Book 2: Equestria Lost
Chapter 6
Apollo looked as his crew worriedly as they walked through the streets of the eerie ghost town of Fairflanks. All of them, even the jaded Splints, seemed subdued and nervous. It just wasn't right, seeing a the vibrant town they had been looking forward to so empty. The buildings were cold, empty and intimidating, the streets were empty of all the life that should have been there... but nowhere was there any hint of what happened... it looked like all the residents had just packed up and left without warning.
As a first few flakes of snow drifted down, Apollo decided to take action. His crew would be able to handle this better if they had direction... something to do. “Okay,” He said, “something strange is going on here, but we've got to make the best of it.”
He turned to his crew. Quartermaster seemed to be doing the worst out of all of them... “Quarter, you and Splints go to the inn we stayed at last time. Get it warmed up and ready.”
A look of relief passed across the old pony's face. Apollo could tell that Quarter's joints had been bothering him again in the cold... being the first to get warm in the hotel would be a relief, for sure. Splints just gave the annoyed and put-upon look she gave anytime she was asked to do any real work, and followed Quartermaster off towards the inn, just across the railroad tracks.
“Trigger, Needle?”
Hair Trigger responded with a quick “Yep!?” Needle Point simply looked up, gracing Apollo with a rare instance of actually making eye contact.
“You two go and see if you can sniff out some food supplies and water. Use anything perishable or hard to transport first.” Already he was thinking of the trip out of town... the train ride had taken weeks... and somehow, he doubted the trains were still running.
Trigger was off in an instant, pinballing between buildings with short bursts of wingpower. Needle point ran off in a vain attempt to keep up with him. Apollo didn't worry though. If Trigger needed help, he'd find her, not the other way around.
To Pebbles and Shimmer Spell he said, “Okay ladies, if you could get started looking for replacements for our gear we lost, that would be great. Anything you can find for now... we'll sort through it later.”
Pebbles only gave a mumbled grunt of an acknowledgment, but as usual, the unicorn was vocal. “Shimmer Spell shall not fail!” she said, trotting off, Pebbles in tow.
Only his assistant remained now. “Alright Albie... Let's try to find out what happened here.” His ever-faithful assistant just nodded, as if he had been eager to do the same.
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Apollo began to suspect he had given himself and Albatross the most frustrating task of all. Already it was growing dark. The snow hadn't let up either, growing heavier as the wind began to pick up... Apollo wondered if any of that might be the ice dragon's doing... even as far north as Fairflanks, it wasn't usual to get heavy snow this time of year...
Every building they had entered looked completely innocuous, as if nothing was wrong... everything had been tidily packed away, as if the whole town had gone on vacation for a month. With a sigh, he turned to the last major building in town they hadn't visited yet, the town's clinic. Even if they couldn't find out what happened, at least they could pick up a few replacement medical supplies... Splints would be glad for that, though she wouldn't show it, of course.
As he crossed the street towards the clinic, the looked back at his assistant, seeing his own frustration, confusion, and underlying nervousness mirrored in the brave pony's face. His assistant followed close behind as he cracked open the door of the town's clinic. Like most of the doors in town, it hadn't been locked... of course, many of the doors didn't even have locks. He guessed crime wasn't much of an issue in these parts. He looked into the main lobby inside, only to reel back in shock, slamming the door in his assistant's face.
Albatross looked at him, giving him a hurt look for the second time today... but Apollo Dawn barely noticed. His eyes shrunk down to points at what he had seen... Row upon row of black bags... each just big enough for a pony. He had heard of such things before... a plague... but it never prepared him to actually see it. Those things were supposed to be ancient history!
Albatross looked at Apollo with concern and confusion, “What's wrong?”
“It's a plague... everypony is... well...”
“A what?” Albatross cut him off.
“A disease, a sickness... they all got sick... and...” For some reason, he couldn't just say it...
He didn't need to though... as the concept sunk into his assistant. “Then they're in there... everypony?”
“Uh huh,” Apollo responded, “Must be the whole town in there...” He shook himself, “Come on, we can't go in there, it might still be contagious... we've got to get news of this out... we might be the only ponies still alive that know about it!”
Dawn looked ready to take off right then and there, but Albatross stopped him, “We're tired, and you've got a team to take care of. These ponies will keep for one more night... let's get some rest.”
Looking a little more subdued, Apollo headed back towards the inn. His assistant was right, of course; his first responsibility was to his crew, and they needed him... now more than ever, perhaps.
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