Keep Talking
“Even if it’s just words, every little bit helps...”
“... and I said to her, ‘but this is my dream, can’t I do what I want?’” I joked, chuckling quietly to myself.
It was dark, but not quite night yet. We didn’t need to stop, we’d reach town before the sun disappeared completely. Not that we could see it, through the cloud cover, but I’d learned to tell how close it was to nightfall a long, long time ago.
“You remember that, right?” I asked, looking at my companion as we walked.
She just looked at me, her expression blander than normal. Forcing up her slack jaw, she grunted, shrugged, then turned back to the road.
It was an old one, one we’d walked many times before. The trip was quick, through a bit of ruins to take supplies from one settlement to another. Nothing special, nothing new. The two of us got it done the quickest, and that was always what mattered.
“Fine, be that way,” I snapped, flicking an ear in annoyance. “I’ll just continue.” With a quick gaze across the ruins before us, just to be safe, I set back into my story. “She tells me that it’s inappropriate. That’s why she’s there. Princesses, right? Think they can just barge in whereever they want.” I stomped a hoof. “I get it, she went through some troubling times and wants to help. But my nightmares are mine. I combat ‘em how I like.”
I paused, the same time I did whenever I told the story. It wasn’t a new one, I’d told it hundreds... thousands, of times before. We had a routine. I’d start the story and take a few breaks between snippy comments about the Princesses. Then she’d answer with her thoughts, same every time, and then right back.
Silence answered. Something out of the routine. Once more I scanned the horizon, down the end of the road to the faint lights that gave away the position of our little town. I hadn’t heard any gunshots, and I hadn’t hea- I wasn’t hearing steps on the cracked pavement.
Stopping mid-step, I looked to my side.
Nopony.
“Sugarstep?” I asked cautiously. Eyes widening, worry setting in, I twisted around. Where’d I lost her? I’d just seen her a moment ago. She’d stared at me. She’d grunted. Where...
A short ways back, she stood in the center of the road. Staring down, ears drooping, the mare just swayed a bit.
“Thank Celestia,” I rasped, walking over to the ghoul mare. It was a weight off my shoulders. “You scared me for a second there. Though I’d lost you for a minute. You know, I always worry about you wandering off.” Chuckling a bit, I stepped over beside her and gently bumped her shoulder with mine.
It wasn’t smart, both of us had dry, paper-thin skin, but that bit of contact always helped.
She didn’t respond, just stuck a hoof out to catch her balance. An impulse. Nothing more.
“Oh no, no no...” I whispered, that worry I’d had only a moment before turning into panic. Already the knots were forming in my belly. Sidestepping a bit, I twisted around so we were facing one another. Alone on the old highway, near nightfall, just far enough away from town that... Well.
I didn’t want to consider my options just yet.
Instead, I sat down in front of her. My tail twisted around my haunches on its own, what was left of it anyway. Reaching rotten hooves up, I grabbed onto her cheeks. It took little force, but I lifted her head up so I could see her eyes.
While they’d always been hazed over and unfocused, they looked blank now. Empty. Nopony home.
When? Had we gone that long without rolling in any waste or something? No. It couldn’t be, I felt fine. I wanted to tap my own head a few times, make sure I wasn’t hallucinating or something. But I couldn’t let her go.
“Sugarstep, say something. Talk to me,” I begged. “I need you to say something. Say my name. Say hi, anything.”
Her wobbling was all I got in response. Even with her face held in my hooves, she gently swayed side to side. Her lips twitched, her eyelids fluttered, but she said not a word. Not even a breath. Not that we really needed it anymore, just like we didn’t need food or sleep, but... It was a bad sign.
Sparking up what little magic I had left, I unclipped my holster. Nothing more. No jumping to conclusions.
“C’mon, you remember? The nightmares? Back before the world ended?” I muttered, trying to jog her memory. I wanted to shake her. “The double date? That time we accidentally got invitations to the Grand Galloping Gala? They were addressed to the house across the street but I got them instead?”
A flicker in her eyes, she looked up at me. It was only for a second, before she seemed to slump, but that was enough.
“I took you cause I didn’t have a colt I was fancying.” I continued. “You remember, I know you do. What happened when we got to the door?”
Questions would help. She had to answer. I waited.
Nothing.
No, no no... This was bad. I squeezed her cheeks and shook gently.
“Dammit you old nag! Think!” I yelled. “I know you’re in there. Tell me, what happened at the Gala entrance?” Nearly hysterical, I dropped her cheeks and let her head hang. Suddenly, I didn’t know what to do with my hooves. I flailed, I bucked, twitching in a panic. Tapping them together, I looked down at the holster.
I couldn’t.
But what would I do without her? Our routine. We had a thing. Without her, I had nopony for the back and forth. And if I couldn’t talk to somepony who knew all the in jokes and backgrounds and everything...
I’d...
My horn lit, practically on its own, magic surging. Hesitantly, I pulled the little pistol from the holster. It was a special one, given to me by my father during the war.
‘Emergency use only,’ he’d said...
“Sugarstep, hey...” I said, clopping my hooves together in front of her face.
Jolting back, the ghoul mare stared at me. Startled, good. It was... well it was something.
“What happened, at the Gala?” I repeated, slower than before. “It caused all the trouble, right? But the Princess thanked us later...”
She looked to the side, still swaying. One of her forehooves raised, slowly, to her face. She pushed at her forehead, as if adjusting a mane she no longer had. In the haze of her blue eyes, I searched for something. Anything. Just a little hint that she was still home in there.
Rasping, and dropping her hoof, she swung her head around to the other side. Her jaw worked up and down, twisting the rotten flesh of her face about.
I... couldn’t take the chance. If not for me, or for herself, for any living pony who might find her. Feral ghouls were bad news for both our kinds. Mine, because it meant a normal pony might start expecting to find more, and theirs because, well... I’d seen what happened to ponies who crossed paths with feral ghouls and lost.
“Do you want me to?” I asked. “Do you need me to?” Carefully, I lifted my gun into the air, and swung it around to her head. “One shot, right? No need to make it more painful for you or... well, anypony else.”
Better I put a bullet in her head and end it fast, than somepony else take out her legs or use something crude like a pipe. She didn’t deserve a slow death.
So I put the gun up in the air, aimed right at her head. One shot, nice and quick.
“C’mon, I’m giving you every chance here,” I begged. I wanted to... I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t. Tears dried up a long time ago, before even my mane and tail fell out. So I steeled myself. “Sugarstep...”
Swinging her head around, she stared right at me.
“I...”
Clenching her eyes shut, she shook her head side to side with such ferocity I thought she might tear it off. She was far too old to be moving around like that.
“Sugarstep!” I shouted, standing up and taking a step back. “Sugar...”
“Balk...” she rasped, her voice weak. She opened her eyes, stared at me. There was some blue in there again, just a little peeking out from behind the haze.
“Sugarstep, hi...” I said, behind a sigh of relief.
Her expression turning to confusion, she looked around. “Why’d we stop? It’s getting late...” she chided. “Aren’t we supposed to be back before nightfall?”
“What can I say, we got a little distracted?” I joked...
She coughed, her whole body shuddering as she did. “Yeah, I guess... My head feels like it’s full of cobwebs and bad Nightmare Night taffy,” she complained. “Let’s hurry back.” Patting me on the shoulder gently, she smiled. “And what’s with the magic?” The mare just rolled her hazy blue eyes at me, sidestepped and walked past me.
I stared at the barrel of my own gun. One bullet, it was more than enough for both of us...
Afterall, without the routine, I’d have followed her. She’d come back to me, we were good. For now. It was only a matter of time... I slammed the pistol back into the holster and clipped it closed again. Emergency use only.
“After we drop off the goods, want to see about heading to the bad parts of town and get a healthy dose of ghoulifying radiation?” I asked, jogging to catch up to her.
“Sounds like a plan,” she answered, turning and smiling back at me.
Thank Celestia.
