In the town they're searching for us everywhere, but we never will be found. Band on the run, band on the run.
After a few days mulling over our choices, Lenore and I finally decided that Baltimare was our best option. It was supposed be an extremely crime ridden and violent place, perhaps the only tarnish on Equestria's map. Although it wouldn't be the safest in general, it would definitely be the best for covering our tracks. So much shit would be going on we'd be lost in it.
Once we reached our destination, however, we discovered a painful oversight. In our hasty departure from Plateau City, we left all of our bits behind. I suggested that we go back, but Lenore decided it would be too dangerous, not to mention foolish. Whoever had taken her brother would no doubt be waiting, and even if they weren't, someone would have taken our money by now. It was a useless endeavor.
Because of this mistake, we'd need to start from scratch here. It certainly seemed simple. Just a couple of jokering and thieving sessions would have us back on track. The day that we arrived in Baltimare, we wasted no time in going to work.
Lenore laid her guitar case in front of her, sat down, and began to tune. Before she even began to play, things went sour. From my nearby alley, I saw ponies passing by kicking the case without even looking down. They were treating her like dirt, and for no discernible reason!
That would have been bad enough, but one pony took it a step further. He was a green behemoth of an earth pony. He deliberately stopped in front of the case, looked Lenore in the eye, turned around, and defecated into the case. Lenore and I's jaws dropped. We glanced around the street. Somepony must have seen. They had to have seen! Some clearly had! And they were laughing!
A moment later Lenore recovered. "What the hell!? Who the fuck do you think you are, you fucking cum stain!?" asked Lenore, incredulous.
The effect was instantaneous. The hulking pony kicked Lenore in the face, drawing blood. He clenched her by the feathers of her head with his teeth and slammed her into the wall she was been leaning against. "Teach you to talk me like that, little bitch. Got off lucky! Now scurry on back to your nest and get outta 'questria. I see you again, you'll have more than a few bruises." His point made, he continued on his way, not even sparing her a look back.
It took all of my self control not to leap onto the bastard's back and tear his ear off. The only thing that stopped me was the knowledge that he'd probably kill us both if I tried. Certainly nopony would try to help us.
As much as I wanted to rush out to Lenore, I knew this would only aggravate the situation further, especially with all the attention she'd drawn. If they reacted like that to Lenore, just imagine how they'd react to me! I waited for painful minutes as Lenore got up, picked up her guitar (she left the case behind), and came to my spot.
We flitted behind a pile of garbage and caught our collective breaths.
"Lenore, are you okay?" I whispered. "Is there anything I can do?"
"Nah, nothing you can do. I'll probably have a black eye for the next few weeks and I got headache like you wouldn't believe, but nothing critical."
"What the hell happened?"
"Remember how I said we might run into less kind ponies in Equestria?"
"Yeah."
"I think I might've underestimated that a bit." Lenore smiled sheepishly. One of her teeth was knocked out.
"Holy shit, you think all of them are like that? Lenore, we can't stay here! Let's book it!"
She shook her head. "This is our best hiding place. We're not going to abandon this city after one day. We're made of sterner stuff than that. For now, I want you to scout out the city. Look for good places to thieve."
"What about jokering?"
"Nevermore, I don't think we can honestly expect a warmer welcome than the one we received. Jokering's gonna be tough for a griffon in this city. For one reason or another, they hate us. No way they're gonna give anything to a griffon joker in this town."
"So I'll just be thieving on my own?" Lenore nodded. "What will you be doing?"
"I'll be doing some scouting of my own. For a job. Hopefully someone will at least hire me. As much as they seem to hate griffons, standards can't be too high in this shit heap of a city."
"Alright then. I'll meet you back here when I'm done. With some luck, I'll have some money by then."
"Sounds good."
We took off in opposite directions, each scouring the city we'd be spending the next few months in.
As shitty as Baltimare was, and as much as I already hated it, I had to admit that the thieving conditions were phenomenal, just as good (if not better) than those of Plateau City. From a purely thieving perspective, the city was perfect.
First off, the place was sprawling, much bigger than Plateau City, which had been restricted by the mesa it sat on. There were at least two dozen large markets, and countless smaller ones. I could visit and thieve at a different marketplace every day for a month!
Second, the city was full to bursting. Ponies, the city's primary residents, almost needed to squeeze past each other just to get around. Such crowding would make it elementary for me to grab the money out of somepony's bag without being noticed.
Finally, I could tell just from a few hours of flying that this city was swelling with crime. Not the kind of crime in Plateau City, like the petty thieving I did. Bad crime: hoof fights in alleys, rape, murder, and the like would keep everypony's focus. A couple of stolen bits would be the least of their problems.
Satisfied that I'd seen enough (as well as weighed down with a couple dozen bits), I flew back to the alley. Lenore was already waiting.
"So, what do you think of the city, Nevermore?"
"It's awful. I don't think I've ever seen a worse place in my life!" I scrunched up face like I'd smelled something terrible. "But I think I can make a killing a here. Should be some of the easiest thieving I've ever done."
"Fantastic. I had some luck too. Found a job! It even hoo- comes with an apartment. Small little piece of shit, but it's better than nothing, right?"
"Wow, that is good news! What's the job?"
"Not important. Come on, let's get over there and settle in." The aversion of the question wouldn't occur to me until later.
The "apartment" turned out to be a run down wooden shack, not much different from the one Lenore and I first stayed in. There was even a fire pit in the back, just like our old place. Once we arrived, we unpacked our belongings. Lenore's guitar sat in one corner of the room. My experiments and books laid on a small table against a wall.
The bed was a glorified cot. Lenore insisted on taking it, saying she would get me my own, more comfortable bed once we had decent money. For now, I slept on some hay I brought in from out back. It looked more comfortable than the cot, so I didn't complain.
"So," said Lenore from the cot, "this place does come with a catch. We only get to use this place during the day. Tonight's the only exception, so we can get settled in. Ponies who work the day shift get the place at night. We're gonna have to become nocturnal, since I have a night shift and you can't stay here during the day."
I frowned, confused. "Where does the day shift guy keep all his stuff?"
"Umm, uh, in that chest." She gestured to a chest on the far side of the hut.
"So it's okay to keep our stuff lying around, but not okay for him?" Lenore nodded. "Sounds like day shift got the short end of the stick."
Lenore gave a nervous chuckle. "No kidding.
"Anyways, we should hit the hay. After all this travelling, I'm looking forward to sleeping through tonight and tomorrow!"
Our nocturnal way of life was easier to get used to than I thought. Within a week, it seemed natural. Just before moonrise, Lenore and I would get up, have supper, then part ways for our jobs.
I prowled markets clogged like arteries,scanning for potential targets. There were many, but the thieving wasn't as easy as it had first seemed. These ponies were used to a criminal lifestyle, and were much more careful and aware of everything around them. The city was also extremely poor; just a few bits would be missed, so I made a point to steal from the wealthier looking ponies. A few times I was noticed, and had to flee or risk injury (I never mentioned these instances to Lenore). I was working harder and yielding less than I ever had before. It was aggravating, but sharpened my skills nonetheless.
I continued my experiments when I had the time. For some reason, once we arrived in Baltimare, my contraptions were more successful. I attributed it to a sort of karma at the time. The rest of my life was on the decline, so to balance it out, my experiments were working out. Unscientific, and it still left all of my questions unanswered (why did my inventions work here only when unicorns could use magic anywhere?), but it worked for me.
Lenore occasionally asked about my little projects, and began to take a greater interest in them. She asked me how they worked, and how I knew about them, what laws of magic and theories explained why they worked. I was happy but perplexed about her sudden interest in my studies.
Although I didn't know exactly what Lenore was doing, I could tell it must be draining. Whenever I returned to our shack for the day, she was always exhausted. The area around her eyes was puffy, but she never cried when I was around. To make matters worse, whatever job she'd taken didn't pay well, a little less than I earned while thieving.
She began to take a drink with supper when we woke and at breakfast before we slept. When I asked her why, she gave me a curt response. "To forget." The whisky was depleting our money just as fast we earned it, but I didn't say anything. She looked like she needed to forget. I was willing to accommodate her habits. It wasn't like she was hurting anything, and I could take one for the team if it meant she wasn't too unhappy.
Lenore and I continued to be treated like shit wherever we went, and it wasn't long before we found out why, via word of mouth and eavesdropped conversations. The Griffon Empire and Equestria were on the brink of war. Apparently, over the past seven years or so the initially friendly negotiations between the two nations had deteriorated. Border disputes had arisen and already there were skirmishes as well as deaths on both sides of the border. War seemed inevitable.
For Equestrians, who tended to segregate not only other races, but also their own unicorn, pegasi, and earth pony groups, this was just another excuse to be assholes to griffons. I was considered far worse, an abominable bastard of both races. It was only through my ability to go unseen that I wasn't driven from the city or put on display for public humiliation.
Our life was in the gutter, and I wanted desperately to go back to Plateau City, where life had been simple and happy. I missed our old friends, and the good times we had. But as much as I wanted to go back, I never said a word. I knew Lenore was in a tough spot, and I didn't want to press her. There was no need to put any more stress on her.
Besides, we had a good reason to be there, and there hadn't been any symbols on the ground or lost pet signs that I had seen. Since that was our prime reason for coming here in the first place, I tried to consider our move a success, no matter how much everything else pointed to the contrary. Unfortunately, the hardest one to fool is yourself.
I kept my silence in regard to how I really felt, tried to hide my true thoughts on the situation. Maybe if I'd spoken up, things would have turned out differently.
I remember the night in extremely vivid detail. Sometimes your mind can betray you that way.
It was autumn, and the weather had begun to chill, especially at night. Although I didn't have enough to afford a coat, my plumage and fur kept me from freezing. The cold was just enough to make my thoughts dreary and my claws clumsy. Thieving with numb claws wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do, but I had to come back with something.
I got caught around one in the morning, my claws deep in the saddlebag of a pegasi with a quick hoof. I managed to escape, but not without a couple of scratches and a shiner under my eye. I decided I'd had enough of this shit for the night, and began my flight home, where I planned on getting some extra shuteye behind our shack.
I was thinking about how I could hide my injuries from Lenore. The scratches I could explain away with some bullshit story, but the black eye would be harder. Considering my coloration, I thought maybe I could hide it, but that idea was hastily dismissed; Lenore had a keen eye, and would either notice I was hiding the eye or notice the eye itself. I thought coming clean might be the best option, but decided to think it over back at the hut before actually saying anything.
As soon as I landed behind of the hut, I knew something was amiss. I could hear grunts coming from inside the shack. Grunts of pain and pleasure intermingled in a way that seemed... wrong . I recognized one of the voices. The one in pain. I rushed into the shack.
A monstrous silhouette was throbbing on the cot. My eyes adjusted, and I was rendered speechless.
The top part of the rocking behemoth was a hulking green earth pony, his mouth stretched in a horrible grin, his eyes bloodshot, and reeking so badly of booze that I could smell him from where I stood. Later, when I was in my right mind, I would recall him as the pony who had shit in Lenore's guitar case.
Beneath the huge bastard, squashed under the intense weight, was Lenore. One of her eyes was swollen shut, and red tinted tears wept out of both eyes. Her good eye widened when it saw me, pleading for aid.
It took a few moments for me to register what I was seeing. After that, my body seemed to act on its own. What I did next was terrifyingly natural.
The pony hadn't seen me, despite the fact that I took no precautions to be quiet or sneaky. The monster was too concentrated on what he was doing. I walked, in an eerie calm, over to the table. I picked up a long, worn kitchen knife, the blade already slicked with blood. Lenore had used it to divide shares of possum. Now, I would be using it on another animal.
I walked over to the cot, and I could hear shallow rambling under the pony's breath. "Fuckin' bitch, I toljer I'd getcha if I sawed you aggin..." he mumbled in a drunken slur. I laid a claw on his sweaty shoulder. He turned to face me. "Ay, lissen, I paid for this bitch for the next hou-"
I jammed the knife into his throat. His eyes snapped open in lethal surprise. He gurgled for a few moments, blood dripping out of the wound in his neck. A moment later, blood began to cascade out of his mouth, making a slapping noise as it spewed onto the floor. He grasped at his neck, gave a final cough of shock, and collapsed off the bed to the ground.
I scrambled to Lenore's side. Blood was caked into her fur and feathers, multiple stab wounds covering her body. Blood had coagulated all over the cot, which was mostly red
red crimson not good red like a rose bad red like insane eyes
by this point. There was no question about it. Lenore had lost too much blood. She might last another half hour at most, but she was going to die.
A feeble moan escaped my mouth. I wrapped like forelegs around her neck, like a foal wanting to be picked up, and hugged her close. I heard a whisper in my ear.
"Nevermore..." she wheezed, her voice straining and weak.
I wanted to tell her to save her strength, but stopped myself. She was dying, and if talking to me gave her comfort, what did it matter if she lost a few minutes. "Yes?"
"They didn't get me... I escaped..." she whispered.
I nodded frantically. "Yeah, yeah, you did."
She sat up a bit. "Nevermore, I'm sorry about this. I should have told you. My job... I was..." She couldn't finish. But I understood. The drinking. "To forget." This was her job.
"Why?" I moaned. "Why?"
"I was... saving. In the box." The box that had supposedly held the belongings of the nighttime shack dweller. "Inside... money... for you..."
"No..." I cried. "You, you didn't need to. We had enou-"
Lenore continued as if I hadn't spoken. "I saw how smart you were... I thought maybe... with money... you could get schooling... I just want you to understand... this is no life... for you..." Her voice was getting weaker and weaker. "I'm sorry... please forgive... me..."
I buried my face in her fur, took her claw in mine. "Nothin' to forgive," I sniffled. I looked up and her eyes were closed.
Then the music started.
"Buh-buh-baby cuh-can you duh-dig your man? Baby huh-he's a righti--Get it out, guh-get it out, get your fucking voice out of my he--meone saved muh-my life, tonight, sug-"
The songs were stuttering and skipping into each other. Some of the things I heard didn't seem to be songs at all.
"-ine out of ten housewives prefer Nozz-a-la to--on't fear the reaper--tain Trips rumored to be 90% fata--M O O N, that spel--ey Jude...--ppiness... is a warm gun... bang bang shoo--WKIT Late Ni--rive a Takuro Spirit-"
The voices were getting choppier, beginning to fade. Her breathing slowed. She was fading.
"-and on the run--oing to kill m--nineteen ninet--ome Commal--pink--arked her rig--nd echoed... in the sound... of silence..."
She had entered the clearing at the end of the path. I clutched her body and sobbed with abandon, staining my coat with her lifeless blood.