Aegis

.
.
Isolation

The surrounding darkness came down on the five foals as a thick blanket of fear. Their search had been fruitless, so far. For more than half an hour, they had checked in every trash can they came across, but all of them were either empty or filled with cardboard and wrappers. Sometimes there was a crumpled sandwich package or a crushed tin of their favourite lemonade teasing them, but no actual food. Fear of starving got added to their fear of the darkness as time passed and it didn't take much longer until they resigned and slumped to the floor.

“We won't find anything.....” Starlet Radiance breathed weakly, holding her stomach that emanated a grumble.

Fast Bun and Curtain Call were sitting back to back on the floor. They responded with weary nods. Corn Pops' response came in the form of crying.

“Is dis really it?” Babs asked. “We can't give up searchin'.” But even Babs was not able to get up, despite the motivating words she just spoke.

Minutes went by without any of the foals moving and their fear of the darkness became fully replaced by the fear of dying from starvation and thirst. All of them felt weak and their eyes became heavy. Just as his eyes were about to fall shut, Curtain Call noticed something in their corner. Looking up, he forced his eyes open and stared right into what his attention had been caught by.

“W-Whawt's dis?” he asked, in a drowsy, distant voice.

A light shone into the hallway, mere meters away from them. Curtain's friends followed his glance, too exhausted to care, but too curious to ignore his discovery. At first they thought it was the light of the moon that shone into the mall somewhere. But after a minute, they realized that it came out of a door. None of them had noticed that a door had been opened. It was a supposedly scary occurrence in the mall that was abandoned except for them and a lazy, sleeping night guard, but nonetheless, they felt suddenly drawn to this light like moths.

One after another, they got up and staggered to the open door and its inviting light. There were no sounds coming from behind the door, but as they got closer, they could see that it belonged to a diner. Pictures of hayburgers, fries and milkshakes were drawn on the window right next to the door and it made their mouths collect water.

“Why is it still awpen?” Fast Bun questioned, but only a small part of her mind cared about getting an answer. She could have asked who had turned on the light or who had opened the door, but these were questions that did not even occur to the starving filly.

As they stood in front of the door and took a look inside, their exhaustion was like blown away by what they saw..... One of the tables, a large one in the middle of the diner, was decked out in food! Five trays stood on top of it and on each of them were two hayburgers, still inside their wrappers, a large box of fries and a huge cup. Their mouths fell open at the sight and their stomachs grumbled even louder than before. Drool began trickling from their lips and they wiped it away with one hoof.

“What is it doin' hea?” Babs wondered, as they crept closer to their find.

A remaining sense of caution made them approach the table carefully but neither of them could escape from what they saw, especially not as they noticed the smell. As soon as it entered their nostrils, it became clear to them that the hunger did not give them hallucinations. The food was real and it beckoned them to come closer.

“Maybe the ponies who sat here didn't finish and the staff forgot to put it away,” Starlet suggested.

“But, like, awll awf it?” Bun questioned. “Nothin' is missin'.” She reached out to the food and touched one of the hayburgers. A comfortable warmth caressed her hoof. “And it's hawt!” she shouted, surprised. “Just like it was served awnly now!”

Starlet shrugged. “I only care about it dat it's dere.” The other foals did not move just yet, but she sat down on one of the chairs, unwrapped one of the burgers and bit into it demonstratively. “Mmmmmmm,” she moaned in delight, closing her eyes.

“Should we take dis?” Babs asked. But instead of Starlight, it were their stomachs that answered.

Reminded on their hunger again, Curtain Call, Fast Bun, Corn Pops and Babs finally sat down, too, and reached for a burger on their own. As soon as they had bitten into it, the same sounds of delight came from their mouths. It took each of them mere seconds until the first burger was gone. They reached out for the cup and gulped down some of the juicy content of it. Only then they noticed that their thirst was almost worse than their hunger. None of them questioned the unexpected feast anymore and they kept eating away at it, wordlessly.

After half of their portions were gone, they leaned back in their chairs, rubbing their full bellies. Curtain Call gave way to a tiny burp, which was rewarded with a poke into the side by Fast Bun. “Dis was good,” he said, ignoring the poke.

Their moods had significantly increased since the moment they realized that they had become locked in the mall. They felt so comfortable now, that none of them even bothered to get up and close the door of the diner. After another round of sips from their cups, the diner was filled with munching sounds again as the foals began to slay the rest of the food they had so luckily found.

Only one of them wasn't eating anymore all of a sudden. The worst hunger gone, Corn Pops became more aware of the situation again. “I-I miss mommy..... I-I w-want to go h-home.....” he began to whimper.

His friends looked at him. Starlet rolled her eyes. “You're the only awne crying all the time..... Can't you go five minutes without staining everything with tears?”

Corn Pops looked straight at her, hurt in his eyes. But Starlet Radiance did not flinch or change her disapproving scowl.

“Hey!” Fast Bun scolded her. “Don't be like dis, okay? He's just afraid, dat's no reason to be nasty. Awlso.....” She looked down at the table for a moment. “Don't act like you don't miss yawh parents right now.” Bun dropped her head and eyed the tabletop with a sad expression. Babs, Curtain Call and Corn Pops reacted the same way.

“My parents always prawtect me when oda foals pick on me,” Babs said and her ears dropped.

“And mom neva says 'no' to anythin' I'm askin' heh,” Curtain Call added.

“I miss the lullabies.....” Corn Pops leaned forward and rested his head on the table, new tears flowing from his eyes.

Starlet Radiance's face faltered, the sentence of the other filly still ringing in her head. Her mouth twisted and began to point downwards, the skin around it wrinkling, forming a heartwrenching frown. Under the short hairs in her face, the skin took on a red color and her eyes became narrow. A second later, big tears dropped out of them and onto the table. Starlet looked down and started to shake.

“O-Of course I miss dem,” she said, her voice distorted. “I-I miss dem more dan a-anything.....”

Fast Bun held a hoof at her mouth. Shocked, she stared at the filly whose mood had changed so drastically. “Starlet.....” she whispered, her eyes becoming watery. “I'm sawrry for sayin' dis, I didn't know you take it so hard.” She watched her friend at the other side of the table with a mix of compassion and guilt.

Starlet did not respond. She covered her eyes with her hooves and started to cry, loudly and without restraint. Her ears flattened.

Babs looked over to the distraught filly, then she cleaned her hooves improvisedly by wiping them over her coat. “I'll go and check the night guard,” she announced. “Maybe he finally woke up to let us out.

The rest of the foals, save for Starlet, nodded and Babs slipped down from her chair. She flashed a sad glance at Starlet Radiance before she trotted out of the diner.

She wasn't sure if it was a good idea to go alone. It was just an empty mall and Babs was aware that being inside of it at night was very likely safer than being outside of it, with Manehattan's high crime rate. It was a thought that did nothing to soothe her. But despite the uncomfortable, eerie feeling that was crawling all over her skin, her way back to the night guard's office was completely uneventful. Only an occasional strange, high-pitched noise that sounded like it came from nowhere and from everywhere at the same time startled her, but it was calm otherwise.

Unfortunately, it was apparently calm enough to sleep too, as Babs found the guard still motionless in his chair. Like the last time she was here, Babs pounded against the glass, twice as hard now as she was the only one doing it. But nothing happened. No matter how much noise she made, the guard did not wake up or move. Starlet's words entered her memory, but she shook them off.

“Great, so much for dat,” she said, dejectedly. Babs blew a few strands of mane out of her face. “At least we aren't hungry anymore.....” She turned away from the window and began to make her way back to the diner. It was as uneventful as before, eerie silence wrapping around her.

“Sorry, guys,” Babs said as she trotted through the door into the brightly lit diner again. “The guard's still sleepin' and I couldn't wake him up, so I guess we–” The words got stuck in her throat as her eyes fell on the table. It was empty!

Babs blinked to make sure that what she saw was right. And the sight remained. The seats her friends had sat on just a few minutes earlier were all empty and even the food was gone.

“Guys?” Babs asked. “What is goin' on?” She looked at the empty table, puzzled and in disbelief. “Where are you?” she shouted. “Guys?”

There was no answer. Babs was alone in the diner now.

At the large table, Curtain Call, Fast Bun and Corn Pops continued to eat the remnants of their food while they listened morosely to Starlet's intense weeping.

“I wawnda where Babs is..... What is takin' heh so lawng?” Curtain broke the silence after a few minutes.

“I don't know.....” Bun answered. “If she doesn't show up soon, we should go lookin'.” She gazed out the window, checking if their friend returned. “But I'm sure she's ahrite,” she added then. “Maybe it's a good sign dat she's takin' sor lawng. Maybe she, like, talks with da guard.”

Curtain Call nodded, absentmindedly. The colt looked out the window, too. All of a sudden, Curtain's face became brighter. “Dere!” he shouted.

Fast Bun's head shot up and she followed his hoof into the direction he was pointing at. “What? Is Babs returnin'?”

Curtain shook his head. “No, but dere was, like, a shadow on da wawll awva dere! It was big and it was a pawny, I'm sure it was da night guard!” Before Fast Bun could say anything else, Curtain Call jumped up and ran out of the diner.

As fast as his chubby legs could carry him, he ran after the shadow that he could see in the distance. He could not quite catch up with it, but he didn't leave it out of his sight. The shadow took a turn to the right and disappeared in a corridor. Increasing his tempo, Curtain Call followed it. But as he had entered the corridor himself, all he saw were the metallic doors of an elevator.

The corridor was a short one and there weren't any doors, so Curtain Call approached the elevator and pushed the button. But the lights above the door stayed dark and the elevator wasn't making any sounds.

“Where did he go?” Curtain muttered, now out of breath.

Unsure what to do now, the colt pondered his options but realized soon that all he could do was returning to the diner and so, that's what he did. He expected an upset question by Fast Bun because he had left so suddenly but when he entered the diner, he was greeted by a surprising silence. A silence that was caused by an empty table, as he realized almost immediately.

“Uh.....” he stared at the table blankly. “Bun?” He trotted up to the table, wheezing, and sat down on his chair. Curtain looked around. “Pops? Star? Where did you go?”

A shudder went down his spine, as he fully realized that nopony was here anymore. More unsettling than that, though, was his realization that even the table was empty now. “Hey, why is, like, awll da food gone?” he yelled and frowned. He was still feeling a decent amount of hunger.

Neither of his questions got answered. He had to admit it, he was alone in the diner now.

The three remaining foals began to feel cold. Starlet's weeping had become reduced. She was still whimpering, but how she wiped the last tears off her reddened eyes now indicated that she was recovering from her crying fit.

“Do you feel betta now?” Fast Bun asked her. She gave her a smile, one that she tried to make look as uplifting as possible.

“Uh-hm.” Starlet Radiance and her lips formed a crooked smile.

“I'm sure Babs will return with da night guard soon,” Bun tried to further calm the other filly. “Then we can awll go hawme!”

Starlet Radiance sniffed and a few more tears trickled out of her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away. “You're..... You're right,” she pressed out.

It became silent again in the diner, that is, until Corn Pops began to make himself heard. Starlet and Bun looked up at him as he erupted into another round of whimpers.

“W-W-W-Where are Babs and Curtain?” he began to stutter. “Why didn't dey return? Something has t-taken dem.....”

Now it was Fast Bun who rolled her eyes, but she tried to do it in a funny and ridiculous way. “Come on!” she said. “Dat's just silly, it's awnly us and da night guard in hea! Dere is nothin' dat could take dem, Pops!” She reached out and patted his back, reassuringly.

The touch made him twitch. “B-But what if? You heard the sounds, too.”

As if on cue, a loud, metallic creaking entered the ears of the foals. It increased Corn Pops' heartbeat and the little colt jumped up. “Dat's it!” his voice shrieked. “It's here!”

He left his chair and galloped for the door, loudly screaming. His panic was taking him away from the diner quickly and soon, the sounds of his hooves and his screams had become faint in the distance.

Corn Pops ran and ran, the lit-up shop windows blurring past him. It took him several minutes to realize where he was and as he did, he skidded to an abrupt halt. “N-No.....” he whimpered, as he looked around, seeing that he was alone in the darkness now. He did not waste any time on thinking what to do, instead, his panic made his hooves moving again and he ran back the way he had come.

As he saw the illuminated door of the diner in front of him, he did a leap and jumped right into it. Hastily, he got up and smashed the door shut. “Bun, Starlet, please, we need to go and find a way out of the mawll!” he shouted as he turned around. And his eyes fell on an empty table.

Corn Pops twitched. “BUN? STARLET?!” He gulped and his whole body started to shake. “Dat's not funny, come back, please come back!” he began to mutter. As he did not receive a response and Fast Bun and Starlet Radiance did not show up again, he crouched down on the floor and covered his head with his hooves.

“Please, come back! P-Please.....”

Fast Bun looked at the open door of the diner and sighed. “He shouldn't go alawne..... He's goin' to, like, wet his coat out dere.” A nervous smile appeared in her face and her upper lip twitched slightly.

The remark caused a giggle by Starlet Radiance, who had fully calmed down now. She received a glare from Fast Bun and stopped. “I go and bring him back,” Starlet announced more seriously then.

Fast Bun nodded. “Okay. I'll go to da toilet in da meantime.” She looked at her empty tray. As the only one of them, she had eaten everything that was on it.

Starlet gave her a nod in response. “It won't take lawng, I bet Corn Pops didn't come far with all his fear. I'll be back soon.” She got up and left the diner.

As Starlet was out of sight, Bun stood up, as well. She trotted around the counter and approached the door that had a sign with a red mare on it. Swiftly, she disappeared inside.

Starlet Radiance searched the mall around the diner in a narrow radius. The darkness made seeing hard, but she knew that she could rely on Corn Pops' crying to lead her to him. Except, there was no crying. The mall around her was completely quiet, even the creaking sound did not return. The longer her search took, the more impatient Starlet became. About ten minutes had passed when she decided to stop bothering.

“Okay, dat's enough,” she said. “He should be back in the diner by now.”

Starlet turned around and went back herself. As she had entered the diner again, she was greeted by loneliness. “Dey're all gone.....” she observed while looking around. Tired of searching, Starlet Radiance sat down at the empty table.

The door of the toilet opened again and Fast Bun came out of it. She sighed in relief and brushed some remaining water off her hooves. “Still nawt back?” she wondered as she was in front of their table. She wrinkled her forehead. “Why are da trays gawne?” she asked out loud. “Starlet? Corn Pops? Did you, liker return and put da trays away?” Neither of them answered.

“Hmm.....” Fast Bun approached her chair, having decided to wait for the return of her friends, as she felt a cold chill on her back. Instinctively, the filly turned around. As her eyes fell on the wall behind the table, she did a step back.

The wall had changed. Something was written on it now, in crooked, red letters. This clearly hadn't been there a moment ago and Fast Bun was unsure what to make of it, while a feeling of dread began to crawl through her insides. She inspected the letters. Her reading skills from preschool proved just enough to identify what was written there.

“A-E-G-I-S,” she read, loud and slow. Her mouth scrunched. “Aegis? What does dat mean?”

Right when she had spoken out the last word, something else changed. Her vision became blurry suddenly, then black at its edges. Fast Bun began to feel dizzy. She stumbled backwards, attempting to sit down on her chair. But before she could reach it, everything went black around her. The last thing she heard was the dull sound of her body hitting the floor of the diner.

Her faint made her miss the cold eyes that were staring at her.