The Silence

by Officer_Sam

Chapter 2 - The Forest

Previous Chapter

[The Android]
It’s raining.
Thunderstorming in fact, but you must get up.

“Core system re-initializing. Standby. Just hold on, and I’ll get the secondary systems up in a second.”

It was my personal AI assistant, a sweet female voice in my head. A comfort when all is so dark and quiet.

“Oh my, it appears your voice module is broken. Vision and hearing should come back online in a second. Movement should be on shortly as well,” pAIA stated.

Comforting knowledge to know anything could be around me.

That’s when I could see, although the ground isn’t what I wanted to see. But considering I can’t move my body just yet, I just have to look as best I can. That’s when I see two small horses, pony size, one could say. I can barely see them out of the corner of my eye. I can see them talking, their mouth moving but of course, I can’t hear yet. They’re both wearing what seem to be raincoats, one of them has some sorta pith helmet on. The other has a brown cowboy hat.

That's when I could hear, the noise pierced me as the system calibrated for all the ambient sounds and such. I could hear the rain and thunderstorms and the faint sound of their voices. I waited for the system to calibrate so I could hear the voices, but they just stopped talking and the one with the brown hat walked off, I could hear the muddy wet steps getting further.

The one wearing the pith turned around and inspected me, unnoticing my moving eye. They moved their hoof towards my holster, they poked it a bit. They seemed unsure of how to take out the gun, if they even knew what a gun was.

“So, I wanted to tell you, You can move now. Just be careful,” pAIA stated.

I can move now. Of course I have to be careful, this pony-like thing is still standing around me. I can sort of make out the yellow on their face, but it’s still a bit dark and rainy. Maybe I can just use one quick swoop to knock them out. But who knows what force I can use, or maybe a distraction.

Fuck it.

I waited for their face to get closer to my holster, they seemed curious and that was fine if they could just keep like that for a second. I quickly attempted to turn and knee them in the head, their pith helmet hit the ground revealing their grey mane. They weren’t knocked out, but shocked and staggered back. They looked at me with large magenta eyes, they seemed fearful, but still determined to win the fight. They proceeded to reveal their wings and they charged forth, as an attempt to knock me out or atleast counter attack, but I cannot allow that. I must block them, I must-

[Combat Module Error - Standby]

“Hold on you blacked out for a few seconds, it seems like the combat module needs modification,” pAIA stated.

Ashame. Here I am standing over a body, uninjured. They couldn’t even harm me, yet the damn combat module was just that much out of calibration.

“Look, I’m sorry I’ll do a full diagnostic. Just keep moving now will you,” pAIA stated.

The body covered in mud and blood, three medium sized bullet wounds, to the face and neck. It is a damn shame, I won’t be on the right foot with whatever these pony things are. However, my pAIA is right, I need to move. That other one could have heard, for guns do produce sound of course.

I put my service pistol into my holster and I started to walk, I have no map and just a compass. At Least I don’t need to eat or drink. But I must keep moving.


[The Human]

It’s raining and you must get up.

I gasped for air as I got my face out of the water and mud. I quickly looked around. Nothing but trees in sight. My back and sides burned from pain, as I looked up I could see the broken branches I fell through.

I tried to get up, but I could only crawl. All I’m wearing is a blue work uniform and some khakis, of course muddied and blood covered but that’s not as big a concern. The fact that it’s cold and raining is the concern, and maybe the fact I’m not in the lab. I lay on the ground for a second and suddenly I could feel my legs better, although a bit weird at first, I could walk decently or more so limp. But it was then I heard three loud pops in the distance, gunshots? I am in a thick muddy forest, could I have been taken to a warzone?

I heard a voice nearby, they said something like what was that. This damned rain is louder than my thoughts. My first instinct is to walk towards the voice, but then again what could it be?

That’s when I probably should be paying attention to footwork rather than inner thoughts, cause I then tripped and let out a girly scream. I heard the voice callout to who's there in response to my scream. I put back against a tree and then I said to myself fuck it, whats the worst that could happen, maybe I can get help out of this muddy hell.

“I’m over here and I’m hurt,” I said aloud.

“Don’t worry Imma comin’,” The voice responded.

After some realization I realized that was indeed a feminine voice, southern accent type. But something was off it didn’t sound human enough, but of course back at work there was a mix of humans and such. But this didn’t sound familiar, it sounded a bit off.

I heard a slight clip clop in the mud coming closer. Which is strange, it didn’t sound like normal footsteps in mud. So I tried to get up and realized my legs failed me. So I looked to my right where I heard them approaching, and saw a pony like figure, that seemed a pastel orange with blonde mane, a brown cowgirl hat and a brown raincoat.

Now I’ve seen my fair share of aliens, but a fucking pony? That was unheard of, could I be ina different fucking reality? Or some far off planet? So many questions but there is burning pain in my legs. Maybe that should be a priority instead of these damn questions.

“What’re you? I’ve never seen anything like you,” The pony said in surprise.

“And I’ve never seen anything like you,” I responded also in surprise, for this is a surprise.

We looked at each other for a second, before we both realized my legs didn't look right. Now that is a surprise considering I did walk for a second. Which probably wasn’t the best idea.

We did talk for a bit about our lives and such, a little on cultures. They even told me their name, Applejack.

That's when we both realized I was indeed in need of immediate assistance, and so we set aside our differences in order to reach a common goal, to get help for me. It took us a minute but we made a makeshift sled thing, so I could lay on and they could pull. Considering they are pretty strong, we should be fine. I hope.

“I’ll get ya over to the Ponyville Hospital, they’ll patch you right up. Or at least try too I reckon,” said Applejack.

“Much appreciated, I’ll be sure to try and pay you back for this,” I said.

“No payback needed, just helpin’ a fella in need of a hoof.”

“Well, Thanks is the least I can pay you in.”

And so we went on, to a hospital. Of course they probably would need tips in fixing my legs. Also the fact most of these ponies might be interested in my character, this might be a fun experience.