It was incredibly rare for Lotus to feel lucky that she was hurt. The wound was probably not so bad that she wouldn't be able to help if she really had to—but if they didn't make her, then she would take the chance to rest.
Eventually they asked her to get into the car, assuring her that Iron could handle the pedals that time. She was too exhausted from the day to argue, so didn't try.
The next thing she knew, they were pulling into the old parking lot. The space was overgrown with grass and small shrubs, but it was smoother against her tires than the ground. Besides, there was the ugly old building looming overhead, clear to her despite the darkness.
There were no lights on inside, no sign of other occupants.
"Don't think we're going to some paradise, Lotus. There's no power here. Halloween people always brought a generator."
She blinked, yawned, then sat up from the passenger seat. "We're here. And I don't hear police sirens."
"No one was out here," Gus said. His voice was an exhausted sigh. His wings drooped from either side, but somehow, he kept his eyes focused ahead of them.
"We can't—we can't just park outside. We'll be visible from the—"
"I know," he snapped. "I packed, I got us here—just stay quiet and let me finish."
She stayed quiet and let him finish. Then she drifted, and things were different. They weren't moving again. Suddenly the world was dark. Only a faint glow remained on her dashboard, barely enough to see by.
"Make room up there," Gus demanded, before crawling over the narrow divide into the back. The space back there was far too cramped for all but small children to ride as passengers—or for one griffon to sleep, apparently.
She didn't know exactly why he was saying it, until Iron clambered up into the driver's seat from below. He stretched, opening his other wing to full size. The smell was particularly strong then, betraying the night of hard work he had obviously suffered through.
The front was a single bench, so he wasn't exactly far away. He was also looking at her, though maybe he thought that was hard to see from the gloom. Maybe she just imagined it.
He curled up against the opposite side a moment later, resting his head against the single good wing. "I guess we make a new camp tomorrow," he muttered, barely over a whisper. "I hope you master that spell soon. Just wait until you... see Equestria. There's so much more than trees and tiny buildings."
She smiled stupidly back at him. It was probably just the delirium and the pain. "My world is... more than those things too. You just ended up in a small part, with someone who didn't matter."
The pegasus was closer than she thought. Close enough that she could feel his breath.
"Small... not so sure. Most could not do what you did. You’re learning a new art, not surrounded by skilled unicorns, but alone with one book. You face the temptations of a monstrous body and evil magic. Searing wouldn't have done that. She would burn everything before her, sparing none. And few... few ponies would face a timberwolf without fleeing. You did and won."
He yawned, stretching out along the seat. Lotus didn't really want to be awake either. She was hurt, after she spent so much of her magic to discover the place for their portal.
It was so easy to just close her eyes and let exhaustion take her.
When she woke again, it was to light streaming in through a metal door to one side, and a space that was warm and soft—much more than a pickup's bucket seat should ever be.
It was better than a sleeping bag on a perpetually deflating mat. If she kept her eyes closed, she could forget about the pain in her back, the throbbing of a wound that was only then beginning to heal.
But then something jostled into her from behind, and she sat up. She had somehow fallen asleep beside Iron, and now had her head resting against his wing. Had she moved during the night?
Gus yawned, then looked away from her. "I'm not gonna say anything. But... can you open the seat? I need to take a leak."
She nodded hastily, sitting up. The pony beside her stirred slowly, reluctantly. He had spent the night working hard, much harder than she had. She shuffled out of the truck, then wrenched the seat back with her magic so Gus could exit.
He sniffed, eyes lingering on her for another few seconds. Maybe he didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. The judgment was obvious.
"There wasn't a lot of room in there," she said, without prompting.
"Yeah, we got to get camp set up," he agreed, walking away to get some privacy.
Iron poked his head out of the truck a few seconds later. She saw no shame from him, just more tiredness.
"Thought you always got up at sunrise," she said, stretching. Her back felt better than she expected. So long as she didn't flex down the center, she would probably be fine. "Isn't it a little late for you?"
They were in an underground parking structure beneath the building. Most of it was packed with junk, including several slowly rusting garbage containers, furniture clogging the walkways, and the wreckage from many teenage parties.
The gate inside was usually closed, with a lock that hadn't worked right since Eric first learned about this place. But Gus had left it open from the night before. At least so far, they had no visitors.
That was the only source of light, streaming in from outside. Lotus guessed it must be around ten, judging by the solid yellow quality of it.
"Sometimes. Not when I work through the night. There are potions for extended shifts, but they're dangerous to use for too long. The princess never let us use them in her service."
He hopped out, landing on the pavement just beside her. "Could you help me get these bandages off my wing? Either it's healing right by now or it's not, I'm not going to keep it tied up anymore. Not when we might be attacked."
She glanced down at his bandages. Other than the original splint, none of it was left from that first night. They had kept changing the wraps regularly, to keep them clean.
Except they were filthy now, covered in mud and slime from the fight, then the hours spent packing and moving everything. She bent down to use her mouth to get the knot untied—until the smell hit her.
Lotus remembered her magic again really quick after that. Iron Feather shook his wing free of its restraints, then opened it to full size. The feathers had a sorry, drooping look to them, and the smell was almost as bad. Not the kind of interesting dirty.
"I hope our new camp has a river. Or a shower, that would be preferable. I grew up in Canterlot, not Ponyville or some other backwater town."
"Water was still on last I checked," she answered, backing away from him by one step. "No heat though, because the gas and electricity are long gone. We'll want to filter the water just in case, not sure if the pipes are still good."
She glanced back at the truck. Unlike their first trip, her stuff wasn't carefully organized for camping, but packed in haphazardly. The tent hadn't even been properly stowed, just folded up and stuck on top of everything like a tarp. At least they thought to use the tie-down straps.
"And the ghosts," he said. "Your friend insisted the building was 'haunted.' The spirits of the dead torment the living in your world?"
"No, they don't," she said, exasperated. "But Gus is—the kind of guy to help a roommate who turned into a hors—into a Kirin. He's a little out there. But the building is kinda dangerous for real reasons. I'll study as quick as I can. That way we can get you home."
"And you back to normal," he added. He shook off the last vestiges of the splint, brushing them off the wing with a hoof. "You can go back to being a gigantic, furless... spider-hoof creature. You must be thrilled."
She couldn't bring herself to lie. "We should carry our stuff higher up. Harder to get to us—more defensible? Better up there than here."
He folded both wings, then strode past her. "You can't put any weight on your back, don’t even think about it. But you can get a flashlight and lead me while I carry it."
That was what they did. Gus remained behind to unload the truck and hide it from easy view with some trash.
"Plus, if the ghosts attack, that means Lotus gets to deal with them. She brought us here, so it's only fair."
They saw no ghosts as they climbed the building. At worst, the old asylum did have a generally unwelcoming feel to it—the feel of a place that discouraged visitors and long stays. But she had never seen anything supernatural there. The only otherworldly entities in the Valland Asylum were Lotus and her companions.
She led them past several lower floors, where the remnant decorations of several years of Halloween spook-alleys sat abandoned. "You shouldn't come to this part without me," she explained, pulling one of the doors shut.
"Because of the ghosts? I think I see one in there."
"That... is a ghost, I suppose," she said, pointing towards it so her headlamp would shine in through the crack in the door. "But it's made of silk and cloth, hanging from the ceiling. Honestly a few years of rot make this stuff look way scarier than I remember during Halloween."
"Oh!" He beamed, expression turning from confusion to recognition. "You celebrate Nightmare Night! Hunting for sweets, deliberately frightening your friends—this building used to be an attraction?"
"Yes," she agreed. "Of all the holidays to overlap, that's a weird one."
She reached a promising wing, one without any decorations or the smell of mildew and rot. The hallway was clean, empty of furniture and old belongings. Only a few tags sprayed on the wall suggested anyone had been here since the building was abandoned.
Plus, it had intact windows, covered in so much dust they would probably hide them from the outside. She waved them inside, then walked down a long hallway between what had obviously been patient rooms. Larger than a hospital, since the people here had stayed for some time. Each one had an attached restroom, with shiny metal fixtures. Not comfortable exactly, but...
"You wanted to clean up? Maybe here, before you stink up the place with that wing. Where's my evil spellbook?"
He shrugged several overflowing bags onto the floor outside the bathroom, then fished around inside. He emerged with the book a few seconds later, holding it gingerly in his mouth.
He couldn't speak until she took it, holding it closer in her magic. "Be careful. I know we don't have a choice—but that isn't just a spellbook, Lotus. It's the phylactery of one of the evillest creatures to ever live. Do you know what that means?"
She shook her head once. "It sounds spooky. I could ask Gus about it."
"When Equestria defeated Searing Gale, they sealed her soul away across two books. So long as they were kept together, they would contain her for all time. When they were separated—her power was released. Part of Searing is still trapped in those pages. I don't know if it's awake, but I'm sure it will try to use you."
"It already did," she said. "Maybe more than once. But I'll be careful. Worldgate spell... that's what we need. I can leave the rest of her magic alone."
"Good." He touched her on the shoulder with his good wing. "I wouldn't want anything to happen to you, Lotus. You've already suffered enough."
He gathered the camp soap from one duffel, then stepped up into the shower. He didn't actually wait for her to leave, just turned it on and got right in. She made a hasty retreat, before unwelcome thoughts could linger for too long.
