Chapter One - Square Zero
THE NEVER LiST / THE PRELUDE // CHAPTER ONE - SQUARE ZERO
Caramel shot up from his sleep, escaping from the realms of his nightmare. He slipped out from under his torn bed cover and shook his head, his hair being flung about crazily.
The earth pony stood at his new house’s broken window. He stared at the unblinking moon as he recollected his thoughts. The nightmare had shaken him pretty bad.
Except for it wasn’t a nightmare.
Caramel hurried to grab his leather holster, and threw it over his back. He then picked up a fully loaded magnum and slipped it in the brown holster before securing it. He rushed outside, forgetting to lock the door behind him.
About two hundred feet away from the farm he worked at, Caramel could smell what the local ponies had been hollering about. The fire. Reaching the end of a path as it turned into a grass field, Caramel could see the entire view of the Tailwhisp Woods farm. Boulders of smoke broke out of waves of unforgiving flames, and the smouldering heat added to the disability of the fireponies not being able to kill the monster. The main barn and financial building, which stood in the center of the vast field, weren't standing anymore. The fire had shredded it to a flattened pile of black wood and bent metal, which easily convinced anypony to stay away from the site for a while. Crops that were a good distance from the fire were already being chopped down, for they would have to be moved to another farm.
Caramel just stood at his position in the grass and watched the monster destroy his workplace. Emptiness filled his mind through his blank stare. Emptiness was going to be in his future, because the financial building where he had entrusted everything to the Tailwhisp Woods had been devoured.
He had lost everything.
Caramel had tired himself out with the sudden memories, and decided to go back to bed. Fear still remained in him, though he should have been used to the two months of living with nothing that he was experiencing.
After tossing and turning underneath his makeshift cover, he finally drowned in a peaceful sleep. His stomach screamed in pain, his mind was on a loose end, and he was shivering -- but that didn’t stop him from taking the rest of the night off. Tomorrow he will have work to do.
Caramel woke up at the crack of dawn. He plainly stretched and got out of bed as if he was programmed to do so. He had already adapted to waking up on a truly empty stomach and a tired brain. He made his way outside of the broken down barn that he had slept in. You may be wondering why Caramel would be sleeping in a barn far away from the main streets of Ponyville, instead of living with another pony. You will find out.
Pulling a bucket out of a well, Caramel lifted the water-filled tin out of the hole, handle in his mouth. He placed his hooves on the sides of the bucket and poured the water over his head, drenching his mane. He had his head over the well, holding the overturned bucket above his head.
CLANG!
The tin bucket sprung off of Caramel’s head with a denting noise, and he ducked behind the stone wall of the well, instinctively. A gunshot. Caramel reasoned that running back to the barn to get his gun was of no use, so he poked his head up from the wall just to see who it was before taking cover again.
It was Lucky, prone on the grass with a rifle in his hands. Caramel got up from his cover, breathing in relief.
Lucky threw his rifle over his back and approached Caramel with a greeting.
“Hard times man, hard times,” was all that he said as Caramel picked the slightly dented bucket up, inspecting the mark.
“Don’t worry ‘bout it; I wasn’t using real shots.” Lucky stressed the word “worry”.
Caramel shrugged, putting the bucket back into the well. “What are you doin’ up this early, Lucky? I’m the one that has a heavy schedule.”
Lucky slightly chuckled at what Caramel said. “I came down here to see if you had gotten those letters yet.”
Caramel looked at his friend in confusion. “Letters?”
“Yeah, the names you wanted. The letters had ten of them on there. And since you clearly don’t have ten bullets, I decided to loan you a hoof.
Caramel was displeased by Lucky wanting to work with him. He didn’t want to pull his best friend into the mess that he was trapped in; there was simply no way out.
“Lucky, look here,” Caramel started. “I can’t take you with me; you might not come out of this alive. Shit, I don’t even know if I’m coming out of this alive.” He forced a chuckle. “And besides, imagine how depressed Shoeshine would be if she found that her special somepony was found dead on the side of a road.”
Lucky thought hard for a second before answering. For his answer, he simply raised his rifle and quickly put a split in the center of a wooden plank that was sticking up from a field that lay beyond. “I have the skills,” he said.
Caramel shook his head. “Lucky, how’s about you go get those names I wanted for me. The post office probably doesn’t even want my name in this town anymore.”
Lucky waved him off. “Naw, man. It’s just probably Derpy forgetting about where your new house is, again. She doesn’t do well will ponies moving.”
“I guess you’re right.” Caramel grabbed the rifle off of Lucky’s shoulder, raising it to his eye level. His grasping hoof pulled back on the trigger, sending a penetrating shot through the exact spot where Lucky had shot the wooden plank.
“Lucky shot.”
Caramel laughed, handing Lucky his gun back. “No, that’s your job.”
The pegasus’ body smacked the ground, blood spurting out of a twisted hole in his chest. He gasped, but caught no air to no avail. Blood streamed down his ribs, creating a deathly pool around his body. He reached for his rifle, but failed; the tan earth pony was standing above him with an outreached pistol.
CRACK.
The unicorn’s head jerked back and made contact with the ground, blood rushing from the hole above his left eye. The earth pony reloaded his weapon, dropping the clip on the mangled body of blood and feathers. What a pitiful sight. The stallion slipped his pistol back into his holster, muttering something. He then tipped his black hat to the dead pegasus before spitting a sunflower seed next to the body.
“This town is full o’ dread like this, lil’ Apple,” he said, glancing back at his shivering daughter. He spit on the ground. “We gotta watch our tails -- keep a good eye out for them intruders.”
The small filly nodded bravely. She pulled a sharp splinter out of her side with her teeth.
“Now all we gotta do’s find our way to Ponyville,” the tense stallion said. He motioned for his still daughter to follow him as he walked over to an undecorated carriage. The filly followed close behind, not wanting to get swallowed by the angry fog and gun smoke that surrounded the two. She tried her hardest not to look at any of the corpses as she jumped into the carriage, cuddling with her small doll. The carriage took off.
After travelling for about fifteen minutes, the stallion looked back at his wide awake daughter. “Apple,” he said.
Apple Tiny looked up at her father. “Yes, Apple Cutter?”
“I just want ‘cha to know how much I care about ya. I care about you alot.” Apple Cutter abruptly put an end to his love-filled statement, pushing on through the smoke of the dark plains.
Apple Tiny looked down at her doll again, curling its hair. “I know you do daddy. Why are you tellin’ me all this?”
Apple Cutter didn’t look back. “Because, I really do love you, Apple. I just want you to know that. Now we’ll be in Ponyville before you know it, so you can go n’ live with your family at the Sweet Apple Acres. I got to leave you.”
Apple Tiny whimpered.
“Now what did I tell you about cryin’?” Apple Cutter asked his daughter, still focused on making his way through the dangerous terrain.
“Cryin’ is for the weak,” Apple Tiny answered. She held onto her doll tightly, not wanting to let go.
“And you’re not weak.” Finishing his sentence, he turned back to Apple Tiny. “I have to leave you with your family, but know this: I’ll always live inside of your little heart.”
“But why, daddy? Why do ya want to leave me?” Tears pushed through her eyes, and she couldn’t stop them.
Apple Cutter didn’t dare look back at his sad daughter this time. “No. It’s not that I want to leave you, Apple Tiny. I just caint let you travel with me anymore; bad things might happen to ya. And I can’t let that happen. Nu-uh.” Apple Cutter decided to throw a playful tone into his words, trying to cheer Apple Tiny up. He succeeded, and Apple Tiny hugged him on the back of his neck, leaning out of the carriage. Apple Cutter smiled brightly.
Apple Tiny just couldn’t let go. “I love you, daddy.”
A tear started to form in the corner of Apple Cutter’s eyes, and he shook them loose, trying to prevent any more.
Just then, Apple Cutter let out a scream of pain as a bullet struck the right side of his neck. This sent him tumbling to the ground, with Apple Tiny being thrown out of the carriage. She landed about twelve feet away from where her father was laying, and she just watched what happened next.
Two tall stallions emerge from the fog, and one reloads his rifle. The other, a pegasus, pulls a Smith and Wesson from his holster. “Nice shot,” the pegasus says to the grim earth pony.
CLACK.
Apple Tiny jumps from the second gunshot. She silently looks at Apple Cutter as two more shells are put in his gut. She doesn’t cry. She doesn’t even blink.
“Now, you gotta know, our boss has us doin’ this stuff, but hell; I don’t give a damn what I do to ya,” The pegasus taunted the defenseless stallion on the ground.
“Let’s just take it and go. A sheriff's probably near.”
“You’re right.” With that, the pegasus rips the saddlebag and holster from the bleeding earth pony’s body. He then shoots him again. Blood splatters from a tear in Apple Cutter’s shoulder, and sharp bones poke out from the spot of impact. Red liquid continues to squirt out of his neck, along with the two holes filled with stomach acid on his gut. He steadily takes in triumphant breaths.
CRACK.
The pegasus puts a bullet into Apple Cutter again, this time puncturing his lungs. Apple Cutter tries to yell fiercely in pain, but blood spats out of his mouth. He even fails to raise a hoof up to his chest. His life was closing in on him.
Another gunshot sounds, followed by a reload. Apple Tiny couldn’t believe what was going on. They were butchering her daddy. She wished that she could even find words through her shock to call out to him.
“Fuckin’ bastard,” was the last thing the pegasus cursed to the stallion before flying into the fog with his possessions, with the earth pony trotting behind.
After the monsters left, Apple Tiny gained enough strength to make her way up to her dying father. She didn’t cry. She didn’t even blink. She sat down at Apple Cutter’s side, just staring in his eyes, with him looking weakly back at her.
Apple Cutter spits blood out, trying to clear the drowning red liquid from his throat. He shuts his eyes, then opens them. He was running out of breaths, and the two holes in his lungs didn’t make it any easier for the sad stallion. He finally gained enough strength to reach a hoof up to the silently sitting Apple Tiny and stroke her orange mane. He smiled.
Apple Tiny finally moves, putting her hooves on his big hoof. She hugs his leg tightly, then hugs her daddy tightly around the neck. This make Apple Cutter smile brighter than he has ever smiled.
He let more blood stream from his mouth, the rest running out of the holes in his body, the squirting in his neck stopped. He begins to feel light headed, but fights through the looming fate to speak to his daughter for the last time. He clears his throat.
“I love you, too.” Apple Tiny starts to show emotions to his words as tears stream down her face. Apple Cutter wipes her tears away with his trembling hoof, then continues.
“I’m going to a better place now, Apple Tiny, and I’ll *cough* I’ll say howdy to all of our Apple family up there.” Apple Cutter then puts his hoof up to Apple Tiny’s cheek as she still hangs on to his neck in a loving embrace.
Apple Cutter spat blood out and coughed again. Then, with all the power of his heart, he said the final words to his daughter.
“I love you.” Apple Cutter’s eyes slowly closed.
Minutes went by, and Apple Tiny was found standing close to her father’s body. She was crying. She was sobbing. Then his words came to her mind.
“Now what did I tell you about cryin’?”
“Cryin’ is for the weak.”
“And you’re not weak.”...
“I’ll always live inside of your little heart.”...
“I love you.”
The last words echo in her small head, and she slowly takes Apple Cutter’s Black cowpony hat off of his head and places it on her own. The large hat doesn’t fit, but she wears it. She stands next to her father, wearing his hat and holding her doll to her side.
“I love you, too.”
Lucky shoots another wooden plank dead on while Caramel sits on an overturned container, reading the newly arrived postage mail. He writes side notes all over the brown paper full of information with a red pen.
“Says here that there’s this top diamond dog leading the group. His name’s Strikehooves... he’s a unicorn.”
Lucky chuckled under his breath, still shooting at the targets, unloading his rifle. “You know I don’t sit too well with unicorns. Rarity’s the only one I see kind enough,” he said jokingly.
Caramel squinted at the paper. “I still remember that time, Lucky. You could never get over how they broke your windows.”
Lucky smiled as he blew an apple off of a distant fence. “So where’s the crazy train takin’ us this time?” He looks over at Caramel, holding his shot.
“Manehattan,” Caramel says in an emotionless tone.
Lucky winced at the mention of the city, and put his rifle down. “Manehattan? You mean the place where that Changeling almost had your hide?”
Caramel nodded. “We gotta go there if we’re gonna put an end to these crooked dealers and get my old life back.”
Lucky shrugged, and began to reload his gun. “So we’re really goin’ this far to get your old life back, huh?” He then looked at Caramel’s bearding face, and nodded understandingly. “Let’s get you back to my place. You’re starting to look like that one dragon kid I know.”
MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR
I need Fan Art for this.
