Seven Ways To Heaven

As the two stared at the rose bubble, shouts echoed from the cars near the front of the train. The screaming of the brakes stopped as the train lurched forward, stopping completely as they went silent. Both Bored and the human stared the door to the forward car, waiting for someone to come through.

The human glanced from the door to the window, looking out over the fields that stretched until a number of buildings rose from the dirt. A small town from the looks of it.

"It looks pretty big for a small town though." He shrugged. "Maybe I'll just go live there instead." It may be a small town, but at least it wasn't the site of what looked like a large scale invasion.

Bored turned her head towards him. "What are you on about? There's a war going on outside an you talking about living arrangements?"

He stood up, shaking his head as he did so. "They wouldn't like me. Small towns never really liked those kinds of..." As his mind wandered, his body recoiled as something struck his face. Burning his face like a hot brand, he yelled through gritting teeth, "What the fuck was that?!" He looked to Bored, who only sat there with her eyebrows raised and mouthing the word 'oh'. Her rear planted on the wooden table just in front of him. Reaching up to his face, he moved a finger to touch where she had struck, only to hiss as his finger touched an open wound. It wasn't big but it wasn't little either.

"I'm so sorry!" She shouted quickly as she sat back down in her seat. "I just thought that–"

"In no way, shape, or form, is sucker punching me going to help this situation!"

"It was just supposed to be a light slap..." Bored said, lowering her gaze.

"Excuse me..." Somebody spoke from the aisle. The voice clicked and moaned as if they had something stuck in their throat.

"Hold up one second," He replied, "Listen, next time you want to let out your inner dominatrix, do me a favor, hit somebody else. I am extremely fragile when compared to you guys. You can break open rocks with your hooves!"

"Are you done?" The voice asked.

Turning to his left, his gaze fell on the... thing in the aisle. Jet black with eyes that seemed like a summer's sky on the outer edges, leading into a snowy white center. It looked like a pony, but if a pony was hairless, and had fins atop its head, and fangs that stuck out from underneath the top lip. All in all, it looked like a pony had got hit with the ugly stick.

"What the fuck are you?" He asked, the corner of his lip slowly rising at the sight of the strange creature.

It glared at him. "Rude, what the fuck are you?"

"Perfection given form... So what's going on? The train being delayed because of what's going on outside?"

"You could say that," the creature said, a fang-filled smirk on its face. "You're a hostage now."

His eyes widened, watching other ponies enter the once lonely car. All of them being filed through the walkway and through the backdoor to the storage car. "I'm a hostage? That's pretty neat."

The creature scoffed. 'Yeah, neat." The horn atop its head ignited with a sickly bluish-green. "Now be a good monkey and take your mare with you to the back of the train."

"Look here," he said before rising from his seat. "I don't appreciate being called a–" but before he could finish, he was thrown back, his head ringing as glass shattered against the back of his head. The wind whistled in his ears

"I don't care about what you appreciate, pick up your bitch and go to the back of the train."

"Who are you calling a bi–" Thrusting his hand out, he cut Bored off.

"It's all good," he hissed as he used the other hand to rub the back of his head. There was definitely blood, if the warmth dripping down the back of his neck was anything to go by. "I don't want any more trouble." He looked over to Bored who only stared back with furrowed brows and teeth bared.

"But–"

He slammed his free hand against the table. "But nothing. Just do as he says." He rose from his seat, giving his head one lat rub before letting his hand drop back to his side. Glancing down to confirm his suspicions, as his gaze fell on the blood that stained the palm of his hand. Walking into the aisle, he watched the strange creature back off, its horn still glowing with the magic it used to blast him. Turning his head, he stepped towards Bored, bringing his arm around her barrel and lifting her.

"Let me go, I can walk just fine!" Bored yelled in protest, flailing her hooves to get free from his grip.

"Listen," he hissed. "There are a lot of things going on right now, and I really don't feel like angering a horned bug."

She didn't reply.

Reaching out with his stained hand, he opened the door to the next car, only to meet a group of bound and gagged ponies. Their hooves bound by some kind of weird dark-green goop while their eyes and mouths were blocked by what he assumed was a white cloth. Looking to the jet-black ponies, he counted five minus the on behind him. There were two that were larger than the others, and one that seemed to be dwarfed by the rest. Beyond that, they all looked exactly the same. Sky-blue eyes, fangs protruding from underneath their top lip. With some sort of fin decorating each side of their heads like a makeshift ear. "Kinky," he muttered.

A laugh barked from behind him. "I like you, monkey."

"I love you too, bug-pony."

A number of the creatures chittered at this, their wings twitching madly. "Word of warning though," he felt a hoof on the small of his back. "Don't ever call us that again." The creature pushed him into the room. There were no tables, no seats whatsoever, it looked more like a car for big cargo, stuff passengers couldn't keep with them in the more populated residential cars. Luckily for the train hijackers there wasn't much in there, leaving enough room for the hostages.

Stepping towards the group of ponies. he watched their ears swivel towards him. Letting Bored go, he turned back to the creatures. "So what now?" He asked.

One of them stepped forward, raising a hoof to Bored. "Lie down and put your hooves together."

Bored did as she was told, grumbling as the creatures spat the same dark-green stuff that bound the others. Her mumblings were quieted as her mouth was gagged. Losing her sight as one of the creatures slipped a cloth over her eyes.

Once finished binding Bored, the same creature looked to him. "You next." It buzzed over to him its insect wings becoming a blur for but a moment before folding back onto its body. Its hoof brushes his leg as if it wanted to push him down.

He nods. Sitting down, he puts his wrists together and holds them outward, presenting them to his captors. The bug opens its mouth and begins coating his forearms with the same goop used on the others. But something went wrong. He watched the spit solidify for only a moment before turning to dust. With wide eyes he stares down at his dirtied, unbound hands.

"Defiler!" A voice shouts.

A number of cries and hisses drown his thoughts as a warmth spreads through his shoulder. Looking to his right, he peers into a single one of those giant sky-blue eyes, the maw of the very same creature wrapped around his shoulder with blood spilling from between the lips and his shirt. He reaches up to pry the creature off of him with a quick swipe. He screams as the teeth that were buried in his shoulder tore away, leaving another gash hidden underneath his now blood stained clothes.

Jumping to his feet with the bug hanging loosely from his shoulders, he throws himself back, the wind evacuates his lungs as the changeling on his back slams into him. He feels the bug's grip on his body slip away, followed by a thud at his feet. He could hear his heart pounding in his head, but nothing else. The hisses of the bugs, the cries of the ponies, all of it was gone. He could see those terrified eyes, the teeth baring glares, all were on him. This was something he hadn't felt in a long time, a comfortable life in the city left him complacent, unprepared for the moment he'd realize once more that this peaceful world, was not so peaceful.

So he ran. Sprinting to the car door, he threw it open with a swing of his arms before slamming it shut behind him. Running to the next car door only to repeat the same process. He could hear the crackling of fire with every step that sent him further into the train. The wood beneath his feet warped and snapped, letting embers rise from below like orange fireflies lighting the night. His heart pounded harder, trying to escape his chest and leave him behind as fear rattled both mind and body. He could hear them again, their cries of anger, disgust. They wanted him to burn. They couldn't get him last time so they came back to finish the job.

Slamming the door behind him one last time, he turned around to face the controls to the train, a sea of levers, dials, and switches. A muffled cry at his feet snaps him from his venom induced stupor. Looking down he sees a pale yellow stallion bound and gagged staring up at him, this must have been the conductor. Reaching down, he tore away the cloth gag. "Which one is the gas?!" He yells at the pony in his shaking hands. There was a reason those bug ponies stopped the train.

"What?!"

"We've got to go, how do I make it go?!"

"Just press that lever forward and pull that one back!" The conductor motions to the two levers on the floor just in front of him with quick nods of his head.

Doing just as the conductor said, he felt the train lurch forward, coming back to life as the engines dull rumble became a heavy, ground shaking roar. Falling back against the door, he stared out the window, watching the world go by faster with every passing second, the door at his back shook violently as the bugs tried to get in. He heard the window above his head shatter before shards of glass rained onto his lap. Craning his neck, he spied those hole ridden hooves reaching in, each one pushing and shoving past the other frantically. Muffled hisses and shrieks tore through the window that the inky black appendages were shoved through.

None of this drowned out his heart, the constant drumming in his chest now accentuated by the heavy gasping breaths he was heaving. Darkness seeped around the corners of his vision, no matter how hard he breathed, it never seemed to be enough for his hungry lungs. Turning his head back, he sat and watched the pink dome close in on the front of the train. His vision fading as the beat of his heart became a hum. His world devoured by the color of rose before he fell away. The venom finally taking him.