//------------------------------//
// Zebra and Squirrel 
// Story: Innavedr 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

	Like sheets of rain, rolling on into the night, Pilate sensed the walls, platforms, bridges, and balconies of the building around him.  The source of these sensory pulses was constantly shifting, as Simon couldn't find a single spot to stay seated for too long a period of time.

"You may want to settle down," the zebra calmly said, feeling the fluff of the squirrel's bushy tail brush past his legs as the thing scampered across the floor of the cramped closet.  "They obviously don't know where we are.  Moving around is only going to make it easier for them to find us."

Tiny claws scraped across the floor.  Pilate sensed the creature facing him; he heard its angry chatters as it purposefully aimed its head towards sealed entrance of the closet.  When O.A.S.I.S.'s charge was next summoned, if flowered out of the squirrel's skull, realing equine bodies scavenging through the fallen intestines of a battered zeppelin several stories below, their frames illuminated like monochromatic bars in a field a mist.

"See?  They're preoccupied with that mess that your buddy Floydien made."  With a sigh, Pilate tilted his muzzle towards the ceiling.  "Now, if only I knew what the whole point of this craziness was from the get go..."

As Pilate meditated, he felt tendrils of energy coalescing around the sphere of O.A.S.I.S.  For the first time since being tossed from the Steel Wing, he was starting to regain control of his mana-powered crutch.  He fould feel the contours of the room stretching around him, as well as the several bits of clutter tossed about by shifty hooves.  Every now and then, a bunch of unicorns carrying weighted containers would trot past the entrance to the closet.  Where they were headed, Pilate had no clue.  Only Simon's magically imbued skull provided the necessary buffer to "see" any further.

"He must have known that Nancy Jane would be in here somewhere," Pilate said aloud.  "Why else would he fly all the way to Blue Nova... to this building in particular?"

Simon barked and barked indecipherably.

Pilate sighed.  "This is obviously not a factory building.  It's an office complex of sorts.  Nightshade Industries' hall of clerks and central management, undoubtedly.  What kind of a place is that to hold somepony's beloved?"  He gulped.  "Or whatever Floydien is..."

Just then, Simon ran up Pilate's forelimbs and perched on the zebra's muzzle.

"Unngh... Seriously, Simon.  You've been very helpful and all but—skkkt—I really wish you wouldn't constantly do that—"

But the squirredl tugged on Pilate's ears and forced him to face the direction opposite from the closet door.

"Huh?  What?  What is it?"

The squirrel chirped and pointed.

Pilate took a deep breath.  He opened a channel of runic energy through his skull plate, allowing it to flow into the O.A.S.I.S. sphere.  Simon then passed the field along through the wall, branching out into a part of the building that Pilate hadn't "explored" before.

"Huh?  Are you... are you 'getting this' too—Augh!" Pilate winced, for a sudden spark was surging through him.  "Easy!  Easy, Simon!  I don't have the same sparklers plugged into my skull that... you... do..."

Pilate blinked, something he hadn't done in a long time, for he felt as if he had actually got his sight back.  This latest ribboning of mana was revealing just so much to him.  With Simon's help, he sensed a connecting bridge to a factory building.  And inside that building, about two levels up, there was a series of large compartments.  The only moving bodies inside them were loneseome equines, hobbling around various equipment, and their hooves were bound in separate pieces of iron.

"What... is that...?"  Pilate murmured aloud as everything returned once more to utter darkness.  His metal brow furrowed.  "A brig?  A prison compartment?  But why—"  He cut himself off with a gasp.  "Nancy Jane!"

Simon barked and tugged at his ears.

Pilate shook him off.  "I don't care if it's dangerous!  Floydien brought us here for a reason.  If we free his beloved, then maybe he will actually repay me and help me find Bellesmith!"  He winced suddenly.  "If he's still alive.  Oh, who am I kidding..."

Simon perched on Pilate's front left hoof and waited patiently.

After a deep breath, Pilate said, "Neither of us have any answers, but those ponies in the next building might.  Besides..."  He bit his lip.  "I don't think there's another soul with the power to free them like we do... er... well... like you do, Simon."

The creature's little tail shook.

Pilate squatted low and spoke towards the rodent's sparkling head.  "I'm going to need you to be my ears and ears, fella.  When we get to the ponies over there, I'll do the talking.  I think this is what Floydien would have us do.  Wouldn't you think?"

The squirrel shrugged its shoulders.

Pilate sensed it, then nodded.  "Right, well... unless we plan on living the rest of our lives out as brooms, we're serving no purpose here.  Let's move."

Carefully, very carefully, Pilate used Simon's senses to peer beyond the door.  When the upper floors were empty, he peeled his way out of the closet, clung to the wall, and scurried over towards the far end of the building, accompanied by a bushy-tailed comrade in arms.