Someone Came With Her, Part 7

You realize that it doesn't matter if you're dreaming or not anymore.  As Trask showed, pain is quite real in this world.  And no matter how hard you try, you can't wake up.

So that leaves you with only one option: keep running.  Your vision blurs as your eyes flood with tears.  You're beginning to sob, and the unmistakably feminine sound of your voice makes you want to cry even more.

Trask has made a mockery of you.  He has twisted your fantasy into a nightmare.  He has robbed you of your humanity and your masculinity, morphing you into a weak-kneed little unicorn mare.  Now you're alone and afraid in a world you thought you'd be so overjoyed to see.

Never before have you hated someone so badly.

Cacti and eroded rocks pass by like film footage on an endless loop.  Exhaustion creeps into your legs like a slow-burning fire, and your throat is drier than the sand under your hooves.  But you don't dare to stop.  You'll never stop until you're safe from that monster.

But your escape quickly proves to be a nightmare in itself.  The desert floor is treacherous, bristling with jagged rocks and prickly pears.  You trip more times than you can count, earning dozens of scrapes and cuts.

This torment goes on for what seems like hours.  Your body cries out for water and rest, but it is nothing compared to your mental state.  Your mind keeps replaying the trauma of your metamorphosis, locking every humiliating moment into your memory.

You're not even sure where you're running.  For a while it seemed sufficient to simply run as far from Trask as possible, but as you become increasingly tired and dehydrated, a new source of fear arises: how are you going to survive out here?  With the exception of your own tears, you haven't seen any water in this desert at all.

But then your luck finally changes.  Squinting at the heat haze on the horizon, you can see a dark set of shapes materialize.  It's a town!

Is it a mirage?  You don't even care at this point.  All that matters is that you finally have a place to set your sights on.  Best of all, it gives you something you haven't felt in a long time: hope.  It is a mighty boon indeed, for it lightens your hooves and dulls your pain.  Maybe after you get some water and some rest, you'll find someone who can help you.

Someone with the ability to instantly reverse spells and provide a gun that shoots anti-wizard bullets, you think bitterly.

Finding a way back home was another goal, but it wasn't nearly as urgent.  In a worst case scenario, you could live with being stuck in Equestria.  But to be stuck as a mare...

You distract yourself by focusing again on the town.  You're now roughly half a mile away, so the mirage theory is looking dubious.  If you want to exert yourself to death chasing a settlement locked eternally in the horizon as a darkly poetic allegory for your life's dreams, you'll have to look someplace else.

Just as you start to allow yourself the faintest hint of a smile, fate gives you the middle finger.  With a wet squish, your hooves sink into what feels like thick mud. You look down and find yourself knee-deep in what looks like a discolored patch of sand.  You try to step out, but all you can do is wiggle your legs helplessly.

So close to the town...only to get stuck in quicksand.  Of course.

Racking your sun-baked brain, you try to remember what you're supposed to do in situations like this.  Wasn't it something about slowly lifting your legs and not panicking?  You try just that, and to your astonishment...

Nothing happens at all.  You're just as stuck as you were before, with the added benefit that now you're slowly sinking.

Apparently quicksand works differently in Equestria.  You quickly forget the “don't panic” part.  Eyes bulging with terror, you put all your might into raising your forelegs.

“Ow!” a shrill voice squeals.

You blink.  Obviously, heat exhaustion is starting to set in.  You need to get out fast, so you try even harder to pull free.

“Ow!  Stop that, you little No-Fun Fannie!”

With a low rumble, a mound of sand rises up in front of you.  It has a face: two depressions near the top form its eyes, and a wide crevasse near the bottom forms its sneering mouth.

“Sheesh, can't you take a joke?” it says, sneering.