Three days. It had been three days since The Order of Belldam crumbled to next to nothing after the failed massacre. Three days since Scythe can only confirm safe guarding Crisp Coat from death or imprisonment. The safe room was too deep to be found if hidden in enough time. The last five followers had bought enough time for that to happen. There was enough smuggled food to keep them going for at least a month, and a line from the water talisman led right through the safe house. All in all, it was the best out of a terrible situation. Crisp Coat was still shell shocked from the whole ordeal. Poor foal was too young to cope with the loss of everything they knew. Scythe was only faring better because he had to do his best at staying strong in appearance. Well hidden or not, the cries of a distraught foal would be enough for any pony to investigate closer than they should. What time he didn’t spend watching for signs of them being discovered, Scythe spent consoling Crisp Coat.

Crisp Coat wept quietly into Scythe’s jacket. The colt was beside himself with grief. The warm, soft, body of his elder cousin was the only relief he had. Gone. All the little colt knew was gone in one night. He had been raised to praise the all mother and carry out her revenge. Now, his family was gone for living by their faith. Scythe nuzzled Crisp Coat as they lay in the back of the safe house. This was what they had done for three days.

“Scythe,” Crisp Coat said quietly.

“Yes?” Scythe replied.

“Did we do something wrong? Why did Belldam not protect us?” The little colt asked.

It was a difficult question to answer. Crisp had yet to come of age and hear the message of Even Heart. Even if they treated her like a deity, the all mother was never more than a mare. But, to the wide eyed colt, a highly revered mare of the past that his whole family held faith in for generations was a deity. How could Scythe explain to this little colt that his goddess did nothing to save them because she never could? Her only gift to her children was the madness. A beautiful and strange gift as it was, especially in unicorn descendants, but it was nothing that could stop bullets.

Scythe swallowed a hard lump in his throat before he answered, “Sometimes, not even All-Mother Belldam can guard her children from everything. When those ponies managed to get the security system on, Belldam was aiding us in opening the atrium door. I am sure she weeps for her lost children as they join her in the eternal madness.”

Crisp took this answer, and seemed to mull it over in his mind. It was acceptable. A pony could not be in two places at once, and that door was very strong. But, Belldam was very powerful. Surely she could have helped stop the ponies in the security room. The will of the all-mother was not Crisp’s duty to decipher. All he knew was he was alive. Belldam had seen to it that Scythe and he made it through it all. Crisp only hoped she could guide them to safety.

---------------------------------------------------OoOoOoO----------------------------------------------------

It had almost been a month now. A month since Scythe and Crisp Coat had fled to this safe house. Food was running low, and Scythe was faced with a grim decision to make. It was coming close to the time when the stable would open to reconnect with Equestria. Best case scenario was when the stable opened up he could sneak them out in the confusion. Worst case was they might die in some foal-hardy scheme. There was a medium plan. His tag made it possible for the remaining guard ponies to get a fix where he might be. Since they couldn’t find him, they patrolled these lower areas a lot. Most talked about him being dead by now, and giving up the search for some corpse attached to a pipbuck. Other times he heard what happened to the foals of the followers. The very young were sent into foster care by any stable pony that would take them. Most of the foals were either out of control or were old enough to be acolytes of The Order. These foals were set in detention and watched by anypony that could be spared to watch them. The Overmare still didn’t have a clue what to do with the foals of an extinguished cult. Most were milked for all the information they could on The Order of Belldam. What intrigued Scythe the most was what they said of Lollimint.

Turns out Lollimint had testified that she and the six other hostages had escaped because one of the hostage stallions was a maintenance pony. He had managed to override the system built to hide the safe house, and they escaped. The same buck had managed to work them a way to the security bay, and was manning the turrets against The Order. Lollimint had confirmed that it was indeed Scythe missing from the captured or dead. She had also spoken of Crisp Coat, and how she would take him in if found. She didn’t care if he was deemed too out of control. She wanted to ensure Crisp Coat could be led back down the “right and true” path. If she knew why we did this, if she could truly understand why we did this, maybe she wouldn’t believe we were as warped and crooked as the others thought.

But, this seemed to be the best option. When their food supply finally ran out, Scythe would wipe Crisp’s mind of this place and place him out in the corridor. It would zap Scythe of all his strength to destroy over a month of memories, but it was better Crisp Coat had a chance to live his life. He was a foal that hadn’t even received his cutie mark. To die in some literal hole in the wall for a failed vendetta was not his destiny. Death alone was better than the guilt of wasting away with Crisp starving in his hooves. The dawn of tomorrow would be the beginning of Crisp’s new life.

Author's Note

A shorter chapter. I will make amends for it's length with the next installment.