Rescue

CHAPTER 2: RESCUE

I opened my eyes and, once again, saw nothing but the harsh sun beating down on me. I slowly got up on my hind legs and stretched the best I could, before falling and landing back on all fours. I groggily opened my eyes and walked to the back of the cart. When I looked down, I snapped to attention. I was looking down at the little river at the bottom of the canyon. I spun around and saw the wolf on hind legs, and he was pushing the cart over the edge of the canyon. He looked up at me with his evil eyes and grinned.

In a sly tone, he said, "Hehe, sleep tight cupcake."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. NO!" I shouted as the cart tipped over the edge of the cliff. I turned to face the river, which was fast approaching as the cart fell down the steep drop, me still in it and the air resistance pinning me to the back.

"STOP!"

I didn't expect shouting "stop" would really do anything, but it did. The cart stopped in mid-air, but I, unfortunately, didn't. Momentum kept me propelled downwards as I flailed my limbs and continued falling towards the river. I subconsciously braced for impact as I hit the water. I kept going through the water and passed into a hole in the ground below. Without explanation, I ended up in an underground cavern, where I landed with a thump.

"Well... That was interesting," I whispered to myself as I looked around the cavern, which was very peculiarly completely dry. It figured it wouldn't be dry for long though, as water started dripping through the ceiling. I tried to look for the hole I came through but no such thing could be found. I used my magic to make the tip of my horn glow faintly and I started looking around in the dim light. I noticed a mouse, but it seemed to be locked in time, that's when I had a strange idea.

"Go," I said. The mouse started running and I smiled as my plan had worked. That's when the loudest sound I had ever heard blasted through my ears. It sounded like an explosion. I looked around frantically as the water started dripping faster. I then realized that the cart must've hit the ground after I said "go". I chuckled at my fright that seemed so silly now and looked around a bit more. I noticed the mouse cleaning itself with its paws. I looked at the mouse who then looked back at me.

Then it roared.

I jumped back as the little mouse let out the roar of a lion. I was trying to comprehend what had happened, but the water started coming from the roof faster and faster until it was a downpour. Another explosion sound erupted from above me, and that's when I opened my eyes and sat up. It was raining like nothing I'd seen before. A lightning bolt ripped through the sky and a loud blast of thunder soon followed. I quickly put the pieces together and chuckled as I realized events in real life were simply melding with my dream. Thank god I had woken up. I tossed the soaked blanket off me as I could handle a bit of rain. As I lay back down, an eerie thought entered my mind.

"If the explosions were thunder and the dripping cave was rain... what was the mouse's roar?" I sat up and my eyes went wide as I saw another pair of eyes staring back at me.

"Shit...," was all I could say as a mountain lion glared hungrily at me with its front paws on the cart.

I scrambled to my hooves and vaulted the backboard of the cart just as the cat pounced. I was lucky and I got myself out of the way just in time. The mountain lion put its head through the back board I had just vaulted. When I was out of danger I turned and saw the mountain lion in its predicament, stuck in the cart. I couldn't help laughing.

"Yeah, who's in trouble now, bitch?" I boasted. As the mountain lion furiously tried to pull its head out of the wooden planks, we both heard a loud crack. My inflated ego popped like a balloon and I swear the lion grinned at me as he realized he was coming free.

I booked it, to say the least. I don't think I've ever ran faster in my life. I was full out sprinting, while looking back to make sure the lion wasn't following me. I turned my head back and stopped as lightning flashed, illuminating the train wreck, and thunder cracked as the lit up pile of metal turned back to a black figure. I stared at the burnt heap for some time before I was reminded that my time was limited. I heard the mountain lion roar again as if saying, "Ready or not, here I come!"

I ran into the opened emergency escape of a tipped over train car and quickly closed it. I meekly hid against one of the chairs. I heard the lion growling as it prowled along the outside of the train, trying to sense any life inside. I guess it didn't notice anything as I heard its paws pounding against the ground as it went off to disembowel some other weak, defenceless creature. I let out a sigh of relief but nearly suffered a heart attack when I turned around.

A pony's body was hanging in front of me, and slowly turning like it was on some sick carousel. I slowly looked up and saw what he was hanging from. He was a business pony who had been wearing a suit and tie. When the train car overturned, the tie must've caught on a windowsill and snapped his neck like a noose. I slowly backed away from the sickening sight before me, but stopped when a metal piece poked into the back of my rear left leg. I was afraid to turn around and see what was behind me, but I had to. I slowly turned around while staring down at the ground. When I raised my gaze, my jaw dropped at the monstrosity before me. I slammed my eyes shut and lowered my head as my body shivered from the aftermath of what I saw. I couldn't hold it down, I vomited behind an overturned seat.

"Sw-sweet Celestia, that's so wrong," I said to myself as I backed away from a mother and her filly, impaled on the broken piece of metal. I looked around the charred skeleton of the overturned train car.

"How did this happen?"

I walked across the windows down the car to the back and found more and more bodies, but none in as gruesome positions as the first three. I yawned and remembered how I was trying to sleep before the mountain lion woke me up.

"I need to get some shuteye, then I'll try and figure something out."

I looked for somewhere to sleep but the only places that weren't windows littered with broken glass were the left side doors at the front and back of the car. I looked at the one in the back, a large jagged rock was protruding through the door.

"Well. That seems to limit my options a fair bit."

I turned to the front door. Untouched. I let out a sigh of relief and trotted to it. I lay down and tried to get comfortable the best I could. I opened my eyes and looked curiously at what was in front of me. I stood up and my suspicions were correct, it was a body I hadn't seen before. I slowly turned the body over. It was a mare, a pegasus mare. She had a light yellow body and a cream white mane. She would have been gorgeous. But her brilliant potential was faulted by her current condition. I was quite puzzled by it really. Her entire front side was burnt and her torso was covered in glassl, metal shards and some other small bits of shrapnel but her back was completely untouched, obviously some kind of explosion. I slowly closed her still open eyes. I looked at her slender form lying lifelessly in my hooves. I felt sad, but that may be a given as I was holding something that once had life, but now did not. With the other bodies, I was more sickened than anything else. Now I just felt sad. A tear rolled off my snout and landed on her face. I started carefully pulling the metal shards out of her body.

"It's the right thing to do," I thought. When I had finished the task, I carefully set the mare's body where I found it. I looked one last time at the mare's body. It was burnt as if it was... Cooked. My stomach grumbled.
I remembered I still hadn't eaten, and I was hungry.

"Oh Celestia save me, what on earth am I thinking? I can't eat another pony!"

But I looked down at the body and became more and more unsure that holding true to my values would be beneficial. I remembered that it could be days still before help arrived.

"Maybe I have to..."

It was life or death, I didn't know the pony lying in front of me, it wasn't like she was my sister or something. I had to do it. To survive.

"Oh Celestia, please forgive me for what I am about to do..."

I grabbed one of the metal shards that was recently imbedded in her body and held it just over her chest. The sharp edge cut into her burnt skin easier that I thought. I made a shallow incision making sure to just get flesh. When I had made a formidable gash, I ripped off a piece and held it up, blood dripped down the piece of meat and onto her now bloody body. My eyes welled up with tears.

"Oh god... I'm a monster..." Her blood started to drip slowly down my foreleg. "N-no turning back now... O-one... Two... Th-three."

I quickly popped the piece of meat in my mouth and tried to swallow it, but the bloody hunk was too big, so I was forced to chew it a few times. Her skin was more burnt than I thought, the taste was familiar, then it hit me, the flesh tasted like the air smelt when I woke up outside of the train. The taste, the smell, burning flesh. When I finally swallowed the piece of meat I looked at the mare's now blood soaked corpse as I put a hoof to my stomach where a piece of her flesh now resided.

"Well... I'm a cannibal... Great..." I picked up the metal shard and prepared for the second bite.

I don't think either of us want me to go into detail with that "meal" any further so I'll just say it was a burden keeping every bite down. I could only push myself to eat five bloody hunks before I stopped myself. I looked down at her blood-soaked body, now missing chucks here and there. I looked at her cutie mark; it was a lemon. Well, a lemon slice to be specific. A simple cutie mark, but I liked it. I looked at my own cutie mark; two deep blue lowercase Fs. Shocking right, given my name is Fortissimo?

I yawned again.

"Ok, now I really need some sleep," I thought, "but first..."

I cautiously opened the emergency hatch I had come through and peered out into the still raging storm, checking for predators. No mountain lions trying to rip my face off, and no wolves pushing me off cliffs; it was safe. I stuck my upper torso out as to cleanse myself of the blood that had dripped down my mouth and forelegs.

"Wash away your sins," I thought to myself.

I popped back into the train car and closed the hatch. I looked around. The business pony was still hanging by his tie, the mother and her foal were still impaled together, and the mystery mare was still laying in a puddle of her own blood.

"Maybe I really died in the crash and this is hell... Whatever, those are thoughts for tomorrow."

I laid down beside the mystery mare, being sure not to lie down in her blood.

"Maybe tomorrow will be different" I thought to myself as I closed my eyes and quickly drifted off to sleep.

"We got a live one here!" A voice called out.

"A survivor!? No way, you're just pullin' my leg," another shouted

"Come see for yourself. I promise you he's breathing," the first replied.

"Whah...?" was all I could say as my eyes lazily flickered open.

Two brown eyes warmly looked back at me.

"Hey there big guy, how you feelin'?"

"Wait... Who are you?" I replied not even caring to answer his question.

"We're here to help you and get you back home," he said as if he forgot he'd even asked a question.

"Oh, thank Celestia!" was all I could say.

"Alright, now let's get you on the cart." He offered me his hoof to help me get up.

"No I'm fine, thanks," I said. I grunted as I rose up to my hooves.

The buff caramel-coloured pony looked at me, shocked, then opened the emergency door. Bright light streamed in and flooded my vision; I put up a hoof to block it. When my eyes adjusted, I saw several ponies in emergency uniforms running around, some of them were pushing stretchers with injured or unconscious ponies on them. Behind all that were about five large, canopied horse-drawn carts. The buff pony began to help me out of the train.

"How long have you been awake?" he asked.

"Since yesterday afternoon," I swiftly answered.

"Yesterday afternoon?" He repeated.

"That's right."

"Wow..." He helped me up into the closest cart before hopping in himself. "Alright, these two are going to perform some vital exams on you."

Two white mares in nurse uniforms smiled at me. "Why don't you tell me everything that happened while they're at it?"

So I did; of course leaving out the peculiar dream and the part where I kinda ate the mare.

By the time I had finished my story we were rolling into Los Pegasus.

"Wow, that's quite the story," the stallion commented.

"Yeah... It was a hell of a ride," I replied. The stallion looked at some various papers.

"Alright," he started. "You are somehow in near perfect condition. Consider yourself very, very lucky. Unfortunately-"

"There it is, I was waiting for that," I rudely interrupted.

"Unfortunately," he continued, "there are a lot of serious injuries and we're not going to have space in the hospital. It's a little unorthodox, but we're going to put you up in a nice hotel with some wireless monitors so we can make sure you're alright."

"Sounds good to me," I said happily.
"Alright, great. So, you'll need to take these," he said as he handed me some pills and slid me a bottle of water. "They'll monitor your vitals."

The bottle and the pills both became surrounded in a deep blue aura as they lifted into the air. The pills swiftly popped into my mouth and so did the end of the bottle as I greedily chugged its contents.

"Thank... You..." I said between gasps for air. He smiled.

"No problem. So, any requests on where we should put you up?"

I racked my brain for where Allegra was staying during her honeymoon.

"That's right," I thought to myself, then answered with "Golden Blossom Hotel and Spa."

I then realized that was a four-star hotel in the centre of Los Pegasus. "Or any motel nearby, would also work," I sheepishly added.

"Actually," he started, "it would be cheaper to put you up at the Golden Blossom than to put you in the hospital, thanks to all the things we have to hook you up to."

"Well I guess that works out then."

"Umm, one last thing..." He said those words in a way that I knew I had real bad news on the way. "That mare you fell asleep beside, was she close to you?"

"I don't think so, no."

"Oh good. Well, um, not good, but better. We think... w-we think she was partially devoured by a predator." I gasped. I was acting, of course, but I couldn't let him know I knew anything about her missing flesh. "Honestly I'm shocked you weren't touched. You should consider yourself the luckiest pony alive."

After a few minutes, we reached our destination. We got out of the cart, which swiftly left, and walked into the hotel, and up to the front desk. The stallion who had had helped me went to one of the ponies behind the front desk and began talking to him. I walked up to meet him.

"Umm, could you do me a favour?" I inquired.

"I think so, what can I help you with sir?" The pony behind the desk asked in a deep voice.

"There should be somepony here named Allegra. Could you call her down?"

He started flipping through the book of names.

"Uhhhhh, yes, yes I can," he said, pointing at a name. He pressed a button on his desk. "Please send Miss Allegra to the lobby." He then addressed me again. "You can have a seat over there," he directed as he pointed to a set of lovely looking seats.

"Alright," I replied. "Thank you."

"Not a problem, sir. If you have any other questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to ask," he said warmly. I smiled and nodded in acknowledgement before trotting off the the seats. I sat down in one and I swear to Celestia I sunk so much into it, I felt like the chair was trying to eat me. I closed my eyes and relaxed.

"Wow," I thought to myself. "Not 3 hours ago I was stuck in the desert."

I started going over the events that had recently occurred, waking up, standing up, seeing the wolf, finding the cart, the dream, the mountain lion, finding the train again, the slaughterhouse inside, becoming a cannibal and finally rescue. Wow, what an adventure. I was basking in the reassuring fact that I was back in civilIzation and simply alive when an unassuring thought entered my head. I had woken up outside and the emergency hatch was open. Somehow I had gotten outside before I blacked out. Thoughts started whizzing around in my head and I started to remember things. I was crawling away from the train. I remember turning around and seeing a figure that was just about to come out of the hatch, when an explosion went off and sent it flying to the left, down the train. I raised a hoof and yelled something, I think it was the figure's name. It was probably important, but it sounded all garbled up while I was remembering it.

"What was the name?" I pondered frustrated. "Lace... Looper... Levin... Lem-"

"FORTISSIMO!"

I looked up, startled to see my sister barreling towards me before tackle-hugging me.

"Where in Equestria were you!? I was so worried!" she said with tears starting to form in her eyes. I stood up so I could hug her back.

"Hey don't worry. My train had a bit of an accident, but I made it out okay."

"What!?" she yelled shocked. "Sweet Celestia! Is Lemon Twist okay?"

"Who?" I asked, genuinely confused.

"You're kidding. If this is a joke it's not funny," she said sternly.

"I don't know who you're talking about. Honestly!"

"Lemon Twist. You know, your wife. Am I ringing any bells here?"

My gaze went far off and my eyes went wide as the final piece of the puzzle fell into place with the force of an atomic bomb.

Lemon Twist. That was the name I was looking for. She was on the train with me. I now remembered her light yellow body... And her cream white mane...

"Sw- sweet, mother of shit..."

That's when my legs gave out and my world went black, again.