Chapter Five: Prelude to Disaster

As we approached an abandoned house on the outskirts of Ponyville, I felt something wet hit my nose and looked up to see that rain was beginning to fall. It was still a slight drizzle, but Lily did not seem to want to risk it and increased her pace. By the time we arrived, the rain was falling harder now and she beckoned to me to follow her inside. Upon reaching the door, Lily helped me to unhook the cart and put Blossom carefully onto my back. Leaving the cart outside, we walked in the door, and I was surprised at the condition of the place. From the outside, it appeared to be just a simple one-story home and seemed to be in terrible condition. But as we moved inside, the interior was surprisingly the opposite. Along the walls were remnants of paintings, a family portrait, and a cozy little couch, with a broken tv right across from it. In the opposite corner was a small kitchen, though it was definitely not in any condition to make anything in. Finally, in the back was a small bed, next to a broken dresser and window.

Lily was gesturing her head towards the small bed. “Let’s put her over there.” Moving to the bed, we gently slid her off my back. She was still asleep and occasionally her whole body twitched. Lily and I just stood there next to her, unsure of what to do next. The poor little filly was in bad shape. After a few minutes, she stopped twitching and started to mutter something. Leaning in a little closers, I tried to make out what she was saying.

“Mommy, daddy…no, leave them alone…stop…please, you’re hurting them…”

My heart sank for her. She was reliving the final moments with them in her head before…before they were murdered. Turning to Lily, I could see she wasn’t taking this well either. Her entire body was shaking as she could only watch her little sister suffer the memories alone. I pressed my body next to her, and she looked up for a moment in fright, forgetting I was there. Meeting my gaze, however, she relaxed and looked back to Blossom.

“I don’t know how I’m gonna break it to her once she wakes up. I may be like a sister to her, but she just lost her parents, the only real family she had. She didn’t even get to say goodbye as…as they dragged them away. I tried to take Blossom away to somewhere safe, but they grabbed her from me…and then…and then they…” She couldn’t even finish as she just stared down at the floor, lost in fear. She was now reliving the attack in her head as well, and I tried to come up with something to console her, but nothing would come to mind. I’d never been in a situation like this, and I only knew them for a couple of days. Closing my eyes, I started humming a tune. I don’t know why I was humming or what the tune actually was. I just didn’t know what else to do. Halfway through the tune, she closed her eyes and leaned her neck into mine. After a couple of minutes, she wasn’t shaking anymore. Once I stopped humming, she looked up and the fear in her eyes seemed to have died down.

“Thanks… I needed that.” She continued to stare into my eyes for at least a couple of minutes before coming back to her senses. Her face flushing, she pulled herself together and stepped away, looking over Blossom. “It seems I’ll need to replace some of the gauze. And we only have a few rolls left. We will need to try the local market in Ponyville and get more in the morning, along with other supplies for the trip to Manehatten.” She looked back to me with a soft, tired gaze. “You should go ahead and get some rest. I want to be with my sister.”

“Of course. I’m just gonna go crash out on the couch. Just…holler if you need anything, alright?”

Leaving them to each other, I headed over to the couch and after taking time to get comfortable, I went over what happened in the last couple of days in my head. As I recalled the screams, the deaths and the fights, it was clear that we were very damn lucky to have survived. While the first raiders were pretty stupid and weak, their leader was a whole another story. He was cunning and incredibly strong. If Lily hadn’t come in when she did, I wouldn’t be alive now…I needed to be stronger. For Lily and Blossom, I needed to be a lot stronger. Not to mention, were not even halfway to our destination. And then what about after Manehatten? What if I didn’t get the answers I was looking for? And finally, what would happen if I did? Laying across the bed, I tried to dismiss my worries and the thoughts of my weakness, but to no avail. Eventually, I was able to fall asleep.

We had a long day ahead of us.

.....

Morning had now come, and I awoke to find Lily and Blossom still asleep in the bed. They looked so peaceful, so I decided not to wake them. After what they just went through, they needed the rest. I decided to go and do an inventory of our supplies in the cart outside. Opening the door, I was greeted with a damp smell, but It was no longer raining. Scattered around the house were a bunch of puddles. Well, at least it would be a fair day for the trip to the market, albeit a muddy one. Looking in the cart, I was dismayed to find that we only had enough food and water to last us one more day. Our medical supplies were also very low, and we only had my rifle to defend ourselves with. Which meant we had nothing to defend ourselves with. If the rifle didn’t keep piquing my interest, I’d have tossed the bloody thing out days ago. Remembering the kitchen, I trotted back in the house and went over to see if I could salvage anything out of it. Most of the cupboards and pantries were opened and emptied. Between the fridge and the sink was a small, unopened cabinet. There were two small drawers and a door below them. Starting from the top, there was nothing really out of the ordinary. Some old, rusted utensils, a couple of plates, moldy magazines and a lighter. The lighter seemed to still have some fluid left in it, so I took that out and placed it on the counter. Moving down to the cabinet door, I tried to open it, but it would not budge . There wasn’t a lock on it that I could see either. After a couple more attempts, I took a knife from the top drawer and tried to wedge it in. After getting it halfway in, I bit down on the knife handle and pulled it. I could hear the door cracking and groaning, but the damn thing was still resisting. I placed my hooves against the surrounding area of the cabinet and gave a mighty heave.

Snap! I fell hard on the floor as the knife broke in half. Thankfully though, the door was cracked open, and I could finally see what was inside. Opening the door, I was greeted by a damp and musky odor. Inside were the remains of pre-war foods, covered in mold. A couple of Fancy Buck Cake boxes, a bag of feed and two cans of beans. The cans were the only things that weren’t moldy, but they were also far in the back. Kneeling down, I reached out to grab a can. As I grabbed one of the cans, there was a voice behind me “Oh, you managed to get it open.”

“Shit!” Startled by the sudden voice, I banged my head hard on the roof of the cabinet and could hear some snorting behind me. Rubbing my head, I turned to see Lily with a hoof over her mouth, trying to suppress a laugh. I gave her the dirtiest look I could muster, which just made her burst into laughter.

“Ahhahaaha. Ahhh, I’m sorry, Wanderer. I didn’t mean to startle you. It’s just that I awoke to hear the sounds of somepony rummaging around the place and arrived in the kitchen to see you halfway into the cabinet.” She smiled innocently as I continued to rub my head.

“Could you have waited until after I had grabbed the beans? This is like the fourth or fifth time I’ve hit my head in a week. I already have amnesia, I don’t need any more brain damage to go along with it.” Eventually she stopped laughing and looked more apologetic now, but not completely. There was still quite a bit of amusement in her eyes.

“Sorry, sorry. But hey, good news is you managed to get it open. Before me met you, we laid low here once after we passed through Ponyville and no matter what, it wouldn’t budge…So what’d you find?”

I could only sigh in defeat as I reached for the cans again. “Sorry to say not much. Most of the food that was in here is inedible and only things that survived were some beans.” Handing her the cans, I remembered she said something last night about heading into town. “We can probably find some more supplies in town. There’s bound to be food, ammo, and medical items. I’ll go down and check it out.”

Heading back to the couch, I grabbed my satchel and threw it over my back. Once it was secured, I went towards the door, but was suddenly halted by Lily jumping in front of me and raising a hoof to my chest, looking at me with disbelief. “Are you out of your damn mind?! Please tell me you weren’t thinking of going into town looking like that?”

Confused, I looked around, wondering if I was filthy or if I was bleeding somewhere. She started groaning and I looked back up to see her face hoofing herself. “Just how have you survived this long on your own? Seriously?” Looking back up to me, she motioned at all of me with her hoof “Your stripes!”

Realization slowly dawned on me as I remembered that I was half zebra. I was still getting used to the whole zony thing and remembering Silver Song’s reaction to me being part zebra kicked in. I could only imagine how all the other ponies might react.

“Well, what can I do about it? I can’t just magically make them disappear.”

“Uhm, shit…wait, I think I got something…give me a sec.” Gesturing for me to wait a moment, she went to the cart outside and started rummaging around until her face lit up and she pulled out a tattered cloak. “This should fit you well enough for now. Put this on.”

As I put on the cloak, it felt very rough, but it managed to cover up most of my body and my stripes. As she looked me over, she seemed quite content. “Yeah, this will do just fine. Now they won’t know your part zebra unless you took off the cloak.”

I was still a bit uncomfortable with the idea. Was I gonna have to do this every time I went to town? Cause I don’t like the idea of hiding who I am, regardless of the reason. I know there was still a lot of animosity between ponies and zebras, but surely not all zebras were bad. Right…?

Lily seemed to sense my discomfort and gave me a gently nudge “I know your not happy with this, but a lot of ponies still hold a strong hatred for zebras, and I don’t want you to get hurt because of that. It’s just for now until we get back on the road. One day, they will see you for who you are the inside instead of what’s on the outside.”

That didn’t really make me feel any less uncomfortable, but I conceded for now. She seemed to mean well, and she didn’t hate me for being part zebra. It was only for now, Wanderer. Only for now and then we’d be back on the road to Manehatten once Blossom had recovered enough to travel. “Alright, for now I’ll wear the cloak. So, what do you need me to get?”

She was smiling a bit more now. “So last time we went through here, there was an old pharmaceutical store on the outskirts of town, mixed in with a bunch of other old stores. The place is in ruins and already salvaged, but I remember seeing a cellar door that looked like it may have led to a basement. I need you to check and see if there are any painkillers, bandages, or healing potions…oh, maybe some Rad-away if there is any! Whatever you can find. We will need all the supplies we can fit in the cart.” She gave me a small bag. “After that, take these bits and see what food and other supplies you can get down at the market. There should be enough to get at least a few days’ worth of food.”

“Ok. I’ll head over there and see what I can scrounge up. What will you do in the meantime?”

She turned her head back in the direction where Blossom was “I’m gonna keep an eye on her and see if I can do anything else to help with the pain. Someone also needs to keep an eye on the place and the little supplies we got left. We may be a little ways from town, but that doesn’t mean were the only ones who know about this place.”

Fair enough. I needed to make this trip as successful and quick as possible then. Shouldn’t be too hard, right? I was about to head out when a concern popped into my head. Turning back, I asked her “What if somepony were to come by here while I’m gone? I don’t remember us bringing anything to defend ourselves with.”

She just grinned, walked over to the cart and opened a hidden compartment, revealing a side holster with a very well-made pistol. “Who said I was ever unarmed?”

…

The walk towards the outskirts of Ponyville was pretty uneventful. Though looking around, I started to really take in the landscape around me. To the west was the forest we came out from, and it ended a few hundred feet from the house we were in now, and the term “Wasteland” really made sense now. Out past Ponyville, it was a barren land from there to Canterlot and beyond. Sure, there were some scattered trees and small wooded areas, but nothing like the land to the west of us. The only exception to that was a huge, dark, thorny forest just southeast of Ponyville. It was still quite a ways away, but there was something was really off about it. Seemed best to just avoid that area. Further past that to the east was more wasteland and mountains. Looking south to southwest, the land looked more like it used to be farmland. It was an open expanse of land, that appeared to be a mixture of dessert, rock, and ruin. Swiveling my head to the north, it resembled the lands to the west, but it was heavily clouded. Not even stormy, just thick clouds that seemed like they were always there. Deciding to leave that mystery alone for now, I had just arrived at the collection of buildings Lily was mentioning. Though these were more ruins than buildings. Honestly, I’m surprised some were still intact. The place made me think of a shopping district, as most of the places held resemblances of sale advertisements. From what I could gather, there was a clothing store, a bakery, a general store, and a florist. Though nothing in any of those ruins were in any shape to be used.

Making my way further down the street, I was able to find the pharmaceutical store I was told to find and this one still had walls and a roof. Looking through the broken windows, it was mostly empty, with many of the shelves on their side. Scattered around the floor were piles of rubble from where the ceiling had fallen through. The counter where Lily said I’d find the door to the basement was in the far-left corner. Getting across all the rubble and fallen shelves to it was gonna take some time. Halfway through, something on the wall caught my attention. It was a large poster. It was blue and grey, in the middle a silhouette of a yellow pegasus with a pink mane. While most of the wording was scratched or torn off, in big letters were the words “The Ministry of Peace”. I vaguely recalled Silver Song mentioning the ministries and that this one was headed by a pegasus named Fluttershy, but that’s about all I could remember. To be honest, I didn’t pay too much attention to what he said about them. All I knew was that they were each headed by six ponies who once prided themselves on the power of friendship. Which sounds lovely, but obviously didn’t turn out so well from the looks of it.

Finally, I reached the back of the store and found the door to the basement. It was slightly ajar and as I opened it up further, I was able to get a good look inside. Well, if stairs leading into absolute darkness counted as a good look. Hoping there was a light switch, I looked around inside around the door and sure enough, there was one and I flipped it.

Nothing.

I gave it a little while thinking maybe it just needed some time to start up. But as nothing continued to happen, I gave up.

Not sure why I expected that to work, but it was worth a shot. Looking around the counter area, there appeared to be enough wood and cloth to create a small makeshift torch. After making one and laying it on the ground, I pulled out the lighter from earlier and lit the cloth. It took quite a few times to finally get it burning, but once it started, I quickly grabbed the other end and started to make my way down. The light from the fire helped a lot and I was able to get a better view of the stairs. There was a lot of cobwebs. Like, a shit ton of cobwebs to the point you could barely see the bottom of the steps. And the last thing I wanted to do was set them all on fire and risk the basement burning. So, it left me with only one, really horrible option…

As I began to part the webs and weave my way through, I could feel them sticking to hooves and cloak, as well as something crawling around my legs. They weren’t biting thankfully, but as soon as one fell on my face, I tried to swipe it off, forgot the torch was in that hoof, and ended up losing my balance trying to get the spider off without burning, tumbling down the remaining steps onto the floor.

“…ooowww…damn eight-legged little shits.” After getting back on my hooves, I picked up the torch I dropped and was happy to say that there were significantly less cobwebs in the rest of the room… except for a large hole in the wall on the other side of the room that was just pure cobwebs. I felt it would be a very good idea to just not go near it. And I also prayed to the Princesses nothing would come out. The basement was in better condition than upstairs, with a lot of storage shelves full of boxes of different types of medicine. Or at least boxes that once held medicine. While they looked like they weren’t opened from afar, upon closer inspection, most of them were carefully cut open and emptied of contents. Some were still closed, but none of them were what we needed. As I kept going through the boxes, I froze. I could hear voices from above.

“…are ya sure ya saw someone walk in here? Aint a fuckin living thing here and aint nothing worth grabbing anyway. Was probably a radroach.”

“I told you for the sixth damn time already, aint no radroach that big. I saw a hooded pony walk in here and they’re here somewhere. Look, there’s an open door in the back! Told you I wasn’t crazy.”

“Oh, your definitely fucked in the head, Troy. Just don’t want to admit it.”

“Say that again and I’ll break your legs. See how the boss likes your crippled ass then.”

“Oh, I dare you to try…”

Whoever it was, they would be down here any minute. Moving quickly, I hid on the other side of some storage shelves. I was about to put out the torch when I managed to catch sight of the words on the boxes I was hiding behind. What dumb luck! It was a box of painkillers and right next to it was a couple of rolls of bandages and a health potion. They were still arguing upstairs, so I took this time to grab whatever I could and stuff it into the satchel. Halfway through, I heard hoofsteps at the top of the stairs and stomped out the torch. They were still talking as they made their way down.

“Fucking cobwebs! I fucking hate spiders. Give me the machete, I’m not touching a single web.”

“You’re telling me you will beat the shit out of ponies twice your size, but you can’t deal with little spiders? What a pathetic excuse of a raider you are.”

“One more word and I’ll shove this blade right up your ass instead. You better pray there actually is somepony down here. Only reason I’m going along with this is cause the boss needs bodies.”

Bodies?

“Yeah, yeah. That’s why we gathered up all these other gangs to raid Ponyville. Lots of fresh meat there for the taking. Should be almost a hundred we can take for our pleasure, hehehe. Boss has been planning this score for months and I ain't never seen so many raiders and slavers come together before.”

Not good. I needed to get out of here fast and get back to Lily, but first I had to get past these two first. They had cleared all the cobwebs from the stairwell and were at the bottom now. From between the shelves, I could make out an orb of light and the two ponies underneath it. One was a black unicorn stallion, floating a shotgun by his side and also, the source of the light. The other was a yellow earth pony mare, wielding a machete in her mouth. They appeared to be raiders, but they were decked out in leather armor and…dark, wooden spiked shoulder and knee pads. Emblazoned on their chest was some strange, bright red symbol of a head with horns.

“Yeah, I ain't ever seen this many before either. Usually, I could give less than two shits for the slavers and their so-called standards, but the boss says we need them for this job. They get half of those we capture to sell off and we get the other half for whatever we want. Ooooh, I’m already getting antsy. Tonight, is gonna be fun!”

“You damn right it is! By the way, you heard what happened to Bruiser?”

“Vaguely. The rest of his gang said they found him lying at the bottom of a cliff, all mangled and broken. Fell about a hundred or something feet and was a bloody mess.”

“Yeah, but what they didn’t tell you was that he was still alive. He was snarling and going on about some winged zebra and a pegasus that done killed two of his raiders before knocking him off a cliff…”

Oh crap. They were talking about him and Lily.

“A winged what now? Zebras don’t have wings, you stupid shit. Everyone knows that…”

“I know that! But that’s what they said. He’s probably delusional from the fall. They say they took him back to…the shop to get fixed.”

The earth pony shivered at the mention of the name. “I’ve heard horrible screaming from any pony that was sent there. And I’ve heard a lot of screaming in my life, most of it caused by me. But the screams that come from there are just…unnatural. If he survives, I’ll get him all the booze he can drink. But first, we need to get the one down here. Come on out, meat! We knoooww your heeerrre…”

They were starting to get closer to my position and I started getting nervous. I was completely unarmed and in no condition to fight. All that was around me was the extinguished torch and some small pieces of rubble. The light from the unicorn was getting closer and an idea formed in my head, but it was a longshot. As they were about to round the corner, I kicked a piece of rubble at the hole in the wall and it made a large echoing sound. They both spun around towards the hole.

“Gotcha now, meat! I promise if you come quietly, we won’t hurt you too much. Just carve you up a little until later. That’s when the real fun begins.”

Now was my chance as they started approaching the hole. I burst out towards the stairs, but as soon as made it around the corner, the mare turned around instantly and charged into me, knocking me into the wall. She was incredibly strong and had me pinned down within seconds. Trying to escape, I stopped upon feeling the cold steel of the machete right on my throat. Her eyes were filled with mad delight.

“Did you really think we were that stupid? What idiot would be making sounds in a spider’s den?! Any pony caught in there would be already dead, or worse! Now let’s take a look at we got going on under that cloak. Tony?”

The unicorn had moved around to the side and flipped back my hood and parted my cloak to get a good look at me. He whistled in awe. The mare’s mouth had dropped in complete shock.

“Well, what do we have here, Lilith? A zebra…with wings?! You got to be shitting me...so Bruiser wasn’t delusional after all. Which means that the pegasus won’t be too far away. We just hit the jackpot! The boss will want to see him for sure…but not after we have a little fun with him first. After that, you’re gonna take us to your pretty, little winged friend. Anything to say before we begin, meat?”

Looking straight at him, I grinned. “Yeah, you should’ve kept your eyes on the hole.”

Before he could even move, he was grabbed by large, long, spindly legs and dragged screaming back towards the hole. “The fuck?! Lilith, help!”

She froze up as she turned to see a large spider, twice the size of a regular pony, trying to pull the struggling unicorn into its den. It was all I needed as I shoved her off and ran up the stairs. I could hear them both screaming, then the sound of the shotgun going off as I slammed the door behind me and locked it. Not wanting to see who would win, I bolted out and kept running until I got back to the house. Crashing through the door, Lily was on the bed with Blossom and looked up to see me rushing in. At first, she was smiling for my return, but quickly turned to worry as she saw my face. By then, I had already closed the door and was moving stuff to block it.

“Wanderer, what’s wrong?! Did the ponies at the market see your stripes?”

Ignoring her, I was now looking out the window to see if the raiders had followed me. I couldn’t see or hear anything. I was so focused that I didn’t notice Lily was standing right next me, worried and waiting. She must have asked me a question, but I was so focused I didn’t hear her.

“What?”

“I said, what’s wrong? Did they see your stripes at the market and chase you out?”

Oh, I wish that was all that happened. “No, I didn’t even make it to the market. We need to get Blossom and leave. Now.”

“We can’t. She’s not well enough to travel. She will need another day at least…”

Shaking my head, I moved from the window and offloaded the satchel. “We don’t have that much time. We need to do what we can and be out of here quick.”

I only managed to take a few steps before she slammed her hoof on the floor and was now shouting. “Wanderer! What the hell happened?! You come running in here like a mad pony and won’t even tell me what’s got you so scared? Is somepony following you? Are we in danger?! Tell me!”

She was fuming and scared. And also, she was right. I owed her an explanation. I was about to tell her, but was stopped by a small, feeble voice from the other side of the room.

“Mommy…Daddy?”

We both turned to see Blossom awake and looking around confused. Lily was already rushing to her side, and I wasn’t too far behind.

“Hey sweetie. It’s your big sister, Lily. Everything is gonna be alright. How are you feeling?”

She was still weak, and it was obvious she had no idea what was going on. “I feel…weird and it hurts a little bit everywhere…where are we? Where is mommy…and daddy? I saw those scary ponies take them away and then…”

Lily’s eyes were brimming with tears, and she hugged her close. She looked up to me. “Could you give us the room for a while?”

Nodding to her, I turned around and headed outside. Carefully opening the door, I looked around to see if those raiders, or anypony for that matter, was nearby. After determining we were the only ones here, I walked outside and closed the door behind me. I couldn’t imagine how Blossom was going to feel once Lily broke the news to her. I also knew though that we couldn’t stay here for long. Yeah, Blossom still needed some time to recover, I mean, we were all in rough shape still from yesterday, but if those raiders managed to find this place, it wouldn’t matter. We needed to leave and soon. My train of thought was broken by the sounds of screaming and loud crying coming from within. She must’ve just told Blossom about what happened. I needed to distract myself, so I set to the task of getting the cart ready. About an hour later, as I was finishing up, Lily walked out very somber and red-eyed. She looked absent minded and just sat there on the porch, staring off into the distance. Carefully approaching her, I tried to get her to talk.

“Everything alright, Lil? How is Blossom?”

At the sound of my voice, she broke from her concentration and just looked down to the porch. “Not good. She cried herself to sleep and it wasn’t long before she started having nightmares again. I did all I could, but…I just want her to be happy. Jesse and Darlene were the only real family she had. And for her to have that ripped away from her in front her very eyes…”

I moved over to wrap my wing over her for comfort, but she shrugged it off. “I know you mean well, but I just…want to be alone right now…I need to think on things.” Shaking her head a little, she looked up to me a bit more serious now. “Now tell me, why were you acting so shook up before?”

“Nothing good, of course. As I said, I wasn’t able to make it to the market. I found the pharmaceutical store and as I went down to gather whatever I could find, a couple of raiders showed up. They must’ve noticed me going in as they were looking specifically for me…”

Her face was filled with worry as she cut me off “Sweet Celestia, are you alright?! Did they hurt you anywhere?!” She began to search around my body for any new injuries, but I stopped her halfway through.

“I’m fine. They caught me, but I managed to get away thanks to a giant spider…”

“A GIANT WH...?!” I put my hoof over her mouth.

“Let me finish. Before they caught me, I overheard them talking about a huge raid on Ponyville. They allied themselves with slavers and have hundreds of raiders and slavers going there tonight to capture everyone. They mentioned something about a boss, but no other details. However, these raiders were a lot stronger and a lot smarter than the raiders from…yesterday. They had leather armor all over, spiked wooden pauldrons and a red symbol on their chest of a pony head, with horns. You ever hear about these raiders before?”

She was still trying to take this all in, but after a few moments, she was able to respond “…no…no no, I’ve never come across any raiders like the ones you described. But you said they mentioned hundreds? All the raider gangs I’ve ever heard of have, at most, a couple of dozen in their ranks. There has never been a group of raiders that large before, as they all tend to fight with each other as much as they do with every other living creature in the Wasteland…and you said they were working with slavers?”

After nodding my head in agreement, she went on “Now I know why you were so scared before…wait, what about all those poor folk down in Ponyville? We have to warn them somehow!” She was about to take off in flight when I stopped her.

“We can’t! No matter how badly I want to myself, we could get caught. I just told you there are hundreds of raiders and slavers on their way. And we don’t know from where they’re coming from. For all we know, they could have it surrounded already…”

She was extremely upset as she tried to shove me off “We have to at least try! This isn’t just some group of random travelers, this is an entire town full of families. I don’t want to see other kids separated from their parents or have them murdered in front of their eyes like Blossoms’ did. They deserve a chance to escape!”

She was relentless, but she was also still weak from the day before. “And how do you plan on warning them? By flying through the sky where you will be shot down within moments? Or perhaps by running there and possibly right into a raider ambush?” She didn’t seem to be listening as she struggled even more to get away from me, so I overpowered her and pinned her down, getting right into her face. “Do you want Blossom to lose another part of her family?!”

She stopped struggling and was in shock. Tears were now streaming down her face as she realized what she was about to do. Not sensing any more signs to leave, I gently got off of her and let her slowly get up. She was incredibly frustrated, but was resigned to stay. I felt her pain and her desire to help all those in Ponyville, but she was all that Blossom had left and I didn’t want to lose her either. She also struck a nerve in me and now I also wanted to go and try to warn the residents of Ponyville. So, I did something stupid.

I made a deal.

“Look…how about this? You get Blossom and everything ready to leave. I will head down to Ponyville to try and warn them, if I can. I am better at staying low and have a better chance of sneaking in. If they haven’t surrounded the place yet, I will find a way to warn them of the incoming danger. If I can’t, I’ll head straight back here so we can leave. Alright?”

She was still upset, but walked up to me and wrapped her hooves around me tight. “Thank you, Wanderer…please come back to us safely. I’ll have everything ready to leave, just…please let them know. For me…”

Wrapping her in my hooves, I hugged her tight. I could feel her trembling all over. “Don’t worry, I’ll let them know.”

We held each other for a few more moments before Lily let go and stepped to the side. Hoping to give her some comfort, I gave her hair a little tussle before stepping off the porch and running towards Ponyville. In the distance, I saw a three-story ruin not too far away from the town and stopped real quick to look around. There was no commotion or sounds of anyone nearby, so without a moment else to spare, I quickly flew up to the top of the building and crouched down behind the remains of a wall, bringing myself as close to the floor and the wall as possible. I stayed still for a few minutes to see if I was seen and took a few quick peeks around the wall for any signs of life. Aside from a radroach scuttling across the street, there was no one else around. In the distance I could hear the commotion of the town and looked around the wall to get a better look at it.

So far it seemed pretty normal. Around the main part of the town were checkpoints and parts of makeshift walls. Not enough to fully encircle the town and most of the wall was still incomplete. Inside the wall, I was able to locate the source of the commotion. It was the market Lily told me about and it was bustling with life. Mostly earth ponies, with a few unicorns here and there, were either checking out the merchants’ wares, haggling or just wandering around. The rest of the town was bustling with street life of ponies greeting each other or having conversations. All in all, it was like a town that was in a whole different world from what I’ve seen so far. Just outside of town, from the southeast to east was the creepy forest I saw before. It lay just a few feet from the outside of the town. Aside from it just looking wrong, there were no signs of life coming from it. Looking back west from the way I came from, there also were no signs of an amassed force of raiders and slavers. The south was barren and there was no way to cross it without being seen. The nearest hill or structure large enough to hide a large group of ponies was at least a two-day journey away. Which only left the north and northeast. So, I still had a chance, and it was only midday. I remember them saying they would hit the town at night.

If there was any time, it was now.

Gliding back down to the ground, I carefully made my way to the market. Within a few minutes, I had arrived behind an old store right outside the edge of the market. I had to move quick and find a town guard or someone with authority. There appeared to be a makeshift checkpoint near the entrance with a couple of armed guards. Perfect! I could just let them know of the approaching danger and leave with enough time. I readjusted my cloak to cover my head and body before quickly making my way over to them. As I approached, they noticed me and went to bar my way from entering the town. The guard on the right, a brown earth pony stallion, was the first to speak up.

“Woah there! State your business here, traveler.”

“I came here to warn you. You are all in danger and need to leave. Hundreds of raiders and slavers are coming here tonight to capture as many of you as possible.”

Both the guards looked at each other for a few moments before grinning and cackling. The guard on the left turned to me this time. “Oh, that’s a good joke there. Hundreds of raiders and slavers? Coming here? That’s rich. You really think we’d fall for that?”

I was confused now and upset. Here I am sticking my neck out for these ponies I don’t even know, and they just laugh it off. “I’m not making this up. I overheard it from a couple of raiders. They’re coming here tonight.”

The guard on the right spoke up again “You sure it wasn’t just some strangers that had pumped a bit too much Psycho?”

Psycho? I’m guessing it was a drug of some sort from the sounds of it. “No, these were well armored raiders. Just at those ruins over there.” I pointed back to the area where the pharmaceutical store was. One of them took a quick look to see where I was pointing and scoffed.

“Look now. Everyone knows that raiders hate each other just as much as they hate every other living creature. Having even more than ten in the same area without them carving out each other’s guts is rare enough. But hundreds? And working with slavers? That’s impossible. You’d best move along now.”

At this point I was in utter disbelief at these ponies. I tried pleading with them one more time “Look, I’m trying to help you and the ponies who live here. You won’t stand a chance. Can I please just at least talk to your leader or someone in charge?” I tried to move past them, but they took out their rifles and pointed them at me, stopping me right in my tracks.

“We told you to move on. And there is no way were gonna just let you go and start a panic off some bullshit…In fact, how do we know your not a raider or slaver yourself? I’m gonna need you to pull off the cloak for us there, nice and slow.”

I started to panic. I can’t let them know I’m part zebra. Welp, I tried my best to warn them. They were on their own now. “I will just head out. Just…forget it.”

“I said remove your cloak. Now.” The rifle was leveled right at my head and as I tried backing away, the other guard fired a warning shot that grazed my cheek. I staggered from it and could feel blood dripping from my face. Everypony was now looking this way.

“I won’t tell you again. Remove. Your. Cloak.”

These assholes really meant to kill me. Cursing to myself, I unpinned the cloak and let it fall. As it fell away, everyone was in shock and gasps and mutterings could be heard from everypony. I couldn’t tell what shocked them more, the stripes or the wings. I could make out some of the talk from the crowd.

“It’s a filthy zebra. How dare they show their face here!”

“It has wings. I aint ever heard of one with wings ‘afore.”

“What kind of dark practices did they perform to create such a monster.”

The guards were stunned momentarily, but eventually the earth pony managed to come to their senses and leveled their rifle right at my head

“So…a fuckin zebra like you dares to show their face in these lands. And an abomination at that. Oh, you definitely got a death wish pal and I am more than happy to oblige.”

Abomination. Those words cut me deep. I kinda figured I wasn’t normal, but to be called an abomination and a monster. Was I really such a thing? Was this what it would be like if went to Manehatten? If I went anywhere? I lost focus and just fell back to the ground, sitting there. I completely drowned out the crowd. I barely noticed one of the guards walking up to me until the barrel was right in my face. Looking past the barrel, their face was full of disgust and anger.

“Don’t worry. I’ll make this quick. It’s more than your kind deserves, but I ain’t the type to torture someone. It’d be a waste of bullets. Don’t worry though, you won’t be missed.”

That’s where he was wrong. An image flashed in my mind of Lily and Blossom. I promised I wouldn’t leave them alone in this world and they didn’t care I was part zebra. I could see him pulling th trigger and I was focused now. Before he could get the shot off, I dashed my head to the side and slapped the barrel of the rifle the other way. Pushing myself off the ground, I rammed into the guard as hard as I could, knocking him straight into the other guard.

I was already flying away by the time the guards came to their senses and started shooting. Lead was flying all around me and as I dived and weaved in different directions to throw them off. Within a few moments, I was out of their range and sight. My cheek still burned, but I didn’t care. I needed to get back to Lily and Blossom before it was too late. I could soon see the house and landed roughly in front of the porch, almost stumbling into it. Not a moment too soon after I got my footing, there was Lily rushing out to me. She must’ve been really worried, and I was about to fill her in on what happened as she stopped right in front of me. She was in incredible distress. The next words that came out of her mouth shocked me

“Blossom is gone!”

Author's Note

Apologies for the delay in this chapter being released. It was a very busy and time-demanding last few months. I should be good to start pumping out more chapters now.

In this chapter, we return Wanderer's story and his new companions on their way to Manehatten. And it seems like trouble is heading their way...