Next Stop: Death Centralby DoctorDerpyChaptersSmall Horse SyndromeCanine ConundrumsDash to Safety (Unedited)Small Horse SyndromeChapter One: Small Horse Syndrome (or ‘The Protagonist Falls Over Constantly’) I woke to a pounding headache. For a few minutes I sort of laid there, eyes shut, fighting the nausea which threatened to upchuck my stomach contents. It must have been one hell of a party last night, pity I didn’t seem to remember much of it. I tried to collect my fragmented thoughts together, but right now my memory was indecipherable. Mostly it was blurred colours and shapes. Wow, I did not feel good. It was currently the mid-year holidays for my university friends so I had been living it up as much as possible with them. We'd been partying it up at least once a week, and while I usually had more than my fair share of alcohol it never ended up with this much of a headache. I took a few deep breaths and ever so slowly the urge to throw up lessened. Good, progress! I opened my eyes a crack and winced as I was was forced to close them again. Even the smallest amount of the morning's rays made my head spin. Yeesh, I should cut back on the partying, I thought. My body seemed to be rebelling against my high intake of booze. As the minutes went by I was able to gradually open my eyes without my brain becoming a mental hurricane. Yawning, I sat up and discerned that I was, surprisingly, not in my bed, nor was I even inside. “Huh. That's weird.” I spoke aloud. Looking around, I found that I was still in my mate Ricky's small apartment backyard. This had been the location for the party-train last night and it seems that they left me unconscious outside on my own. Well, me and two garbage bins worth of trash littered about the place. Speaking of, this was going to be a pain to clean so I was definitely planning an escape before Ricky woke up and asked me to help. Spying the exit I prepared myself for the difficult task ahead; getting to my feet while dealing with a major hangover. However, as I tried to stand my body just wouldn’t respond as it should, so I fell flat on my face. This caused the headache to suddenly return and I groaned in irritation. I must’ve been drinking a lot more than normal if I couldn’t even stand up. Or my friends had taped my legs together after I lost consciousness. Yeah that was it. They were probably watching from inside just waiting for me to wake and attempt to stand up. I glared into the apartment window, but paused as I didn't see any of my friends reaping the hilarity-fruits from their stupid prank. Slowly twisting my body around I looked at my legs, or, where my legs were supposed to be. “What?!” Instead were a pair of pants, that were way too large for me, engulfing my whole lower body. I couldn't even see my feet! No wonder I had tripped. They must have swapped my pants for size extra extra large or something. Bastards! I bet they were filming me from the bushes, ready to put my freak out on Youtube. Well, I wasn't going to give them one. “Oh no!” I said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “My pants are way too big! I wonder who did that?” With a sigh I reached down to pull them off, but noticed that my shirt was also oversized. This was getting ridiculous! I tried to roll my sleeves down, but my fingers were too numb to work. Becoming increasingly frustrated I gave up on my shirt then looked toward the window and grimaced. The only option left was to shuffle out of my way out of my pants. So with some effort, I squirmed and pushed until my legs were finally out of those gargantuan trousers. Well, what I thought were my legs. Only in their stead was the lower half of a pale-yellow furred animal, complete with hooves and a tail. No. This couldn't be possible. I felt my eye twitch at the sight. “Ahehe this is...just a joke right?” I said frantically. “Oh I'm going to get those guys when I find them!” I slipped out of my shirt to discover that my upper body was also that of a furred animal. I put my head in my hands, only for me to realise I had no hands. That was the final straw. I got to my hooves and stumbled over to the apartment's back door, and began to pound on it with my new appendages. “OK GUYS JOKE'S OVER, OPEN UP!” I squealed. “PLEASE! GUYS, please...” There was no reply. I slid down the door and collapsed into a crumpled heap. I made myself as small as I could and whimpered until I lost consciousness once again. The sound of nearby tweeting brought me back into the waking world. Looking around I saw a flock of little birds picking at the litter covering the backyard. God, I hate those little birds, there was always so many of them around. I noticed the sun had risen high into the sky, meaning I had been asleep for at least a few hours. It was then that I suddenly remembered my previous predicament, could it have all just been a dream? I looked down. Nope, I still had horse feet. Looking myself over showed a little horse body to match. I had a fairly odd coloured body too, but it seemed ridiculous to be surprised by my pigment when I had completely changed species. I attempted to stand, but this whole four legged stance was alien to me (AS IT SHOULD BE), so I fell over a few times. After six or seven attempts I was able to balance myself well enough to stay upright. Cautiously turning my new body around I had a look at my reflection in the kitchen window and almost fell over again. My heart raced as I peered at my unfamiliar form. I was flabbergasted, for I looked nothing like anything I'd ever seen before, barring maybe something from a cartoon show. I was, indeed, a small horse, but my new face wasn't that of an unintelligent animal. I had massive turquoise eyes that covered the majority of my face. My enormous eyes had widened in surprise and my jaw hung open in an unmistakable look of surprise. Closing my mouth I rotated my head to the side and looked at the snout jutting out of my face. My ears, now tall and pointed, stuck out of the top of my head. Even stranger was the horn sticking out of my forehead. Was I not a small horse, but a small unicorn? Why, of all things, was I turned into some mythical creature? Could I do magic? With this sudden, and seemingly impossible, change of body I could really believe anything right now. I had to sit down, this was all so surreal. I shook my head to clear my mind. “So, You’re a small horse with a horn, and that’s okay. As long as I find someone else and get help it will all be fine!” Yeah, right. Who would know how to turn someone from a horse to a human anyhow? And how did I become a small horse in the first place? Human-to-horse magic alcohol? I snorted at that one. Putting a contemplative hoof to my chin, “I could be having some weird hallucination?” Well, whatever was happening, my first course of action should be to find my friends and get their help. If they weren't in the apartment they must be out and about. Carefully standing on all hooves I stumbled over to the tall gate that lead from the side of the apartment to the street. On my way I passed at least a dozen small birds, who were still enjoying the trash. “Could you please shove off?” I yelled as I waved a hoof, which spooked them into the air. I had about five seconds of smug satisfaction at my superiority when something wet landed on my head. Looking up I saw that the tiny little birds of hell had done a turn around and were swooping low releasing bird...juices over me. I scrambled to edge of the building gaining protection from the white rain from the gutters above. “Since when did birds fight back?!” I yelped. Thankfully it didn't take long for the little demon birds to get bored and find someone else to bother. I walked around the stains on the ground to a nearby tap. Putting a hoof on the valve I tried to rotate it but I didn't have enough control to push it in right direction. I lifted both my hooves and attempted to turn on the tap but my lack of experience meant I quickly lost balance. Spitting out some grass I scowled at my new enemy. I eventually managed to open the tap with my surprisingly strong teeth and let the cold water wash over my new fur. When I was clean enough I closed the tap and stood there sopping wet. I shook my whole body, throwing water droplets everywhere. Even though I had no clothes on I was surprisingly warm. Although I guessed it shouldn't have come as a shock; animals had fur for this reason. Normally I wouldn't be so comfortable not wearing clothes outside, but I just couldn't bring myself to care. This wasn't really my body, this wasn't what I looked like usually. I'll be back to my old self in no time, I just had to work on using this one for the time being. Sitting down I looked at my hooves. I would need to get used to using them if I wanted to survive. Walking was coming along somewhat, but I felt as if unlatching the gate to get out of here would prove to be a difficult task. I raised a hoof and placed it over an empty beer can on the ground. I tried to scoop it up with my new appendage, but it felt like picking things up using a fist. As with the tap, I gave up using one hoof and switched to two. Even then I couldn’t hold the can up for longer than a few seconds. Groaning in annoyance I stood back on all fours. What was the point on making me a fictional being if I couldn't even pick something up? Was some ancient being toying with me for their own amusement? It sure felt like it. I tried taking a few steps towards the other side of the backyard but tripped myself up. Case in point. Instead of leaving right away I spent some time practicing the four-legged walking technique as a way to decrease my shameful fall count. After about twenty minutes had gone by I felt as if I had taken our ability to walk for granted. I'd been stumbling about and had only just started to get the hang of it. It was seriously unlikely I'd be able to go fast but I was fairly confident I wouldn't be tripping up and falling into oncoming traffic. At that thought my head snapped up. Traffic. I'd been so worried about my new appearance that I had forgotten that Ricky's apartment was right next to a major road. Yet, it was the middle of the day and I couldn't hear any cars at all. Author's Note Hope you enjoyed the first chapter! It starts off a bit slow I know, but don't worry it'll get better soon. If you see any mistakes or something you feel needs to be addressed don't hesitate to comment, but do keep in mind this is my first ever fic, so try not to be too harsh. Canine ConundrumsChapter Two: Canine Conundrums (or, 'Learn to Run, or Prepare to Die') My mind raced. Was it possible, my friends weren’t the only one’s missing, maybe everyone else was too? I really hoped that wasn’t the case… Walking as fast as I dared with my new legs, I came to the gate and used my teeth to open the latch. My snout was long enough to maneuver other items with reasonable ease, so at least something was going my way. Swiftly moving down the side of the house my blood chilled to zero degrees kelvin at the unnatural silence which replaced the usual hustle and bustle of suburban life. I stepped out onto a large road and looking both ways, I noticed that the footpaths were devoid of people and there wasn’t a car being driven anywhere in my line of sight. There was no movement at all. It was as if time was frozen and I was the only person unaffected, the one who had to live out their days alone. My breathing became rapid as I felt panic rising within me. “No!” I shouted and shook my head, “I cannot freak out again.” Narrowing my eyes I started to walk towards a small selection of shops along the road. There had to be a reason for all this, and I was determined to find out. The city of Melbourne is fairly spread out, with over around ten thousand square kilometers of land. The actual “city” city, was thirty minutes away. I was currently located was within one of the outer suburbs which was normally swarming with people but now there was no movement at all, save a few pesky birds fluttering about. I tried not to think about my situation as I walked, but I couldn’t help but shiver; the silence was eerie. With my slow stumbling steps I reached the first store, a small cafe, and peered through their windows. Empty. Of course it was empty. I figured that if there was some national disaster or pandemic there would be some sign of panic, right? But there were numerous cars just neatly parked along the road; I’d gather that in the case of a pandemic the cars wouldn’t be there. It's like everyone just up and left without telling me, and the fact I had to be some mythical animal was beyond comprehension at this point.? I'm still debating whether it was just a hallucination. Despite the intense surreality, I was pretty sure that this wasn't a dream. Not only was this far too detailed, but I didn't often dream, and when I did it was not nearly as vivid as this. The door was unlocked, so I entered the cafe. It was a simple place with a few benches lining the walls and some small square tables accompanied by some plastic chairs to. What caught my eye though, was the selection of cakes and baked goods on display at the counter. My stomach growled in appreciation as I took in the view. I had completely forgotten to eat! Although, I suppose it was normal to forget things, what with me suddenly becoming a little yellow horse and all. Walking around the counter I stared at the delicious-looking cakes with my tongue lolling out. Not wasting any more time I pounced and took a slice of lemon meringue pie in my mouth. I munched happily for a few seconds before I noticed the taste. I spat the cake onto the floor and yelped in surprise. The cake was stale and bitter. The cake was off. “But...why?” I felt like the world was crumbling around me, “This was the highlight of my day and it was ruined!” Taking a desperate bite of a muffin, I discovered that it was also stale. What kind of business did that place run? I guess they weren’t around to restock spoiled food, but still! With a sigh I headed out of the cafe and continued down the road to the next shop. I figured as long as I could find some edible food it would be alright. Sulking as I walked passed a book shop I had a think about today’s list of “accomplishments”. Number one, I became a small yellow horse. A complete species change for no discernable reason. Number two, I found out that civilisation appears to have vanished, leaving me, a disabled defenceless animal, to fend for myself. And so far the most annoying, number three, all the cakes were spoiled. Was it a Monday? It must have been, because it was the worst day of my life at the time. But, at least it couldn't have gotten any worse than this. You know in the movies where that line is the signal for the protagonist to be in even deeper shit? Well, yeah it doesn't change here. A bark shook me out of my thoughts and I looked to see a pug sniffing its way around the corner of a connecting street. I smiled at the small dog, it wasn’t a person but at least I had some company. I began to walk towards the little canine, its presence allowing me to feel a little better about my predicament. It saw me and yipped a few times. “Hey there little guy!” I shouted over. It was only when the sound of more barking that I felt uneasy once again. And then maybe six or seven dogs ran around the corner and came straight for me, the pug leading the charge. Their eyes were wild and their pointed teeth were bared. The pug didn’t look so cute now. “Oh no.” I span around and stumbled down the street as fast as I could. My unstable legs worked to their limits as the pack of domestic canines came ever closer. My once steady breathing became heavy gasps. Seeing Ricky’s street up ahead motivated me to keep running. Looking back briefly I saw that the dogs were gaining on my staggering gallop. I wish I could have hidden somewhere but my yellow coat would have been a dead giveaway. What kind of evolutionary advantage would it have been to have brightly coloured fur? That is if there was an evolutionary trail for this creature and I wasn't just made in some lab somewhere. Shaking my head I stopped thinking and instead concentrated on not tripping over as a pack of ravenous mutts headed towards me. I made it around the corner and back down the street where all this started. Their barking was getting closer as they gained on their victim. Oh jeez, why me? Of all the people to get turned into some guinea pig for their tests, why did it have to be the guy who didn’t learn anything at school? How am I supposed to figure out a way to get out of this mess? Turning into the driveway to the apartment I ran through to the backyard and slammed the gate closed. I went to move towards the house before I realised that the latch wasn’t on. Panicked, I used my hooves to latch it shut. Just in time for the pack to slam into the gate, barking and snarling. My little heart was racing like mad. How did dogs become that starved for animal flesh? There must be bins or something for them to eat from right? Domestic dogs weren't ever this aggressive! Just another mystery to add to the list. They were trying to push down the door, but the latch seemed to be holding them back for now so I laid down where this all started, only a few hours ago, gasping for breath. The dogs continued to bark and scratch at the entrance, luckily without enough strength to break it down. This was freaky, they appeared very determined to sink their teeth into me. Did I smell like dog food or something? A few minutes ticked by which reassured me that they wouldn’t be able to break through the door. I began to relax. Sitting up I spotted my clothes lying where I left them, and spied a rectangular device sticking out of my pants' pocket. I stared at it for a full ten seconds before... “My phone!” I exclaimed. I scampered over to my phone and tried to pick it up, only to have it fall back down. Looking at my new appendages I sighed. “Oh yeah. Hooves.” How did I forget about my phone? It could have solved all my problems; I could call my friends or, if that didn’t work, check the internet. There had to be answers somewhere. I carefully placed my hooves on either side of the device and slowly raised it closer. I pushed slightly against the side of my phone, and excitement rose within me as I managed to power it on. But then I was met with a new problem; the lock screen. Carefully placing the phone upon the grass I used my new nose to push in the 4-digit code. I laughed with delight as the phone unlocked and I continued to navigate with my snout. I found the contacts page and called the first name that popped up, which happened to be my friend Alan. It began to dial and I stuck my ear to the ground to listen. My heart rate was probably unsafe right now, but if he answered I could actually find out what was going on! “Hey it's Alan-” “ALAN!” I yelled in excitement. “Where are y-” “-Sorry I can't get to the phone right now, but please leave a message after the beep.” I sat there in denial. He could just not be at his phone right now. I began to call every single person on my contact list. Each one had the same result, straight to voicemail. In my desperation I even dialed the police but even that came back with no results. I attempted to use the internet but that wasn’t responding either. I don’t think I’d ever felt as alone than I did in that moment. My suspicions were confirmed. I was alone on this planet. The pack of dogs must have found something else to maul as they left about an hour ago, just in time for the sun to begin to slip under the horizon. I had been lying on the ground just staring at the sky. It would take too long to tell you exactly how I was feeling but to sum it up I didn't feel good. And to top it all off I hadn't eaten in hours. The scraps that had been strewn around the yard had been picked at by birds. Standing up I made my way to the doorway to Ricky's apartment. I cringed when I saw that to get in I’d have to use a doorknob. There was no way I could open that. Unless... “Urgh,” I spat as I tried to get the metallic taste from my mouth. “Looks like there's no other way; I'm going to have to break in.” I stared at the wooden surface for a moment before hitting it with a hoof. “C'mon. It shouldn't be too hard to open.” I assured myself as I began pounding on the door. Despite being small my hooves packed quite a punch. A few hits and the door smashed open, as I’d broken the lock. “Success!” I grinned. “Everything's coming up Milhouse!” I made my way inside and looked around. It wasn't a particularly big apartment, but as long as it had food and shelter from dog attacks, I was happy. I had only been inside his apartment once, the party last night. But that already seemed so long ago. Staring at the foyer where just yesterday I had been standing around with my mates, just talking about normal things. Discussing work or studies, issues a twenty year old should be worrying about, not sudden species change and lone survival from a horde of ravenous mutts. I found the kitchen and hungrily opened the fridge. I had to pull back a bit as the stench of rotten food hit my sensitive nose. So the fridge had stopped working, but why had the food gone off so quickly? There seemed to be a pattern emerging, but I couldn’t quite put my - well, hoof on it. I placed said appendage on my nose at an attempt to block it then closed the fridge tentatively. So that was a bust, what next? There was a small fruit bowl next to the fridge but similarly with all foods around, the fruits were too spoiled to eat. I was beginning to feel that I would become desperate enough to eat them, if I couldn't find anything else soon. Thankfully that didn’t happen as I discovered a pantry filled with cans of food and some other packaged edibles that should last for a while. The cans were going to be so fun to open, and I probably should have started with something easier to open but I really had a hankering for beans. Carefully grasping a can in my new teeth I delivered it to the living room where a coffee table resided. Once rested on the wooden surface I headed back to the kitchen for a can opener. Pulling out a couple of drawers I found what I was looking for and headed back with the utensil in my mouth. I then sat on the floor and contemplated the two objects in front of me. There had to be a way to do this. My eyes travelled upwards as I tried to get a look at my horn. “It shouldn't be stupid to think that I could do magic right?” I spoke aloud. “I mean, after everything else that has happened today that isn’t too unbelievable.” Looking to the can opener I brought my face close to it and concentrated hard. I thought about lifting it up and seeing it float in the air. I didn't know if magic could even be used as telekinesis, but I was starving, so I was going to try everything I could. After nothing happened I stared harder moving everything from my mind and leaving only one simple word. “C'mon..lift...” Still nothing. I moaned in frustration and lifted it into the air and brought it to my face. “WHY WON'T YOU MOVE? I CAN'T PICK YOU UP WITH MY HOOVES WHAT ELSE AM I supposed to..do?” I only just realised that the can opener had been lifted by my lone hoof. Somehow… miraculously, I was gripping it. I dropped the device and put my hoof back on it again and concentrated. When I lifted my appendage the can opener was being grasped by my hoof! Grinning happily I brought my other hoof to the device and placed it on top of the can of beans. After a bit of struggle and some swearing I managed to open the can. The smell of food was intoxicating (even if it was only beans), so I pulled the metal lid off and gulped down the beans like they were a drink. “Aaahhh that hit the spot!” I sighed. With a bit of food in me I began to think a bit better. I needed to gather all the edible food I could find and ration it out to last as long as possible. I went back into the kitchen and grabbed every packaged or canned food that I could find and stacked it all in the lounge room. I learned that the food wouldn’t be the big issue, because after trying to obtain myself a drink I discovered that absolutely none of the taps around the house worked. There were some soda and water bottles along with the food in the lounge, but I would still need to leave the house in search for more water. Having to leave the house with those vicious dogs running rampant was not a pleasurable thought. But maybe if I was to do it at night they would be asleep and then not after my blood. I just had to find where to go; somewhere indoors, with a lot of food. Packaged food. I didn’t know the area all too well so I had hoped Ricky had some maps or something around. Sure enough, looking through his drawers I managed to find a, hopefully not too outdated, Melways which showed the entire city and surrounding suburbs. Flipping to the back I found the street name and the grid references. I had troubles turning the pages but I eventually found the right page and put a yellow hoof along the corresponding reference characters then dragged it across. “Ok so..Rick lives here…” I murmured. Perusing the map I spotted a few nearby shops until finally my eyes came to rest on a large space along the highway close to this apartment. The words “shopping centre” caught my eye. Yes, this would do perfectly. I peered out the window at the darkened sky. “I just have to evade the mutts the whole way and then it’s home free.” My eyes started to droop, and it was only then that I realised how tired I had become. I was surprised that I hadn’t gotten tired earlier as this had so far topped the “scariest day of my life” metre. Lying down in my friend’s bed, I finally relaxed for the first time that day. I only had to find the shopping centre then I would be good for food and drink for a long while. In that time I’d be able to find out what the hell was going on. Everything was going to be fine, I was definitely sure that it couldn’t get much worse than this. Boy was I wrong. Author's Note Hey guys! (Like the two people following my story ) Sorry for the delay, I've been finishing up for the year at Uni so things got pretty busy for a while. I am now on holidays for the next few weeks which will give me a chance to keep writing, so I should have the next chapter with a smaller delay then last time. Also I just found out that when I copy/paste over my chapters from googledocs the italicised words don't stay italicised. So I'm going back through the two chapters to fix that up. Dash to Safety (Unedited)Chapter 3 Dash to Safety (or, 'Hooves Are Loud When Running') Two days. I had been sitting in the apartment with nothing to do for two days. It may not seem like much, but because I wasn’t exactly the most patient of people, this was hell. And with the power out, any electrical device was merely a paper weight, which was a kick in the face for me as this apartment had numerous gaming consoles and a PC. They had been tauntingly sitting in the living room with a bookshelf full of games and DVDs. I was currently lounging in the lounge on the couch and staring at the blank screen longingly. My phone had died during my first night at the apartment so I had made sure to give it a proper burial in the backyard. What? There was no way to charge it and I didn’t exactly have pockets so carrying it anywhere would be a pain and a half. Man, I was going to miss that phone, I almost shed a tear during the ceremony. There was a lot I reminisced about aside from my phone; friends, a proper meal and the internet. Mostly the internet though. I looked out the window and sighed. “World, if you’d just let me use one hour on Youtube I would have been happy. Won't you give me even that?” My stomach began to growl so I got to my hooves and wandered to the kitchen. I would have to leave soon or I would starve and/or die of thirst in a few days. In my boredom I had stacked all the edible food into a small tower, with cans being the foundation. But as the days wore on I had eaten through most of the leaning tower of food. All that was left was some dry spaghetti, a pack of 2 minute noodles and a can of diced tomatoes. I growled at the gas stove, as my chance for a pasta was thwarted by a lack of gas. Sighing, I used my teeth to break open the pack of noodles and small flavour sachet and made the sad little meal. Crunching down my lunch I contemplated the can in front of me; it would be my dinner, and if I was hungry enough I would eat the dry spaghetti. Washing down my noodles with some stale water I went back to the bedroom to go over my plan of escape. The walk to safety wasn’t terribly far, but I had to take every precaution possible if I wanted to survive the journey. I had decided to go out at night as it would be harder to spot my almost fluro yellow coat and I would have less trouble sneaking around if any animals, namely dogs, decided to snoop around. The day before I had prepared a backpack which had the map, a working head torch, a bottle of water and some rotten meat, a dog distraction delicacy. I had been practicing walking and even running on the spot to the point of optimal proficiency if I had to sprint my way to safety. On the magic front, I had come to the conclusion that my horn was just for show, or impaling enemies. Try as I might, nothing seemed to get my horn to do anything interesting. It was late afternoon and I sat at the front window as the sun reached the horizon. My heart was steadily beating at a faster-than-normal rate, regardless of mentally trying to calm myself down. I had everything that was of use to me in the bag which was now strapped to my back. The head torch was fastened just under my horn, and I was unsure how I managed to do that. It was still outside, save for the trees swaying in the wind. If there were any hostile animals they were hiding pretty well. I gulped as I prepared myself for the next part in my journey. If encountered with something dangerous… I might not survive long enough to complete it. Looking around Ricky’s apartment I stood there in the doorway just thinking back over the past few days. So much had occurred, the most of which I never would have believed possible. With a sigh I stepped outside without a backwards glance, this was the last time I saw Ricky’s apartment. Walking past the mass of bird faeces I came to the gate that protected my sorry ass for the last few days. Opening it with my hooves this time I stepped out into the quickly darkening hostile world, where I, a bright yellow small horse would be traversing. Attempting to be as quiet as possible, I slowly clip clopped my way passed the apartment and onto the street. Keeping myself as close to the walls and bushes as possible I looked both ways, it seemed to be devoid of movement. I sneakily crept my way down the street and beyond. After about ten minutes of sneaking I began to feel a bit less anxious at the lack of dog attacks and sung the Mission Impossible theme song under my breath. My trek took me to the road that I had tracked from the map and I felt chills go down my spine at how unusual it was to see a completely barren highway. Usually at night the streets would all be lit up there to the distance, but not a single light could be seen, save the moon. Shaking the fear away I continued onwards, still on the lookout for anything suspicious. I could finally spot the shopping centre looming out of the darkness. It was split into two massive sections, one on each side of the highway and a section joining them over the top. My pace quickened, as I grew anxious to get there as fast as possible. But I stopped short. In the distance, walking along the highway towards me were...figures, at least five creatures walking in a group. I lowered myself to the ground to hide myself; what if they were vicious animals? But as the came closer I could see that they were not, in fact, wild animals. I couldn’t believe my new eyes, small horses… like me? There were others, just like me, walking in the middle of the highway. I stood and cantered forwards, ignoring the obvious sound of my hooves as I moved closer to the other people, after all this time! There were others I could talk to, maybe they were like me and were originally human. Throwing my safety to the wind, I shouted out to them. “Hey! Wait up!” my voice echoed around the quiet night. They didn’t seem to be able to hear me, as none responded. One of them lit up their horn (so we can do magic!) along with all the other unicorns as they formed a circle. “Hello?!” I shouted in desperation. One of the small horses without a horn looked at me just as the light from the unicorns brightened and filled the area, so much so, that I had to look away as it flared into the night. And just as quickly as it had started, it was over. Looking back my heart dropped into my stomach when I found that they were gone. Simply gone. I couldn’t believe it. I was so close… I could have had someone else to talk to… I was alone again. A growl to my left proved that to be a false statement. My blood ran cold and I froze in place. All that shouting seemed to have invited some customers. And I was on the menu. Lifting a hoof up I flicked on my head torch and it shone light ahead to light up the same pack of dogs from two days earlier. As the group of growling mutts began to surround me I noticed that they seemed even more monstrous than they were before. Their eyes were glowing a blood red. Their bodies were stronger and slimmer, and their paws showed large extremely sharp looking claws. These dogs had become killing machines, ‘I was going to die’ I thought as I noticed the blood dripping from their sharp teeth, probably from some other poor animal. “Stay b-back!” I stuttered as they drew closer. It didn’t seem to have any effect, not that I blame them, I didn’t think I was a very imposing figure. Really starting to really panic now, my eyes darted from dog to dog, the blood dribbling down their chins. “Stay BACK!” I bellowed. They came closer and closer, I didn’t want to die this way. I closed my eyes and let a tear fall. Wait a minute… Those other unicorns could do magic, what was stopping me from trying again? Screwing my eyes tighter I strained as much as I could. I’m not sure how I did it, but I could finally feel a tingling going through my body towards my horn. Behind my eyelids I could see the rising flare of green light. Peeking out I cried out in joy as I could see the light from my horn spewing out raw energy. The dogs had stopped now and were regarding me warily. But as my horn grew brighter, they seemed to feel light wasn’t a big deterrent and continued their murderous path. I poured as much as I could into the growing light, but they just kept coming closer. I would have cried in horror if the light from my horn hadn’t continued growing, taking all my energy to hold as it became stronger and stronger. A heavy wind had started to pick up, spinning around me. That pug, now an ugly little creature with glowing red eyes leapt at me, pointed teeth glinting. The shock spiked my horn and it flashed a brilliant green as it exploded out with energy, the pulse sent out blew the whole pack rolling backwards. My horn sputtered out as my whole body shuddered and began to become unresponsive as the fatigue hit me. I fell to the ground, unable to move a muscle. To my horror I saw the group of mutts getting back onto their paws and coming back for their meal which now lay as an easy target. My eyes filled with tears as I admitted defeat, I had no strength left, I couldn’t even lift my head. There was nothing I could do. My world began to fade as my poor mind began to lose consciousness. As I was about to black out completely I heard the flapping of large wings and felt myself lift off the ground. Then I felt no more. Author's Note Ooh, things are starting to get interesting! What new encounter is our protagonist going to face? Find out next time on Chapter Four of Next Stop: Death Central!
Small Horse SyndromeChapter One: Small Horse Syndrome (or ‘The Protagonist Falls Over Constantly’) I woke to a pounding headache. For a few minutes I sort of laid there, eyes shut, fighting the nausea which threatened to upchuck my stomach contents. It must have been one hell of a party last night, pity I didn’t seem to remember much of it. I tried to collect my fragmented thoughts together, but right now my memory was indecipherable. Mostly it was blurred colours and shapes. Wow, I did not feel good. It was currently the mid-year holidays for my university friends so I had been living it up as much as possible with them. We'd been partying it up at least once a week, and while I usually had more than my fair share of alcohol it never ended up with this much of a headache. I took a few deep breaths and ever so slowly the urge to throw up lessened. Good, progress! I opened my eyes a crack and winced as I was was forced to close them again. Even the smallest amount of the morning's rays made my head spin. Yeesh, I should cut back on the partying, I thought. My body seemed to be rebelling against my high intake of booze. As the minutes went by I was able to gradually open my eyes without my brain becoming a mental hurricane. Yawning, I sat up and discerned that I was, surprisingly, not in my bed, nor was I even inside. “Huh. That's weird.” I spoke aloud. Looking around, I found that I was still in my mate Ricky's small apartment backyard. This had been the location for the party-train last night and it seems that they left me unconscious outside on my own. Well, me and two garbage bins worth of trash littered about the place. Speaking of, this was going to be a pain to clean so I was definitely planning an escape before Ricky woke up and asked me to help. Spying the exit I prepared myself for the difficult task ahead; getting to my feet while dealing with a major hangover. However, as I tried to stand my body just wouldn’t respond as it should, so I fell flat on my face. This caused the headache to suddenly return and I groaned in irritation. I must’ve been drinking a lot more than normal if I couldn’t even stand up. Or my friends had taped my legs together after I lost consciousness. Yeah that was it. They were probably watching from inside just waiting for me to wake and attempt to stand up. I glared into the apartment window, but paused as I didn't see any of my friends reaping the hilarity-fruits from their stupid prank. Slowly twisting my body around I looked at my legs, or, where my legs were supposed to be. “What?!” Instead were a pair of pants, that were way too large for me, engulfing my whole lower body. I couldn't even see my feet! No wonder I had tripped. They must have swapped my pants for size extra extra large or something. Bastards! I bet they were filming me from the bushes, ready to put my freak out on Youtube. Well, I wasn't going to give them one. “Oh no!” I said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “My pants are way too big! I wonder who did that?” With a sigh I reached down to pull them off, but noticed that my shirt was also oversized. This was getting ridiculous! I tried to roll my sleeves down, but my fingers were too numb to work. Becoming increasingly frustrated I gave up on my shirt then looked toward the window and grimaced. The only option left was to shuffle out of my way out of my pants. So with some effort, I squirmed and pushed until my legs were finally out of those gargantuan trousers. Well, what I thought were my legs. Only in their stead was the lower half of a pale-yellow furred animal, complete with hooves and a tail. No. This couldn't be possible. I felt my eye twitch at the sight. “Ahehe this is...just a joke right?” I said frantically. “Oh I'm going to get those guys when I find them!” I slipped out of my shirt to discover that my upper body was also that of a furred animal. I put my head in my hands, only for me to realise I had no hands. That was the final straw. I got to my hooves and stumbled over to the apartment's back door, and began to pound on it with my new appendages. “OK GUYS JOKE'S OVER, OPEN UP!” I squealed. “PLEASE! GUYS, please...” There was no reply. I slid down the door and collapsed into a crumpled heap. I made myself as small as I could and whimpered until I lost consciousness once again. The sound of nearby tweeting brought me back into the waking world. Looking around I saw a flock of little birds picking at the litter covering the backyard. God, I hate those little birds, there was always so many of them around. I noticed the sun had risen high into the sky, meaning I had been asleep for at least a few hours. It was then that I suddenly remembered my previous predicament, could it have all just been a dream? I looked down. Nope, I still had horse feet. Looking myself over showed a little horse body to match. I had a fairly odd coloured body too, but it seemed ridiculous to be surprised by my pigment when I had completely changed species. I attempted to stand, but this whole four legged stance was alien to me (AS IT SHOULD BE), so I fell over a few times. After six or seven attempts I was able to balance myself well enough to stay upright. Cautiously turning my new body around I had a look at my reflection in the kitchen window and almost fell over again. My heart raced as I peered at my unfamiliar form. I was flabbergasted, for I looked nothing like anything I'd ever seen before, barring maybe something from a cartoon show. I was, indeed, a small horse, but my new face wasn't that of an unintelligent animal. I had massive turquoise eyes that covered the majority of my face. My enormous eyes had widened in surprise and my jaw hung open in an unmistakable look of surprise. Closing my mouth I rotated my head to the side and looked at the snout jutting out of my face. My ears, now tall and pointed, stuck out of the top of my head. Even stranger was the horn sticking out of my forehead. Was I not a small horse, but a small unicorn? Why, of all things, was I turned into some mythical creature? Could I do magic? With this sudden, and seemingly impossible, change of body I could really believe anything right now. I had to sit down, this was all so surreal. I shook my head to clear my mind. “So, You’re a small horse with a horn, and that’s okay. As long as I find someone else and get help it will all be fine!” Yeah, right. Who would know how to turn someone from a horse to a human anyhow? And how did I become a small horse in the first place? Human-to-horse magic alcohol? I snorted at that one. Putting a contemplative hoof to my chin, “I could be having some weird hallucination?” Well, whatever was happening, my first course of action should be to find my friends and get their help. If they weren't in the apartment they must be out and about. Carefully standing on all hooves I stumbled over to the tall gate that lead from the side of the apartment to the street. On my way I passed at least a dozen small birds, who were still enjoying the trash. “Could you please shove off?” I yelled as I waved a hoof, which spooked them into the air. I had about five seconds of smug satisfaction at my superiority when something wet landed on my head. Looking up I saw that the tiny little birds of hell had done a turn around and were swooping low releasing bird...juices over me. I scrambled to edge of the building gaining protection from the white rain from the gutters above. “Since when did birds fight back?!” I yelped. Thankfully it didn't take long for the little demon birds to get bored and find someone else to bother. I walked around the stains on the ground to a nearby tap. Putting a hoof on the valve I tried to rotate it but I didn't have enough control to push it in right direction. I lifted both my hooves and attempted to turn on the tap but my lack of experience meant I quickly lost balance. Spitting out some grass I scowled at my new enemy. I eventually managed to open the tap with my surprisingly strong teeth and let the cold water wash over my new fur. When I was clean enough I closed the tap and stood there sopping wet. I shook my whole body, throwing water droplets everywhere. Even though I had no clothes on I was surprisingly warm. Although I guessed it shouldn't have come as a shock; animals had fur for this reason. Normally I wouldn't be so comfortable not wearing clothes outside, but I just couldn't bring myself to care. This wasn't really my body, this wasn't what I looked like usually. I'll be back to my old self in no time, I just had to work on using this one for the time being. Sitting down I looked at my hooves. I would need to get used to using them if I wanted to survive. Walking was coming along somewhat, but I felt as if unlatching the gate to get out of here would prove to be a difficult task. I raised a hoof and placed it over an empty beer can on the ground. I tried to scoop it up with my new appendage, but it felt like picking things up using a fist. As with the tap, I gave up using one hoof and switched to two. Even then I couldn’t hold the can up for longer than a few seconds. Groaning in annoyance I stood back on all fours. What was the point on making me a fictional being if I couldn't even pick something up? Was some ancient being toying with me for their own amusement? It sure felt like it. I tried taking a few steps towards the other side of the backyard but tripped myself up. Case in point. Instead of leaving right away I spent some time practicing the four-legged walking technique as a way to decrease my shameful fall count. After about twenty minutes had gone by I felt as if I had taken our ability to walk for granted. I'd been stumbling about and had only just started to get the hang of it. It was seriously unlikely I'd be able to go fast but I was fairly confident I wouldn't be tripping up and falling into oncoming traffic. At that thought my head snapped up. Traffic. I'd been so worried about my new appearance that I had forgotten that Ricky's apartment was right next to a major road. Yet, it was the middle of the day and I couldn't hear any cars at all. Author's Note Hope you enjoyed the first chapter! It starts off a bit slow I know, but don't worry it'll get better soon. If you see any mistakes or something you feel needs to be addressed don't hesitate to comment, but do keep in mind this is my first ever fic, so try not to be too harsh.
Canine ConundrumsChapter Two: Canine Conundrums (or, 'Learn to Run, or Prepare to Die') My mind raced. Was it possible, my friends weren’t the only one’s missing, maybe everyone else was too? I really hoped that wasn’t the case… Walking as fast as I dared with my new legs, I came to the gate and used my teeth to open the latch. My snout was long enough to maneuver other items with reasonable ease, so at least something was going my way. Swiftly moving down the side of the house my blood chilled to zero degrees kelvin at the unnatural silence which replaced the usual hustle and bustle of suburban life. I stepped out onto a large road and looking both ways, I noticed that the footpaths were devoid of people and there wasn’t a car being driven anywhere in my line of sight. There was no movement at all. It was as if time was frozen and I was the only person unaffected, the one who had to live out their days alone. My breathing became rapid as I felt panic rising within me. “No!” I shouted and shook my head, “I cannot freak out again.” Narrowing my eyes I started to walk towards a small selection of shops along the road. There had to be a reason for all this, and I was determined to find out. The city of Melbourne is fairly spread out, with over around ten thousand square kilometers of land. The actual “city” city, was thirty minutes away. I was currently located was within one of the outer suburbs which was normally swarming with people but now there was no movement at all, save a few pesky birds fluttering about. I tried not to think about my situation as I walked, but I couldn’t help but shiver; the silence was eerie. With my slow stumbling steps I reached the first store, a small cafe, and peered through their windows. Empty. Of course it was empty. I figured that if there was some national disaster or pandemic there would be some sign of panic, right? But there were numerous cars just neatly parked along the road; I’d gather that in the case of a pandemic the cars wouldn’t be there. It's like everyone just up and left without telling me, and the fact I had to be some mythical animal was beyond comprehension at this point.? I'm still debating whether it was just a hallucination. Despite the intense surreality, I was pretty sure that this wasn't a dream. Not only was this far too detailed, but I didn't often dream, and when I did it was not nearly as vivid as this. The door was unlocked, so I entered the cafe. It was a simple place with a few benches lining the walls and some small square tables accompanied by some plastic chairs to. What caught my eye though, was the selection of cakes and baked goods on display at the counter. My stomach growled in appreciation as I took in the view. I had completely forgotten to eat! Although, I suppose it was normal to forget things, what with me suddenly becoming a little yellow horse and all. Walking around the counter I stared at the delicious-looking cakes with my tongue lolling out. Not wasting any more time I pounced and took a slice of lemon meringue pie in my mouth. I munched happily for a few seconds before I noticed the taste. I spat the cake onto the floor and yelped in surprise. The cake was stale and bitter. The cake was off. “But...why?” I felt like the world was crumbling around me, “This was the highlight of my day and it was ruined!” Taking a desperate bite of a muffin, I discovered that it was also stale. What kind of business did that place run? I guess they weren’t around to restock spoiled food, but still! With a sigh I headed out of the cafe and continued down the road to the next shop. I figured as long as I could find some edible food it would be alright. Sulking as I walked passed a book shop I had a think about today’s list of “accomplishments”. Number one, I became a small yellow horse. A complete species change for no discernable reason. Number two, I found out that civilisation appears to have vanished, leaving me, a disabled defenceless animal, to fend for myself. And so far the most annoying, number three, all the cakes were spoiled. Was it a Monday? It must have been, because it was the worst day of my life at the time. But, at least it couldn't have gotten any worse than this. You know in the movies where that line is the signal for the protagonist to be in even deeper shit? Well, yeah it doesn't change here. A bark shook me out of my thoughts and I looked to see a pug sniffing its way around the corner of a connecting street. I smiled at the small dog, it wasn’t a person but at least I had some company. I began to walk towards the little canine, its presence allowing me to feel a little better about my predicament. It saw me and yipped a few times. “Hey there little guy!” I shouted over. It was only when the sound of more barking that I felt uneasy once again. And then maybe six or seven dogs ran around the corner and came straight for me, the pug leading the charge. Their eyes were wild and their pointed teeth were bared. The pug didn’t look so cute now. “Oh no.” I span around and stumbled down the street as fast as I could. My unstable legs worked to their limits as the pack of domestic canines came ever closer. My once steady breathing became heavy gasps. Seeing Ricky’s street up ahead motivated me to keep running. Looking back briefly I saw that the dogs were gaining on my staggering gallop. I wish I could have hidden somewhere but my yellow coat would have been a dead giveaway. What kind of evolutionary advantage would it have been to have brightly coloured fur? That is if there was an evolutionary trail for this creature and I wasn't just made in some lab somewhere. Shaking my head I stopped thinking and instead concentrated on not tripping over as a pack of ravenous mutts headed towards me. I made it around the corner and back down the street where all this started. Their barking was getting closer as they gained on their victim. Oh jeez, why me? Of all the people to get turned into some guinea pig for their tests, why did it have to be the guy who didn’t learn anything at school? How am I supposed to figure out a way to get out of this mess? Turning into the driveway to the apartment I ran through to the backyard and slammed the gate closed. I went to move towards the house before I realised that the latch wasn’t on. Panicked, I used my hooves to latch it shut. Just in time for the pack to slam into the gate, barking and snarling. My little heart was racing like mad. How did dogs become that starved for animal flesh? There must be bins or something for them to eat from right? Domestic dogs weren't ever this aggressive! Just another mystery to add to the list. They were trying to push down the door, but the latch seemed to be holding them back for now so I laid down where this all started, only a few hours ago, gasping for breath. The dogs continued to bark and scratch at the entrance, luckily without enough strength to break it down. This was freaky, they appeared very determined to sink their teeth into me. Did I smell like dog food or something? A few minutes ticked by which reassured me that they wouldn’t be able to break through the door. I began to relax. Sitting up I spotted my clothes lying where I left them, and spied a rectangular device sticking out of my pants' pocket. I stared at it for a full ten seconds before... “My phone!” I exclaimed. I scampered over to my phone and tried to pick it up, only to have it fall back down. Looking at my new appendages I sighed. “Oh yeah. Hooves.” How did I forget about my phone? It could have solved all my problems; I could call my friends or, if that didn’t work, check the internet. There had to be answers somewhere. I carefully placed my hooves on either side of the device and slowly raised it closer. I pushed slightly against the side of my phone, and excitement rose within me as I managed to power it on. But then I was met with a new problem; the lock screen. Carefully placing the phone upon the grass I used my new nose to push in the 4-digit code. I laughed with delight as the phone unlocked and I continued to navigate with my snout. I found the contacts page and called the first name that popped up, which happened to be my friend Alan. It began to dial and I stuck my ear to the ground to listen. My heart rate was probably unsafe right now, but if he answered I could actually find out what was going on! “Hey it's Alan-” “ALAN!” I yelled in excitement. “Where are y-” “-Sorry I can't get to the phone right now, but please leave a message after the beep.” I sat there in denial. He could just not be at his phone right now. I began to call every single person on my contact list. Each one had the same result, straight to voicemail. In my desperation I even dialed the police but even that came back with no results. I attempted to use the internet but that wasn’t responding either. I don’t think I’d ever felt as alone than I did in that moment. My suspicions were confirmed. I was alone on this planet. The pack of dogs must have found something else to maul as they left about an hour ago, just in time for the sun to begin to slip under the horizon. I had been lying on the ground just staring at the sky. It would take too long to tell you exactly how I was feeling but to sum it up I didn't feel good. And to top it all off I hadn't eaten in hours. The scraps that had been strewn around the yard had been picked at by birds. Standing up I made my way to the doorway to Ricky's apartment. I cringed when I saw that to get in I’d have to use a doorknob. There was no way I could open that. Unless... “Urgh,” I spat as I tried to get the metallic taste from my mouth. “Looks like there's no other way; I'm going to have to break in.” I stared at the wooden surface for a moment before hitting it with a hoof. “C'mon. It shouldn't be too hard to open.” I assured myself as I began pounding on the door. Despite being small my hooves packed quite a punch. A few hits and the door smashed open, as I’d broken the lock. “Success!” I grinned. “Everything's coming up Milhouse!” I made my way inside and looked around. It wasn't a particularly big apartment, but as long as it had food and shelter from dog attacks, I was happy. I had only been inside his apartment once, the party last night. But that already seemed so long ago. Staring at the foyer where just yesterday I had been standing around with my mates, just talking about normal things. Discussing work or studies, issues a twenty year old should be worrying about, not sudden species change and lone survival from a horde of ravenous mutts. I found the kitchen and hungrily opened the fridge. I had to pull back a bit as the stench of rotten food hit my sensitive nose. So the fridge had stopped working, but why had the food gone off so quickly? There seemed to be a pattern emerging, but I couldn’t quite put my - well, hoof on it. I placed said appendage on my nose at an attempt to block it then closed the fridge tentatively. So that was a bust, what next? There was a small fruit bowl next to the fridge but similarly with all foods around, the fruits were too spoiled to eat. I was beginning to feel that I would become desperate enough to eat them, if I couldn't find anything else soon. Thankfully that didn’t happen as I discovered a pantry filled with cans of food and some other packaged edibles that should last for a while. The cans were going to be so fun to open, and I probably should have started with something easier to open but I really had a hankering for beans. Carefully grasping a can in my new teeth I delivered it to the living room where a coffee table resided. Once rested on the wooden surface I headed back to the kitchen for a can opener. Pulling out a couple of drawers I found what I was looking for and headed back with the utensil in my mouth. I then sat on the floor and contemplated the two objects in front of me. There had to be a way to do this. My eyes travelled upwards as I tried to get a look at my horn. “It shouldn't be stupid to think that I could do magic right?” I spoke aloud. “I mean, after everything else that has happened today that isn’t too unbelievable.” Looking to the can opener I brought my face close to it and concentrated hard. I thought about lifting it up and seeing it float in the air. I didn't know if magic could even be used as telekinesis, but I was starving, so I was going to try everything I could. After nothing happened I stared harder moving everything from my mind and leaving only one simple word. “C'mon..lift...” Still nothing. I moaned in frustration and lifted it into the air and brought it to my face. “WHY WON'T YOU MOVE? I CAN'T PICK YOU UP WITH MY HOOVES WHAT ELSE AM I supposed to..do?” I only just realised that the can opener had been lifted by my lone hoof. Somehow… miraculously, I was gripping it. I dropped the device and put my hoof back on it again and concentrated. When I lifted my appendage the can opener was being grasped by my hoof! Grinning happily I brought my other hoof to the device and placed it on top of the can of beans. After a bit of struggle and some swearing I managed to open the can. The smell of food was intoxicating (even if it was only beans), so I pulled the metal lid off and gulped down the beans like they were a drink. “Aaahhh that hit the spot!” I sighed. With a bit of food in me I began to think a bit better. I needed to gather all the edible food I could find and ration it out to last as long as possible. I went back into the kitchen and grabbed every packaged or canned food that I could find and stacked it all in the lounge room. I learned that the food wouldn’t be the big issue, because after trying to obtain myself a drink I discovered that absolutely none of the taps around the house worked. There were some soda and water bottles along with the food in the lounge, but I would still need to leave the house in search for more water. Having to leave the house with those vicious dogs running rampant was not a pleasurable thought. But maybe if I was to do it at night they would be asleep and then not after my blood. I just had to find where to go; somewhere indoors, with a lot of food. Packaged food. I didn’t know the area all too well so I had hoped Ricky had some maps or something around. Sure enough, looking through his drawers I managed to find a, hopefully not too outdated, Melways which showed the entire city and surrounding suburbs. Flipping to the back I found the street name and the grid references. I had troubles turning the pages but I eventually found the right page and put a yellow hoof along the corresponding reference characters then dragged it across. “Ok so..Rick lives here…” I murmured. Perusing the map I spotted a few nearby shops until finally my eyes came to rest on a large space along the highway close to this apartment. The words “shopping centre” caught my eye. Yes, this would do perfectly. I peered out the window at the darkened sky. “I just have to evade the mutts the whole way and then it’s home free.” My eyes started to droop, and it was only then that I realised how tired I had become. I was surprised that I hadn’t gotten tired earlier as this had so far topped the “scariest day of my life” metre. Lying down in my friend’s bed, I finally relaxed for the first time that day. I only had to find the shopping centre then I would be good for food and drink for a long while. In that time I’d be able to find out what the hell was going on. Everything was going to be fine, I was definitely sure that it couldn’t get much worse than this. Boy was I wrong. Author's Note Hey guys! (Like the two people following my story ) Sorry for the delay, I've been finishing up for the year at Uni so things got pretty busy for a while. I am now on holidays for the next few weeks which will give me a chance to keep writing, so I should have the next chapter with a smaller delay then last time. Also I just found out that when I copy/paste over my chapters from googledocs the italicised words don't stay italicised. So I'm going back through the two chapters to fix that up.
Dash to Safety (Unedited)Chapter 3 Dash to Safety (or, 'Hooves Are Loud When Running') Two days. I had been sitting in the apartment with nothing to do for two days. It may not seem like much, but because I wasn’t exactly the most patient of people, this was hell. And with the power out, any electrical device was merely a paper weight, which was a kick in the face for me as this apartment had numerous gaming consoles and a PC. They had been tauntingly sitting in the living room with a bookshelf full of games and DVDs. I was currently lounging in the lounge on the couch and staring at the blank screen longingly. My phone had died during my first night at the apartment so I had made sure to give it a proper burial in the backyard. What? There was no way to charge it and I didn’t exactly have pockets so carrying it anywhere would be a pain and a half. Man, I was going to miss that phone, I almost shed a tear during the ceremony. There was a lot I reminisced about aside from my phone; friends, a proper meal and the internet. Mostly the internet though. I looked out the window and sighed. “World, if you’d just let me use one hour on Youtube I would have been happy. Won't you give me even that?” My stomach began to growl so I got to my hooves and wandered to the kitchen. I would have to leave soon or I would starve and/or die of thirst in a few days. In my boredom I had stacked all the edible food into a small tower, with cans being the foundation. But as the days wore on I had eaten through most of the leaning tower of food. All that was left was some dry spaghetti, a pack of 2 minute noodles and a can of diced tomatoes. I growled at the gas stove, as my chance for a pasta was thwarted by a lack of gas. Sighing, I used my teeth to break open the pack of noodles and small flavour sachet and made the sad little meal. Crunching down my lunch I contemplated the can in front of me; it would be my dinner, and if I was hungry enough I would eat the dry spaghetti. Washing down my noodles with some stale water I went back to the bedroom to go over my plan of escape. The walk to safety wasn’t terribly far, but I had to take every precaution possible if I wanted to survive the journey. I had decided to go out at night as it would be harder to spot my almost fluro yellow coat and I would have less trouble sneaking around if any animals, namely dogs, decided to snoop around. The day before I had prepared a backpack which had the map, a working head torch, a bottle of water and some rotten meat, a dog distraction delicacy. I had been practicing walking and even running on the spot to the point of optimal proficiency if I had to sprint my way to safety. On the magic front, I had come to the conclusion that my horn was just for show, or impaling enemies. Try as I might, nothing seemed to get my horn to do anything interesting. It was late afternoon and I sat at the front window as the sun reached the horizon. My heart was steadily beating at a faster-than-normal rate, regardless of mentally trying to calm myself down. I had everything that was of use to me in the bag which was now strapped to my back. The head torch was fastened just under my horn, and I was unsure how I managed to do that. It was still outside, save for the trees swaying in the wind. If there were any hostile animals they were hiding pretty well. I gulped as I prepared myself for the next part in my journey. If encountered with something dangerous… I might not survive long enough to complete it. Looking around Ricky’s apartment I stood there in the doorway just thinking back over the past few days. So much had occurred, the most of which I never would have believed possible. With a sigh I stepped outside without a backwards glance, this was the last time I saw Ricky’s apartment. Walking past the mass of bird faeces I came to the gate that protected my sorry ass for the last few days. Opening it with my hooves this time I stepped out into the quickly darkening hostile world, where I, a bright yellow small horse would be traversing. Attempting to be as quiet as possible, I slowly clip clopped my way passed the apartment and onto the street. Keeping myself as close to the walls and bushes as possible I looked both ways, it seemed to be devoid of movement. I sneakily crept my way down the street and beyond. After about ten minutes of sneaking I began to feel a bit less anxious at the lack of dog attacks and sung the Mission Impossible theme song under my breath. My trek took me to the road that I had tracked from the map and I felt chills go down my spine at how unusual it was to see a completely barren highway. Usually at night the streets would all be lit up there to the distance, but not a single light could be seen, save the moon. Shaking the fear away I continued onwards, still on the lookout for anything suspicious. I could finally spot the shopping centre looming out of the darkness. It was split into two massive sections, one on each side of the highway and a section joining them over the top. My pace quickened, as I grew anxious to get there as fast as possible. But I stopped short. In the distance, walking along the highway towards me were...figures, at least five creatures walking in a group. I lowered myself to the ground to hide myself; what if they were vicious animals? But as the came closer I could see that they were not, in fact, wild animals. I couldn’t believe my new eyes, small horses… like me? There were others, just like me, walking in the middle of the highway. I stood and cantered forwards, ignoring the obvious sound of my hooves as I moved closer to the other people, after all this time! There were others I could talk to, maybe they were like me and were originally human. Throwing my safety to the wind, I shouted out to them. “Hey! Wait up!” my voice echoed around the quiet night. They didn’t seem to be able to hear me, as none responded. One of them lit up their horn (so we can do magic!) along with all the other unicorns as they formed a circle. “Hello?!” I shouted in desperation. One of the small horses without a horn looked at me just as the light from the unicorns brightened and filled the area, so much so, that I had to look away as it flared into the night. And just as quickly as it had started, it was over. Looking back my heart dropped into my stomach when I found that they were gone. Simply gone. I couldn’t believe it. I was so close… I could have had someone else to talk to… I was alone again. A growl to my left proved that to be a false statement. My blood ran cold and I froze in place. All that shouting seemed to have invited some customers. And I was on the menu. Lifting a hoof up I flicked on my head torch and it shone light ahead to light up the same pack of dogs from two days earlier. As the group of growling mutts began to surround me I noticed that they seemed even more monstrous than they were before. Their eyes were glowing a blood red. Their bodies were stronger and slimmer, and their paws showed large extremely sharp looking claws. These dogs had become killing machines, ‘I was going to die’ I thought as I noticed the blood dripping from their sharp teeth, probably from some other poor animal. “Stay b-back!” I stuttered as they drew closer. It didn’t seem to have any effect, not that I blame them, I didn’t think I was a very imposing figure. Really starting to really panic now, my eyes darted from dog to dog, the blood dribbling down their chins. “Stay BACK!” I bellowed. They came closer and closer, I didn’t want to die this way. I closed my eyes and let a tear fall. Wait a minute… Those other unicorns could do magic, what was stopping me from trying again? Screwing my eyes tighter I strained as much as I could. I’m not sure how I did it, but I could finally feel a tingling going through my body towards my horn. Behind my eyelids I could see the rising flare of green light. Peeking out I cried out in joy as I could see the light from my horn spewing out raw energy. The dogs had stopped now and were regarding me warily. But as my horn grew brighter, they seemed to feel light wasn’t a big deterrent and continued their murderous path. I poured as much as I could into the growing light, but they just kept coming closer. I would have cried in horror if the light from my horn hadn’t continued growing, taking all my energy to hold as it became stronger and stronger. A heavy wind had started to pick up, spinning around me. That pug, now an ugly little creature with glowing red eyes leapt at me, pointed teeth glinting. The shock spiked my horn and it flashed a brilliant green as it exploded out with energy, the pulse sent out blew the whole pack rolling backwards. My horn sputtered out as my whole body shuddered and began to become unresponsive as the fatigue hit me. I fell to the ground, unable to move a muscle. To my horror I saw the group of mutts getting back onto their paws and coming back for their meal which now lay as an easy target. My eyes filled with tears as I admitted defeat, I had no strength left, I couldn’t even lift my head. There was nothing I could do. My world began to fade as my poor mind began to lose consciousness. As I was about to black out completely I heard the flapping of large wings and felt myself lift off the ground. Then I felt no more. Author's Note Ooh, things are starting to get interesting! What new encounter is our protagonist going to face? Find out next time on Chapter Four of Next Stop: Death Central!
