Zuri retrieved her cloak, and fastened it around her neck again, looking back only for a moment to make sure neither Blast-cap nor his guards were moving. Now that her opponents were unconscious, Zuri had no compunctions about using her gift. She sat in the middle of the hallway and closed the door behind her. Closing her eyes, she focused her thoughts, pushed out any unnecessary worries, and focused on her eyes. As she was used to, she felt a warmth billowing from her heart all the way to her face. Opening her eyes again, she now perceived everything through a blue shade. Bodies, awake or asleep, were visible to her no matter where they were.
Zuri aimed her surface-penetrating vision downwards. There were multiple ponies downstairs, some dancing on stage, or drinking at the long counter, a few were snuggling in a corner… She looked around on the level she was on. Blast-cap and his two goons hadn’t moved. There were others on the floor, but none of them were moving towards the hallway. She approached the door through which she had first entered, opened it, and looked out towards the stables. Sure enough, there were shapes of the zebras, most of them asleep. She saw what she assumed was Ramrod heading upstairs, with Cherry Jubilee in her bedroom, lying on her bed in a position much like Zuri had been when Blast-cap was still ordering her around. More than a little repulsed, she shut off her visual magic, though not until after she had seen a pony walking towards the stairs she had been hoping to travel down.
Panicked, Zuri zipped back down the hallway. Sure enough, she could hear the pony as it began to ascend the stairs. Zuri backed up to the staircase that led down to the first floor of the establishment. She hid around the corner, descending a few steps, and waited. The door opened, shut, and then a lock clicked. Zuri cursed her luck, as she put up her hood again. The sound of walking hooves came closer and closer. It was only after a few more steps that Zuri realized this particular pony was stumbling… a lot. Her vision trance lit up the world in a blue hue once more, and she took careful note of this stallion’s unsteady, sluggish gate.
“The mouth which takes in alcohol takes a great risk to their health, and just as importantly, their sense of dignity.” Her mother had spoken those words to her, and she smirked as this came to mind, watching the drunkard stumble by, not unlike how her elder brother had behaved after his first exposure to drink. Zuri waited for him to disappear into a door. He did not notice her at all, though he had to pause to fumble a key into the door’s lock. She cautiously descended further. The music grew louder and more clear. It was strange, for it had a constant, rhythmic thumping, with several instruments plucking and strumming away in a fairly repetitive sequence of chords. Coming down to the base of the steps, she peeked around the corner.
The stairs were located in one corner, to the left of the main doors. There was a stage taking up the right, with big red and yellow curtains drawn back. Mares were dancing atop the stage. They were wearing strange straps and colorful dresses that wrapped around the legs and body in an over-elaborate way. Somehow, the dresses left nothing to the imagination when the dancers struck the correct pose. This made Zuri conclude that ponies had no rules about maintaining chastity, a conclusion strengthened by the fact that most of the predominantly male audience were cheering, whooping, and giving catcalls to the dancers.
Lights wreathed in smoke hung from the ceiling, and fans recirculated the still-smoky air. Most of the ponies present were relaxed onto their hind legs in a sitting position that reminded the Trancer of how the manticore of folklore would sit back. Zuri found this hard to look at. Sure, zebras would sit, but typically by squatting with the aid of a tall cushion or seat. Apparently ponies had a different bone structure, to allow them to rest on their bottoms entirely and not have difficulty standing back up again. One more reason to be envious of the species, Zuri decided. They sat at big, circular wooden tables, bedecked with cards, glasses, chips, ashtrays, and more. Others necked in booths along the wall opposite from Zuri, and even more sat at the bar counter, which began right next to her. She didn’t dare ascend the stairs again, lest that stallion from before happened to be a loud drunk.
The escaped Trancer huddled behind what of the bar counter she could, and flipped her cloak inside out. Most of the wood in the room was a similar shade to the dark red-brown inside her cloak, and Zuri figured it would make her a little harder to see. The zebra slowly peeked around the corner again, eyeing the bartender, who was speaking with two other ponies. She recognized them as Matchlock and Coalfield, the latter without the guns on his back. They were talking about fair weather and the flavor of the drinks they’d been served. Coalfield’s wife came over to join the conversation. She, instead of wearing a turquoise sand-worthy gown, now wore a dress of similar color, with pearls around the base of her neck and as earrings. In short, she was dressed expensively.
As the three stallions shifted their attention raptly to Candy Apple, Zuri made her move. She crept under an unoccupied table to hide in the shadow there as she looked about to make sure she hadn’t attracted attention. After a cautious pause, she moved to another table, and then another, pausing each time to be sure that no one was crying out, “Zebra! Monster!” It would certainly mean her death. Now her Sand Trancer training in remaining undetected was of its greatest use, as she curled and ducked around chairs and tables to avoid passing hooves or the occasional tossed object. There were a lot of tossed objects. It seemed to Zuri that those dancers on stage were riling their audience up instead of satisfying them. Maybe that was the point.
Zuri ducked under another table, closer to the door, but she realized too late that ponies were sitting down all around it. Hind hooves stuck out at her in all directions, as she saw the bases of some dresses and flicking tails. The table chattered and clattered directly above her. Another mistake. I get too confident. She crouched, in the middle of the four legs of the table, waiting for someone to get up from their place. In a last-second thought, she also whipped her tail to her side, holding it to prevent any of them from feeling its touch.
“What on Palo…” came a voice above her, and she became all the more nervous when she realized she had brushed one stallion’s hind hooves with her tail. However, it seemed the stallion had instead mistook her tail for the tail of the mare sitting next to him, and apparently, considered it an intimate gesture. Zuri watched as the stallion’s own hoof got a little too adventurous, resulting in alarmed squeals and shrieks. The mare stood up, the stallion on her other side following, and Zuri bolted through the opening between them.
She heard several insults, a challenge, a hoof striking a face, and then the sound of someone hitting the floor. Zuri looked behind her, to see two stallions wrestling on the floor, getting dangerously close to rolling into her. The zebra moved fast, towards the door, ducking under the swinging doors, out into the cold night and freedom. But where did she go now?
Otoul, her home, thirty five miles away, much to far to get there on her hooves alone. Prior to her capture, she had hoped to run into the Gau-Aer, a merchant class of zebras who used large sand-sleds to transport goods and zebra across the desert. She had been given a map detailing the routes that most these transport carriages took, but now it was useless to her. None of them came this close to pony territory, for fear of revealing the secret of runes to them.
Zuri hid underneath the porch of the saloon she had just exited, and contemplated her situation. Paradise City… The name wasn’t very threatening, but maybe that some pony trick. Druva had said that one could get a license as a zebra, and be allowed to make a living there… or possibly get transport! The chance was minimal, but if she spent much longer in this town, she would surely end up dead or successfully raped. Druva might know how to get back there, and Zuri now thought of the other zebras stuck in the stables. Some of them, for all she knew, could be enemies of her family, or zebras that actually were as bad as ponies made them out to be. Uzul would be helpful, if they came across zebras. Druva apparently had experience dealing with ponies… albeit little, so far as Zuri knew, but an alchemist would always be helpful. Both of them were nice enough, and she knew that neither of their families had a feud with her own. She made her decision.
Zuri crawled out from under the saloon stairs, and began to hesitantly cross the street. The moon lit her progress, instead of a rapist’s conspirator's lantern, as she slunk over towards the town hall and to the stables. She eventually made it to the door, which, to her disappointment, was locked.
Zuri fumbled with the lock for a moment, not knowing how to pick one, and not having the appropriate key. She figured Ramrod would have the key. Curious, she made sure she was completely alone, and her eyes lit up again. Looking up to Cherry Jubilee’s bedroom, she saw two familiar equine forms tangled together. Stars above... eeeww! She quickly looked down, trying to remove the vulgar image from her mind as she extinguished her magical vision once more. I am NOT trying to get a key out of there. Time for the second option…
Zuri focused on the lock with her eyes and mind’s eye. The familiar warmth in her heart spread outward, growing hotter with every second. She focused the heat in her gaze, and the lock gradually began to turn red. In a few seconds, it was sizzling, and quickly losing shape, until it fell off the door entirely, melted into a useless, hot blob of steel on the dirt. Success! I wonder what The Dunnur would say if I told him I melted a lock in only moments… probably something about me not doing it fast enough, and he’d give me a thousand iron balls to practice on, like with the sword.
Pushing that thought aside, she opened the door, walked in, and shut it behind her. Her body was still warm with the magic, and made the dirt she walked on hiss. The zebras woke up again, expecting Ramrod or some other pony who would torment them. Instead, with great surprise, they saw Zuri. She removed her hood, feeling confident that her status as Trancer would be a welcome relief. There were several exclamations, from children and adults. “A Trancer!” “The elders sent…?” “No, it’s the girl from before… she escaped the jailor!” “And the dirty fornicator!” “I heard she was trained by The Dunnur…” “The Dunnur!” “A Dunnur prodigy has come to save us!” And so on and so forth. Zuri tried not to listen too much. She was ordinarily humble, and this sort of praise might make her dangerously overconfident. She did her work quickly, her magic turning the locks on every cell to nothing but hot goo. Parents worriedly hushed their children, in order to avoid arousing suspicion, but their furthered admiration for the fact that Zuri obviously had The Gift, for she was not drawing runes or speaking words, made Zuri blush.
Moving quickly along the line, she eventually came upon Uzul’s and Druva’s cells, both of whom were smiling out of relief and gratitude, as their locks sizzled away. “You escaped that bag of dirt?” Druva asked her, as she came out of the cell alongside Uzul.
“It was not hard, he was stupid. He expected me to give in.”
“Did you kill him?” Druva asked, hopefully. She seemed disappointed when Zuri shook her head.
“He will have a sore neck, and a bruise on his head. His two guards, on the other hoof, will have trouble walking.” This explanation gained her a small cheer, not just from her two acquaintances, but the other zebras.
“What do we do now?” one of them asked. “We cannot hope to return to our homes. We are far away, aren’t we?” Zuri had not thought of that. She told them how far off they were from Otoul alone, and this caused a tumult of despair among her freed kin. Panic began to entrap them. Zuri herself was unsure of what to do to get out of the town alive. Matchlock and his group would surely be on the hunt for her once that snake Blast-cap recovered, and she very much doubted any of the zebras knew how to pilot any wagon she could steal. She mused aloud, “Well, my long-term idea was to go to Paradise City…”
“That’s not bad thinking!” Druva piped up. “The Gau-Aer, they stop at Paradise City every so often—” Zuri’s map said nothing about that, but it was good to know. “—and they’d be more than willing to help refugees. More than that, there are transport vessels, that take zebras if one has the appropriate license.” The Alchemist frowned then, unsure of this possibility. “I’m not entirely sure we’d be able to get one of those for each and every zebra here… So the Gau-Aer would be our best option. Also, I think since I’m supposed to be arrested, I wouldn’t be allowed back in unless...” Druva paused a moment.
Zuri took the opportunity to continue speaking. “We must escape this town, first.” Every zebra in the room fell silent at this ultimatum.
“Well… We have an Arbiter present! Shouldn’t the Arbiter be coming up with an idea?” Druva said, looking at Uzul expectantly.
“I’m trying to,” Uzul retorted. “Stars, Zuri. This escape plan, if it is one, wasn’t really thought through.” Zuri sighed, admitting that, in all honesty, she really had no idea what she was going to do next. “I suspected as much. All the locks are destroyed, so even if we did hide in the cells we would be suspected of trying to escape, probably killed. Does anyone have a good idea for how we can leave this cage?”
“We could leave honorably, commit the suicide ritual,” Druva suggested. General alarm was the response, and Druva became indignant. “What? We have an Alchemist, a Trancer, and an Arbiter, all fully trained, we have everything for the ritual to be proper, and we would leave this place!”
“Allow me to rephrase my question, Alchemist Druva.” Uzul was stern and patient. “Does anyone have a good idea for how we can leave this cage--alive?”
“Um…” A small voice came from someone in the crowd. “There’s a river.”
“What? Speak up, don’t be afraid.” Uzul encouraged. A young filly was guided to the front of the group by her two parents, with a very similar-looking colt right next to her, presumably her brother.
“There’s… a river,” the filly began again. “It’s really close. Our family, we lived next to it, before the ponies took us here…”
“We had boats!” the colt replied.
Their father explained further. “We had three boats, moored on the river. The officials didn’t take them. They just left them there, thinking there would be no use for them. They’re big enough to take everyone here towards Paradise City. That’s the direction the river leads.” This idea received much more positive comments than the last one.
“Fine, sure,” Druva mumbled, sitting back and folding her forelegs in a huffy way. “So much for getting to try out my ritual-poison brews…”
“Don’t be too upset. I’m sure you’ll have another chance,” Zuri said, smiling. “From what I have seen so far, ponies are fantastic for exercising one’s training.”
“Well, either way, I want my cauldron back.”
“Your what?” Uzul asked, bemused.
“My cauldron!” Druva repeated. “If I am to be of any use as an alchemist, I will need my cauldron.”
“Aren’t those especially huge and heavy? How would we carry that around, let alone put it on a boat?” Zuri asked, and Druva sighed.
“As a Trancer, as an Oun-Drii Trancer, you don’t know? I have a Vuiol! Or, I had one.” Druva was referring to a void-sack, an item heavily enchanted and exposed to Alchemical brews. A void-sack could hold more items than seemed physically possible. They usually looked big enough to hold no more than an equine if it curled itself up. To create one, an Alchemist and a Trancer worked in tandem, the Trancer etching runes into the fabric of the sack, and the Alchemist concocting the appropriate brews.
Incantations would be said, and the sack would be left to dry. Depending on what runes were etched, certain items could be placed within the sack, and it would neither grow heavy nor tear. By tracing the shape of the rune with one’s hoof on the surface of the sack, it would spit out the item matching the rune. The trick was that only the items that were associated with the runes drawn into the sack’s fabric were affected this way. If one tried to insert an object into a void-sack for which the sack had no appropriate rune, the item would disintegrate within it. Alchemists usually carried a Vuiol in order to avoid getting bogged down by the weight of a cauldron or multiple potions.
“You had one?” Uzul asked.
“Just like my cauldron. Some pony took it. Maybe they’re using it as a garbage pail.” Druva shivered. “Such misuse of an alchemical item isn’t beyond ponies. I want my cauldron and Vuiol back, or else I’m not going to do much good for you.”
“Do you even know where your cauldron and Vuiol are?” Zuri asked her. “I might be able to find them.”
“All I know is the edrecht jailer took it, to use Uzul’s apt turn of phrase.” Druva said, pointing up towards the ceiling. “You’re a Trancer. Can you see what he’s doing?”
Zuri stuck out her tongue in evident displeasure. “I wish I didn’t. He is... tending to his wife.” There was a general consensus that this was disgusting from every zebra, save for the children, who had to trust that their assorted elders knew what the Trancer meant.
“Then that means he’ll be busy. We can go up there, and see if our things are around. I imagine it’s not just your belongings they took, Druva,” Uzul concluded, smiling at the coherent plan of action.
“Ugh, do I have to? They’re really going at it,” Zuri complained, grimacing.
“I said ‘we’, didn’t I?” Uzul said, stepping towards the metal door leading into the house. “Druva’s coming too. She’ll be able to recognize her Vuiol better than us. Her cauldron as well, even if it’s being used as a flower pot, or coffee table, or a toilet.” Uzul grinned.
“Stop that teasing!” Druva protested. “That cauldron has gotten me through thick and thin. I slept in it once.”
Uzul just smiled, shaking his head as he tapped the door lock. “We will be upstairs. The rest of you stay here. If anyone comes… tackle them as a group, and make as little noise as possible, alright? Zuri, the lock.” Hearing this, Zuri quickly engaged her heat magic, and melted the lock along with about a quarter of the door.Oops.
“Never mind it. We’re escaping, remember?” Druva said, passing through the doorway first, and looking about herself. Uzul came next, and Zuri last. The three of them hurried through a short passageway, with a wood-plank floor. When they opened the door on the opposite side, they entered a spacious living room. They had come out next to an unlit fireplace. The room itself was very well furnished as far as they could see in the dark, with big dark curtains and a sofa . The floor was of wooden boards and the walls were white plaster. Druva commented,
Each of them tried to be as silent as possible as they moved about, but it was obvious that only Zuri had the level of training required to remain completely undetected. Druva knocked over a vase, possibly on purpose, but it didn’t break. On almost every third step, Uzul made the floorboards creak. Thankfully, no one entered and no one sounded any alarm. Zuri looked around the sofa and the two large, cushy seats to either side of it. Experimentally, she sat down in one, and immediately had to clamber out of it before she sunk too deep into the cushion. As she did, she bonked her nose into the coffee table, and immediately pulled away. It was cold, hard, and very textured. With the lack of light, Zuri could not quite make out its shape, but she felt around it with her hooves. ‘Clink-clank’ came the sound of hooves striking metal.
Druva turned around to shush her, before giving a quiet little gasp and skittering over. “Did you find it? Did you find it?” she asked in an excited whisper.
“I think so,” Zuri said. “It feels big and round, and made of metal.” She jumped back a little, when Druva suddenly threw her forelegs around the object to hug it.
“It is my cauldron! Oh, I wish forever the best in life for you and all your ancestors and descendants and twice-removed, somewhat unsettling relatives!” Druva squealed, as she–from what Zuri could make out in the darkness–snuggled her cauldron.
“Not so loud!” Uzul hissed at her. “We still have to find your Vuiol. Without that, the cauldron isn’t going anywhere.”
“Oh, you’re right about that. Only my father could carry my cauldron on his own. The thing is heavier than the anvil owned by the smith who made it.” Druva said, standing back up and taking a breath. “The Jailor probably has it, because I don’t see it down here. We’ll have to go upstairs.”
Zuri groaned. “Don’t look too close at them when you get to the top.”
They began ascending the staircase, to the left of where they had entered from the stables. Druva was aiming a kick at a vase that was placed on a level part of the banister, but Uzul stopped her, reminding her that if the owners of the house died, she could break as much stuff as she wanted. There were noises of obvious intimacy drifting from above. Before there had been a dull thumping, but now, it was enough to make Zuri nauseated. Something about what Blast-cap had tried to do made her feel very uncomfortable about the subject. Uzul didn’t seem too affected, whereas Druva seemed to share Zuri’s current feelings.
The trio of zebras reached the top of the stairs, which opened into a hallway. There was the master bedroom, where two shadows were coiled up in each other. Uzul quickly snuck across to the other side of the doorway, followed by Druva and then Zuri. As quickly as possible, they moved on to the next room over. It was a little parlor, with more cushy seats and a coffee table that was not a cauldron. The one thing that stood out was a coat rack. One of the poles was missing, and at the base of the tall piece of furniture was a fabric sack. Druva immediately snatched it up with her teeth, and nodded to Zuri and Uzul. They could finally get out of here and stop listening to the two ponies mate.
Zuri sped by the open door, then Uzul, but Druva stumbled and fell. Both of her cohorts tensed as the Alchemist scrambled to her feet, and sounds of puzzlement interrupted the sounds of lovemaking.
“Whawazzat?” Cherry Jubilee said, sounding much more shrill than usual. “That sounded like somethin’…”
“Probably nuthin’,” Ramrod’s voice said in a complaining tone. “C’mon… let’s…”
“Oh no you don’t, Ram!” Cherry said brusquely. “You go out there and make sure those zebras are secure and asleep! Then we can go back to it. That new one just looks too smart for her own good.”
Run... Run! The three zebras, quickly but probably not as quietly as they could have, sped down the stairs. They stumbled a few times, but did not fall.
“I’m telling you like I told her, Cherry,” Ramrod said, disgruntled, but his voice was smoother than the one he used with the zebras. “That one’s just an idiot girl. I got someone to show her her place.”
“I’d like to show you idiot,” Zuri mumbled as she bumped into Druva and Uzul. They navigated clumsily through the door, into the passageway, and back out into the stables. The zebras were still there, sitting, looking afraid. They’d heard Cherry’s nag and Ramrod’s mumbling.
“Back in your cells, back in them, quick!” Uzul ordered, and every zebra in the room did just that. A zebra always obeyed an Arbiter. It was always a matter of life and honor for everyone present when an Arbiter spoke so quickly and urgently, especially with a hint of panic in his voice.
“Stupid zebras, don’t know how to keep it down so me ‘n’ my wife… huh… thought I locked that door,” Ramrod said. His eyes were thankfully unused to the darkness, so he did not see the melted lock, or that a significant part of the door was missing. The jailor stuck his head into the room, glowering at the zebras. “Me ‘n’ my wife were tryin’ to have a little private time,” He began, aloud. “But, one of you made a noise. And that noise upset her sweet lil’ heart, so now I’m down here, instead of up there, givin’ her my love…”
“And his fat rolls,” Druva whispered, still using their native tongue. Zuri suppressed another giggle.
“I don’t know whatcha just said but I’m whippin’ you good for it in the morning,” Ramrod said, glaring in her direction. “So was it you who made that noise? Couldn’t stand the thought of your jailor bedding with somepony else when you never even got a taste?” he mocked, as he neared Druva’s cell.
Druva, obviously displeased, finally spoke in the pony tongue, the first time Zuri had heard her use it. Her accent sounded very much like a pony’s. “No, actually, I was kind of happy. Only some desperate-for-attention moron would want a fat Edrecht like you.”
Ramrod scowled at her through the metal bars. “I know what that word means. Are you aimin’ to get a beatin’, Stripey? I’ll tan your backside, in more ways than one, if I hear another jibe like that come outta your mouth.”
“I wasn’t aiming to get a beating,” Druva said, smiling at him in a peculiar way.
“Oh really? What were ya tryin’ to do?” Ramrod asked, his slightly chubby face sticking in through the bars as he sneered.
“Distract you,” she said simply, before switching to her native tongue. “Zuri, get him!” Druva jumped forward. Ramrod didn’t get out of the way in time, as she pushed against the door of her cage, and shoved him against the wall. Ramrod began to yell angrily and flail his legs about as he tried to get free from between the cell door and the wall. Druva pushed back with all her strength, intending to crush Ramrod. Unfortunately, Ramrod was plainly stronger than the alchemist. He forced the door back, shoving Druva onto the floor, where he stood over her.
“I dunno how you got outta that there cage,” The Jailor husked, lowering his head so his lips were only inches from her left ear, “but when I’m done with you, you won’t be able to–Unh!”
As quickly has Ramrod had gotten on top of Druva, he was no longer there. Zuri had launched out of her cell, and barreled into him, her front hooves making direct contact with his face. The stallion slammed into the wall adjacent the cell, and fell to the floor, dazed. Zuri climbed atop him, and landed a blow to his face, then another. His hooves strained to hit her back, but she batted them aside and continued beating him ruthlessly. Ramrod struggled as best he could, but after Zuri struck him a seventh time, he stopped, and went limp. He had a bloody nose, missing teeth, and one purpling eye. Zuri stepped off, and wiped the blood that had gotten on her hooves on his belly, which she then kicked, for good measure. Ramrod groaned and rolled over, but nothing more.
“I think that means he gives up, the Cuvah.” Druva used the insult meaning Impotent Ruffian as she got up and took another breath.
Uzul came out of his cell, and every other zebra followed suit. “Well, Zuri, I think you do deserve the title ‘Lady Trancer’. You certainly have the magic, and the ability.” The other zebras declared their like-mindedness.
Zuri flushed, but said nothing. Instead, the Trancer moved around to the other side of Ramrod. She grabbed his head with both fore-hooves, and hissed in his face. “You took things from the zebras here. Where did you put them?”
In Ramrod’s dazed, bloodied state, his response was hardly understandable. Zuri slapped his muzzle, and he enunciated more clearly. “There’s… there’s a lock box… on the mantlepiece…”
It took little time to retrieve the lockbox, and Zuri aimed more carefully with her heat magic. Inside, the things of real use were mostly cloaks and travel bags the zebras could wear on their sides and underbellies. None of the other bags were Vuiols, but they were still useful. The cloaks could offer some camouflage and protection against harsh weather. There looked to be a cloak for every zebra present. Evidently, she had arrived too late in the day for Ramrod to remember to relieve Zuri of hers.
The only other items were simple things: mostly children’s toys and bits of food, but no weapons or things with more than sentimental value. All the same, the other zebras were happy to have them back. Druva went, and, almost in celebration, shoved all the items off the improvised coffee table, and brought the Vuiol around it. Zuri was amazed at how the item vanished into the sack, as if it were nothing. She hadn’t seen a Vuiol in use before, so this was a very interesting sight indeed. Druva wrapped the Vuiol around her middle, hiding it beneath her cloak. Uzul inquired after the two foals who had mentioned the river, and asked them which direction the river house was from their current location. The children couldn’t stop arguing over whether it was to the left or the right, so their parents answered his question: the river house was to the Northeast.
Uzul addressed the group again, assuming his Arbiter’s air. “Make haste. Daylight is only so far away, and if the alarm is raised, we won’t ever see it again.” He began moving towards the door, intent on leading the group. “Let us not waste our chance at freedom.”
The zebras quietly gave an expression of assent, as Uzul lead them outside. Zuri took a place near the back of the group alongside Druva, to ensure no one fell behind. They passed through the door, around to the back of the building. The ground there was made of hard, smoothed out dirt. Zuri thought the pavement in the street felt odd, but this felt more like the roads in Otoul, smooth and slightly dusty. She thought the desert was big, but looking out now… Even in the dull moonlight, Zuri could tell that Palosol was much bigger than she had been led to believe. There were hills, in the far distance, followed by mountains that rose so high that the clouds obscured the peak.
Uzul pointed outwards, stopping the group. “There!” he said, and Zuri could see a reflection of the moon, on flowing water. She had seen rivers before, but not like this. Otoul was almost entirely below the desert’s surface, where there were waterfalls, lakes, and other bodies of water that ponies probably never saw in their life aboveground. Zuri was very intrigued to watch the water flow with the moon shining on it.
All of the sudden, she froze, ears flicking. Sand Trancers had to have dauntingly keen senses to achieve full Trancer status, and as such, Zuri overheard movement, a lot of movement, inside Cherry Jubilee’s house. She grew worried. Most likely, that mare would find Ramrod lying there. Should they go back and silence her too? She watched the other ponies sneak along the back wall of the Town Hall. They were so close now.
There was a loud shriek, and Zuri knew Cherry had found her battered husband. “We must go!” she tried to warn the others, but not fast enough.
A different scream, ringing painfully as if it were traveling through a wide metal pipe, suddenly rang out through the whole city. Zuri looked back, seeing a tall wooden pole, standing over all the buildings, with a strange apparatus at the top. It was spinning, and giving out an ear-grating sound. “Alarm!” Druva identified it, and the zebras became overwrought. Lights appeared in all the windows, and the zebras could hear shouting as ponies began to pour out into the street. Some of them had weapons mounted on their backs. Matchlock’s voice was shouting for a doctor, as was Cherry Jubilee. Uzul urged the group onward.