The Pegasus Device

Pixel was laying on her back, looking up at the utter darkness. She silently cursed as she realized that there were no shady pony-figures around. It had all been in her mind. She thought that she liked the darknes, when all this time it was slowly eating away at her. She was... going insane.

No. Not yet. She refuses to succumb to this hellhole...

She closed her eyes slowly, and breathed in a heavy sigh. She reminded herself of that one miniscule memory. When it was a New Moon, and Luna had decided there would be no stars that night. That one night wit no light... She had been unable to see anything but darknesss...

That was it. Darkness. The domain she cared for. The nights when her coal-black pelt was almost impossible to see. She was at home there. She didn't need her eyes, she just had to focus her ears.

She shakily got to her hooves, and angled her ears this way and that. She spoke to the stallions, wherever they were. "We're doing it again."

She took a deep breath, raised hersef on her hind legs, and came crashing down with a loud CLANG!!!

(( I just want to make a quick note. I haven't read through this yet, but the PG-13 rule still applies. So, if it gets to it, please keep the details slim. Since this is an AU, I'm not stopping the RP. I'm just simply making that note. Carry on ^.^ ))

The ground rumbled. The echoes returned, and the boys were screaming.

Hymn curled up, his hooves to his ears. He didn't want to hear this, he didn't want to hear this, he didn't want to hear this-

Hare passed out.

Pixel's ears begged for mercy, but she tyrannically forced herself to listen. Was that...?

Yes, behind the ringing in her ears, as the noise died down, it seemed to echo faintly still somewhere behind them, while in front of them, probably between one and two o' clock-ish, there was silence, as far as she could tell. She was actually quite lucky to pick up the sound at all...

She turned towards the silence, and facing that way, awkwardly slid herself sideways towards where the stallions. She could tell by the heavy breathing, on was passed out. She couldn't tell which, but the other one was curled up and holding his ears. She gingerly put a hoof on his flank, with slight guilt.

"I'm sorry for scaring you like that, but... I think I found out which direction those noises were coming from... You're friend's knocked out cold, too. We'll wait until you guys are alright before we decide where to go..."

Hymn jumped out of his feathers, and pushed himself back. His eyes shown white, a common show of an equine in the grip of blind panic. His wings were flaping wildly, not even lifting him because of dis-coordination.

"Don't Touch me!" He hissed.

Pixel drew her hoof back in shock. This was the first time they said something harsh to her. She made a small whimper and sat down on her hooves, head low.

She whimpered in shame and regret and guilt. "I'm really, really sorry..."

It took a moment for Hymn to collect himself. He stood, shaking and dizzy. He didn't need to lose his head, not here, defiantly not here. His wings hung loosely at his sides, the soft feathers bending loosely at the floor.

"No... No, I'm sorry... I shouldn't have yelled at you, I-"

Then Hymn promptly puked at his hooves.

Despite the situation and the fact that he just puked on the floor, so he was probably ill, she could help but snort a little and giggle. Well, looks like she was crazy.

Composing herself, she exclaimed,"Sorry! Sorry... Let's get your feathers out of that puddle, and then we'll see if we can wake Hare up."

She stepped into something slimy, and she scrunched up her nose. She lifted one of his wings over her back and tried to guide him towards the other breathing mass.

"If we aren't able to get him up, we should get some sleep ourselves. I won't like it, but we won't get anywhere if we're so tired and sick we can't stand up straight."

Hymn leaned heavy against her. All his strength had been zapped from him, and he felt sick to his stomach. By the Sun, what he wouldn't do for a bed right now...

Hare still looked like he'd been to Tartarus and back. Though he may have been slipping in and out of consciousness, judging by how he was curled up with his wings wrapped around him.

Pixel had grown silent, her face contorted into worry. None of them were fit to press on for now.
She sighs and settles the stallion next to his friend. Despite his previous flash of anger, she put a hoof on each of their forehead an murmured "By Celestia..." Both of them were burning hot. They were most likely dehydrated, and she had a feeling she wasn't faring any better herself.

Downcast, she turned her back to them, made a mental note on where she remembered the sound originating from, and curled up on the flor. "Let's just get some sleep..."

Nightmares.

Hymn didn't remember falling asleep. He didn't remember being this small either, he couldn't more than the height of a young colt. His old chubby childhood.

And next to him, a seemingly younger purple pegasus.

"Hymn?" the young Hare Rocker spoke.

"Hare?" said Hymn.

"Where are we?"