The Long Road Home

By The Midnight Stalker

(Remember I'm Watching You)

The night had been thankfully uneventful after Cinnamon had left, but he didn’t get much sleep either. Two reasons for that: The first was that he simply wasn’t used to sleeping under a roof like this. Or in a bed this comfortable, not that it was anything classy. It was just too different from what he was use to. He preferred to be outdoors and would’ve gone outside instead, but Goldenrod had wanted to keep her eye on him. And to be honest, he didn’t want to make her angry. Not because he was afraid of her, but because she might actually be able to find someone willing to go into those Goddess forsaken ruins for him.

The other was because he was thinking of the ruins. He honestly did not want to go there himself. He’d heard all the rumors about the place and while he didn’t believe there were ghosts in there, he did think something odd was at work there. With all the weird things going on in The Wasteland he didn’t want to know what was up with that place. Better some other sorry sap. And If they didn’t make it out, then there’d be no blood on his hooves. Even if he did pay them, the choice to go in was theirs. Perhaps he needed to make it clear that he’d be paying them, not her, so the Mayor wouldn’t freak out at the costs..... He’d do that later. For now he needed to leave before Cinnamon showed up again. He really regretted last night's conversation. He made her sound important when she really wasn’t. Too late now.

Groaning, he rolled out of bed. Since he’d spent most of the night staring at the ceiling, he didn’t sleep and thus needed the rich, tan colored stimulant known as coffee. So he gathered up some of his gear and the like and started out of his room. Last night he hadn’t really taken the time to look around his room. Sure, he’d noticed that it was cheap, but beyond that he hadn’t cared. At the time he’d just wanted to be left alone and try to sleep. It looked a lot more rundown than the rest of the partly renovated motel, hard as that was to believe. But that wasn’t too important. Coffee was needed, and even 200 year old instant coffee was better than nothing. All he needed was some clean water and he was good. All he had to do was heat the water and mix it in. Done. Too bad it didn’t pan out that way.

He was headed down the stairs when a certain mare was spotted at the entrance. Damn. Well, so much for that plan. He decided that he may as well got down the stairs and see what she wanted. As he walked down she was staring at him. He found it kinda odd, but she was serious.
Cinnamon’s mother told her that they needed to find out what had happened to her friends. She really didn’t want to, but orders were orders. As far as her mother was concerned it could’ve been anything from a prank to raiders, though the latter wasn’t very likely. They hadn’t shown their ugly ass faces around the town in some time. So, she’d sent her to go get Lonesome. But as far as she cared, they’d left her high and dry. She was so sure they were hiding out there somewhere, just waiting for the right time to come out of hiding. It wouldn’t be the first time that they’d pulled a prank on her like that, but most of the others were harmless. Either way she was here to get him. And he was coming down the stairs....

They met at the base of the stairs. Cinnamon was just standing there so Lonesome went to go around her. She moved to get back in front of him. Then he took a step to the left, she stepped to the right to match him.
Damn it....
“Well what do you want? If you didn’t want something you wouldn’t be here in my way. So, tell me.” A bit gruff, but straight to the point. After all, he did have other things to do, like finding a job.

“And why should I do anything for her? She owes me last time I checked, not the other way around. So, leave me alone for a few days, I’ll see ya whenever your mom finds someone to do the job.” He then started towards the door again only to be blocked by Cinnamon again. “Fine. What the hell is it?”

“Well you remember me saying something about my friends, right?” He nodded. “well mom wants us to go and find out what happened to them. She’s kinda paranoid about it. She thinks they might’ve been caught by raiders or somthing. I don’t think so, but I do want to give them a piece of my mind if we do find them.”
‘I really don’t want to do this. Just leave me alone’ He thought to himself. After all, she’d only been trouble since he found her. And she talked way too much. He like silence, Then again, he was curious as what had happened to them as well. After all, a group of ponies just doesn’t disappear and leave their gear laying about and if they’d been attacked whoever it was would’ve taken it. While he hadn’t put a lot of thought into it had been bothering him a bit. not much, but enough that he wouldn’t mind getting to the bottom of it. He made up his mind, deciding that he’d help; not like he didn’t have anything better to do anyways.

“Good. Now go get some supplies. You’re gonna need some water and a bit of food.”

“You want to find your friends right? Well then, we’ll have to go out where they were last. Need to look for clues”

Cinnamon started her way back to her house until she remembered that her mother was at work right now. She was about half way back before she remembered that however and her moms office was on the other side of town. She wasn’t about to got all the way back there just yet. She was almost home so she decided to go ahead and grab some food and water. Then she’d head over to her mom's office and let her know that she was going along with Lonesome to go find her so-called friends. But she might not be too happy with her raiding the house for food. So then, off to mom first? May as well.

So she turned around and started back the other way. Hopefully her mom wouldn’t be too upset about her going along. I mean she could tell her not to go, but she didn’t have to listen. She backtracked all the way to the hotel where Lonesome was staying, but instead of going in she went right on by it. Heading instead into the large building a few block down. The old building being currently used as the Administrative center for the town. Everything was located there. The mayor’s office, in short. In the past the mayor had lived in the building, but her mom didn’t want to stay in there; she already had a house elsewhere in town and didn’t want to leave it just because of her job, so now the extra rooms were more or less unused. Once she entered the building she went straight into the lobby without taking for directions or anything. She knew this place like the back of her hoof. And everypony here knew who she was and didn’t ask any questions.

She walked right up to the door to her mom’s, The Mayor’s, office. She paused for a moment and knocked. She waited for a moment before she heard her mom's voice on the other side.

“You have a unique knock. Now I’m assuming you’re gonna tell me what he said about looking for your friends.”

“Well yeah. He said he’d do it. I think it’s ‘cuz he didn’t have anything better to do till you find someone.”

“After I come back with some supplies. He doesn’t want me dying out there.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about, it’s... oh, nevermind. Just be careful, and keep an eye on him for me. I don’t want him causing trouble.”

“Not yet. You got to get some food and water right? Well you may as well get it here. I don’t want you raiding the house.”

“I’m your mother. I can read you like a book. Plus, last time you went somewhere you did that.”

It took a little bit, but Cinnamon finally got away from her mom, but only after making a promise to come back in one piece. It wasn’t that her mother didn’t trust her... well, okay, she didn’t trust her. Cinnamon did have a history of being late getting home, after all, and what happened the last time she went out really didn’t help her case. She wasn’t even allowed out of town alone because of that. Her mother clearly explained the only reason she was allowed to go was because she was going with Lonesome. Her mother really didn’t trust him, either, but she owed him and didn’t expect him to simply vanish. At least she could go, so she wasn’t about to complain right now.

Lonesome had almost given up waiting for her when she finally showed up. She was carrying quite a bit of stuff. More than he’d told her that they’d be needing. Plus judging by the look on her face she wasn’t too thrilled to carrying it either. She had what looked like about 5 gallon of water and three days worth of food. Stupid mare.

“Why do you have that much supplies? I told you we weren’t going that far. Carry it if you want to, but don’t expect me to help.”

“Well I didn’t even want this much stuff! Mom made me take it. I tried to tell her we were going to be back tonight, but she insisted.”

“You could’ve just dumped most it somewhere. Only time I carry that much supplies is....Never. I find it useless when I can scavenge most of what I need. But I guess you don’t really know about that.”

“Ug! I don’t care! Just help me get this stuff off so I can see what I really need. I don’t want to carry all of it, it’s way too heavy.”

“Fine. Just give me a second.”
He trotted over to her and looked for a second. She had way too much stuff for how long they were going to be gone. He only planned on being out just a couple days at the most.

“Fine.” He then kicked her and knocked her over. Everything she had was spilled on the ground. Thankfully the water didn’t leak out. Otherwise they would’ve had to get more.

“Whatever. Let’s just go through this so we can get going. I was hoping to leave sometime right after lunch, but this whole mess shot that plan to hell. Now, we’ll be lucky to be gone by dusk.”

“Sorry. Mom just wanted me to be ready for anything. It took me a bit just to talk her out of making me take a tent.”

They didn’t say anything after that. Cinnamon just simply watched Lonesome go through everything. It didn’t take too long, but it still took up time they could’ve been using otherwise. In the end he decided to keep all of the water and the food, but he tossed everything else. It was simply extra they didn’t need.

“Um what are you going to do with the rest of the stuff? We can’t just leave it there.”

In the end they did take all the extra stuff back to Goldenrods house and much to the displeasure of Lonesome, she was there. When she got there was anyone’s guess, because according to Cinnamon she was still at her office. Anyways she gave him a scolding for letting Cinnamon tag along. But he really didn’t care. All he wanted was her to find someone. After that he’d get what he came for and get out of this Goddess forsaken town. He really didn’t care too much of it. Too many ponies for his taste. He could barely stand the place he lived in.

As for Cinnamon, he’d made it clear he really didn’t like her. He was mostly letting her tag along to spite her mother. Just because they did business didn’t mean he had to be nice. But he didn’t think she’d just stop looking. After all, there was the unspoken threat that he could always find some other way of collecting payment. And if it came down to it he could always go looking for it himself.

It was much later than he’d anticipated, but they finally started out away from town. As he’d said earlier Dusk was hopeful. And they barely made it out of town before it had settled in. Both of the mares insisted that the duo leave in the morning with it being so late, but Lonesome being Lonesome didn’t want to waste anymore time than he already had and started out anyways. Cinnamon still wanting to come along left with him despite her own reservations and her mother's protests. They simply walked along the not so quiet streets of the town and out into the dark unforgiving Wasteland. It was silent out there. The way it was suppose to be, or so Lonesome thought. For once even Cinnamon wasn’t talking, granted likely she was too tired to do so, but still. He really had wanted to ask her a few questions about exactly where she and her friends had been where she wandered off. That’d give him a decent starting point about as to where they may have gone.

But that was for in the morning. For now they were simply walking along the desolate wilderness. Well it wasn’t wilderness yet, but it was close enough. The goal was to put as much distance as possible between them and the town before sunrise. After his plan to leave at Noon was shot he’d decided that they’d travel at night. It was a better idea anyways. Less likely to run into folks. For him that was a good thing.

The Long Road Home

by The Midnight Stalker

A bit to show I haven't given up