A.N/ Okay guys sorry for the EXTREMELY LONG WAIT! we promise that this is going to be the longest you will have to wait in a long long time okay. We we're just having difficulties writing since Linky was supposed to but then he got writers block for a long time and then I had like two days to write this and I rewrote the ending like 8 times so yeah I'm sorry guys. I pinkie pie swear it won't happen again! *gets on knees and begs for forgiveness*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Patatachip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Up In Arms Chapter 4.
Eury walked down the crowded streets her bag slung across her shoulders, she watched as little phillies ran and played together while listening to the chorus of sales ponies selling their products. The crisp breeze brushed against Eury's pale pink fur, gently blowing her blonde mane behind her.
It was a beautiful fall day in Hoofington, well as beautiful as Hoofington can really get anyway. At least today she got to see a break in the constant haze created by the surrounding factories and catch a glimpse of a few sun rays.
Usually with this kind of day she would have some sort of skip in her step, but not today. No, today she dragged her feet against the glorified road that was thin stone practically worn down to dirt. She felt exhausted and drained and her head was fuzzy. All of which were the familiar effects of Celestium withdrawal.
Celestium was, in way, magic in a little glass vial. It allowed unicorns the magical stamina to use the spell that were previously impossible like the one that rendered her horn invisible.
Sounds great right? Wrong. Well at first it is, you feel wonderful for the first week or so, but after that you start feeling sick and you're body tells you that you need more. It's major addictive and there's no way around it. She supposes she should be thankful for it though, considering that she was one of the lucky ones who had the right connections.
Zephyr Ashwater was the pony to go to. Any unicorn who is still alive and living in Hoofington knows his name and the secret to finding him. Go to the sewers and follow the green lit lanterns that will eventually lead you to darktown. It's not an obvious flaw that any pony would be able to see. No its barely there so that you could easily mistake it for a trick of the eye, even Eury has trouble finding them at times and she's gone there enough to have memorized a route by now.
Getting a waft of the wonderful aroma of food broke her out of her trance like thinking. She probably looked like a zombie straight from the grave. She decided it would be best to straighten her back a bit and maybe pick up the pace.
.
The bell chimed as she pushed open the door into the warm deli. Eury loved this place, it reminded her of what a real home would be like, of course she could only imagine. Eury had only vague memories of what her life was like before her parents were taken away. As a child she lived in an ignorant bliss, thinking they were sent to some sort of work station, but now she knew what Brutes were ordered to do to unicorns and she highly doubted that she would ever see her parents again. It was a sad realization but she kept some sort of small hope aflame deep in her, though it was wishful thinking at best.
"Hey there Mr. Bunsen' Burner" she said to the owner of the bakery, who was pulling fresh-baked bread out of the brick oven.
"Eury, it's good to see you!" He greeted with a genuine smile. He was an older gentlepony who had wrinkles around his mouth, proof of sharing many smiles throughout his fur was a faint cream with kind blue eyes.
"What can I do for you today?" he asked.
"Could I have three of the usual?" She asked pulling out her measly sum of coins.
"Three? You must be mighty hungry." He chuckled and began making sandwiches.
"Nah, just stopping by Scrap Metal. Rigg's auto shop. Figure steel and him will take a break if I brought food."
"Aah, so Steel Blue and you a still a thing hm?" He asked nudging his head in a funny way. She couldn't help but laugh looking at the old stallion bathe in all the juicy gossip.
"Yeah, we're still together." She said looking in her pocket for any more coins.
"Good, you two go mighty fine together." He said with a sweet smile.
She giggled, "Thanks Mr. Burner." She finally found what little spare change she had left and handed it over.
"It's not quite enough but I promise I'll pay you extra the next time I come around." she urged, looking to him with honest eyes so he would understand she plans on sticking to her word.
He waved her down, "No need for that Eury, your smile was all I need for the day." She faked a gasp.
"You better watch what you say with Mrs. Bread Basket in the back." She laughed. He chuckled as well and handed her the bag of food.
"Thank you Mr. Burner, really." She said.
"Certainly, Eury." He said. She could see the odd look he was giving her throughout their conversation, he knew she looked awful but probably decided it to be rude to say anything.
"I'll see you soon!" she said stuffing them in her bag and opening the door out.
"I'll keep you to your word." He said with a light chuckle as the bells chimed once more declaring her departure.
Eury kept up the pace, not wanting the warm bread to get cold, Riggs hated that. Before she knew it she was nearly keeled over gasping for breath in front of his auto-repair shop. She panted heavily and lazily pushed the door open.
"Eury!" Steel exclaimed excitedly as the steel blue stallion dropped his wrench and galloped over to her. They hugged each other. She heard a sniffing sound from the other side of the room.
"Is that food I smell?" Riggs asked, perking his orange-brown head to look at her.
"Sure is." She said with a smile and released Steel Blue from her embrace. One look at her face and his deep blue eyes turned to worry.
"Oh Eury.. you look awful." He said with concern, yep no sugar-coating it with him.
"Yeah I know I'm going to take care of it soon." she sighed, she didn't like relying on a drug, it made her sick thinking how useless she was without it, but it's better than being dead.
"Eury it's draining you if you don't replenish it'll kill you." He implored. Oh yeah thats the other thing, you see the Celestium never really leaves your body, it continues to feed at your magic resources until you're left with nothing. Then you're just a walking corpse until finally you can't keep up with its energy demand and you wither away. She had seen her fair share of unpleasant sights when it came to that.
"Well, if you two are done with that touching moment I'm going to get my food." Riggs said as he barged between them and took the food from her bag and tossed one to steel and one to her. Leave it to Riggs to get rid of all the awkwardness in a room and just like that we were all hanging out on an old couch in the back. Well Steel and him sat on it but she decided it'd be safer to take the chair. She believed that couch wanted to poison her food. She hated that thing.
They all finished eating and Steel and Riggs went back to work while she momentarily made a truce with the couch and lied down on it. She watched them work through hazy eyes, listening to the jazzy tunes of the radio slowly drift her off to sleep.
It felt like only moment later when she was rudely awakened by vigorous shaking.
"Eury! Eury wake up!" She heard somepony shout from across Equestria, "Wake up Eury!"
"Hmm..." she slowly peeled open her eyes and came face to face with a frantic Steel Blue.
"What's going on?" She asked groggily, agitated that he wouldn't let her sleep.
"Snappy and Scootch are missing!" he yelled and like a bucket of ice water thrown to the face she was up.
A/N thanks for reading and hopefully not hating us. I know the ending could be better, kinda cheesy and stuff but it's only because I wanted to get this up as soon as possible and if I went on more it would've maybe taken a day or two more to write so now I'm going to work on the next part! Please tell me what you think and drop a comment! I like to know if the story is keeping up with expectations c: anyway HASTA LA PASTA.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~patatachip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~