“Remember, even when we all die, the stories will survive generations”

“How do you know my name?” Was all I could ask. I was surprised so bad, not by her jumping on me like that, not by the fact that she was the mare that has been following me around for weeks, but by the fact that she knew my name.

There were so many other questions I wanted to ask, like what does she want, or why has she been following me around for weeks, why jumping on me like that, and mainly, who the fuck is she? All these quickly beamed through my head, with all sorts of answers and before I woke up from the wave of questions she actually backed up and kept looking at me.

“That’s not important! I just know it,” she said with a huge smile on her face as her eyes watched me over and stopped at bottom of my body. Only then I realized I am actually on my back and she is looking right at my crotch.

Trapped under the weight of my saddlebags, it took a bit of a fight before I managed to scramble back on my hooves and get up. I was not as strong as other earth ponies, but I was still stronger than other races. The mare was quietly watching me with stupid grin on her face, which made me want to buck her right into her muzzle and run away. But considering she has been following me, she knows where to find me again and there was no point in making enemies. I backed up a bit and looked at her, expecting finally the answer.

“Firstly it is important and secondly what do you want?” Asking her, I readied to grab my machete and at least defend myself if she suddenly launched on me. It was kinda dumb to do now, considering that I was laying unarmed and vulnerable for past few minutes on the ground.

“Well… I have been living in this town for quite a while, and I know that all the new ponies who come around and stay here for more than a week are the treasure hunters. But they usually start in the town, asking around before going to the ruins. You didn’t so I was wondering what are you up to, later I started following you around. Apparently you are hiding pretty far away, and you haven’t told anyone your name”

Considering how she was evading the proper answer, she must have paid someone to find out, or just went to Coin Punch. That pony would sold even his mother as long as it would be profitable for him. Now I wondered what price my name had. Surely couldn’t be much, otherwise this mare would be insane for spending money only for a name, on the other hoof, it kinda insulted me that my name was worth not that much.

“Coin Punch told you,” I just quietly stated. She probably agreed to not tell me, but no one else could have told her. She immediately started denying that, but it was true. Now there was still one unanswered question.

“What do you want?”

“Huh? Well, you see, it is a bit boring around my place, so I often go into the ruins myself, looking for the old stories and later compiling them into a book. It is just a hobby I have, mostly helping around the Trader’s for caps. And I saw you, looking for papers and stuff too, so I was just following you and taking whatever you left behind. But I also wanted to help you with that since you’ve been helping me a lot!”

I was looking at her face, stunned. I didn’t like this one bit, she was too talkative, disrupting my silence and my thoughts. There was nothing profitable in her travelling with me, I enjoyed the silence and my own pace. She would be distracting, probably rushing through, annoying.

“No,” was the simple answer. I didn’t want to explain myself because she would probably just try to explain that she would not do the stuff I hate.

“Oh come on! I promise I won’t get into your way! Besides I can help you too!” She immediately spat out. She wasn’t giving up easy, that is for sure.

“Yeah and how?”

“Well for starters…” She looked at my saddlebags, “I can help you carry stuff around too, therefore you could haul more things you take at once and wouldn’t have to make multiple trips. And since I am looking for stories myself, I could help you look for the papers you are looking for. Actually I think I might found some already”

She dug through her stuff and fished out a big folder full of various papers and gave it to me. I put it on the ground and opened it, revealing multiple documents, looking from very old to actually pretty recently written notes, drawn maps with scribbling on it and bunch more papers with what appeared to be profiles of ponies with all theirs information. Quickly scanning through all of it, it looked like it was all linked to the underground location I was looking for, and not only to that particular one, but to more actually. I was a bit skeptical about the genuineness of the documents, but a lead was a lead.

“What do you want for these?” ‘Please say caps’ I repeated in my mind while waiting for her answer.

“I already told you! I want to come with you!”
That was the answer I was hoping to not get. I just sighed loudly, hoping that she will get that I did not like this at all.

“Oh don’t worry, I will stay out of your way! I will just follow you and help you carry stuff!” She immediately shout out.

This was how losing a battle felt like. I ran through the documents once more and then slowly zoomed away. How great it would be if I had great photo memory, just scanning through all those papers and remembering them. How great it would be if she said caps and I just paid her and we would part our ways again. How my silence and peace would now be disturbed, and how I will not be able to think to myself about all the stuff, because of all the talking she will do.

*boop*

I felt something touch my nose, which woke me up from my thoughts. Her hoof was touching my muzzle and she, with a confused look on her face, was looking at me.

“You okay?” She asked.

“Yeah yeah… let's go.” I grabbed and put away the documents for future study, but most of them pointed into the Mayor’s office, where I wanted to go to at some point anyway. I knew the way, it was a huge building in the most destroyed place of the city, but I always figured thanks to the mayor’s office not being as tall as the other buildings, it was shielded from the blast, and later buried by all the rubble. It was quite a walk, especially with my now full saddlebags, and the stupid mare following me. I now realized she didn’t tell me her name, but I didn’t really wanted to know anyway.

We get on our way and that was exactly the time when I regretted not turning her away.

---------------------------------------------------

It took us about an hour to get to the mayor’s building. I did learn her name, Free Talk it was, she was living with her family in the Trader’s district. Her family actually had a big store with not only weapons and armour but with the everyday items you need, brushes, cleaning stuff, books even. She told me about her life, family and whatever else, but I spaced it away as soon as she finished the sentence. But it was the longest hour in my life. She wouldn’t shut up for a second, which made me both annoyed, and nervous at the same time, mainly because you never know what could be hiding in the ruins.

I was the most nervous when we passed the destroyed church at the exact mid-day. It is said that before the war, an old mare, dressed in old clothes which covered her completely, was going around and kidnapping badly behaving kids from their parents. Nowadays, the story goes that if you disturb her from her daily routine, she will kidnap you, drag you into her old church where she would slowly eat you alive, kid or not. Apparently few ponies already saw her, just roaming through the ruins at the exact mid-day, looking for not well-behaving ponies, even some say that they seen her dragging away a life-less body. I certainly did not want to disturb her at all story or not, but this mare seemed to not care about it at all, even though she looked at the church entrance few times as well.

I heard stories about many ponies running away from the ruins, scared for life. They never wanted to talk about what they have seen, what scared them so much. They just ran from the ruins, all the way to where they came from. Probably one of the reasons I was still here was that I actually believed in these urban legends and old world stories, and was very cautious where to go, when to go, and what to do there. The problem around here was, that you never knew what is only a story to scare off kids from going into the ruins, and what was actually the truth, so I simply took everything as a fact. And considering the mare was looking for the stories she, hopefully, had the same point of view.

It was just a bit after mid-day when we arrived to the mayor’s building. It still stood, not as majestic as I’ve seen on the photos, with the gardens and trees, colours booming everywhere, neatly cut grass, colourful pathways and fountain in the middle of the yard, the building with all the decorations, flags and written slogans everywhere. Now it looked like a big pile of bricks and construction material which was just as that thrown on top of everything to bury all the colours. The way was almost clear, except few pieces of rubble here and there, but we managed to easily get to the entrance of the building. The double door were off their hinges, one of them still stood up, but the other one was completely destroyed on the ground.

As soon as we entered the building, we were greeted not only by the incredible view of the lobby, the dual staircases leading upwards to the second floor, old - but now destroyed pictures decorating the walls, the enormous light hanging from the ceiling, with diamonds and glass shards decorating it. There was something else which set me incredibly off. The temperature dropped heavily, outside it was warm enough for me to not sweat, but not too cold to feel like having to wear more than my armour, but in here it was freezing cold. I could even see my breath making a mist. I instantly turned around and pushed my hoof in Free Talk’s muzzle.

“Please, at least in here. Be. Quiet. And just follow me.” I quietly said.

She looked confused but nodded. I thought she get why this time.

“Just stay behind me all the time, don’t talk to anyone you see, don’t approach anyone you see, and just stay hidden” I commanded and she again nodded.

She actually looked scared, even more than I was. She knew what could be in here and she was well aware that this could end very badly for both of us if we’d manage to run into it.

The whole building was poorly illuminated, only light was coming from the destroyed door and some of the not entirely buried windows, but since the sky was always under a cloud cover, it wasn’t that much. I noticed an old oil lamp with almost no oil in it, but still enough for an hour or so. I lit it up and carried it around in my mouth. We made our way through the building, first the ground floor, peeking into the rooms, but most of them had nothing of value inside, mostly just furniture, various books or even ballot boxes. There was also a huge conference room, leisure room, a small kitchen where I found few boxes of old pre-war cereals which I took, and one canned apples which I instantly munched. Finding pretty much nothing in the ground floor, we returned into the lobby and took the stairs up to the first floor.

The first floor looked more decorated than the ground floor, I figured that it was more visited by the common ponies which needed to discuss their matter with the mayor or for the ponies working here, while the ground floor was off limits except for the employees. First room, straight with the view of the lobby was the mayor’s room, we went inside only to be greeted by hundreds of paperwork lying all around the place. The papers were covering all of the room, and made almost a foil for the dust, covering and isolating all the furniture beneath. There was a big table with a destroyed terminal on it, a vase and a huge lamp on it, the walls were hidden by various cabinets and shelves with books, boxes and more papers, and in one corner there was a big corner shaped sofa with a coffee table and few more armchairs around it. We instantly began looking around the paperworks, books and cabinets for something useful.

Opening the cabinets I found a bottle of wine and whiskey with about a dozen fancy glasses. Without a proper box there was no way of me carrying it without it shattering to pieces in my saddlebags, so I left that to the next time, taking only the bottle of whiskey, and wrapping it in some of the papers before putting it in my saddlebags. I had no idea how some ponies were able to just throw stuff into their saddlebags without it destroying, how are you supposed to carry bunch of bottles and other random stuff as well? Next to it were more books on law subject, documents with neighboring towns and their administration which told me nothing I wanted to know, but what caught my eye was a folder with building allowance around the town. That could tell me where and which buildings were being built and could give me more of a lead. I also managed to find a box of drawers full of ponies accused of various criminal offences, from tax evading to sharing fake news, spying and apparently even a folder named government opposition. I took that one as well for more reading material for late, but I felt like my saddlebags are getting too heavy at this point, especially with the machinery stuffed inside of them. I turned around to Free Talk, but her saddlebags were now full too, mainly books and a lot of papers.

The biggest challenge was a locked cabinet. Something being locked was always something which was hiding valuables inside. I motioned for Free Talk to come over and see if she manage to get it somehow open. She sat down, and dug through her saddlebags until she fished out a screwdriver and a bobby pin. I thought she is going to lockpick the lock, until she threw both of those away and took a huge crowbar and stuffed it into the drawer. With a loud crack, she opened the drawer and what was lying inside completely took my breath. There was a three-layer map, showing us the whole city with buildings and like, underground ‘safety’ tunnels and entrances to them, and last layer was indicating enormous rooms, with number descriptions and nothing more. I instantly took that, for more studying, but the first look at it gave me the idea that this is exactly what I have been looking for. Only that our luck just started running out.

I heard hooves clopping on the wooden floor right in front of the room which indicated nothing good to happen. I killed the oil lamp which was burning only slightly at this point anyway, and dove behind the mayor’s desk, grabbing Free Talk by her mane and taking her to my hiding spot too. Peeking through all the papers and mess around I looked at the doorway, expecting what will come into the view.

Just a few second in our hiding spot, we’ve seen exactly what I have expected that would be in here. What was worse, I was hoping that of all the things we could run into, this was only a story. A pony covered in an old grey cowl floated into our view and stopped right in the doorway. The most disturbing thing about it was the fact that there was no pony, only a dark, almost like a fluid inside, without eyes, hooves, anything, just shaping a pony. It turned to face the room which gave us clear view of the nothingness inside the cape, and it gave me the chills. Suddenly everything started being so cold, even colder than before, and I felt like being nowhere. Just in a black nothing, hovering, unable to talk or move, unable to open my mouth and scream, or blink, not even able to think about anything. It felt like my body was just taken away and my brain dropped in a jar, still alive without actually being alive. What woke me from my trance was a pony bumping into my head which sent me tumbling on the floor. I shook my head and gathered my thoughts, only to see Free Talk getting up and walking towards the figure. I was not able to do anything, I was still paralyzed, but I could clearly see her just walking out of the door behind the figure. Completely stunned I saw another two ponies walking behind it, aimlessly following it around. The hoofsteps soon got out of the reach, and I finally fully woke up.

Gathering myself from the ground, again it took me longer than normally due to my heavy saddlebags, I started thinking what to do next. The creature was from one of those stories - an evil spirit, who hypnotizes you and leads you away. They say that often the spirit used to be a teacher or a military officer, leading the kids or soldiers around, and the old souls still trapped in this world are just continuing their work of pre-war times. Sometimes the victims are led by the spirit till the end of their lives, which actually comes very quickly due to starvation and dehydration, sometimes they are being led to death by a fall - usually where there used to be a bridge or a floor, but now there isn’t.

I was finally fully awake and I carefully looked outside of the door to check if the spirit is still there. Nothing being around, I darted out of the room towards the staircase and down to the exit from the god-forsaken building. As soon as I was out, I looked behind me to the pile of rubble which the building was covered with and sighed. I couldn’t just leave them in there. It was nice to have my silence and peace back, being able to go through at my own pace and not having to look behind for anyone made me happy, but on other hoof it would be a very bad move to just leave her behind, as well as the other two ponies, even though it was their fault getting trapped there. To be honest, if Free Talk didn’t bump into me, I would most likely be roaming around aimlessly with them too, so I at least owed her that. Besides I could probably tell her to not follow me around anymore for saving her life.

Looking to the path out of here, and then back to the entrance I started thinking of a plan. If I was able to take the ponies away from the spirit, it wouldn’t be able to lure them anymore and they might come back to senses. But I would have to get them away as fast as possible so it cannot trap them again. I believe that the spirits cannot go through the walls, they can float, but cannot pass through the walls, so closing it or the ponies somewhere should be easy enough. The problem is to not get trapped myself.

I looked once more at the way leading from this evil place, but turned back to the building and went back inside.

---------------------------------

After a long while of looking around in a complete darkness without a light, and running away whenever I felt like it is getting colder, I managed to pinpoint its way. It roamed through a huge conference room on the top floor, around its table and then back to the hallway. I only had to get as close as possible and had to close the door behind it. Easier said than done, it would have to be done as soon as the spirit enters so it would leave the ponies in the hallway, but not too soon for it to notice me.

I found a rope which I tied to the door, and put few cans on the ground as an alarm. The spirit would enter the room, and as soon as the cans are kicked, I’d pull the rope, slamming the door, and rushing towards the ponies and attempting to wake them up. And of course a lot of hope this all would work. I hid in a small room behind a wall, not far from the actual door, rope ready in my mouth and just waiting for the right time.

I waited for what seemed like eternity. I kept thinking if this is gonna work or not, and if I should even do it, risking my own life for another pony life. This was one of the reasons I enjoyed scavenging alone, never had to look out for another, and I was always careful enough not to get caught in these situations. I almost zoomed away in my thought when I heard echo of the tin cans being knocked over. I pulled the rope which resulted in a loud bang and I waited for a result before peeking out. Suddenly I heard a quiet “what is happening?” and I peeked out from my hideout to see the three ponies looking at each other, as if they just woke up from a nightmare. Which was not that far from truth.

I ran up to them, which made them confused even more and quietly but quickly started talking; “We have to get out of here as soon as we can. Just follow me and be quiet!”

They exchanged some confused looks but trotted behind me, or at least I did hope so they did, I woke them up and that was all I was planning to do with them. Now just escape this scary place and get back home. I didn’t stop as I rushed through the double door and found myself on the destroyed garden outside of the building, only then I looked behind me to the ponies which I got a good look at. One of them was a female unicorn with light blue coat and dark blue made, and a lamp as a cutie mark, most likely one of those not that experienced scavengers, while the other was a male pegasus with yellow coat and light green mane and instead of his cutie mark, there was a burnt cloud and lightning now - one of the dashites which were hiding nearby. It was said that this was a great spot for them - no one really dared to go into the ruins to look for ponies, as it was a huge place and searching someone in here was a dead end. They both looked at me in confusion while Free Talk was dumping a whole bottle of water on her face and shaking off the experience.

“W-what happened?” the pegasus spoke. He had a different accent, more soft as someone coming from a high place. He actually looked like he hadn’t eaten in a while, even his wings looked a bit ruffled up. “And who’re you?”

I sighed because this wouldn’t be as easy as I thought. I was hoping that we would just part our ways as soon as we got away from the building.

“You ran into Blud. It is an evil spirit which causes disorientation and then leads its victims around until they starve or get killed.” I simply answered.

“W-what? S-something like that exist?” The mare asked. She was shaking at this point, visibly scared.

“Have you not heard?”

They both looked at each other and just shaked their heads.

“Look. If you came here to look for fortune or other stuff, then don’t. This is a very bad place and only a hoof full of ponies survive this place. Or if you really want to go and search this city around, ask around what to expect.”

“How come you didn’t get trapped?” Free Talk asked. Her face and mane were completely wet and dripping water. She must have poured more than one bottle on herself.

“I got lucky,” all I answered, “but we gotta go. It is gonna get dark very soon, and we have to get out before the nightfall.” I turned away and started heading back to the traders.

“Hey wait!” The stallion spat out, “Thanks… but we don’t really remember our way out. And I am starving to death… Do you think you could help us?”

“Please? My name is Lamplight and this is Rainlight,” the mare pointed at the pegasus stallion, “I have no idea how long we were in there… but we decided to head in and look for some supplies after we running low on caps. Someone told us that Mayor’s building would be a good bet. They didn’t tell us about that thing inside though.”

What a surprise. You probably wouldn’t go inside if you knew. I turned around to face them again, and Free Talk was already sharing her supplies with them. That made it easier for me. Even though my saddlebags were heavy, I didn’t like the idea of making them lighter by sharing my stuff with complete strangers.

“We will help you out, no worries. But seriously look into what you are getting into when going around this place. Or be very careful. If you encounter anyone in here, don’t talk to them, just hide or run,” Free Talk answered. I had exactly the opposite plan, but refusing to help them was like leaving them inside with the monster.

They quickly munched and drank whatever they got from Free Talk and we headed off. I was in front, leading them through the fastest way possible. We would still not make it before the dark, but the priority was to get out of the ruins before the nightfall. I somehow remembered the way back to my place even in dark, so I should’ve been okay.

They had a conversation with Free Talk the whole time we walked in the back, I was walking few meters in front of them and just completely ignoring them, making sure we are going the right way and thinking for myself again. Most of the streets were actually empty, without any rubble or obstacles which made it easier and faster to navigate. We soon were passing the old church, keeping the distance I gave it a good look. The windows were destroyed, the glass shards were all around the building. The back of it was gone, only the bell tower was standing with a clear view through where the bell used to hang - which was now gone. I remembered seeing the bell once at the Coin Punch’s scrapyard - I figured it would be worth a lot, being so heavy and made out of whatever metal, probably bronze. The small roof on the church was almost like it was being repaired monthly, no dust or anything on it, and even the walls looked cleaner than the rest. It must have been majestic building back in the pre-war era, ponies always going in and praying to Celestia and Luna, hoping for their lives to get better and thanking for the good they have gone through. Now it was a place where ponies would be afraid to go, the graveyard of old times.

*DONG*

I looked up to the belltower, startled, and having stopped in my tracks.

*DONG*

I started shaking and looked back to the others, who now stopped too.

*DONG*

“Oh, they are announcing the end of the day on the bell.” Free Talk stated.

*DONG*

“T-there is no bell,” I quietly said, my voice shaking, “we gotta run!”

*DONG*