Stacked Deck

Chapters

One Horse Town
Falling Down
Dreams and Mirrors
Two Horse Town
Acceptance may vary
Roof Top Meetings

One Horse Town

Author's Note

Hey there! This is a revisited version of the older 'super long' chapter 1!

If you have seen that one already then you can skip this chapter and move onto chapter 3!

One Horse Town

My alarm was ringing. One of my favorite songs blared a few feet away from my bed on my iPod, signaling that it was 9:00, and time to start the day by getting my lazy butt out of bed. It was putting in extra work that day by becoming a jet engine at a distance of only six feet away.

I flung myself off of the bed and attempted to turn off the alarm. Unfortunately, my attempts to grasp the device in my hands failed. It was like they were totally numb. I assumed I had been sleeping on them in the wrong way. Left with little choice, I took the screaming banshee that my phone had become into my mouth and buried it in a good amount of blankets and memory foam pillows.

I took a moment to breathe. My ears were still ringing and my head was starting to pound. As I sat there on the floor just trying to recover from the explosive sound, I began to notice that everything in my room looked a lot bigger. On top of that, everything was in focus, but yet I could see my glasses on one of my shelves.

My brain gained more of a foothold as I started to try and shake my hand awake, only to be greeted by a roundish gray mass at the end of my arm. There was a flash of surprise and panic as I froze in place and examined the sight before me. I went to bring up my other arm not conscious that it was supporting about half of my weight. It was a short trip down to the ground from that point.

My contact with the ground was met with a shot 'Oof' and sudden darkness as something fell over my face. Pushing it aside showed it to be long brownish hair. Kind of a shock considering my hair was never that long or brown. The only word my mind could turn to after that was 'mirror.'

I started to crawl my way across my room as my resolve was tested not to look at whatever my body had become. Every joint and limb felt... different. Though I would not say it felt wrong.

I had to navigate over a minefield of sharp metal and cabling from the scattered electronics on my floor. When I finally managed to reach the mirror, what I saw was disturbing and incredibly hard to process: a fuzzy little animal, with brown hair and slitted blue eyes. I didn’t really believe the sight, crumpled on the ground, and I couldn’t really identify what I was.Thus, I tried to stand and get a good once-over.

I found standing upright basically impossible and when I got a good look at myself standing on all fours, I found out why. My body had been totally changed. There was nothing left that was reminiscent of my human form. Instead, in its place was a pony-like alien.

I shouted "What the hell am I!?" only to be taken aback by how I sounded. Instead of a deep, rough tone, it seemed much more neutral and smooth, and reminded me of a young girl’s. I gave that observation a courtesy wince, but at the time I was just thankful for the ability to speak.

After a moment I noticed some strange, reddish, brown-gray masses layered over my gray coat. I poked one of the leathery lumps with my hoof only to feel it in a place I never had felt before. I fussed around and managed to get a bat wing to unfold from my side.

With my wings unfolded I gave myself an uneasy look in the mirror once more. I had managed to go from a pony-like alien to something that looked like a one-shot character from some Halloween special for a kid show.

It was all a bit too much to process at once. I fussed with my wings for a few moments before I managed to get them back into a relaxed folded position. From there I looked to my left to see the door knob for my room at eye level. Getting the door unlocked with hooves and turning the knob was a pain, but I handled it with some persistence. There was a brief struggle where I almost closed the door twice before I managed to open it completely. I yelled out to either my sister or my mother, trying to get any help I could. Sadly, the only responder was my sister's dog, Cotton.

Cotton looked at me with unease and confusion. I didn't hear any growling from her, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous that she wouldn’t recognize me and attack.

"Hey, there Cotton-dog. It's okay, it's just me," I said with a reassuring voice.

Cotton's response was to walk up and rest her head on top of mine like she was trying to point out I'm short. It was strange, but I did what any dog loving person would have done: I laughed and gave her a hug. That required a coordinated hop with only my front hooves, but I managed it.

"Yeah, yeah, you silly dog. Where is Mom?" I asked, since she would've normally gone off to whatever room my mother was in. Instead she did something worrying. She just backed away from me with a whine and bark.

"Did she leave the house?" That question was more for me than for Cotton. Border collies are smart, but not that smart.

I peered around the corner of my room’s door frame to see the front door. It was all locked up, which meant no one had left the house, since I was the only one who ever locked the door.

I endeavored to get myself onto all fours, which took longer than I hoped it would. Standing like that felt so strange. Walking, however, was much worse. Even with Cotton here to take ideas from, I fell on my face more times than I wished to count on the way to my mother's room.

Once in the doorway I called out again. "Mom, I have a massive issue here." No response. I lifted my head up to see the bed properly. There was no one in it.

"W-what?" I looked around the room. Her purse and phone were still there, but she was not accounted for. Getting slightly worried, I stumbled back to my room. I knew better then to check on my sister. She never did sleep up there, and I really didn’t think I could climb the spiral stairs to her room.

Once there, I slammed the power button on my computer and climbed up onto my chair. When the computer booted up and I had summited Chair Mountain, I used the built-in buttons to reduce my mouse sensitivity. It made for slow going, but it let me use it with hooves.

The first thing I knew I would have to do was to boot up Steam and try to contact my friends like I would on any day regardless of an apocalyptic phenomenon. Normally there would be one or two of my friends online at that time, but I saw no one. I fiddled and fussed with my computer until I entered our personal voice chat room and turned on my speakers. If someone came into the chat room, I wanted to be able to hear them.

It was at that point the silence started to get to me. I didn't know why it was so quiet; normally there was quite some background noise in and around my house. That's when I noticed that I didn't hear any cars.

I lived on the main street in my town. Along that street were two ways onto the freeway, the mall, the connecting street to the college, the best hotel in town, the police, and the fire departments. So to not hear cars at any given hour was strange, but to not hear them around 10:00 am was nearly impossible.

My new hooves and body would not let me reach over my monitors, so I couldn’t see out of the window. Instead, I jumped down from my chair and opened the front door. That was my first huge mistake of the day.

The front side of my house faced East, so it got extra bright in the morning, and when I opened the door it felt like I had injected pure fire into my eyes. I let out the girliest scream that I had ever heard and shuffled backward. After retreating into the relative darkness of my home, I flopped down onto the ground and put my hooves over my eyes.

After an unknown amount of time passed, I finally felt like I could risk opening my eyes again. Everything was fuzzy for a moment, but thankfully that passed. I was happy for that since I had just gotten eyes that worked correctly and I didn't want to ruin them.

I turned back toward the door and let off a cat-like hiss as I noticed I had left the front door open. The sound I produced caught me and Cotton, who had taken residence next to me, off guard, but I ignored it for that moment and walked back to my room, making sure to keep my eyes away from the Blind-o-Matic 3000 that the Sun had become.

After a brief search, I took one of my woven blankets and wrapped it around my head. Through it I could still see, but it dampened the light quite well. That gave me the courage to try and venture outside again.

It was still extremely bright for me. Given these circumstances, I figured that either the sun had exploded or my eyes had become extremely sensitive to light. Seeing as it didn't feel much hotter than normal, I assumed the latter. I had a feeling that wasn’t normal, but there was no way for me to tell.

The street was completely empty, and all the cars outside were still parked. There wasn't any sign of human life anywhere.

I hurried back inside and winced at the loud slam of the door behind me. My best bet was to try and call emergency services to see if I could get an answer.

Using my flip phone was a pain, but with some good hoof placement and a spoon in my mouth I succeeded at calling out, only to be told that all lines were busy. Obviously, not a good sign.

I dueled my mouse so as to hit up my local news site, but there had been no updates since yesterday. That was when I started to go into full survival mode, and luckily I was prepared. My life largely revolved around the Internet and technology, and my job gave me quite a few useful tools, so I navigated my computer to the programs I had for backing up websites. The various hard disk drives around my room were about to become more like suitcases.

I started to grab a full copy of Reddit, Still Tasty, and other useful websites I knew I could quickly back up onto my machine. I wanted Wikipedia, but I didn’t want to eat up all my bandwidth so I would have to wait till the sun starts to set. Otherwise, there would be no way for me to get outside for that long without going blind.

I figured I should go to a good vet medicine site and back that up as well. I had turned into some type of animal, so that should come in handy.

The next thing I did was go onto Reddit and make a post via my patented spoon-in-mouth technique. It simply asked if anyone was out there. I made sure it showed up at the top of the new posts and hoped that other people out there knew how to use Reddit. With that set up, I was about to get up and look through my fridge when I heard a voice call out from my speakers.

"So, L.F., it took me a really long time to figure out how to open this." The voice wasn’t one I could instantly recognize, so I had to click on the chat itself to see it was my friend with the screen name “Neon” signed in. “L.F.” was my friend group’s shorthand for my own screen name, “Lightfox.”

"Neon? You don't sound like yourself, but dear god is it good to hear from someone. NO ONE is around, and I'm a small bat-pony thing! I'm guessing the same thing happened to you, from the sound of your voice?" I responded.

"I am now majestic as fuck and no one is around to witness it."

“Neon, what on Earth does that mean? Majestic-- what?"

"I always figured they'd be white, and not … green," was his extremely unhelpful response.

Before I could question that statement, our friend Captain Wolf entered the voice chat. "Please tell me you are all real and not more of whatever Twilight Zone episode I've woken into."

I gave a simple answer. "Hey, Wolf. Yes, but hold on. Neon is being unhelpful. Neon, what the hell are you talking about? I'm gray." Being gray was odd in its own right, but was definitely better than green.

Wolf talked before Neon answered me. "No wonder dogs don't use headsets. Christ, this is ... less than comfortable."

"Wait, what? Dog? You're a dog!?" I basically yelled out.

Neon continued to yammer on and, not even trying to make sense, gave another response after C. Wolf. "I'm lucky I managed to plug in my speakers because to hell with figuring out these headphones."

I face-desked at that point. Thankfully no one heard that due to being on push-to-talk, but, hey, at least I knew it was them. "Okay, okay! One at a time. Neon, what the HELL are you?"

"...I am the last unicorn," he started. "Or the first. Alpha and Omega... Something."

A new voice entered the fray. It was a higher pitch than I was used to coming from the owner. It was White, our friend who lived all the way in the UK. "Oh, Jesus Christ FINALLY! I've spent all day running around town as some TINY-ASS LIZARD THING, but there's nobody here! Did I miss some sort of evacuation memo? Am I a horribly mutated radioactive freak? I'm going nuts here guys..."

C. Wolf was the first to respond. "Hold up, so we’re all seeing the same thing? Aside from you guys I haven't found anyone ANYWHERE around here."

White clarified right after C Wolf. "I mean there's my cat and some dogs and like sheep or whatever but I mean bunkers can't really hold sheep."

"You know what I mean,” Wolf loudly moaned, “people."

White gave an interesting response and a good question, because it helped me figure things out a bit more. "Look, man, I don't even know what I am, let alone- Wait. Are you guys weird lizard things too?"

"I'm, well, more like a ... dog ... ape ...thing?” Wolf answered.

"Nope, I'm some sort of bat-pony hybrid thing." I thought bat-pony was a good descriptor at that point. I think there were bat horses in a Harry Potter book, but I don't think they were nearly as fluffy.

"... shit," Wolf answered.

"My hands are okay. Bit claw-like and covered in scales. But I'm like 2-3 feet high!"

"I don't know if I can draw anymore like this." Neon finally added in. "I mean, I managed to use the computer, but-"

"Drawing?” Wolf asked. “I'm sorry to be the sledgehammer of realism at this point, but we all seem to be doing a bang-up job completely ignoring how royally screwed we are at this given moment, like ... CHRIST!" He sounded panicked. Can't blame him, but really he should be holding it together better. He still has hands.

"I assure you I HAVE NOT BEEN IGNORING IT," said White. I could almost hear the panic in his voice as well. I felt bad for him. The rest of us were in the states. We could all meet up, but White was going to have a harder time with that.

"It's not going to do us much good to panic. Panic can come after I'm done backing up stuff for later use." That was me mostly trying to keep a cool head. I knew that using a computer with hooves was going to wear my sanity down with time.

“White, why is your voice so high-pitched? Mine feels, almost the same? What the heck?” Neon asked, thankfully getting us away from the topic of losing our minds.

"I-... I don't know. I sound like a kid." He lapsed into a few seconds of contemplative silence. "... and I'm the same size as a kid..." He obviously didn't like where that train of thought was going. "...Oh goddammit."

I could only wonder why no one had commented on my voice change. Maybe it was not as bad as I thought? That's something to be thankful at least.

“I wonder if Q is okay...” I said to myself, not having the push-to-talk key underhoof. I kinda hoped he was just off dealing with shit and had not thought to login yet. That said, I needed to address White, since he was sounding more stressed as our talk went on. “White, look, even if you are somehow younger, it just means you’ve had some more years added to your life. Don’t get all panicky just yet. ”

"We need to focus. What we do know is we're still here, and obviously we're still us," Wolf commented, and followed up by “Has anyone else appeared on your contact lists? Mine are still dead as shit.”

“No, I've got nothing, and I’ve been here a while,” I sighed to myself, “The sun may as well be a brand on my eyes right now, so staring at my computer is at the upper limits of my usefulness at the moment.”

I noticed Qesun sign into the chat. I thanked any god that was going to listen at that moment. It took him a few moments to get on voice, but he opened up with some of his own humor. "So, I took a walk, guys. Or I tried to. I'm not very good at it right now. You’d think it would be easier with four legs, but you would be wrong. So now I'm trying to discount all this as a dream. Because, frankly, if I keep having to use my mouth for everything and taste all the things our hands have touched, I'm filing a complaint with both reality and causality."

"Oh thank god, Qesun! I was really starting to worry about you," worry was a slight understatement. "As for it being a dream: have you ever been able to think this clearly in one? Anyway, if you do find reality's complaint department, please give me its address as well."

Captain Wolf let out a sigh. "That makes five of us, out of ... what? There are over a hundred or more grayed out on my contacts in steam, and you are the only ones I've gotten a hold of."

I understood his unease, I’d spent one fourth of my life getting contacts and building a network of talented people: programmers, artists, writers, managers, anyone I could see had a spark for the world around them. I made it a point in meeting people like that and ensuring I was at least known to them. Then, in one day, almost everyone was gone, the gray uncaring declaration of “offline” next to their name.

Neon was quick and to the point when answering Wolf. "Aside from you all, I'm not seeing anything..." I had a small feeling that he was distracted with something, but I was not in the mood currently to dig.

"Okay, assuming we ARE the last ones left of the people we know," Wolf slowed down, each word coming more purposefully, "what are we going to do about it?"

I’d given that some thought as well, but Qesun beat me to the punch when it came to a speaking role. "Well first, we make Neon get off League. I don't know how many are missing, but I can't help but find the lack of noise from the airport or any of the roads a disturbing sign that the lack of people logged on is not just because it was a nice day to go outside. We've built a civilization for ourselves that requires a lot of support services that no longer have the staff necessary to maintain them.”

"Wait, this stuff can't support itself? ...That really sucks," was Neon's response. I don't think he ever gave much thought into how everything worked, but it really was outside of his scope of interests anyways.

"It can, Neon," I gave him a quick answer, but also added an addendum. "It just can't support itself for very long. The net will die within a three-day window, and the power grid will depend on location."

“We should pick a place to meet up before our communications fail. Getting there will be hard, but we'll have an easier time getting through this together." Qesun said. It made sense. I would prefer to face the end of the world with trusted friends.

There were some things to iron out for a meeting point though. I felt like it was up to me to voice them. "Do you already have an idea for a meeting point? Also, if we were to meet up, what about White? He's over in the UK."

"....I don't mind staying in the UK." The biggest lie in history. "I mean I WAS supposed to catch a plane in a couple of days, but I mean, what am I gonna do, fly the damn thing myself?! I may as well just get used to being by myself instead of tormenting myself with the impossible."

"You want to speak of impossible? Look in the mirror." Wolf grumbled, "This is impossible. The fact we still managed to contact each other should be, at best, improbable. As far as I'm concerned, impossible doesn't exist anymore."

"You're.... encouraging me to fly a jet. Completely untrained, and 3 feet tall." White absently said.

There was only one real response I could have given to that. "Yes."

Qesun tried to say something motivational but suddenly stumbled on the word. “So you would rather sit on your aaaaaa-butt and do nothing?” I had no idea what that was about.

“No, White, I’m saying you’ll figure something out though. The worst thing you could do is not try.” Wolf correctly said. White really couldn't just stay in the UK and not do anything.

"White, all my resources VANISHED. Any help that I could possibly be will be gone by this time tomorrow. This is not something that we can figure out. This one is on you. I have faith in you." It hurt to say that. When the shit hits the fan I was the one to go to in this group. I had the people and the knowledge to move heaven and earth at times, but I had been reduced to well-wishing.

“... so, where are we going?" asked Neon, cutting to the point.

Falling Down

Author's Note

Hey there! This is a revisited version of the older 'super long' chapter 1!

If you have seen that one already then you can skip this chapter and move onto chapter 3!

Falling Down

The talk got complicated from there. We needed a place that was accessible to all of us. To be honest, I really phoned it in on that part. It was more Qesun's style of thing anyways. He just had the skill set for finding a good area to set up in. The group, with his suggestions, came up with Colorado Springs.

The plan for me and Neon was to meet up in Las Vegas. It was the best meeting point for both of us since it put us on the correct road. The only major issue was that Neon would have to get himself there somehow. That part worried me a lot, but I convinced myself that he would be able to figure out a car.

With our plans formed, and our goodbyes said, I started to gather my backpack full of things I could need for my little journey outside. It's included my laptop, the good mouse I could use with my hooves, all the cabling someone could ever need, and a sturdy blanket incase I needed to break windows.

I thought to grab my tool bag while I was at it. I had no idea what I was going to use it for, but it was always better to be safe than sorry. The only issue was that I could not find the damned thing. I looked everywhere, but it was nowhere to be found... until I looked up. On top of my 6-foot bookshelf rested my Husky brand tool bag.

"Oh. Come. The. Fuck. ON!" I think my rage was justified. Why couldn’t it have been on the ground like all the other stuff. Nearly everything ELSE was there after all.

Getting that down was going to be a pain, but it had all my good tools. Stuff that was going to be needed in the coming hours, and following days. I made a note of everything that was up there with it: my dremel tool, Nintendo Wii, and a lamp.

I started thinking of all sorts of plans to get that stuff down. Eventually though I said "fuck it," and launched the blanket from my packing stage. I gave it a fast pull and watched everything on the shelf cascade onto the ground. Thankfully my tool bag was closed, so only the stuff in the side pockets spilled out. I Just didn’t care about the Wii at that point, and the Dremel tool was in its case, so it was likely fine.

With tool bag in mouth and backpack on back, I headed toward my door. I didn't make it out, however, since my mirror caught my eye. It’s really strange to look in the mirror and see yourself as a small, fluffy animal.

I almost stopped at the mirror to get a better idea of what changes had happened to me. Though I ended up forgoing that experience at the time. There was too much on my mind right then. I wanted to get everything I could ready to go. I left my mirror behind and quickly made my way to the door.

"I'll... face myself once I have all less on my mind."

I carefully opened the door and crept outside. It was still bright, but it was manageable and I needed to get work done. I headed over to my next major issue: I lived on the second story apartment, so I had to descend the stairs. I had yet to perfect my walking, so just walking down them was not going to happen without me becoming a lame horse.

The best idea I had was to take it slow and basically lay down on each step. Much like everything else, it takes a considerable amount of time.

After successfully descending the stairs, I took stock. I knew about four different computers in my small gated community. Any of them would work for my needs, as long as I didn’t harbor any delusions of getting more than the English version of wikipedia.

I ran to the closest house I knew had a good laptop in it. The door, of course, was locked, so breaking a window was necessary. That turned out to be my second huge mistake of the day. A few loud beeps were my only clue, and maybe on a good day I would have had the good sense to run like hell, but I was not at my best.

After a few beeps, the house alarm started its attack on my ears with no mercy in its electronic heart. I was floored from the poor reaction of throwing my front hooves over my ears. That did muffle the sound a little, but I was on the ground and well within the "too loud" portion of the house.

I tried to wiggle away from the house without removing my hooves from their protective positions. After noticing I had not made any headway, I knew what I needed to do. I bit down, got front hooves under me as fast as I could and ran away from the house. I don't know how I cleared so much space in so little time. My mind was just focused on getting away from the shrill sound. I didn't stop till I was at the other side of the complex and crashed into a small incline covered in grass.

I lay there, out of breath, for a few minutes. I could still hear the alarm even though I was clear across the grounds, but thankfully it was no longer ripping the ears off my head.

"Okay, note to self: keep an eye out for some noise-canceling headsets, and watch for house alarms," I said to myself before regrouping and going from house to house, avoiding any that had alarm signs.

I checked my bag to make sure nothing was lost and moved on. A new house and one more broken window later, I was attempting to use someone else's computer. It booted up and took itself straight to desktop. After that, I just used my own mouse to navigate to a website I knew had updated mirrors of Wikipedia. With the download started, I began to head off to my house, though I didn’t make it there.

Halfway back to my next goal felt my ears began to twitch and move a little on their own. They were being drawn to one of the houses, as a strange sound was coming from it. Once I got up to the house I could in identify it as scratching. My only thought was that a dog was likely trapped inside.

Another locked door meant I would need to smash yet another window. That time though I didn't get a chance to throw my blanket over the field of glass. The very moment that window was smashed open the dog jumped throw it and took off into the complex.

I thankfully managed to get out of its way as it rushed on by. Though I had no idea if had managed to cut itself on the glass, and I really could not be asked to chase it down.

I repeated the same process afterward, letting out any dog that would allow me in the house. If they started to show signs of aggression after I busted the window I had to write them off, but I needed to at least give them a chance.

I knew I couldn't save all the dogs around here... which did make me feel like crap. A lot of dogs would likely be stuck inside and starve without their owners, but there was only so much one person could do!

I let myself have a small break on the grass, not too far away from my next goal. In the sunset light, I could see the main gate to my complex. That thing was going to be a major obstacle if I didn't get it open. I pushed that thought aside for the moment, however.

While I was relaxing, I watched the dogs run around. They seemed to be enjoying themselves. I made note of a few that escaped the complex by going under the gate. I never noticed how big that gap was before.

I could get under it and use the gate code on the other side, but then I’d have to keep it open. I grabbed my tools and walked over to the gate itself. I could use a vice clamp on the arm when it was open… that way, it would be stuck open. At least, that’s what I thought before I got to the other side. I didn’t know how I was going to punch in the gate code.

My means of using a code pad at the time were kind of limited. I did NOT want to touch that pad with my mouth, and my hooves were too big. I ended up going back and getting a screwdriver to hold in my mouth. It worked well as a proxy finger.

The pad for the gate let out a shrill beep as it confirmed the code had worked. I headed around the gate as it opened, and quickly dropped my screwdriver on the ground to arm myself with the vice clamp. Once the gate had opened all the way, I placed the clamp on the bending part of its arm. Consequently, the gate tried to close and got jammed more than halfway open.

Now I had full access to my area, which gave me free reign to make tracks for the store. My house had some food, but it was mostly junk and snacks. This would be a great time to experiment on what I could and could not eat.

As I was walking I couldn’t help to notice how alien the street felt. What used to be a busy motorway was now a desolate strip of asphalt, and as my hooves touched the ground I could not help but feel a sense of overwhelming emptiness.

"I'm alone here, aren't I?" My voice echoed against the empty street. “I’m sorry everyone.” I sympathized with all of the missing people in the world, as strange as that sounds, and it broadcast itself in a lot of ways with my new body. I could feel my ears flat against my head and my wings slightly sagged off of my sides. Something, likely my own ego, was telling me I failed everyone. I did my best to shake it off, but I had a bad habit of thinking of myself as a kind of hero.

I always did my best to help people. I’d managed to pull a lot of people out of bad spots in their lives. Sure, I never did it for free. I always expected repayment in one way or another, but that was always justified in trying to get more resources to help even more people. Of course, that did matter anymore. Everyone one in my town was likely gone, and I could have done nothing to stop it.

After a moment of solemn reflection, I had to press on. It didn't matter how crestfallen I felt because I knew there were still people counting on me. I was not going to allow the list of people I've failed grow any longer.

I moved along to the stores which, of course, had their front doors locked. Nothing can ever go smoothly, after all. I started to come up with a complex plan that involved a shopping cart, a battering ram, and a ton of rocks, but it turned out to be unnecessary as my ears began to twitch again.

Hearing felt really weird. I had never had the experience of being able to move my ears, and so as I tried to locate the source of this new sound, I battled with my turning ears and twisted my head to try to pinpoint it. After a brief struggle, I managed to line everything up and heard the sound of a running motor.

I let myself get my hopes up; a mistake, but it happened anyways. I ran as fast as I could to the source of the sound. What I found was a freezer truck, parked and still running.

There was no easy way to tell how long it had been here, but right next to it was the loading doors to the store, swung wide open.

Venturing inside, I started to call out. There could be someone inside, but with no response came the shattering realization that it had likely been here all day, parked before whatever took everyone away.

I mentally kicked myself for getting my hopes up and continued on. As I made my way into the store, I found the back freezer. Making a mental note of its location, I progressed onto the shopping floor.

It’s really hard to say what you will grab when you have free reign over an entire store. I knew I wanted the strawberries and apples kept safe, mostly since they were some of my favorite foods before becoming a horse.

As I was going down my mental checklist, I really started to wish I was not alone. The sheer amount of stuff I wanted to pack away was massive. At least, for one person to pack away.

The best idea I had was to load all the stuff I wanted to keep into the freezer until I could find a way to transport myself and the food stuff safely. In the freezer, it should be safe from any animals, and it wouldn’t spoil in there as well.

That idea turned into me quickly running around the store to get all my favorite foods: frozen pizzas, strawberries, apples, and watermelons. Passing one of the aisles, I noticed a bunch of little seed packets and grabbed them as well. Someone might be able to make use of them once we manage to get set up. Or they could be completely useless. At that point, I was really just trying to take anything that even looked useful.

After I had the back freezer loaded up with anything I could ask for, I started to hunt for the circuit breaker. That took a while as the door needed some forklift negotiating to get open. After getting into the breaker room, I killed the power to anything that was not the back freeze, hoping that it would give the backup generator some more time. I didn't plan on staying in town any longer than a few days.

After an hour’s worth of work, I picked up a small basket of strawberries in my mouth as food for the night when I started to head back home.

It was when I got outside that I really felt the full scale of how many people went missing. The sheer amount of lights where I lived usually kept the stars from ever showing up until the deadest points of night. Light pollution was a very real thing that most people ignored.

However, it was only the beginning of the moon's rise into the sky, and I could already see the stars out. Something about them just grabbed at my mind and I was forced to stare at the sky for a few moments.

"Wow... I wonder what it's going to look like when the power starts to fail."

The rest of the walk home was mostly uneventful except for the sudden spring in my step. I really couldn't explain it. A warm, fuzzy amount of energy had been dumped into me for no understandable reason.

“Maybe because it turned to night? Did my day-night cycle change with this body?” I couldn’t come up with any better reasoning, but I also couldn’t say I was upset. This would allow me to work throughout the night.

When I arrived at home the next thing to do was mentally sort out what needed to be done. I wanted to get an RV; something that would let me transport a lot of stuff and keep my food safe. Maybe I could attach a U-Haul pod to the back of it. I also wanted to hit up a Harbor Freight building. They would have all sorts of goodies, like generators and solar panels.

The only obstacle was what was under me: my hooves. Well, my hooves and my size. The first part of my plan was to get an RV, but I had no way to drive it. If I wanted to pull that off, I was going to have to adjust to the new me a bit more.

That was a huge demand. Normally it takes trained professionals to do physical therapy like that, but there were none to be found. Instead, I did have an idea for getting a feel for my new body, but it was going to involve me eating a lot of dirt. It was a pretty bad idea. That said, I didn’t have any better ideas at the time.

I returned to the house of one of the released dogs to borrow a set of computer speakers and fetched my backpack from hiding.

My plan was to dance. Music always had a way of making me want to move with it. I knew that it was going to be hell, and I knew I would end up face-first in the grass more times than I really wanted to, but my hope was that it could help me find my center again. I was also hoping that grass might end up tasting good. A lot of people would have said I was crazy and that I could have gotten hurt, but I have always claimed to be talented at figuring stuff out and adapting.

I danced up for hours. If anyone had been watching me, they could have easily mistaken the song "Stamp on the Ground" for "Flop on the Ground".

It was near midnight when it happened. I was about to hit the ground again--not a big deal, since falling on the ground had become standard by then--except I didn’t. I had mostly braced for impact with the ground, but it never came. After a brief moment, I opened one eye to see that I was suspended above the grass. I thought I had managed to catch myself with one of my hooves, but it turned out that was not the case. When I looked to my side, I could see one of my wings doing its best to hold off the assault against the ground.

That was the first time I made my wings do anything useful, and they were quite strong. Touching down on the ground, I stopped my music while I examined my wings. It was at that moment I realized how strange bat wings really were. It was like they had fingers of their own--sure, they had webbing, but I found that I could manipulate them really well.

I tried to use the keyboard on my laptop with my wings. It did work, but it felt really strange. That strangeness was mostly due to how the membrane of the wing stretched out, but this revelation was huge. I had a way of manipulating things, and I could still use computers effectively! That thought made me so excited that I let off a strange squeaking sound which I don’t think I could do again on command.

Sadly, my excitement was short-lived. I needed to set that discovery aside for the time being. Wing-hand things are cool, but mostly useless if I couldn't really move with my new body. Thus, I returned to falling on the ground in style.

By the end of the night, I felt like someone had run me over, but I had made some progress. I was not going to be winning any dance contests unless I was the de-facto judge, but I had managed to get a handle on shifting my weight around without crashing onto the ground.

I had lost track of time, and totally missed the fact that it was getting brighter out, the stars fading away into the orange sunrise. It took a yawn to indicate how tired I was. At that point, adrenaline was the only thing keeping me on my hooves.

I packed up my stuff and walked home only to face my stairs. Honestly, I almost decided to sleep outside when I saw them. I was just so beat up, and so tried, but I persevered. The little control I gained from training paid off in dividends as I managed to walk up the stairs without crippling myself.

After that great accomplishment, I zombie-walked my way to the door… only to find it closed. A cold chill raced down my spine and kicked my brain into gear. My door had a bad habit of locking itself whenever someone left the house. That's why I would normally leave the deadbolt out so it couldn't close--something I clearly forgot to do this time.

I quickly tried to open the door with no success. After cursing myself for allowing that to happen, I started to check my options. There was no hide-a-key, and I was also on the second floor so there was no back door on the list. I reasoned that I would need to break a window, which I was now quite skilled at.

One broken window later, Cotton began to freak out and bark her little head off.

"Cotton! Stop! No barking! That hurts like hell!" That did little to dissuade her. She had clearly forgotten or did not recognize me. Thankfully, though, she didn't keep going.

I made my way into the house and gave Cotton a stern look. I couldn’t really stay mad at her, though. She was too excited for me to be home and was acting too cute. This was normal. If I was away from the house, even for an hour, she would get all clingy when I got back.

I gave her a few pets and ear scratches with my wings. “Okay, calm down. I just forgot to make sure the door wouldn’t close." I ushered her away from the broken glass. Thankfully, she didn't manage to get any glass in her paws. That would have been hell to get out.

I took Cotton to my room and closed the door before I flopped onto my bed. I didn't care how I was supposed to lay down. I just rolled a bit until I found a comfy spot.

I felt so tired I almost didn't want to do my normal nightly routine, but I felt like it was a good idea to continue to try and adjust to this body.

In my experience, lucid dreaming was not hard. You would shut your eyes, blank out your mind, and wait. Something would happen from there. Normally, you would “fall” into a dream and ride it out for a while before doing anything. Now, controlling a dream was tricky because you were not allowed to think. Changing the dreamscape was more like moving an arm. You don't think about it to do it. You just make it move. Normally, thinking would just snap you right awake.

That night was not normal. I laid there, waiting to fall into a dream, only to start feeling like I was really falling. I quickly snapped my eyes open only to see a pure white floor rushing up to say hello to me.

I did what any reasonable person would have done. I screamed, though that action was short lived as I slammed into the floor, shattering it like fine glass. I continued to fall, dazed from the impact. When my senses returned, I found out the falling was more like hovering in place. I looked around to see some shards of what I had assumed was white flooring resting on what appeared to be nothing.

At that point, I was sore again and done with whatever just happened to me. I started to think to myself in an attempt to break the dream away.

"I hate the start-up to a dream sometimes. It's always hard to keep track. That almost felt real." It was a disjointed thought. It was meant to be nothing more than ammo to wake me up. The only issue was it didn't work.

The cool chill of fear washed over my body. I'd never managed to stay in a lucid dream and have a proper, conscious thought. I quickly looked around to see what is best described as nothing: a barren realm of random light and what looked like dust that appeared to have no meaning.

"What is this? Am I still dreaming? That doesn't make sense! I didn't fall into some type of coma, did I? Is lucid dreaming bad for ponies or something!?" My panicked voice echoed into the random space.

I shook my head and struggled to get down to the non-existent ground that the shards were lying on. I only managed to look really silly as I tried to paddle and roll my way down. I was left hovering in place and spinning around slowly.

"This, whatever this is, sucks," I said to the world at large.

After a while, I advanced to spinning around and looking pissed off with my forelegs folded. Luckily for me, things didn't stay as boring. I can't say when it started, but slowly I started to get the feeling like I was being watched. I looked for the offending observer, but I could find no one. At least until my random spinning managed to point my view in the general direction of “up”.

It was far away, and hard to make out, but in this random world of nothingness I saw a moon. I stared at it and in return I received this odd feeling of concern.

I blinked a few times and then rolled my eyes. Why would a rock be concerned? At least I felt like I was in a dream again.

"Okay, yeah, don't worry. I totally have this," I said, even though I totally didn't have it.

I did my best to relax and stop my spinning. This managed to bring my rotation to a slow halt. I then started to try and get myself down from the hovering position. Instead, I sent myself spinning in place again, but much faster than before.

I was getting desperate, and it was in that desperation I had a crazy idea. I tried to imagine myself held up by strings, like a marionette which would soon be cut loose and fall to the floor. In this dream-like state, my attempts worked. I fell from the air and onto the white shards that lay below me. I didn't expect them to be like glass for some reason. They disagreed.

After a lot of cursing and pulling glass out of myself, I started to explore. The moon never left its position in the sky while I was doing so. Its state never changed, always providing a constant sensation of unease. I walked for a long time, wading through the concerned feelings that pressed down on me. I tried a few times to tell myself, and the moon, that I was not totally lost, but I think we both knew the truth. I had started to wish it would be more useful than just sending worried feelings at me when suddenly the feeling violently transformed into full blown panic, like someone was screaming at me to run.

I looked around only to see more of the empty expanse. I was getting really sick of it. Nothing, nothing, and more nothing was all there was to see. I had tried to perform some minor control techniques with the dream, but nothing was working.

"Look, moon! If you want to warn me about something, can you try to be more specific!? I can't seem to control my own dream for some reason and nothing about this whole experience feels right! Why am I allowed to think suddenly? Why does stuff hurt, and better yet, why am I not waking up?! Do you have an answer to any of that? Didn't think so!" I ranted off into the void. I was getting really sick of being stuck in this void when it had already been a stressful day.

A smooth voice cut the silence to answer me. It spoke calmly and deliberately to deliver its chilling message to my ears. "Why, that's easy my friend. You're dead."

Dreams and Mirrors

It took a few seconds for my brain to process what the voice had said, and after it managed to catch up I groaned. Nothing in the history of time calls itself 'friend' and then in the same breath tells you that you're dead. Unless they're a liar on both accounts.

I turned to face the source expecting to see something, like another pony or even a human, hardly knowing what to expect. What I saw instead could only be described a blank spot in my vision, something that I could only see because of its complete visual absence. I could only stare for a moment before being forced to turn my eyes away due to a building headache.

Laughter rang out after I turned away. "Ah, sorry friend. I will say that was my mistake."

I rolled my eyes and tried to glance at it again. What I found was a human dressed in a suit vest looking a little too smooth or sharp for his own good. Though to be fair, he could have been the most casual, harmless person ever and it would have scored him no points after that introduction.

"Alright, so I can see you now. Mind telling me who you are?" I asked, slightly annoyed. I didn't know who or what that person was, but I found everything about him suspect.

"I am simply a traveler and observer, with no names yet to provide but offering services of observation and identification to the poor, lost people around me." His voice expressed chapters more than he was willing to tell. I didn't know what he wanted.

“You offer services of observation in a void of light and what I assume is dust? Wow, you have chosen the worst job," I mimicked his obviously overly polite tone.

He gave me an unamused look as I smirked at him. I waited for a moment to see if he had a response, but I received none. I turned away from him at that point and started my hunt once again for an exit.

"Hoping to find something? It's an expanse of corridors in a near-featureless plane leading to places of nonsense," I think he was trying to say there was nothing nearby, and for that he was not totally wrong. Though I was not going to let him know that I was completely lost.

“Nonsense is still better than the nothing I’ve seen up until this point," was the best deflective answer I had. What I really needed to do was get the topic off me, and for that I had an idea. "Hey, you know, the moon really doesn’t like you. That might sound crazy, but it’s not... apparently. So, unless you have something useful like a map... can you just go? Because it basically yelling for me to run away and it's getting really annoying,” I told him. The moon itself hadn't stopped its full blown panic attack. I was able to tune it out, but that guy was grating on me considerably as well.

“You’re going to form your opinions off of the advice of inanimate objects? Of course you are. It can’t talk. It can’t argue. Greater odds of getting the truth from it, right? But that’s instinct. It cannot analyze a situation. And that’s simply assuming it’s not another construct of this place. Perhaps everything is just a projection of you and your feelings.”

I don't know if he meant to insult me or not. One second he was saying that it’s a featureless plane of nonsense, then he goes and says it's a projection of me. It was clear to me then that he was playing some sort of game.

"Nah, I just don't trust people I don't know calling me ‘friend’. As for this place being a projection of my feelings? Not seeing it. As you said it's featureless. I think I have more personality than that," I shoot him a cocksure grin. "I think you're just trying to mess with me, and it's not really working. So in that vein, I think it's time for you to leave."

“Eternity is a long time to be alone. Besides… where would you like me to go?” it stated, gesturing to the void around it. “There’s nothing.”

"Why would I care? Pick a direction and start walking. Maybe you can improve your sales pitch while you're doing that. You currently suck at whatever it is that you're trying to do." I said back to him while I continued my own walk.

I walked for a little bit only to hear footsteps behind me. I was about to tell him to stop following me, but something in my brain clicked. I did tell him to pick a direction. So he clearly chose the direction I was walking in.

“I’m not selling a thing. Not yet. I’m simply peddling in realities. But here, how about this: Tell me what you think of this place, what you see.”

I slammed my hoof into the ground and turned to him. "You cheeky motherfucker. Look, I get it, you're a clever, smooth, dream something or another, but really you are only managing to piss me off. This day has not been a good one and you are only trying to make it worse."

The creaking that came from under me was the clear indicator of a huge mistake.

“Question: How well do those wings work?” He asked in a tone that made it damn apparent that he knew the answer.

The floor gave way to the familiar feeling of falling into a void, and it was truly was déjà vu when I saw the white floor once again rushing up to say hello.

I didn't have time to react. I slammed into the white floor and felt it shatter it around me. After that, all I saw was darkness. I flailed around... and fell right out of my bed and onto the hard floor.

With some “ugh”s and “ow”s, I quickly tried to stand up after a brief stay on the ground only to find myself wrapped up in my own blankets like some type of bat pony burrito.

At first I calmly tried to remove myself from the blankets. When that failed, I frantically struggled against them in a building panic. I always hate when I'm not able to move my limbs. It's like all logic and reason go on vacation, but my blind panic eventually caused me to roll out of the blanket, and I was freed.

I was shaking from the whole 'trapped' feeling for a while. After a few deep breaths I was thankful that no one had been around to see that little episode.

I kicked the junk on my floor out of the way and made my way to the bathtub, and then offered a silent thank-you to whatever god felt like listening for the water still working. I briefly thought about my dream while I stared at the tiled bathroom wall, but then wrote most of it off as a sort of nightmare that got way too weird and out of hand. After a good soak I was back at my computer.

It was 4 pm when I started to look over my backups. I had a lot of useful stuff, but it was nothing that hundreds--or at least what I hoped was hundreds--of people wouldn't think to grab as well. Expect maybe the vet stuff. Most people likely thought to go get human Medical info and supplies.

It was then when a new idea hit me. Veterinary supplies. I made a quick prayer to the giant flying spaghetti monster that holds dominion over the internet and checked to see if I could get online. Thankfully the internet was still active and so I navigated over to Google Maps.

It turns out if you ask for 'veterinary supplies' you get a countless amount of hits in your area on google maps. I tried to add ‘equine’ or ‘horse’ to the search only for it to show me one place that was deep within LA. I backed up and tried 'equine veterinary', which gave much better results all around. While nothing, oddly, was showing up in my town, there were a few places en route to Las Vegas that I could visit. I took quick screen captures and printed out the maps of the areas leading to them, along with some basic 'from the highway' directions.

After that map was all printed out and stowed away I began to milk Google Maps for all it was worth. Routes to Las Vegas and Colorado Springs. Places in Colorado Springs. Supply stores, shopping centers, veterinary and normal hospitals. Anything that we could use once we got there. I saved it and printed it.

I was still printing maps when I noticed that my next search never came onscreen. At first I was hoping that it was my internet connection being unstable... but I heard the distinctive click that my router liked to make when it disconnected.

It was likely gone. Just like that, no fanfare, outcry, or rioting. Just 'click' and the internet was gone. The thing that had been the cornerstone of my life and career was gone. There may have been some places still connected, but I would never find them before the same fate befell them. After a small moment of silence to give honor to the greatest invention of mankind, I lamely got out of my chair. I couldn't really do anything else on my computer now that it was cut off from the world.

I gave my whole body a good stretch, feeling it pop and crack in places that I never felt before, primarily my wings. I shivered at the sensation of it all. Becoming ‘something else' was such an overwhelming thing to think about. I had been putting off any introspection about it in depth because I had things I could do to keep my mind off it.

That had changed. I was awake, the internet was dead, and it was still too bright out to go out and get more work done. The only thing I had to do was face the music--or mirror, in this case.

No matter how much walking around or other activities you do in a new body, it's not going to lessen the unease you feel when you see 'something else’ in a mirror, to see a small pony thing raise its hoof and press it to the mirror's glass when you should see a hand.

“You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?” I managed to hold a straight face for four whole seconds before bursting out in uncontrollable laughter. It was funny! Most people would be REALLY upset at becoming a pony-alien-thing, and yet the thing I was most upset about was that I didn't think to say that quote to my friends.

I gave my new body a once-over and confirmed some things I already knew before sitting in front of the mirror again. This is the part where, if it was a movie, the poor transformed human would break down and start crying, maybe start banging on the mirror for good measure, but I didn't have it in me. I sat there with a huge smile on my face. It was something new. A whole new body. New experiences, new appendages, new things to learn and master. I could wag my tail--I HAD a tail--I could spread my wings--I HAD wings! I could deal with this... no, better. I could thrive with this.

I stood up and gave myself a confident grin. The world had been turned upside down. This was a chance to rewrite everything, even ourselves if we wanted. I was going to make the most of it.

With new energy and determination I turned my attention away from the mirror. I needed to start getting ready for when I could get out of the house. Getting out of town was something I had to do as soon as possible. Without people, this place was basically a waterless desert. With super common fires and the fact this is a valley, you get what I like to call the flaming cauldron of death. I refused to be here longer than I needed.

I already had food figured out, and the store had tons of bottled water that I could take with me. The only thing I didn't have figured out at the time was transportation for getting around and out of the valley. There was no way I could walk out: the mountains and the heat prevented that course of action.

I got geared up and called Cotton to my side. I felt kinda bad for leaving her behind that last time. No one was home, and a lone pony traveling an empty city with their dog sounded cooler than being entirely on my own. Cotton and I headed down to the mall first, since it was close by and I knew they had golf carts. To be honest I had no idea how I was going to drive the golf cart once I got to it, but I knew I didn't want to walk around the valley.

The walk to the mall was creepy. Traffic was always a bit of an issue in my town, but there was not a single car on the road and only a few scattered around the parking lots. Thankfully I didn't need to deal with the uncanniness of it for long. The mall was barely a 10-minute walk without the need to stop at crosswalks.

I arrived at the totally empty parking structure only to be massively annoyed. The spot that normally held the golf carts was vacant.

"Nothing can ever go smoothly, can it?” Cotton didn't let my bad mood stay as she came up brushed her head under mine. I let out a sigh and used one of my wings to pet down her back.

Golf carts were still the plan and I hoped that they were somewhere in the mall area. But where had they gone? The first place to check was the Sears on the other side of the parking structure. Unfortunately, I found the place locked from every angle I could try to get at it. Even the loading bays were all closed up. It was like the building was trying to cosplay as Fort Knox.

As a person who liked to go where they were not supposed to,I knew my way around the inner parts of the mall, which included the maintenance corridors. All I needed was a way into the inner part of the mall, but no doors were left unlocked or opened.

But then I noticed an oddly parked truck. The truck itself was parked on one of the streets that encircled the mall itself. It had been left plainly in violation of a red zone, but that wasn’t what grabbed my attention. Instead, I gazed at the door it was parked next to.

The door was hanging open. It was a bit bent and didn't even look like it would be able to close correctly anymore. Although I was confused at how it had happened, I had found my way in.

Author's Note

Artwork by: http://neonnoble.tumblr.com/tagged/NeonArt

Two Horse Town

Author's Note

It's been a long time. I really don't have a reason for how long this took for me to get back to. Life got kinda chaotic then got even more chaotic, but I am back.

Perspective change noted in this chapter, and will continue to be in third person from this point forward. Sorry about that. I was trying to do something with this story in first person, but it was just causing more issues for the story.

Artwork by: http://neonnoble.tumblr.com/tagged/NeonArt

Two Horse Town

A security computer was the only light to be found in a dark room deep within the fire hazard of the mall’s employee hallway system. A lone bat pony and her dog watched as the day’s security feed played back footage from May 23rd.

The original plan was to find where the golf carts had disappeared to, but the allure of answers was too great to ignore once that objective had been finished. She knew someone had come to the mall on the night of the great de-handening. Their reasons for doing so were likely less than lawful, but that really didn't matter anymore.

Only a few minutes after they started looking did they find the time stamp they needed. At 3:14 AM on the 24th of May, four people suddenly disappeared from the security cams view. The pony’s ear noticeably twitched as she started to scan the cam feeds that faced the street at the time, though with no luck.

"It was way too late for there to be a lot of drivers... DAMN IT! This tells me NOTHING. One frame there, one frame GONE!" she yelled as she slammed a hoof into the table.

She allowed her chair to spin in place as she started to think. 'I don't think God would kick the rapture off at pi o’clock. That's a bit too funny. Then what the hell happened? And how do pony-like aliens fit into it all?'

She did a small, unsuccessful hop off the chair to land flat on the ground. She hastily picked herself up and started to head to the door.

"Well, the answers aren't here. Come on Cotton, let's find a golf cart and get out of--" Her command was lost to a distinctive “pop” sound that echoed into the room from the mall proper.

The event made the pony jump in their skin. The place had been deathly silent for a good while. Guesswork behind the sound started to race through her mind.

'Speakers turning on. Pipes clearing air out of the system. The souls of the damned trying to communicate... Most likely nothing to worry about...'

Before she could carry on with her mission, a shriek punctured the silence. While the pony stood frozen for a moment, her dog was quicker to react. Cotton took off, barking all the way towards the sound.

Watching her dog race deeper into the mall snapped the pony back to her wits, and she gave chase.

"Cotton! Get back here!" She hissed.

Cotton had no desire to follow her instructions, however. She proceeded to run with her pony owner lagging further behind.

She rounded the corner and managed to escape the hallway’s labyrinthian walls to see her dog growling at another pony lying on the ground, huddled up as best they can, covering their head. They were lying next to a large backpack and a harshly bright lantern, which allowed the bat pony to notice a pair of feathered wings tucked close to their body.

"Cotton! Get over here NOW!" She yelled sharply, spicing her voice with some anger and stomping her front hoof into the tiled floor.

Cotton, to both ponies’ relief, lowered her head and quickly retreated behind her owner.

Hiccups and sobs choked up from the light blue pony in her corner on the floor, mumbles that would have been hard for most to hear at that distance. ‘Didn’t want this’ and ‘Please don’t hurt me’ were some of the words interspersed between the noises she made.

After making sure Cotton was relaxing at her side, the bat pony turned to the mumbling person on the ground. “I’m really sure Cotton wouldn’t hurt you. She is 100% bark and no bite. So... you can chill a bit.”

She finally managed to make her unfold from the corner, looking up and back at the pony behind her. Her eyes traced their way to the voice, “L-look, I’ll surrender, just don’t… don’t…” Her eyes locked onto the person behind her, and she pushed up against the wall. “S-sweet fuck, what are you!?”

The bat pony considered her answer carefully while looking over the pony. It reminded her of the mythical Pegasus. “A Halloween knockoff of whatever you are,” she answered with a smirk. “As for surrendering, I think that would be a bit pointless considering the details of today.”

Words were mouthed, but nothing came out for a moment. “I-- That’s not-- You’re not helping! This is terrible! What the hell is going on!? Stop toying with me!” Her accusatory gesture would have probably been more dramatic had it not merely looked like she was holding her own hoof out in front of herself.

“We might look like a child’s toys, but I am not toying with you,” the bat pony answered with a shrug. “That was the best answer I could come up with.”

“That’s… But-- I can’t. This-- This isn’t right. I’m not this thing. I don’t even know what this thing is. All I want-- uh, I--” The pony stopped and scrambled for more words, but came up empty this time.

“Yeah, it’s not right, I will give you that one,” she empathized with a slight sigh. “But with that said, you’re a hundred times better off than I was. I woke up alone.”

She looked around, back at her sack in the corner, then to the shape in the shadows, quivering as she thought back. “I don’t remember sleeping. There was-- I saw everything go white and… This. It just… Happened?” She began to shudder more as she thought on it. “I’m-- Do I really look like you? Do I look that, uh, creepy?”

The bat pony gave a shake of her head before her response. “No. That said, I don’t think I look that bad, but I think the shadows are doing me wonders on the scary front. Look, let’s move this to a room with better lighting, because I’m going to assume you’re not seeing what I am seeing.”

“How do you move, I mean, I thought-- um… It-- nothing works right. I can’t use my phone, these tools are all useless, I-- I’m useless.”

“Tch, nothing is useless, but you will need to fall on your face a lot before you start walking. I have had at least 50 meetings with the ground over you, and I still suck at walking... Let me go get a flat cart to push you around in.” Her set of hooves echoed through the mall as she made her way to back the employee corridor, dog in tow.

It was quiet for the new pony, left alone in the dark with just a small lantern. She could hear muffled talking from the darkness and a few crashes before a loud rolling sound approached her. “This place was going to kill people with that hallway one day.”

It didn’t take but a few minutes to get back to the security office. The most the bat pony could do was turn on the light for the pegasus and let them see the extent of the damage. She left her there on the cart while getting the computer ready to show what she had managed to find. “I don’t have much in the way of answers for you. I can tell you that the city was empty and I haven't been able to get a hold of anyone save a few friends, but everything shut down a few hours ago, so I lost contact.”

Gears were turning. There was perhaps a moment where fear managed to take a passenger's seat as the new pony tried to make sense of the situation. Confusion lit up instead, facts no longer lining up for her. “No, that can’t be right… I was just online before you, uh… found me. It can’t have been more than an hour.”

The bat pony answered with a few clicks of a mouse to enlarge a video. “Had a feeling that would be your story after you told me what you remembered. This next part might be a bit hard to digest, but it’s been a few days since you saw that white flash. I’ve got the proof right here for you.”

Silence.

There was nothing anyone could say to that, no words to deny it and no fact to disprove it. There she was, 3 feet shorter and on all fours, and even the vaguest hope that there might be help out there looked out of her reach. This was what it was, this was reality. The efforts of the night before were pointless. Maybe everything before. She sat in shock for a few minutes before speaking up again.

It was a hollow chuckle that broke her silence. “I g-guess I d-don’t have to w-worry about getting in trouble for all this. There’s… How many people are left out there? How many of us are there? You didn’t make it sound like a lot.”

“I have no way of knowing, and no, I don’t think you have THAT to worry about,” she agreed, giving a weak smile. “Look, things are... not great, but me and my friends have a plan and we are good at coming up with plans. You can, and should, come with me.”

There was no reason to lie, no reason for trickery. There was no point to it. Not with both of them like this. It took the bat pony enough time to get here that they seemed nearly as bad off. Everyone was gone. Even then, there was hesitance, because the only reason she could think of was because this other person was all she had right now. “Fine… For now.”

“Heh, okay-- for now. So my plan was to get a golf cart from here. That plan has not changed since I don’t want to push you around everywhere,” she said, looking down at the pegasus. “That said, what do you want me to call you?”

"Learning to walk needs to happen sooner, not later." She looked down at the ground and gave it a frustrated stare. She had softened her glare before returning her gaze to the bat pony. "My name is Jessie."

"Your name is Jessie? And you're a cat burglar?" the bat pony inquired with a smile slowly creeping on her face.

"Do I want to know why you’re asking that?" Her softer stare had become one that more represented daggers.

The bat pony blinked and repressed her smile. "Oh, uh, no reason. Anyways, if you want to learn to walk, it might be better for me to get you outside. The lights are still on out there and you will have some more space out on the grass patches."

Jessie maintained her stare for a while longer before deciding to speak. "Why are you taking this all so easily? From the moment you met me, you've been trying to be funny or in some form of good spirits. It doesn't make any sense and it’s a little unsettling."

The bat pony gave a little shrug. "Panic isn't something I do. I seem to rise to the occasion more than fall down to base instincts... Or it could also be that I watched a lot of Animorphs as a kid? It's really anyone's guess."

"I-- why-- no, you know what, that type of answer is all I should expect from you, I guess," Jessie grumbled with a slight hint of annoyance. "Doesn't matter. What's your name anyways? You never told me."

"Didn't tell you because you didn't ask... and I didn't have a good answer," The bat pony answered while getting ready to push the cart that Jessie rested on. "Can't really say I am that same person."

Jessie rolled her eyes. "Of course you wouldn't have a simple answer. Everything is vague, stupid, silly, or nonsense with you, isn't it?"

“Well, I can explain that one a bit. This is an interesting chance at something: new bodies, new world, and a new perspective. I want to be able to define myself as something more. I haven’t come up with a name I want to use yet.”

The endeavor of getting Jessie outside didn't take too long, though navigating the mostly blocked up hallways was a chore for one of them. After they reached the outside, a small grassy area was only a few feet away.

"This will have to do. I wish I could offer some good advice, but I'm working off of forced muscle memory as it is," the bat pony lamented.

Jessie gave a few nods. "Right, I'm sure I can figure it out. A few years of gymnastics training has to be useful in this somehow."

"Gymnastics? Huh, that's neat. I will leave you to that, then, while I go find a golf cart," she began as she walked off. "Try not to wander too far without me!"

"That's really not funny!" Jessie shouted.

Jessie was left alone with her wobbly steps. Years of finely tuned balance and body control had been stolen from them in an instant. Her sole hope that it was all a dream was dashed after the dull pain of her first collision with the ground.

She was well onto her fourth attempt when her focus was shattered by a sudden banging sound echoing into the night sky. It sounded like a few good hits before it was replaced by the sounds of an electric motor.

It didn't take too long for the motor to reach Jessie. The bat pony was driving a golf cart to her, her dog panting happily in the passenger seat. She was operating a speed level with one hoof, with the other hooked around a spoke on the steering wheel.

"We got super lucky! They had these things chained up with a master lock," the bat pony beamed like it was some huge victory.

"Wooo-hoo?" Jessie offered.

"It's going to help us get across town to an RV dealership. The meetup point for my friends is kinda far, and I have a lot of stuff that needs to be packed for the ride," the bat pony explained.

Jessie stared at them for a moment. "Okay, so how do you plan on driving an RV? That's not an 'oh I will just go and do this' skill, to say nothing of your current state. Unless you forgot that you’re kinda short and don't have hands?"

The bat pony tapped her hooves together for a second. “Well, I do have a couple of hours driving large trucks and camper trailers... The roads are also super empty, so it's not THAT big of a deal. As for being short, I was kinda hoping that Camping World would have a hand pedal adapter kit," she explained through a small smile.

"What, you mean like the stuff paralyzed people use? Hell no, Camping World isn't going to have that type of shit. Heck, you would be lucky if Sears had anything like that." Jessie quickly countered.

The bat pony's ears flopped down for a moment as her victory was stolen away. Her disappointment didn't last long as she soon got an idea. "Sears, huh? There is a Sears in this mall."

Jessie shot her a questioning look. "Yeah? So what, the place is locked up tighter than a rhino's ass."

"Yeah, but you and your friends were going to break into the stores right? You should have a--" the bat pony didn't even get to finish before Jessie cut her off.

"No, we had a way into a FEW stores," Jessie chided, "which we cased and had inside help for. I don't have anything for Sears."

"Well then, does your friend’s truck have a gas can anywhere?" The bat pony inquired with a smirk.

"It's my truck, and yes, you don't have a getaway ride without a few gas cans ready. Why?"

The smirk bloomed into a sly grin. "Well then, isn't that lucky."

Acceptance may vary

"No," Jessie responded flatly.

"What do you mean 'no'? It's the perfect plan to get inside," Bat Pony asked.

Jessie sighed and covered her face with a hoof. "You are not using my truck as a battering ram. It's a stupid idea, and it's likely to get us hurt... or killed."

"Nah, we could rig something up to the pedal. We don't need to be IN the truck," Bat Pony countered.

"THAT is not even half of what's wrong with this idea. How detached from reality do you have to be to even think of that?" Jessie asked.

"That is hardly a fair question, and I don't see you coming up with any better ideas," said the Bat pony.

"That's because I'm still in shock and not one hundred percent convinced this isn’t a really strange dream! Look, let me think about all this. Give me a day. I'm sure I can come up with anything better than trashing my truck," said Jessie, exhaustion laced into her voice.

Jessie watched as the Bat Pony gave out a sigh. "Fine, fine. We can take a day. An extra pair of... hands? Hooves? Whatever-- it will likely put me ahead of where I wanted to be in the time frame anyways."

"What time frame? You don't trust your friends will wait for you?" Jessie asked.

The Bat pony shook her head in response. "Nah, they would wait a long time for me. It's more of an issue of WHEN a fire starts and this valley turns into a flaming cauldron of death. I don't want to be here when that happens."

"You sound really sure about that," Jessie said.

"It's California! Fires normally break out around here," The bat pony said.

It took them some struggling to get Jessie into the golf cart, but they managed.

Jessie watched as the bat pony awkwardly got into the driver seat. The dog that had been overly hostile at first was shying away from Jessie, but still got into the cart.

Jessie looked around at the dead streets and let out a sigh. "This is all too strange."

The bat pony gave her a slight grin. "Strange, yes, but ultimately something we can deal with."

"I really wish I had your optimism. You know, I still need something to call you. Saying 'hey you' or 'hey bat-horse' doesn’t cut it," Jessie said.

"Okay, okay, jeez. I guess you can call me ‘Light’ until I think of a more formal name," Light said, caving into the demand for a title.

The drive was short, perhaps one or maybe two city blocks, before they then pulled up to the entrance of a gated community.

"A gated community? Never got why these made people feel safer," Jessie said as they bypassed the entrance.

"Same. You used to be able to wait outside the gate for someone else to pull in if you wanted to. Kinda pointless when you really got down to it. Anyways, time for the real challenge. I live upstairs." Light grinned.

Jessie stared incredulously. "You're joking right?"

As if to answer, Cotton suddenly jumped from the golf cart and bounded up the stairs.

"Nope, it's right up there," she made a pointing gesture. "The stairs are not SO bad, but I suggest slow movements, and knowing if you need to stop and lay on a step."

"You are going to get me killed, I know it," Jessie groaned.

"Oh, don't be so dramatic!" Light exclaimed as she slowly ascended the stairs.

Jessie gestured recklessly at Light, and nearly falling over. "I'M being dramatic!? Honestly, you’re not being dramatic ENOUGH! You turn into a Halloween costume and then you act like you’re not even phased!?"

"Eh, my personal issues are lower on the list of worries right now. I have some friends out there dealing with the same-ish stuff," Light said.

Jessie stared at the stairs and the pony at the top of them."That's... not a normal way to look at a situation like this."

The bat pony gave Jessie a half shrug from the top of the staircase. "It's how I am. Anyways, take it slow and you should be fine."

Jessie had never looked at stairs with so much fear. "Yeah, look, I think I need to practice before trying to walk up stairs. I don't know if you can tend to a head injury, and I don't want to find out."

Light gave them a nod. "Sure sure, you do that. I'm going to cook one of the frozen pizzas we got. I don't know if the power grid will hold overnight. Don't want them to go to waste. Call out if you want any help! I'll leave the door open."

As Light left her to her own devices, Jessie briefly contemplated ditching the clearly crazy pony. From wanting to use her truck as a battering ram to planning to steal an RV, everything Light had said was tinged with delusions of grandeur.

She continued to mill it over as she took some uneasy steps around the apartment's streets.

"Where else would I go? Crazy or not, she seems to have made plans to be somewhere with more people... and there is safety in numbers," Jessie sighed. She was stuck, but maybe she could keep Light from getting both of them killed.

Jessie practiced for more than an hour, and while she had walking slowly and stumbling on lock, any type of grace was optimistically days out.

Not wanting to stay outside all night, she made uneasy progress to the stairs and gave them a dreaded once over before making her way up. They weren’t too tall and were situated between two walls, but the narrow enclosure did nothing to make the empty space underneath each step any less frightening. Despite this, Jessie was doing well until she neared the top of Stairs Mountain.

As Jessie approached the summit she was hit by a horrid smell. Unprepared for it, she gagged and nearly lost her footing, but managed at the last second to wrap her legs around a stair instead of taking a nasty fall.

Jessie pulled herself up, trying only to breathe with her mouth. She made her way to the door, where the smell only got stronger.

She saw Light doing her best to eat slices of pizza while the TV provided background noise.

"What EARTH is that smell!? It's horrid!" Jessie yelled, trying to use talking as an excuse to not breathe.

"Hm? I only smell the pizza. Well, mostly the pepperoni. I will give you that-- it smells and tastes a bit off from what it used to. Though, nothing I would call horrid..." Light said in between bites. Her face was covered in sauce.

"A bit off!? It smells like something crawled on your pizza, died, and is now rotten!" Jessie shouted, trying not to throw up.

"Well, I can totally take this outside if you want me to eat the half I saved for you as well," Light said with a beaming smile.

"What? Yeah, sure, fine, just turn on a fan or anything else to air this place out!" Jessie said.

Light took their plate and the remaining pizza into their mouth and withdrew outside. Jessie went on to locate the oven fan, and central house fan in order to remove the stench from the apartment.

It didn't take too long for the smell to vent out of the apartment. Jessie found herself with little else to do since her current company was busy eating.

The apartment was decorated in a cozy fashion. Trips to Home Goods and the like were evident in the place. Family pictures were displayed prominently. Most featured an older son, and a younger daughter just out of junior high.

Jessie heart sank. "Ah, jeez... no wonder the change is the least of her worries. Her kids vanished."

She looked towards the outside patio where her host was still munching on slices of pizza. How she managed to cut it eluded her.

Jessie drifted towards the door, unwilling to venture too close to the toxic-smelling food product.

"Hey, look... I think I owe you a bit of an apology," Jessie said, turning Light's attention away from their pizza. "I didn't know what you were going through. I guess when you rack up the chips, losing your body is nothing compared to your kids not being there when you woke up."

Jessie had expected a heavy-hearted sigh or some sort of statement of acceptance. Not the violent choking and spitting of small food bits.

"Gah! What!? No, how did you... oh the pictures!? That makes sense, but no! No, no, no. That's my mother with us in the pictures! I am NOT her," Light said while she gasped for air.

Jessie looked at her confused for a moment. 'The daughter?' She thought to herself. "Wait, how old are you?"

"What? I'm 25, why?" Light said clearing their throat from the hostile pizza invasion.

"You... look a lot younger in the pictures is all. I'm guessing they were a few years ago. You... don't seem like you're in junior high," Jessie pondered aloud, slightly embarrassed about the mistaken identity.

"What? Oh, you mean my sister? Not her either." Light said as she nibbled on a new slice of pizza.

Light watched as the gears turned in Jessie's head. The whole event had amused them to some degree. No point in hiding details.

"Wait, but that would mean you're the... son? Jessie asked.

"Yep! Or daughter now, I guess. Hell if I know. Pronouns are really hard. I mean Tumblr would say you get to pick your own pronouns. Other people disagree. Personally? I don't care," Light said as the pizza continued to be nibbled on.

Jessie opened her mouth only to slowly close it. "I’m not dealing with this right now. I'm going to bed and hoping this is some type of taser-induced nightmare. I never thought I would want to wake up in a jail cell!"

Light watched as Jessie retreated back into the apartment and gave a shrug. Too much needed to be thought about. Tomorrow, they needed to find a good way to get more supplies and transport out of town.

"It's going to be interesting," Light said to herself.

Roof Top Meetings

Jessie stared at the driver's wheel, allowing the first moment of relaxation she's had in four days wash over her.

Her idea to get into Sears without the use of a battering ram worked, but what she hadn't planned for was the consequences of giving her crazy partner the actual key to the city. Once they had access to the police department’s master keys, everything fell into place.

Sears was only the start once they could open any storefront they wanted to. Now she sat at the helm of a fully stocked RV, complete with towed storage pod.

Light's ideas ranged from solid to downright insane. On one hand, she wanted to jury rig a sound system to the storage pod so they could drive around and attract any other survivors. On the other hand, she also wanted to go to six flags to ride Ninja one last time. Thankfully, Jessie vetoed that.

Jessie glanced at the side mirror to see Light still wiring up the sound system in the Best Buy parking lot. She had her doubts about the stability of it, but it wasn't like it was going to cause a traffic incident--the upside of no more cars being on the road.

This little system was the last thing they had to do in town. They had gathered supplies, some personal effects, and some things Jessie alone felt to be pointless, like raiding a restaurant for its recipes. She tried to apply sense to it, but Light stated she was not going to leave the best pizza ever invented to be lost. For someone that wanted to leave town in a hurry, Light had odd priorities.

Jessie’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the RV’s door being swung open and Light making her way up the stairs. "AND IT IS DONE!" Light proudly proclaimed.

"You sure it's going to hold up? Not to question your craftsmanship, but it's just you don't have hands. I don't know how you were using the drill I heard back there. I was honestly too scared to look," Jessie said with an eyebrow raised.

"No idea!" Light said as she took a seat. "The only way we will find out is to test it. A drive around the city before we leave will give us that chance. We might find someone else before we leave."

Jessie gave a sigh of resignation. "You know how to fill everyone around you with confidence, Light."

Light flashed back a smirk as they started to drive off.

Jessie drove around the town to give the system a good test run. After a few bumps and parking lot entrances, she was forced to give Light some credit. It hadn't fallen apart at the slightest bit of stress. Whether it was going to remain in one piece remained to be seen.

They spent a few hours stopping in major locations around town to blast a bit of music and some announcements in hopes that someone would show up.

They gave each spot as much time as they thought would matter, though they both started towards the freeway disappointed.

"I can't honestly think that we are the only two here!" Jessie said in frustration.

"Yeah I get that, but if anyone was here I think we would have found them. We've been trying this for the better part of a full day now. We announced where we are going and left posters at major stores. If someone somehow managed to miss us... they will have to catch up. We did them the service of leaving a lot of places unlocked," Light said trying her best to ease Jessie's mood.

Jessie rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't call six stores ‘a lot’. That said, I already know we can't just stick around here. It’s just... I thought we would find someone."

They were both quiet as they made their way onto the freeway. Jessie was at first thankful for the uncharacteristic silence from Light, but after 20 minutes on the freeway, it started to get a bit worrying. Light, for her part, stared out the side window as if looking into a different world.

"You trying to break your own record for least words said in an hour?" Jessie teased.

Light didn't respond right away. After a few more moments of total silence, she took a deep breath and let out a sigh. "Nothing like that. I'd been able to keep myself busy until now. It's hard to adjust when everything changes so suddenly. Family is gone, body is all changed, and nothing will be the same ever again. Every time I drift into a daydream I have to readjust to WHAT reality is when I come out of it. Basically, everything is perfectly normal for the given situation. Just letting my mind wander on everything."

Jessie's brain had to process what was just said to her. "Oooookay, that's the first time I've heard you not taking all this in stride. Good to see that you really are human in there after all. A bit surprising."

Light rolled her eyes and gave a smirk. "Eh, I just handle it better than most normal people likely do or will. You can't really avoid the whole thing messing with your head when you don't have anything to do but watch the road go by. Everything that was normal is gone."

"I suppose that is fair," Jessie said. "Anyways, I've looked at the route you've got for us and I have to ask: Are you sure we are going to have to gas for this?"

"To be honest, no. I was being a bit optimistic when I printed that route and had a flawed assumption that most gas stations would have a backup power system. I've been mentally debating skipping the supply runs I had in mind and just doing a mad dash to Vegas. That said, we will need to fuel up once we get there somehow. That might be a puzzle still." Light said with a yawn. "I also feel like I'm about to pass out. Which is fun."

Jessie shot them a quick look. "What? Didn't you sleep last night?"

"Not... really. I was feeling super wired, and the ideas were flowing. I may have hit up some more stores on my own with the golf cart." Light let out another yawn. "I've pulled 24 hours before, but now that the Sun’s really started to come out, I've felt like shit. I just didn't want to leave you alone for the drive."

Jessie groaned and glared at the road in annoyance. "Go in the back and crash in the bed for a few hours. We'll skip the stops and head into Vegas... maybe we can fuel up in Barstow. There are always a few trucks parked there overnight."

Light looked back at the bed and could almost hear it calling to them. "Are you sure? I mean it's a long drive and it's not really cool to just leave yo-"

Light didn't get any further before Jessie cut them off. "My god, you are a massive dork! Just go get some shuteye before you fall asleep in that chair."

Light just shrugged and headed towards the nice bed the RV had, and was quick to bury her head into the pillows that had once rested on her own bed. Their familiar feel and smell provided a slight sense of normalcy.

"Well, not everything," She mumbled as sleep quickly washed over her.

Alone, Jessie drove at her own pace, stopping a few times to let her nerves cool down and to take a snack. Light's route detoured through a few towns, likely the supply runs that she was talking about.

While the supplies were not a huge priority. Jessie still took a slow drive through most the towns with the music blaring. Sadly, no one answered the music’s call.

'I really hope Light's friends exist and she's not crazy because it's starting to feel more and more like we are alone,' Jessie thought to herself while she maneuvered a can of gas rescued from abandoned trucks.

Normally when you drive into Vegas with the Sun going down, it's a wonderful sight. The lights and the energy of the city can be seen from miles around. Jessie didn't see any of that.

The city, normally a shining sea of lights and color, was now just a dark shape on the horizon. The strip itself had turned from a grand presentation to something more resembling an intro scene from a horror game.

Jessie parked right outside Light’s little meeting point, a casino called the Stratosphere and got up to stretch. Her new body was CLEARLY not meant to be sitting in a driving position for 5 or more hours.

As Jessie finished her stretch, she made her way down the steps of the RV. She wondered how long it would take for Light's friend to make it to them.

That’s when she noticed a pony standing a few feet in front of the casino doors. He was dark gray with brown fetlocks and a green mane and tail. It seemed odd that he lacked wings, but in their place, he seemed to be some sort of unicorn?

"Uhhhhh, hi?" Jessie managed to say through the surprise.

“FALLOUT THREE’S MUSIC WAS BETTER!” His shouting sounded angry but in a happy sort of way. He must have thought it was a clever quip.

Jessie just stared at him, totally lost. Was he talking about the music playing from the trailer? She didn't think about it at the time, but the music had taken a slight shift in tone by the 5-hour mark of the playlist.

“Don’t just look at me like you’re not ALSO a horse!”

Jesse blinked.

"Ooookay, so, you're slightly unhinged as well. With that, I can take it that you're Light's friend she wanted to meet here, right?" Jessie asked with an uneasy hoof motion towards the very strange person.

“I wasn’t aware that Lightfox had any friends with uncharacteristically verbose speech patterns!”

"Right, you just wait there. I'm going to wake up Light and you two can be crazy at each other." Jessie carefully backed up and walked into the RV, shutting, and locking, the door behind her. The yelling outside began again, but it was muffled and sounded more irritated now than before.

Jessie quickly made her way to the back of the RV and started to shake Light. "Hey, Light, we are here and we have a slight issue."

Light just rolled over and mumbled something about soda, unaffected by Jessie's attempts to rouse them from slumber.

"NOPE! Not dealing with this!" Jessie shouted as she took the mattress in her mouth and pulled it sideways, sending the slumbering bat pony right onto the floor.

"WAHH--!" Thump.

"Awake? Good. We got to your meeting point, but were you expecting your friend to be here already? Because there is some crazy person outside." Jessie said, letting the mattress drop from her mouth.

"Jeez, there are better ways to wake someone up... Crazy person? Did he say anything about Fallout?" Light asked rubbing her head.

"Yes? How does that have anything to do with anything?" Jessie asked, confused as ever.

"Then it's Neon. I made that playlist so it would play songs from a game called Fallout: New Vegas for about 5 hours. He hates that game’s soundtrack," Light explained, standing up.

"Right, well, he seems a bit unhinged to me," Jessie said with slight unease laced into her words.

"No worries. I will go out and get them to chill. He’s cool once you get to know him," Light said.

Light made her way out the door and down the steps. "Sup Neon. Didn't expect you to be here already. Did you pack anything or just go right here? Jeez."

“It’s not like I had anywhere ELSE to be! ...Aside from the void of crippling depression, anyhow. And to top it all off, now I have to put up with you in-person for… the rest of time? I might as well get a fucking head start!” Although he seemed angry, the unicorn mostly just looked incredibly drained. Light knew the sort of energized exasperation that Neon spoke with very well, and it was in full effect now.

"Dude... how long have you been here? Like we all talked with each other a few days ago. I expected to be waiting on you even with the delays I hit," Light asked.

“It’s been a couple days, my dude. The drive here sucked. The heat sucks. The view sucks. I screwed around in the casinos but there’s nothing to do here without power. There was nothing else for me to do other than to come here.”

"Okay, okay. Well, you don't have to worry about that too much now. How about you go into the RV and take a hot shower because it looks like you've been lacking one. After that, I can get you properly introduced to Jessie and we can come up with a game plan," Light said as she motioned at the RV.

“You have a SHOWER?” The energy previously charging his ridiculous shouts suddenly died away, and he nearly collapsed to the ground. “Oh thank god… Is Jessie that horse I saw earlier, or did you somehow cram a whole party into that RV?”

"No, that's her. Even with that sound setup, I've only found her. It's a long story. Let's get you cleaned up, then we can get into details," Light said while giving Neon a worried look.

Light lead Neon into the RV. A difficult task, as Neon had clearly not worked as hard at coordination with his new form. In assisting him into the RV, however, something strange came to Light’s attention. There was a strange picture on Neon’s side. A pencil with a rainbow-colored line swirling off the tip.

Light wanted to ask about it, but felt it better to let Neon take a shower before harassing him with questions he likely didn’t have the answer to. Anyhow, he seemed too busy being excited to see Cotton to be bothered with questions.

"So you seemed to calm him down a bit," Jessie said while poking her head out from the driver's seat.

Light gave a nod and flopped onto the couch. "Yeah, he was a little high strung from being alone for a few days without power. He should be back to normal after a good shower. Should have seen that coming, in truth. Neon is not the ‘keep busy’ type."

Jessie returned to a laidback position in her chair. "If you say so. I'm glad he also has a crazy name. Lets me really feel like the sane person in this little group."

"That's just what I call him. You can ask for his name properly once he's done in there. Might take a while. Best to just let him decompress,” Light said with a small hoof wave into the air.

"Alright, I guess I can cut him some slack. Being out-" whatever Jessie was about to say was lost to the two loud thumps coming from the roof of the RV.

Jessie braced herself on the steering wheel while Light managed to launch herself from a resting positioning to a few feet in the air.

"Holy fuck what was that!?" Light asked.

Jessie waved from her seat. "Shh for a second and listen," she said motioning up to the roof.

There was a clear sound of something walking up there. For a moment Light considered a huge bird had managed to crash into the roof, or maybe some type of animal managed to jump up there. Until the voices started.

"So what is this thing? You said it was playing that music?" A clearly feminine voice asked.

"Yes. I didn't know what to make of it at first, until it stopped here and somepony came out to greet somepony else," a deeper voice answered back. “It might be some type of carriage.”

“They still in there?” The female voice asked.

“No idea, I broke off to go find you and Clear Sight."

Before they could continue, Light suddenly scrambled up and headed out the door.

"Hey wait! Dang it!" Jessie got up and followed Light outside.

Light busted out the door and quickly looked to the roof. What she saw were two ponies: A light turquoise pegasus with a nearly golden mane and another gray bat pony whose mane was deep purple.

"Question answered," the pegasus said with a grin.

Jessie was soon to follow, easily following Light's gaze. "Uh, hi there... how did you get on the roof?"

The bat pony was about to say something, but the pegasus cut him off. "We landed here, duh." Her voice made it sound like that was the most logical thing ever said.

The bat pony shot her a glare, then rolled his eyes and glided down from the roof as if to give a demonstration. "Yes, we were flying around the city to find any traces of ponies. We were about to give up when you showed up."

"FLY?! I--! But--! We can barely even run yet! Light here might be too stubborn to take things slow but I haven't seen them try to use their wings!" Jessie exclaimed.

Light was silent. Her gaze drifted between the two ponies with a thoughtful expression.

"Honestly, that is harder to explain in a reasonable matter... Which is why we were supposed to be discreet, but my partner doesn't understand the meaning of the word," the bat pony grumbled, giving an annoyed wing gesture to the pegasus.

"Hey, don't blame me! I only said we landed on the roof. You told them we could fly! Discreteness went out the window when the whole freaking city was empty!" she argued.

"Anyways," the bat pony said with a raised voice, "maybe you two can help us. We are here to find a leader of some sort. This was supposed to be a densely populated area. Seeing these castles amidst other buildings, we assumed that we had the right place."

Jessie gave them a confused look. "What, have you never seen Vegas?"

"I don't think they have," Light said as she sat down. "It's also strange they didn't seem to know what an RV is, but that can likely be explained... with some difficulty. Let's wait for their friend to catch up. Then we can all get introductions done."

"Ah, I guess you could hear us in there," The bat pony says motioning to the RV itself.

Light a nod. "Yeah, the stuff you've been saying has raised a few questions. Seeing as you have your own questions maybe we can play a little game!"

The pegasus now looked a little confused. "What type of game?"

"Answers for answers," Light said with a smirk.