Long Way From Hell

Chapter 2:And Into A Hellhole

Darkness. That is all that I could see in front of me.

My eyes hurt as if they had been sewn shut, my lungs burned as if they were coated in flames; my ears were picking up the sound of my pounding heart as I felt my lungs hurl my heart's blood to my mouth. The bitter liquid had come out rapidly, my coughing fit had only been made worse as the blood had slowly made it's way down my throat on it's own accord which caused it to become even worse.

The sounds of footsteps echoes slightly as I slowly opened my eyes, vision was still blurry as much as it gets from staring at the sun too long. My body reacted on instinct by jumping upwards from the sharp prick in my arm, when I had done so my body shivered from the hand of someone else on my torso which prevented me from standing up.

Turning my head to the left I met face to face with someone who looked quite like a hairless Diamond Dog, maybe he was related to the primate family?

"Take it easy there Sally, you've been out cold for a month now" A month? A MONTH!?!?!

"Whoa there now, easy, easy!" The Human (I already talked about them before) did his best to keep me down on the bed (at least I think it was a bed). Looking at him now it looked like he was wearing clothes that are meant for a traveling cowboy almost, also judging by his grey hair and mustache I can assume he is in his senior years.

"Sorry about that, but you've been out cold for a month already; wouldn't want you to go into another coma after waking up would we?" I nodded my head before stretching my wings slightly too see if they were hurt, my voice failed me my mouth let out a small squeak from the sudden sharp pain in my back.

The silence was more then a little awkward as I stared at the stranger with my eyes still holding both fear and surprise, my natural shyness was something that I am fully aware of but was never able to overcome throughout the years. A perfect case where I wish I didn’t have this damn curse is right now where I can prove that I can talk so simply talking to him don't frighten the old human.

"Hey now, I’m going to hurt you none, my name's Doc Mitchell; Mitchell will be just fine if you want to call me that" Mitchell said as my breathing slowed down considerably, noticing how my breath had slowed down incredibly he help sit straight up enough for my vision to stop blurring and for the pounding in my head to start lessening somewhat. Before I could speak a word to him my vision was suddenly engulfed by a bright light, the light had passed by the pupils of both my eyes as Mitchell place whatever it was he was holding down onto the desk that was nearby.

"Sorry about that, but I needed to make sure that your eyes were working alright; Course I can’t determine that your eyes are 100% ok since I am not a optometrist so it’s difficult determining if your eyes are good…. especially if you are considering...well..." Doc Mitchell didn't continue, as he knew that it was obvious to me, I understood completely as I was not a human but a Pegasus. It didn’t really bother me much since the good doctor had been watching over me for a month and was still trying to help out as much as he could; reminds me of Nurse Redheart. "Anyways I think you should know about how the standard medical procedure works, we should start with the Vit-o-matic Vigor Tester machine over there; take it easy though it ain't a race" Doc Mitchell got off the chair he was sitting on and walked towards the machine.

Realizing that I was still laying down on the bed my feet suddenly made their way to the floor, only to stumble forwards a few steps. The pain in my back shot up like someone had kicked me, but I managed to let out a small whimper but still managed to stand up from the floor and walked towards the machine stumbling all the way.

"Well it's nice to see that you can stand up, somewhat" Mitchell commented as I stood up completely straight as my hands rested onto the...vigor machine was it?

"Just place your hand onto the knob of the machine and it will do the rest” Mitchell instructed me, not wanting to argue with him I did as he said. The pain in my back was ignored as I let out a small yelp in surprise as the machine made a unusual noise after it shocked me somehow, the pain vanished quickly as the machine made yet another noise and words had started to appear onto it; then I decided to read what the machine had said…somehow reading it made me feel more confident in myself.

Strength: 4

Perception: 8

Endurance: 5

Charisma: 9

Intelligence: 6

Agility: 5

Luck: 5

"The special machines were officially funded before the Great War so long ago, and they are now used to figure out what someone excels at; this mostly helps someone find a good job and judging by the charisma score I assume that you took care of animals at some point?" I was actually surprised that Doc Mitchell was able to correctly assume one of my occupations back in Ponyville, nodding his head the kind doctor walked right past me and sat down on a chair that was in front of whom i assume was another patient.

"Well it's nice to see your injuries didn't affect your charm none, though I can't really help out much more since I still need to work on this patient; you understand right?" I looked at the bed what Doc Mitchell was referring too; the face was bandaged greatly on his/her face I can immediately guess that the injury must have been in the forehead.

"Is- is there anything I can do to help?" Doc Mitchell shook his before answering my question.

"No nothing you can do here, but maybe you can help out around town trying asking Sunny Smile to teach you a few things; you can ask the securatron it’s the one that found you unconscious" Doc Mitchell instructed me as he handed me a nearby duffle bag, I could easily tell he wanted me to keep the bag but I never even had the chance to ask him why since he could have read my thoughts at that moment…. wait what’s a securatron? Nevermind I will find out later.

“I know that your going to need this soon, your probably going to travel throughout the wasteland and a duffle bag is usually a good idea to have as it means your less likely to get shot also ask Sunny if she can show you a few tricks; it’s be a good idea to get a little practice before heading off out there” Doc Mitchell had explained to me, the man was very kind to me in such a short amount of time that I didn’t think of much to say before hugging him from behind which made him jump a bit.

“Thank you so much Doctor” I said softly before I walked out of the building, I swear I had heard the man laugh a bit before the blinding light of the sun came upon my vision.

“If Humans are here I doubt that anyone I know will be here, but the sun still burns your eyes the same way you wake up in the morning; that’s a comforting thought” I mumbled to myself as I joked, a little before I noticed….some weird box like thing that was standing on one wheel that had a cowboy face on it heading right towards me.

“Well howdy der partner, might I say your looking fit as a fiddle” The…’box’ started to talk to me in a cowboy accent that reminded me of Applejack and her siblings.

Heart. Check.

Vision. Blinking rapidly.

Breathing. CALM DOWN, CALM DOWN!!

Brain. OVERLOAD, TOO INSANE ABORT MISSION, ABORT MISSION!!!!

“I-I um have to go!” I said as I spread my wings and took of into the air towards a mountain top that was right behind Doc Mitchell’s.  Upon landing I did the only thing I possibly could since my brain was completely overloaded with what had just happened.

I screamed.

[youtube= []http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BpquDZEyUI]](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BpquDZEyUI)

In all honesty I had never screamed that loud in my life before, though I am glad I did. Pinkie Pie once told me that screaming into a pillow to calm yourself down is usually a good way to relieve stress, and it turns out for once she is right about that which is surprising seeing how she has the mind of a child.

Sighing I decided to fly back towards where the machine was, I decided to just call him…what was the term? Robot as I walked towards him I noticed that it was simply standing there as if it was yet another day in an average life of an robot.

“Um sorry about flying away earlier, but I have never seen…. something like you before, can you please tell me what are you?” I said in my soft voice, couldn’t really help myself since the whole shyness issue. Course the robot was still able to hear what I was saying which is actually surprising to me, not even Pinkie Pie with her super sensitive hearing can hear me most of the time.

“Aw shucks, don’t worry ‘bout it none so why don’t you tell me about yourself miss?”

“Fluttershy, I am a pegasus pony” I answered honestly; the screen on the robot seemed to flash a bit. Maybe that was the robot blushing even though I had clearly asked what it was first?

“Fluttershy ey? Well Y’all lucky I found ya by that poor kid’s would be grave, why y’all fell down faster d’en a shooting star right into the radscopion pit!” The robot exclaimed with his voice without moving the arm. After only a moment a silence I had heard a small beeping noise before he continued.

“Anyways, my name is Victor. I am a securatron in the model series XC9B6-9 Matrix Automated Defense; primary functions is to defend whatever my program reckons I should as well as my personality protocol’s helping me make decisions” Victory explained, I had decided to remember this in a mental note in my head for when I get back home…somehow.

“Do you know where I can find Sunny Smiles?”

“Why of course she’s actually in the prospector saloon right now, said she would be waiting for y’all to wake up” Victor said as he pointed to the saloon with one of his claw like hands.

Nodding my head I decided to slowly walk my way there, as I walked I could simply stare at the fields around me finally. What had happened here? Did the Great War Doc Mitchell had talked about earlier been what caused the area to turn into a giant dessert? I shook my head and placed my hand onto my forehead, I needed to focus on the goal here; hopefully I might get a bit of a idea on what I should do next on how to get home.

The Prospector Saloon didn’t look like much in the slightest, if anything it looked more fit to be a warehouse if anything, probably the sign on the front of the building that said Saloon was old and worn out. If there was a logical guess on my part on how old the sign was, the answer you would probably get from me is possibly between 40 to 100.

The inside looked even worse…How could it be worse? Maybe the little spots of insect blood would be the first on the list; also the ‘run down’ part really shines when you walk inside the building. Also there was a lot of dust everywhere, so much that I had actually coughed from staleness of-

BARK! BARK! BARK!!

“GAH!” I shouted as I fell onto my back, as a dog jumped onto my chest, it felt weird having a dog trying to crush my stomach it was like getting punched in the gut and it still hurts the next morning. Too be completely honest this canine wasn’t like anything I took care of before, the reason is simple; if I didn’t do something fast the dog was going to kill me. Sadly I was incapable of doing anything all things considered, still tired and apparently the injuries from when I first arrived as well as the flashbacks of my whole life leading up to this dog right on top of me prevented me from doing anything.

“Cheyenne get off!” A somewhat loud voice had yelled at the puppy, the dog that was trying to crush my chest stopped barking at me and turned towards the voice while whimpering. It was such a relief to feel the crushing weight on my chest gone when the dog got off me, of course I new that the dog attacked me because she wanted to protect her master so I didn’t really mind.

“Sorry about that, Ma’am Cheyenne is just protective of me that’s all” I looked at the women whom had stopped the dog from attacking me, she looked like she had a leather like material that resembled the royal guards armor and had red hair. Best way I can describe her appearance but what else am I supposed to say besides that unusual tube like weapon on her back?

“Are you Sunny Smiles?” I asked and she had flashed a face of honest curiosity.

“That I am and you must be that weird girl that Doc Mitchell found earlier” Sunny remarked as she pulled me up onto my feet, deciding to prove that I actually exist I spread my wings and flapped them to make a small gust of wind in front of her face. She reacted with a small chuckle followed by blinking; I guess she thinks I am friendly?

“Well that proves that you are real anyways, hope you don’t mind waiting for your friend to wake up before I show you both anything after-“

“Excuse me?”

I turned around to see that the voice was coming from a little fellow who I guess was no older then a colt. He had his hair cut like a bowl shape while his black sunglasses covered his eyes, he wore a simple black jacket with a white shirt underneath, and was wearing some black leather pants along with some tennis shoes.

“Your from that doctor’s house? My brother he…he was attacked and I was kinda hoping you knew anything about how he is doing” I couldn’t believe my ears, this boy was alone and only had his brother left? That.. That just isn’t right at all!

“I don’t know when he will wake up, but when I checked he had bandages on his face and he was breathing…um does that help?” I spoke gently to the boy, he smiled at the news and nodded his head before walking away towards another human whom was passing out drinks, I decided to talk to the boy since he really needs someone to talk too.

And being kind to animals also extends to my fellow ponies, so why can’t I try to help a human boy when he is obviously hurt?

“Hello” The boy said without looking up from his drink as a sat down on the seat on the opposite end of the table.

“OH-Um… M-My name is Fluttershy” Wow I am making progress I seem to be slowly getting rid of my stutter, that is always a good sign…maybe my shyness is finally going away.

“My Name’s Micheal, or Mikey, you can call me just Mike whatever one you prefer” The boy said in a monotone voice, to someone else they would think he is depressed but to me it was like he was happy about something but was also thinking at the same time.

“Fluttershy”

“Fluttershy Eh? That isn’t a bad name kinda suits you” I blushed a bit at the comment, it was true I don’t think anyone would have a good nickname for me that doesn’t relate to my species, gender, or my name.

“I…guess so..” I couldn’t really respond to what he said any other way. It was alien for me to get a compliment from somepony.

The two of us had stayed there for hours after I had responded to his compliment, the silence was deafening but no words needed to be shared as we both knew the other was wondering when Michael’s brother would wake up. Eventually we both started to talk to one another with small chats and simply trying to see who can down the most water in a span of 5 seconds the two of us finally began to start talking about our lives. It was hilarious on how he told of the many misfortunes his brother had, the one I enjoyed the most is the time he had walked in on his old friends all girls slumber party and was forced to stay the night due to the thunderstorm that was right outside.

“And then according to what Shier said, big bro was so red when he discovered on how bad they had pranked him that he now wears a hat everywhere he goes, and don’t forget the free hugs shirt that he noticed while he was heading out to get groceries!” Mike bellowed out as I began to hold my sides when they began to hurt from how much I was laughing, it was so amazing to hear the many different stories we both and to share and how they were similar to events that the other had lived at some point in life.

The door to the prospector saloon opened slowly, the slow footsteps of a individual hang through the air of the somewhat silent saloon. Micheal stared at the door as the man’s face slowly came into view, and the hat resting on his head had made Micheal instantly recognize him.

“BRO!!” He had yelled out even louder then Pinkie Pie when she accidently tried drugs, all of Equestria had heard her that day. Micheal ran up to him and hugged the older figure which had caused to stumble backwards a bit but managed to wrap one arm around, judging by appearance I guessed he was around my age I presume he is actually 17 I think?

“Mich…eal? Your name is Micheal, you’re my…14 year old little brother, I think?” The older brother said as he placed a hand on his head, I assume the injuries he had were somehow affecting his memories; and yet the bond between these two siblings is what is keeping him up on his feet due to his concern for Micheal.

Micheal had pulled out of the hug slightly and looked into his older brothers eyes as if he was hurt poor boy, whatever had happened must really be tearing him up on the inside and it seems to be even worse since the older sibling can hardly even remember Micheal…wait Micheal is 14?

“Are you alright Phoenix? I haven’t seen you this sad since the…well you know..” Phoenix nodded his head and rubbed the top of Micheal’s head similar to that of...what did Rainbow Dash call it? A noogie?

“I can remember a few things, more importantly I can remember you clearly at least” Phoenix replied with a smile, I swear that smile was just like Rainbow Dash when she is about to race. He turned his head to me and widened his eyes, his breathing had become sharp somehow and was most likely freaking out mentally about how a pegasus is sitting in front of him.

Now that I got a good look at him his clothes were somewhat unusual, on his back was a duster, and his shirt was a midnight blue with small lines of silver on it, his pants were completely black and his shoes looked like they were made for travel. On his head was a small fedora, and his hair was mostly tucked away inside the hat while the duster was able to cover the back of his hair. His green as grass eyes, held a fire to them one that could possibly make Luna shiver in terror and yet they had a calm radiant feeling from them that somehow made you feel like you were going to be okay; despite his eyes being hidden behind sunglasses.

“Um, little bro who is that woman sitting there?” Phoenix said as he pointed towards me, I was surprised he knew I was a woman it didn’t really cross my mind on how he knew. Come to think of it almost everyone I meet knew I was a woman, wonder why?

“If your wondering Fluttershy, we know you’re a woman for one simple fact, woman have breasts, men have muscles it’s simple facts” Micheal said which caused me to blush brightly, of course I didn’t really think about the differences between male and female it simply didn’t cross my mind!

“Fluttershy huh? And I guess you know me an’ Mikey here so I don’t see a reason for me to introduce myself when there isn’t a point to it do you?” Phoenix asked kindly as he sat down in front of me and his brother sat right down next to him. The look as they two fo them sat together reminded me of Applejack, Big Macintosh, and Applebloom. Those three do everything together after all, and they seem to hold a similar bond like that between these two brothers.

“So Fluttershy what are your plans too get back…. whatever your homes name is called”

Stop. Rainbow time.

“Simple, find the ones whom summoned me, beat them up badly, fly around being awesome” I spread my wings as a grinned like Rainbow Dash “start drinking, get laid, then get home, then…profits” I said in a mock Rainbow Dash voice, the two brothers stared at me before all three of us had begun laughing.

“Where did you get that from” Phoenix said between laughter as Micheal fell to the floor laughing. I couldn’t answer him until the laughter had died down after a few minutes, when I was right about to speak another voice had snuck into our would be conversation.

“I see that your back on your feet” Sunny smiles had of course interrupted us, no doubt she was going to give us the lecture on how to survive in this new world.

“That I am and you are?” Phoenix asked as he motioned his left hand in a circle, and suddenly I get the feeling I am with a cross gender Pinkie Pie.

“Sunny Smiles, and you are?”

“Phoenix, and this here is Micheal and Fluttershy” Sunny nodded her head before laying down three weird L shaped weapons onto the table.

“Good to see that you recovered, anyways I promised Fluttershy I would teach her how to survive out in the wasteland; you should come with me too” Sunny Smiles said as bluntly as possible, before she walked outside the other side of the saloon. All in all, I had only one thing to say concerning what I am and how I am getting reactions.

“Why is nopony freaking out about me being a pegasus?” I asked as I threw my arms up in the air for exaggeration, Phoenix laughed a bit before he stared at me with that ‘I know what your thinking’ face of his.

“Rule 2 of the wasteland: You see something weird, don’t question it for the sake of your sanity” Micheal answered in his place before following after Sunny Smiles. Phoenix chuckled as he got up from the table and quickly followed the three humans, me on the other hand I looked down at the drink I hadn’t finished yet and simply gulped it down and ran after them; pleading for them to wait up all the way.