Lemon Slices

Renatta looked around. Lemon was not looking at her. He was with his head down, for some reason. She looked at the door. She felt like being watched by the door. But as she tried to look behind the opening of the door, it instantly went pitch black. She, curious, sneaked to it.

Renatta opened the book with her magic. "I am not sure I'll be able to cast this, no matter how much I am going to practice", she said aloud, but silent as a whisper. She was the slower pony, as the huge path to that building had almost consumed her legs. She wouldn't get rest for some long hours. "Renatta, you are fine. You just have to stand still." The other ponies were meters above her. The stairs was get even more covered by plants. As she took a little break to breath, a vine caught her tail. "What?" she said, using her magic to weaken the vine rather than just breaking it, and then escaping. However, more vines were chasing her, and probably the ponies up there. The more she climbs up, the more the vines were bothering her. "Where this will end? It's getting annoying!"

Renatta un-held the magic from her hood, thinking, "I hope I am making the right decision... They are friends, Renatta, they are your allies now..." Winds blew the hood away, showing her body. Then the ponies started to greet her. "Welcome my name is Ticktock Starblast, pleasure to meet you." "Hi, I'm Icesius Blizzard. If you're joining us, then prepare yourself for what's next." She didn't give them an answer. She was still shut. But after a second, she said, but with her head down: "...Oh, s-sorry. My name is Renatta. O-Of the Quartz family. I-I am on a mission." Noticing her own shyness, she realized it was better to breath deeply and calm down. She lift a hoof for greeting them. But as everypony were running, she just put it down, and ran along: "We...", breath, "We have the same objective, do we?"

Behind of the hazmat pony, there was somepony, with the head down, hooded in sewn rags. Its white horn, and her tall legs, however, were uncovered, and only two things could reflect the light: Her lilac eyes, and her teeth while she grinned. By the eyes and the legs, and even the aspect of her half-illuminated face, it could be noticed that the unknown pony was a mare. From behind her, a big book was being moved by magic, floating and flipping though its own pages, creating a constant wind that was blowing away tiny debris and dust. Before this situation, as she knew nopony, and didn't have a map in hand, getting some friends to get to her objective was the only option. She cast a spell on her hood, holding it just in case of wind to blow it away, walking forward, with a thought: "I should be covered now. Even if allies are useful, they are rare. I hope I'm taking the right decision."

"We... Well... Ahn... Listen, as I can see here, we have more importance here than we would ever have back on our world! Princess, if I can change this world, it would be a pleasure." "Not so fast. You can't go alone. Friendship isn't individuality. That is what make you a friend." He looked back. "Well, it depends on you. I think we could go back at the end of this, Hammer."

"Guards, get back." She said, energetic, and then looked to the marble floor they were on. The room was a dome, divided in a side with bright and pink and other pale colors, and a dark side with dark-blue and black colors, and some white dots, to give more of a meaning of night. But the details that caught the major attention were the image of the Sun, made by pure light, and the image of the Moon, also by pure light. Both were at the white color, and spinning slowly, about a rotation per minute. Each side of the room also had a divan, and Celestia fell at her divan. "I fear that evil forces will try to eat this world. But the fact that makes me more afraid is that for the first time... I might not be able to fight against it." "What, Celestia? I asked you dozens of times, and you still refuses to answer.", said Twilight, scared. "The forces are so strong I can't even see who is causing them. The fog... Is so dense..." "Well, we can't be called with dealing with something to supernatural as you said." "Supernatural?" Celestia asked, curious with human words, but Raphael made a gesture to her to forget. "I watched this world of yours dozens of times. I don't know the past of it, though. But just remembering the places just made me feel sorrowful. The bodies of some of the foals of yours' world... Hunger... But I also see high buildings and luxury... How can such a world be so bitter for most of the ones that co-habits with you?" She continued. "I watched lots of creatures like you from your world. Humans. They... They had so many hatred at each other... But you two... Had a kind of a magical power inside you two than Twilight described to me a long time ago... Friendship. Your friendship is so strong... This is what I needed to fight that evil forces."

@, Celestia needed to not tell him much, although she knew he would ask more questions. "I... The life of a princess is too idle. I sometimes need to entertain myself. I spy in other dimensions. I felt... When I saw you two ending the lives of these, ahn... bandits... I saw two heroes..." "Wait", Raphael cut her unpleasantly, but later apologized with a gesture. "Did you bring us into this dimension looking for something we would do for you?" "No!" She got surprised. "I was going to explain to you two when we get in..." Celestia sighed, defeated. She lighted her hoof, and the same lights and beams formed themselves around the two.

Hammer's question was ignored, probably making him madder. "Well, the last thing I remember from there is that we were in a middle of a shooting, weren't we?" Raphael said, scratching his hair. "I... I could hear sounds of... Popping pipes like you two have... I could read their faces... I could hear your speeches... What were you doing there... Raphael, I suppose?" "We... We were in a mission, in a shooting. We are soldiers in duty, lady Princess Celestia. Actually, I think we two could die there..." Raphael his his unloaded Uzi under his vest, and the other one in his left hand. He is not left-handed, but even inside him he wanted peace. Celestia realized she could make Raphael at her side quickly, and convince Hammer of this place. "What?"

"What kind of hypnosis we were thrown at?", Lemon said, opening his eyes into seeing a place very different from the reality he saw a minute ago. Or more than a minute. He couldn't know. But at the same time, a feeling of deep shock and a strong fear of what was going on that blocked him from saying "Oh Celestia". And a word came from his past memories into his mind. "...they" "Did we got kidnapped?" Lemon thought, looking around to see a blank and empty room, with a white door slightly opened. His eyes went wide as he thought he saw a dark eye seeing him from behind the door, but he became too scared to go check it out. He rushed for Renatta. "Renatta... Renatta... Please wake up... Please..." "Ahn... Ah, hello, Mr. Slices. Wait." Her eyes also went wide as she noticed how different this room is from before. "Oh no. Oh Celestia, are our friends alright? ENZOO! CUUUUDL-" "Shhh. Someponies might be watching us."

He didn't notice that Mist was a bat-pony, so he jumped backwards, scared. "Oh, sorry, I... I didn't realize that. Well, I... I am pretty real. I didn't want this day to be real, though. I'm glad I found somepony, but I need information about everything that is happening. I actually live in a closed village, and it can't look like this town were attacked in less than a week ago. Actually, are you from here?" Lemon looked around him. Hundreds of building, broken, decaying, shattered windows, and busted walls, that made up a terrible background where even ponies could have in nightmares. Well, now the nightmare was around him. Everywhere. But not a nightmare that end at a open of eyes. Now it was only him, the dark-grey scary bat-pony... Wait. Somepony came in. First reactions first, Lemon really loved the fact that there were two survivors other than him. He would know with more details about the Trotters. In fact, he didn't even know they were called like this. The time he passed with his parents in his village in fact made him not getting news. He would know his sister would be escaping from the Trotters' attack, if the letter arrived earlier. The mix between the feelings for the losing of his sister, that was starting to kick in his brain, and the hope for surviving made him smile and cry. "I guess I can call you guys my friends now, as we need to be together," Lemon said as he looked up to the sky, "and we are alone in this terrifying-WATCH OUT!" A zombie Pegasi was flying towards the new team, flapping his wings hastily, but not getting so fast. Well, now he realized he needed his team to help him, as... If he were alone... His skills wouldn't get him a life.

In that same day, in the dawn, Lemon's eyes opened, as well as his smile. His oldest sister was going to come by train to meet the rest of the family in his father's mansion, where he was spending the week in. His saudade was intense. It was about time she would come, so he woke up earlier, six o' clock. "Wait", he thought. "What kind of sound is this?" Groans could be heard. Some steps, as well. But that early? It was... "Fishy". Walking to the main corridor to get clues, he could hear groans at the other side of the wall. "It might be... In her room!", he was comforted with his conclusion. The door was wide opened. When he got inside, a terrible view came at his eyes... His sister had come at the middle of the night. That was true. But it wasn't good news to him. A Trotter and what was supposed to be the bloody corpse of his sister were on her bed. "Brielle...", Lemon said, hopeless. He heard about that terrifying beings, but never expected to have them invading his house. "I am so lucky I locked my room for no reason", he thought... But something broke his thoughts. The Trotter looked behind and noticed his presence. But our green survivor does not know how to beat things with things. But he knew something more useful to him: Lock doors. Lemon pushed the door from outside, closing it. As they were unconscious beasts now, he had a quick thought: "They wouldn't turn the knob", and ran away, to the atrium of the big house. And in the atrium of this building, there was two beasts. He learnt that they weren't ponies anymore to him, but the feeling of letting his favorite sister behind gave him a second of sadness. He was hoping for his adoptive parents to be alive. He managed to get past the two Trotters and get away, but didn't lock the house down. Just got no time, because the door can only be locked from inside. He ran through the woods. After thirty minutes of fear, he managed to get into a huge, large city. However, that town wasn't fine, but severely decayed. The situation couldn't even give a clue to him about the place. "Am I... Safe?", thought again. He stopped walking. Looking around him, several ponies were walking towards him, but at a distance of about 50 meters. Thinking in a way of escaping, Lemon ran towards the east-south corner of the town, hoping for chances to get near an open area. And there was some activity. A half part of a sign could info him: 'Manehattan-' The sound of beating flesh, blood spilling and interrupted groans gave some hope to him. "These creatures are slow. However, they don't appear to get tired... Wait. There might be someone fighting for his/her life! A survivor!" He ran towards the place where the sounds were coming from. In fact, there was somepony fighting for his life. However, as he could call attention for the Trotter, he just hid inside a bush. After the kill, he ran towards that pony, asking questions, but breathing loudly: "Well... Hello. I think... I guess I can help you... Ahn... Slices. My name Lemon Slices."

She turned back, her eyes surprised with his reaction, surprised with the fact that he found out, but not surprised with the gun pointing at her. Celestia's mane and tail, however, kept its direction because of the winds that was coming. Actually, for two seconds, while she looked at him with 10% disappointment and 90% afraid of telling him, the winds were the only one who where producing sounds. The sky was totally clear. Her mouth opened for two centimeters, her eyes were half-closed... And the words had to come out. "You..." she then looked at Raphael, "You as well...", and then she looked at the ground. "... Wouldn't understand." Raphael didn't the reason of her bringing the two at this dimension, but he knew anything his partner would do wouldn't help at all. He covered the pipe of the gun with his wrist, confident that he wouldn't shoot. "We can't do this." He was still angry.

When he looked up... The room was a bit dark, there was some lines of light coming from a hole in the ceiling. Dust and mold could be smelt there."Aw man, that floor hurts"... But when he realized there was ponies around him, he tried to stand up, failing. And the purple griffin raised her talons to help him, Lemon unconsciously held it for getting up. "Oh, thanks. Wow.", Lemon got scared, and walked back. Then he shook his head and realized that it was the said group. Everypony around him had powerful weapons, Salleriah had her sharp talons, and all of them had powerful stares. He was the only one unarmed. He could notice a disappointment coming from somewhere. "Yeah, I'm the useless one... But anypony got a clue of what are we doing here? And where do you guys come from?" Maybe being friendly would save his skin. He would be probably the scapegoat at whatever mission they would be going to. It made him have a handful of sadness, but a question motivated him: "If they threw you there, fight against the odds". It probably would be good for a book of his, but not for a mission that was looking like life-risking.

The mural was lighting the entire room. It was very blurry in the beginning, and then he managed to see something familiar. "What?", he said, surprised with the change of images. The mural was animated, and comforting, so comforting that he subtly became hypnotized with the images, and even looking to another direction was unthinkable. And the images were all familiar to him. As the time passed, he remembered the faces of several people in the orphanage when he was a kid. And the other orphans, playing with him. The image of his adoptive father, Steel Slices, his adoptive mother, his sisters... "Is it... Me? Are they watching me?", he thought, a bit embarassed. However, somehow he didn't move a hoof to stop it. And then the speed of the images being shown increased. The speed of the animation became too fast for him to understand. It slowed down again, with him walking on the docks. The sound of the Almighty Sea formed itself, but it was so soft, and the images were so hypnotizing that nopony would realize. His steps, the sound of creaking planks... He wouldn't notice that the mural's size increased some centimeters. A buzzing sound came at his ears. The buzzing was so strong he couldn't even hear his voice. Caught. Then the images became big as his vision field, as a holodeck, and shown the lastest scenes. And then it started to hurt for him. Like everyone, he was shocked. There wasn't recognizable images anymore. Darkness, screams.... A very loud "Help me"... The darkness consumed his mind...

@, Raphael stroked his hair. Everything was too strange and new, but he should act normally. "Who are you...?" She sighed, and smiled at him, looking to be humble at his presence to gain his trust. She wouldn't know what kind of trump card they would have. Also, she doesn't like showing herself so arrogantly. "My name is... Celestia." "Are you a Princess, like... Twilight? Sorry if I forgot your name, I just think it's Twilight." Twilight smiled. "Correct... About you two, I felt an... An... An explosion of chaos far around here, but I thought it was our Discord doing something. But after receiving this report, I... I am very surprised." Celestia said, before looking to the trees and vegetation. "We need to go in a place more... Comforting for you two." "Where?", Twilight asked. "Let's go to Ponyville, but on-hoof. They need to be used to this place, if they aren't from here."

"NO! Is she some kind of authority? And no, we are no alie- Wait. We are aliens for you, aren't us?", Raphael said, a bit confused, turning to Hammer. "Well, we are the only humans here, Hammer. We are... No, it can't. Are other individual of our species aside of us?", he asked, a bit afraid. He looked to the ground. "Please, say something."

"Equestria... Ponyville... Canterlot... No, really, I don't know any of those. Actually, they are... Well... I'm confused. We come from... "He looked back, looked at everything around him, and said, "It wouldn't matter. You wouldn't understand. We were from some other type of reality. Our world wouldn't be so beautiful as this... And we wouldn't find a talking horse wandering around either."

Raphael laughed at that. Well, he thought about saying that was a weapon and yadda yadda, but probably weapons wouldn't be allowed in that place. Just became quiet. "Wait, relax, Princess, then. A lady is... A very important, well... Forget it. Oh, I wish I had a thesaurus... Actually, if we doesn't look like we died, I think we are in some kind of afterlife. What do you think, Hammer? Oh, and where do you come from, Princess?"

"Well... Yeah. I think we are in some kind of dream, perhaps... But everything feels so... Oh, sorry.", as he got back to talking with the horned winged horse before him. Everything on her shocked him. Aside from her being a talking horse, she had a mane dark as a shadow, aside from a purple stripe. She was using a tiara with a lilac glowing stone. Since holding guns could be too offensive in his opinion, he left his Uzies in the ground, and got up, although his muscles were aching as hell. "Hi... What should I call you? Lady... Please, what are actually we doing here?"

He opened his eyes. The light could be some kind of hallucination, in his mind. He first thought he was in a kind of safe place, after waking up. "Oh... My head is... Are we in- Whathef***", he said as he opened his eyes, and his face's muscles contracted themselves.. "Listen to me," breath, "Calm really, really down", breath, "and look behind, partner."