Love Songs and Tooth Picks

Thirty minutes had past. My tears were long since dried out. I had grown disturbingly accustomed to the reek of burning changelings. The screams of agony were gone, replaced by the sound of small patches of burning grass. I couldn't help but sit there in the middle of it all, staring at my own hooves. All of that blood, is on these hooves... I just laid there on the grass, the one unsoiled patch of grass. All around me was dead. Everything dead. I closed my eyes and tried to hide from it all.

"Heart, get up, we need to get out of here. The smoke is going to start drawing attention." Twinkle was gently nudging my side. She was just trying to be nice, to help me snap out of this comatose state I was in.

There was no way I could go on with myself, after what had just happened. I knew that, but I decided to try, for their sake if anything.I decided to at least stand.

We were all exhausted. We had been walking since before dawn, and it was well after dark. "We should find a place to sleep." My first words since it happened, they felt hollow and pointless. I floated my belongings onto my back and started walking. I didn't bother waiting for the others to follow me, I didn't even turn my head to see that they were. I didn't need to of course, I could hear them start to walk behind me after a moment.

Gate whispered, I suppose to Twinkle. "Now you see what I meant about the depressed state she sometimes gets in."

I stopped, intending to turn around and snap, but a grim realization hit me like a sack of bricks. "Where is Chrysalis? I saw her crawling away as the other changelings flew up to us, but nothing after that." They all stopped in their tracks. "Don't tell me she got away... How did she even survive that?!"

Gate's head lowered. "She beat Celestia without a second thought. Chrysalis is a tough one to kill."

"While we're on the topic, mind explaining why you decided to torch those changelings? They used to be people, like me, like YOU!"

She just sighed. "Empathy."

"What?"

"Ever since this started, you have had increasingly sensitive ears. Twinkle has increasingly sensitive eyes. When our eyes start glowing, it adds another change, contradictory to our normal ones. You have good ears, so your glowing eyes make your eyes better, so you rely on something more than what you hear. When Twinkle's eyes glow, her magical abilities are more potent, so she can make up for her physical vulnerability. I never told you my other change. Since this started, I've been becoming increasingly logical, thought driven, fact obsessed; you could say I've made a habit of knowing every solid fact about what is going on around me. When my eyes glow, it pushes me back down to earth, letting me experience emotion once more. Not mine though, those are already there. I get to feel what everyone around me feels. No, never mind, I don't get to, I HAVE to."

There was a confused look on my face for a moment before she continued.

"I felt your pain, when you cringed away from my shouting. I felt Twinkle's unease at the whole situation. I felt Snow's burning blood lust as he came down on Chrysalis. I even felt Chrysalis's feelings. Initially, she felt unsure, wondering whether or not she could really convince us to join her. When Snow came down, it shifted to an absolute, overwhelming terror. When she hit the rock, I felt the stabbing into my own stomach. When she ordered her changelings to kill us, I felt her sadness, her anger, she felt betrayed." A tear fell from her chin.

"When the changelings came, I felt nothing from within them. They were hollow, absolutely devoid of anything beyond being an extension of Chrysalis's own will. There was a sadness, in a few of them. A desperate feeling of regret and despair. At first, I thought it was a shred of individuality, but then I realized. Each time Chrysalis's heart beat, those individual feelings were being snuffed out, creating progressively more mindless drones. When the burning started, one of the ones that was sad, had shifted to thankfulness. It was glad I killed it, saving it from becoming another zombie."

I was torn. One side of me was screaming that an innocent life should never be taken. The other side was sobbing for those who lost their entire being against their will. Somewhere in the middle ground, I broke completely. "Let's just find a place to sleep." My head low, spirits lower.

We kept walking. Some where along the line, I passed out.

I awoke to the sound of gunfire. Distant, yet very clear in what it was. Guns firing, bullets tearing trees. I stood up immediately, entirely ignoring my surroundings. My eyes were still closed, to help me focus on the sound.

"Eight different guns... assault rifles, firing in bursts of three.." I whispered quietly to myself.

I paused for a moment, listening for any more information. Then added "Approaching." My eyes opened slowly, sparing them from the sudden onslaught of the sunrise in my face.

I was still in the field, not far from where I collapsed. To my right, Gate was asleep against the lone tree behind me.. To my left, I saw Snow hanging limply from a low branch. Twinkle was standing a few feet away, staring in the same direction my ears were pointed.

"The noise finally woke you up?"

"Yeah, any idea what's going on?"

"I was standing watch when I saw some light flashing off in the woods. Some small fires started here and there, but they were quickly put out, not before I saw the smoke though. Apparently, something made someone very mad, and then took off into the woods."

"Eight assailants, heavily armed, but conserving ammo. Can't tell what their chasing. Might be more of them that aren't shooting."

"They are taking a path parallel with the one we took yesterday. You don't think?"

"Couldn't be. We covered our tracks perfectly. Those.... wolf things will probably just eat whatever is in there. What's left of them will, at least."

"I don't think so, the only ones that got away were severely crippled. They won't be hunting any time soon."

Gate stirred from her slumber. "What's going on?"

I gestured with a hoof towards the approaching noise off in the forest. "Gunfire. Eight guns firing, chasing something. Heading this way. Why are we so close to the forest still though?"

"We were too tired to drag you far, this tree was close and on a small hill. Height advantages like this are mandatory when keeping watch."

"Fair enough, I'm well rested. I guess you guys are too?"

They both nodded. Twinkle looked up. "Anyone wanna risk waking the sleeping beauty up there?"

I looked Gate dead in the eyes. "One..."

She nodded in understanding. "Two..."

In unison, "Three! Not it!"

I looked at Twinkle, and giggled a bit. "We both said not it, you didn't. You're it!"

"That isn't even fair!"

"All is fair in love and war, Twinkle. You get to wake him up!"

The pink maned former-manly man looked at me with the intent to kill me, but seemed to change her mind. For now at least. She just wrapped Snow in a pale pink glow, and lifted him off of the branch. "Everypony might want to get out of his line of sight."

"Good idea... " We all made our way to the other side of the tree, opposite of Snow.

Twinkle's horn stopped glowing, and all that was audible was a dull ~Thump~ from the other side of the tree. That was followed by a rather horrifying tap on my shoulder from behind. I turned and saw Snow. He looked calm. Too calm. Like the calm before a tornado.

"Who did it?" Gate and I immediately pointed at Twinkle and backed away. He just glared at her for a moment, and sighed. "If it was either Gate or Heart, we would be a group of 3 ponies by the end of the hour."

I decided to change the subject, away from the topic of murdering me. "We woke you up because there's gunfire in the woods, and it's approaching. I don't see how you guys don't hear it already."

Twinkle suddenly seemed on high alert, staring back into the forest. "Whatever the gunmen are chasing, it's almost out of the trees. I just saw movement."

Gate grew serious once more. "We should hide. We don't know what it is, too many variables."

"We've got a tree right here, ripe for the hiding!" Snow said, as he lifted Twinkle into the leafy branches and out of sight.

I looked to Gate. "Shall we?"

Both of our horns lit up, and we started to levitate one another into the tree. On several instances, I could have sworn she made me hit my head on a branch intentionally.

Two ponies burst out of tree line. One green, one pink. They were making a beeline for the tree we were hiding in. I looked over to Gate. "I think they are going to hide behind our tree..."

She just nodded.

The two unknowns were sprinting across the field now, and clearly exhausted. They both ducked out of sight, panting with their backs against the tree. I couldn't see them from where I was, but I could hear their conversation.

"You think we lost them?" The male voice asked.

"Not a chance. Did you not see those guys? Why were they even chasing you to begin with?" The familiar female voice responded.

"I'm not sure, I was just wandering the forest when I saw them, they started shooting at me so I ran."

"Sure, really believable, all of that and you just HAPPENED to run into me? I was just peacefully collecting berries, I did nothing to provoke them! I don't even know you!"

"Well, since we're about to die. Let's get introductions out of the way. You can call me Guyra, Guyra Heartstrings." And then, I found what it felt like to have a 'what the fuck' face.

"Heart? Is that you? I thought you were a mare?"

"Nope, one hundred percent stallion. And the name is Guyra."

"Well, 'Guyra', you can call me Love." So that's why I knew that voice...

And then I fell out of the tree, hitting my head firmly on the ground.

"Come on Heart, your going to end up getting brain damage or something if you keep getting knocked out like this." Gate was shaking me awake.

My ears were ringing, and my head was sore. "What the hell happened this time?"

"You fell out of the tree, dumb ass."

"Come on now, miss 'Gate' was it? No need to be rude to such a lovely mare." That was Guyra's voice.

I opened my eyes wearily, and looked over to this new pony. He looked... well, almost exactly like me. But he was a he. And he had a goatee. His mane and tail were a bit shorter, but I suppose that just comes with being a stallion. I glared at him for a moment longer.

"You ... " It took me a moment to find the right words. "Freaking wanna be. Go jump in some paint or something."

"Ouch, and here I was thinking that the attraction was mutual. Can't say you don't look quite better than the other mares here."

I heard heavy hoof steps back away, from behind me. I assumed it was Snow.

The other three, Gate, Twinkle, and Love, that is,  all formed a line between Guyra and I. Gate went first. I chose to ignore the shouting as best I could, and turned to Snow.

"What happened this time? Did I hit my head harder than usual or something? Where are those guys who were shooting at Love and Guyra?"

"Oh nothing really, they stepped out of the woods and looked around. Apparently, none of them saw those two duck behind our tree, so they assumed that the missing ponies were still in the forest, and turned around. Twinkle said they looked just like the guys who attacked us yesterday."

The sound of yelling behind me died down, replaced by the noise of hooves pounding onto flesh.

"So, I guess that those guys were looking for us still, but saw Guyra and thought he was me. So they chased him, hoping it would lead them to the rest of us?"

"That's what it seems like, yeah."

"They should have known better. That impostor can't even comprehend what it is that makes me so amazing, let alone imitate it."

I heard his cocky, arrogant tone from behind me. "I'm still here you know, even if I AM getting all of this physical attention, which is kinda fun."

The sound of his beating stopped as soon as his words were spoken. Snow started eyeing me funny. "You really do look better as a mare. That guy is a prick."

"Are you hitting on me? I don't think Twinkle would like that."

"Wait- what? No, that's not what I'm saying at-"

I cut him off. "So your saying you like to judge other stallion's appearances? I don't think Twinkle would like that either, finding out that you are a colt cuddler. Don't worry though, Your secret is safe with me!" I gave him a friendly punch in the shoulder.

"What? I'm not- what?"

I laughed and walked off to the others, standing over my male duplicate. He was laying on his back and his coloring was a bit off around the facial area, probably from some mixture of new bruises and blood. "Get up, you idiot. We should all get moving before those guys from earlier decide you two aren't in the forest."

"Why would I want to get up? I've got four lovely mares standing over me, giving me all the attention I crave." His eyes went wide as Love walked over to where his hind legs were. She turned around and reared up to buck him right in the nether region, but stopped herself inches away. "I'M UP I'M UP!" he shouted as he jumped to a standing position.

Gate leaned on me. "Yeah, he's exactly like you, a regular dumb ass.

We walked for about two hours, about eight miles. After some discussion, I learned that Guyra had gone out into the forest to look for something to do, out of sheer boredom. He couldn't get back into his apartment, because he couldn't figure out how to open a door with hooves. I had tried to explain magic to him, but he refused to acknowledge it as a legitimate thing. He insisted it was impossible, until Gate mentioned the fact that we were all talking ponies. That made him shut up.

By sheer accident, we all ended up walking in pairs of twos, each pair a bit further apart from the rest of the group, yet close to one another. Twinkle, of course, walked with Snow. Love and Gate were chatting about candy's effects on teeth. That left me to walk with Guyra. The discussion between us had abruptly ended when he realized it was just he and I. The silence was  incalculably awkward, until my stomach decided to break it like a hammer through a glass window made of wet paper.

"Huh, Guess I'm hungry. Anyone bring any food?"

Guyra nudged me with a hoof. "I got something you could eat."

I stopped walking, to only glare at him. Gate came up behind me. "Just. Like. You."

The next several minutes consisted primarily of everypony's stomachs groaning, until Gate did the unspeakable.

The rest of us looked on in shock, absolutely disgusted by what was occurring in front of us. There, not bot ten feet away from me, stood a blue unicorn. A self proclaimed genius. An old friend who saved my life three times more than I was willing to count. A personal hero. There, Gate was eating grass. Right out of the ground.

She looked up. "We are ponies, it's grazing. Stop whining about hunger and sate yourselves."