.

“Should we sleep here?” Frostinilla asked.

Cinnamon Twist looked around. “I don’t think so. It’s too open.”

“But what if we end up making someone angry again?” Chippy Chocolate asked.

“What if something else ends up walking around as it gets dark?” Cinnamon Twist asked. “What if there’s something worse than these creatures we’ve been around.”

Chippy Chocolate stared at Cinnamon Twist with a look of horror. She wasn’t handling the new world very well, and hearing that there could be worse only made her spirits sink lower. Frostinilla thought she noticed her eyes water, but no tears spilled from them.

“If we’re going to get moving we should do it now,” Frostinilla said.

“Let’s go then,” Cinnamon Twist said.

They continued on again. They walked through the night hand in hand. The crowds had thinned out immensely, but they still worried about getting separated. Chipy Chocolate was once again attaching herself to Lemon Drop’s arm. Cinnamon Twist had dragged her fears back to the surface.

Frostinilla observed the surroundings. There were more instances like the mostly naked trio of girls that they noticed early, only these women seemed at least a bit older. She noticed one woman, wearing a leather jacket and short leather skirt, speaking seductively to a man sitting in one of the mechanical carriages. Her jacket was zipped up only enough to cover her lower belly. Her red bra was showing through the gap at the top. Frostinilla cringed at the sight of the woman leaning over the door.

“Do you think we’ll find anywhere tonight?” Chippy Chocolate asked.

“Yes,” Cinnamon Twist assured.

They walked past the car pulled over by the sidewalk and kept going forward. They kept their eyes peeled for anything that might make good shelter. They found themselves nearing another large garage.

“That looks about as safe as we’ll be able to get for now,” Cinnamon Twist thought aloud.

“It doesn’t look very safe,” Chippy Chocolate said. “It’s so open on the sides.”

“It’s better than sitting out here all night,” Cinnamon Twist pointed out.

Chippy Chocolate groaned. “Can’t we look around a little longer?”

“We’ve already been out here too long,” Lemon Drop said. “We were pushing it already.”

“Hey there girlies.”

They all turned around in shock to see a sickly looking man.

“What are you doing out here so late?” he slurred. “Don’t you have a curfew?”

Chippy Chocolate squeezed Lemon Drop’s arm and Cinnamon Twist’s expression hardened as they all backed away.

The man stepped toward them with a wicked smile on his face.

“Do your parent’s know you’re out here?” he questioned, still advancing towards them.

Cinnamon Twist’s eyes filled with anger when the strange thing asked them about their parents.

“They aren’t around anymore,” she hissed through clenched teeth.

“Oh?” The man stumbled forward. Frostinilla breathed in the awful stench of alcohol all over him. “Why’s that? You’re a little young to be all alone.” The man chuckled.

“Back away!” Cinnamon Twist snapped raising her hands before her. They were both glowing with the sparkling white aura of her magic.

“The fuck are you doing little girl?” The man laughed. “What kind of tricks are you playing?”

The man lunged forward and grabbed Cinnamon Twist’s wrists. She tried to wrestle her hands back but he was stronger. She shot her magic at him, but he then pulled her arms up and she missed. He held her wrists and lifted her off of the ground.

“Let go of me!” Cinnamon Twist shrieked as she kicked.

Chippy Chocolate let out a cry and backed away, pulling Lemon Drop along with her.

“Did you know you smell like cinnamon rolls?” the man said, spitting in Cinnamon Twist’s face. "I love cinnamon rolls."

Cinnamon Twist struggled to get away but it was hopeless. She wasn’t strong enough. “Let go!” she screamed.

Without time to think about what she was doing, Frostinilla launched forward at the man. She threw all of her force at him but he barely budged. All she managed to do was distract his focus long enough for Cinnamon Twist to pull free. She yanked her hands back and fell to the ground.

The man gave a growl of annoyance and turned to Frostinilla. “You think you can push me around, huh?”

Frostinilla backed away, too afraid to turn her attention away from the man walking towards her. Her heartbeat quickened and she felt her fingers begin to tremble. The man began laughing as Cinnamon Twist sat up. She lit her hands again and hit the man hard with a burst of light.

The man flew back and Frostinilla let out a shaky sigh of relief. The man was thrown through the air and landed in the center of the street. A large semi truck honked its horn and the sound of screeching and the cent of burning rubber attacked their senses. The semi truck tipped over, but not before driving over the drunken man, splattering bright red blood across the pitch black pavement.

The Cupcakes covered their ears as the man screamed in out in pain. Chippy Chocolate let out another cry but they didn’t have time to sit around in fear. Cinnamon Twist grabbed the wrists of Frostinilla and Chipy Chocolate and started running again. Lemon Drop was dragged along by Chippy Chocolate, who hadn’t once let go of Lemon Drop.

They didn’t stop until they entered the garage. This one was darker than the last. There were no lights or vehicles on the inside. As far as they could tell, they were completely alone, so they relaxed and slowed down.

“It’s not very warm in here,” Chippy Chocolate pointed out with a whimper.

“It’s the best we can do for tonight,” Cinnamon Twist said. She wasn’t any more pleased with the situation, but she knew that leaving to look for something better could just as easily stick them somewhere worse.

“Why don’t we go somewhere at the other end and get away from the openings?” Frostinilla asked Cinnamon Twist.

“Probably the best we could do right now,” Cinnamon Twist said.

They carefully made their way to the other end. They had a difficult time seeing and needed to walk slowly to avoid tripping over anything. Frostinilla’s eyes were beginning to adjust to the lack of light, but she still didn’t feel comfortable in the darkness. Her vision was returning, but it was only a sliver of what it should be.

The huddled into a corner with their backs against the walls, getting all the warmth that they could from each other. None of them were comfortable enough to lie down, but they were definitely more comfortable when they sat so closely to each other. They only comfort that any of them had anymore was in each other.

Frostinilla closed her eyes, but couldn’t give in to sleep. Each time she started to drift off, visions of her past dream flashed within her mind. She would wake up with a gasp of breath each time she saw her mother’s limp body lying on the ground. When she finally managed to push her mother out of her thoughts, her sister would creep in. Her sister, who she hoped was still very much alive, was still in Equestria, where Frostinilla was sure she wasn’t.

Nopony in equestria seemed to know anything of this world that they found themselves in. What would they think if they knew there was a creature such as these in existence? Would they hate them as much as the cupcakes did, or were the Cupcakes simply holding too tightly to a grudge. Grudge or not, the hatred was justified. how could anypony forgive such awful creatures? Even without thinking of the loss of their families, their experiences in this new world were nothing but bad and worse. The closest they found to happiness was in simple pizza that they had stolen from an unconscious person. They had escaped a lunatic trying to kill them, and another with Celestia know’s what intentions were held.

Frostinilla focused intently on an image of her sister in her head. The little filly was so precious to her. She had just realized how important her sister was to her, and they had been aggressively taken from eachother. She could only hope that her young sister was safe at home. Frostinilla knew that she would find her way back to Cinnamon Twist's mansion, but how long would the food last? Where would she be if Frostinilla ever returned home. A foster home would probably be for the best of the young filly, but would Frostinilla be able to find her or get her back when she returned, if she returned?

Tears spilled from her eyes, but she held the sobs deep in her chest. It ached to hold them back, but she wasn’t about to concern the others over simple emotions. They needed to survive, and she was thankful that the darkness hid her soaking cheeks. The tears slid down and over her lips; A few salty droplets managed to fit between her lips. Frostinilla wiped her face clear and leaned her head against the stone wall. She closed her eyes, clenching them until all she could see was darkness and white splotches.

Hours passed but she finally managed to fall asleep without waking to the shock of horrific images that her mind produced. She slept, un-peacefully, through the memories of her parents, both good and bad.

“Hey.” There was a gentle nudge on Frostinilla’s shoulder as the whispers continued. “Wake up.”

Frostinilla woke to see Cinnamon Twist looking at her questioningly.

“You alright?” Cinnamon Twist asked.

Frostinilla stared at her. “Fine. Why?”

“You were whining in your sleep,” Cinnamon Twist told her.

“I was?” Frostinilla propped herself up to sit straight up against the wall behind her. “Where are the others?” she asked, realizing that there was no one beside her.

“Chippy Chocolate was getting nauseous so Lemon Drop took her to get fresh air. She wasn’t handling the odd carriages very well either.”

Frostinilla realized that there were many of them in there, sitting in rows against walls. “When did all of those get in here?

Cinnamon Twist shrugged. “They’ve been going in and out since I woke up, and when I woke this place already seemed full. They don’t seem to be too happy about us staying here by the way. We should really get out of here before one of them decides to do something about it.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?” Frostinilla asked.

“Tried,” Cinnamon Twist told her. “You wouldn’t budge. I even slapped you.”

“Why would you-”

“Sorry, next time I’ll leave you here to get crushed like that thing from last night ,” Cinnamon Twist said with a cold glare. “You should be appreciative of the fact that we actually waited around for you.”

“Alright, I get it.”

Frostinilla stood up and wiped dirt out of her clothes. Her dress was beginning to grey now. “We really need to find a way to get cleaned up,” Frostinilla said.

“You’d think food would be a first priority,” Cinnamon Twist said.

Frostinilla shrugged. “Well we’ve been doing okay on that so far.”

“I heard a few of those things talking about cheap hotels in the area. Maybe we could find a way to pay for that.” Cinnamon Twist said.

“Pay with what? We have no way of getting our hooves on currency.”

“What hooves?” Cinnamon Twist asked holding her own hands out before her and examining them with an odd mix of disgust and intrigue.

“Well whatever these things are,” Frostinilla said, “but that’s not the point.”

“Well, I was thinking next time we kill someone, we take whatever they have,” Cinnamon Twist said nonchalauntly.

“What?!” Frostinilla stared at Cinnamon Twist, wide eyed.

“Well I’m not saying we go around doing it on purpose,” she said, unconvincingly. “I’ve just noticed that freak accidents seem to happen a lot around here. We might as well make some sort of use out of it.”

Frostinilla didn’t even want to try finding any sort of sense in that. The thought of killing seemed wrong, but the more she thought about all that she’d seen, the more she wanted to kill. These things were demented on so many levels, that she didn’t even know how to comprehend any sort of morality that they seemed to live by.

“So are we ready now?” Cinnamon Twist asked.

“It’s not like we have anything to bring with us,” Frostinilla said.

They walked out of the garage and found Lemon Drop and Chippy Chocolate both sitting on the sidewalk. They looked up and Chippy Chocolate gave a weak smile. It broke Frostinilla’s heart to see how deeply affected Chippy Chocolate was by the whole ordeal.

“Should we go look for food,” Cinnamon Twist asked her, showing that she too didn’t like
seeing their usually hyperactive friend in such low spirits.

Chippy Chocolate just shrugged and played with the strap of her bag.

“Well we can’t just sit around here,” Cinnamon Twist told her.

“Why not,” Chippy Chocolate asked. She opened the bag and pulled out her own mask.

“We need food, we need clothing, we need to somehow find a way to pay for stuff because I don’t think life is going to keep handing things over to us,” Cinnamon Twist said.

Chippy Chocolate stood with the the mask in one hand and the bag in her other. “Can’t we hang out here just a little longer?” she asked as she walked back into the garage. “I’m tired of walking around. I’m tired of seeing more of the same thing. This place is horrible, there’s nothing more to see.”

She walked into the garage again and the other’s let out synchronized sighs before following her. Chippy Chocolate sat near a pillar by one of the cars. The others joined her but didn’t sit. They simply stood around her. Cinnamon Twist crossed her arms.

“We don’t have time for this,” Cinnamon Twist complained.

“Says who?” Chippy Chocolate asked. “Where do we have to be? Who do we have waiting for us? We’re lower than we started. There’s nothing here for us. We’re useless here.”

“Useless?” Cinnamon Twist asked. “How are we any more useless here than we were back home. Back home, all we did was look for clues to where we could find these things. We tried learning as much as we could from the little we could find. We tried figuring out how they got to our world! Now we’ve found them. They are all around us for us to observe. We are now just like them. We could learn their weaknesses without even having to touch them. Not only that, but we also have half of the story behind finding those things.”

“But now that we’re here, what are we supposed to do about it?” Lemon Drop asked.

Cinnamon Twist looked each one of them with her cold set eyes. “We get our revenge.”

They all looked at Cinnamon Twist, speechless. Frostinilla wasn’t sure how she felt about it. She wasn’t sure where to start. Who was it that deserved the blow of their revenge? Did they all deserve it?

Chippy Chocolate looked down to her mask again. She turned it over in her hands. “I wish we could just go back,” she said. She closed her eyes and leaned her head forward against the mask.

A bright light shone between her face and the mask. In a matter of seconds, the mask was pulled towards her face, as if it was a magnet, and stuck to her. The glow spread across her face and down her neck. It wasn’t long at all before the glow had spread all the way down her body. The glow began to morph in shape.

First, the length of her body shrunk but the glow grew in width until it eventtually took the form of an orb. Then, the orb grew and shrunk in different places until it eventually took the form of a pony. The glow receded and Chippy Chocolate stood before them, in her original form, wearing her dress and mask.

Frostinilla stood with her jaw dropped as she stared at Chippy Chocolate. The brown pony was standing before them, looking confused and scared. Cinnamon Twist and Lemon Drop were staring, just as speechless as Frostinilla was.

“What?” Chippy Chocolate asked. “What happened?!” The shrill pitch of her voice rose with her panic.

“You’re-” Cinnamon Twist couldn’t seem to find her words.

Chippy Chocolate rose her hoof to her face and froze. She looked down at her hoof and a smile broke loose. She giggled and hopped in excitement. “Oh my god! I’m me again!” she squealed.

“Sshhhhh,” Cinnamon Twist hissed. “Take that off! This isn’t the place to look like that. Do you want to attract attention.”

Chippy Chocolate’s smile vanished but she obliged. She removed the mask and as she did, a white light seemed to stretch away from her face and engulfed her once the mask was away from her face. The process reversed itself until Chippy Chocolate was standing in front of them, once again, in her human form.

“Will that happen with all of us?” Frostinilla asked, staring at Chippy Chocolate as if she didn’t believe the girl before her was real.

Chippy Chocolate shrugged, but dug through her bag to find another mask and handed it over to Frostinilla. “See for yourself.”

Frostinilla took the white, pearl bordered mask from Chippy Chocolate. They all rearranged themselves so that they could hide Frostinilla from any passerby. Frostinilla took a deep breath and brought the mask to her face. She felt the light heat up her face and the mask snap into place. The heat spread through her body and sent a tingling sensation through her. Soon, her whole body was numb. The feeling passed and she was standing again, standing on all four hooves.