Lost in the Dark

ZuperDerpy opened the door to find Hige on his computer “I got my muffin… did you post the chapter?” “no… not yet…” Hige answered “Why?” ZuperDerpy asked. Hige began to slowly turn his head and face ZuperDerpy “The internet is down” was the only thing Hige said, before he reverted his stare back to the computer “You are a very lucky author… By the way, we are out of muffins, and I’m gonna go bye some; do you want any in specific?” ZuperDerpy asked as he readied himself “banana nut muffin…” “Okay then… good luck on posting the chapter” ZuperDerpy said as he closed the door. “… god hates me…” Hige told himself.

‘Where am I?’ Hige thought to himself as he woke up, his eyes remaining open. ‘No nightmare? That’s weird…’ Hige’s thoughts were interrupted by a warm breath covering his entire face. His eyes shot open, only to see the shy pegasus he had accidentally fallen asleep with. Hige remembered that they had unintentionally fallen asleep on the couch, and he also noticed the fact that they had shifted positions in their sleep. Fluttershy and Hige were now lying down on the couch, interlocked in a sort of hug. As Fluttershy exhaled and warmed Hige’s face, a furious blush appeared. ‘T-this can’t be happening… This can’t be real… Are my wings twitching?’ Hige thought to himself. ‘Why am I so calm? Why I am not worried? I need to leave!’, he thought as he tried to squeeze his way out of the hug, Fluttershy shifted and tightened the hug. All of Hige’s efforts were ruined. ‘I… I can hear her heart beat…’ he thought as he listened to the rhythmical beat. ‘I can’t escape without waking her up… Wait, her heartbeat is getting faster.’ Fluttershy then buried her head on Hige’s chest. ‘Is she having a nightmare?’ She began to sniffle. ‘She’s crying…’ he thought, finally realizing what Fluttershy was doing. Hige did the only thing he could and tightened the hug. “its okay…” he whispered. If this was a nightmare, he knew the feeling far too well to just let Fluttershy go through it without any help. Fluttershy’s heartbeat began to return to its normal rhythm, she stopped sniffling and had loosened up. ‘I can get out now’, he thought to himself. Fluttershy’s eyes opened.

She drowsily looked at Hige for a while before her eyes flew opened and realized what was happening. She looked at how they were interlocked; a blush appeared on her face. ‘I’m gonna die…’ Hige thought to himself.

“Oh… I’m sorry; I’m used to cuddling with my pillow…” Fluttershy said with a blush as she loosened the hold she had on Hige

“I-it’s okay…” Hige said, barely able to speak. He slipped out of the couch and helped Fluttershy on her hooves.

“I’m really sorry if I made you feel awkward”, she said in a sorry tone. “I-I didn’t realize I was so tired…”

“D-don’t worry about it… It’s fine…” Hige said as he began to relax.

“Oh… Okay”, she said as a white bunny walked in the middle of the two and pointed at the clock on the wall. “Oh no! I forgot I was going to meet Rarity at the spa, I need to leave. Hige, can you feed the animals, I don’t want to disappoint Rarity” she said with a desperate look on her face.

“Don’t worry, I’ll feed them.”

Fluttershy flew toward Hige and wrapped her hooves around his neck. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she said right before she flew out of the cottage.

Hige began to feed the animals inside, following Angel’s pointers. He then fed the animals outside and decided to go and get breakfast (Or lunch, it was already too late for it to be called breakfast). He gathered some of his bits, called Kiba, and made his way to Sugar Cube Corner.

“Oh hello, you must be Hige.” Said the tall yellow stallion behind the counter. “My wife told me about you, I’m Mr. Cake, pleased to meet you”, he said extending his hoof.

“Oh… Hi, nice to meet you”, Hige said as he shook the stallion’s hoof.

“So, what do you want to order?” Mr. Cake said with a smile.

‘Too many things to choose from’, Hige thought. “I’ll take a stack of wheat cakes, hot cocoa… and a cupcake.”

“Okay then, just take a seat outside and I’ll bring it to you when it’s done”, he said with a smile.

“Okay”, Hige said as he made his way towards the door.

“Wait, just one more thing”, Mr. Cake said, Hige turned around, “you… and Fluttershy, are you two, you know..?” he said, trying not to seem too nosy.

‘Is he thinking what I think he’s thinking!?’ “Oh… no, were not… why do you ask?” Hige asked looking embarrassed.

“Oh, no reason… just curious.”

“Oh, okay then”, said Hige as he made his way out the door.

A few minutes later, Mr. Cake walked out the door with Hige’s food. “That’ll be seven bits”, he said as he placed the food on the table, Hige gave Mr. Cake the bits. “Here ya go, Kiba”, said Hige as he tossed the cupcake at Kiba. Kiba happily caught it and ate it in one bite. Hige sat there eating his food.

“Well how are ya, Hige?” asked an orange mare.

“Oh, I’m fine… How about you?” asked Hige.

“Oh, fine. Just brigin’ in some SweetApple syrup.” She pointed towards her wagon.

“That’s a lot of syrup… do you need any help?”

“I would appreciate it… Big Macintosh keeps sayin’ that he can’t go into Ponyville for some reason…” she said in a sad tone.

“Oh… Well, let’s get started”

Hige helped Applejack load all of the syrup into Sugar Cube Corner’s storage area. After a short good-bye, Applejack left. ‘What to do…’ Hige thought to himself as a barrel of syrup appeared in his line of sight. ‘I wonder what Big Macintosh is doing.’ “Let’s go, Kiba”, Hige said as he made his way to Sweet Apple Acres.

Hige walked along the trail that he was familiar with since the party. Soon enough, Hige was forced to stop and look around because of a loud thump he had heard. ‘What was that… There it is again… and again…’ Hige thought to himself as the thumping continued. ‘Only one way to find out’, he thought as he made his way to the noise. Hige was surprised to see Big Macintosh bucking at some apple trees.

“What are you doing here?” asked Big Macintosh

“Just visiting… not much to do around here…” Hige said trying to avoid eye contact.

“Hmmm… Okay then”, Big Mac said as he returned to bucking the trees.

“Your sister asked about you…” Hige said, causing Big Macintosh to stop bucking. “She is really worried about you…”

“I know that…” Big Macintosh said as he continued to buck the trees.

“Well? Why don’t you say something? She’s your sister…”

“No…” Big Macintosh answered.

“Why not tell her?”

“I’m not going to tell her, I’m not gonna tell anypony!!!” Big Macintosh screamed as he bucked a tree so hard that the tree was forced to its side. “I’m a monster… There is no changing that…”

Hige couldn’t control himself any longer. “… If you were a monster, why don’t you kill me right now, huh?! If you were a real monster, you would have killed everypony already. Why are you so scared of yourself?! If you were a real monster, you wouldn’t be worried about being a monster!!!” Hige slowly calmed down. “S-sorry… I don’t know what came over me…” Hige said, regretting his recent action.

“Don’t worry…” Big Macintosh said as he admired the tree he tipped.

“It’s just that…”

“You’ve felt the same way before… like if you have something inside you… that wants out…”

“Y-yeah… I’ve always been seen as a monster… I’m not sure what to believe anymore…” Hige began to look at the sky.

“That makes two of us… Do you want to get a drink?” Big Macintosh asked.

“I thought you haven’t wanted to go to into town in a long time.”

“Eeyup”, Big Macintosh said as he made his way to the bar.

The three of them made their way to the bar; Kiba was forced to wait outside.

“Two shots of Wild Pegasus”, Big Macintosh said as he grabbed a seat.

Hige took the seat next to him, “What are we doing here?”

“Alcohol helps me calm down.”

“Hmmm…” Hige began to observe the shot that the bartender had placed in front of them. “Why are they so small?” Big Macintosh began to snicker. “What did I say!?”

“It’s a shot, it’s very concentrated alcohol… you can’t drink too much of it at the same time, so they just give you these, one at a time”, he picked up one of them.

“Well then… Bottoms up”, Hige said as he picked up the other shot. They both drank it in one gulp; Hige began to cough. “That’s some really strong stuff.” There was a sudden shift in the air; both of them reacted to it. “Did you feel that?”

“Eeyup.” They sat there drinking in silence for a few more hours

“Hey, Big Mac.” Big Macintosh turned his head. “Those ponies that just walked into the bar… I’ve got a strange feeling about them…“

Big Macintosh looked in the direction that Hige was looking; his eyes widened. “We need to leave, now. Hey, put it on my tab”, Big Macintosh told the bartender as he began to walk out.

“What’s happening?” Hige asked as he followed Big Macintosh.

“No time, we need to leave”, he answered.

As they walked out, Kiba stood and began to follow them. As they began to make their way to Sweet Apple Acres, thugs who were hiding in the darkness of the night quickly surrounded them.

“What do they want?” asked Hige, confused by the situation.

“Me… They’ve been trying to run the Apple family out of town for a long time now… I was the only thing in their way.” Kiba began to growl, Big Macintosh began to turn and look at the thugs, Hige’s eyesight began to blur. “Are you okay, Hige? You can leave if you want to…” Big Macintosh said.

“No… its fine…” As Hige opened his eyes, he was amazed to see that all of the thugs were glowing. ‘W-what is this…’

“Well then, are you ready?” his eyes began to glow red.

“Ready”, Hige said, Kiba barked once. In a split second, every thug ran toward the trio.

From what Hige was seeing, there were twelve thugs, and all of them were earth ponies. Big Macintosh was taking on four; Kiba was taking on two. That left six thugs. Hige saw the remaining thugs running in his direction, Hige grinned. ‘I feel… Amazing’, Hige thought as he began to run towards them. In a moment of adrenaline-fueled excitement, the world began to move slowly. Hige was able to dodge a tackle from one of the thugs and buck another one of them in the face. The thug’s body went limp. ‘Wow, haven’t done that in a long time’, he thought as he jumped backwards to avoid a buck from another thug. While the thug tried to regain his balance, Hige tackled him on the side. There were two thugs about to ram him from opposite directions. ‘Too easy’, he thought as he dove to the ground and let the thugs smash into each other head on. Hige began to look around, Kiba had killed one of the thugs that was attacking him causing the other to run, Big Macintosh had knocked out three of the thugs and was about to do the same to the fourth. Hige didn’t notice that the thugs he had tackled had begun to gallop toward him, knife in mouth. “Hige, watch out!!!” screamed Big Macintosh as he finished of his last thug, Kiba was running in Hige’s direction. ‘There’s one behind me… ten feet away and is holding something in his mouth… Kiba won’t reach him in time… Need to time this right…’ The second the thug was in bucking distance, Hige smashed his hoof against the thug’s face.

“How did you know he was behind you?” Big Macintosh said as he caught up to Hige.

       “I… have absolutely no idea”, Hige began to look at the body, “It was like… I could sense him.” Hige turned his head toward the acres “There are two more… in the barn…”

Big Macintosh began to gallop towards the barn. “No, they wouldn’t dare”, he said under his breath.

Hige tried to catch up to Big Macintosh, but he had already taken too much of a head start to catch up. Big Macintosh slammed the doors open and ran inside, instantly seeing the two thugs that were inside. In one simple buck, the thugs were sent out of the entrance of the barn and were smashed against two trees. “Bastards… all of them…” Big Macintosh said as he placed his hoof on the bloodied head of one of the thugs and began to press down.

“Stop right now, you’re going to regret it”, Hige said as he finally caught up to Big Macintosh.

“What do you know!? This gang has been trying to kill me and my family for years; you have no idea what it’s like!!!” he screamed.

“You have no idea how much of my life has been ruined by some bastards who want me dead! You have the chance to have a semi-normal life and you make excuses for yourself! You don’t want to tell AppleJack because you don’t bucking want too, and you know it! You know for a fact that she will accept you, but you decide not to because you think it’s the only way to keep them safe!” Hige’s voice boomed. “Next time you talk to me about loss, you better not expect my pity. Every single loss you’ve had, I’ve had a thousand times worse! Go and kill that poor bastard, but don’t blame me for the events that you will have set in motion.”

“Y-you have some guts”, he threatened as he gave Hige an intense angry stare, Hige didn’t flinch. “You have no idea what I’ve gone through, do you have any idea what it’s like to have your family in constant danger!”

“And you have no idea what it’s like to not have a family, to not have anypony to rely on… to know that you are utterly alone in a world that hates you for what you could be. Like I said before, anything you’ve felt, I’ve felt a thousand times over…” Hige said without a single hint of anger.

Big Macintosh’s eyes began to return to their normal color. He looked at the unconscious body and instantly retracted his hoof. “I-I’m… I’m sorry… I-I don’t know what came over me…”

“I know how it feels… you need somepony to help you out of it sometimes…” Hige said.

“Let’s hide the thugs and get something to eat, that fight really took a lot of energy.” He said with a smile

“Okay then…”

Hige, Big Macintosh and Kiba dragged the bodies into the Everfree forest, never to be seen again (Hopefully they’d get lost… or eaten…), they returned to the apple family house and began to eat the various forms of apple treats that they had stockpiled in the kitchen.

“Today we went to the bar, and came back… nothing else“, Hige offered.

“Eeyup.”

The door suddenly flew open. Applejack was standing in the doorway, teary eyed. “You! You haven’t gone to town in months and suddenly you decide to go with this feller! I’m yer’ sister, why won’t you tell me anythin’!? Why don’t ya let me help you!?” she said almost breaking down.

Big Macintosh took one look at Hige, stood up and gave Applejack a hug. “I’ll tell you everything…” He whispered. Applejacks eyes widened and she returned the hug. Big Macintosh looked at Hige and nudged for him to leave them alone.

Hige and Kiba walked out of the house and made their way to town. They reached their house and walked upstairs. Hige fell into bed and was quickly overcome with sleep.