Chapter 6

The inner demons

“I told you I can’t remember.” The ruins of the office building that we used for setting up the camp gave us enough cover to keep the bonfire lit for a little longer without attracting more trouble. The fire was reflecting in our guest’s eyes making her look like a ghost. Which, I guess, in a weird sense she was.

“We hadn’t noticed any damage that could have caused this.” Lily was squinting her eyes, as she leaned in closer to the white mare.

“We also aren’t medical ponies, Lily.” Aurora let out a tired sigh and closed her eyes.

“Let’s continue this tomorrow.” I stood up, and trotted to Lily. She looked at me frowning.

“Listen, it won’t help anypony if we will be dead tired tomorrow.” She looked at me for a moment, then her ears drooped.

“Yeah you right, Midnight let’s rest, I’ll change you in three hours.” Lily slowly walked to her sleeping bag, shooting one last glance at the mare.

“Alright, miss… Scarlett Skies was it? We’ll talk more about this tomorrow, please try to remember something.” Ace’s soothing tone and encouraging smile seemed to calm Scarlett a little.

“Just Scarlett, please.” She offered a soft smile. “I’m sorry for causing trouble.”

“It’s alright.” Aurora patted her on the back. “Just get some rest, who knows maybe good sleep will help you to get some of those memories back.” Scarlett silently nodded and looked around, stopping her glance at Lily and myself.

Nervous. I noted, no wonder after what she’s been through. Tomorrow will be a very long day for her. For all of us.

I put out the fire and took my position near the exit, listening in on the sounds of the wasteland. The unnatural silence of the morning remained. I felt a shiver running down my spine. Well, at least it’ll be easy to spot anyone who’ll try to sneak in, even bloatsprite flying by would sound like a squad of drunk Steel Rangers in full armor.

I leaned back against the wall and glanced over the room. The dark silhouettes became more and more apparent as my eyes got used to the darkness. My hoof reached out to my saddlebag and pulled out a deck of cards. It was a nice hobby if a little expensive. My mind went back to the Serpent’s Valley. I shook my head and realised that I was subconsciously shuffling the deck. I thought if the sound would give away our hideout for a moment, but my mind was too happy to have something breaking the silence to linger on the thought for too long.

I took a deep breath, despite staying up late to keep a watch I felt much better than I can remember myself being recently. Suddenly it dawned on me that this was the time in a past week where I could slow down and take everything in. The previous route, armory investigation, death of that homeless pony, Scarlett… I was always busy, I was always moving, I was… very tired.

I closed my eyes for a moment. Still silent. Only the faint sound of cards being shuffled over and over again was breaking it. The past three days had been in a haze. I’ve been running. It’s hard to say what for or from, but I was getting tired of it.

I noticed Lily walking to me.

“You have a couple more hours.” I noted in a dull voice. She sat next to me, and leaned on the wall.

“I know.”I put my cards back and looked at the sky in the window. Or rather at a bunch of clouds covering it. Fucking Enclave. “Hey, Midnight,” She said finally. “Is everything alright?”

“No. Not really.”

We sat in silence for a few more minutes.

“I’ll take it from here, go get some rest.”

I stood up and started towards my sleeping bag.

“Hey!” I looked back, slightly cocking my head. “When we’re in Safe Harbor, let’s get some drinks together.” I smiled and nodded to her.

My sleeping bag felt much cozier than I remember or maybe I was just too tired. Suddenly a faint buzz outside the window filled the air. Bloastsprites. My body tensed, as a magical grip tightened around the carabin handle. The buzzing has become quieter, thanks Celestia they were flying in the opposite direction. Then another sound came in, the one I haven’t heard in months. First droplets of rain fell on the ground, thunder roaring in the distance. I closed my eyes, relaxing. And while I didn’t know what tomorrow would hold for us, I was sure that we would pull through.

***

Waking up to the sounds of arguing was not how I preferred to do it. Still better than gunshots though.

I stiffed out a sigh, and tried to listen into the voices.

“…idea?”

“It’ll be fine, trust me. You have been working for us since the very beginning, tell me, have we ever taken unnecessary risks?”

“Well, no, but why…”

First voice was raspy with a weird inflection, as if the owner hadn’t been used to talking a lot, the second was a lot smoother and with some commanding notes in it.

“Let’s say it’s my business sense, Ray.”

I opened my eyes and slowly rose to my hooves. Ace and Ray were standing just outside the entrance and argued about… Scarlett? Well, that seemed like the only reasonable choice at the moment. I quietly reached out to my saddlebags for some food, trying not to disturb the argument.

“Miss Midnight!” Well, there goes that plan… “I hope we didn’t wake you up with our loud voices.” Ace’s smile was radiating with energy and thankfully it was not the nuclear kind.

“No it’s fine, is everything alright?” I tried my best to hide concern in my voice.

“Yes, we just had a small disagreement about our current situation, but everything was resolved.” Judging by his expression I failed. “I see our other companions are waking up as well, how about we discuss our plans after breakfast?”

I nodded and opened my can of dry wheat and bacon. There are little things in this world that taste worse than canned bacon, but when you are on the road you can’t be very picky.

“What about her?” Lily asked, pointing her hoof at Scarlett.

“We’ll give her some oatmeal that we salvaged yesterday.” Ace’s energetic tone was surprising, especially after everything that went down in the last couple days, but it seemed that I am not the only one who got their head cleared after some rest.

The breakfast went pretty uneventful, in a complete and a bit awkward silence.

“Well let’s recap.” Ace was first one to break it. “You’ve been traveling to a Golden Horseshoe with a caravan, then heard someone shooting, and then you’ve blacked out.”

“I think so?” Scarlett’s voice was a lot more stable after proper rest and breakfast. “As I’ve said the last thing I remember is a loud sound from behind, and then the next thing I saw is this camp and the rest you already know.”

“And why did you want to go to the Horseshoe?” I asked, arching my brow. “There is not much to do unless you have stuff to trade.”

She looked at her hooves, tapping at the ground. “I… need to find somepony. I’ve been told that they can help me.”

“Oh, I think Midnight might help you with this, she’s a local.” Aurora looked at me, with a small apologetic smile.

“Sure,” I nodded. “Who are you looking for?”

“I don’t know his name.” The blush on white unicorn’s coat was almost as bright as her hair. “I was just told that they are an earth pony, with a brown coat, and dirty blonde mane. I should have been able to find them in the bar. Oh and that I should ask barpony for directions if I can’t find them on my own.” I frowned. There was only one pony I knew who fit the description.

Grifter.

Either she was one of his ‘friends’ or somepony thought that Grifter can get some profit out of her. Either way I didn’t like it. “So who told you to meet him?” Judging by her expression I said it a bit harsher than intended.

“I-is something wrong?” Her ears drooped, and eyes started darting between myself and Aurora.

“I do know a pony who matches your description.” I slowly put my front hooves together, intently looking at the white unicorn. Could it be possible Grifter has something to do with that attack then? “Although I would not recommend you, or anypony for that matter, asking him for help. Even if it seems like a good idea at the moment, eventually, you’ll learn that his help never comes without a catch.”

“Are you speaking from experience?” You have no fucking idea. I gave her a short nod. “And to answer your question, I’ve met a traveling mercenary back in Upper Haven. I figured that somepony with his profession should have a lot more knowledge about the world than I do.” She offered me a sheepish smile, slowly picking at the ground with her hoof. “And he said to go to the Golden Horseshoe and seek that pony. And he should be able to help me.”

Aurora, leaned closer, her ears perked up. “And what exactly are you seeking help for?” She asked in a hushed voice.

“Well…” She pursed her lips and slowly looked over us before letting out a sigh. “I am looking for a book. Or a pony. For a long time I’ve had some inner struggles and want to find something that can guide me through them. I’ve heard there’s an old buffalo book about it somewhere, so I thought if I can get my hooves on it I can deal with my problem.”

“So your journey is spiritual?” Aurora asked, her eyes widened.

“I… guess you can say that?” Scarlett shrugged and looked at her hooves. “To some degree at least.”

“It is pretty rare to see nowaday. Although for a good reason.”

“This idle chatting is nice and all, but we need to move out if we want to reach Safe Harbor before dawn.” Lily stood near the entrance ready to go.

“Yeah, you're right.” Ace nodded, and stood up himself. “Alright, everypony, finish up your breakfast and we’re moving out in five minutes.” He gave brahmin a signal, and the massive two-headed cow slowly walked to him. “Miss Scarlett, you can reach Golden Horseshoe in about a daywalk from here. Or you can follow us and try your luck at Safe Harbor, the choice is up to you.” Scarlett closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“I think,” She opened them and looked directly into Ace's eyes. “I’ll go with you.” She glanced at me, smiling. “If Horseshoe was a false thread I might as well try this Safe Harbor you mentioned.”

Ten minutes later we were already trying to cover the distance between us and Safe Harbor as fast as we could. By the evening we were at the last stretch before we could finally relax, and I got my pay. The desert slowly changed to a more urbanistic landscape, as we approached the city. Scarlett stayed very quiet for the whole trip, She also seemed more and more nervous as we approached our destination, and tried to stay close to Aurora.

“We’re almost at the front gate, hopefully they still…” Lily’s voice cut out as she stopped in her tracks.

“What the fuck?” I muttered, stepping closer to get a better view.

Across the square was a tall steel wall, with reinforced gates. In front of it lie at least a couple dozens of dead bodies in the mangled rusty armor. Although it was hard to distinguish rust from blood, covering them. Right above the gates hand the large neon sign, covered in bullet holes.

Welcome to Safe Harbor, the small oasis in the wasteland.

Author's Note

Well and another chapter ready. I've been able to make myself write more consistently, so I'm happy about that. Hopefully I can keep this up. If you noticed any mistakes or just have some fedback I would love to hear it! THank you for reading and I hope you had fun.

Huge thanks to Kkat for creating this amazing world. And special thanks to Heartshine Who help a lot during the "planning stage" and just overall an amazing person!