Chapter Thirty-Six: Fear & Loving In Canturbury
"Can you explain why I look like I'm getting married at the bottom of a pit?"

I pranced down the hallway, a huge smile on my face, humming to myself. My smile widened as I approached Ashes' door. With a small giggle, I reached out to grab the handle.

My reward was said handle hitting me in the face.

"Huh? What th', och, crap!" Diam-Knives said. "Zeed, are ye alright?"

I giggled a bit, despite the pain of what I was sure was a broken nose. "Uh-huh. Don't worry about-"

I got a look at my hoof. "Oh wow, that's a lot of blood... uh... maybe not totally okay."

"Ash, get a towel, quick!" Knives yelled. "C'mon, Zeed. Ye know how tae, uh... treat that, right?"

I rolled my eyes, pinching my nose with a fetlock. "Duh, ob course I do. Dis kinda stupp habbens almost ebery odder week, in case you haben’t nodiced. I’m just lucky my nose isn’t crooked by now.”

I trotted into Ashes’ room on three legs, one still holding my nose, and flopped onto the couch, making sure to not get blood on the upholstery.

Ashes rushed out with a red towel held in her mouth. Her eyes widened when she saw me. “Oh my gosh… d-do you need a doctor?”

I gratefully took the towel and shoved my face into it, going through the normal routine of putting pressure in just the right spot. “Ash, come on. You freak out ebery dime.”

Her face suddenly turned red. “U-uh… I… Uh…”

“What are ye even commin’ over here fer, anyway?” Knives asked.

“I came to see ib you guys wan’ed da hang out.” I shrugged.

Ashes blinked. “On Hearts and Hooves day?”

I shrugged again. “I don’t have a fillyfriend right now.”

Knives grinned at Ashes, one of those grins she gets when she’s trying to egg the other filly on’. My eyebrow went up. Ashes replied by stammering a bit more, her face turning redder.

"Ash? Are you okay?" I asked, removing the towel from my face and snorting some of the blood still.in my nose, glad it wasn't apparently broken

She mumbled something.

"Ash, c'mon. Ye said ye would." Knives nudged the young earth pony in the side. "Just dae it."

"I...um... I wanted to... maybe... er... I..." With every syllable, her face grew redder and redder. She kept tapping her front hooves together, staring at them as she stammered. Knives rolled her eyes.

"Knives... is she... uh..." I whispered.

"Aye, just give her a bit," my zony friend said.

My concern grew as Ashes kept tripping over her own tongue.

Knives groaned. "Och, come oan already! Just say it!"

Ashes whimpered.

"Ash, just say it," I said. "Whatever it is, I'm not gonna hate you for it or like you any less."

Ashes gulped, staring at me for a moment with a hopeful expression. "Promise?"

I nodded, a smile on my face.

She gulped again, and took a deep breath. "IlikeyouandIthinkyou’reprettyandniceanddoyouwanttogooutwithme?"

I blinked a few times. She whimpered.

"I-I-I r-really like you, and I think you're pretty," she continued. "And I kinda feel all fluttery when you're around and it makes me really happy and-"

With a wide smile, I trotted over to her, gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, and said, "Okay!"

Her face turned bright red as she completely froze.

"Um... Ash?" I poked her. "Ash, are you okay?"

She nodded, a big grin growing on her face.

I hugged her. "Good!"

~~~~

"Dad? Dad, where are you?" I sighed again as I tried to peek over the crowd. Even standing on my hind legs, I could just barely see anything. Dropping back to all fours, I grumbled a bit. "Dammit, I hate being short..."

I continued on, slipping through the crowd despite being pushed and jostled around the whole way, trying to find a better vantage point. I was, unfortunately, still too short to see any over the sea of equine bodies, and found none as a result.

I groaned aloud and headed towards the nearest building I could see the top of. To my relief, there was a stack of barrels in a convenient place for me to hop on top of, though it earned me a few confused looks. I simply glared at the offending ponies and popped onto my back legs to look over the crowd.

Unsurprisingly, dad was wandering around on the opposite side of the town market. I screamed in frustration, earning myself more odd looks, and hopped back down to push through the crowd.

"Dad!" I yelled. "Wait up."

"Axy?" I heard him call back. "Where are you?"

"Just stop running around for a minute-" I aha-ed as I nearly ran into my father, who gave me an amused smile. "Finally, there you are."

"What's up, Axy? You need something?" He asked after a brief shout to Kara and Vill.

"We're apparently leaving early." I shrugged. "Zim's estranged family is heading this way."

He blinked. "That's bad because..."

"Apparently they might try to kill him."

Dad frowned. "Ah... I guess that would be a problem."

“Dad! Check it out!” Kara yelled, bouncing over to the two of us. “I found a new hat for Vill, it’s cool, right?”

The young mare in question trotted over, looking mildly embarrassed, and wearing a small vest and a wide-brimmed hat with one side folded up.

“It does," I said. "Nice choice, it brings out her eyes."

The young made blushed. "Really?"

"Yeah. If you were a bit older I'd probably be flirting with you," I added, making her blush deepen.

"Heh. If there was any doubt that we're related," dad said. "It's gone now."

Kara rolled her eyes. "Ugh, grotie."

"Anyway, looks like we're heading back, now.” Dad turned to leave.

“Awww, why?” Kara sighed.

“Because Zim has family troubles.” I snorted.

“Huh?”

“Don’t worry about it, kiddo,” Dad shook his head. “Personally, I’d just like to get back to Fifteen.”

"Yeah. I hate sleeping in tents." Kara stuck her tongue out.

"Agreed." I snickered. “I miss having a bed.”

“Well, we should be able to get home in about a week. Two, tops,” Dad said, a grin on his face. “And then no traveling ‘til the foal is born. Just nice, peaceful Fifteen.”

“Sounds great.” I smiled.

“Yeah, we got a farm, a kennel, and everything!” Kara chirped.

“Now that sounds more like something you’d do, dad. A farm. How the hell did you end up with… those things?” I shuddered.

“The vinedogs? They have a lot of plant mixed into them, and they appreciate being taken care of.” He shrugged. “I take care of plants, they like me, that makes it easier to train them. Ah, there’s the wagon.”

I blinked. The wagon was, indeed, sitting at the end of the street in font of Ashes' house, with Misty fiddling with something in the back. “What the… How... It took me twenty damn minutes to get here!”

I groaned, and rubbed a hoof across my face. “I hate being short.”

“Sorry, Axy. I didn’t really have a choice in the matter,” Dad snorted. “Hey, Misty, what are you doing?”

The blue-striped mare jumped in surprise at dad’s call, but turned and gave him a sheepish grin. “Uh… ‘sup, honey?”

Dad frowned, and smile on his face. “Misty, please stop trying to do the heavy lifting in your condition. It’s bad for your back.”

She glared at him and rubbed a hoof across her swollen stomach. “It’s not a ‘condition’. That makes it sounds like a disease. I’m pregnant, get it right.”

“I know, I know.” He kissed her on the muzzle, his own hoof joining hers. “But still, you already have extra weight to carry around, you don’t need-”

“Yeah, I know.” She huffed. “Just feeling… itchy again… I don’t like this place.”

"So where'd Knives and Zim go?" I asked.

"Oh, they ran off to see if they could help Ashes pack," she said.

"And then I suggested that they stay inside a bit longer after Split and Crunch left." The gray mare in question trotted out the door and dropped to her haunches beside me, wearing a set of loose clothes, of all things, with some odd collar poking out of her shirt, and several ammunition crates strapped to one side, apparently counterbalanced by the guitar and large rifle hanging on her right. "So they're having some... alone time"

"Oh, joy. The lovebirds are at it a- wait... that's all you're carrying?" I asked. "That's not really all that much."

"Most of this is food, actually," She replied. "Food, bullets, and stuff for Snow."

"Where is Snow, anyway?" I asked.

"BLAAAAAGH!" I yelped and jumped in surprise as one of the ammo boxes popped open, releasing a little white pegasus. She 'roared' at me, flailing her forelegs. "Raaagh! I'm a bullet!"

Ashes giggled. "Bullets don't go 'raaagh', silly."

The filly stopped flailing for a moment and blinked at her mother a few times. She started roaring again. "Raagh, I'm a bullet monster! Raaagh! I'm gonna eat you!"

I put a hoof over my muzzle to hide my laughter. "Well you're a very scary bullet monster, Snow."

The foal growled menacingly again.

"I have to ask, why ammo crates?" Misty tapped on the box Snow was sitting in.

"Because they're pretty tough. Also, Snow keeps sleeping in them whenever I leave one open, so I figured I'd make one into a bed." Ashes shrugged. "It also let's us move quicker if we need to."

"Oh, so she picked up your thing for tight spaces?" I laughed.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah. She has a bedroom of her own, but she rarely sleeps in the actual bed."

"Hey, you want to load some of that stuff on the wagon?" Musty offered.

"Oh, uh... sure, I guess." Ashes bent low to the ground. "Out you go, Snow."

The filly giggled and hopped out of the ammo crate, her chunk of cloud held in her mouth. Ashes then slid the crate off of her back.

"M'mmrr, crrn err flmmph?" The filly said.

Ashes laughed. "Sorry, Snow, I didn't understand that."

The pegasus let the cloud go for a moment. "Can I fly, momma? Pretty please?"

“I dunno...” Ashes hummed thoughtfully for a moment.

Snow gave her mother a hopeful smile, her huge amber eyes wide.

“Alright, snow. You can fly for a little bit.”

The foal squealed happily and hopped on the cloud, buzzing her wings to get moving.

Ashes gave her a quick nuzzle. “But you have to stay next to me, okay?”

“A’kay, momma!”

I laughed as she started a slow orbit around the mare.

"Oi, ye sure ye got everythin'?" Knives called out. The… satisfied look on her face as she exited the building sent me into another small fit of giggles. Zim’s goofy grin turned that into laughter.

“That was quick.” Ashes snorted.

Knives’ face turned red. “Sh-shut up!”

Zim pulled her close and whispered into her her.

She grumbled something to herself before she let out an exaggerated sigh. “Whatever, just shut up, all ay ye.”

“Wait, we heading off now?” Zim asked.

Dad opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off as Misty gently put a hoof on his muzzle.

Misty nodded emphatically. “If we’re all ready, then yeah, as soon as we get the rest of this loaded up. We won’t get that far before nightfall, but it’s…”

She trailed off and let out a sigh.

Dad gave her shoulder a rub. Her wings twitched under her duster. “Actually, I need to go find the dogs first. You know where they went?”

“Yeah, they were following Stock around for some reason. I think she confuses them.”

“I hope not. They should be used to ghouls by now.” He sighed.

“It was more affectionate than anything else.” Misty laughed.

“She does have a tendency to carry food around,” Zim said. “Maybe that’s it?”

“Does she carry around raw radroaches and broccoli?” Dad snorted.

“Considering that both of those are her favorite foods…” Zim shrugged. “Probably.”

“Oh…” Dad blinked. “Well, then... That could explain it. Hold on."

Dad took a deep, somewhat dramatic breath, and let out the longest, loudest whistle I'd ever heard, followed by two quick ones, and an even louder one that I could have sworn lasted much longer than it should have.

"Owww!" Kara rubbed at one of her ears. "Dad!"

"Heh, sorry, kiddo." He chuckled.

“Och, buckin’ hell that hurt,” Knives said. “Th’ hell are ye daein’?”

“Just wait,” Dad replied.

Knives frowned. There was silence for a moment.

“Sae… did tha’ dae-”

She was nearly flattened as Carver dropped down from the roof of Ashes’ house, followed by Hooke and Mendel, making Kara burst into laughter and Vill snort as Knives dodged the group with a yelp and immediately glaring at Vill, who covered her mouth and cringed. Schwann calmly slinked around the side of the building and sat down next to Misty.

“What th’ hell was that?” Knives glanced back and forth between the dogs and the roof.

“They’re climbers. Schwann’s just smarter.” Misty scratched Schwann under his chin, the red creature giving her a small lick on the nose in response. “Aren’t you, boy? Yes you are.”

Dad chuckled and started herding the other three vinedogs towards the front of the wagon. “Okay, just need to harness them.”

Schwann made a snorting noise before giving Misty another lick, and snuffled over to let my father hitch him up in front of the other dogs.

“Nezan, your dogs slimed me,” Stock said, gently hovering over the roof and alighting on the ground next to Zim, pointedly flicking a bit of vinedog slime in his face. “It’s funny, but at the same time it’s annoying.”

“Heh, sorry.” Dad grinned.

“So, are you coming with us, now?” Zim asked, turning to Stock and rolling his eyes.

She frowned at him. “No, but I still hate it when pon-err… people ditch me.”

My eye twitched at the sound of that damn word.

“I’m going to see if I can catch up with the search squad.” She sighed happily. “I’m missing my husband again.”

Zim grimaced a bit as the ghoul flew off with a dreamy expression on her face.

“Alright, then, we should be off in about five minutes.” Dad said, carefully placing things on the wagon.

"Great. So, if we head straight through Loss, we shouldn't have too many problems," Ashes said. "There's actually a road going out if you want to use it."

"Nae... nae, there's nae buckin' way," Knives said, her jaw hanging open as she stared down the path to the marketplace.

"What's up, Knives?" Zim tried to follow her gaze.

The zony gritted her teeth, her expression shifting into a furious glare. "Ah just saw Clothesline."

"Wait, what?" I barely managed to open my mouth before Knives shot off, her hoofsteps accompanied by the sound of scraping metal. "Knives?"

"Misty, can you watch Snow for me?" Ashes asked.

"Uh, sure, I guess."

Ashes bolted after our zony friend, followed by Zim, Vill and myself.

"YOU!" Knives voice roared..

I swore and picked up the pace, quickly.catching up with Ashes as she founded the corner and stopped with a look of surprise. "Wow, it's actually Clothesline... what's she doing here?"

"You fucking shit me in the face, you bitch!" Knives screamed, taking a single, menacing step towards the pink mare.

The mare simply stood there, her jaw hanging open. It was definitely Clothesline, with her triple shotgun shell cutie mark and her loose black mane, as well as the signature shotgun strapped to her back.

"Kn-kn-kn-kn-kn-" her eyes grew wider and wonder as she stammered. She swallowed hard. "Knives?"

She took a step away from the zony, who responded by dropping her blade down into a ready position.

Every pony in the area quickly started to file out, apart from the zebra Clothesline had been talking to and a pegasus filly.

"Wreeeetch?" The zebra said. "Why does this mare look like she's about to rip your face off and reattach it somewhere it simply shouldn't be?"

"Who says I'm going to reattach it?" Knives growled, taking another step.

"Y-y-y-you're... you're..." Clothesline swallowed again. "You're alive. You're alive?"

Knives narrowed her eyes. "You tried to kill me. You fucking tried to fucking KILL ME!"

The zony roared and charged forward, swinging her sword at the unicorn's neck. Clothesline screamed in terror and barely managed to dodge, throwing herself to the left as Knives brought her sword down.

The zebra stepped in front of Knives. "Woah, woah, time out. The hell is going on?"

Knives snarled and pointed to her slitted eye. "You see this? I got this because that bitch SHOT ME IN THE FUCKING FACE. I almost died."

“Knives,” Ashes said, moving up and putting a hoof of Knives’ shoulder. “Knives, calm down.”

“Calm down?” She turned a vicious glare on the other mare. “What part of ‘shot me in the face’ did you not get?”

Ashes simply gave the raging mare a calm smile. “Knives, please stop yelling at me. It’s not helping anything.”

Knives stammered for a moment. The color drained away from her face as most of the anger in her eyes died. “I… uh…”

The zony glared at Clothesline again, who was now scrambling away from the other mare and muttering to herself, staring in shock at Knives while the green filly tried to get her to respond.

Knives rubbed a fetlock across her face and made a noise somewhere between a sign and a growl of frustration. She cringed for a moment, her ears folding back. Zim moved over and put a wing across her shoulder. “F-f-fine… I-Ah’ll..”

She growled and yelled at Clothesline. “If I-Ah ever see you-ye again, Ah’ll buckin’ kill ye.”

With that, she turned around and headed back towards the wagon, followed by Zim.

Ashes sighed. “Clothesline, I don’t know what’s going on, but if I find out you’ve hurt one of my friends again, there won’t be anything left for Knives to deal with. Understand?”

Clothesline only continued to sob and babble incoherently, her hooves over her face as she curled up into a ball.

The zebra hummed. “I think she gets it. Come on, Green, let’s get her out of here.”

“I am sorry about this, though,” Ashes said.

With a shrug, the stallion helped the filly get Clothesline onto his back as she continued to mutter. “Meh. I’ve dealt with worse. We’ll probably meet again.”

Ashes blinked. “Uh… sure… bye, I guess.”

“Can’t say I blame Knives.” I headed back down the alley ahead of Ashes. “I hate that bitch, too.”

“Yeah, but Knives kinda attacked her out of nowhere.” The earth pony let out a long sigh. “I just wanna get out of here, now.”

“Yeah, same here.”

~~~

The wagon hit another bump in the road, one which made Vill stumble into an exhausted-looking Knives within the wagon, the latter giving the former a glare and a small snarl of irritation, while the former whimpered and backed away. I frowned at Knives, who simply sat back against the wall and snorted.

“Uh… I… I’m just gonna get out and walk for a bit…” Vill said, gulping. The young mother-to-be hopped off the back of the wagon and trotted beside it further in front, where Knives couldn’t see her.

I moved closer to her. “You okay?”

“H-huh? Oh, yeah. I’m fine…” She sighed. “Knives just… scares me…”

“She hasn't actually done anything to you, right?” Vill shook her head. I hummed in thought. “Well, other than that, how are you feeling?”

A small smile slipped onto her face. "Uh... good. It’s kinda nice to not have anybody yelling at me for once. Other than Knives, anyway."

"What's Knives doing now?" Ashes drifted over from in front of the wagon, her foal once again on her back with the cloud tucked under her wing. “Is she still mad?”

"Nah, she’s just being a bit of a bully," I said.

"Wow. I thought I was just imagining the passive-aggressiveness," Ashes said. "She's still like that?"

"Nope. If anything, she's worse about it. Today’s incident not included."

Vill let out a long sigh and rubbed her bulging middle. She giggled a bit. "Foal's kicking again. It's going crazy in there."

I smiled. "Glad to hear it."

"Can I feel, miss Vill?" Snow asked.

The young mare blinked. “Huh?”

Ashes sighed and shook her head in bemusement. "She wants to feel the foal kicking. Sorry, she does that with Split all the time."

Vill smiled. "Uh... sure? I guess it's fine."

The filly hopped off her mother and ran over to the zebra, immediately placing and ear and both hooves against the mare's swollen belly. Vill started to giggle again. "That tickles."

"Woah..." Snow pulled away, her eyes wide with awe. "Your belly is really big..."

Ashes blanched. "Snow, that's not-"

Vill burst out laughing. "Yup. It's 'cuz I have a foal in here."

I snorted a laugh of my own. "I thought most pregnant mares didn't like having their bellies touched."

Vill shrugged. "Yeah, but Snow's cute. Also, she asked first."

"Heart." Zim trotted over with a grin on his face, barely moving his lips as he spoke. "Two o'clock."

Ash glanced in front of herself from the corners of her eyes, not moving her head.

"Guys..." Ashes murmured. "I need you to keep an eye on Snow for a couple minutes."

"Uh... sure," I said. "Why, what's wrong?"

"I'll be right back, honey," she said, giving her foal a kiss. She smiled at me as she climbed into the wagon, though I could tell it was forced. There was the sound of an electrical discharge. "Get everypony somewhere safe, but make it look casual. I'm going to check out the snoops."

"Snoops?" Vill blinked.

"Yes," said Ashes' disembodied voice from beside me. Snow giggled.

"Zeed, tell your dad what's going on," Zim said. "I'll get the others."

I looked around for a moment, confused, before I shrugged and took Snow to the front of the wagon. "Dad, apparently we're being watched."

He quirked an eyebrow at me from the seat. "How so?"

"Ash and Zim said they saw some 'snoops'."

His eyes went wide. “Shit…”

“Dad? What’s wrong?” Kara asked, poking her head out over the roof’s railing.

“Kara!” Misty rushed over to us, a badly hidden expression of fear on her face. “Can you… uh… help me with the.. the cooking please?”

“Wait, what?” The filly blinked in confusion.

“Kara, just trust me and listen to your mother.” Dad pulled the filly off the roof, ignoring her protests, and hoofed her over to Misty, who took her and flew back into the wagon.

Dad hopped out of the seat and started unhitching the vinedogs, who were now making some creepy snarling noises. “Axy, can you-”

My father was interrupted by two loud gunshots, followed by a scream of agony.

It was silent for a moment.

“Uh…” I swallowed. “What was-”

Then came one of the most haunting sounds I’d ever heard. The scream went on for far longer than any equine lungs should have been capable of. My heart nearly stopped as that scream was cut short.

Another silence.

“NO PLEASE NO NO I’M SORRY OH PLEASE CELESTIA NO NO NO NO PLEA-” Another gunshot, and a long scream of pain.

“Get in the wagon, now,” Dad said, double-timing the latches on the harnesses. “Make sure you’re armed.”

“Uh… right. On it.” I rushed once again to the back of the wagon and hopped in, to find Misty helping the Snow, Kara and Vill into a crawlspace beneath the wagon. Zim and Knives held a shotgun and a grenade rifle at the ready. I drew my laser pistol and peeked out of the wagon.

To my surprise, there was only a single mare, standing on her back legs at the top of a rocky outcrop, looking back the way we’d come. I couldn’t see her face, only a black helmet with jagged teeth painted across the muzzle, and glowing blue eyepieces. The armor, also black, was covered in metallic plates. A large, familiar-looking rifle was strapped to her back. She vanished a moment later.
It took me a moment to realize that it was Ashes.

There were some more screams, these ones of fear, as a pair of ponies ran out from the cover of a dead tree, heading away from us as fast as they could. Ashes flashed in and out of existence several times, each time closer to the two ponies. One of them suddenly fell to the ground screaming in pain as one of his legs bent.. A second later, Ashes flashed into existence beside him, with the rifle held in her fetlocks. The other pony’s head exploded. As Ashes winked out of existence once more, the crippled pony on the ground stopped screaming in pain and started clawing at his own throat.

I suddenly felt like I was about to throw up. I could only sit and watch as the pony gradually stopped moving, at which point I heard hoofsteps approaching. The wagon shifted a bit, and Ashes popped into existence inside the wagon, right beside me. “Got five of them. That should have scared off the rest.”

“WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?” I screamed. “Seriously, Ash, what the fuck? What did you do? That… that was the most… The way that pony was screaming, I… Ashes… what did you do?”

There was a mechanical hiss as she pulled the helmet off. She stared at me for a moment. She was shaking violently. Then she said, in a completely deadpan tone, “Less than what they’ve done. There weren’t any ponies over there, just monsters wearing their skins.”

My jaw worked up and down a few times as I stared at her in shock. “O-oh…”

“So what did they do?” Zim asked. "Just let it out, Heart."

Her ears went down, tears forming in her eyes. “A white filly. She was… she… I… there wasn’t even anything… anything left of her… I… I think they… oh, goddesses...”

Ashes sniffled and wiped her eyes, her legs shaking. “I… I think I need to hug my daughter right now…”

The door to the crawl space opened up, releasing a little filly, who immediately ran up to her mother with a smile on her face. Ashes swept the filly up and hugged her, burying her face in Snow’s feathers. “I love you, Snow.”

“Momma, why are you cold?” The filly asked.

“Oh, no reason, honey, I’m starting to feel better.” The mare laughed.

“What, that’s it?” Kara asked. “That was… really boring.”

“Thank Celestia for that,” Misty muttered.

"Luna's moon, Ash..." I muttered.

"I know," she shuddered. "I just... I saw... she looked... I just want to forget this ever happened, okay?"

She hugged her foal tighter, closing her eyes and smiling as the little filly hugged her back.

"That makes two of us..." I muttered.

~~~

Green bit her lip. Wretch was still muttering to herself and trying to hide behind her own hooves as she sat in the bed.

Xixixix frowned. Two hours later and the mare had barely calmed down. "Come on, Wretch, snap out of it!"

The unicorn only let out a weak sob.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Green asked.

"I have no idea!" He tapped his chin. "It's worrying. Wretch, just relax, it'll be okay."

Wretch hiccuped. "I don't know what to do... I... godde5ses... She's really alive, right? I'm... not seeing things?"

"The mare that tried to kill you? Yeah, pretty sure she's real. Almost eighty percent." The zebra grinned. "Any idea why-"

"I sHot her..." Wretch made a choking noise and hiccuped again. "I had the others drag her out of the Prison... then I shot them, then I shot her, and I ran..."

Xixixix blinked. "Oh... I... guess I can see why she was pissed."

"Wretch... are you gonna be okay?" Green asked.

The unicorn hiccuped yet again and rubbed her eyes with a fetlock. "1 dunno... my head hurts."

"Just get some sleep. It should help a bit," Xixixix said.

"Sleep? SLEEP?" Wretch giggled hystericallyhysterically. "How the fuck am I supp0sed to sleep when Knives is out here and wants to kill me?"

"Potion?" He whipped a purple canteen out of his saddlebags. "Knock you out for hours."

Wretch blinked a few times.

"And I can keep an eye on you while you sleep!" He grinned.

She blinked again. "That's... kind of creepy."

He frowned. "Hey, I'm crazy, not creepy. And it's either that or lose days of sleep to fear and paranoia."

Wretch bit her lip.

She took the sleeping potion and quaffed the entire thing.

She smacked her lips and grimaced for a moment as the zebra stared at her in abject shock.

"I don't thin-" she passed out, her body falling limply back onto the bed.

The remaining two equines were quiet for a minute.

"Um..." Green scratched her neck.

"That... I had three doses left," the zebra said, his mouth agape. "Three freaking doses..."

"How... long is that?"

"An entire damn day. Twenty-four hours..."

Green winced. "Oh... "

There was another minute of silence.

"Dammit," Xixixix stamped one hoof. "I left my permanent marker at home."

-----

Footnote 1: Diamond Knives

No stat changes.

~

Footnote 2: Zeed Kazdri

No stat changes.

~

Footnote 3: Prism “Zim” Blitz

No stat changes.

~

Footnote 4: Ashes
EXP: 10%

`

To-Do List:

Active Quest:

Let’s Go Sunning: Make your way to Fifteen. Try not to die.

Other quests:

Sifting Through The Dust:

1) Find information on the location of Ashes.

2) Find information on the location of Obsidian Knives

3)Find information on the location of Nezan Kazdri

Author's Notes:

Bwuuuuuugh...

Oh god... so... tired...

asdglkajnbl,akihpooiugbj

I try and go faster, and I only go slower. Who'da thunk?