A Promise I Won't Make Twice

by Pyromaniac

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Tragedy, Slice of Life
Length: 5648

Cloudchaser makes a promise to Flitter. One she can't make again.

Cloudchaser Stormwalker loves her younger sister, Flitter, more than anything else in the world. But when their parents die, Cloudchaser makes her sister a promise. How can she follow through when she's been hit harder than anypony else?

"I made you a promise, Flitter. But it's a promise I won't make twice."

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-10-15 08:18:43 UTC

Chapter 1

"Hey! Cutie Mark Crusaders!

***

Of all the things I could possibly start with, why not hello? My name is Dynamite, or Dyna for short. I am a unicorn mare, no,  not mare. Granted, I am eighteen, but my flank is as bare as when I was born. I lived in Stable 21 with my best, and only, friend, Eclipse. Some might say she's older than me, and honestly, I did, too, but that was before we left...

I forced myself up, not excited for the day ahead. Time to be taunted for having no cutie mark, no PipBuck because of that. I don't care. Honestly, I really don't care. What difference does it make, having my destiny plastered on my flank, or a metal sleeve on my hoof? Apparently, that's everything in a Stable. I slipped out of bed, cracking my spine into place. I quickly brushed my dusty lavender mane out, grabbing a rubber band as I made way to the showers. As I drew closer to the showers, somepony slammed into me.

"Nice flank, Dyna, what's your talent, being invisible?" snickered Peanut Butter, a brown mare with a tan-yellow poofy mane.

"I wish to high hell wish it was, because I sure as fuck wouldn't be talking to your ugly-ass face if it was."

"Doesn't help the fact you're still a pathetic blank flank." Peanut retorted.

"Oh, goddess, really? How old are you, five?" I answered boredly.

"Maybe, but you're the one with the flank of one!"

"Please, just shut up before I think you're complementing me." With that, I swished away from the dumbstruck fucktard. I made sure to whisper "Filly-fooler." in her ear as I trotted by.

I stepped into the shower room, choosing a stall before feeling the hot water spilled over my fur as I washed myself clean. I wanted to stand under it's warm spray forever, but, unfortunately, I had to work. I used magic to brush my mane a second time, and tie it in a ponytail. As I pushed myself out, I heard a loud voice.

"BOO!" A white unicorn yelled at me. I swung my hoof at Eclipse. Her straight light purple mane shook as my hoof hit her cheek.

"DON'T DO THAT!" I yelped, wishing my eyes could burn a hole in her pelt.

"You're just never going to stop falling for that, are you?" Eclipse laughed, falling into herself a little bit.

"Little dipshit Dyna?" I said, using my not-very-nice nickname that Eclipse usually found funny. Hey, she's my best friend. Of course she loves pissing me off, and hell, it is kinda funny. "Naaaaawww."

"So, anything new? Have those dreams again?"

"Which ones?" I asked, my fur felt a little ruffled.

"The ones before the war." That... that was creepy.

"Yes..."

"Yay!" Eclipse smiled, her eyes going in different directions, Pinkamena-style, her mane playing the part... wait, who's Pinkamena?

"You're really creepy, you know that, right?" I stated, staring at her warily.

"Eeyup,"

"Doesn't it concern you?"

"Nnope,"

"Okay then..." We subconsciously started walking towards the cafeteria. After a moment, a question popped into my brain. "Eclipse?

"Yeah?" She looked at me with icy blue eyes. Although they displayed her amusement, a streak of darkness prodded at them, hiding which emotion she truly felt. I never understood what caused this.

"How'd you get your cutie mark again?" I asked, staring at the lunar eclipse adorned on her flank.

"It's because of my bipolar disorder." She calmly stated like she was a professor and I was her student. "I got it when I slaughtered half the Stable."

"No, no you didn't." I deadpanned. Eclipse nearly fell over laughing.

"Well, it really does stand for my bipolar."

"How the fuck is being bipolar a talent?!"

"Lolidunno!" Eclipse trotted forward a little faster. I sighed, shaking my head.

"I just don't get it." I ground my teeth.

"What?"

"You get your job when you get your cutie mark, but I don't have one!" I hissed. "I'm so fucking tired of being a fucking janitor fucking cleaning up after those fucking bitches who make my life fucking hell." Guess my favorite word, you'll never get it!

"I just don't even..." I stammered, a tear splashed down my face. I barely noticed a glint of metal just before something poked into my left foreleg. I pulled my hoof to my face. "Holy shit, Eclipse..."

"Happy birthday," She smiled before getting the wind knocked out of her by a hug.

After I was done condensing my best friend into a nice, hug-shaped block, I pulled the newly installed PipBuck to my face.  Just like Eclipse's, it was much sleeker than the other, standard PipBucks. Three buttons sat in a neat row below the screen, and there were two switches, one vertical and one horizontal, on the right side of the device. Eyes Forward Sparkle turned on, scaring the crap out of me, quite honestly. Little bars showed my health, while the other told me how many action points I had. I looked at Eclipse, a yellow stripe on the EFS compass symbolizing her.

"So, how's it work?" She smiled, eagerly awaiting my review of her gift. As she spoke, a little box popped up. Her name was on the top of the box, followded by what she said.

"That's how you know exactly what I'm saying!" I exclaimed. "All along I thought you were crazy, and you are, but your PipBuck captions it?!"

"Fucking awesome, ain't it?" She grinned. I could feel the excitement pulsing off of her. "That's the sister Pip to mine. The only two!"

"Holy crap, Eclipse. How'd you get this beautiful bitch?"

"Not by threating the PipBuck technicians with a sharpened toothbrush..."

I simply stared at her. "I worry about you sometimes."

"Yeah, I do too. That crazy bitch Eclipse, why is she allowed to roam free?" Eclipse facehooved. I... I honestly don't know if she was joking or not.

"So... uh..."

"I'm starving, let's get food!" Eclipse licked her lips and continued to the cafeteria, grabbing my Stable jumpsuit with her magic, pulling me along. Whelp, she's the only one who doesn't shun me. Gotta take what you can get, I guess.

***

There we stood anxiously awaiting the opening of the Stable door. So many were afraid, but Eclipse and I? Not at all, we were bracing ourselves to run. Run... ready... Stable... pegasus... wait, pegasus? My knees buckled as pain shot through my head, like a knife was slicing through it. Everything slowly went blank as Eclipse grabbed me.

A fully grown pegasus mare... dusty tan, like me... held a saw in her mouth. She took a shuddering breath, and put it to the base of her wings. She didn't scream as the serrated blade ripped through her body, separating her flying limbs from her body. Tears streamed down her face as blood cascaded everywhere. I could feel her pain, but I couldn't. I don't have wings, b-besides, she had a pink mane. Her emerald eyes... were an exact replica of mine. No, no, she was a pegasus and had a pink mane. Tan is a common coat color, right? And green eyes aren't exactly rare either. The mare had stopped, and proceeded to wrap her torso up completely. What was she doing? Suddenly, determination replaced the pain in her eyes are she moved ever so gingerly forward. I wanted to watch her more, see her plan, but I regained consciousness. Dammit.

"Dyna, it's time to go." Eclipse's voice calmed me. I pushed myself back up.

"Then let's."

***

Whoo-hoo-hoo! I fucking love the outside! Eclipse took one look at the sky and vomitted.

"Pussy!" I laughed wildly, feeling right at home. I immediately tore my jumpsuit off and threw it away. Never looking back! As soon as Eclipse managed to regain herself, I was already primed to run.

"C'mon, Sky-hater." I smirked to my white friend, who was laid out over me at this point.

Blurbling noises came out of her as it was my turn to drag her.

I dragged her for a good hour before she was fed up with being pulled around like a foal's toy and walked, keeping her face down.

"Oh ceiling, how I miss you." Eclipse moaned as she stumbled along. We were a good distance from the Stable and the big, flashy city nearby it. Nah, we were headed for the mountains, the flatlands, whatever the hell was in our way. We were gonna brave Equestria!

If Eclipse ever got used to not having something over her head, that is.

All there was at this point as dust and cracked, faded asphalt beneath our hooves. No buildings in sight, but there were tarnished billboards depicting sexily dressed mares, there were bombed to hell carriages, and skeletons who were withered and dried, who they once were long forgotten by time. We stopped by a sign adorned with a mare's plot so Eclipse could vomit again.

"Silly filly, you gotta stop vomitting so much. We have tons of travelling to do!" I chided. Eclipse looked like she was going to choke me with her puke if I spoke another word, so I shut up.

RATATATATATATATA!

A spray of bullet nearly hit us as I pulled Eclipse down. A pony growled with pain.

BOOM!

"Crap, we're caught in a crossfire!" I yelped.

"Mommy, I feel sick." Eclipse moaned.

"Shut the fuck up, we have to find out how to get out." I growled. Find out pretty much means wing it.

So we did.

Eclipse probably got an ass burn as I dragged her quickly across the road, attempting to take cover in a pile of rocks.

BANG!

A bullet made it's way through my leg. I saw the fucker who did it, a unicorn stallion with his horn broke in half, his fur so dirty it's color was indistinguishable. He smiled at me, but not a nice smile, like a "I'm gonna rape you" smile. I looked around for a weapon when I saw a couple red sticks. Sticks... you can hit with sticks. My PipBuck announced these sticks were called dynamite. Hey, my name is Dynamite! If these sticks aren't my destiny, I don't know what is! Um, maybe I should avoid being brutally raped and murdered before I worry about my cutie mark. I jumped up to stab the stallion in the eye with it when somepony cried out.

"You light it, dumbfuck!"

Oh.

I lit a spark on the string coming out of the stick, and shoved it in the stallion's armor. I stepped back a step.

"RUN!"

The fire ate the string quickly, it was already at the base of the stick.

"You idiot, RUN!"

My brain isn't that fast. The stallion must have had more explosives on him, since my dynamite started a chain reaction. He was blown to bloody bits as I was blown back. My head slammed against a rock as I landed by Eclipse.

"Dyna... your cutie mark..." She breathed, her hoof on my flank. I barely saw a red stripe on my flank as I blacked out.

***

"Done trying to kill yourself?"

My head automatically moved towards the brash voice. It was familiar, but not like a friend's, nor like an enemy's. It was... a different kind of familiar. Where did I hear it before? My vision made out the blurry outline of a purple pony. As it cleared up, it turned out there was an earth mare in front of me. She had a short pink-lilac mane which was brushed entirely to the right side, and had darker colored tips. Her eyes were so dark purple they might have passed for black. We were inside a shack so destroyed, I was surprised it was standing.

"Um, I-I guess... who are you." I slurred, my head hurting like hell.

"I'm Devia, and you're Dynamite, right? Your marefriend told me." The mare said calmly, but seemed to have a permanently agitated voice. Something in my brain snapped.

"She's not my marefriend!" I screeched, pinning Devia to a wall and raising my hoof to strike. A look of pure terror crossed her face as she cowered.

"Back off, Dyna." Eclipse said gravely, which terrified me. Her voice never sounded like that, not unless...

“E-Eclipse?” I whimpered, thoroughly afraid. My best friend’s eyes were dark, not even a strip of her normal personality in them.

“I said, back. Off.” She warned again, her voice menacing. I let Devia go, who promptly skittered off into a corner.

“Hey, ‘Clipse, you okay?” I gulped.

“The fuck you do that? She helped you. You practically blew yourself to pieces, and she saved your fucking life. What do you do? You nearly bash her head in.” I swear I could smell urine.

“I-I’m sorry.” I lowered my head, just like a foal being scolded by her mother.

“Sorry for what? And why do you look so scared? Is there a ghost somewhere?” Eclipse’s personality did a complete one-eighty. Devia was in fetal position, tears on her eyelashes as she sat in a rather foul-smelling puddle.

“You’re not allowed to have sanity, just in case you were at one point considering joining us.” I told the purple mare.

“It’s... *sniff* it’s nothing... I’ve *sniff* seen worse...” She finally opened her eyes, which were nothing more than pinpricks. “Sanity’s for the *sniff* weak...”

“Glad she knows our motto! She’ll fit riiight in!” Eclipse smiled, picking the shivering mare up and holding her like a puppy. I was somewhere between facehooving, laughing, and saving the poor thing.

I decided to save her.

“‘Clipsey, we can’t scare our new friends.” I said, levitating Devia out of her hooves.

“Awww, okie.” Eclipse sighed, lowering her head. I stared at her for a moment before looking at Devia again.

“So, uh, you gonna be okay?” I asked.

“Whu- yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine.” The earth mare shook her head, her face looking normal, if a bit weary.

“So, um, thank you for everything. We’ll help you preserve whatever sanity you have left and leave.” I grinned awkwardly, spinning walking walking out of her shack.

“Wait...” She croaked. I looked back, she was walking towards me. “Don’t leave.”

That moment I saw something. There wasn’t some tough, badass chick. No wasteland-hardened mare. But a foal, not wanting to be left alone.

“Don’t... don’t leave.” Devia repeated, holding her hoof out to me. I touched it hesitantly, which made her smile.

“Well, I guess we need somepony. We’re gonna need help, we’re only Stable dwellers, after all.” I smiled weakly, which made Devia’s eyes light up.

“Great! I’ll get Mercy!” She squee’d, jumping up and walking towards the back of the shack.

“Mercy? Who’s that?” I asked, looking at her.

“Not who, what.” Devia said, coming back with two humongous machine guns on her back, a bar in front of her face.

“HOLY CRAP!” Eclipse yelped, hiding behind me.

“What? Never seen a battle saddle before?” Devia asked. “Granted this one is quite bulky compared to others, but still.”

"No! We lived in a Stable, remember?!" I cried out hoarsely. Something about it seemed familiar, but I couldn't put my hoof on it.

"Stable, right, right." The purple mare shook her head. "It's not every day you see a Stable pony. Even rarer to see them alive."

"Should I be insulted?" Eclipse asked, her head tilted.

"You're alive... so no." The earth pony said. "Are we going or what."

"Going! Now!" I said, turning around and bucking the door open. And by open, I mean it practically disintigrated at my touch. "ALLONS-Y!"

***

Wow.

We're very, very lucky. We have been walking for an hour, and only got attacked by two different groups of raiders, some coyotes, and a radscorpion. Can you believe that?!

"I think I might throw up." Eclipse rubbed her temple, spreading more blood where onto it. She stared at her formerly-white hoof and froze. I swear I heard her retch, just a little bit.

"Sweetie, you better get fuckin' used to it." Devia spat, rather bitter from remembering she hated coyote meat a bite too late. "This is fucking nothing compared to what happens when the big tribes have a small disagreement."

"What happens then?" I asked, mentally shuddering.

"They fucking slaughter each other." Her purple-black eyes narrowed.

"And all-out wars?"

"Nopony lives."

"Good to know."

"Really? Good? I could have gone my whole life not knowing that." Eclipse made a throaty sound. "Anypony have the brain bleach?'

"No, sorry, got used up in the first hundred years." Devia trotted a bit faster. None of us talked for a bit.

"So, where were you headed before saving our stupid flanks?" I inquired, walking faster to be head-to-head with Devia. Dust caked all over all of our coats, particularly were there was still-sticky blood.

"Notack, there is a motel there, famous for it's dragon statue." She explained in almost a deadpan.

"Risking your life? For a fucking dragon statue? What the fuck?" Eclipse spat, I've never seen her be disgusted at something she might have very well done if she wasn't out of her element.

"Inside is a sniper nest. I'm not a sniper, but I know one of them personally. I want to get him out of the shithole before it's too late." The earth pony's tail flicked.

"Devia, are you in love?" I asked her, my inner hopeless romantic pleading her to say yes.

"Hell no."

Awww.

"He's my fucking brother!" Devia pinned her ears against her head. "And no, no incest."

"I'm sorry, you just impli- mmmmphhrphh!" A bloody-dusty white hoof shoved itself into my mouth.

"Red lines," Eclipse hissed, pushing Devia and I behind a rock.

"Red lines? What the fu- mmmmmppphhh!" Our bitchy purple companion found a hoof in her muzzle as well.

"Red. Lines." Eclipse gave me a soul-piercing stare.

"There are enemies nearby." I whispered to Devia. "Ready yourself to kill."

Devia smiled viciously, licking her lips and stroking Mercy with one hoof. A hoof made purely of fire came into view. Then another. An entire pony made of flames stood in front of us. Devia grabbed the bar in front of her in her mouth, but the pony held it's hoof up. The voice that came out was surprisingly warm and comforting, but it spoke of concern.

"Run."

A mottled gray-and-brown stallion leaped over the rock, pointing a hoofgun right between Eclipse's eyes.

"Hell fucking no." I said, pulling out a stick of dynamite. He stared into my eyes, and I stared right back. He slowly turned, the hoofgun now pointed at my skull. A small flame lit up on the tip of my horn, but before I could even light the explosive, the sound of two machine guns pounded my ears. The stallion was filled with holes, dead on the ground. The fire pony was gone, the ground smouldering where it had ran away.

Hooves pounded across the ground, several ponies coming at us with guns and explosives, and a few with throwing knives. Eclipse picked up a knife that fell at her side, and charged at the ponies. My screams were lost in the gunfire and explosions. I did the only thing I could.

I made them go boom.

The first was a stone gray and puke green mare, bloodshot eyes of an obvious drug addict stared at me. I didn't even think, afraid that Eclipse was gone as soon as she entered the herd.

"Bye-bye, bitchy." I snarled, chucking the dynamite at her chest. It landed at her hooves, blowing up under her belly. Her red mist blinded the other, a couple running into each other. Another dynamite took care of them. Am I bad for saying I was having fun? Devia at my side, plowing those bastards down with Mercy.

Dust and dirt rained down on me, getting in my eyes and mane, but I didn't care. If there was even the sliver of a chance Eclipse was dead, they would all die.

"TASTE MY BULLETS, FUCKERS!!" I heard Devia screech as a few more fell down. She seemed to have gotten hit by a couple bullets, and a gash where a knife probably sliced her. In the few seconds I took to look at her, a bullet went through my hoof and another skimmed by side.

"Fuck!" I yelled, immediately finding the bitch who shot me. An earth pony mare, wearing the biggest shit-eating grin I'd ever seen. She wasn't even worth wasting a stick on. I ran up, crushing her gun with magic. I reared up on both hind legs, bitch-punching her in the chest. She stumbled backwards coughing, but ran back at me. She turned to buck me, but I brought my weight down on her right leg, hearing the sick crunch of the bone snapping. Her pained squeals hurt my ears, but this fucking whore shot me! She fell over, scooting away from me in a desperate attempt to avoid more pain. Obviously, she wasn't good at hoof-to-hoof or melee, she didn't even have a knife! Well, neither did I, but all those spats in the Stable did some good, at least.

"Regret shooting me?" I growled, standing on stop of her.

"Yes," Her dirty-colored eyes scared and teary. I stared at her, making her cower more.

"Please don't rape me..." She hid her head in her hooves. I almost pitied her.

Almost.

"I won't rape you." I said, trying to sound indifferent, but instead almost motherly.

"Please don't make anypony rape me."

"I will not."

"Or-or sell me in slavery."

"I. Will. Not."

"All I wanted..." She closed her eyes, I could her her choking back her tears and pain.

"What did you want?" I asked, completely melting. I sat down beside her, she wasn't going anywhere.

"I... I wanted my foal to grow up... to be a good pony..." She gulped, her voice shaky. "I didn't want to be bad... I wanted my foal to... be... good..."

"You are not a bad pony." I soothed, she relaxed, visibly calmer. "Where is your foal now?"

She only pointed to her stomach. I was so used to seeing slightly rounder Stable ponies than the skin-and-bones of the Wasteland. She was pregnant, I just didn't see it.

"What is your name?" She asked me, her lips dry. Her eyes opened just a crack.

"D-Dynamite," I said as I stroked her filthy mane. She smiled.

"You're a pretty pony, Dynamite. Prettier than me. I hope... my foal is as pretty as you."

"I am not pretty." I shook my head, still stroking her. "And your foal will be the prettiest pony ever."

"I hope so," She sighed, her cheek against my hoof. "I hope... my foal... will be a good pony... like you..."

"I am not good, either." The images of the ponies I killed flooded my brain, the sick pleasure I felt. "I killed ponies."

"Everypony kills ponies. Here it is kill to live." The mare coughed. "I hope my foal does not have to live in a place like this."

"They won't, you won't." My only motivation to talk was how happy it made this poor pony. "Nopony will have to kill anymore. I'm going to make sure they won't."

"You are a good pony, Dynamite. Stay good." She looked at me, and I could see the light leaving her eyes as her soul slipped away.

"Don't die. If you die I'll never forgive myself." I could feel tears under my eyelids.

"Stay... good... Dynamite..." The mare took a heaving breath, her last.

"DON'T DIE!" I screamed and pleaded. "DON'T!"

I was reduced to sobbing on her chest.

"Just don't..."

I felt a hoof touch my shoulder, then another. I didn't need to look up to see that both Eclipse and Dyna were there.

"I killed her." My throat was dry, my eyes burning.

"You didn't..." Eclipse started.

"I PUNCHED HER IN THE CHEST!" I whipped around, hot tears finally falling. "IT WAS MY FAULT!"

Eclipse pulled me close to her torso, stroking my mane and back as I sobbed in her shoulder. I felt something poke into my leg. I wanted to fight Devia for trying to heal me, but my current weakness plus Eclipse burying me into her body stopped me. After all my tears were shed, I took a deep breath.

"Let's... let's go to Notack... okay?"

***

I kicked a rock, eyes not leaving the ground.

"Dyna, if you mourn over every pony you kill, you're gonna have a bad time." Devia stared at me, her dark eyes half-lidded with her eternal anger.

I closed my own emerald orbs, and allowed myself to take a deep sigh before answering her.

"But she didn't deserve to die. A-and she with foal!" I shook my head to knock a migrane out, but the pain grew only worse. A few strands of lavender mane fell over my face. "And I killed her..."

Suddenly, I felt a hoof hit my over my ears. I snapped by head around to see Devia scowling at me.

"Don't be fucking emo!" She snarled, the fur on her shoulders and rump bristling and standing up like a dog's. "Be anything else, but do. Not. Be. Emo."

I gulped and nodded, quickly sidestepping away from the purple ball of fury and beside Eclipse, who was sniggering.

"What's so funny?" I snorted, squinting at her.

"That coyote... just caught fire... and blew up- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The white unicorn fell over onto her back, tears of laughter streaming down her face as she thrashed around like a turtle flipped upside down.

I quickly moved away from her, too.

"And l-lookie, Dyna, there's a pony made of fire!" She teleported herself onto my head and pointed off into the distance. Whatever hardcore shit she's on, I want some.

Devia squinted and looked around, her hoof over her forehead, blocking out any excess light.

"Watcha lookin' for, Dev?" Eclipse hopped off of me, a cloud of dust where her hooves struck the ground.

"Somewhere to bed down for tonight. It's not too terribly safe to hunker down outside with only three of us, one of which is nucking futs, and another apparently has PTSD." She said, not breaking her gaze across the desolate land.

"So, what's my disorder, then?" Eclipse asked, a smug look on her face. Devia finally looked at her, groaned in disgust, and trotted away, Eclipse following like a dog. I snickered a bit before following her, as well.

The forcused intensely on how the dust shifted and came up under my hooves as I walked along behind my companions, tracking their movements by my periphial vision. Obviously, that wasn't enough, as I ended up slamming the side of my face into Eclipse's plot. Surpringly bubbly. Er, um, uh, nevermind.

"Goddess fucking dammit," Devia cursed, stamping her hoof. "Really? No shacks or gas stations? What motherfucker didn't put ANYTHING here?"

"So, I assume we're sleeping outside?" Eclipse questioned. Devia turned around to give her a vicious look, but I guess she got tired and merely rubbed her forhead and eyes.

"Well, that's good, anyway." The white unicorn chattered on. "That gecko I had reeaallllyyy isn't sitting well."

I opened my mouth to ask when exactly she ate gecko, but I shut up. D-does she have some sort of magic that makes ponies not what to do what they wanted to? Huh.

Devia pulled a mat out from under the arch of her battle saddle, laid it on the ground. She slid Mercy off of her back and stretched out on her sleeping roll, not falling asleep, just watching us silently.

I took this as a cue to make a fire, so I tracked down some dried grass (not very hard) and lit it with a spark inside a ring of stones. I didn't notice Eclipse had disappeared until she blinked beside me, a dead gecko in her jaw.

"So, about where are we?" The white mare asked, spitting out the dead creature before pulling out a knife she had taken from a dead raider, butchering the monstrosity.

I pulled up my PipBuck's map, looking at the arrows representing Eclipse, Devia, and I.

"About thirty miles out of New Pegas." I said before looking at the screen again and toying with the device. I saw a Radio tab, and immediately went for it. There were only three stations, all of which were active. I chose one called the P0N-3 Radio.

"Yeah, I own this this beat!"

I had never heard dubstep before, in the Stable all we had were, well, softer music, to say the least.

"You can call me the king or the ruler. Felon on bass, getting hoarse on the mic. We're getting twenty percent cooler!"

My ears perked up and my head nodded to the beat, my lavender bangs whipping across my face.

"Seven colors in your hair, get your boots on, dear. We're going out there, don't care 'bout the dress code, put it on, let's go. Girls go wild 'cuz we're going 'al fresco'."

"Fuck, this shit again." Devia put her hooves over her ears. Eclipse used her magic to turn my Pip up louder.

"HA! No need to preform, hooves on our bodies gonna keep our skills warm. We need social reform 'cuz we're just so criminal. Linguist subliminal. Damages minimal."

"Maaake it stoooppp." Devia cried, pulling on her eyes. Eclipse grinned wickedly, her own voice joining in.

"Top percentile, largest fraction, massive attraction, girl-on-girl action. Stop that! We're gonna need a redaction. Drop that! You already got your reaction!"

I must admit, now I really think her job in the Stable may have been an entertainer. Her voice was sure as fuck nice.

"Me? I'm gonna keep on smilin'. You? You're gonna need restyling."

Tears were streaming down Devia's face. I was about the turn the music off, but Eclipse caught me in her magic grip.

"I got the quote back. From the jeweler. You're gettin' twenty percent cooler."

...........

"Yeah, I own this beat! You can call me the king or the ruler. Felon on bass, getting hoarse on the mi-"

Eclipse's mouth promptly had a dark purple hoof shoved in her mouth. I took the moment to download the song onto my 'Buck before Devia stomped on it, turning it off.

"I FUCKING HATE ALL OF YOU!" She screamed at the top of her lungs in out faces. Eclipse opened her mouth the speak, but Devia caught her jaw, slamming her into the ground. I jumped back, amazed out how Eclipse managed to make a miniture crater into the ground without her skull shattering.

I stammered, trying to find words. When I did, it came out so weak and hoarse I could barely hear myself.

"A-are you leaving?"

She glared at me, her purple eyes staring into mine. I didn't even flinch, though I wanted to.

"No, not yet." She said, but dragged her stuff farther away anyway.

I decided to curl into a ball by the fire, falling into an uneasy sleep.

***

Emptiness.

That's all I can use to describe the place I am when I am not truly dreaming.

It is a vast desert, with nothing in any direction but sand. Sand and dust. Shades of yellow and brown. There is a bubble-like dome on top, keeping me inside, not like there's anywhere out. I try walking, but no matter how far I get, I never see the walls.

I am always alone. Except for last night.

The tan pegasus came by again. She stared at me for a second, before calming walking away. I staring trotting to her, but she seemed to be moving farther away, although she was still only walking. I went from trot to canter, but still the walking pegasus moved forwards. I gave up, galloping full-speed, the pegasus only got further away until she was a dot on the empty horizon.

I fell, and I cried. I cried and cried and cried, because I was alone, all alone.

My tears fell, but there was nopony there. But then, I looked up for a second. In the dusty haze, I saw ten mares.

A pink pegasus with a blue mane hovered above a cream unicorn with a chocolate mane. On the unicorn's right side was a tan earth pony with a darker mane, a red bandana around her neck. On the unicorn's left was a yellow earth pony, her torso wrapped in bandages, and pale lavender curls so light, I almost mistook them for white. She glanced beside her, at a large black unicorn with a black-and-white mane, piercing red eyes. She was larger than any of the other mares, but looked about the same age, only maybe a bit older.

There was also a small white-coated, yellow-maned filly bouncing around. Except she was obviously older than a filly. A brown unicorn was with her, wearing a silver collar.

But then something really caught my eye.

A yellow earth pony with a blood-red mane, a black headband pressing it to her skull. Her legs were wrapped in matching fabric, and she wielded a large sword. But her eyes... were shut. Like she couldn't open them. A little mint-green pegasus filly sat by her side, watching me with big, blue eyes. She tilted her head, her brown and red streaked bangs fell over her face. Then something happened.

The tan pegasus walked up, putting a hoof on the filly's shoulder. My gut hurt so much, the jealously overtaking my mind. My face felt hot as I stared at the filly. But the tan pegasus nodded her head back towards the group, and I pointed at my chest. She smiled and nodded again. But as soon as I reached them, they disappeared, and I was alone. Again.