Desolate Places Arc
Essenta’s little company was traveling in the moonlight. Six days and about 300 miles separated them from the super-fun oasis in which they’d had all that fun; a couple weeks and 620 miles had gone by. They’d slowed down a bit, the last couple nights being very cold; a north wind had been harassing them, dropping the temperature to freezing.
Essenta was relating a joke she’d heard at some point in the journey; she hoped to keep their minds off the cold, “There’s this old stallion lying drunk in the street in some town. He’s old as all Hell and nopony pays much attention to him.
He tells everypony that comes near, ‘My dick died.’
Everypony hears the same thing, him whining about his dick dying.
The constable approaches him, just to make sure he isn’t causing any trouble, ‘You okay, old-timer?’
The ancient stallion replies, ‘My dick died.’
Figuring the old one was just off his rocker the constable left him alone.
But the next day the old son-of-a-bitch is lying in the same place and he’s got his tunic open; his dick’s hanging out, all flopped across the ground.
The constable heard screaming from some little fillies and went to see. Sure enough, he finds a bunch of ponies running from the old stallion’s ‘hangout’ spot.
Upon seeing the geriatric fool displaying his dick, the constable asks him, ‘What do you think you’re doing?!’
The old stallion can barely lift his head, ‘I told you and everypony else yesterday my dick died…’
The constable was flummoxed, ‘So why’s your tunic open?!’
‘Today’s the viewing.’”
The girls cracked up, but the chill took a lot of joy out of things.
Ama shivered, remembering her time in the north, “Oh, I would have been content to never feel this again.”
Delia’s teeth chattered; she was more accustomed to the cold, but it had been quite a shift, “Yeah… This is unusual. But a north wind’s a north wind.”
They trudged along, extra clothes wrapped around their ears, in hopes they wouldn’t chip off. The cold the last few nights had been so bad they’d even considered traveling more in the daytime, but it was still hot as the hinges of Hell in daylight, so they just stayed the course.
Zyra was third in line; she called up to Delia, taking point as usual, “Hey, floor-scrubber! This still beat hosing out shithouses?!”
Delia turned and reflected Zyra’s feral smile, “No, but it beats scrubbing up bloodstains…”
Loress shuddered, “Oh, please, no more of that… If I have to think about that monster Melchior scrubbing up his fucking bloodstains anymore, I may vomit…”
Zyra giggled, referencing something said by Loress just days earlier, “Well, then we’d at least have a hot meal.”
The girls groaned as one and Loress came close to gagging. It was funny as shit but the Terran now regretted telling that filthy joke about the starving stallions in the desert; it was now slightly less amusing, considering they were in the desert themselves, freezing their tails off.
Once the laughter had subsided, Delia apologized; it was a line she’d better try to observe, “Sorry… not thinking everything through in this weather. It was a bad attempt at a joke.”
“You have plenty of those,” Ama quipped.
The girls chuckled, and Delia allowed it; it was all in good fun, “Yeah, I tell you though… if I didn’t manage a little humor in my life, there’s no telling where I’d be.”
Ama answered, “Clovis said the very same thing of Salvo; his good humor saved Clovis and their friends many a time.”
Delia smiled warmly, “I guess I never told any of you, but I dated Salvo for a time.”
This was a stunner; Ama gasped, “Really, you did?”
Delia nodded, “When we were about 16, we got to be pretty good friends. I was on decent terms with all of Clovis’s friends but Salvo especially. We got a little more involved than was strictly healthy. Melchior didn’t care if his employees… and slaves mingled but we couldn’t marry or anything.”
“What happened?” Dechaa, of all ponies (not all that surprising, though), was really curious.
Delia said, “Nothing much… We were just a couple kids… fooling around some.”
Ama just had to say something; she had no ulterior motives, “I am sure that caused some trouble with Clovis.”
The former maid didn’t want to talk about it but knew Ama meant no harm; she allowed herself a smile that resembled a grimace, “Of course it caused trouble with Clovis. His two best friends, screwing around… it’d tick most ponies off.”
The girls could believe that.
“But that wasn’t it… at all,” Delia continued. “And it wasn’t that he didn’t carry a torch for me, because he did.”
This, not all of them understood; Essenta perked up, “Then… what?”
Wilka spoke; they hadn’t heard a peep out of her in hours, “A freepony and a slave… can’t marry… They’d probably only find sadness.”
It may have surprised a few of them to hear that from Wilka, but not Delia, and a couple others.
Delia nodded slowly, “That’s the nail on the head… Clovis didn’t mean to hurt me or Salvo but he knew it would only be trouble. Salvo and I realized this, and we broke it off.”
Realizing the note of sadness in Delia’s voice, the others were unsure what to say.
The messy-maned mare grinned larger than they’d seen that night; she wasn’t sure if she wanted to say it, but she decided to, “But slaves can marry. Clovis was always my friend and he gave up his freedom for me; if that’s not a friend I don’t know what is. It got me thinking… When I was still looking at another 13 or 14 years and Clovis was looking at more than 20… I once asked him if he’d ever want to marry a filly like me, when we were 17.”
The others didn’t know what to make of this; they were caught in between squee and bleh.
Orni was probably more invested than the rest, “And…?”
“We laughed about it,” Delia giggled. “We were friends… good friends. But… I think I could see that. We never said ‘no way’.”
Ama mused, eying the stars, “What a lovely thought…”
Again, doubting Ama’s taste in stallions the girls hoped for a new topic; things were getting creepy, with all the thinking of Clovis.
Loress suggested, “Anypony want to sing a song, or something?”
The Terran had made herself the sacrificial virgin; somepony had to change the topic and she of all of them had to be the one to seem embarrassed and childish regarding talking about stallions though they all wanted a new direction.
Ama snickered; they had plenty of recent dirt on Loress, “What bothers you, Loress? Does this have you thinking of that Jaska fellow?”
The others giggled, not unkindly.
Even in the cold and moonlight Loress’s blush was evident, “Oh, leave me alone about that!”
She didn’t mean to push Ama so hard but wound up sending her more than a few yards with what was meant to be a friendly shove.
Ama yelped, spiraling into the next dune over.
The girls stood aghast, Loress covering her mouth with a shocked hoof.
But Ama sat up, laughing hard in her “crater”, “I am fine, girls!”
Not sure whether to be amused at her not being hurt or horrified at Loress’s power the girls decided not to mess with the Terran anymore.
“I think a song’s a lovely idea,” Delia offered. “Anypony know ‘Barnacle Bill the Sailor’?”
Delia knew “Barnacle Bill the Sailor”; and she knew about 200 verses of it, it seemed. It was after dawn and they were still singing it.
“Next call is ‘What if you should go to jail, etc.?’, okay?” Delia had been coaching them along.
The other seven replied with:
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“What if you should go to jail? What if you should go to jail? What if you should go to jail?” cried the fair young maiden.
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Delia leered and drawled in a deep voice:
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“Well… With a whip of my cock I’ll break the lock!” said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.
“With a swing of my balls I’ll knock down the walls!” said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.
“I’ll fight ‘n fuck ‘n kill ‘n then I’ll drink me 16 quarts of gin! Old Bill he lives a life of sin!” said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.
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They laughed, sure, but it was starting to wear thin.
“Cripes!” Essenta complained. “How long does this go on?!”
There were similar rumblings from the others.
“Yeah!” Orni made herself heard. “And Barnacle Bill already used his cock to pick another lock, didn’t he?”
Dechaa frowned, “Yeah… when he broke in through the front door she’d locked on him. That was lovely.”
Most of the verses were rather racy in nature, some worse than others.
Delia said right back, “You’re the ones that wanted to keep going! Things get redundant after a while…”
Sensing a fight, Ama decided to make the peace, “Girls, ‘Barnacle Bill’ was fun but let us just move onto something else.”
The Mazan was right; this was nothing to argue about. Nopony meant to be nasty; they’d just been stuck in the desert for more than a week, is all…
Delia sighed, “Sorry, girls…”
Essenta shook her head, “I’m sorry… I was the one that egged you on, earlier.”
Dechaa huffed, “How about everypony shuts up for a few minutes? This is the only time of the day the weather’s actually nice.”
It seemed a rude thing for Dechaa to say but she was right. The cold was burning off, quite literally, and the warm sunshine was very pleasant… for about 30 minutes.
So, they kept quiet for a bit, enjoying the rapid warm-up; within a few hours they’d be diving for shelter from the heat.
Listening to their stomachs, it was clearly breakfast time. While they could wait until they hunkered down for the day it had been found a little food really helped them in the late-morning schlep.
With the most comfortable part of the day and their fresh fruit starting to run low, they would travel a couple more hours, at least not hungry. They’d planned on and expected running out of fresh fruit. They were in the friggin’ desert, after all, and had enough dried fruit to feed them a while.
With satisfied bellies and a reasonably happy spirit, the company paddled across the sandy expanse and eventually found themselves singing again. They greatly enjoyed the different songs their friends all brought to the table.
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You get a line and I’ll get a pole
Honey, honey
You get a line and I’ll get a pole
Baby, baby
You get a line and I’ll get a pole
We’ll go down to the fishin’ hole
Honey, oh baby, be mine
I had a colt who lived on a creek
Honey, honey
I had a colt who lived on a creek
Baby, baby
I had a colt who lived on a creek
He was cute, and he was sweet
Honey, oh baby, be mine
Whatcha gonna do if the lake runs dry?
Honey, honey?
Whatcha gonna do if the lake runs dry?
Baby, baby?
Whatcha gonna do if the lake runs dry?
We’ll fight and screw 'til the morning-time!
Honey, oh baby, be mine
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They barely made it through the last, brief refrain; all of them broke up and guffawed. Zyra had hijacked the last line of the third verse. It was supposed to be slightly more wholesome, but they had a cheap laugh. The line was meant to be “we’ll sit on the shore and watch the fishes die” (not much nicer, really).
Their sides hurting from laughing most of the morning, they climbed yet another dune. At the top they halted; there was something odd ahead. For the first time since the oasis they saw another living creature, or in this case, many.
Crossing the peak of a dune they saw that a flock of vultures was circling about a point around one-hundred yards ahead.
They didn’t even have to say anything; their eyes met, and they took off running towards the scene. There was something up ahead.
Dechaa and Zyra weren’t the first to reach the spot the birds gravitated towards, but they were the first to shoo them away.
“Git!” cried Zyra, giving the vultures a small jolt.
Dechaa joined her, zapping a few of the birds.
The vultures were deterred but being the vermin that they were didn’t abandon the area; they circled nearby or kept a short distance from the company, eyeing the situation.
“Oh, geez…” Loress breathed.
It was a sorry sight: a Pegasus stallion of indeterminable age lay before them. He looked beyond pathetic, his eyes glazed over, his ribs visible. Hell, he looked dead.
“Oh, man… How long you think he’s been here?” Zyra didn’t want to get any closer and neither did the rest.
Dechaa went up, though, and looked at him, “I don’t know, maybe since last night—”
“Water…” croaked the stallion.
Dechaa squealed and jumped, nearly soiling her tunic, “Yipe!”
They all leapt back. They had figured him dead.
“Water…” the stallion repeated.
Dechaa was freaked out but acted fast, “Ama! Loress! Grab a couple tarps! Wilka! Fly up real quick and look for shelter! Somepony get me a canteen and a rag!”
The mares did what they were bade, Orni retrieving water.
Resting the stallion’s head in Zyra’s lap, Dechaa wet his brow and eyes. The stallion blinked at the water; he was at least responsive. His eyes moistened and they began to flutter. She dribbled a little water between his chapped lips.
Dechaa gave him a moment. Upon responding positively, she gave him a little more water. He was swallowing on his own, whether aware or not of doing so. She sat him up a little higher in Zyra’s lap, the others looking on.
Dechaa tried talking, “Sir… can you hear me?”
His eyes drooped open, having been closed a moment. Eyeing the canteen, his hooves shot towards it. Dechaa managed to keep hold of it and only allowed him a few swallows. But he choked and began coughing.
Seeing he was more alert Dechaa gave him a little more. He realized he couldn’t chug it, so he sipped of his own free-will, apparently.
“Good…. Good…” Dechaa crooned. “That’s the way.”
His eyes swiveled her way; he attempted to speak, “…”
He didn’t seem able to say anything, but his breathing began to steady out and deepen.
She could see he was aware to some degree, but he was still semi-conscious. His eyes closed again, but his breathing kept up.
Dechaa looked up to the girls, “A little later in the day and there’s no way he’d have been alive. I think we saved him.”
It was a relief and they didn’t even know the fellow.
“Hey!” Wilka called from above. “There’s a rock formation a few dunes ahead! It has a little cave!”
Dechaa nodded to her, “Lead the way!”
Motioning to the others, Dechaa levitated him as they got the tarp laid out on the wagon. With their lucky find secure, Dechaa sat with him while they double-timed the wagon over the dunes in the direction of their promised shelter.
The girls took turns watching over the stallion, sleeping as they were able. But his plight kept many of them from sound sleep.
Too weak to do much more than sip water, watching over him was easy enough. A Pegasus, they didn’t have to worry about him having a seizure or freaking out and his magic blowing up; he might have a fit, but it wouldn’t put them at risk.
They didn’t want to, but the company had settled on remaining there for a day, resting in the cave. They had plenty of water and enough food to see them a few extra days.
Not having had anything hot to eat since the oasis Loress had Zyra supply a little heat; they made a thin soup to go with everything, in hopes of giving their guest a little nourishment. After easing the stallion through the day, they were glad to see him gaining fluid. They didn’t give him too much water but were relieved to see him urinate after dinner; his body was at least working.
The temperature outside dropped like a rock off a cliff once the sun dipped below the horizon. Holing up the entire day, the princess wanted to stretch her legs. But first she had to talk to Dechaa.
“He say anything about who he was?” Essenta asked.
Dechaa shook her head, “No… The others say the same. About all he’s done is ask for water. I’m just glad we got the soup down his throat. The salt might perk him up enough that he can do more than just lie there. He might even be able to have fruit in the morning; giving him juice might help, too.”
Essenta nodded, “Okay. I’m going out for a little walk.”
“Don’t go too far. I can’t imagine there’s anything out there but watch out.”
“Of course,” Essenta replied, ducking out.
It felt good to stretch. She’d go back inside soon enough; it would be down to freezing before she knew it.
“Princess,” Loress said.
Essenta turned and saw Loress with Delia in tow… just the mares she wanted to talk to. Essenta wouldn’t say it out loud, but with Delia’s background, knowledge, and maturity compared to some of the other mares, she’d in her mind put her at “third-in-command”.
“Girls,” Essenta answered.
They sat on a nearby boulder, still warm from the sun… much warmer than the air around them.
Delia considered, “This guy came from the jungle, I’m sure.”
Loress nodded, “Once he can tell us himself, he may defy our logic, but… yeah… I don’t see much other possibility.”
Essenta twiddled her hooves, “Delia… you and Dechaa looked at him. No sign of plague?”
Delia nodded, “If we thought he had the plague he wouldn’t be in there with us. He’s… ‘fine’, if you want to call it that; he was just dehydrated. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was actually fine yesterday… a few hours out here in the day with no water can do that to you, what we saw.”
“I wonder what happened to him…” Loress played with her hooves.
It seemed a dumb thing to even say, but it was a shared thought.
“No way to know until he tells us something…” Essenta leaned back on the boulder, enjoying the heat. “Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a fire tonight…”
The stallion must’ve been feeling “better” because he woke with a start, jabbering and screaming.
Wilka, keeping watch that hour, almost fell on her back scrambling away from him, “Whoa!”
The others woke up too, and briefly saw his wild eyes rolling in their sockets; he didn’t seem all there.
Dechaa had anticipated this happening and had a plan: Zyra magicked a blanket around him while the healer herself went in close and gave him a dose of “calm”. She’d used it more than she cared to, weeks back, when Zyra was having her trouble after the raid.
He calmed down and fell back to sleep, almost instantly. The others were relieved; it had given them a fright.
Dechaa sat back and sighed, “I think he was just having a nightmare…”
Zyra had noticed too, his mind, “Yeah… you dope him up a little?”
“Yeah…” Dechaa looked to the stallion. “He should sleep soundly until morning…”
The stallion slept a while; all the girls slept a while too. During the dawn watch, Zyra’s, they caught him trying to run away.
Ama grabbed him as he stumbled across her; he’d certainly startled her, waking her up, “Ho! Wake up, girls!”
The others woke rather quickly, surrounding the scene.
Ama simpered, “Our guest is alive, it seems.”
Essenta barked at Zyra, “How’d you let this happen?!”
Zyra scowled, but it had been her watch.
Dechaa defended the mage, “Calm down everypony. Sen, none of us is used to this; about now we’d be on the move. She just fell asleep.”
The stallion, not all there, yelled in a panic. Ama held him easily; he wasn’t trying to hurt anypony, but merely struggling.
Essenta leered at him, “Are you mad?! We just saved you and now you’re trying to run off into the daytime?!”
“Sen, shut up!” Dechaa’s voice came sharp, getting the princess to flinch. “He’s not in his right mind! Yelling won’t help.”
The girls watched as Dechaa knelt down. Her horn lit up and she touched his shoulder. After a moment, he calmed, but not to the degree he was knocked out.
“Ama, help him sit,” Dechaa ordered.
The Mazan did so, cradling his head so it wouldn’t flop.
Dechaa gave him a trickle of water, which he responded positively to, “There… Yeah, just a little…”
His eyes, fuzzy with exhaustion and panic, cleared after a moment. He blinked and seeing the canteen, pulled it in and started sucking it down.
“Not so much, you’ll just get sick,” Dechaa advised, pulling the canteen away.
The stallion didn’t quite get sick but sputtered and coughed. Dechaa gave him a moment, letting him have it out. His hacking subsided after a bit and he relaxed his head.
For the umpteenth time, Dechaa tried to get something out of him, “Sir… can you hear me?”
Leaning on Ama, breathing heavily, his eyes sagged open, “Where am I…?”
Dechaa and the others gave a sigh of relief; he seemed fine-ish.
The healer came up close, “You’re among friends. I’m Dechaa.”
His continence registered blearily, “Dechaa… are you an angel?”
Dechaa snorked, “Oh, no… I’m just Dechaa.”
“What’s going on…?” he was fuzzy.
She didn’t want to tell him too much, setting him off, “You’re safe. What’s your name, sir?”
“…Hagano…”
“Hagano?”
“Yeah…” it was almost as if he were dreaming. “Just Hagano… No family name or anything…”
Dechaa flipped a little water into his face, hoping to perk him up, “Well, Hagano, you’re safe. You’re in a grotto with my friends and me. We found you yesterday morning in the desert. You were pretty dehydrated.”
It took a few seconds, but his eyes showed a clarity, “So… I’m not dreaming?”
Dechaa marshalled a smile, “No, Hagano. You’re awake and recovering nicely.”
His eyes cleared further; with little warning he freaked out, “Aaaaaaagh!”
Ama had let her guard down; Hagano, wailing on Ama with his wings as he scrambled, managed to get loose and just about to the cave’s entrance.
Zyra stopped him easily enough in a magic bubble, “Oh, no you don’t.”
The girls looked on in significant discomfort; Hagano was going bonkers, “They’re coming! Lemme go! Nopony came back! Lemme GOOOOOO!!”
“Shee-yit!” Zyra voiced. “What the fuck’s his problem?!”
Dechaa managed to keep a cool head, “He’s just panicky, girls.”
Again, Dechaa gave him a little “calm”.
Watching Hagano drop off like syphilis, Essenta grimaced, “Maybe he’s just nuts to begin with.”
The healer was unamused, “Don’t say such things, Sen. Let’s see what happens to any of us after what he’s been through. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was lying there since yesterday afternoon. I’m astonished he didn’t freeze to death last night…”
Ama got Hagano resituated on the heap of blankets they’d laid out, “Poor fellow.”
Delia nodded, “Yes…”
In silence, they regarded the poor fellow; they wished there was something to do for him… other than wait and see.
As if channeling their thoughts, Loress put up a hoof, “Uh, I don’t know what you all think, but we can’t stay here another day or two. We didn’t plan for it. I know we have this stallion to watch over and we can’t just leave him… but he came from the jungle, we figure. We need answers. And since he doesn’t seem to be calming down…”
Dechaa pondered, “Can Zyra and I lull a little out of him while I have him sedated?”
Loress hadn’t been the most eloquent but that was what they all wanted, “Yes. We have a lot to ask him.”
Essenta eyed Loress, “Ask him if we should even go any further?”
Everypony tensed up; the princess didn’t sound pleased.
Loress stammered, “Well, I, uh…”
“It’s fine, Loress,” Essenta sighed.
She looked over the assemblage. They’d decided to go through with their quest, but faced with this? It would be stupid to not make that final decision while they still had time; with their food and water they could still make it back to the oasis.
“Yes…” Essenta looked at Hagano. “We need to hear what he has to say.”
Dechaa sat next to Hagano, “Well, that’s easy. Zyra, come help me.”
Ama wondered, “You are not attempting to enter his mind, are you?”
It never even crossed their minds; Zyra smiled, “Not today. We’re just going to open him up to suggestion; we can ask him anything we want and not worry about him freaking out again.”
The girls gathered around.
Dechaa cast an aura over the stallion, “Zyra, help me maintain; you’re better at consistency than me.”
“Got it,” Zyra lit up her horn, grinning. “You know… this guy’s not too bad looking, now that we’ve gotten his water back up; maybe we should ask if he’s got himself a filly.”
While six of the girls got the joke and shook their heads at Zyra’s lame poke, one was reliably oblivious.
Ama was aghast, “That would be most incorrect to do, Zyra! Taking advantage of somepony that way, asking him such a thing!”
Loress tried to ease Ama’s worries, “Zyra’s joking, Ama; it was a bad joke.”
Ama relaxed, “Oh… very well, then.”
Delia spoke up, “I’m afraid though, we will have to take advantage of him.”
Orni was confused, ‘Wait, what?”
The rest didn’t fully understand either.
All the girls led very different lives. Delia lived more than half of her life in the service of a criminal; theirs was a dubious business at best. Hell, Delia had been trained in espionage to a degree. She knew the value of healthy skepticism.
With no malice in her voice, the former maid spoke her piece, “We don’t know a thing about this guy. We know his name—if that is his name—and that he was almost dead; that’s it. He could be a thief or murderer as easily as a tinsmith. We were careless this morning… If he was a bad sort and if he’d better had his wits about him, he could’ve stolen half our supplies… or cut our throats.”
This crude, but meaningful statement had the girls clutching their throats. It was extreme, sure, but not in the realm of impossibility.
Essenta nodded, gulping, “I see…”
“Would you like me to question him?” Delia asked.
“We’ll take turns,” Loress said. “Anypony has something they want to know, speak up.”
They murmured assent. It wasn’t a matter of having made up their minds about Hagano… they just knew jack-shit about him.
Zyra had taken over Dechaa’s initial spell, “He’s ready.”
Hagano looked asleep, but Zyra’s word meant more than his appearance.
Delia asked, “Will he be able to lie to us?”
It seemed a legitimate concern, but was very unlikely, given he'd be under suggestion.
But Zyra answered as best she could, “Unless he’s been brainwashed to a certain ‘depth’ or was trained or if he’s more magical than me… I wouldn’t worry.”
This was good enough for them.
Dechaa advised, “You’ll need to be very specific; it works best that way.”
Delia began; she leaned in close, “Tell us… what’s your name?”
In a few seconds, Hagano answered, “My name’s Hagano.”
“Any family name?” Delia persisted.
“No… just Hagano.”
“How long have you been in the desert?”
“Four days.”
“Does that include today?”
“Today?”
Delia explained; his thinking may have been disjointed, “We found you yesterday morning; you were unconscious, and we suspect you’d been there overnight.”
“I was?”
“We suspect… So, have you been in the desert four days?”
“I remember walking; it was very hot. That was four days.”
Delia nodded, “So almost a week…”
Hagano didn’t answer; Delia hadn’t given him enough “input”.
Delia looked to Essenta, “You or anypony else want to take over?”
“Keep going,” the princess encouraged.
Delia nodded, turning back to their guest, and went on, “Hagano… did you come from the jungle?”
“Yes.”
“Why are you alone?”
“I don’t think I’m alone.”
“When you were in the desert… why were you alone?”
“My crew didn’t make it.”
Delia cringed, “Did they die in the desert?”
“No.”
Delia took a few seconds before speaking again, “Did they die in the jungle?”
“I don’t know.”
What? Essenta and the girls exchanged glances.
Delia kept at it, “You don’t know if your friends died?”
“I don’t have any friends.”
Delia clarified; maybe he didn’t have friends, “You don’t know if your crew died in the jungle?”
“I don’t.”
Delia thought a moment; she turned to the rest, “Somepony else try.”
Loress moved in, “I’ll try.”
Delia got out of the way.
Loress came close to Hagano; she thought she’d try to be friendly. There wasn’t much point, considering they didn’t have to weasel anything out of him.
“Hagano… when did your crew cross the desert from ‘Last Chance’ City?” she assumed, given logic, they'd set out from there.
“We left before Spring.”
This may have meant they’d not known about the plague at first; Loress decided to wait with that, “How many of you were there?”
“There were 34 of us.”
That number shocked the girls. 34 crossed the desert to the jungle seven or eight months earlier and one came back…?
Loress leaned in again, “Why did you go to the jungle?”
“We had 25 fillies to sell to the Surf Guild.”
The girls did a take; Delia took on a most sour expression.
Loress was a little shocked; perhaps she’d heard wrong, “Uh… what? Why did you go to the jungle?”
“We had 25 fillies to sell to the Surf Guild.”
Loress stumbled away from him, “I… I can’t believe this…”
Delia looked ready to pounce on Hagano. The rest weren’t sure how to feel.
The former maid looked to her friends, “Well… we have us a slaver.”
Guided by the others, Delia had retaken to questioning; they realized quite a sordid tale.
Hagano was the first mate of a small pirate crew that had taken to land a while back. At the end of winter, they’d purchased 25 fillies from Melchior, from all over the continent, to be sex slaves—among other things—to the Surf Guild.
Delia had explained the Surf Guild was a notorious band of explorers bent on finding the ancient treasures of the jungle natives. They didn’t believe in a golden city or anything but there were plenty of precious items to be found in their old settlements. The guild had a well-known taste for fillies between the ages of 10 and 14. Sordid, indeed.
The pirate crew, nine strong, saw three of the fillies die in the desert; they left them to the buzzards. They also sampled a few of the more ‘developed’ ones that managed the trip.
Hagano’s crew made the sale and with nothing much else to do elsewhere, elected to join in the guild’s activities. They’d spent the spring and the summer finding some very interesting things and having some high times. They had good food, good booze, raucous company, and a lot of fillies to enjoy. They’d planned to head back to the big city before winter.
Several of the girls had to restrain themselves from killing him in his “sleep” or had otherwise excused themselves; Wilka ran outside, crying, and Orni went to comfort her. After a time, only Essenta and Delia remained, besides Zyra. Even Dechaa had left, literally sick to her stomach, leaving the capable Zyra to keep the spell up.
Upon hearing Hagano describe the “going away party” the Surf Guild threw for the nine pirates, Essenta left, furious tears streaming down her face.
Delia got up, sighing; they still had a lot of things to ask Hagano but it did little good with the first and second-in-command going soft. But the maid checked herself… this wasn’t about the girls going soft. They’d found a fucked up stallion; whether he’d have done anything to them, they were glad he’d been too weak to harm them earlier.
Delia turned to Zyra, “I think that’s all for now. See he stays asleep a while.”
Zyra nodded, looking rather ill. She’d sat there, having a more intimate connection than the rest with Hagano. Rather than hear his tale, she could see it to a degree.
Essenta had stormed outside, past the weeping Wilka and concerned Orni. The other girls that had “excused themselves” watched her trod away. It was only mid-morning and the temperature was at its ideal point.
Delia trotted after Essenta, “Hey!”
Essenta staggered a few more feet and sat atop a dune in a huff.
Delia stopped short. She knew how the princess felt, to a degree; for most of the girls, what they’d heard was the stuff of nightmares… for Delia, it was another day in “Last Chance” City.
“Essenta…” Delia voiced. “Are you alright?”
Essenta wiped a hoof across her face, wiping tears and snot away; she was crying, sure, but she was angry… too angry to speak.
Delia closed her eyes, “I don’t know what to tell you, Essenta… Life’s pretty fucked up in this part of the world.”
Essenta kept her gaze forward and spoke abruptly, “What the fuck are we doing, Delia…?”
Delia wasn’t the sort to take Essenta’s words, in this case, at face-value. She knew the princess was upset… out of her element; she was inexperienced with the darker side of the world, and they’d even seen some of the nastier parts of it, long before ever crossing the mountains in the south.
Still, Delia spoke her mind, “We’re trying to figure out what we should do next, Essenta. Don’t get rattled now.”
Essenta turned, her face slick with its orifical productions, “‘Rattled’, Delia…? You heard that… You lived that…”
Delia shuddered, “Yes… but I was one of the fortunate ones, if the word fits. Melchior kept me; it was easier to keep a leash on my dad if I was around… and by the time Dad died, I was too useful to sell for a fuck-doll.”
Essenta cringed at the last of Delia’s sentence, “Oh, why did I take you all out here?”
Still, Delia remained patient and amenable; perhaps she was the only one able to, just then, “We’re trying to figure out what we should do next, Essenta. Stand up.”
The princess needed a hoof with that and Delia gave her one. Leading the princess, Delia sat her down just outside the cave.
Delia motioned the others to them; she called, “Dechaa… go make sure Zyra’s put Hagano to bed for a good while; we need to talk… all of us.”
There were a few questions to which they needed to find some answers. Delia didn’t want to take charge, but it appeared she’d have to; the others were rattled.
“Okay…” Delia breathed. “We have to figure a few things out. First and foremost… do we keep going?”
The words struck them. Abandon the quest? So suddenly? After all they’d been through?
Delia swallowed, “I know I just joined you last week… You’ve come a long way. But we need to think about this.”
There was plenty to think about. Good or evil, they’d seen what the desert could do to a pony, in Hagano. They knew some horrible sickness waited for them a little further south. They knew the world was full of darkness. And the world was not an easy thing to change, even if one turned it upside down. They knew in their hearts nothing good waited ahead.
Was going forward worth it?
“It’s not my place to choose,” Delia looked to Essenta. “You’re our leader. These girls trust you and so do I. We chose to follow you. It's 100 miles to the jungle, but we'd hit savanna in about 90; the change is quite abrupt, I'm told. We have enough food and water to take us to the jungle with plenty to spare. We’d be able to find enough and more to sustain us. We have just enough supplies to get us back to the oasis, maybe by half of a day. We could find food there; it wouldn’t be exciting, but we wouldn’t starve, and we know where to find water on the way back. This doesn’t include what the stallion might yet eat, but that’s another matter.”
Essenta looked down at her hooves; she wasn’t sure what to say.
Delia patted her hoof, “If you need to think, do so.”
“Everypony,” Essenta sat bolt upright.
Everypony looked up; they were ready to hear what the princess had to say.
“Everypony…” Essenta gathered her courage. “Let’s go back.”
The words hit them like a sack of wet shit, but they took the blow.
It was over. After 3,000 miles it was over. Salvatrix was a bust... and they'd never reach the old temple. No Dragon Lance.
For a moment, the only noise to hear was the increasing wind whipping around the rock formation.
Essenta groaned, a sad smirk on her face, “I know I talked big… that I sounded so sure of things… and that I felt I knew what I was doing… but it’s all shit, girls. I’m in over my head and I dragged you along for it. I’m just some dumb princess that hates her father and… wishes she was born somepony else. I’m sorry…”
Another moment of silence ensued; it was broken by Ama.
The Mazan put a hoof on Essenta’s shoulder, “And we believe in you nonetheless. Where you go… I will gladly follow, Princess.”
The significance of Ama’s chosen moniker for Essenta was lost on nopony.
Essenta’s eyes swam and she choked up; clutching Ama’s hoof, she rested her cheek upon it.
Ama smiled warmly, “Yes, Essenta… a good leader leads. We know your decision comes from a good and just place.”
“And I’ll follow you too,” Delia put a hoof on Essenta’s other shoulder.
“And I will, always,” Dechaa, shedding a few tears of her own, put a hoof on her oldest and best friend’s back.
“So will I, Cap,” Zyra joined.
Loress sniffled, “I guess we’ll have to find some other trophy to bring your father… But I’m sure we’ll manage to find something; we need to go back there for your sister, after all.”
This was very true. Essenta had come up with that goal recently: they’d save Calleha from the life of a royal pawn. Hopefully the little princess was okay with it, but they’d deal with it when the time came.
Wilka and Orni came in as well. All eight of the girls embraced. None needed to say it but the time they spent together meant more than finding some artifact residing in a deathtrap.
Delia let the moment run out; once they’d stopped the “company hug-pile”, she addressed their other concerns, “That leaves us with two other questions: I still think we need to know just what’s been going on down in the jungle, so we need to ask Hagano; then… after we know what we need to… we need to decide what to do with him.”
Quiet again reigned for a time; the wind had definitely gone out of their “comradery sails”.
Delia knew the answer but said it anyway, “I don’t want to kill him… and I don’t think anypony else does, either, am I right?”
The girls all nodded somberly. A few of them knew the great weight of life… and taking it. They’d all seen enough blood and misery over the last few months, anyway.
Delia felt relieved nonetheless, “Good. We can decide what to do with him later; for now, we ask him what’s been going on down there.”
Sure, there were a lot of assholes in the city from which they’d come, but the whole continent would benefit from knowing what was going on down south.
“Okay,” Delia stood up. “Let’s try to get some sense from the stallion.”
They had to talk to Hagano but it could wait a few hours. After lunch they decided to wake him up.
Zyra didn’t really mean to zap him as she did, but they weren’t wasting water to wake him and she was unhappy about having to sit through his despicable account earlier in the day.
Zap!
Hagano jolted, just about flipping over; his wings’ feathers stuck out in all directions, “F-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-uck!”
Zyra let up, watching him squirm.
“Where am I?!” Hagano cried.
Delia joked, “Shoulda zapped him before, I guess.”
The stallion tried to bolt but the fact he was weak and that Ama stopped him rendered his efforts fruitless. Ama roughly pressed him against a wall while Zyra restrained him with her magic.
“Hey, what’s all this?!” Hagano asked blearily.
Essenta decided to deal with him; she was leader and she felt better, at least about being leader, “Settle down, Hagano; you’re safe. We were traveling in the desert yesterday and came across you.”
“You did?” it seemed strange to him he was even alive.
“You’re fortunate we did; another couple hours out there and you’d have died.”
“Well, glad I’m not dead…” Hagano leaned back as much as he was able. “So… who are you fillies?”
Dechaa felt his eyes scanning the lot of them; it pissed her off something fierce, “Don’t worry about who we are, slaver… Worry about yourself.”
He eyed Zyra and noticed Dechaa’s horn, “Ah… you’re no seer or anything but you must’ve squeezed a few tidbits out of me.”
His smile disgusted them; what was worse was his apparent lack of fear and shame.
Dechaa felt him out a little more… and found his manner was genuine. He wasn’t afraid and looked at them as if they were just pieces of meat.
He grinned at Dechaa; then he referred to Loress and Delia, “Gal, I tell you… you’re not quite up there with those two but I’m a sucker for a pretty unicorn! How about a lie-down with me?”
The girls were in disbelief at Hagano’s manners.
Dechaa could again tell he wasn’t joking around; he wanted to stick it up her guts, “No, you waste of life, I’m not interested in fucking you.”
He didn’t seem turned off by her remarkably high loathing.
“I could really do with a good fuck before you fillies kill me,” he beamed; any of them would be fine, really.
Essenta tired of his assholery, “Nopony’s killing you, Hagano… but keep this up and we may beat you so badly you never walk or fly again. We just have some questions.”
“You didn’t get enough the first time?” he inquired. “If you know what I was up to down there, I must’ve told you plenty.”
“Wanna knock him out first? It’d be easier…” Loress eyed Hagano as if he was a hemorrhoid.
Zyra looked to Dechaa, her eyes giving her friend the choice; she couldn’t activate the spell anyway, only maintain it. The healer shook her head.
“Let him be; I’ll be able to tell if he’s lying to us,” Dechaa looked cold.
Hagano chuckled, “That’ll be just fine, then…”
Essenta knelt as close as she dared, “I don’t want to hear anything else about your party with the Surf Guild—”
“Boy, you chicks really did get a lot out of me! Why, I—”
Essenta roughly hoofed his face, pressing his cheek and forcing his head into an awkward position, “Enough! You’re gonna answer my questions.”
“Fine, fine, fine…” he yawned as Essenta backed off. “Shoot.”
“What happened to your crew?”
“Dunno, really. We got separated. Can’t be good though.”
Essenta recalled the morning, “Earlier, when you weren’t fully conscious, you were yelling about somepony chasing you… that somepony never came back.”
“Yeah, when we got separated… I’m not one to panic, but I sure did panic a little… Things were pretty out of hoof…”
“But you’re fine, now…” Essenta observed.
“Sure, I was going nuts earlier, running out of there, but after the fact… I’m all there, girls.”
Loress wanted clarification on an earlier topic, “Earlier, you said you and your crew made it to the jungle by spring… How is it—?"
Hagano seemed easily distracted; he chuckled nastily, eying Loress, “Wow, you got a pretty mane! You’re as beautiful as a summer day back home! If I had anything other than lint in my pocket, I’d give it all for a taste of your nectar!”
This was repellent! It was hard to know if he was playing a game... or was just stupid. Dechaa had trouble knowing.
In the dimness, something overshadowed Hagano; Ama loomed over him, looking less than pleased.
Hagano did a take; he’d never seen a mare so large, “Damn, you’re a big one! How about you show me your—?"
Pop!
The girls grimaced; Ama had given him a measured slug to the mouth. He spat out a couple teeth, looking dazed.
“You will keep a civil tongue in your head,” she stated. “You will answer our questions… If you choose not to do so, I can keep you awake a long time whilst I lay into you.”
Spitting out a thin stream of blood, he looked from Ama to Loress; he decided to keep the rest of his teeth, “Okay… Ask away!”
Loress sighed, “This spring, the whole continent was shocked to hear the plague sprang up in Salvatrix, worse than usual… It was bad enough to wipe out the capitol and pretty much everything else. You’ve been down there half the year. You’re not sick and you said the plague didn’t kill anypony in your crew. How is it you avoided the plague?”
Hagano blinked, looking flummoxed, “Plague?”
Dechaa chimed in, “Yes, the plague… You know—”
“I know cocksure what the plague is, babe… But if the plague jumped up all of a sudden it’s news to me!”
This gave them all halt. He wasn’t lying. But for him to be down there and not know of the plague was difficult to buy.
Delia asked him, “How is it you never came across it? Did you stay in the jungle the whole time?”
“Oh, no…” Hagano replied. “We went through Old Salvatrix and New Salvatrix… did a little trading in some of the villages… even saw a couple of the jungle folk, the qilin, you know… None too friendly, the qilin…”
Delia blinked; she was having trouble processing this, “We haven’t heard a thing from the south since spring… and you’re telling me there’s no sickness among the ponies?!”
“Nothing as far as actual disease goes, no…” he was calm as can be.
The girls were stunned; what did this mean?
Delia didn’t let up, “What do you mean ‘actual disease’?”
He was moving his tongue around his cut-up mouth, probing a loose tooth, “Well, nopony’s puking out their intestines or anything, but there’s plenty wrong down there. It’s like they’re sick…”
Essenta moved up next to Delia, “Sick with what, Hagano?”
He managed to ease the tooth he’d been poking at from its foundation; he spat and grinned as it ricocheted off the far wall. The mares were disgusted, and it showed. He smiled at them, showing his now-gappy grin.
“Fear…” he offered.