In the Time We have Left...

        John and Derrick have been walking for another two hours now, but have only made four of the fifteen miles they needed to complete. Mostly due to John’s less than desirable pace when it came to walking.

Derrick considered many times the idea of just leaving him in the dust and letting him catch up whenever he reached town, but Derrick knew that was probably a very bad idea. The sun was setting, and this road left him paranoid enough at day with his annoying companion at his side. Traveling at night alone with no one to watch his back would probably reduce him to a festering pool of paranoia, therefore reducing him to John’s level when it came to gun safety. Derrick did not want that to happen, ever. He needed his senses to fo sharp and ready for when a real threat comes. A threat he was pretty sure would come.

He only hoped it would not be in the form of a split face alien...

“So, what do you do exactly?” John asked suddenly, catching Derrick a bit off guard.

“What?” Derrick asked, confused by the question.

“Well, we’ve been walking with each other in complete silence for god know how long ever since we past that sign. The silence has to be driving you up the wall like it is with me right now. I am trying to make casual conversation. So, what exactly do you do for a living?” John explained.

“Here’s a question. What makes you think I am going to tell the story of my life to a kid like you?” Derrick replied bitterly.

“Maybe because you are old and full of ancient wisdom? Why do you think!? I am losing my mind here in silence and I hardly know anything about you! It is driving my nuts! Are you saying it is not driving you nuts!?” John replied sarcastically.

“Well I suppose you are going to go crazy then, try not attack me thinking I’m some sort of monster or something lame like that.” Derrick replied, brushing John’s questions off.

“Oh come on! Give me something to work with here! If it make you feel any better, I’ll let you ask a question for every question I ask!”

Derrick thought about it for a second. It was true that there hasn’t been much excitement ever since they have been on the road; much to his gratefulness. However, the silence was a bit amiss, enough to unsettle anyone; even Derrick. So he figured a little casual conversation would not hurt. Especially if it got the John to shut the hell up for once. Plus, Derrick enjoyed the thought of how he was going to make John squirm with the devious and lewd questions he had in mind.

“Alright then, ask your question.” Derrick replied in submission.

“Alright! Fucking finally! Okay, first question. What do you do as a job? You know, to pay the bills?”

Derrick thought about it for a second, considering whether or not he was to tell him the complete truth, but he decided against it. Figuring that it was really none of his business. So he settled with a half truth.

“Never had the same job for a long period of time, none really ever stuck with me. My only real job was more of a hobby. I didn’t get paid for it, mostly just earned moral support.” Derrick explained.

“Oh really? What was that job?”

“First off, that was two questions. Secondly, that is not any of your business. Now it is my turn.” Derrick replied.

“Alright then, shoot.” John said with a huff.

“You have a special someone back home?” Derrick asked casually. Secretly inside he was grinning his ass off.

John took a moment to replied, as if he knew where this was going. “N-no, I don’t.”

“Alright then, if you were to get a girlfriend, how would you fuck her?” Derrick then asked suddenly.

        “W-WHAT!?” John shouted in surprise.

        Derrick allowed a smirk to come to his face. He knew he had him now; though he was a bit surprised it would be this easy.

        “You know, how would you do it normally? Doggy style? Solfly? Roughly? Strictly orally? In the butt? Maybe some cosplay as well as a little BDSM? Which one would be dominate? Which one would be the bitch? Is there a third member involved? If so, guy or girl? Please don’t tell me it is a guy.” Derrick went on, maintaining his casual voice and false curiosity. However, on the inside, Derrick was crying from laughter.

        “That is like… fourteen fucking questions! That definitely doesn’t count!!!” John complained.

        “Nope, they were all a part of the same question, now answer.” Derrick replied with a smirk.

        “But you just-”

        “Do it, or this conversation ends.” Derrick threatened.

        “I- You- ARRRHG!!! You fucker. Fine, if I had a girlfriend, I’d fuck her like any normal, sane person would! You sick fuck!” John replied bitterly, his face red from embarrassment.

“No kinky stuff!? You’re boring...” Derrick said with a sarcastic huff.

“Well, go get fucked by an elephant. Next question…”

As John went on to ask his next question, Derrick stopped in his tracks as he heard something faintly to his left. He didn’t even hear John’s next question as he focused his attention on what he was hearing. Off in the distance, approximately few hundred feet, give or take, he could see something moving through the long grass and at incredible speed. He couldn’t see what it was due to the four foot long grass and its thickness, but he could tell that, whatever it was, was moving towards them.

John tapped on Derrick’s shoulder. “Dude, did you eve-”

John was quickly interrupted as Derrick pushed his hand off and pulled him back with his left arm. “Not now! We have something coming straight at us!” Derrick hissed.

John’s eyes widened as he quickly ducked behind Derrick as he got down on one knee and readied his aim, preparing for what was about to emerge from the tall grass.

The tension grew thick in the air, thick enough to cut it, as the sound of something running full blast through the tall grass grew louder and louder. Judging by the sound of the animal’s feet hitting the floor he was certain that whatever this thing is, it was definitely not human. Putting pressure on the trigger, Derrick was prepared to blow the head off whatever emerged from that grass.

That was before he heard the scream, that is. “Somepony help us! Help!” Someone shouted, it sounded like the voice of a young girl.

This caused Derrick to flinch as flashbacks of that young girl he saved earlier hit him like a bullet, sending a sense of fear through his entire body. A fear that he was about to accidentally shoot and kill a little girl. This caused him to hesitate as something jumped out of the grass, and ran into the road.

It tripped a few feet later, sliding across the road and straight into Derrick’s legs. The mass hit him like a train, knocking Derrick over onto it upon impact. Derrick quickly got up off the body, received his weapon, and immediately took aim at the the thing that had just hit him.

What he was seeing before him was definitely not human, but it definitely wasn’t a split face monster either. It was an alien that looked like some sort of animal that closely resembled a pony. It had a vaguely pony shaped head, a mane, a tail, pony ears, pony legs, and pony hooves. The only real things that set it apart from the common pony was the ridiculous size of its head and eyes, the horn protruding from it’s head, and the fact that it had a color scheme that consisted of all blue. The pony creature had a completely light blue coat and dark blue mane and tail that seemed to have a sort of purple highlight to it.

Derrick continued to aim his gun at it, ready to kill it if necessary. However, it continued to remain still as a trickle of blood began to flow from it’s forehead. It appeared as if it had been knocked out cold before the impact with Derrick’s legs.

John in the background was beginning to panic, shouting a huge variety of colorful sentences that Derrick tuned out as he continued to study the creature before him with utmost fear and curiosity.

“What the actual fuck is this thing?” Was all Derrick had time to think as he began to to hear activity back where the pony had emerged.

Turning his head towards the sound, keeping his gun trained on the pony below him, he managed to just catch the sight of another pony creature emerging from the tall grass. This one, however, managed to stop in time to not trip and fall on its face. This one was a bit different, a brown color scheme with no horn.

Upon stopping, it saw Derrick and John standing over the unconscious form of the other pony. It stared at them with a sort of panic in it eyes. The pony quickly started to approach, its intention became clear very fast to Derrick as he saw its eyes turn from panic to aggression very quickly.

Responding accordingly, Derrick took his aim off of the unconscious pony and trained on the aggressive one; getting ready to put a round of buckshot into this pony’s brain.

However, upon aiming the gun, the pony’s eyes widened in panic once and began to back off frantically. It’s pin prick eyes focused on the weapon Derrick was holding, as if it knew exactly what it was.

“What the hell?” Derrick questioned as his aim remained on the pony. It was starting to become clear that, whatever these things are, were not dumb animals.

“Keep an eye on this one, I will take care of the other.” Derrick whispered to John, keeping his eyes and gun trained on the brown pony.

Said pony seemed to be surprised and startled by Derrick suddenly speaking up.

“Keep an eye on it!? What the hell am I suppose to do if it wakes up!?” John Whispered harshly

“Hit it with a rock, I don’t give a fuck! Just watch it and make sure it doesn’t doesn’t do anything!” Derrick hissed as he began threateningly approach the brown pony.

Derrick’s plan was to scare it off or kill it. He was not going to take any risks with these things considering he didn’t know what they were capable of. Despite the fact that these ponies were a little bigger than the size of large dogs, he didn’t want to push his luck by assuming that they were just as dangerous.

With each step Derrick took, the pony took a step back. It seemed to be looking back and forth between the blue pony on the ground and Derrick with the gun. A look of disparity began to grow on its face as it looked like it was trying to decided whether or not to abandon the other pony or take a risk confronting Derrick and his shotgun head on.

The emotions on its face confused Derrick at first, but then it became abundantly clear. The facial expressions were complex and intelligent, not something that any simple animal would be able to pull off. These expressions had complex thinking and reasoning behind them. This could only mean one thing to Derrick.

“Motherfucker, this thing is sentient! I FUCKING KNEW IT!!! WE WERE ABDUCTED BY MOTHERFUCKING ALIENS!!!” Derrick concluded, feeling quite happy with his revelation, but not just a bit terrified by the aspect of being lost on another planet other than his own.

With this new knowledge in mind, he decided to test something.

“Can you understand me?” Derrick asked out loud.

The pony took an instinctive step back at Derrick’s words, seemingly shocked once again by Derrick’s speech. However, the pony remained silent.

John looked up from “guarding” the unconscious pony, giving Derrick a weird look. “D-Derrick, why are you talking to the weird horse thing?” John asked, now giving a concerned look.

The brown pony looked at john glaringly, like it had just been insulted, Derrick immediately caught on.

“Speak up you little shit! I know you can understand us! Speak up now or I swear to god I will blow you and your friend’s huge fucking heads off and shit down your throats!!!” Derrick yelled at the now terrified pony.

The pony was quick to respond. “I’M SORRY, I’M SORRY!!! PLEASE!!! JUST LET US GO!!! WE WON’T TRY ANYTHING I SWEAR!!! PLEASE, Don’t kill us!!!” The brown pony cried, now cowering on the ground, trembling in fear.

John looked at the brown pony as if it had just grown a second head. Looking back down at unconscious pony on the ground, he seemed to be trying to put together everything that had just happened. It looked as if trying to find a logical explanation that would explain it all realistically in his mind. It obviously failed as he fainted, collapsing over the pony he was supposed to watch.

Sighing, Derrick resisted the temptation to face palm with the shotgun still in his hands. “That dumb shit…”

        The first sensation John felt when he arose was the paid if a huge headache. He groaned in pain as he got up into the sitting position. That is when he felt other sensations, the cold biting his skin from one side while warmth healed him from the other. Rubbing the crud out of his eyes, he began to notice that he was not indoors. He was, in fact, sitting on the ground outside. Within the light of a slowly dying fire protecting him from darkness that surrounded him.

John began to panic, picking his mind to attempt to remember how he got here.

“Where the hell am I? Think John! Think! I remember working my shift before I went outside for some reason… OH! Yes, I remember! This guy was getting mugged and I saved him! But, what happened after that?

Oh, I remember now! I think I must have passed out after having some weird hallucination about some sort of shadow guy… I think I might have breathed in something I shouldn’t have… Alright, then both that man and I ended up in the middle of nowhere… I guess whatever I breathed in really put me out of it and I subconsciously walked into the woods somewhere... What was that guy’s name? Oh Right! His name was Derrick! I almost shot him and he took my shotgun away! He then started having some paranoid theories that we were abducted by aliens before we came to an agreement to find the nearest town.

Then we came across a road. It was poorly maintained and Derrick started being paranoid again before I could get him to suck it up. We traveled on the road for awhile before… something happened… I… I can’t recall. All I remember is this weird dream where me and Derrick were holding up a couple of talking horses… Where the hell did that dream come from any-”

“Mmmmhphff!” John heard a muffled sound from behind him, Causing him to freeze in fear.

Slowly turning around to the noise behind him, he nearly screamed like a little girl as he saw the two talking horses from his dream, hogtied, gagged, and blindfolded behind him. John was immediately on his feet and took a few steps back. At the sudden noise, the brown one began struggling fruitlessly against its bounds. The blue one remained still, it’s only movement being the raising and collapsing of it’s chest.

John stared at the two horses with a fearful expression on his face, continuously trying to keep himself from hyperventilating. He couldn’t believe this was happening. The reality that he had fabricated for himself, the reality that this was all just the effects a really screwed up high, was quickly collapsing in on him.

“This… NO! IT CAN’T BE!!! The horses were a DREAM, the falling was a DREAM,  the shadowman was a DREAM! This can’t be real! I have to be dreaming right now! I have to wake up!!!” John thought.

In his panic, he began pinching himself as a test. He felt pain. Dread came over him as he began slapping himself instead. The combination of his headache and his slap made the pain far worse that he was forced to stop. Clutching his head, nursing the pain, the reality began to settle in.

This… This is real. This is not a dream, this is not some allusion brought upon by some high. I am really here, this is really happening… This cannot be earth… Wherever this is, we are a very long way from home.” John concluded.

John wanted to cry. He was 24 years old, finally got out of his mother’s house, got himself a job, and was finally going to make a life for himself. He was just starting his life, just for it to be stripped away within seconds. Being forced to restart from the beginning, having no idea where to even begin. On top of all of that, he knew he would likely never see or hear from any of his friends and family again. Being on a entirely different world made communication rather difficult; especially without a wireless signal.

However, John was not going to cry. He was not going to allow himself to. He needed to keep strong for everyone he knew. He wasn’t about to falter, whither, and die here. If he needed to start again, he was going to do it with flying colors. At this moment, he was not going to let anything get him down.

Especially Derrick, who he was certain was going to start gloating with this revelation at this point.

“Speaking of Derrick? Where is that old bastard?” John thought to himself.

At that exact moment, Derrick tapped on John shoulder; scaring the living shit out of him.

“GA!! FUCK!! Derrick What the hell!?” John shouted as he flipped around to face Derrick.

Derrick just stood there with a neutral expression on his face, holding his shotgun in one hand while holding a small bundle of firewood in the other.

Walking past John, Derrick simply said. “That is why you are not getting the shotgun back.”

John immediately gave Derrick the bird while his back was turned.

Derrick began to add wood to the fire, poking it with a stick to get the individual pieces in the right positions. After that, he sat down next to it at a comfortable distance. The brown pony began to whine and moan from its suppressed mouth once again, but Derrick simply ignored him as he began to simply stare into the fire.

He was quiet for a few moment before he said. “So, how are you taking all of this? With the whole being abducted situation in stuff?” He asked in a tired voice, not breaking eye contact with the fire.

John was a bit confused by the question. He had expected the man be a gloatful jackass about this, telling him how he was right all along and being a total asshole about it, but instead he sounded like he was interested on how exactly he was taking this. It was as if Derrick himself had hoped he was just being paranoid with his theories, and was just a freaked out by this revelation.

“Funny, I thought you would be dancing around in glee due to you being correct about everything here.” John replied bitterly as he walked back up and sat back down next to the fire.

“No, I’ll be honest here, I am really not. It actually scares the hell out of me. Being so far away from anything you know, not knowing what to expect… It terrifies me. Makes me wish I was wrong” Derrick replied solemnly. It was almost depressing.

Derrick went from staring at the fire to staring at the night sky. After a few seconds or so, he cracked a smile, seeming to admire it. “Well, at least we got a nice view. Sure as hell beats the night sky back at Earth.” He said with optimism.

John took a look at the sky as well, he began to see what Derrick meant. The view was beautiful, like nothing he had ever seen before. Thousands and thousands of bright sparkling stars littering the sky, the brightest ones forming beautiful constellations that he could quite identify. The main highlight, however, was the moon. The bright, beautiful ball in the sky shining in all its glory. It had no imperfections, no flaws, it was like a pure white pearl in the sky. The whole thing was beautiful, something an artist would draw.

While John’s attention was towards the sky, a question popped to mind. He immediately spoke it. “Was there anyone that you left behind, Derrick?”

Derrick was silent for a moment, but then responded with. “Not something I want to talk about around strangers I hardly know.”

The mere mention of strangers brought John attention back to the two pastel colored horses. The brown one was, surprisingly, still struggling against his bonds. The blue one still lied still, its slow and steady breathing being its only movement. John briefly wondered what was to become of them. He knew that they couldn’t just keep them tied up forever…

“Speaking of tied up? How the hell did he do that anyways? We don’t even have any rope!” John thought to himself as he observed their bounds.

His eyes widened as he began to recognize the material of the ropes; and the fact that he was missing his work apron and belt. “That son of a bitch! He used my Apron and leather belt as rope! My god! I am going to kill him!” John thought briefly.

John considered actually yelling at Derrick for using his clothing to hog tie the two technicolor horses, but figured that was another fight for another day. So he instead decided to ask the real question on his mind.

“Speaking of strangers, what are we going to do about them?” John asked. The brown horse seemed to struggle more in response to John’s question.

“Oh, you know, we are going to roast them and eat them for supper. Why do you think I got the fire going for! Now, while I set up the cooking crane, see if you can find something sharp to cut some good slices of meat off them!” Derrick joked sadistically, adding a very sarcastic evil laugh to go along with it.

John chuckled nervously, hoping he really was kidding. The brown horse, on the other hand, obviously took the joke too seriously as he seemingly broke down hysterically; sobbing into his gag while struggling even harder against his bonds.

“Oh shut it, it is a joke! You no good, no sense of humor, pony.” Derrick mumbled angrily at the pony, immediately shutting it up.

“Heheheh, funny… But really. What are we going to do with them? It isn’t like we can keep them tied up forever...” John asked.

Derrick sighed as he got up, walked over, and stared down at the brown pony. As if feeling his presence, the pony stopped struggling. It instead resorted to freezing and shivering in fear, tail tucked between its legs and ears folded back. It was quite the pitiful sight for John. Derrick seemed to think so too as he kneeled down and removed the makeshift blindfold from its eyes.

The pony’s fearful tear stained eyes stared into Derricks pleadingly, as if begging him to not hurt it. It was a sight that was nearly heartbreaking, and something that made you feel sorry for it and its current situation. Derrick stared back into the pony’s eyes coldly and calculatingly, as if trying to gain a glimpse into the pony’s soul in order to determine its intent.

After a full minute of what was seeming to turn into a staring contest, Derrick broke eye contact; replacing the makeshift blindfold over the pony’s eyes once again. Much to the pony’s protest.

Continuing to kneel next to the pony, Derrick simply sighed once again before finally answering my question. “I really don’t know what to do at this point. I was hoping to extract some information on how we got here and why they abducted us, but I don’t think two will know anything. If anything they are just civilians in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Derrick said.

“So… We are going to let them go?” John asked.

Derrick shook his head. “Not yet, I would like to at least know what we should expect to find while we are out here; just so we are prepared for what is to come ahead. After that, we will take them with us down the road to town assuming that it isn’t abandoned. If anything, they could come in handy as bargaining chips, either the one thing that allows us into town or the one thing that keeps them from killing us.”

John was a bit surprised by this, if not a bit horrified. “Are you saying that we use them as hostages? Derrick, that is fucked up! Way to represent humanity! ‘We use hostages to get our way!’” John protested.

“Well, I suppose that is up to them, isn’t is?” Derrick said, referring to the two captive ponies.

“What do you mean by that?” John asked

“What I mean by that is that they can make this easy on all of us by cooperating with us, mostly by vouching for us and telling the rest of their kind that we mean no harm. That way we can all get along just fine and no one needs to get shot or killed.

However, they can also make this hard for all of us, mostly by them being difficult and telling the rest of their kind that we are monsters that need to be dealt with. That way we cannot get along all that fine and I will have to start killing the miserable bastards that get in our way. That includes them if necessary.” Derrick explained.

John could tell that the explanation was not directed towards him. It was much more directed towards the captive pony; who seemed to be listening intentively at this point.

Derrick then removed the makeshift blindfold once again, staring directly into the eyes of the terrified pony once again. “So what do you say, little pony? Are we going to be friends who will help and benefit each other? Or are we going to be enemies who stubbornly refuse to trust in one another and will be result in one another’s undeniably violent death?” Derrick asked the pony as he untied and removed the gag from its mouth.

The pony remained silent for a moment looking down fearfully to avoid eye contact with Derrick. After a another moment, the pony finally responded. “You don’t plan to hurt any of us?”

This was the first time, other than the other time when he passed out, that John had heard the pony’s voice. It’s voice sounded nervous, soft, and feminine, leaving John to assume it was a girl. (Or filly if you will.)

“Not my intent, unless you wish to make it so.” Derrick simply replied.

Another moment passed in silence, the pony seemingly trying to thoroughly think over her decision. After a few more seconds, she made her decision.

“Alright… I’ll do it, but please… Swear that you won’t hurt anypony.” The pony asked politely.

Derrick seemed to huff in annoyance at this, much to John’s amusement. However, Derrick relented. “I swear.”

“Pinkie swear?” The pony asked stubbornly.

“What?” Derrick asked, confused as hell.

“Say ‘I swear that I will not hurt anypony. Cross my heart! Hope to fly! Stick a cupcake in my eye!” The pony explained. John almost started laughing his ass off at the pony’s antics.

“I am not saying that!” Derrick grumbled stubbornly.

“Please, it will make me feel a lot better about trusting you.”  The pony replied.

Derrick grumbled something else under his breath, something that sounded like ‘this is really fucking stupid kid shit’, before he finally relented. “I swear that I will not hurt anypony. Cross my heart. Hope to fly. Stick a… *sigh*…. cupcake in my eye.” Derrick replied bitterly, but sincerely.

The pony smiled, seemingly satisfied with Derrick’s promise. “Thanks! So… Uh… Can you untie us now?” The pony asked hopefully.

Derrick nodded, beginning to undo the hogtie that he had placed the pony in. Meanwhile, John, standing off to the side, was grinning stupidly as he was attempting, poorly, to keep the mischievous smile off his face. This was his chance to get back at the old bastard for earlier today; when he was asking him all those humiliating questions.

Seeing the best opportunity, John put on a brave face and went for it. “Oh! Now, isn’t that just sweet!? You two are so adorable together! Perhaps when you two get back to town, you can get married or something! You two would make the best couple! Think of what the children will look like!” John joked.

Derrick and the pony froze in place at the end of John sentence. While Derrick looked like he just had a stroke and a heart attack at the same time, the pony’s face turned beat red and began stuttering like a broken record.

“What! I- I- I’m- I’m no- I’m- I’m not a...” The pony stuttered

However, John didn’t give the pony time to finish her sentence as he fell over laughing. Much to the pony’s dread as she seemed like she was going into shock due to the embarrassment she was feeling. Derrick looked over at John, giving him a very dangerous look. However, John didn’t care as he continued to laugh his ass off for the next few minutes.

Derrick seemed to wait patiently for John’s laughing episode to end. Giving him the most deathly stare he could manage as John got back up on his feet. John, upon noticing Derrick’s stare of death, simply smirked in response.

“What is the matter old man? Hate getting beaten at your own game?” Derrick asked jokingly.

Derrick’s stare did not falter. “Not when it is at someone else’s expense. What they hell were you thinking? We just got him on our side and you not only called him a homosexual, but you implied he is also into beastality and/or xenophilia. Nice job, John. Really, only an expert could fuck up as spectacularly as you just did. Such a great start to our friendship.” Derrick said bluntly.

It took John a few second to process the information he was just given. “Wait… Isn’t it a mare?”

The ‘mare’, seemingly coming out of its shock like state, glared at John with an intense, fierce anger that John had once believed was only achievable by Derrick.

“No you dumb shit, he is a stallion.” Derrick replied.

There was an awkward silence that ensued for about a minute. Crickets could be heard in the background.

        “Well… This is awkward...”