Of Rodents and Equines

The best laid plans

I ran. There was little else I could do, at this point. My heart was pounding, not at all surprising after all the running

I had done to reach this place. I suppose I was luckier than I deserved to be, considering my head start. I could hear the mob behind me, calling out to one another, hoping to be the one to catch me. I stopped by a stream, part of a bigger river. The stream was in a clearing, in the middle of a forest. There I sat, staring off into the trees, taking what would be my last moments to reflect on what had led up to this point.

“You monster, you killed her!” The stallion yelled toward me. The crowd slowly advanced toward me, driven by his words.

“W-what are you talking about?” I stammered, retreating from the lynch mob.

“You know what I’m talking about, beast! We know what you did!” The same stallion called, and cries of ascent could be heard reverberating through the crowd. I continued my backwards gait, as the crowd continued forward.

Looking down at the stream, I saw my face distorted in strange ways by the slowly moving water. I wondered if this is what the ponies of that mob saw when they looked at me. I wouldn't be surprised, to be honest. For my entire stay in this strange place, in the back of my mind, I knew I would never be accepted. Perhaps tolerated, but never truly accepted. I suppose in the end, one lie was enough to tip the scales against me. It usually is, when it comes to this sort of thing.

“We know you killed Matchstick! Apple Seed saw you do it!” He called, and the crowd roared both in approval of his strong words, and sorrow and anger at a reminder of why they were there.

“Apple Seed has hated me since I first came here! He’s lying to get me killed!” I desperately called out, my back against the wall both metaphorically and literally at this point. The crowd's members cried out in anger at my accusation.

“He’s a pony and you’re some disgusting beast. He warned us this would happen, but we wasted our trust on you anyway. We trust him more than you could have ever hoped for us to trust you, you animal!” He called, raising the pitchfork in his magic. The crowd answered with gusto, more than a few of them raising weapons of their own. I saw a mare step forward with a rope in her hoof, and I knew that I had no choice but to run, if not to save myself then to die on my own terms.

I heard hoofsteps approach me, and a familiar voice called out to me in a tone that almost made me smile, given my present circumstances.

“So, I guess I found you first.” She said simply.

“I guess you did.” I replied.

“You know,” I heard her say, “I knew you would be here. You always did like to come out here to think.”

“Yeah, I did. Say, you remember what I told you, back when we were on the trail?” I asked, hoping for any distraction from what I knew her purpose here was.

“Yeah, I do. How you wanted a family,” I heard her take a step forward. “And a little piece of land,” Another step. “And to not be hated by all who saw you.” She finished.

“Yeah. Say, could you tell me about how it was supposed to go again? About how we would get that land? And start that family? And I wouldn’t be hated?” I all but begged, knowing it would take both our minds off of the inevitable.

“Yeah, I guess I can. Just look out there, into the forest, like you can see it in the distance.” She said, her voice cracking. I complied, looking up from the stream toward the other end of the clearing, closing my eyes. “First, we would have found some little courthouse, and we would have bought the land.” She punctuated her sentence with a step forward. “Then, we would have worked together, you and I, to build a nice home for us.” She took another step. The voices of the mob grew louder. “We would have planted fields of trees for miles, just you and I and no one else.” She said, and I could feel her horn on the base of my neck. “And we would have been a happy family, living in our house, in our field, surrounded by our trees.” She finished, sniffling. I smiled, then felt a sharp pain in my neck, before feeling no more.

The mare stepped back after casting the simple offensive spell. She simply fell back on her haunches, horn covered in the blood of her one true friend, stunned at what she had just done. The leader of the mob and a few others crashed through the bushes, draw to the clearing by the sound of her spell. One rushed to comfort her, saying she had done what needed to be. The leader of the mob agreed, saying that she was a hero. A few moments past, with the clearing in a serene and complete silence. The mare simply sat, not responding to anything that was said to her, trapped in the thousand yard stare that those who had seen true hardships sometimes fell victim to. The mare struggled to her hooves, and her friend quickly helped her upright. Together, they walked back toward the town, leaving the scene behind. The leader of the lynch mob, and the stallion called Apple Seed, stared off after them in silence.

"Now what in the hell do you suppose is eatin' them two mares?" said Apple Seed, once the forlorn pair were out of view, breaking the silence for only a moment, before it regained control of the clearing once more.