//------------------------------// // Chapter Twenty-Five:Galloping in the dark and Spiderpig // Story: Gleaner Chronicles: American Monsters // by sevenofeleven //------------------------------// Unknown building When she arrived at the safe house, Margot was so tired. She had barely enough time to look around. Unlike the cabin with it’s wooden walls, this place had red brick walls, and lumpy futons spread out on cold tile floors. Since she wasn’t hungry, food wasn’t an issue. Without a word, she found a place to sleep then passed out. Margot woke up amid gunshots, and the raised voices of panicking ponies. Outside, it seemed like there were a hundred helicopters. Every few seconds, a cold whitish-blue light would lance through the windows. She barely remembered how she got to this safehouse. All her memories were filtered through a haze of exhaustion. A reddish-brown earth pony stallion ran up to Margot. “You, you and you, come with me. We’re splitting up into small groups so we can sneak past the DA guards.” She looked around. Scootaloo and Rarity were sitting up and looking around at the chaos as other ponies got their group members. The pony sighed. “The name’s Brick. Well, come on! I won’t be sending invitations. Pink one, orange one and white one with the purple mane let’s go!” Margot followed him while Scootaloo and Rarity followed Margot. She was sure that Brick wasn’t his real name. Rarity panted while trying to speak. “Excuse me, but shouldn’t we wait for Spike?” Brick just sighed again. “Don’t know, don’t care. You guys are my responsibility until you fall behind. Then I don’t care. Keep moving!” At the end of the room there were stairs leading down. They took several flights down until they were in the basement. Margot thought she heard gunfire, but she wasn’t sure. She saw Rarity look back for a moment. Once they were in the basement, Brick just galloped straight through while Margot did her best to keep up. There wasn’t too much to see, clouds of steam and large pipes blocked her view. Then they climbed up cracked and pitted cement stairs and almost ran into two DA soldiers. Brick stuck out a fore hoof, and the group slowed to a stop. He pointed ahead. Then he crept up the stairs. He whispered, “No magic or they’ll catch us.” Margot followed him. Outside, she could hear two DA soldiers talking on their walkies. Before they could put them down, Margot and Brick shot the guards in the throat. Both guards tried to reach for their blood spurting necks before slumping to the ground. Margot looked at the dead guards lying next to a blood and graffiti covered wall. A moment later, Rarity and Scootaloo walked up. Brick pointed to the bodies. “Don’t bother taking the guns, they might have trackers on them. Stinking DA!” Scootaloo walked up to the bodies. “I need to give them Oonte’s Grace.” Brick just shrugged and ran off. Margot watched him canter down the street. Rarity looked at Scootaloo who did the ritual. Once it was done, Margot started down the street with Rarity and Scootaloo following. She hoped that Brick wouldn’t duck into a building, and they would lose him. It seemed like they were in some sort of warehouse district. Buildings with dark empty windows loomed over them. They ran by a wall covered with colored scrawlings until they caught up to Brick. Margot was sure he had slowed down so they could catch up. Brick just nodded and led them through a hole in a rusty metal fence. Margot was somewhat glad the area was lit by pinkish orange lights. The sky was dark without any moon. Traveling down streets in the dark would be worse. After walking several blocks, Brick looked back at them. Rarity was panting. Even Scootaloo was stumbling and needed rest. Margot was a little tired and just kept going. He looked around and just stopped cantering. “Okay, we can rest a bit. I don’t hear any helos. The next bit we have to take it nice and kinda slow. A lot of ponies in this area had a rough life. They’ll sell you out for a fifth in a hot second.” Rarity peered at the guide. “A fifth of what?” Brick’s eyes narrowed. Margot spoke up before things got worse. “Sorry, she’s not from around here. Rarity, some cheap booze comes in small bottles called fifths.” Brick looked away then back at Rarity. “Like I said. Down the block and around the corner are a bunch of ponies that are down on their luck. We don’t make eye contact, we don’t talk to them, we just keep going. Hopefully, they will ignore us and not rat us out.” Margot looked down the street. All she could see were dark buildings and chain link fences with barbed wire on top. Brick nodded. “Let’s do this.” Then he headed down the street with Margot, Rarity and Scootaloo behind him. Right before they turned the corner, Brick said, “Remember what I said.” Margot took a quick look. As expected, it was a sad sight. Poor ponies in ragged clothing held their hooves over metal drums that were full of flames. She smelled some sort of stink, it seemed like a combination of dirty clothing, dirty fur, cheap booze and the loss of hope. Margot kept her head down. She kept expecting at any moment for somepony to make a fuss, but nothing happened. They turned a corner and headed away from the poor group of ponies. Brick led them into a dark lobby. The acrid stink of urine, new and old hit Margot’s nose. Rarity flinched. “Really Brick, we have to go here?” Brick peered at Rarity. “Yes. Watch your step.” Margot gazed at the floor as they crossed the dark large lobby reeking of excrement. It was gross, but to a battle hardened warrior, waste products were better than blood and guts. Not by much though. The hallway smelled and looked a bit cleaner, but it was also darker. Brick took a flashlight out of his saddlebags and flashed it around. The white beam seemed so thin and weak. They followed him until he stopped next to a cabinet that seemed more rust than metal. “Okay, some ponies have to push it to the left.” Rarity looked at her forehooves and stepped back.  A blue glow shone on her horn. Brick thrust his face into Rarity’s. “No magic! DO you want them to find us?” Scootaloo shot Brick some stink eye. Brick faced Scootaloo. “Yo, orange one, watch that attitude!” Scootaloo walked to the right side of the cabinet. Then she reared up and started pushing. Her stubby orange wings started flapping. Margot walked to the right side too. She reared up and started pushing. The cabinet started sliding across the floor with some squeaks and squeals. She expected more noise. After some more pushing, a hole appeared large enough for a pony to slip through. Brick went first. “Somepony close that up so we don’t get any nasty surprises.” Margot let Rarity and Scootaloo walk past her. On the other side of the cabinet there was a handle. That made it easier for Margot to pull the cabinet closed. Then it was another quick trip down through another semi dark basement and up some more stairs. At the top of the stairs Brick stopped. “Okay, you guys need to go upstairs to the management office and close the door. Whispers only, no magic and no lights. If the DA think the building is empty they will leave it alone. Well, I hope.” Rarity looked like she wanted to say something, but a glare from Margot stopped her. Brick opened the door and stepped through. Margot, Rarity and Scootaloo followed. Pink-orange light from the street lights outside shone down onto the floor. Margot assumed that this place was another warehouse. There were boxes of goods piled up in the middle of the floor and to their left, stairs wound their way around the sides of the building up to the management office. Brick just pointed to the stairs, and the group cantered to them. The ponies hooves rang against the metal steps as they climbed up to the office. When they reached the door to the office, Rarity huffed. “Finally all these stairs end. I was so close to giving that uncouth pony a piece of my mind.” Scootaloo grinned. Margot opened the door. “I doubt it will do any good.” Inside was a bunch of desks that had been stacked against the walls or windows so there was a large area in the middle of the floor. Rarity grimaced. “Well, it’s the principle of it all. One should treat a lady with respect and not lead her in the dark all over this cursed world.” Margot tapped the floor with her left fore hoof. If they could turn a light on she could see what the floor was made of. There was enough light to see some items. The floor was in shadow though. Since the floor didn’t ring, she figured that the floor was not metal. Lying on a metal floor would be a chilly affair. Rarity peered at Margot. “You do understand what I’m saying.” Margot nodded. “I agree but then it doesn’t seem to matter to me.” “Hmph. I have friends who have similar attitudes,” Rarity said then tossed her head. Scootaloo laughed. Rarity faced Margot. “One thing I do know, I’m not lying on this floor. It’s probably filthy.” Margot nodded. “Now that I do agree and that does matter. Scootaloo, will you help me find something that we could lay on?” Scootaloo nodded then a frown crossed her face. “I don’t have a flashlight. Rarity, do you have one?” Rarity shook her head. “I had one back home.” Margot shook her head. “Maybe there’s one inside one of these desks or somewhere else in the room?” It took them a few minutes to realize that there were no flashlights in the room. The desks faced away from them so the group couldn’t open any drawers. A quick check of the floor turned up nothing. The left wall had a door. Scootaloo turned the knob and opened the door. The hallway was dark. She could see that there was a room. Margot didn’t want to fuss with dark rooms, but they needed something to put on the floor. “Let’s see what’s in that room.” Within a moment, Scootaloo pushed out a box taller than her. Margot pulled it into the room where the light was better. “Well, let’s see. Children’s bedding. Character. Dora the Explorer. Six pieces.” Scootaloo scrunched up her face. “Who?” Margot hoofed through her saddlebags for a small knife after she found it, the box was opened. She pulled out the first set of blankets. Scootaloo and Rarity helped to spread them out. Rarity peered at the blanket. “It seems that Dora is some sort of small donkey wearing clothes. She has an owl and talking objects with her. The shifty looking fox doesn’t look trustworthy. Not at all.” Scootaloo grimaced. “The ponies in this world are weird. I wish we were home already.” Rarity nodded then touched the blankets on the floor. “I think we need more blankets. I can still feel the floor.” Scootaloo and Margot went back into the room and pulled out another box of children’s bedding. Rarity peered at the label on the box. “SpiderPig? Spiders make my skin crawl, and pigs are just disgusting. I don’t know what Applejack does with those dirty stinking creatures at her farm. What sort of pony came up with the idea for this creature?” Margot had heard of Spiderman, but she didn’t have an idea about Spiderpig. They placed the blankets on top of the Dora blankets. Again Rarity tested the blankets. “Well, it’s still hard but I can tolerate it. I would ask for one more bunch, but I’m afraid to see what other creatures those poor foals like.” Margot was glad that Rarity stopped fussing. Maybe she could get more sleep? Scootaloo rummaged through her saddlebags, and pulled out a cell phone. “Margot you need to take this.” “Why?” Margot asked while looking at Scootaloo. “It’s from the Nonliving,” Scootaloo said. “You mean the strange creature we found in the lab?” Margot said. Scootaloo nodded. Margot took the cellphone and put it in her saddlebags. Rarity faced Scootaloo. “Scootaloo darling what happened? Mackie wouldn’t tell me, though I could tell he had been crying. Margot went to one of those horrid lumpy futons and passed out. You were very quiet that evening.” Scootaloo sighed and looked away from Rarity. “It was very strange.” Scootaloo looked back. “There were chairs and tables that moved. Ponies with cell phones stuck in their heads.” Rarity flinched. “How did the furniture move? Did a pony use magic? What is a phone?” Scootaloo shook her head. “No, the chairs moved on their own.” She looked at Margot. Margot was getting tired of being a translator. “A phone or cell phone is a device that ponies use to talk to each other over long distances.” Rarity sat back. “Again, how did the furniture move? I doubt chairs and tables are smart enough to move on their own.” Scootaloo’s eyes narrowed for a moment then went back to normal. “I’m not sure, there were cell phones on the tables and chairs. I guess there was magic in the cell phones. Also there were phones inside of some dead ponies.” Rarity grimaced. “Cell phones inside of dead ponies, now this is definitely too morbid. I hope you didn’t have to deal with them.” “No. Then there was the Nonliving. It was some sort of black cloud with silver speckles.” Margot leaned forward to hear more. “I saw it grab you.” Scootaloo looked down. “Yeah, it grabbed me and pulled me inside. I don’t remember anything until I woke up. Every few seconds, pain would fill my body. It was like my legs were being pulled off. After that, I would scream for awhile then the pain would stop. Then the Nonliving spoke to me. It first told me its name then it apologized for the pain. It was hurting. I was feeling its agony. I tried to heal it using Oonte’s power. You shoulda seen it Rarity and Margot. For a moment, the black turned to blue and the silver changed to gold. I felt good like I was really flying then I passed out. When I woke up, it was black and silver again. The Nonliving thanked me for my failed healing and wanted me to do a favor for it. It was dying and it wanted me to pass on a cell phone to someone who could give it to the one that brought the Nonliving here. I said yes and then I woke up on the floor of the lab. Please Margot, give it to Dr. Geist.” Margot nodded. “I don’t know how, but I will give it to Dr. Geist if I can.” Rarity leaned toward Scootaloo. “Why would you give a phone to that creature?” Scootaloo shrugged. Margot yawned then covered her mouth. “If the Nonliving has a bone to pick with Dr. Geist, I will be happy to help it get its revenge.” Rarity gazed at Margot. “How will you find this Geist character to give him the phone?” Margot shrugged. “I will find out. The resistance has sacrificed much to help us, we should help them if we can.” Rarity nodded. Margot curled up to sleep while Rarity and Scootaloo chatted. Hopefully, this nap wouldn’t be disturbed. She had doubts about that.