I was lost. I didn’t know where I was. I seemed to be in a dark, empty, never ending room, but the place seemed oddly familiar to me.
“Hello?” I called out, only to have my voice echo off the non-existent walls. Curious, I started walking forward to see if anything would appear. Out of nowhere, a staircase leading down appeared in front of me, right under my hoof, causing me to tumble down the endless flight of stairs. I spun and bounced as I tumbled down the stairs for what felt like minutes before I came to a halt at the very bottom. The fall should have killed me, but I felt nothing at all. Before I could question the state of my body, I noticed something else in front of me: an old, worn door that had a light behind it. With my curiosity still piqued, I slowly turned the handle of the door and pushed it open. Now I was in a familiar room; before me was the basement at the slaver camp. However, everything seemed clean at a first glance, no blood in the white bath tub and nothing hanging on the suspended meat hook, allowing it to slowly and eerily swing freely. I was just about to turn away, not wanting to see the room again, but something stopped me. As I turned away I heard a sound, one I had heard recently. It sounded like someone cutting into a hunk of meat.

I had come this far, what was one last investigation? I moved into the room slowly, but as my tail cleared the doorway, the door slammed shut with a loud THUD. Frightened, I jumped forward and spun around to see that the doorway had mysteriously vanished. As I stepped back towards the tub, I stepped in something wet. Everything started to go weird because as I lifted my hoof up to see what I stepped in, I noticed it was stained with blood and more was splattered all around me. To make matters worse, the strange sound had just gotten louder and was soon joined by the sound of quiet chuckling. Gulping, I decided to face my fear and slowly moved around the tub to where the sound was coming from. What I saw stopped me in my tracks. I was looking at myself, driving a knife repeatedly into the body of an already dead Crimson Spark. But the one thing that really scared me was the look on the other Clear’s face. It was a wide grin, one of a pony that had lost their mind. The other me then lifted the knife from the mare’s corpse and looked at me. Half of his face had been splattered with blood, his eyes were almost empty and blood trailed down from them as if he was crying crimson tears.
“I killed her~” he chuckled happily. “I ended her life once and for all. ME! Just look at her corpse!” He broke out into a fit of psychotic laughter as I turned to look at the mare’s body, but it was gone. In its place lay the small body of my sister, Joy. I started slowly backing away, shaking my head. I was speechless, it couldn’t be real. As I backed up, the other me stood up with the knife floating in his magic. “Now the only thing to do, is finish the job~.” For a moment, the two of us locked eyes and then he did the unthinkable. Placing the blade to his own throat, he quickly cut across it.

“GAAH!” I jolted awake from my nightmare, clutching at my throat. I was panting heavily and I was damp with sweat. I looked around frantically to try and get my bearings. I was outside and on a moving cart, pulled by a peach coloured mare and an orange stallion. Minty and Soulful had been pulling me on our way to Brismane, close by as the other cart being pulled by Bolts and Starry, the injured slaves resting inside, though it was hard to see them through the fog that had set in this morning. Taking a deep breath I lowered my hoof and sighed. “It was just a dream, thank Luna…” As I moved to sit down, I noticed Minty looking up at me as she pulled the cart along.

“Bad dream, Clear?” she asked.

“Yeah… I think these nightmares are becoming more frequent…”

“They are. You’ve been tossing in your sleep lately as well…” she said in her soft voice.

“And you’ve been mumbling in your sleep as well.” Soulful spoke up.

“I think it might be a good idea that when we get to Sydneigh, you try to seek help for those…” Minty said as I pulled out a cigarette and my lighter, causing her to give me a hard look. “And you know those smokes aren’t helping you either. Please, can you cut down on them?”

“No, I can’t.” I said, lighting the cigarette in my mouth and inhaling. “Minty, this is what’s keeping me calm and you know there’s only two kinds of help ponies with problems get anymore. It’s either a bullet to the head or enough beer to drown their sorrows. And seeing how I’ve already been shot in the head and it didn’t help, I’m going to drink my sorrows away.” As I finished speaking, I noticed just what my words had done. Minty’s ears had dropped down and she turned away with an upset look. Sighing, I gave my head a tap with my hoof. “Idiot…” I mumbled to myself before I spoke up. “Minty… I’m sorry… these nightmares haven’t been getting any better and I’m just a little on edge right now.” The mare didn’t turn around or even acknowledge my apology which just made me feel worse. With a heavy sigh I looked around. Our group had woken up early and while the four of my friends walked, I decided to get some more rest. The thing that had me curious though, was the fact that the fog was starting to set in early in the morning and even though it was around noon, it felt like the fog had gotten worse. Plus, the fact we were supposed to be getting really close to Sydneigh meant that there was no reason for the fog to be this close to our destination. Curious about our location, I called over to the other cart.

“Hey Bolts! Are you sure we’re going in the right direction?! I know Sydneigh is on the coast but there shouldn’t be this much fog.” The stallion didn’t stop moving as he called back.

“I’m positive! My pipbuck doesn’t lie; we should actually almost be there.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I remember you built that out of five or so broken ones and that only half of the features worked.”

“Yeah, and the map was part of that half.” Just as he finished speaking, his pipbuck gave a small beep and he stopped, causing Starry and the others to stop as well. “Hey, what do you know? We’re here!” he smiled, but something was off. I slowly climbed down from my cart and started looking around. There were no signs of life anywhere. No protective wall that I was told of, no towering, half destroyed skyscrapers that almost touched the clouds and even more strange, no sounds of waves from the nearby ocean. Something was definitely off and I walked up to Bolts.

“Hey Bolts, mind showing me your pipbuck for a second?” Without a word he raised his hoof for me to examine. I looked at the glowing green map on his pipbuck’s screen. Sure enough, our marker was place firmly on Sydneigh but our surrounding area didn’t make sense. It was then that I had an idea. “Hey, Bolts, you wouldn’t be able to reset this thing would you? Maybe give it a little reboot?”

“Umm, sure, just give me a sec.” Bolts took his hoof back and began to fiddle with his pipbuck until the lights on it faded away as it turned off. After a few seconds, Bolts turned the pipbuck back on and once it was back on he opened the map. “See, we’re still… oh…”

“Oh? What does that mean?” I asked as I walked around to see his map. What I saw filled me with despair. The map must have glitched recently as we were completely off course with roughly a day’s walk still between us and Sydneigh. “I told you that thing was busted!” I shouted at Bolts.

“Hey, it was an accident and we’re not that far off course!” The stallion shouted back at me. It was rare that the two of us would fight and just as I was about to raise my voice, Starry stepped in.

“Will you two shut up already?! Clear, it was an accident, no harm done.” She said as she turned to me.

“We could miss White because of this!” I didn’t know what was going on, it could have been the stress, my injuries or something else, but I was just feeling so angry with the ponies I considered my friends.

“He’ll still be there. Look.” Bolts raised his hoof again and pointed to a symbol on his pipbuck. “That’s a passage through a couple of mountains, if we go through there, we’ll make Sydneigh by tomorrow afternoon. I’m sorry clear, but shit like this is just unexpected.” He scowled at me and it hurt a little. I needed to calm down and just think before I opened my stupid mouth again.

“Clear, are you sure you’re feeling alright? You’ve been like this ever since you read that stupid note on the terminal the other day.” Starry looked at me concerned and put a hoof on my shoulder. “Does catching this guy really mean that much to you?” Slowly my expression began to soften until my ears dropped and I looked away.

“Yeah, it does. I made a promise… to a number of ponies that I’d find him. Knowing that he has information about the other slavers just makes me want to find him that much more…” I turned to Bolts. “Sorry about that… I… I guess I haven’t been feeling right lately.”

“Save it, Clear. You know, you’re not the only one who made a promise to Barley to find White.” He spoke the truth and I looked up to him. “We’ll find that bastard, don’t worry. But we’re not going to get anywhere if we’re just standing here flapping our gums.” Bolts made sure his pipbuck was working before placing his hoof back down on the ground. “I suggest you get back in your wagon, we can talk once we make it through the pass.” Without any more words, Bolts started to turn around, making Starry turn with him. As they started to move off, I walked back over to Soulful and Minty and hopped into the back of the cart. (What is happening to me? I need to just calm the fuck down. We’ll make it to Sydneigh and find him… I hope…) My mind started to ease as I took a few more puffs from my cigarette, flicked the bud into the expansive wasteland and lit another one, much to the annoyed groans of Minty.

As the day slowly drifted by, I kept thinking about what had to be done when we reached Sydneigh. Finding White was top priority, then we had to find out what to do with the extra ponies we had and finally find a locksmith for Soulful’s guitar case. It didn’t seem to end. I looked on at the cart in front of us, the one carrying the former slaves. Those that were awake were chatting with one another, smiling. I had never seen them smile when I shared a cage with them, but now it seems it was the only thing they could do.

Soon the cliffs that formed the walls of our passage through the mountain came into view through the dense fog, which seemed to have been getting thicker the entire time. As Bolts and Starry came to a stop, Soulful and Minty pulled up beside them. As we got closer, I could start to hear the conversations that were happening in the back of the second cart. Most of the conversations were of new homes and returning to old ones and old ways of life. I felt happy for the ponies that had a home to go back to. I feel like I gave that up when I left. We pulled up beside the other two and I moved to the side to address the group.

“Once we go through here we can go a little further then camp for the night. But right now I think it’s time for lun-“

“Shhh” Starry interrupted me, her ears in the air.

“I said we can stop for lun-“

“SHHH!” She did it again “Shut up, I think I hear something.” She said in a hushed tone. Silencing myself I lifted an ear to listen as well. That’s when I heard it, a low growling noise coming through the mist. Past experience had taught me never to trust the sound and slowly I took out my new revolver.

“Starry, you have your battle saddle on?” I whispered over to her.

“Yeah, already prepared.” She nodded. I started to look around but saw nothing through the fog, but the sound was getting louder. Whatever it was, there were multiples of them, and they were coming.

“Minty, Soulful, get up here now…” The two didn’t need any more convincing and quickly unhitched themselves and jumped up next to me. Starry and Bolts did the same, jumping into the cart with the other ponies, weapons at the ready. Minty, Soulful and I all stood back to back as the sounds kept getting closer. I quickly glanced over to the other cart and it looked like Starry was ready to take off into the air at any time. Taking my gaze back, I turned my eyes back to face in front of me, just in time to the source of the sound appear. A ghoul, completely rabid, jumped from the fog and flew through the air towards me. Ghouls were strong, but the fact that the one in front of me could pounce so far just made it stronger. Quickly taking aim I fired the first round straight through the skull of the ghoul. The dead body flew through the air, losing some momentum and smacked into the side of our cart with great force. Sadly, there was no time to rest as more and more ghouls started appearing and jumping at our two groups.

The sound was horrifying: the groaning of half dead monsters that kept ramming into our carts trying to get up. The ponies in the other cart huddled together as Starry and Bolts stood together, with Starry’s assault battle saddle almost drowning out the ghouls on their side. As I started getting to face more and more, I noticed we were getting overwhelmed, then I realised I was the only one firing.

“Minty! Where’s-“ BANG! “Where’s your gun.” Minty had collapsed beside me, shaking in fear but managed to point to her saddlebags near the front. “Damnit! Soulful, can y-“ I didn’t have to finish my sentence before Soulful rushed to the front of the cart and started rummaging around in the bag with a trembling hoof. I didn’t have time to worry and watch him as I fired my sixth and final shot at the charging ghouls. Grabbing a few bullets from my bandolier, I started to think it couldn’t get much worse. But I was wrong.

“AHHHH!” The cry came from the other cart. Halfway through my reload I turned around and felt the colour drain from my face. A ghoul had grabbed hold of Bolt’s tail and was trying to pull him off the cart. I had no time to finish reloading, putting my revolver back together I took aim and pulled the trigger. ‘click’. (oh no…) nothing, I tried again ‘click’ (fuck!) my thought came and went quickly before I just focused my magic and squeezed the trigger as fast as I could. The next three shots rang true and quickly three holes appeared in the ghoul, going up its back with the final one hitting it in the head. Panting, Bolts turned to me, shaking a little “Th-thanks!” The shocked stallion called to me.

“You can thank me by not dying!” I called back, but just as I went back to reloading, two very loud blasts of a shotgun rang out in the air and what was even more weird was that upon hearing the sound, the ghouls quickly turned and ran away back into the mist.

“What the…” Starry said softly as she and the rest of us started looking around.

“Who’s out there?!” Bolts called out. For a few moments, the area was dead quiet, so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. I was just about to call out myself when I heard the soft steps of hooves on dirt coming towards me.

“You know, I should be the one asking that.” A voice came back, joining the sound of hoofsteps. The voice belonged to a stallion and it was beyond gravelly, the stallion sounded like he had a cold and was halfway through a coughing fit. “You lot come onto my land, uninvited, and kill my guard dogs?” The stallion stepped through the fog into our view, and while he was now in plain sight, we still couldn’t see him. Between armour, a duster, scarf, hat and veil, the stallion was completely covered up with the only parts of him that could be seen were his horn and his bright yellow eyes that seemed to glow through the gap in his clothing. In his magical grasp was the shotgun that rang out just before, smoke still exiting the two barrels, missing with the fog. That stallion didn’t stop as he moved up to one of the dead ghouls on the ground. It was then I realised just how bad the smell was, the dead and rotting flesh of the ghouls made for a very sickening aroma. “Poor Buttercup…” The stallion finally spoke up, with the gravelly voice, it was hard for me to pick up on any emotion. “I’m only going to ask and say this once. Why are you lot on my land? …and get out.” He was very straight and to the point.

“What do you mean your land?!” Starry raised her voice. “And what do you mean by guard dogs?! Look buddy, these are ghouls! And they almost killed us!”

“That’s what guard dogs do.” He said flatly. “And I mean my land. This passage belongs to me and my people. I suggest you leave. Right now.” He looked up to us, his eyes looked menacing, as if they were staring through me and into my soul.

“Look, we just want passage through here so we can get to Sydneigh.” I spoke up.

“No, take your people and go around.” The strange stallion said firmly and caused Bolts to immediately turn to me.

“Clear, if we go around we’ll lose another day at least.” I couldn’t lose any more time.

“Please, we need to get to Sydneigh and soon! There’s a stallion there, a slaver, with some vital information I need to get along with a number of ponies who, if we don’t stop him, will be sold into a life of slavery!” The stallion turned away from us.

“Not my problem. Now I suggest you leave before the others come back.” He referred to the feral ghouls.

“But we have sick and injured ponies here!” Bolts joined in but it was no use.

“Not. My. Problem” The stallion started moving away. Frustrated, I groaned and kicked the cart, but before I could say another word, Minty jumped from the cart and ran to the stallion.

“Minty, wait!” Starry called to her, but Minty didn’t listen. She ran out in front of the stallion, not too far from us.

“Look here, sir.” She started. “The fate of a lot of ponies’ lives hang in the balance here, both with us and at Sydneigh. Please, find it in your heart to let us pass. We promise not to cause any trouble for you or your people. Just please let us pass through. Please?…” The area fell into silence again until the mysterious stallion gave a deep sigh and walked back to the carts, Minty behind him. It seemed the young mare had a way with bringing out the best in ponies.

“I’m going to make one thing clear.” The stallion addressed us. “No guns. If I see any of you try to pull your weapons on us, we will not hesitate to shoot you too. And I can tell you now, there’s a fucking lot more of us than there are of you. Do I have your word that you won’t do anything stupid?” I looked down at the stallion and there was no way I could say no. Not only was it safer to say yes, but surely his people were friendly too. Plus we needed to use the passage to get to Sydneigh.

“You have my word.” I nodded. “And I speak for all of us.”

“Now just hold on a second!” Starry raised her voice.

“Starry, this is not up for debate!” I shouted back. “We need to go through there. Nopony draws their weapons unless we’re attacked first. Understood?”

“F… Fine!” The mare grumbled.

“You will not be attacked.” The stallion spoke up. “Follow me.” Without even waiting he started moving into the fog. “And stay close. I don’t want any more guard dogs needlessly killed.”

“Needlessly, my ass.” I heard Starry mumble as she jumped off the cart and quickly hitched herself up, Bolts, Soulful and Minty quickly did the same and we started moving with the stallion. Still curious about the strange stallion, I jumped from the cart and quickly moved ahead until I caught up with him.

“Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for the save back there.”

“Hmph. I was saving my guards, not you.” (Ouch…)

“Well still… thanks…” I tried to stay on his good side, lest he tell us to get lost. “So… What’s your name?”

“It’s not important.” (Cold…)

“I’d feel better if I at least knew your name. My name’s Clear Shot.” I had hoped he’d have heard of me through the radio like Gyp did, but the stallion just remained quiet and cold as we entered the pass.

“I’m going to tell you once more, outsider. Don’t even think about drawing your weapon.”

“I gave you my word I wouldn’t. Besides I-“

“Hey, Patch.” Another gravelly voice called just ahead of us. I could hear the stallion getting closer. “Did you turn those fur coats aw…” Then the pony stepped into view and I could finally tell why they had gravelly voices. Before me stood a ghoul and he seemed just as surprised to see me as I was of him. “AAAHH! Fur coat!”

“AAAHH! Ghoul!” The two of us shouted at each other in surprise before the ghoul turned to the stallion beside me.

“What the FUCK Patch!? Why did you bring him in here!?”

“It’s a long story and he-“

“Hey, Clear, what’s wrong, why are you shout…” Bolts said as the two carts came up behind us and came to a complete stop, making the ghoul in front of me go wide-eyed, the aged and near rotting flesh pulling back.

“You brought more of them!?”

“It can talk!?” Bolts shouted in utter amazement.

“Hey, asshole, I’m not a fucking ‘it’ okay? And I’m standing right here!”

“ENOUGH!” The stallion beside me shouted, bringing the lot of us to a dead silence. “For fuck’s sake, it’s shit like this why our kinds can’t live together.” He said as he started removing the clothing from his face. All he had to do was remove his hat and veil to confirm my suspicions. Once the hat left his head, it revealed the small, tattered remains of a mane on his scalp, along with the lack of coat and a decent amount of skin as well. I had to grimace when he pulled his scarf down, revealing a chunk of skin around his mouth having been torn away. The stallion looked at me, noticing the look on my face “Word to the wise, I’m not the worst looking one here, if you want to continue through, keep those looks to yourself.” I quickly removed the grimace from my face. “Good.” He turned to ghoul in front. “They’re just passing through, Citrus, they’ll be gone soon.”

“Whatever, just watch your back okay?” The stallion turned and started to walk away “And it’s Orange, asshole!”

“Don’t mind him. His name is Orange Seed, but whenever he gets like this at the mention of ponies like you, he turns sour, so we call him Citrus.” The stallion smirked “And I guess there’s no point hiding it anymore. My name is Patches. Just stick close and keep your weapons holstered.” We began moving off again.

“What do you mean by ponies like us?” Bolts asked behind me.

“Non-ghoul ponies.” Patches replied, not looking at Bolts.

“So when he said ‘fur coat’…”

“It’s just a term a few of the others came up for you lot.” He said, answering my question. “Seeing as all of us lost most of our coats and manes, it made sense.”

“So… exactly how many others do you have here?...” I asked, curious.

“At last head count? About forty.” Just as he had finished speaking, we left the dense fog and entered the clearer air of the passage and then the other ghouls came into view. There were a few dozen of them, lining the walls of the passage way. Makeshift houses made out of burrows carved into the rock. Some of the ghouls were on the same level as we were but others were on a second level above us looking down. Most were normal ghouls just like Patches and Orange Seed, but I noticed a couple had a bright, green glow to them. However, they all had one thing in common, they all glared at us. I could understand why. Ghouls weren’t exactly accepted in most towns, seeing as while they could be normal like the ones here, there was always a chance that they could turn feral like the ones we were attacked by. As such there was a lot of hate between normal ponies and ghouls and it showed on the ghouls’ faces. I was just about to open my mouth to ask Patches a question when a rock dropped just in front of me, almost hitting me in the head. One of the ghouls on the second level, a mattered, featherless Pegasus, had thrown it.

“Get the fuck out of here, assholes.” The ghoul called, causing the others to start muttering in agreement.

“Don’t start anything Chaser, They’re just seeking passage.”

“Well they can go somewhere else!” The Pegasus jumped down as a roar of cheers came from the others and he started walking towards us. “And what the fuck Patch?! Out of everyone here, I’d have thought you’d be the one to tell them to fuck off. Are you going soft on us?!” The Pegasus looked at us and then laid eyes on Minty, trying to back away and hide herself. “Oh, now I get it! Still a fucking softy for mares!” It was then I noticed the other ghouls had been surrounding us, moving in closely. My head whipped around hastily, looking at the other ghouls before turning back to the pegasus in front of me who had closed in significantly, now right up close to my face. The smell was horrible, between the rotting flesh and the unwashed mouth, it took everything I had to not gag. “What’s the matter tough guy? Scared? I bet you wish you could blow my brains out right now, don’t you?” I was actually scared. I hadn’t had much interaction with non-feral ghouls before, but the ones before seemed so cold and jaded that even though they had never met me before, they hated my guts simply for who I was. I had to answer in some way, but as I went to open my mouth, a shout rang out from behind the crowd.

“ENOUGH!” This time, the gravelly voice was different, it wasn’t deep like the stallions from before, but it was powerful none the less. With the shout, the crowd started to quieten and part. Even the pegasus, who was right up against my nose, filling it with some of the most horrifying of smells, moved away to let me see past him. There before me was a mare, older than the others, still locked in the age that she’d become a ghoul. “Enough with this nonsense. Don’t you all see? You’re doing the exact same thing that others did to you. You’re all turning into no-good bigots!” The mare seemed to have a power over the others as most of the ghouls turned away looking ashamed. Not the pegasus though, he just seemed to scowl more. “Now I suggest you all return to your homes. Immediately.” With that, the ghouls all started to disperse, but not before the pegasus jabbed me in the chest.

“Don’t try anything funny, asshole.”

“Piss off, Chaser.” Patches said beside me before the Pegasus turned and marched off, grumbling as he went. As the group dispersed, the mare walked forward towards us.

“Sorry about that, dears. The ponies here haven’t had such a good life. Especially in more… recent years…”

“It’s… It’s fine…” I said, still a little shocked.

“Thanks for the save, ma.” Patches said to the mare.

“Ma? You two are related?”

“Yeah, that’s typically what ‘ma’ means.”

“Stop that, Patches.” The mare said in a motherly tone. “Yes, I’m his mother, You can just call me Golden Thread. Though I think I’ve lost most of my golden.” she chuckled as she pointed to a small tuff of mane that was still left on her head, and it was definitely a faded golden colour. “Now from what I hear, you all want just want passage through our little town.” She seemed so sweet and innocent.

“That’s right ma’am. We need to get to Sydneigh and the fastest way is through here.”

“Oh well that’s fine, But it seems like you all have been traveling for a while, why not rest a moment for lunch?”

“That’s very kind ma’am, but we need to keep moving and we don’t wa-“

“Clear.” Minty spoke up behind me. “We’ve been travelling all day. I know that finding White is important to you, but we’re all tired.” I had never seen this side of Minty, she was cross and very demanding. “Give us one hour to rest and eat. Then we can go.”

“She has a point, Clear.” Bolts joined in. “We’ll get White. But we first need to get to Sydneigh alive.” It seemed like all the ponies behind me were all nodding together, telling me to stay. Giving a sigh, I turned back to Golden Thread.

“Seems like it’s a unanimous vote, then. We’ll stay for a little while, but then we’re going to need to leave.”

“That’s fine, dear. There’s a spot for you all to have a sit and cook your lunch just a little further into the pass. And I’m sure Patches will be happy to help you until you’re out of the fog on the other side. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes, mother…” He grumbled, giving a few of the ponies a light chuckle.

“I will leave you to it then, dearies. Just please be respectful and everything will be just fine.” The mare smiled before walking off.

“Well, you heard her. Follow me.” Patches said as he started leading us through the pass again.

“Your mother seems nice.” I said, walking beside the ghoul stallion.

“She is… Sadly I don’t think she’ll be the same for much longer…”

“What do you mean?” I asked, making the stallion sigh.

“Surely you know why we ghouls are hated by so many.”

“Because you all have the chance to become feral over time?”

“Bingo. Those ones that you killed out there in the fog, they used to be my friends.”

“So… You think your mum is going to…”

“I don’t think, I know. She’s been having terrible nightmares as of late, seeing herself turn feral. On top of that, I’ve woken up to her snarling in her sleep. On top of that I’ve found her eating raw meat. I know she’s going to turn and it’s going to be soon.”

“You… really don’t sound that upset…” I said, being honest.

“Of course I’m upset. It’s just I’ve already been through this a dozen times. You start to get used to it…”

“I see…” We walked in silence for a little bit more, but as it started getting awkward, I decided to break the silence. “So… What exactly is this place?”

“Home. A safe haven for ghouls, away from the bigots of the wasteland.”

“Why not go to Sydneigh?” Starry asked behind us.

“That’s where some of us came from. No matter where we went, there was always someone who would target us, threaten us, there was just no end to it.”

“So that pegasus before…”

“Chaser, he’s had it worse than a lot of us. Some bastards tore the feathers from his wings, so he hasn’t been able to fly since.”

“A fate worse than death…” I heard Starry mumble behind me.

We walked for a few more minutes before coming to rest at a fire pit. The slaves were happy that they could finally stretch their legs and we were soon digging into our lunch. It was still odd, seeing the ghouls watching us, while they tried to hide it, I could still feel their eyes watching over us, judging, waiting for us to either slip up or leave and our exit couldn’t come soon enough. I kept thinking about what we’d do once we left, but my train of thought was derailed by Bolts fiddling with his pipbuck.

“Trying to make sure we don’t get lost again?” I joked to him. He didn’t think it was so funny though, snorting in my direction.

“Hmph. That, but I’m also trying to get the radio to work. All I’m getting from it is static.”

“I wouldn’t even try.” Patches says, still with us. “You’re in the middle of a mountain, there’s no way any radio signal is going to get in here.”

“Well, that explains a lot.” I mumbled.

“What do you mean?” Patches asked curiously.

“Uhh… Nothing…” Patches raised an eyebrow at me.

“Okay then, if you say so. None of my business anyway.” I sighed as he dropped the subject and stood up.

“We should get moving. We’ve rested long enough.”

“Awe come on… we just got here.” Starry moaned.

“We agreed on an hour and it’s passed. We’ll have a longer rest in Sydneigh, I promise. But we need to go now.”

“Leaving so soon dear?” The gravelly voice of Golden Thread called as she walked up. There was something off about the mare, she seemed, distant and her walk seemed to have a little bit of a stumble to it.

“Yeah, we need to leave otherwise we’ll never get to Sydneigh.”

“That’s a shame. I was hoping you all could have stayed for dinner, but if you must go then you must *cough cough* you must go…” the old mare started to dry heave, as if she was going to cough up a hair ball.

“Ma… Are you okay?...” Patches stood up and started to look worried. Or at least I thought he did, a little hard to tell with ghouls.

“I’m *cough* I’m fine dear.” She paused and looked away. “But you all should leave. Now.” It was happening, Golden Thread was turning. Without a moment’s notice, I turned to my friends and the former slaves.

“Everyone in the carts now, we’re leaving.” They could see it too, what was about to happen and they didn’t want to be around when it did. Packing up what little we still had out, the slaves piled into the back of one cart as Minty, Soulful, Bolts and Starry hitched themselves up. Just as we were about to head off, we were stopped. We wouldn’t be able to make it through the other side without Patches, but as we were packing, he had moved closer to his mother.

“Patches… you need to escort them through the other side…”

“And leave you to become feral? Dream on, Ma. I’m not leaving.”

“You’re just like your father, you know? He was stubborn as a mule too. I’m still going to be here when you get back. Now go, before I take them myself.” Patches started to grit his teeth as he turned towards us.

“You better keep your promise, Ma…” Without even waiting for a reply, he took off running. “Keep up or get left behind!” He shouted to us. It took a second for us to get moving, chasing after the ghoul, calling to him to slow down. The entire time, I could hear the coughs and moans from Golden Thread. I couldn’t help it as tears started to form at my eyes as I vividly remembered Marigold, sobbing as the mine came down around her at Merry Burrow.

It took us a few minutes to make it to the other side of the passage and through the dense fog, but once it started to thin, Patches came to a stop. While everyone else was panting, he seemed to still have all of his energy.

“The other ghouls won’t attack you this far out. Keep heading this way and you’ll reach Sydneigh tomorrow. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back…”

“Patches… wai… wait…” I panted breathlessly. “I’m… I’m sorry… and thank… thank you. I hope you see we’re… we’re not all bad…”

“I know not all ponies are bad, there’s just a lot of bigotry out there. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to…” Just as Patches started to leave, another stallion ran up out of the fog. It was Orange Seed.

“Patch… Patch I’m so sorry… You have to come now… It’s your mum, she-“

“I KNOW!...” Patches shouted at the stallion “I know… okay?... I was just on my way back…” He paused and looked at the ground, not moving for some time before he turned to me. “Clear, I want you to do something for me.”

“Me? What do you want me to do?”

“I’m going to take a wild guess and say Sydneigh isn’t going to be the only place you visit. I want you to spread a message for me. If at any point you find… find one of us in a town, being treated unfairly… I want you to send them to us… someplace they can call home… Can you promise me that?” I looked Patches in the eyes and gave him a nod.

“You have my word…”

“Thank you.” Without another word, Patches turned and ran back towards the passage with Orange Seed in tow. I didn’t want to move. For some reason I felt sad at his words.

“That’d be nice.” The slave Gumdrop said behind me. “A place to call home.” It was then I turned to look at the ponies I was traveling with. Between myself, the rogue Steel Ranger repair pony, the runaway nurse, the renegade pegasus, the traveling musician and the cart full of former slaves it felt more like we were the outcasts instead of the ghouls. Finally, I took a step forward ahead of the carts.

“I’m sure you’ll find a place to call home. Now come on, we’ve wasted too much time. Sydneigh is just a day away. We can all rest and complete our mile long to do list.” I turned and smiled to the group. “We’re almost there.”

Footnote: Halfway to next level!