Anonymous in Nu-Questria

Walk.

You walk and you don’t care where. Your feet are hurting and your toes and hands have many blisters. The bottom of one of your shoes fell out so you had to strap it to your foot like a sandal. You have small cuts and scrapes on your exposed flesh.

Clearing.

This clearing has a lot of trampled down grass and patches of dirt. No, its more familiar than that. You crawl around the site on your hands and knees. You scrape into the loose dirt and find black and white speckled ash.

They had left quite a while ago, you figure. No more tents. No more fire. A lone wooden picnic table is all that’s left. Goodbye, ponies. Goodbye...

Noise.

Many noises. You scramble around a bush near the treeline. You crouch, spear ready. Always ready. You are as motionless as the trees. One eye has a good view through a gap in the bush. All you need.

The noise is the sound of hooves. The sound of cartwheels creaking and rolling on dirt. The sound of cargo shifting as it tilts due to roots in the path.

Ponies.

They quietly walk down the path towards the clearing in single file. They have carts filled with gear and supplies strapped to the ones on the ground. The ones fluttering in the sky carry saddlebags.

Your grip tenses around the spear. Then it loosens. Then it tenses again.

The pink one says, “Ugh, well at least I know where this place is.” She flaps down to the ground and takes off her saddlebags. She extends one of her wings and rubs it with her hooves.

“Whew!” The yellow one exclaims, sighing in relief as his cart comes to a stop. “Finally, we made it back!”

The orange one unhooks her cart with a bounce of her rump. “Great job, team!” She says cheerfully and starts walking backwards to the center of the clearing, “Let’s take a short rest here, then we can-”

She stops as her back hoof suddenly sinks into the loose, dry earth of their previous fire pit. She turns to look at it and raises up her hoof, covered in ash.

“Huh?” She says and scans the ground. The other ponies do too. Your handprints are all over the dirt, plain to see. There’s long gouges where you dragged your knees.

Their collective gaze follows the trail until it lands on the bush you’re currently behind. All their eyes are wide with a mix of fear and apprehension. You remain completely still.

Suddenly, the blue one takes a step forward into the clearing. Her ivory horn starts to glow as magic seeps into the thin lines in its surface. Suddenly the bush in front of you glows. It is pushed quickly aside.

The ponies all gasp quietly, except for her. She looks at you with a vacant, distant expression. Her emotionless face scans you. The others have wide eyes and opened mouths.

The blue unicorn takes a step forward. The yellow one shouts, “Izzy, don’t!” He stretches out a hoof. The unicorn stares directly into your starving, sleep-deprived eyes. The spear is pointing directly at her, trembling only slightly as you steadily breathe. Your teeth are clenched very tight together.

The unicorn moves forward. The stallion winces and leans for her, but suddenly puts his hoof back down. The unicorn stops right in front of you. The spear tip is only a few inches from her face. You know you can stab her right now. Plunge it right between her eyes. Your fingers are burning as they grip the spear.

“You kept it.” The unicorn says.

She puts a hoof on the crystal beads adorning the spear. She rotates one of them, and looks at the letter carved into it. It reads “A”.

Her horn glows with a gentle fuchsia hue. The bracelet glows and unties itself from the shaft. She levitates it to her outstretched hoof.

She moves around your spear and places it on your wrist. With another short burst of magic, the bracelet is tied to your forearm. You don’t look at her or move. You are frozen in place, trembling.

She looks into your eyes, now very close to your face, and the tiniest smile spreads on her lips. You clench your eyes shut. You drop the spear. As it hits the ground, you collapse against her and bury your face into her mane.

Your chest quivers with sobs as you hug her. Slowly you feel hooves wrap around your back.

You are riding in a small, wooden wagon-style cart being tugged along a forest path. The large, woolly blanket you are wrapped in does little to cushion the bumps of the rough, pitted trail.

Sunny is walking behind your cart and tugging along her own. She occasionally raises her head to look at you with concern. She has done this ever since Izzy loaded you into this thing and started walking.

“Are you sure you’re full?” She asks. The ponies had fed you, and you ate ravenously. Although, your shrunken stomach couldn’t fit a whole lot before you felt full to bursting. They gave you water and bandages, and they let you clean and patch up your wounds.

“I’m fine.” You say in a coarse whisper. Your lips are cracked and they sting when you talk.

“Your voice is so raspy... how about some more water?” Sunny asks.

“No thanks,” You say, shaking your head slowly.

“Well... okay.” Sunny lowers her head a bit and glances away.

The train of ponies continues along quietly. Hitch is walking behind Sunny. When you come into view from behind her cart, he eyes you with suspicion. You keep expecting him to make a face or taunt you for failing so miserably in the wild, yet he never does.

The ponies had a whispered meeting when they found you in the campsite. As you sat by yourself, wrapping your bleeding feet with gauze, they spoke in a huddle and occasionally glanced your way. You guessed that the directions you gave to Sunny had brought them to some sort of impassible obstacle. They decided to backtrack. Then they found you.

You didn’t protest when Izzy helped you into the cart. You didn’t care. No energy to fight back, and no point in running away.

Izzy is a rather sizable mare. About four feet tall, hoof to horn. She is able to pull you along reasonably well, save for the odd time where a wheel gets stuck on something and she has to levitate the cart a bit to free it. Sometimes she also jostles the cart a bit as she whips her head to the side to admire a passing bird or dragonfly.

The path you are on follows a winding ridge along a series of hill-crested valleys. You can see the sprawling landscape stretching out when you look out to the side. All those trees. You wonder where you would be now if they hadn’t found you.

Now it seems you were back in their clutches. You wonder how long would they wait until they start to grill you for information again. How long you’d last before you’d wind up telling them everything. How they would react to knowing what really happened to you.

Sunny raises her head again. “Hey, Anon.” She says.

You look at her. Her eyes are narrowed apologetically.

“I wanted to tell you... about what I said at the ruins last week...” She says.

You remember her tearful face as it shouted at you. Those words that speared through your chest.

“Don’t be sorry,” You say. “I was being an asshole.”

“It’s just-” She says, but then tilts her head. “A donkey in a pit?”

You stare into space blankly. “It means a... heartless, cruel person.”

“Oh.” She says, giving a short nod. “Um, well...” She looks down, then back up at you. You know she’s trying to gauge your emotions right now. You feel drained. Empty. A hollow husk of a man.

“I would like it if we could... start over. I know I come on a little strong sometimes. It’s... gotten me into trouble in the past.” She says, smiling apprehensively.

“Would you... be okay with that?” She asks.

You take a slow breath. Why fight the inevitable? “Sure... consider your promise revoked, for now.”

Sunny smiles at you warmly, but then gasps a bit as your cart lurches to a halt.

You wobble around in your seat and your eyes go wide. “Oh horny toad butts!” Izzy says angrily. She strains at the harness, but this time the there must be a particularly nasty root gripping the wheel.

“Woah, Izzy.” Sunny says and unhooks herself. Izzy’s magic encircles the cart and it wiggles side to side. “I got it, I got it!” Izzy says as she strains. Sunny walks around to her.

“C’mon, let’s switch.” Sunny says. Izzy finally manages to get the cart loose. The spell releases the cart and you fell yourself drop a few inches as it levels out. Ow.

“No problem, relax~!” Izzy says to Sunny. Hitch has caught up to the four of you. “Is everything okay?” He asks and raises an eyebrow. “I think maybe we should redistribute the load.”

“Hm...” Sunny says. Suddenly she jumps up and puts her front hooves on the side of the cart. “Can you hop out for a sec?” She asks.

You glance at her. Slowly you uncurl your legs and open up your blanket cocoon. You hoist yourself out of the cart and stretch your legs.

“Ugh... fuck.” You say as you stand and put your weight on your bandaged feet. Your ass was falling asleep any way.

You turn and lean a hand on a nearby tree. You see the pegasus sisters gliding down towards Sunny and Izzy.

“Hey, why’d you stop?” Zipp asks as she lands. Pipp lands next to her gracefully and swishes her mane.

“Oh, we’re thinking of switching the carts.” Sunny says, as she helps Izzy undo her harness. “Izzy’s keeps getting stuck.”

Zipp looks at you. “Hey dude. How’s the feet?”

You look down and flex your toes. The bandages pull tight against the swollen blisters on your feet. Dark, clotted blood stains the gauze. Your soles ache down to the roots of your ankles.

“Not great.” You say.

Pipp rolls her eyes and flutters her wings. “Ugh... guess that’s a whole ‘no’ on the whole ‘he’ll walk with us’ thing.” You wince as you shift your body weight.

Hitch steps past you, his harness already detached. “Well, alright, I’ll take over then.” He says as he walks up to Izzy.

“No.” Izzy says sympathetically, “Anonymous is going to stick with me.” She looks at you like you’re a wounded puppy dog. Which, considering her perspective, is quite apt.

“Well,” Sunny says with an encouraging tone, “Look at it this way: you’ll have plenty of time to watch him once we get to Bridlewood.”

Izzy grins wide. Sunny spins on her hooves to face you.

“Oh, that’s the plan by the way,” She says with a smile. “Izzy will keep you safe and hidden while Hitch, Zipp, Pipp and I organize a better way to travel. The ponies in town aren’t... exactly ready for someone like you yet. But they will be some day!”

You sigh with relief a bit. You’ll be spared the interrogation, and you won’t end up surrounded by even more strange ponies. “Okay,” you say bluntly.

Sunny cocks her head, “Hey, don’t worry. You aren’t getting off that easily. You’re coming with us on our next journey! We’ll need your expertise.” She says with a sly smile.

You think about it for a moment. Too late to deny her now. The promise of rest and comfort is too enticing. “Okay. Fair enough.” You say and rub your neck.

Hitch switches carts with Izzy, and soon you are back on the trail. Izzy decides to walk behind your cart now. She sticks closely behind and smiles happily every time you accidentally make eye contact with her.

“We’re going to have so much fun.” Izzy whispers with a quiet giggle.

You can’t help but feel a lightened sensation in your chest, and the corners of your lips twitch, almost threatening to smile.