Taken

When I awaken, it is light outside. I don’t mean you to take that literally; I’m starting to think that it’s going to be too much to ask for a little sunshine around here. It’s not the dark of midnight, though, so I can at least see what’s around me.

Mostly trees, that is. Occasionally, there is a fern or two, but for the most part it’s just trees. That, and the rock wall of the cave that I’m in.

I stretch carefully, not wanting to wake Twilight up. It’s only when I look directly beside me that I realize she’s not there anymore. Shit. Did she lose faith in me because I blacked out? Is she out there all by herself, with all those things ready to kill her for the meat on her bones?

Not to mention that Discord thing. Fuck, I’d almost succeeded in forgetting about him.

I would swear that he could read my thoughts, because at that exact moment, his voice once again echoes in my mind: “Sorry, friend… You won’t be getting rid of me that easily. I’m not a readily forgotten being.”

“Yeah…” I murmur to no one in particular. “No shit.” No response is forthcoming, which I’m thankful for; I don’t particularly want to have a conversation with Discord at the moment, especially when there’s a slight chance that Twilight might be coming back soon-

Okay, so maybe more than a slight chance, I see… Twilight is coming up on the cave, using the trees for cover. I motion to her that I’m awake, and she smiles and nods. Okay so maybe she isn’t too mad at me.

When she reaches me, she sits beside me. “Have those creatures come back yet?”

I think she means more than just the things that chased us last night, but my answer is the same regardless: “Nope. It’s just been me here by my lonesome.”

She gets a sad look on her face. Damn, I didn’t mean to make her feel bad. “That wasn’t meant as a guilt trip,” I say quickly. “I enjoy being by myself, just as much as I enjoy being around others.” That was pretty much a lie; I’ve always liked being by myself much more than being in a crowd. I’m just trying to make her feel better.

She’s still looking a bit downtrodden, though. “I know, and I appreciate the gesture, but… the only reason why I left was to look for some food. I didn’t think you’d wake up so quickly.”

“Quickly?” I’m confused now.

She nods. “It’s only been about four or five hours since we had to leave the house.”

Oh. So apparently night is brutally cold here, but not all that long. Maybe six or seven hours tops. I’m used to eight or nine hours of darkness, at least.

“So did you find any food?” I ask hopefully. As I do so, I fish out my pack of cigarettes and tap one out into the palm of my hand.

Twilight completely ignores my question. “What are those?”

Shit. “They’re cigarettes,” I tell her. “It’s how I keep myself calm.” She’s looking at them rather funny. I hold out my hand, and she sniffs tentatively. A quick sneeze later confirms what I thought she’d feel about them all along.

“No thanks,” she says. “I’ll pass. I doubt I could hold one anyways. No fingers, you know.” She dips her head in the direction she just came from. “I think I may have found some food. It’s in some weird storage building, just a mile or so down the way.”

By now, I’ve fired up my cigarette and taken a few puffs, so I’m ready to go. I stand, making sure to not hit my head on the cave ceiling. I walk outside and stretch again. “I’m ready when you are.” She smiles and leads the way.

A mile is more than enough time for me to finish a cigarette, so I’m already onto my second one by the time we get close enough to see it. She points to a rundown building a few hundred yards ahead. “That’s it. That’s the building with the food in it.”

I recognize the building, or at least its general structure. When I laugh aloud, Twilight looks at me curiously. “What’s so funny?”

“It’s a grocery store, silly. You don’t have those where you come from?”

She shakes her head. “We have open-air markets where we conduct most of our shopping business. Occasionally you will find an actual shop building, but for the most part it’s all out in the open.”

I love open air markets; I always have. This realm that she comes from is sounding more and more to me like I would love to go there. “Maybe someday I can visit you in…”

She looks at me oddly again. “Our land is called Equestria. And no, I don’t think that’s a good idea… Not that I don’t want you to, mind you; I would really like that. I just don’t think anyone else would.” We start walking towards the store.

“Why not?” I ask.

She sighs. “As a species, the ponies of our universe do not hate. It is not an emotion that we are capable of feeling. However, mistrust sometimes abounds amongst us. Whenever a creature of a different species reveals itself to us, our first general instinct is to view it as an enemy; thus, we cut ourselves off from anything good that it might have to offer us, at least at first. It was how we treated Discord, it was how we treated Queen Chrysalis… Granted, those two had nothing good to offer us at all, but they’re excellent examples nonetheless.”

I’m silent for a second before responding. “That’s the way our world used to be, in the very distant past. Now, though, we’re much more accepting… Somewhat.”

She looks confused, so I go on: “We still have problems fully accepting those of our own kind, who are different from ourselves, if only in the color of our skin.”

“Wait,” she says, cutting me off. “So there is prejudice amongst your people, where you actually hate those of your own species? For such a trivial reason as how they look?”

“It’s sad,” I reply, “but that’s just how it is. That’s how it has been for as far back as I can remember- as anyone can remember, really.” She looks like she’s genuinely saddened by this. I wish I could do something, but I simply keep quiet and walk.

We reach the store. She pushes the door open with the tip of her horn, and we walk inside. It’s funny; just from looking around, it doesn’t seem like the store has been touched in awhile. There are still canned goods on the shelves, meat and milk are still in the refrigerated area… Not like the store actually needs one; it’s a damn icebox in here.

Over the next half hour or so, we methodically make our way through the store, picking up things that we think we will need to survive. I caution Twilight not to bring too much, as we no longer have a house to take it back to, not for the moment anyways. She nods, and we go about our business.

When we have everything we think we’ll need, we go to leave when I stop suddenly. Outside there is another person, walking towards the store. I motion for her to stop, and she does so.

“Another of your kind?” she asks curiously. “I wonder if he’ll be able to be of any help to us.”

“I don’t think so…” I reply quietly. “He seems a bit… out of his mind.” And he did. His eyes were rolled back into his skull, so that only the whites of the back of his eyes were showing. His skin looked frostbitten and patchy. What really scared me, though, was the machete that he was carrying. It looked like there was frozen blood on it, too.

I look at Twilight. “We might have some problems getting out,” I say dryly. I tell Twilight the plan, and she agrees, so while she keeps a look-out at the front of the store, I go to the manager’s office to look for some kind of firearm. As I’m searching, I light up another cigarette.

Bingo! In the manager’s desk drawer, I find an old 9mm pistol. That’s fine; it’s really all I need. I check the magazine, and find all ten bullets inside. I do a bit more searching, and find three boxes of ammo. Good; we’ll need these. I stash the ammo in side pockets, then walk back to the front of the store.

And just in time, too; Twilight has backed up by one of the stand-alone shelves. Broken glass lays everywhere at the front of the store, where this deranged person used his machete to shatter the glass before coming inside. I level the pistol at him and yell, “Stop right there, before I shoot!”

It does stop, which is good, but then it looks directly at me, which isn’t so good. Before I yelled, it had no idea I was there; thus, I still had the element of surprise over it. Not anymore. Dammit, why do I have to act without thinking?

I shout again: “Put your weapon down!” It’s doubtful that he’s going to do what I say, and I’m not surprised when he doesn’t acquiesce. I see him suddenly raise the hatchet up high, and as I dash towards him, I see him bring the blade down with alacrity towards Twilight.

My vision goes red as this is happening, and things seem to slow down to the point where the madman isn’t even moving. I reach him in a matter of seconds, and with one solid motion, I kick the blade out of his hand, while simultaneously jamming the gun into the underside of his chin and firing a single bullet.

One is all it takes; his brains explode out of the top of his head, and he falls to the ground, blood and brain matter raining down upon his now-lifeless remains in a fine red mist.

My vision starts to clear, as the adrenaline begins to empty itself out of my body. I’m breathing heavily and I feel like I just had a heart attack, but I’m still alive, and so is Twilight. I look over to her, about to say something, when my heart freezes in my chest.

Twilight lays on the ground, motionless. The blade that the man was wielding- the blade that I kicked out of his hand- has speared her through the side of her flank, near the very southern extremity on her right side. I rush to her and look her over. She doesn’t appear to be bleeding, which I find alarming, considering the blade has her pinned pretty much to the floor.

I don’t want to move her, so I dart back to the manager’s office, trying to look for a first-aid kit. The entire time, I have tears streaming down her face. This is all my fault; if only I’d paid more attention to where I was kicking the blade, instead of just riding the wave of my rage and letting things happen how they would. I grit my teeth as I search. I find the kit and run back towards the front of the store.

“Hang on, Twilight,” I say through gnashed teeth. “I already let you down once… I’m not going to do it again.”