The Adventures of Trotter Grey

His Fear

“There was a once a young colt who sat alone in the forest.  He was crying, he was scared to death with the fear that he would be there forever.  He was so far from home, his friends, and his family.  For the first time in this colt’s life he thought he was going to die, for the first time he was aware of his own mortality.  This wasn’t his worst day, it was still a few years away, but at that point in his short life it was his worst experience.  It wasn’t until he was found did he realize that he had experienced his first true fear.  Do you know who I am talking about, Trotter?”

Fear stepped away from Trotter’s side and took a place a few paces away from where Trotter stood.  He examined his prey, his face and the look of terror that filled it.  He might have gone too far with scaring Trotter.  He hadn’t moved or said anything since Fear revealed his location to him.

“Oh dear me, are you broken?”  Fear asked with a smirk.

Trotter just stood there, frozen with fear.  He hadn’t even been aware of what Fear had said to him.  He still needed to process the fact that this pony here before him was the most terrifying thing he had ever faced.

This was the first time Trotter had actually gotten a good look at him.  Fear was dark grey pony with a slick black mane.  His entire body was covered with fresh white bandages.  There only a few spots where the bandages didn’t cover including part of his neck, face and parts of his stomach. Though what really got to Trotter were Fear’s eyes.  There was no color or any sign of pupils, they were just completely black.  An endless black, it felt as though he could fall into them and drown in their blackness.

Trotter finally was able to shake himself out of his frozen state.  He slowly realized that he had to run.  He had to get out of there, somehow he had to break out of this spell.

So much for keeping a cool head…

Trotter took a few steps back, but stumbled over a small loose gravestone.  He laughed nervously at Fear who was giving him a curious look.  Trotter let his light spell fade and the darkness surround him.  Then, with a quick glow of his horn, Trotter levitated the loose gravestone and threw it at the spot he had last seen Fear.  Trotter didn’t wait to see if his attack had actually been effective, he just turn and galloped.

He ran fast, faster than he had ever run before.  He had to try and dodge the outlines of gravestones and other objects in the dark.  He ignored the echoing laughter of Fear as he galloped toward the unknown.  In the corner of the eye he could see something following him behind some gravestones, but he ignored that too.  He was too busy trying to find something to run to, preferably an exit or a place to hide, but there was nothing except these gravestones.

Behind him Fear was calling something to him, but Trotter didn’t hear him.  He had found something that he could at least hide in.  A crypt.  Somehow that was less comforting than all of the gravestones.  He skidded to stop in front of it and evaluated whether or not it was a good idea to trap himself inside a small stone room with the dead body of some poor pony.

Trotter looked around at the misty surrounding.  He could make out the shadowy figure of Fear walking around, searching for him.  It was now that Trotter could hear what Fear had been calling out.

He was calling out in a sing-song voice, “Trotterrrr, oh Trotterrrr!  Where did you pop off to?  Come on out and play!  I still have my question to ask!”

Trotter let out a silent gulp.  What choice did he have?  He slowly and silently made his way to the crypt.  He pushed the heavy stone door open as gently as he could and then shut it behind him.

The crypt was incredibly dark like the rest of his terrible place.  Trotter sighed.  He was tired, but there was so little he could do.  With another hoof stomp and a good amount of strain Trotter managed to cast his light spell once more.  His light spell was weak, but it was enough to rid the inside of crypt of its darkness.

Trotter turned away from the door and faced the innards of the crypt.  Everything after that seemed to go in slow motion.  Every feeling in his body became amplified.  The beats of his heart, the pain in stomach and hooves, the sweat at the back of his neck.  He wanted to laugh at how his situation was similar to a horror movie but he couldn’t find the nerve to talk let alone laugh.

There before Trotter stood Fear.  He had been leaning on a raised stone coffin, staring right at Trotter, watching his every move.  He looked bored or unimpressed, like foal would look when watching the clock in a boring class at school.

Fear let out a yawn and smacked his lips together, “I’m really not a fan of all this running.  It really is boring.”

Trotter’s breathes grew heavy, though he dared not speak.

“You know…” Fear went on as he walked away from the coffin, “I didn’t really appreciate that whole tombstone-to-the-face thing you did.  That kind of thing could make anypony angry.  But I’m a forgiving guy, Trotter.”  Fear was gradually growing closer and closer to Trotter.  Trotter’s body yelled at him to run or fight or do anything, but his hooves felt like cement.  “I don’t consider myself an evil pony, or the bad guy, or heh, whatever you want to call me.  No.  I think my actions are more for, pfft…how would you say it…?  I’m not sure the word I’m looking for?”  Fear was now close enough to touch him, just a few feet away from his face.  “Come on, Trotter, what word am I looking for?”  Fear took a place next to Trotter and put his hoof around him.  He gave Trotter a little shake, “Trotter?”  He asked in a high pitched voice, “What do you think?”  He gave Trotter an expecting look followed by an eye roll and a disappointed frown, “What’s-a-matter, buddy?”  His voice returned to normal, “Fun, my actions are for my own amusement.  I never really know what I’ll do next.”  Fear took his hoof off of Trotter and began to walk away.  “But, heh…”  Fear started to snicker, “Heh heh, but that’s not what we’re talking about now.  I still have a question for you.”

Trotter tried to speak, tried to ask him what the question was, but all he could manage was a collection of strange incoherent sounds.

“Hush now, all you need to do is answer my question.  Are you ready?”  Fear stopped next to the coffin and turned around, “That wasn’t the question by the way.”

Trotter just stood there.  He didn’t answer or move.  He just waited.

“I’ll take that silence as a yes.  So here’s my question…”  Fear jumped over to Trotter, putting his face close to Trotter’s.  “What is your greatest fear?”

“M-my, my….f-fear?”  Trotter finally managed to ask.

“Yes, y-y-your f-fe-fear.”  Fear replied in a mocking tone, “What are you most afraid of?  And I know what you’re thinking, shouldn’t somepony named Fear know what your fear is?  The answer is I do.  I’m curious to see what you think it is.  So, what is it?”

It took a moment for Trotter to actually understand the question.  It didn’t quite click in his head right away like a normal question would.  What kind of question was that though?  It was not what he expected.

Of course Trotter had fears and things he was afraid of.  There was always the ocean, but Trotter wouldn’t consider it his greatest fear, he had always been uncomfortable in the dark, but that wasn’t really a fear.  Pain, but who wasn’t?  There were so many, it was hard to think of one that was his worst.

Trotter took a few steps back until he backed up into the stone door.  He felt sudden pain in his horn.  He had been casting this spell too long.  He began to feel dizzy or light headed, however he couldn’t let his light go out.  The last thing he needed was to be alone in the dark with this pony.

“I-I, I don’t know…”

The bandages around Fear’s body began to untether.  They were much longer than Trotter imagined they would be.  They were a good six feet long and that wasn’t even all the bandage, there was still a good amount wrapped around his body.

The untethered bandages whipped through the air and spiraled around Fear.  Fear just stood there as they did so, glaring at Trotter.  One of the spiraling bandages lashed out and wrapped around Trotter’s neck.

It was unbearably tight.  It wasn’t tight enough to cut off the air flow, but tight enough to hurt.  He was quickly lifted off of the floor and flung into the ceiling.  Trotter could swear he heard something break.  Before even getting the chance to react he was swung again, this time through the stone door of the crypt and onto the decayed grass outside.  He had landed on his stomach facing the opposite direction of the crypt and could no longer keep up his light spell.

He was breathing more rapidly now.  With every breath he took a new rush of agony flooded through his body.  He knew he had heard something break this time and it wasn’t just the door.

Trotter could hear Fear stomp past the rubble that was once the door of the crypt.  Trotter couldn’t see Fear because of the way he landed, but he could feel the way Fear looked at him.  He could feel the hatred from those eyes of black.

“Trotter Grey, I am so disappointed in you.  YOU DON’T KNOW!?”  His voice had become demonic again, like there were several voices overlapping, talking at the same time in dark tone.  “YOU REALLY DON’T EVEN HAVE A GUESS!?”

Trotter could feel Fear’s bandages slowly and tightly wrap around his body.  He tried to speak, he tried to guess, anything to make this pain stop.  It was too great though, the agony, all he could do was gag and cough.

“Oh, and here I thought you might be a good candidate.”  Fear’s voice and returned to normal.  Trotter could hear him walk back and forth, the dead grass crunching beneath his hooves.  “But look at you!  Useless, just like so many others.  Now what am I supposed to do with you?  Huh?”

Trotter muttered something through his coughs and gags, but Fear didn’t hear it.

“I suppose I could just kill you like the rest.  That’s super disappointing though!  I at least wanted you to guess, everypony usually does.  Even if they usually are terrible guesses, but they’re still guesses.  You don’t know how ANGRY…that makes me.”

Trotter could feel the bandages tighten around his body, squeezing the life out of him.  He tried to mutter something again, this time a little louder for Fear to hear, but was interrupted by a coughing fit.

“Excuse me?  Are trying to guess?  Now?  I’m afraid it’s too late for that Trotter Grey.  Heh…I’m afraid….no, that’s not true.  It is too late, I’m not afraid at all.”

“I-I…d-don’t...”

“You don’t want to die?  Nopony does!  That’s one of the reasons why I do this!  That and its fun!  It’s so much fun, except when ponies make me feel bored or angry, then it’s not fun, it’s boring and upsetting.”

“I don’t…I don’t…”

“Why say what you don’t want?  It won’t change what will happen to you.”  The bandaged lifted Trotter into the air and dragged him alongside Fear.  “After all we went through, after I went into your head, after I showed you two of my children, I even gave you my name!  And it’s so….well, I’ve already said all of that before, disappointing.  I can’t stress that enough.”

“I don’t want to be…”  Trotter whispered, “I don’t want to be alone…”

Fear stopped walking.  He stood there for a moment, completely silent.  He seemed frozen, like a statue.   After a minute he finally turned to Trotter who was still being lifted off the ground.

“Excuse me?”

Tear rolled down Trotter’s face.  Not from pain, but from…

“I-I do-don’t want to be-be alone…”

“No-no-no!  Not that!  I heard that!  That was just….a very good guess.  I did not expect that.”  The pain in Trotter’s body suddenly left him and the bandages around his body loosened causing him to fall to the ground.  Fear turned to him and gave Trotter a strange look.  “Maybe there is a chance for you…”

Trotter coughed.  He had landed on his flank and was staring up at Fear.  He looked like a giant compared to Trotter.  There was a long moment where the two of them just stared at each other, both surprised at what the other did.

“So…are you going to let me live?”  Trotter asked, finally breaking the silence.

Fear smirked.  “Of course not.  You may have got the question right, but you still gave up to easily.  I AM going to kill you, bu-u-ut….I think I will wait for the right time.”

Trotter slowly stood up and faced Fear.  He was at a loss words.  Only one came to mind.  “When?”

“When!?  WHEN?!  When I feel like it, that’s when!  But for now I think I’ll let you go, thank you very much for keeping me entertained.  Hopefully next time a tombstone is thrown at my face it’ll be yours.”

Fear shot Trotter one last smirk and stomped his hoof down.  There was flash of light from where his hoof stomped down and then, then there was nothing.

****

After a good fifteen minutes the waiter finally brought the Doctor his order of a salad and a small bowl of soup.  The Doctor had stopped by a late night café while waiting for Trotter to return from who knows where.  This was Trotter’s usually dinner place so he hoped that Trotter would be here soon.

Earlier today, after he had finished working on the TARDIS, he had tried to find Trotter, but had no success.  He had asked around town to see if anypony had seen him, but only a few saw him with a young colt.  Even fewer actually had actually known that he was helping this colt find his brother or…maybe sister.  Even with that information the Doctor still had no luck finding him.

The Doctor thanked the waiter and started at his meal.  It wasn’t his favorite place to eat, but it wasn’t that bad.  Though, he still didn’t know why Trotter came here so much.  It was called The Canterlot Café.  The Doctor snickered, what a silly place.  They always had a strange assortment of either funny pictures or amazing art.

The Doctor turned his head.  The café door’s bell rung and in staggered a brown unicorn with grey and crimson mane.  The Doctor shot up from his seat and galloped a crossed the café to his friend.

“Haha!  Trotter where in the Tartarus have you been?!”

Trotter gave him a tired smile.  “Sorry buddy, was…out, um, heh, needed to answer a question….”  Trotter frowned, but then quickly smiled again, “Rather not talk about it.  Don’t think you’d be interested in it anyways.  I’m fine now, just…uh, personal stuff, ya know.”

The Doctor shook his head.  “Mmmmm, nope, I don’t know.”  The Doctor’s face suddenly turned from confused to elation, “OH!  That’s right!  I forgot to say!  I think I found you your own place to live!  I know you don’t get the best sleep in the TARDIS and you like doing your odds and ends here, so I did a search on places all around Ponyville and found you a great place.  Best of all it’s in your price range!”

Trotter gave false smile, “Really?  That’s wonderful, what’s it like?”

“Well there are a few conditions, you won’t be there alone, it’s kind of duplex deal.  You and another pony are gonna be buying this place.  Speaking of which I hope you like dubstep.  You know what?  Let’s talk about this over some food!  Come on!  Allons-y!”

The Doctor put his hoof around Trotter and brought him over to his table and for the first time all day, Trotter felt safe.