Change of Plans.

CHAPTER 1: CHANGE OF PLANS

You see that in movies all the time: a character gets the piss knocked out of him and, when he wakes up, he gets right back up and pays his taxes while he's at it. In real life, it's not that easy. Ihe first thing you notice when you wake up is the pain. Every time your heart beats it feels as if your head wants to explode and you can feel your blood pounding throughout your body. Then you feel your back and shoulders moan in agony as your body starts to wake up with you. The next thing you realize is that you exist. You feel yourself lying on the ground and you start to become aware of the environment. The heat, the drone of insects, and once in a while a bird chirps, and you remember that you're not the only thing alive in this picture. It's a surreal, nauseating experience and it was after experiencing that for a good twenty or thirty minutes that I decided it was time to open my eyes. I slowly opened them and immediately clamped them shut due to the harsh light of the sun. I tried again, but my eyelids demanded to be shut, and for good reason. It felt like my eyeballs were about to burst into flames. I told myself that eventually my eyes would adjust. I, of course, was right. Things started to become more visible as my eyes got used to this new situation. All I could see was the bright blue sky stretching on for miles and miles in every possible direction. At least it was something. I decided to look left but my neck quickly told me I was doing nothing of the sort. It revolted as soon as I started to twist it with a searing pain like nothing I had felt before. I needed to stand back up; this was the first step. I twisted my neck again. Unsurprisingly, I got a painful result, but it wasn't as much of a shock as before, so I kept on fighting the pain until my head was facing sideways.

Dirt. That was all I saw. Dirt and a few small plants here and there, but other than that dirt, dirt, and more dirt.

"Great," I thought sarcastically. "I'm in the desert."

I didn't know why I was in the desert, but at the current moment that wasn't my concern. I had bigger metaphorical fish to metaphorically fry.

"Okay, now for the legs," I thought to myself as I slowly pulled my limbs up against the pain. Eventually, I saw my shins rise up over my torso. I got them to hover off the ground for a second before they flopped back down to the ground. That wasn't nearly good enough. I lifted my legs again and, this time, my thighs joined in. With some effort, I finally had all four hooves raised up in the air. I grinned and laughed triumphantly as I wiggled them around.

I probably looked insane, having my legs up in the air and waving them around like I was a turtle stuck on its back. But it felt amazing and I didn't care that anypony who saw me would immediately assume I had escaped from the looney bin. I was moving, that's all that mattered.

After a fair share of that I decided to stop wasting time flailing my limbs and instead finally stand up. It started with a simple roll from my back to my knees, then the hard part started. While I was struggling to stand up, a million thoughts were racing through my mind. I felt awful for all the times I was lying in bed, my alarm clock screaming at me at the top of its lungs, and I thought to myself that there was no way I could get up. If I could've seen myself now, maybe I would've appreciated the ability to walk and move. But I didn't feel sorry for myself for long.

Using wobbly legs for support I finally managed to pull myself into a position that barely classified as standing. At least it was something. The sweat covering me and the aches threatening to tear my body apart reminded me of the intense battle I had just put forth to get to this point. Then I did something any sane stallion in my position would've done.

"I AM THE MASTER OF GRAVITY!" Or maybe I did that...

This is me. Well, this was me. Twenty-four year old unicorn, by the name of Fortissimo, clumsily stepping around the desert like I was first learning to walk and laughing like a mental patient every time I took more than six steps without face planting. I guess amongst all the fun I was having, I failed to realize that I had made a one eighty degree turn whilst trotting around aimlessly. When I looked up, the wild grin I was wearing died instantly and I stopped dead in my tracks. My entire body for one long second completely shut down as I tried to take in this sight that couldn't possibly be real. The burning wreckage was too much and I slowly started to back away as it was the only thing I could do as the memories came flooding in. I remembered the crash itself, the train car tipping over as passengers screamed and chaos took order's place in the balance of life. The weird part about the crash was when my life flashed before my eyes. Yes, I know you've heard that before. But it happens, it really does. It's not a rapid fire thing either. You remember everything that's ever happened to you in perfect detail all at the same time, while you tell yourself over and over that you are going to die. Alongside all that, I also remembered why I was on a train in the first place. I was off to my sister, Allegra's, wedding in Los Pegasus. She's just the sweetest little mare; I don't think she's ever yelled at anypony. Interesting choice of names, I know, but they fit quite well.

I've always been one to take charge of situations and be the pony calling the shots. Yeah, I'm that member of the group. I remember so clearly staring at that wreckage and for a moment I felt lost. I wanted to look away, but I just couldn't, like somepony with a missing limb or burn scars. You know you shouldn't stare, but you can't help doing exactly that. I needed to get away from it. Far away. I turned and ran, tripping over myself a few times, but I was determined to get as much ground between me and that wreckage as possible.

Now I was tired and covered in sweat. I don't know how I kept on going, maybe the determination was enough somehow. I don't actually remember how far or for how long I ran for. I was just doing as my brain told me, and in that moment, all my brain was telling me was run; run as fast as you can. Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore, and I collapsed to the ground, i was shocked at how tired I really was. Now, my brain was just telling me to eat, and it made this demand quite clear with the gurgling sounds my stomach emitted.

"Make up your fucking mind!" I angrily shouted.

Then, I saw it. A glorious green shrub of some kind. I didn't care what it was; I wanted to eat it. I inched towards it like I couldn't decide if I wanted to run, walk, or crawl. I finally made it to the prize and then, without thinking, I grabbed a leaf with my mouth and ripped it off. I don't believe I've ever made a bigger mistake than that. It seems that in my moment of necessity-driven hysteria, I failed to realize that this plant could have defences to prevent dying fools like myself from eating it, which it obviously did. I reared my head up and jumped backwards, all while screaming various obscenities as if they'd somehow ease the pain of the stinging barbs on the leaf's surface, now in my mouth. Now, not only was I hungry and thirsty, but my tongue felt like it had been gang raped by a group of mosquitoes, wasps, and jellyfish. Today was definitely not my day. I kept on trudging through the hot desert. I needed shelter; that was another priority I had to honour. Sadly, it was not an easy task to complete, considering how flat and empty the desert is. I just kept walking, and deep down I didn't care if I found shelter or not. I just wanted to get away from that wreckage. It sent shivers down my spine whenever I thought about the flaming pieces of metal. I looked up, expecting to see more orange dirt, but what I saw nearly made me jump.

There it was, not even fifty feet in front of me, standing on the top of a small hill: a gorgeous black dog. No, not a dog. The whatever-it-was was nothing that could ever be tamed, no, it was definitely a wolf.

"This is it, I'm doomed." I thought to myself. "A wolf is going to rip my face off in the desert." I paused in confusion. "Wait, a wolf, in the desert?"

Needless to say, I was confused, as there were no wolves in the desert between Canterlot and Los Pegasus. But there it was, just standing there, staring back at me. It knew something I didn't. I could see it in its eyes. But what it knew exactly, I couldn't be sure. Then, I saw the cart.

"How did I not notice that!?" I angrily thought to myself.

An old wooden horse drawn cart sat in the middle of the desert just off to my left. It had obviously been laying dormant for quite some time. The wheels were snapped and broken, and the cart itself was falling apart, but it was still there in all its life-saving glory. It seemed my luck was turning around, and I was overjoyed.

"Oh thank the heavens!" I thought. "I'm saved! It'll have food and water and shelter and- where's the wolf? ... Oh crap!" I frantically looked around for the wolf but it was nowhere to be seen. I slowly backed away from where I saw the wolf.

"H-hello?" I nervously called out. "Are you still there?"

I got no response, no howl, no sound, no nothing. It's safe to say I was losing my shit, as that tends to happen when there's a wolf around and you don't know where it is. I cautiously stepped up the hill, I got to the top and looked down. No wolf.

"Huh," I thought to myself. I then turned back to the cart and immediately saw the wolf again.

Yup, there it was the same night black wolf with no explanation for being here, leisurely dragging off a giant bag of food from the cart.

"Hey. Hey! No, no, no, stop!" I ran at it, but then remembered it was a wolf when it growled at me, and I promptly stopped. It kept on dragging the huge bag of life-saving goodies away as I could do nothing but watch. I may have been a unicorn, but even with magic I wasn't about to go fucking with that thing. It stopped at what appeared to be small ledge, maybe the start of some hill or something. The wolf then proceeded to throw the sack off the ledge before staring me down from afar. It was taunting me. It knew I was hungry.

"WHY!?" I shouted, enraged.

"YOU STUPID FUCKING ANIMAL!" It snarled at me which, shut me up instantly before it barked angrily a few times. I silently stared at it, waiting for it to make a move. Would it run up and rip my throat out? Would it sneer at me and then walk away, leaving me to die? No. It was going to rip one of the plants I tried to eat earlier out of the ground by the stem before dashing off.

I was speechless. That wolf made less sense than my mail courier, and she usually delivers my mail by throwing it down my chimney. I slowly and solemnly trudged to the cart.

"Maybe it left me something," I hopefully thought. I walked up to the back of the cart and smiled. Of course there was no food left, but at least there was water and plenty of blankets. Not to mention I had the cart itself which meant I didn't have to sleep on the desert floor with the night crawlers. I had shelter and water. Now I needed food.

"Hey! Maybe that ledge wasn't too steep!" I optimistically stated. I ran over to the ledge but came to a screeching halt just on the edge as I looked down the sheer cliffside. The drop was easily four hundred feet straight down. My eyes went wide and my breath became shaky as I leaned over the edge before jumping backwards. i incoherently spat out nonsense as i lay on the ground, terrified. I slowly crawled back to the ledge and peered over lying on my stomach.

"Well, fuck you too, mister wolf," I huffed, frustrated, as I spotted the bag of food, which was now a white dot pasted on the bank of the small river that snaked along the bottom of the canyon.

"Well, if I find a can of wolf repellent I may live long enough to starve to death," I sarcastically commented as I stood up and looked over the massive split in the earth to the ground on the other side. The sun setting in the distance turned the sky a beautiful shade of orange and I finally noticed how cool the air had become as it blew through my black mane and chilled my brown body.

"Hmm... I should probably be getting to bed," I thought. I turned around to the cart and started walking towards it. I stopped and looked down at the wolf's paw prints in the dirt. I scowled and wiped the paw prints out of the dirt.

"Filthy animal."

I climbed up on the car and tried to use my magic to pick up a bottle of water. Nothing happened as my horn fizzled and refused to cooperate.

"C'mon you stupid hunk of bone," I grumbled. I tried again and grinned as the bottle became encased in a deep blue hue and lifted up in the air. However, my victory was short-lived and I cursed as my magic fizzled again and the bottle fell to the wooden floor.

"One more try," I panted wiping the sweat from my forehead. The bottle lifted again and this time I carefully screwed the cap off. If I dropped the bottle now, it would be 525 millilitres of life lost to the harsh desert. I put the bottle to my mouth and tipped it up with my hoof so I could gulp down the old water that tasted strongly of plastic. I kept of draining the water from the bottle until nothing was left, then cast away the scrunched up bottle.

"So g-URK!" Was all I was able to say before I threw my head over the edge of the cart and emptied the contents of my stomach onto the ground. After that pleasant experience, I grabbed another bottle in a deep blue aura and chugged just a quarter to get the vile taste out of my mouth.

"Ugh, nasty."

After making room among all the crap in the cart, and a fight to the death with the plastic around the blankets, I had finally made a makeshift bed to spend the night in. It wasn't five stars or anything, but it was kind-of a bed and that was good enough. After lying in the bed for some time, the orange sunset finally gave way to the night sky. I had never spent a night outside of a big city, so when I saw the stars dot the black sky in such numbers, I was completely shocked. I had never seen so many stars. It was serenity. I thought of Luna, raising the moon, and I wondered if she would grant me sweet dreams. I closed my eyes, curious to find out.