Stable

Zaed and Nick didn't talk much that night, despite Nick's regular requests to.

Calling me a stallion. Hmpf.

Nick had given up after the eighth time of prodding, hating to go for one more try when it was obvious she was not talking again until morning.

...

Nick was suddenly thrust out of bed from a restful slumber, being thrown to the carpet in a hail of sheets and pillows. His words were a string of drool and tiredness, just babble to his much more alert love.

Zaed whispered as the dawn slipped in from the windows, loud enough to be on the threshold of a quiet yelp, "Dicers! Nick, Dicers!"

"Mice?! Where?!", Nick tumbled from his imprisonment to flail around, trying to find the rodents of disease before they could attack himself or Zaed.

Zaed rushed to his side, cupping his mouth as she growled, "Damn your hearing. I said Dicers. They're in the room adjacent to ours."

Warmth from the covers fading, Nick felt a cold shiver run down his spine as he thought out loud, "I wonder if Vain's with them."

She promptly re-clamped his mouth with an aggravated hoof, demanding in a sliver of a voice, "Stooppp talking so louudddddd."

Nick was exasperated at being told to be quiet, even when he was certain that nopony could hear him.

...

"Hey, guys! Wake up! We gotta get going! Boss says so!"

Zaed narrowed her eyes at Nick for his loose mouth, then redirected her annoyance at the door. Breathing in real deep, she crept over to the entryway, not making a creak or peep as she got into position.

As she reached to the back of her head, a dark blue mist appeared. And, from seemingly within the mist itself, was drawn out a bow into her readied hoof.

The bow was of a dark wood, painted with faint white lines from the top limb to the bottom. And, it had three strings instead of one. The construction of the design was meant for Pegasi only, as they were the only pony race capable of pressurizing air from simply the atmosphere, which would be used to fire arrows.

As this was no ordinary bow, the arrows also held a certain unique quality. For when Zaed pulled back the suspending strings, mist soon followed into place of the release string from seemingly nowhere. And when this mystical mist evaporated, an arrow of dark blue was armed for firing.

"What the buck you talking about, Fedden?! We were in this room! You a dumbplot, dude!"

...

Zaed was now breathing a sigh of relief as her bow and arrow puffed away, getting up and stretching as if there weren't an entire gang of -- from their knowledge -- armed gangsters outside.

Nick was going to ask something, but Zaed had her eyes trained on him the entire stretch routine, narrowing them whenever she felt he'd blow their cover.

After a half hour ticked by of Zaed stretching and Nick cleaning the room up several times, they thought it'd be a good time to depart the room now.

When Nick went towards the door, Zaed pulled him away, pointing towards the window.

After the Unicorn's look of confusion, Zaed rubbed her cheek as she admitted, "I don't want to see the Yak again. She called me a stallion, ya know?"

Understanding, Nick walked to their new route of escape behind Zaed. She unlocked it, told him to grab onto her neck, and he did so as they saw how far up they were.

Nick was actually scared of heights, so noting the very long fall down turned his feelings of care into slight fright.

But, before her could change her mind, he was pulled with her outside, screaming as they fell towards the streets below.