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.
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.
