Family Ties

It had been quite some time since the news broke. Given our small number basically everypony heard AR when he informed us that I was the last survivor. It hit a few of the others pretty hard. One pony named Vanilla Cream said she had a twin and a big brother. Only her brother made it. To my surprise her brother was AR and he was born only a year earlier. “He’s always been so happy until now.” She told me. “Now he seems obsessed with keeping me safe. We don’t have much food for everypony so he gives me a big portion of his.”

I didn’t really know what to say. AR seemed like the type of pony that would kill you if you touched his glass of cider. “How long have you been down here?”

“About five days. It’s amazing you’re still alive, any other pony would have starved by now!” She exclaimed.

Huh. Five whole days! I should be dead. I didn’t have much time to think about it as the cave suddenly grew silent. Nervous looks were exchanged with the others as AR got up and very carefully tip-hoofed over to the wooden plank. As he got close to it he pressed his ear to the plank’s side. His eyes got real wide real fast and he carefully turned around to face us.

His words were almost to soft to hear. “Nopony make any sudden moves. The Nightmares are right outside and I don’t know if they know we’re here.” Apparently, a teal mare didn’t get the memo.

“What?” That was all it took. That little word ruined everything. The plank shattered and sent AR crashing against a wall. A tall, dark figure with a flowing mane emerged from the opening.

Just one pony. Not a group. Just one. The same mare that was the cause of all this screamed and ran towards another plank in the side of the cave. The dark figure’s head snapped in the direction the mare was. A long vine sprouted out of the ground and grabbed the mare by her back hooves and wrapped around her neck. Two stallions tried to help the choking mare but within seconds the pony’s windpipe was crushed.

Her lifeless body flopped onto the floor, eyes still open.

The three vines selected the two stallions who had attempted to help the dead mare as their next targets. This time Swift fired a beam of magic cutting one of the vines, freeing one stallion. “Open the escape!” He shouted. The stallion did as he was told and removed the plank from it’s resting place. But when he turned to help his choking friend the vines tightened their grip, a crunching sound resounded through the area. It was followed by the snapping of the pony’s spine and one last painful scream of desperation for help. Then his body joined the teal mare as a lifeless husk laying motionless on the ground.

“Get out! What are you waiting for!?” AR screamed. An orange stallion ran out followed by 2 others and Swift. I tried to get Vanilla to move but she was frozen in fear. “Get Vanilla out of here!” AR yelled.

“I’m doing the best I can! She won’t budge!” I replied. “Vanilla let’s go!” A vine sprouted right next to Vanilla and wrapped around her forehooves.

——————————————————————————

I snapped my eyes open to see a whole different reality. A REAL reality. Swift stood over me with onlooking eyes.

“So,” he started, “where’d you get to?” He asked it in a form of sympathy. There was more to this than meets the eye. I had assumed it was just a one-shot feeling and a rush of memories that was over as quickly as it started. I was very wrong in many ways.

“How long am I going to be having these dreams? Or, flashbacks if you will.” I asked him. He put a hoof right above his own eyes. I guess that’s just how he thinks.

“I had them for a day ‘cause I took about ten individual naps. Aimer took about 4 naps and AR took 5 whole days.” He looked back at me, held out a hoof, and helped me up. “Did you experience any pain?”

“Yeah. When I was thrown into the memory my leg was broken and I was covered in cuts and bruises etc. But AR fixed it the same way you patched up Luna. But when the bone clicked into place it was very, very painful.”

Swift seemed to remember something. “When did your memory end?”

This was disturbing to me, the way my memory ended abruptly like that. I did something I thought I wasn’t going to do. I lied. “I ran out of the shelter, right behind you guys. But I stopped.” A spark of doubt flashed across Swift’s face.

“Okay. Anyway we better go see how Aimer is holding up back there. If he’s still alive.”

As if on cue, a thudding resounded through the floorboards. I rolled my eyes and trotted towards the stairs, closely followed by Swift. As we came up the stairs. More thuds echoed through the halls. I could tell that things probably weren’t going Aimer’s way but what I didn’t expect is for Aimer to be tied up with bandages so that his hooves would attach him to a pole that the three alicorns had found.

They carried him upside-down and pranced around the area with Celestia holding the pole up with her magic. Dashie and Luna followed close behind her with makeshift spears that were really just sticks. Luna noticed we had come up the stairs and in response widened her eyes and stopped moving. Dashie And Celestia noticed too so they also stopped moving and stared.

When Aimer finally noticed and gave us a look of desperation. All I could do was laugh and I laughed hard. But Swift fell over laughing.

“Ha ha real funny guys!” Aimer shouted from his side. “Untie me! Untie me now!”