Book 2: Equestria Lost
Chapter 8
Apollo Dawn surveyed his team as the winds howled outside the inn. The storm outside was getting worse as the night progressed, but his team seemed to be in high spirits; the cider found during yesterday's scavenging probably helped with that. Needle Point and Hair Trigger were poking around the pile of supplies that had been gathered, putting first dibs on some of the equipment, maybe? Quartermaster was contentedly napping in front of the fireplace, snoring quietly, probably enjoying being truly warm for the first time in almost a year. The rest were sitting around the table with him, Pebbles laughing slowly but boisterously at some sarcastic comment Splints had made while he was distracted. His assistant and Shimmer Spell, though, were pretty well distracted by each other, sitting close and not paying attention to much else... He had a chuckle of his own about that, and thought it was probably the subject of Splint's earlier comment. The two love birds hadn't had any privacy in almost a year... they were probably looking forward to a private hotel room!
He hadn't told any of them about what he had seen in the clinic though... He couldn't really bear to dampen the first easygoing night they had enjoyed in quite some time. Some glances from Splints had suggested she knew he was hiding something... that pink mare had a disturbing ability to see what he was thinking sometimes. It didn't seem to sour her mood any more than normal though, so he didn't worry about it... there would be plenty of time to tell them in the morning.
He left the table, going over to stare out the window at the barely visible snow piling up. With this wind, there would be some pretty bad drifts, but at least most of the ground would be clear... He noticed Shimmer Spell and Albatross in the reflection on the dark window, following his lead in leaving the table, leaving Splints alone with Pebbles as Shimmer trotted up the stairs towards the rooms, with an eager white pegasus following. Apollo sighed... he wished he could be so carefree, but his mind kept coming back to the bags he saw in the clinic... so many... it must have been the whole town. Idly, he wondered if there was one pony left not in a bag... after all, who could have bagged up the last one?
Apparently – and not surprisingly – tiring of Pebbles's company, Splints also left the table. She was headed straight towards Apollo. Uh-oh... he thought, darn... I had hoped to have more time to think it over... Before long, she was at his side, starting into the darkness outside the window with him.
“So, what's got you down, oh fearless leader? Besides the spooky ghost town and all, since everypony knows you never get scared, right?”
With a sigh, Dawn let Splints' sarcasm roll right off. She knew that the stories of the fearless explorer in the cheap newspapers were mostly made up, but teasing him about it was just a normal part of her attitude... just how she communicated with him. Still, he wasn't ready to tell the crew about what he'd seen. “Oh... just thinking about some... things,” he replied, lamely.
“You know, I was taking a look at the supplies earlier,” she said, watching him from the corner of her eye, “and we didn't seem to get much in the way of medical supplies...” She then looked at him overtly, and with a raised brow asked, “you think we could go check the clinic later and see what's there?”
A pained look crossed Apollo's face, “Albie told you?”
“No,” she replied smugly, “You did. Just now.”
Apollo sighed again. Splits was altogether too good at reading him... he should have known he couldn't hide anything from her for long...
“So, fearless leader, what's in there?”
Looking defeated, he turned away from the window, looking Splints closely in the eyes. He paused for only a brief moment. Had he seen a blush on her face? At any rate, there wasn't one now... she was looking at him with her customary annoyed smirk. “Yes... there's something there...” He admitted, “but I'll tell everypony at once at breakfast... suffice it to say that nopony should go there,” He glanced outside. Snow was now building up against the window. “Not that anypony would, in this weather.”
She continued glaring at him for a moment, but eventually seemed satisfied. Everypony on his crew knew he was honest to a fault and that he could be counted on to keep his promises. She turned, and with an odd backwards glance at him, retired up the stairs to her room.
He looked around the room. At this point, the only other pony in the common room was Quartermaster, still happily snoozing in his chair by the fireplace. Apollo walked softly over, draping a blanket over the tired old earth pony. Looking down with a gentle smile, he knew, despite any disaster that had befallen this poor town, he still had his crew – his friends – and together they could handle anything. With a tired yawn, he headed up the stairs himself. It had been a long day, after all, and he would sleep easily, despite his troubled mind.
* * *
Morning had come bright and early, last night's storm clouds nowhere to be seen. Pebbles, who as the best cook in the outfit and prepared most meals, had with the assistance of her cook in training, Hair Trigger, whipped up a quite impressive breakfast: omelets full of fresh peppers and mushrooms. Apollo wondered where they had gotten the fresh ingredients... then again, he had told them to use the most perishable things first, so if they were available, the crew might as well use them. It seemed to suit them well, anyway. They had been living off of trail rations for too long now, and it was easy to see from the contented looks on the faces around the table that they had enjoyed the opportunity for a real fresh meal... though he suspected a certain pegasus's and unicorn's contented looks were due to more than just good food, seeing as how they had been that way before breakfast even began.
He noticed Splints giving him the look from across the table though, and knew that he couldn't put it off any longer. He stood up, bracing his front hooves on the table for more height. All the ponies on his crew were already giving him full attention. They could all sense he was about to make an important announcement. “You're all probably wondering what happened to this town...”
A few nods came from around the table, and a few concerned sidelong glances.
“Well, yesterday, Albie and me found out.” He looked around the table... he had all their rapt attention, but he was still reluctant to continue... Still, his policy had always been to tell his crew the truth... and they needed to know, “This town seems to have been hit by a really bad plague... a sickness... The clinic is full of... full of...”
“Dead ponies.” Splints added, with her usual level of sensitivity and tact: none.
Apollo sighed, “Yes... So everypony should avoid that building at all costs... we don't know if it might still be contagious. And you should avoid any other bodies you might find anywhere else, too... there might be some in other places besides the clinic.”
He received stunned looks from all around the table. “So... everypony in the town is...?” Trigger's squeaky little voice broke the silence, “even...”
“I'm afraid that's what it looks like,” Apollo said, as he noticed the little pegasus beginning to tear up. Too late, he remembered the red and purple unicorn colt he had seen Trigger playing with last time they were in town. Pebbles draped her huge hoof over the saddened little colt, drawing him in close. “I'm... I'm sorry,” Apollo whispered, so soft only Hair Trigger's highly attuned senses would pick it up.
Looking back up, he addressed the others, “We have to get this information to the rest of Equestria. I guess it's too late to send help, but they still need to know.” Most of the expressions around the table changed from shock to various forms of resolute stare... Good, he was getting to them, “So, we'll all need to work together. The train's probably not coming back, so that means we've got a very long hike over snow ahead of us.” He turned to the left side of the table, “Quartermaster, I want you to take Needle and Pebbles to find a wagon, something big and sturdy.” He looked at the still despondent pegasus colt, still nestled against Pebbles' huge frame. “and take Trigger with you.” He turned to the other side of the table, “The rest of you will be coming with me... we're going to comb this town through for the best supplies. The walk out of here is going to be hard. We're going to need everything we can find.”
As his crew went about cleaning up breakfast and preparing for the day's exploration, he attempted to open the inn's front door. Unfortunately, it opened outwards, and even after bashing himself against it several times, it had barely opened wide enough to allow one slim pony though. He sat back a moment, seething in frustration. The snow wasn't even that deep, but it kept piling up right next to the door, and the further he pushed it, the harder it became. After a moment, though, he noticed Pebbles standing behind him with a smug grin on her big face.
With a soft laugh at himself and a sigh, he stepped aside, letting Pebbles push the door fully open with seemingly little effort. Well, after all, where would he be without his crew? Trotting back to get his parka on, he watched his first crew members walk out into the windswept snow. Yes, together, they could find a way through this.
* * *