Regression from Mind

Twilight’s eyes widened as the giant lifted the scythe above her. It’s blade glistening with the sunlight above. Almost blinding.

Yet, the gut feeling she would be dead quite soon was far more distracting.

He swung for her neck, and she screamed out in a mixture of panic and fear.

...

Twilight teleported into an alleyway, running off before the mob regained their senses.

Once done shaking the stars out of his eyes from the massive flash of light, the behemoth of a pony called out to his fellow townsponies, “Find her before she brings more!”

Twilight stopped at the end of the alleyway, trying to find the best hiding spot.

As she stared at the second line of stores ahead of her, an abandoned store caught her eyes.

Twilight ran for it at the sound of ponies approaching.

She shot a fine blast of magic at the doorknob, breaking it off. Then, pushed the door open, only to sneakily close it as search parties began to enter the next group of shops.

Inspecting the place, Twilight was surprised by the décor, being stocked with shelves and shelves of potions of every color, size, shape, and -- likely -- effect. All kept in good condition.

Strangely. As if somepony had been keeping it clean.

…

Twilight was worried now.

To be fair, this building’s outside was...just a wreck. A shell.

Yet, hid a stock of valuable elixirs that appeared untouched.

Twilight decided to call for anypony, “Hello? Is...um, anypony home?”

Silence passed.

Shrugging, Twilight walked behind the counter, checking for anything that could hint what happened.

A note of going on vacation? Owner’s passing? Just has to be something here…

Suddenly, a pony burst from the dark backroom, which Twilight had ironically intended on checking afterward, brandishing a broken glass bottle at her.

Twilight’s horn lit up immediately, aimed at the threat before her.

…

The two stared at the other, fear emanating from them like a disease.

Then, the pony before Twilight put down his make-shift weapon, acknowledging with tears of joy, “Oh, thank heavens. Y-you’re not one of them!”

He shook his head, scared and choking up.

Twilight wasn’t sure of what to make of the scene before her.

It took awhile for her to stop pointing her glowing horn at him, but she did once the realization set in.

She asked after understanding he was only defending himself, “This is your shop, isn’t it?”

He nodded.

Twilight asked him some questions after he only lightly shook and sniveled, “Well...I’m Twilight Sparkle. What’s your name?”

The pony, of Flavescent Coat and Deep Taupe mane, answered politely as his shivering subsided, “Brewer Bond. Or...just Brew. Most ponies just call me Brew.”

“Alright. Brew...could I stay in here a bit? Just a bit? You seem nice enough. I mean, I know I did break into your place of business -- wrong, I know it’s wrong -- but I had no other choice. Those ponies out there are after me for who knows wha-”

Brew’s face showed distress at thinking of something, which made him quick in responding, “Your horn. They’re after your horn, first. You can stay as long as you want...but they’ll be looking around for Unicorns. Going to be on high alert all around us.”

Twilight was alarmed by what he said, which she would have never guessed for how smart she was, “M-my horn? What are you saying? What does it have to do with anything?”

Brew held himself as it all came rushing back, “D-don’t know. They never told me a reason. They just...cut. An-and...you don’t want them taking you outside.”

Twilight was horrified now, glancing a peek to his forehead. Completely devoid of any marks. Then, she sneaked a look at his back.

Oh. Celestia. No.

The smallest hint of feathers were all that remained.

...

Twilight only asked after telling the foals to close their ears tight, “What happened, Brew? You can tell me.”

Sucking up newly-formed tears, Brew sighed...ready to recall the events of that monstrous day.

Brewer Bond pulled the wagon filled with supplies, still excited besides the tight breathe he had from being loaded down by his vehicle.

I still can’t believe it! My parents are giving me my own shop! They won’t regret it. I just know it.

Brewer Bond made it up to the post, which was in its least-busy hours of operation.

The watchpony asked casually, “Why you want in Dirmeter?”

Brew responded by showing the seal of approval by the Grant Syndicate, who hooved out business ventures in the lesser-known areas of the country to start-ups willing to take risks.

The watchpony flipped through it, finding everything in order where it needed stamping and signatures.

He nodded his head at business as usual, then asked, “What you bringin’ in?”

Brew smiled, reaching behind himself to grab a potion kept unpacked as a free sample.

He gave it to the watchpony, asking him to take a drink.

The patrol-stallion raised an eyebrow at the contents within the bottle.

Brew put on a friendly smile, motioning for him to give it a taste.

With a shrug, the lookout chugged about half-way through before the taste overcame him.

He choked up a bit, then hurriedly tossed the bottle back to its owner.

With an odd feeling washing over his skin, he asked in worry, “Oh. Oh, this is...weird. The buck it done to me?”

Brew chuckled at the pony, explaining simply, “I make potions. What you just tossed back was one that acts pretty close to a few beers. You’ll be fine, of course. No ill side-effects aside from the immediate buzz, which most don’t worry about after a minute or two.”

The watchpony slurred out, “Hey, I shad nore ponies cromin. I can’t be wassed right ow.”

He aggressively shook his head, trying desperately to get free of his all-of-a-sudden inebriation.

Brew told him to stop fighting it, adding in as well, “You’ll be okay. Just relax. Only lasts a couple minutes. Not alcohol, sir. Remember?”

The pony huffed in defeat, sitting down and letting it work its magic.

Brew asked soon after with ears back, “So...um, can I go?”

The lookout pointed a hoof lazily at Brew, “Nah. Can’t. Gotta search ya.”

Brew blushed, nervously sweating at the thought of another stallion searching him, “Can...we just skip that? That’s...weird, I guess you could say.”

“Nofe!”, the larger Earth-Pony stated loudly. He attempted to get to his hooves, but never quite stuck the landing.

After viewing the sorry sight of a second try, Brew compromised, “Look! Look, let me on through...and you’ll get a case of the stuff! I’ll even spice it up to last longer! Just come into my shop after you get off later today, and it’ll be right on the counter. Deal?”

“...I’d bether not get fired from dis.”

“It’ll be over by the time you see your next stop. Promise.”

The watchpony mulled it over as best his intoxicated mind could right then.

After figuring Brew was the last pony he’d see for a half hour, the stallion let him on through in exchange for keeping his part of the deal.

…

Brew had parked the reliable wagon behind his store, making extensive use of the back exit of his new place of business and residence to unpack.

He promised himself he would get another place to stay once the coin was steady.

After a couple hours of heavy lifting and careful setting, Brew breathed out relief after the extensive workout. Taking a second to sit, he tried to remember something pressing in his thoughts.

It was on the tip of his tongue.

He wondered what it was...when somepony walked right inside the building.

Brew calmly told them, “Uh….sir, sorry. The shop’s not open right now. Come tomorrow morning, and I’ll give you a discount for your troubles.”

The pony walked up from the barely lit entrance, asking in anger, “Really, guy? You honestly forgot our deal, didn’t you?”

Oh! Awww, buck me.

Brew threw his head to the counter’s surface as his promise dawned on him.

The angry stallion demanded as he marched up to the empty counter, “Well?”

All the now-upset stallion heard was a muffled reply, so much so that the shop owner might as well have not said anything at all.

He questioned again, “What? I can’t hear you if you hide your face like that.”

Brew looked up to him, nervously smiling, “Uhm...I’m really tired from all the moving. Sorry?”

“So...what? I don’t get jack, then?”

“N-no. I literally just got done a minute ago. I mean...I haven’t even gotten a chance to take off my jacket yet. Let alone, get the potions set.”

“Then, get on it, kid.”

Brew shrugged, sighed in exhaustion, then left for the back of the store to retrieve the needed materials for the deal to be done.

Brew decided to do the potions out in the lobby because he wanted to talk with somepony, even if the pony was mad with him.

Brew called out from the back as he tried to steady the case of glass bottles with his wings for support, “So! What’s your name?!”

He heard the pony reply back, sounding less upset now, “Lead! What was yours again?! Your signature was too curvy to read!”

“Brewer!”

“I’mma just call ya Brew!”

“Cool! Most do, anyways!”

...

After a few minutes had gone, Brew returned with a smile on his face. He couldn’t say anything until he placed the bowl from his mouth.

Then, after he slid the bottles from his wings to the countertop, he noticed Lead backing away slowly, face full of terror.

Brew was very worried for Lead, asking with concern, “Lead? Is...something wrong?”

Oh, buck me! Buck me! This kid’s goin’ to be up on a rope because of me!

Lead’s only thoughts were on how he just sentenced this little bastard to death.

Wait! Maybe….not.

Lead immediately came up to Brew after thinking of something.

I have to do this as well as I can.

Putting on his best acting face, Lead pointed an accusing hoof at Brew, suggesting, “You. You little liar. You didn’t give me the right papers!”

Brew had not a clue where the claim came from, disputing it easily, “What? No. I had the right papers. You saw them. I gave them to you, and you accepted them.”

“You got me drunk first! I let it pass since I wouldn’t have known at the time! Stuff affected my vision!”

“No. I remember you getting them exactly before being given the potion.”

“Kid, you forgot the damn promise you made! Would it really be such a stretch you also forgot what happened first?!”

“Yeah. Sure, but I’m still pretty certain I gave you the correct papers.”

Lead decided to threaten the poor pony.

Better than getting him killed.

Puffing his chest out as much as possible, he barked out demands, “I want this place shut down. Today. Right now. Either you get it done, or I throw you and your crap out. Am I clear?”

Brew didn’t want to fight Lead, considering he was truthfully very frightened of getting physical that way. Always a lover, not much of a fighter.

Brew huffed, dealing with Lead in the more legal way, “I’m going to take this up with the mayor. You aren’t going to get me shut down without their approval. This matter is out of your hooves now.”

Brew walked past the counter, heading for the door.

Lead shook his head in disbelief at what was happening right now.

Funny how this kid will go to the mayor to get me fired, yet that’ll happen anyways if he goes outside.

Lead decided to finally put a stop to this before Brew got to the door, tackling the pony with everything he had.

Brew was slammed to the floor, surprised by the sudden explosion of violence against him.

Brew began to struggle, attempting to get up from the Earth-Pony’s much stronger grasp.

Lead laid the muscle on thick, trying to pin Brew down long enough to tire him out.

With Lead being not as emotional as he needed to be, Brew was able to roll with his captor.

He managed to gain the upper hoof when he jabbed a front-knee into Lead’s stomach.

Lead groaned in pain as he was forced to released Brew after the air left his body.

Brew scrambled to the door, opening it as Lead weakly pleaded with him to not run out.

Yet, he didn’t listen. Such a bad decision.

…

Why’s everypony staring at me like that?

Brew noticed as he stood in the street that the crowd around him all...seemed mad as they looked his way. He was wondering how they could all be that upset for no reason.

Then, they all advanced on him, which made him realize and question something at the same time.

They’re all mad...at me?

…

Brew was soon grabbed by the crowd, so much commotion happening he had not a clue what was happening aside from being pinned.

Brew started to scream, tears in his eyes as his body was forcibly shoved harder into the dirt for every second, “I’m sorry! Whatever I did, I’m sorry!!!”

The rabble began to get organized when rope entered the picture. Brew was tied up when the binds were brought into the crowd’s center.

Then, he was roughly hoisted up by two ponies, being dragged along with them as they started to walk somewhere.

Porbably not anywhere pleasant.

Brew’s eyes were now freely streaming. He asked his captors with a pained shout, “What’s going on?! What did I do?! What is wrong with you all?!”

After a few minutes of pleading for answers to his wrongdoings, he was tossed onto a stage at the center of town. Brew groaned in pain as the binds digged harshly into his fur.

He cried from everything that happened in what felt like the span of a heartbeat.

No answers?! Anything?! Just grabbed for the buck of it?! What was going on?! The buck was going on?!

Brew was rolled over by a single large hoof.

Literally, the largest Earth-Pony Brew had ever seen appeared above him to block out the sun. Alicorn-sized.

Maybe even bigger?! Oh, buck me!

The voice was the only one present now as it breathed out deeply, “You. You’re in the wrong town.”

Brew didn’t say anything, turning pale at the weapon the pony held.

The giant stallion brought his scythe to Brew’s neck, “Right?!”

Brew shook his head, not finding the courage to even speak.

The colossus pony shook his head at the sorry excuse for a pony beneath him, “You’re kind don’t belong here. Not with us!”

He drew the attention of the mob, “Right?!”

They shouted in terrifying unison, “Right!!!”

Roars to slit the poor Pegasus’s throat surfaced above all else, being chanted out here and there before consuming all other choices.

The leader of the crowd quieted them all with one pumped-up hoof, answering their bloodthirsty call with their laws, “Now! We don’t outright kill...anymore. We’re more civil than these freaks-of-nature! Right?!”

Again, the ponies in the street cheered, echoing the same word once more.

Brew was rolled over one last time, which terrified him to his core.

He tried to yell for freedom from the ponies about to ‘punish’ him, “Help! Somepony! Anypony! Please! Please!!!”

Placing his scythe at the base of Brew’s wings, the mountain of a pony bellowed above Brew’s bawling, “For everything we stand for and for those before us, we must be like them!!! Monstrous!!! It is us or them!!! So, we’ll do what must be done!!! Right?!!!”

Brew never heard the reply from the crowd. He did hear scarily well as his wings were separated from their home. Never felt anything else besides the warm blood spraying from his back. Never saw anything besides cheers and hoof-pumping from the crazy mob.

The behemoth hollered in victory as he held his trophies to the sky, leaving the poor pony below a Pegasus no longer.

Brew welcomed the bliss of blacking out. Or, death? He wasn’t sure which then.

Brew summarized how he lived through it as he lightly touched one of his remaining feathers on his back, “S-surprisingly...when I woke up, I was in my shop. On the floor. But, still...home. They stopped my bleeding, I soon found out. Seems they didn’t want me to die. Just...to torture me.”

Twilight said as she dried a few tears from her face, “I’m sorry, Brew. You didn’t deserve that. I never thought that happened in our day and age. Maybe back before Equestria was Equestria….but not ongoing today. This town…they’re barbaric.”

Brew shrugged as he grew a tiny smile, “Sure, most of them are violently racist. But, Lead is the exception. He has kept me going for the past few weeks, seeing as he was deeply sorry for my...being punished. Gave me food. Water. He even filled me in on Dirmeter.”

After checking to see if the foals had their ears still covered, which they did, Twilight nodded for him to begin filling her in.

Brew relayed pretty much everything he knew on the town, “So, the big guy who I’m sure you’ve ‘met’ by now is actually the mayor. His name’s Razor Edge. Fitting name, if you ask me. He, along with mostly everypony else, really hates Unicorn and Pegasi. A lot. And, they don’t like visitors. Well, the kind that aren’t their own race. So, they destroyed the back entry into town years ago, and set up a guard post for the other road. Meaning you chose a pretty bad spot to rest at. Only one way out, and it isn’t those Timberwolf-infested woods.”

Twilight asked a question as it popped into her head suddenly, “Wait, why are you still here?! For weeks, you’ve just been staying inside this shop with the threat of death over your head?!”

“Well, if they see me, they’ll kill me. That simple. I could try leaving, but...I’m not that brave.”

“I thought they wanted you alive before.”

“Yeah, before! Now, they’ll just slit my throat. Believe me, Lead knows how it goes around here. First, they take your wings or horn! Next, your life! I...don’t really know why that is.”

…

Twilight soon stood up, telling Brew with absolute confidence, “We’re getting out of here, Brew! You, my foals, and I are making an escape! I think we should wait until nightfall-”

Hooves stomped on the front porch, sending Twilight into silence faster than the eye could blink.

The hunter’s steps soon thundered away, but only after the most terrifying minute of the group’s lives.

Sweat forming on each of their foreheads, Twilight murmured to her fellow fugitive, “How’s about soon? Let’s try that instead.”

Steelton and Kelly had been on the chase for only a couple of hours, and had already managed to make it to Dirmeter.

Seeing as how they were both well-rested and much more fit than Twilight, this wasn’t much of a stretch for them to accomplish.

They were resting for a few minutes before entering the town.

Kelly said to Steelton as she wiped the sweat from her forehead, “I didn’t think she had it in her to just run off into a broken down road like that. Talk about desperate.”

Steelton wagged a hoof at the direction of the town, “Well, she’s smart, I’ll give her that. But, two heads are better than one, and we’ll get her. We will.”

“Maybe,” Kelly supposed as she got up from the dirt, then headed off into town ahead of her ally.

Steelton barked out as he ran up to her, “Hey, don’t go off without telling me. We’re a team, and we should behave like one. We must watch out for each other.”

“Oh, Steelton. So serious. You might even give Mind a run for his money.”

“Welp...I’m not that serious.”

…

Kelly and Steelton walked into the town, and were immediately confused by what they saw.

Ponies opened up trashcans, dashed in and out of buildings, climbed onto roofs, and seemed Tartarus-bent on finding something.

Kelly raised an eyebrow at the scene, “What’s their problem?”

Steelton shrugged, then decided to ask what apparently was the target for the whole town.

With Kelly following behind, Steelton walked over to a group of townsponies searching through a house.

He tapped one of them on the shoulder, questioning, “Hey, you all alright?”

The Earth-Pony turned to view the pony asking something from herself, only to see a somehow terrifying character.

She then proceeded to scream her head off, “She’s brought more!!! Everypony, more are here!!! Pegasus!!!!”

Like a sudden monster attack, the very word of Steelton’s kind rang out with panic, fear, and anger all rolled into one.

Then, shockingly, tons of ponies descended on the shout’s location, and Steelton wasn’t sure what to make of the event.

Kelly grew worried when they were both suddenly surrounded by the townsponies out of nowhere.

She nervously chuckled, mumbling to Steelton, “You...uh, think they meant you?”

Then, the mob crashed down upon them.