//------------------------------// // Endure and Survive // Story: Mind Games // by LongStoryShort //------------------------------// Same old desks, same old ponies, same stressed-out teacher. The familiar feel of the Ponyville school-house calmed Button’s nerves as he trotted to his seat.          See? Just a hallucination. That’s all! Button threw his backpack on his desk, simultaneously letting out a huge breath. At least nothing else too crazy will happen today.          He started to take out his homework. Suddenly, Button remembered what he was thinking about in the first place.          The gaming binge! Shoot, I got to tell my friends what happened last night!          Button turned to face his classmates behind him, Rumble and Pipsqueak.          “You guys are never going to believe what I did last night!”          Rumble’s eyes widened, but maintained a degree of cynicism. “Really? What did you do?”          Button grinned. “I pulled off the greatest gaming binge in Equestrian history!”          Pipsqueak and Rumbles’ mouths opened to say a few words, but none came.          Instead, uncontrollable bits of laughter came out. “Pff-ha ha ha! What did you do, drink Hilly Dew all-night while playing Clop of Duty?” laughed Pipsqueak.          “Or was it Haylo?” Rumble remarked, finishing his braying with a wipe at his eye. “Don’t worry, we won’t make fun of you if it was Haylo.”                  “No, you guys, it was not that game for foals!” Button retorted. “I’m talking about every other game except that one!”          “No way, you couldn’t have done that,” the pegasus-foal remarked.          “Nopony can pull that off,” answered Pip.          “But I did! I beat almost all of them! Assassin’s Steed, Tomb Raider: Daring Do Edition, Grand Theft Auto: Cantertrot Stories, all of them!“ Button stomped his forearms on his friends’ desks. “The craziest part is, I think I saw things because of it!”          His companions eyed him skeptically. “Things like, what?” Pip questioned.          “Like I saw real Battleplains stallions in the town center!”          “You sure you’re not going crazy?” inquired Rumble.          “I’m serious you guys! Now, I know it was a hallucination, but I think my gaming last night really caused me to see some crazy shi-“          “O.K., class!” said Cherilee. She put on the fakest smile that she could muster with her best Pinkie Pie impression.          “*sigh*” Button turned to face his teacher. “I’ll tell you guys later.” “We have a new student coming over today from farther out! She hails from the South,” Cherilee continued. “Be nice to her, she’s got a tough attitude!”          Hmm. That’s nice to know, Button thought.          The teacher walked to the right of the classroom. She reached for the door handle, throwing it wide open.          “Say hello to your new classmate!”          Cherilee motioned for somepony to come in. “Don’t be shy, come on!”          Button looked towards the door. A hoof stepped through. The filly wore a checkered jacket. She carried a backpack, along with a pair of blue jeans. The look on her face was searching, careful. It was as if she was looking for something more out of life. Or something that eluded her vision. She scanned the room carefully. She didn't seem to notice other ponies were in the classroom, even Button.          Woah…she looks familiar. Nah, it couldn't be.          “Everypony!” Cherilee carefully got the attention of the classroom.          “This is Ellie.”          Button stared with an apparent look of awe on his face. The propeller-beanie on his head stopped spinning. His cap fell of his face. He was still staring.          Ellie started to trot around the classroom. She approached the first desk that was in front of her. Searching its contents, she found some scissors, a lottery ticket, and an advanced encyclopedia. She eyed the first item carefully, tossed away the second one. The third was peculiar to her. She flipped the cover open, eyeing a barcode section which stated the names of the previous owners of the book. Minty Clean, Doobart Dunderhead, Dinky Doo. Year Two Thousand Thirteen in the Year of Our Goddesses. Goddesses. Huh. Ellie thought about the last time someone referred to the goddesses. Why did everyone believe that a being beyond any of their kind could save them from the cordyceps? The Princesses weren’t immune. Their power only spread the infection faster. Whatever healing they attempted only infected the individuals. It had been twenty years. Twenty years since she had lost her mom. Riley. Sam. She was given the immunity too late. Too much time had been spent getting to the Firefly base. Ellie was not going to let the memories of the greatest ponies she had known fade away without any chance of proving that she could do something now. She would keep them alive. She would make things right. “Ellie, you looking at something?” A tall tan stallion with an aging beard trotted into the room. The green shirt he wore was beaten down, torn over the years. His jeans looked like they had been pried off a rotting body. On his back was a backpack stuffed with a shotgun. Strapped around his arm was a bow, his left forehoof carrying a snub-nose revolver. “Nothing, Joel.” Ellie flipped through the pages. “Just getting some major character development done.” “Nice,” he replied, completely oblivious towards the implications. Joel walked over to the teacher’s desk. At this point, Button realized that he was alone in the classroom with a hardened, bitter survivor and a determined filly. Neither of the two noticed his presence. The colt turned around to face his friends. The desks that were once occupied were now subject to dust. The survivor checked Cherilee’s desk drawers. He scavenged some tape, alcohol, and some gunpowder. “Who keeps alcohol in a teacher’s desk?” Joel questioned. “Who puts gunpowder in a desk?” returned the filly. Joel smiled. He trotted over to Ellie. Peering over her shoulder, he observed the chapters she was reading. “Gonna take that with you?” “Yeah. I should learn something while we’re on the road.” “Too bad you won’t be able to use that knowledge anywhere,” he replied. “This will come in handy. Somehow.” Her hoof stopped on a particular page. “Hey! Look, Joel!” “Give me a minute,” the stallion replied. He was by the bookshelves, picking off usable items one by one. Ellie took notice of the items he was grabbing. “Isn’t it weird that we find alcohol, gunpowder, and scissors in the safest of places?” “I never noticed.” “The kids here must have been troublemakers.” “This is a school for foals.” Joel motioned. “Look at the desks.” “Still, you gotta admit we keep finding stuff in the weirdest of places.” Joel paid no attention. He grabbed for the top shelf, not even extending his arms to fully grasp the items above. Somehow, they ended up in his hoof. “How did you do that?” “Do what?” he remarked as he dropped the items into his backpack. “Grab things without even touching them.” His eyelids shifted upward. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “You just stuck your arms up and grabbed every item. You looked like you were doing an arm dance or something.” “You sure that you’re immune?” Joel sat, looking at the floor for more supplies. “Very funny.” Ellie waited patiently for Joel to finish his scavenging, flipping pages further. He reached under every desk, every table. “I remembered something that I didn’t get to talk about earlier. Back when we watched that fight.” “Yeah, the Fireflies and Hunters.” Ellie frowned. “Why didn’t you help the Fireflies?” “We didn’t stand a chance. There were too many. Keeping you safe was more important. Besides, both sides had reinforcements.” “There were only four of the Hunters, though.” “Yeah, but they kept coming back with someone to replace the last teammate. Same with the Fireflies.” “You’d think that the Fireflies and Hunters would just send all of their team down instead of replacing a dead pony every ten seconds.” Ellie smiled to herself. “Sounds like a dumb tactic for both sides.” Meanwhile, Button tried to comprehend what was happening. Okay, now I’m stuck in a presumably dilapidated Ponyville, in a deserted schoolhouse, with two survivors from The Last of Equestria. Great. He breathed faster. Just a hallucination, he thought. Just a hallucination. Joel stood up, finished with his scavenging. He trotted over to her seat. “Some pretty weird things happened that time. Remember when one of the Fireflies took a shot at a Hunter behind a wall?” “Yeah, his buddy called him out.” “But his buddy didn’t tell him where he went,” he pondered. He took the seat left of Ellie. “How did he know where he was?” “It’s like they can see each other through walls,” she joked. “There were a lot of ridiculous things that happened that time. Remember whenever one of the groups shot another pony in the head, the poor pony just fell over and crawled?” “Yeah. How can that happen when they can still stab each other in the throat?” “They also kept getting weapons I’m sure they didn’t pick up. How did that guy get that shotgun from out of the blue?” “I’m not wondering about the shotgun. I’m curious to see how he kept that flamethrower hidden so well.” “Did they really need to keep going over to the stragglers to finish them off?” The two shivered at those memories. They were definite examples of over-application of force. “It didn’t help when you intervened. Why did you wait?” “I would have let the Fireflies beat the Hunters, but I guess I was wrong. I only took the best possible opportunity.” “It’s a wonder that they didn’t see me while you were sneaking around.” “Especially because you were running everywhere in their line of sight,” he joked. “You were doing the sneaking, I was the distraction,” she countered. “The plan worked well, even though I wasn’t supposed to do that. It was pretty cool when you predicted a guy was coming around that street corner.” “I was listening well.” “You must have pretty good hearing,” Ellie returned to the page she wanted Joel to see. “Maybe you might be psychic. You already knew how many Hunters were out there even though you hadn’t looked around the corner.” “Again, good listening skills.” “Those are ridiculous listening skills for an old man.” “You insulting me?” “It was a compliment.” She pointed to a particular paragraph. “Take a look at this.” The paragraph was dedicated to the anatomy of fireflies. “Awesome symbol they chose.” “I’ve seen crazier groups do the same thing. All of the extremist militia groups back then were all the same.” “Extremist? Seriously?” she criticized. “I’ve just seen similar groups back then. We called them, ‘domestic terrorists’.” “So, are the Fireflies domestic terrorists?” “Not really. If they’ll do anything for a cure, they’re at least desperate extremists.” “That’s just a euphemism for the same word.” “’Euphemism.’ Heh, you’re smarter than I thought.” “Do I look stupid?” Ellie looked at one illustration on the page. “Woah! There’s a lot of fireflies here!” “Yeah. I used to see a lot of them in my backyard. Sarah and I used to catch them.” Ellie widened her gaze. She was surprised to hear that. He was surprised that she was. “No way! You really caught them?” “Yeah, it was easy. You just need a clear jar.” “Did you have to bait them or something? Did you need a pheromone to attract them?” “No. They just-“ Joel waved his arms to demonstrate “-came from everywhere.” “Woah.” “It was a sight. Something I miss actually.” Joel loved those days, spending time with Sarah. Late night T.V. Soccer practice. Bedtime stories. No longer. “There’s no way they can actually come out like that. That’s like Bill came out wide in the open.” She snickered. “Ellie.” “Sorry.” She shut the book. After several seconds, they got up. Ellie gave Joel one more look. “Were they really like that?” “Mm-hm.” “Swear to me, then.” Ellie was very interested in this topic. Joel was didn’t see her attitude on such a trivial subject coming. “Swear to me that everything you said to me about the fireflies is true.” He paused. Ellie was making this question out to be one of the most important ones she wanted answered. His reply would be crucial. It was as if he was deciding the fate of ponykind itself. He couldn’t lie. Joel said, “I swear.” They stared at each other. The answer was one that would define their future relationship, though it wasn’t the most important response. “Okay.” A few more seconds passed. They looked down the door, preparing to leave. Click-click-click-click “Aww, no.” Joel pushed Ellie away from the door. The two took cover behind Cherilee’s desk. They knew what was coming. So did Button. He was less fortunate than they were, however. As he got up, the known creature stepped into the classroom. A Clicker. What remained of the butcher’s body was now infected with spore-containing growths. His head was now a mouth split down the middle, made for tearing pony flesh apart. “Hey, I always thought their faces looked like v-“ “Shhh!” Joel whispered back to her. The monster trotted over to the desk. It’s hearing attempted to detect the three survivors in the room, one of which was not seen by Joel or Ellie. But Button was sure that it could hear him. I need to get to the door, he thought. Button began to press his hooves on the floor in front of him, making sure that the floor didn’t creak. He tiptoed three steps. Button noticed the outlet he was provided as the Clicker edged closer towards Cherilee’s desk. I can just leave, and these two can deal with the Clicker. They’ve got it easy His hoof hit something. A tin can. The Clicker’s head jerked to face Button. Noticing their new exit, Joel and Ellie tiptoed towards the exit. Oh, come on! Button thought. The Clicker now evidently knew where he was. Following his breathing, it approached him at an accelerated pace. Just a dream, just a dream, just a dream! The Clicker grabbed him, swinging its mouth around to rip his neck open. He tried to yell something, but the creature covered his mouth as it fed on his blood. Button squirmed in its grip. “Button, calm down!” Cherilee was having a difficult time getting him to sit. He went on about some ponies named Joel and Ellie. Then he was yelling about a monster with a huge slit down its head. Ridiculous. “Button! Sit down!” Cherilee yelled as she forced him into his seat. She didn’t want to resort to extreme measures, but right now, she would rather be going over the results on her dating site than teaching this class. She put her hoof to his face, albeit at a incredibly fast rate. Button swung his head around. “What? Where? Clicker!” he cried. He tried to scramble out of his seat, but Cherilee held him. He looked at the pony grabbing then. Then he turned around. Eyeing his surroundings, he eventually came to the correct conclusion where he was. “Oh,” he muttered. “Let’s not have another outburst like this again, young man!” Cherilee told him sternly. She returned to her desk. “Woah, Button. You okay?” Rumble asked. “Yeah. For a second there, we thought you were going crazy!” “Well, what was I doing?” Button rudely inquired. His two friends pointed at a spot on the floor. Button looked. The spit and fluid gave a clear indicator. “Aww, eww!”