My Little Xyloto

Mylo returned daily to where the Lost Boys met.  Neverland, they sometimes called it.  At first he needed somepony's help to guide him through the back alleys, but within a week he had memorized most of the turns.  As soon as he found the bright red rose--that pretty flower painted around a crack in the concrete.  Oh, how it seemed alive, bursting past oblivion!--he could easily navigate to the cartoon heart and onward to the enchanted entrance.  He kept his jumpsuit on for work, hiding his yellow coat and purple mane and ice blue eyes from Heaven.  They couldn't know yet, Charlie Brown said.  They weren't ready.

"But they will be, soon," Charlie would add.  Mylo loved that glint in his golden eyes.  Golden.  What a special shade.  Lots of their eyes were golden among the Lost Boys.  Charlie, Lyra, an adorable pegasus called Derpy, just to name a few.  Mylo loved knowing their names and hearing their voices and learning their colors, their talents, their stories.

"The Saints will rise against Heaven," Charlie would preach to them as they read and painted or admired the work of other artists.  There were forty one of them now, including Charlie.  "They will usher in the Reign of Love and live in Paradise."

"Who are the saints?" Mylo asked.

"The ponies," Charlie answered, smiling.  He put his forelegs around two readers' necks.  "Everyone!  Everyone oppressed by the Major's regime.  They are already good, and already ready.  We just need to remind them."

"With the words?"

"Yes, Mylo."  He walked with him through shelves of books.  Mylo loved the smell.  "Words and music and dancing and food.  We can bring back the memories the Major has stolen."

Mylo frowned.  "Why don't I remember?"

"Nopony remembers," Charlie said sadly, resting a hoof on Mylo's yellow shoulder.  Yellow.  "Only me, because I wasn't here when the Alicorn started."

"Are there other ponies like you?" Mylo asked as they wandered to the instruments.  "Others that remember?"

"Maybe," Charlie said.  "I don't know.  That's what all this is for, see?  The graffiti, the hideout, the art.  I'm trying to gather the lost."

"You want to bring everypony here?"

Charlie shook his head.  "Oh, no, no.  Only the special Saints get to come here."  He smiled at Mylo.  "I'll train you all.  I'll help you learn and remember, if you can.  We'll spark hope with our words and light a fire of rebellion.  A fire, a spark."  They reached the center of the instrument corner and stood still.  "Then lightning strikes, and the Saints go marching in."

Mylo would have asked questions, but for the first time he noticed something in the shadow of the piano.  He stooped low and pulled it into the light with a hoof, gawking at its eight colored pieces of increasing length.

"Xylophone," Charlie said.  "Simple thing."

"I have this!" Mylo said.  His wide eyes locked with Charlie's.  "I have this, Charlie!  I have one at home!"

Charlie's smile vanished.  "Huh?  What do you mean?"

"Years ago," Mylo began, "I met a unicorn.  I think she must have been like you, I think she remembered.  She was my age and naked.  Her coat was white.  I don't remember the color of her mane.  It was curly, like Bon Bon's."  He gulped and squinted.  "But her eyes... her eyes were green."  His face lit up in a sudden smile.  "Wow!  I've never... her eyes were green..."

"Green eyes," Charlie nodded.  "Go on."

"She just ran up to me, outside the apartments.  We were alone.  It was late, I don't remember why."  He shut his eyes and a sound played in his throat before his next words.  "She gave me one of these and told me to keep it hidden.  She said more, I know she did, but I was too confused, I don't remember what she said.  She was a unicorn."  His eyes opened slowly and lost some of their shine.  "She ran away before I could... I don't know what..."

"Young, white unicorn with green eyes, eh?  And she remembered life before Heaven."  Charlie smirked.  "I think you met Sweetie Belle."

Mylo stood straighter.  "You know her?"

"I've met her," Charlie said with a shrug.  "I never knew her well, but she was famous where I'm from.  Really good singer."

"Where is she now?" Mylo asked.

"No idea," Charlie said.  "So you kept the xylophone?"

"Yes!  There's a big hole in the wall and I hide it there, just in case the Angels come to the window."  His nostrils flared and his pupils dilated.  "But every morning I take it out and... I play a song.  I didn't know that's what I was doing, but I just loved how it sounded and what it did to me inside."

Charlie was still for a moment.  In a smooth movement, he pulled the yellow mallet from its slot in the side of the musical toy and held it to Mylo's mouth.  "Play it."

Mylo blinked at the thing.  "The song?"

"Yes, of course."  He wiggled the mallet.  "Play it."

Mylo took the wand in his teeth and lowered his head to the colorful arrangement of metal rectangles.  A grin formed around the mallet as he played his little tune, so familiar to him alone.

Ding, ding, ding ding ding, ding, ding, ding ding ding, ding, ding, ding ding ding, ding, ding, ding ding ding...

When he looked up, Charlie's eyes were glistening.  "That's beautiful, Mylo," he breathed.  "Did you write that?"

Mylo offered a humble smile.  "Uh... I guess so.  I've never thought of it like that before.  It was... already there, I guess.  You just have to hit the right shades."

A blue suddenly filled Mylo's vision.  "Come with me," Charlie said, lifting Mylo's head and tucking his hoof behind his neck.  Mylo cantered alongside him, back to the books.  "I want to show you Paradise."

They passed all the shelves and reached a stairway spiraling up through the ceiling.  Mylo had never noticed it before, as that corner was very dark.  Charlie hurried up the steps first and Mylo tried to follow quickly.  In a minute they had climbed it and both stood before a metal door.

"You can only come up here at night," Charlie said.  "They might see us during the day."

"Is it night already?" Mylo asked.

Charlie flashed a grin.  "Let's find out."  He lifted his hooves to a wheel on the door, turned it hard, and swung it open.

Sure enough, the light of the Moon shone dim behind the ever present mists above Heaven.  But for the first time, Mylo saw just how far away Heaven was from Neverland.  He gasped as the stallions took their places on a ledge at the top of a mountain, far enough from Heaven that the Alicorn looked smaller than a stalk of celery.  Green.  Mylo really liked green.

But the Alicorn was not green.  Even from the distance and in the dim light, its putrid greyness was visible.  The apartments surrounded the quiet Heaven in a neat circle with plenty of space between the city's edge and the frigid chambers.  Mylo wondered which was his, and if anypony noticed he wasn't there.

"It's so small," Mylo realized.

"Ha!  That's a wonderful observation, friend," Charlie cheered.  "Now look up and behold something not small at all."

Mylo's gaze tilted skyward.  His lungs automatically filled with the night's cool air as a million tiny lights engulfed him, surrounded him, and winked at him in perfect silence.

"Stars," Charlie whispered.  He dropped to his belly and folded in his legs.  "A sky full of stars."

"What are they?"

"They're like the Sun," Charlie explained, "but really, really, really far away."

"I've never seen them before."

"That's because the Alicorn keeps that smog over you all the time."  Charlie sighed and looked back at the distant city, void of nightlife.  "The cloud doesn't reach this far at night.  Spreads more during the day.  Oh, if only you could see the sky in the day, Mylo.  It's blue."  He pointed to the stargazing pony's snout.  "Like your eyes."

"It's blue?" Mylo repeated.  He scanned the horizon.  "The whole thing?"

"Ha!  Yes, the whole dang thing."

"I wish I could remember..."  Mylo followed his mentor's lead, curling up on his stomach without looking away from the stars.  "I wish I could remember anything, let alone everything like you."

The silence was soon broken.  "Honestly, Mylo, I don't remember everything."  Charlie sighed under Mylo's startled stare.  "Ever since I came here, I've started forgetting things.  That's why I made this place, at first.  I got help from the unicorns and made a portal to this cave.  That's before they were taken, of course, so you'll know how long I've been here.  Years?  Many years."

"What do you mean you're forgetting things?"

Charlie groaned and rubbed his temples.  "I don't know, I just... details go away.  Lyrics and faces and memories just slip off.  I'm sure it has something to do with the Alicorn.  I try to stay out of the city during the day.  I don't want to forget."

Mylo swallowed.  Very hesitantly, he stuck out a hoof and patted Charlie on the back.  "You won't," he said.

Charlie glanced back at the hoof, and then smiled at Mylo.  "You think so?"

"I think teaching us will help you remember."

Charlie's grin widened and he scooted closer to Mylo.  "Wise words."

Somepony called from the bottom of the stairway.  "Charlie!  Bon Bon's back."

Charlie's eyes glistened for a moment.  He took a deep breath, slow enough to pique Mylo's curiosity.  "I'll be right there," he called out, but didn't move.  His eyes stayed on the distant city and a smile twitched at his lips.  "We're close, Mylo," he said, draping a foreleg around the young stallion.  "Soon we strike, and the Saints go marching in.  Things are going to be so different."

"How soon?" Mylo asked as Charlie got to his hooves.

"Well, depending on what Bon Bon tells me..."  He winked.  "Tomorrow."

***

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It was so strange to see unicorns again.  Years had passed since Mylo saw unicorns.  It didn't take long to get used to the Lost Boys' nakedness or their colors, but to see so many with horns often made him stare.  Sensitive to their feelings, he dared not ask aloud the questions often on his mind.

As it turned out, he didn't have to.  While Charlie and Bon Bon talked quietly among the books, Mylo sat in the culinary corner and watched the nearby musicians play instruments with their twinkling magic.  An enormous earth pony stood close and offered a dry smile.

"Nopony escaped the purge," he said in a low, drawling voice.  "They didn't live here."

Mylo blinked and looked up.  Red, his mind told him after a moment of consideration.

"Huh?"

"You keep lookin' at their horns."  The red stallion shrugged.  "I figured you were confused."

Mylo pulled an embarrassed grin.  "Gosh, is it that obvious?"

"You wear yer heart on yer sleeve.  Ain't nothin' wrong with that.  I'm Macintosh."

"I'm Mylo."  He smiled again and looked back at the unicorns.  "What do you mean they didn't live here?"

"There's a lot more to this land than Heaven," Macintosh explained.  "They're takin' over everything, but most of us caught on quick and stayed out of trouble.  Stayed far away."

"Oh!  So you weren't in Heaven when they took the unicorns?"

"Well, I was," Macintosh said.  "But these ponies weren't."

Mylo squinted at him.  "I've never seen you here before."

"I don't get the chance to visit often," Macintosh explained.  "I was one o' the first to join Charlie, but my work at the furnaces keep me busy."

"The furnaces!"  Mylo gasped.  "That's dangerous!"

"Eeyup."  Macintosh just smiled.  "I've been doin' it fer years now.  Ain't no thing."

"Huh.  Well, you certainly seem tough enough."

Macintosh opened his mouth to say more, but suddenly Charlie's voice blasted through the cavern like a firework.

"Call in all the Lost Boys!  Gather everyone!"  He laughed and galloped into view, leaping onto the kitchen countertop in a single bound.  He blue coat shone with his golden eyes and he raised a hoof to the gathering.  "We rise to Paradise tonight!"

***

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Mylo had not expected so much fire.

There was no fire in his memory.  He didn't recall ever seeing it, except perhaps in a classical painting Charlie had shown him sometime over the last few weeks.  He hadn't asked about it, though, and no one had told him its name.  Yet there it was at the front of his mind, pulled from some sleep he knew little about and had only recently begun to fear.  That red, yellow, and sometimes blue stuff coming from the tubes on the Angels' hooves was fire.  And it was hot.

"Fall back!" Charlie shouted over the noise of the flames.  It was everywhere now, this fire, all around them.  The buildings of Heaven didn't seem to take much damage from it.  Perhaps it turned a little darker when the fire licked for a long time.  The Lost Boys, though... they took damage.  Mouth agape, Mylo swept his eyes over the scene.  It had all happened so fast.  There wasn't a single citizen in sight.  Only bodies.  In Mylo's vision alone there were eight bodies on the ground, black or still burning.

And then the loud cracks.  Mylo didn't have a name for them.  Something distant would crack, and a nearby pony would drop to the ground, shouting in pain... or dead.

"I didn't..." Mylo said, eyes darting.  "I didn't..."

He saw Macintosh leap up and wrap his hooves around another Angel hovering close.  The Angel's hooves began to spout fire, but Macintosh was safe behind it.  His weight dragged both ponies to the ground where Macintosh stomped on the Angel's spine.  It writhed while he flipped it over; another quick hit to its snout stopped its squirming.  He unlatched a tube from the pegasus' hoof and aimed it skyward.  The long tube was hooked into the Angel's white suit under its wing, but it stretched enough for Macintosh to send its flame at more Angels flying overhead.  Mylo heard his bass screaming as two, three Angels caught fire, veering away from the battle.

The unicorns were faring well, it seemed.  Their magic grounded Angel after approaching Angel.  Lost Boys attacked with their hooves or more magic.  "Come on, ponies!" some would shout.  "Don't hide!  Help us!  Don't let them take control!"

"Fall back!" Charlie shouted again.  His voice was closer.  "Lost Boys, fall back!  Retreat!  Get out of here!"

Few heard.  Fewer listened.  Mylo watched some naked ponies run.  Angels followed them into the alleyways.  Where would they hide all that color?

"Mylo, come on!"  Charlie's voice was suddenly whispered into Mylo's drooping ear.  He gasped and spun around.  Charlie's hoof wrapped around one of his forelegs and practically dragged him towards a tiny alleyway.  In a blur, Charlie opened a hidden hole in the corner of one of the smaller buildings.  They crawled through and ended up in a dark, humid room stacked with wet barrels.  Charlie closed up the entrance, and collapsed, breathing hard.  The sounds of the battle continued outside.  Even dulled, the crackle of fire and warble of screams kept Mylo in shock.

"One minute I held the key," Charlie said, coughing briefly.  "Next the walls were closed on me."

"What just..."  Mylo couldn't speak.

"We weren't ready."  Charlie slammed his hoof into the ground and grit his teeth.  "We weren't ready!  I didn't even know they had flamethrowers... and the Saints..."  He growled.

Mylo leaned against a barrel.  "I can't..."

"Mylo, please, just shut up!" Charlie yelled.  "Either shut up or say something!  Enough of these half thoughts, kid."  He sighed and dragged a hoof over his eyes.  "No more half thoughts.  Gotta think things through."

Mylo swallowed.  "Sorry."

Charlie sort of laughed and shook his head, rising to his shaking legs.  "No, don't be.  I'm sorry I yelled."

In the silence that followed, the war outside seemed to grow louder.  Perhaps it was this that inspired Charlie to sing, to drown out the terror outside with another within.

"Oh morning, come bursting the clouds, amen.

Lift off this blindfold, let me see again.

Bring back the water, let your ships roll in.

In my heart she left a hole."

Mylo listened carefully.

"The tightrope that I'm walking just sways and ties,

The devil as she's talking with those Angels' eyes,

And I just wanna be there when the lightning strikes

And the Saints go marching in.

Saying slooooooooow it down...

Through chaos as it swirls

It's us against the world."

He sat on his haunches and closed his eyes.  Mylo sang along.  Somehow he knew the words.

"If we could float away,

Fly up to the surface and just start again!

Lift off before trouble just erodes us in the rain,

Just erodes us in the rain..."

Mylo stepped closer.

"Sloooooooow it down,

Sloooooooow it down."

They looked into each other's eyes a long moment and then embraced.  The noises of battle outside did not go away, but they didn't seem as scary.  Mylo began to cry.  Charlie sighed deeply into his mane and stroked the base of his neck.

"Through chaos as it swirls," he sang again, "it's us against the world."