Chapter 6:

Now:

It was just after 4 when we headed out to the Sky Wagon. Ruby, Brutus, Crackshot, Candy and I were going to fly out to the old base. Brutus and Crackshot were going to poke around in the ruins and see if there was anything anyone might have missed but that was mostly just for something to do while Ruby, Candy and I went up to the graveyard.

Lily was staying behind at the base to make sure that there was someone to keep an eye on Xem and CB to ensure they didn't get up to anything while we were away. Also Firebird had decided that with all the increased traffic the hospital had been seeing with the uptake in both medical staff and ponies looking for medical help, she was moving the Phoenix store out to the hospital, or rather she was setting up a second location, since nopony else had much besides traders that came through. Sky Wagon and Bottle Cap were going to take over day to day operations of the store in Maneville while Lily and Firebird moved out to the hospital with us so that Mare-Do-Well could keep closer tabs on things. Firebird had also stepped up her roll as MDW again since Lily had really integrated herself into our team, though the way we kept getting drawn into conflicts around the Wasteland she was doing just as well as Lily the Changeling as she had been as Mare-do-well.

We settled into the wagon and flew off into the sky. “Wow...” Brutus said a few minutes into the flight, “this is just like old times eh? Just the four of us going out in the wagon to do a little scavenging.”

As if offended by the statement Candy whined loudly and burped, another green bubble forming and popping, the remnants of the spell trickling down onto her like green snow, fading as it impacted her body.

“Well alright, not really like old times,” Brutus laughed, “we do have other company along.”

“Also, if it were really like old times I wouldn't be here,” I added, “you guys were a team of three for YEARS before I came along and screwed it all up.”

“Ya screwed something alright!” Ruby and Crackshot said together, making Crackshot Brutus and me burst out laughing and earning an offended whine from Ruby.

“Oh come on, I haven't made a joke like that in almost a year.” Crackshot said, “I'm just trying to stick with the whole 'just like old times' bit. Remember, flying home that first day with Cane? Making jokes just like that, and he was the one to get all flustered.”

“That was back before I knew her and was trying to defend her honour against her mean spirited friends.”

“Then you got drunk and hooked up.”

“Nu-uh!” Ruby said defiantly, “we were drunk and Cane got molested and we just THOUGHT we hooked up. We didn't actually do it for almost a week after that.”

“Oh well that's so much better. At least she waited a week before she spread her legs for the strange buck from the past that is carrying who knows what kind of diseases?”

“Hey! Don't talk about me like that in front of my daughter.”

Brutus lifted Candy from my arms and floated her along in front of him. “Candy?” He asked, looking at her seriously. “Your mommy is kind of a tramp...I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but she likes the bucks, and if Lily is to be believed, the mares, for a week or so while she was visiting them in Maneville.”

Candy's only response was a simple “Aaaahh!” Barked sharply in Brutus's face, making him wince a little.

“Thank you baby girl.” Ruby said. Candy grinned and stuck her hoof in her mouth, sucking on it happily.

“Wait wait, you hooked up with a mare? Why didn't I know about that? That's awesome!” I said with, only a little, mock excitement.

“I did not! Lily just misunderstood what she saw.”

“They were kissing,” Brutus said, “flank to mouth.”

“Waaaa!? You won't let me go flank to mouth!”

“You can't go flank to mouth!” Ruby said angrily.

“Yes you can!”

“You're gay! It's different!”

“I wanna try going flank to mouth!”

“You NEVER go flank to mouth.”

“You just have to make sure you wash thoroughly and it's fine.”

“Gross! You never, never, NEVER go flank to mouth!”

“GUYS! GUYS!” Crackshot said loudly, flailing her legs, silencing the argument. “Come on, seriously, grow up.” She sighed, sitting back against the wall. We sat in an awkward silence for a few minutes before she spoke up again, “when it's with somepony you love and really trust...sometimes it's okay to go flank to mouth.”

Cue the next hour of the flight, arguing and debating the Pros and Cons of...well...Flank to Mouth...we resolved that Crackshot was right, and sometimes it was okay...because I know you're all curious.

//////////

We set down on the landing area outside the base, same as we did the last time we'd come here.

“We should have brought CB,” I said softly, looking at EB's grave sitting alone along the cliff face. The wind picked up around us and I knew that it would rain soon. “We should move her,” I said after a few minutes of silence.

“Move her?” Brutus asked, I knew he was remembering what her body looked like two years ago. Bloated and covered in ash. I nodded at him.

“Her body should be mostly broken down,” I said, and then paused. They knew her better then I did, and I didn't mean to sound insensitive. I glanced at the group again before carefully proceeding. “T-the smell shouldn't be terrible, she wasn't buried that deeply... I just think we should put her with the rest of her family.” I explained. Brutus nodded back at me.

“I always meant to come back and move 'er. I just, I guess I didn't think we would do it now,” he told me. Crackshot looked at Ruby and Candy. The foal was cuddled close against her neck, her hoof stuffed into her mouth, drool trickling down her face around the hoof. I was distracted for a moment by just how happy Candy looked there.

“We'll get a cargo crate from the ship,” Ruby said, tilting her head to the side. “You boys can grab some shovels and start digging.” So we did. Brutus and I pulled the grave stone from the ground, and took it back to the ship. Then we got the shovels, and started in on the spot we had left her. I had been right, even with the low temperatures and the rain, her body was mostly gone. There was no smell anymore. Her bones were there with her skin clinging to the empty vessel that once held my adopted daughter's mother. Rain started to fall as we dug, making the whole thing messier than it needed to be. But, as we uncovered her, the water helped wash the bones and flesh clean.

Brutus had to pull away, had to stop digging with me. He moved to the other side of the cargo container that Ruby and Crackshot had brought over. He moved close to Ruby, I could see that he was looking down at Candy. He was grabbing onto the new life in the world, and hiding from the lost lives that would never come back. I felt myself want to do the same.

I stared down at her and my stomach twisted. Of all the things that survived, her cutie mark was still clear on her side. Her coat faded grey with ash and dirt, most of her mane missing, with only strips of light green hair clinging to her skin. They were three soft white pages with an explosion of light from behind them. I barely remembered the mark on her side, but now I don't think I would ever forget it. My stomach turned again, as I found myself picturing other marks in it's place. Ruby's or CB's. It was sickeningly easy to put them in her place.

I felt a wave of panic pulse through me as I let my imagination run away from me. I pulled my eyes away from her body, away from the leather that coated her bones. Brutus had opened the cart behind me, and I used my magic to float her bones inside and then seal it off. “CB will be glad, I think,” Ruby said to me. I smiled weakly, and nodded. We all relaxed once it was sealed and ready to move. I gave the open and empty grave one last look, before moving over to Ruby and quietly asking to take Candy from her.
//////////

“Hey Mom...Dad...” Ruby said softly as we came up to the two graves half an hour later, EB now tucked away in her new home. “I...I know I haven't been by in a while, it's not so easy anymore now that I don't live close by.” She sat down and I sat beside her, holding Candy in my lap.

“I have someone I want you guys to meet.” She said, taking Candy from me, “this is Candy Cane, your grand daughter. I know you're not going to be happy about this, but Sugar and I aren't married yet, we're going to get married, we really are, but this little one kind of interrupted our last attempt, what with being born and all...” I sat back and just let her chat away about whatever she wanted. It was nice to see her brighten up so much again. She told them about the wedding and about Candy's birth, she told them about the Cutie Pox outbreak we'd dealt with almost a year ago now and all the amazing things that had happened when we went through it.

After about 30 minutes so her chatting away at the stones Candy started squirming and whining, “I'm sorry, I'm sure you're bored aren't you my little pony?” Ruby asked, nuzzling Candy gently, getting rewarded with a happy squeak and reciprocated nuzzle. She passed the baby back over to me and I lifted her up with my magic, dancing her around my head slowly, making her squee with delight as I did. “Why don't you two head back to the sky wagon?” Ruby suggested, “I'll be along in a bit, maybe Brutus and Crackshot need help.”

“Oh yeah, cuz I want to take my newborn foal into the burnt out wreckage of a building. That sounds safe.”

“You know what I meant Ass-Butt.” Ruby said with mild annoyance.

“Yeah I knew, chose to ignore it and take a different route with it.”

“I'll be along in a bit.” She replied, smiling again before turning back to the graves, “oh guys! I have to tell you about the slaver thing a few months ago. You won't believe what happened!”

I wandered off back towards the base, leaving Ruby to chat away with her parents, I really wasn't in a rush relive the events of 'The Slaver Incident', so I headed off with baby in tow, spinning her through the air around my head, talking to her and making faces every time she floated in front of my face, much to her delight.

We reached the sky wagon a few minutes later. Crackshot and Brutus were stretched out on the ramp leading into the wagon, just talking and watching the rolling cloud wall above us.

“Glad to see you two working so hard.” I said flatly, coming up to them and towering over them.

“Come on dude, you know there's nothing left in this base.” Brutus said, taking Candy from me and laying her down on the ramp between them.

She squawked happily and looked up at me curiously. “AHH!” She cheered, waving her hooves up at me. Brutus and Crackshot looked over at her and laughed a little.

I grinned and shook my head. “Well I guess if you think it's fine.”

She looked at me curiously and gave me another “Ahh!” She looked really focused for a minute and a green bubble floated out of her horn, actually fully forming and drifting up past us. I turned my head to watch it drift into the sky.

“The fuck are those?!” Brutus yelped, shooting to his hooves as we all noticed the massive ships coming out of the sky.

“RAPTORS!” Crackshot yelled, pulling her rifle and firing on the ships, but they weren't interested in us it seemed, they flew past us, soaring up past the graveyard, stopping above it.

“Oh shit! RUBY!” I turned to rush towards the cemetery as I saw the ships disgorge a number of armoured pegasi.

“Cane no!” Crackshot yelled. Brutus grabbed me in his magic and held me back.

“LEMME GO! I NEED TO HELP HER!”

“CANE STOP!” The pegasi had started to open fire on us, making Candy start wailing in terror, and Brutus had to really yell to be heard over the blasts of laser energy exploding around us and against the sky wagon.

“GET OFF ME BRUTUS! I CAN'T LEAVE HER! YOU KNOW WHAT THEY DID TO HER!” I turned back towards the graveyard and thrashed against his restraint, powering up my own magic to try and break free. I was in a blind panic as my magic coursed through me, it felt similar to to zebra talisman, though nowhere near as strong or focused. I had always heard that under times of great stress ponies were capable of miraculous feats of magical and physical strength and now I could feel Brutus's field weakening as I poured my own magic against it.

“CANE! CANE STOP IT NOW! WE CAN'T HELP HER!”

“HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT?! WE HAVE TO HELP HER! YOU DON'T WANT TO HELP, YOU STAY HERE AND PROTECT CANDY!” I screamed, blind with rage.

I felt his magic field shatter but just as I started to rush forward I felt a sharp pain along the back of my skull and everything went black.

//////////

11 months ago:

“Go to the town hall.” Pepper said, pointing to the stone building sitting a few hundred meters away, “talk to ponies, get whatever information you can. Cutie Pox don't just HAPPEN in one child, let alone spread like a disease. I need to know if anypony has been acting weird or if any of the kids have been maybe spending a lot of time reading magic books that are above their skill set, this is magic, but it's like it's been corrupted by something, making is spread instead of just infecting child.”

“You got it boss.” Brutus said, nodding to him. We left Pepper to his work and headed off to the town hall, speaking to the adults first and the older kids after, including one girl who had only gotten her cutie mark a few HOURS before the outbreak started. We asked if anypony had been acting suspicious, if any of the children had been getting really impatient about their cutie marks, if any books on magic in town contained anything about cutie pox, the whole bit.

“The only magic books we have are beginner and intermediate stuff, we don't really have an extensive library.”

“None of the children were really impatient about getting their cutie marks. They were talking about forming a Cutie Mark Club or some such thing to look at getting their cutie marks by trying their hooves at every job they could think of.

“Well, none of the children from town have been acting weird, but a pair of ponies arrived in town just before the problems started, a unicorn filly and an Earth buck probably a few years older than you. We haven't really seen anything of them since things started to get weird, I thought maybe they'd left town.”

“Do you know where we might find them?”

“They were staying at the Inn last I saw them.”

“Where's that?”

“Far side of town, in the old, intact, military tower.”

“That thing over there?”

“Yeah, there's something like two dozen rooms, originally it was like, 4 or 5 big storage rooms, they sectioned it off and made hotel rooms, but if you want a history lesson, ask the ghoul on the roof.”

“There's a ghoul on the roof?”

“Yeah, he watches over the whole town from that Anti-Air turret up there, been here since the war.”

“We should probably talk to him too.”

I met up with Brutus after an hour. “So what did you come up with?”

“I heard about two ponies staying at the inn, one of em is apparently a filly with no Cutie Mark, but showing no symptoms either, what about you?”

“Seems there is a ghoul guard who works at the top of the guard tower, watching out for threats to the town.”

“Well we should talk to him too.”

“We'll start with the ponies and talk to the ghoul after?”

“Sure.”

We returned to the group and reported our findings.

“Ooh, another sentient ghoul? I'm coming with you.” Crackshot said, moving to join us, “I just don't get to talk to many these days.”

“Fair enough.”

We headed off to the 10 story tower, it was one of the tallest structures I had seen in the wasteland that wasn't a basically blasted pile of rubble.

The mare at the front desk pointed us to a room on the fifth floor and we headed up.

Reaching the door Brutus knocked firmly.

“Uhh, h-hello?” A slightly high pitched male voice answered through the door.

“Hi,” Brutus responded slowly, “my name is Brute Force, I'm here with some medical staff, investigating the Cutie Pox outbreak. We were hoping to ask you a few questions?”

There was some shuffling and muttering and finally the door opened. A beige Earth pony stood in the doorway. He had a messy brown mane and small glasses that didn't seem like they would be much good helping him read unless he went cross-eyed. He wore a simple utility barding with a number of pens in the top pocket. “Please come in.” He said, stepping aside and allowing us to enter. He had a scroll Cutie Mark, I recognized ancient Equestrian symbols written on it.

“So as I said. I'm Brute Force, this is Doctor Sugarcane and Crackshot.” Brutus said, gesturing to us in turn.

“Ike.” He said, nodding his head.

“And the pony in the bathroom?” I asked, tapping beside with my pipbuck leg.

“Oh, oh of course.” Ike said, looking clearly disappointed, “come on out my dear.”

A young red unicorn filly came out of the bathroom, looking at us cautiously, walking over to stand with Ike, an odd looking stuffed animal in tow.

“What's your name?” I asked, crouching down to look more directly at her.

“I...I'm Marcy...” She said softly, shying away from me and moving to stand more behind Ike.

“Please, we don't want any trouble.” Ike said, putting a hoof out to keep me from walking around him to get closer to the girl, not that I had planned on it.

“We're not looking for trouble.” Crackshot said, “we're just studying this outbreak and we were wondering why little Marcy hasn't caught the Pox like everypony else.”

“We just thought it was because we weren't from around here. Maybe it's in the drinking water or something.”

“Cutie Pox doesn't spread that way.” Brutus replied seriously, “it's a magic curse, if it affects all the other ponies it should affect her.”

Ike sighed and stepped back a bit more. “You're not from around here?”

“No we come from The Collective out west.”

“Those Pyro monsters?!” He asked, suddenly panicked.

“Nononononononono.” I said quickly, waving my forelegs quickly, “we actually defeated the Pyro Collective.”

“Yeah, we didn't like them using our name in such a bad way.” Crackshot said.

Ike looked from us, to Marcy, and back again. “A-Alright, go ahead and show them Marcy...” He said softly.

The unicorn stepped forward and closed her eyes. With a small flash of emerald energy her horn vanished and was replaced with two wings.

“You're a Changeling...” I said softly, not wanting to panic anyone that might be snooping. With the paranoia running through this town it was possible.

She just nodded and turned back into a unicorn.

“Oh thank Celestia, we were worried you were hexing the town or something.” Brutus said, shaking his head, “I didn't want to have to come up here and bust heads. I have a friend who I'm sure would love to meet you.”

“Look why don't you guys hang out here for the time being?” I said, “Crackshot and I will go up to the roof and meet with this ghoul guard, see if he knows anything about what's going on, and we'll head back to the sky wagon a little later when the town isn't quite so hustle and bustle and we can attract less attention?”

“Good idea.” Ike said, nodding happily, “we've traveled a long time and I just want to keep Marcy safe.”

“Shall we, my dear?” I asked, smiling at Crackshot and bowing my head to her.

“What a gentlebuck, and they said chivalry is dead.” She smirked, heading into the hallway with me, closing the door behind us.

We headed up to the roof slowly, talking about Cutie Pox. “I don't know of any documented cases since before the war.” Crackshot said.

“Yeah, I remember hearing rumors that Apple Bloom got them when she was younger.”

“She was...?” Crackshot asked, obviously trying to remember but failing.

“She was one of the founders of Stable-Tec. She was Applejack's sister.”

“Oh right right, the filly with the hair...” She said vaguely.

“Yeah...the filly with the hair...” I chuckled.

“She was friends with the singer right? Sweetie Belle?”

“Yeah.” I nodded, trying not to laugh as she struggled to remember the details. I had met with Apple Bloom once when our companies worked on a joint project, back when they had given us the pip-bucks in fact, so it was much more reasonable that I would remember her.

We came out onto the roof. The massive Anti-Air turret sat, humming quietly, a few feet away. It had been modified heavily around the base, I could see a bunch of added support pillars and ball bearing tracks, it looked like he had been modified to point straight, possibly even down towards the ground, making it a much more lethal defense.

A ghoul sat quietly at the controls, flipping through a magazine. “Jes' leave it over there...” He said gruffly without looking up, pointing to a table. He had a faint accent but it seemed to have mostly been lost to time.

“Oh, uhh, actually, we were hoping to talk to you,” I started, “my name is Sugar Cane, this is Crackshot,” he put down the magazine and looked at me, then at her. He had the remains of a grey coat clinging to his emaciated form and his skin was stretched too tightly, and in a few places split, along his skull, his eyes were still almost perfectly untouched, a deep chocolate brown, the normal looking eyes almost made him look more haunting than if he'd had ruined eyes like a lot of the ghouls I'd seen. He had greenish musculature sticking out of his forelegs. His back legs had something of the same, but I was amazed to see they looked like they were fused with the padding of the seat he was in. I had heard of some strange pink cloud toxin that had affected Canterlot but I had never seen a ghoul affected by it, let alone this far from the old capitol. “We're here investigating the Cutie Pox outbreak,” I continued, “we were just hoping to ask you a few questions?”

He didn't answer me though, he was looking right past me at Crackshot. I turned my head and looked at Crackshot curiously. She had stopped short a few feet behind me and was just looking at him quietly. I realized she had tears running down her cheeks. “C...Crackshot? You okay?” I asked.

“S-Snipe?” Crackshot asked softly, stepping closer to the ghoul.

“Hey Lassie...” He grinned sheepishly, his accent deepening. Suddenly his voice clicked and I'm sure the shock on my face was pretty apparent, but neither of them were looking at me.

She sobbed loudly and threw herself at him, hugging him tightly and kissing him fiercely. “Oh my dear sweet buck...” She managed, hugging him tighter. He returned the hug and I could see tears rolling down his cheeks too. They just hugged and kissed each other silently for a long time until I cleared my throat loudly.

Crackshot finally stepped back and smiled stupidly, wiping the tears from her face. “I thought you were dead, I didn't know where you'd been deployed and I could never find you...”

“Eye thought ye were dead too...” He replied. “Eye heard the house was flattened and there were no survivors for miles...”

“Harp and Floss made it into the shelter in the back yard,” she said, pausing to clear her throat so she didn't sound quite so strained, “since it was built for five ponies they were more than comfortable in it. I got pinned under part of the house, when I woke up I was a ghoul. I lay under the wreckage of the house for almost 10 years before they emerged and freed me, just enough room for me to keep watch over the entrance of the shelter with my rifle.”

“They made it too?” He asked, smiling happily now.

“Yeah, we lived in the shelter until their child was grown. I went out, found an old abandoned pegasus airbase, we cleared it out and set up shop, I lived there for 175 years, started a trade collective, stood guard over our family line, worked hard every day...” She chuckled.

“So we still have descendants alive today?”

“Yeah we do,” she nodded, “our great grandson is downstairs right now.”

“Oh that's wonderful.” He sighed, wiping at tears again, his accent fading again as he relaxed, “that makes me, so, so happy to know.”

“What about you?” I asked finally.

“Oh, well I came here as part of a defense squad. Zebras had been sighted in the areas near here and we were worried, so we set up shop here to keep an eye on things. We built three anti-air turrets to shoot down any missiles that might come ow'er way,” he rotated the gun, turning us towards the inner part of the city, gesturing to two other towers that were across the city in opposite directions from us, the three towers formed a triangle around the city, one was heavily disassembled, the other looked like an explosion had blown it apart.

“Zebras were here though, hiding, waiting, using the town as a staging ground. They hexed ow'er turrets,” he gestured towards the back of his chair. On the back were Zebra glyphs, actually etched right into the metal of the turret, and from the screw holes it looked like they had originally been covered up with another metal plate.

“The three of us who happened to be on turret duty that day never even saw it coming. We reported for duty, sat down in the chairs, and when the sun rose there was this horrible unbearable pain, shot through my flank and I sank into the chair, like it had some how softened temporarily. It was the worst physical pain I have ever felt in my life. One of the other gunners tried to pull himself out of his chair, he thrashed more and more violently until he hurt himself, worse still was that the whole world chose that day to fall apart, bombs rained from the skies, missiles ripped cities apart, so when he lost it we were all too busy to do anything to help him, not that I could have anyway, but he just sat there and slowly bled to death.”

“Of course I panicked too, but my training kicked in and I managed to control m'self eventually...” He gestured to his torn skin and exposed muscles, “these being the result of my panicked struggles against the glyph magic even as the radiation of the falling bombs mutated me inta this, we managed to protect the town long enough for em to evacuate. For a hundred years it was just me and Cross Hair on the other turret, we talked on the radio, kept each other company, the gun turrets all came with something to pass the hours between breaks, drills, and the random test firing...” He flipped a switch and the screen in front of him changed from a screen saver to the sky above. He pressed another button and missiles started to fly across the screen. He pulled on the controls but the gun itself didn't move, though the monitor image did and he started firing on the missiles. It was a training simulation, one he was obviously VERY good at by now. He switched it off and turned back to us.

“We also kept books for when the simulations got boring, which was quickly, and all the time.” He added, flipping open the container he had originally pointed to when he thought we were dropping something off. Inside were a pile of old magazines and few novels, all well worn with age now. “We kept each other going for a long time, but in the end...Hair lost his mind, went feral...I had to listen for a year as he howled and smashed at his prison, at least I was able to turn off the radio...one day he just managed to smash the right part of his turret and boom.” He gestured to the blown apart tower without looking out at it again.

“When the town was resettled they stripped the pieces from the one gun and we spent two years converting this turret into one that can rotate on a much larger axis, up, down, 360 degree rotation cycle, I protect the city in exchange for food, new books, and company.”

“Well, we have a zebra in our group,” Crackshot said, “I'll get him, he can look at the glyph magic and see if there's anything we can do to get you out of the chair.”

“Crackshot, don't worry...” He started, but she was already through the door heading back downstairs, “that girl is something else.”

“Yeah I've noticed.”

“I've missed her for 200 years, now I don't even know what to do with m'self now that I have her back.”

“Take things slowly would probably be best. Don't wanna tax anything or push yourself too hard too fast.”

“True enough lad. Name's Sniper Joe by the way, So you said you wanted to talk about the Cutie Pox outbreak?”

“Nice to make your acquaintance Snipe.” I nodded, shaking his hoof, “and yes, we're escorting a doctor from the Collective and he's asked us to speak to everypony about it to see if we can find the cause.”

“Well I haven't seen much in town, but have a look at this.” He reached out and hit a switch and all the lights in the turret went off, only the glow of the lights below illuminating the area around us now. He shifted the turret towards a cliff a mile or so from town and gestured towards it. “Can you see the light?”

I looked intently and realized I could see the flickering of light among the trees, it was really faint, but high up as we were it was still quite visible.

“I've seen that light for a few hours every night since the day before the Cutie Pox started showing up. I never saw it before, in all the years I've sat here, nopony has ever camped out in that forest, it was always lousy with ghouls and monsters of all kinds, even the villagers still stay away from it. They have the patrols of the guards cross along that point so that it's covered more frequently and heavily, and I always linger longer on the forest, hence the reason I noticed it.”

“Well that sounds exciting.” I sighed, rubbing my face with a hoof.

“We haven't had any monster attacks in weeks from the forest, barely even any sounds at night. Who knows what might have happened.”

“Well I guess, but even still...Nah, we have to check it out, it's for the children.”

“There's a good lad.” He laughed, patting my back.

Crackshot and Xem came out onto the rooftop, Ruby too since she had made a point of studying the Zebra glyphs.

After a few introductions I grabbed Ruby. “We should actually leave them to work.” I said to her softly, “Snipe said there's been a fire burning in the forest every night since just before the Cutie Pox outbreak started...I think we should go check it out and see if there's anything out there.”

“Yeah alright, we'll take Brutus and CB?”

“Sounds like a good idea, we don't want to get caught short hooved.”

“Shall we?” She asked, wrapping a wing around my back and cuddling close.

“Lets shall.” I nodded, heading back downstairs to get Brutus.

Footnote: 20% to next level

Temporal interference detected, Pipbuck data matrix offline.