Chapter 3 On the Road … with a snobby French Mare.
It had been several hours since Grey and Noir had left Appleoosa. The sun was beginning to set and the desert was cooling. While they were walking Grey noticed that some of the deserts animals that hid from the baking sun were starting to come out and search for food. The desert itself was just as calmer and quieter now that it was night. As they passed Grey the wreck of a caravan, probably from Dodge Junction or maybe even Ponyville. It looked like they had been preyed on by bandits.
Grey looked up at the moon, I can’t be worrying about every caravan, I gotta keep focused. Once I find all these crazy bits then I can start helping these people. Grey thought about how the sun and moon used to be moved by the Princesses, though now they just seem to move on their own.
Noir cantered through the barren wastes as Grey floated lazily above her. He enjoyed watching her walk though the wasted plains, it was a laugh watching her try to avoid stepping in muck or getting dirt in her coat and mane. A couple of miles back she had even freaked out and spent an hour using her magic to remove the grime from her hooves, only to put dainty, frilly slippers on instead.
He had taken to the air, her constant yammering about how he should pay her the respect deserved of a lady made walking with her insufferable. He watched as she walked with the style and grace of someone of her background. Grey eyed her travel gear from above. She had no protective gear at all, instead opting for a fancy full-body dress with a matching scarf that seemed more at home in Las Pegasus, and she was still wearing her frilly hoof slippers, though she kept stopping to clean them with her magic. She even had some sort of crazy umbrella attached to her back to keep the sun off of her, though she had put it away now that the sun had set.
“So how long you been traveling the wastes missy?” he asked.
“That’s Noir, I will not accept being called in such a rude and uncouth manner. Though if you must know I’ve …” she paused, “I’ve never been out of the city much. This is the first time I’ve really explored.”
A newbie … great. This day just got better and better.
“So where’re you originally from then?” he inquired.
“I had just arrived in Manehatten when the Blight hit, and because of my higher social standing, I was allowed into the domed city there. When the dome opened several years later, the raiders had tried to take over and sack the town, though the civilians banded together and warded them off. We kept everyone out while continuing with our lives as if nothing had happened. I was originally one of the top socialites of Manehatten. Museums, parties, entire sociopolitical lives hinged upon my every word. Days were filled with lavish parties and fashionable attire. I knew everyone and everyone knew me, I was even a part of several different secret societies who’s clandestine activities filled my nights with rapturous bliss.” Grey listened to her prattle on and on about her ‘magnifique’ and ‘fabulous’ social life in Manehatten. “Though recently certain events have forced me to forgo that life and join all you ruffians out here in this barren wasteland. Soon, however, I will be back where I belong and I will never have to worry about this disgusting place ever again.”
Grey wondered what could have forced a high-class snob like her to travel the wastes, when suddenly it hit him. He had suspected that she was one of the Umbrae, a Blight-child, back in Appleloosa. He had seen the way the people of Manehatten treated Umbrae and if her abilities surfaced while she was there, they would’ve noticed and chased her out of town.
Grey knew she was hiding something. He had met a couple of upper class ponies on his travels before and there was nothing that would get them to travel the wastes. Maybe if he probed a bit he could get her to spill what it was.
“So, did these ‘events’ change anything about your life?” he began trying to be subtle. “Perhaps a new perception of your life. I mean, your entire life was uprooted and you were forced into something you never knew. Doesn’t that just make your blood ooze?”
“Why what ever do you mean darling?” she asked. “Blood is a liquid, it flows and runs. Why would mine be any different?”
Grey noticed a slight crack in her voice as she spoke. Just a little bit further. He renewed his assault on her secrets. “If something like that happened to me I would probably turn around and give them an evil eye,” he said calmly, “you might even say a ponies who would do such a thing are a Blight on ponykind.”
“I’m just a simple upper-class city mare. I don’t know about you savage folk, but I could never wish any kind of harm on anypony, no matter what injustice they laid upon me,” said Noir.
Small rivulets of sweat were forming on her brow as she fought a losing battle to keep her composure. Just one more push and she’ll spill the beans.. It was then Grey realized he might be enjoying this a little too much.
“I don’t know if I’d be able to stand by and simply wish them well as you say you would,” he began. “It would take a pony with some kind of supernatural ability to withstand that much abuse without lashing out.”
He waited for her response, hoping to hear her come clean about that certain event she’d mentioned. Instead he heard nothing, all was quiet. He couldn’t even hear the sound of the dust billowing in the desert breeze. It was as if time itself had stopped.
Suddenly he felt an ominous presence behind him. He felt a murderous intent stronger than any he had felt in a long time. Eager to create some distance between him and the force, he took to the sky to better survey the area.
He had barely made it five hooves off the ground before he felt a massive crushing force pulling him out of the sky. He hit the ground as the air was forced out of his lungs and he felt like his bones would be ground into dust. He looked up and saw a shadow approaching him from the sky, falling closer and closer, it looked like it was aiming to crush him. He pulled all his strength into his wings and managed to flap his way forwards, his body feeling lighter as he moved out of the crash zone. After a few grueling seconds he pulled himself up and flew back into the air, hovering a couple of hooves above the ground. The object he had seen impacted the ground right where he had been, creating a massive crater as it whipped up a cloud of dust and smoke. He squinted as the dust cleared only to see Noir in the center.
As he tried to process how she could have avoided becoming a pancake without moving he felt a now familiar force pulling him down. He tried to fight it though he was still forced to land.
“La … I mean, Noir, be careful,” he shouted, “there’s something strange g—”
“This was supposed oh so simple. You take me to the hospital, I get what I want, you get your medicine and we both go our separate ways happy and alive,” her voice had lost the prissy charm of before and was now soft and calm, though Grey could feel the vicious and lethal fury hidden behind her unsettling smile. “But a certain someone just had to go poking around in matters that didn’t concern them and now I don’t think I can just let you go so easily.”
“You’ve somehow learned a dark little secret of mine, something I’ve tried very hard to keep hidden. I even created that entire prissy French mare facade just to keep anypony from noticing, yet somehow you saw through all of that. What I want to know is how. Who told you my secret?” she asked.
“Who told me what? I’m trying to figure out what’s keeping me …” He paled as he saw the glow around her horn and realized that the only way she could be standing there was if she was the flying object. But how did she fly? And what was keeping him grounded? He thought back to the clinic when he saw her cutie mark, a gravity well. She was manipulating gravity, making him too heavy to move while making herself weightless to boost herself into the air with magic. He looked back at her; her veneer of calm was slowly slipping away, the smile he had seen earlier was frayed and cracking at the edges, giving way to the fury underneath.
“Grey, I’m only going to say this once,” she said, “you seem to know something that would be impossible for you to know, something that I can’t have you blabbing to any and all. Now I need you to tell me who told you, so that after I finish crushing you to a thin red paste, I can find them and do the same.” The smile never left her face as she spoke.
“No one told me, I swear!” he shouted. “I figured it out on my own after seeing your cutie mark. I’m not trying to hurt you or anything.”
“Grey, I know that’s a lie as we’ve never met before so I could have been a physicist or any other kind of scientist and you wouldn’t have known. Now WHO TOLD YOU!” the anger and fury hidden inside was beginning to surface as her voice rose.
Think Grey think! There’s got to be some way out of this! he thought to himself. Even if he managed to escape this heavy field, she would just make another. He needed a way to temporarily shut them off to give him some time to get back on his feet. He remembered the small knives hidden in his wings. He had placed them there in case he was attacked and couldn’t use his hooves to fight back. This is gonna be risky and I only got one chance, but it’s my only choice.
He shimmied himself so that his left wing was outside the field and took aim at her horn. With a quick flick of his wing the knife sailed through the air and impacted her horn, throwing off her concentration and breaking the spell she was using to hold him down. While she was dazed from the knife, he quickly dashed out of the field and hid behind a pile of rocks.
“Oh Gre-ey, where are you hiding?” she called in a singsong voice.
For such an innocent city mare, this gal is kinda terrifying. He thought. I need to find some way to knock her out, maybe then when she wakes up she’ll listen to reason. He opened the breast pocket of his coat and pulled out a vial of gaseous purple mist. It was a Blight-based toxin he had been working on. This should do the trick. Her blood’s made of the stuff so it shouldn’t cause too much damage.
This was going to be risky, she’d notice him if he simply jumped out of his hiding spot. To distract her he grabbed a rock and tossed it so it hit a rock behind her. He watched her turn to inspect the suspicious noise using the distraction to soar into the air where he’d be safe from the gas’ effects. He tossed the vial towards her, sending a scalpel right behind it. The scalpel collided with the vial shattering it and releasing the contents into the air.
Grey watched from above as she struggled to avoid the smog though she collapsed soon after. Once she was unconscious he used his wings to fan out the area and remove the noxious cloud from the air. He flew down to where she lay, and set down the pack of gear he had brought, pulling out the sleeping mat he had stored and laying her down upon it. He realized it would be a while before she woke up and began setting up the camp area while he waited.
“Whew, now maybe she’ll listen to reason.”
* * * * * * * *
Noir awoke to a feeling of numbness and shock. She had been discovered, she was in danger, she was at someone else’s mercy. She tried to get to her hooves, tried to run, though she was frozen.
Grey noticed her squirming and moved to her side.
“Just calm down there little lady. I already said I don’t mean ya no harm” he said. “Now, let’s get one thing straight. I know you’re one of the Umbrae, and you’re freaking out because you think I’m like those folks in Manehatten who probably tried to murder you, am I right?”
She nodded.
“Well, don’t you worry your pretty little head about that. I ain’t like them and even if I was, I got me a rule about not harming kin,” he said as he lay back on the dusty ground. Noir realized it had turned to night while she was out … and what did he mean about kin? She didn’t even know him.
“You’re probably a little confused, so I want to show you something.” he said as he got back on his hooves. “Look at me.”
She did as he asked though she couldn’t really see where he was going with this. He looked like a simple pegasus. Raggedy silver hair from either age or natural color, mocha coat, tattered doctor’s uniform. Though there was one thing about him that interested her. The area around his cutie mark, a rod with snakes wrapped around it, was a different color than the rest of his coat. It looked ashen and pallid, like a piece of rotten flesh. She realized as she looked closer, it truly was a piece of rotted pony flesh. He had taken some dead pony’s cutie mark, cut it off of their body and sewed it onto his own flank to cover his own. The very idea of it made her want to wretch and she questioned what could lead a pony to do that. Worse, she was now with this crazy pony completely immobile. He might cut hers off and wear it like a trophy.
‘Now, try looking at me again” he said.
As if that would produce … suddenly she felt weird. She could see him in the corner of her eye, though her brain could not register that he was there. It was like he was but she didn’t want him to be. She tried to shake it off and focus directly on him, though every time she was met with the same feeling as her brain denied that her eyes saw him.
“See how that works. I can hide in plain sight, and so long as I don’t draw attention to myself I can force ponies not to notice me,” he explained. “It’s an ability I picked up as a kid, when ‘certain events’ changed my blood to ooze, and made my eyes look like this.”
He removed his glasses with his left wing. Hs eyes, once a brilliant sapphire blue, shifted to a familiar toxic green color. His irises slowly filled with the same violet fog as her own as she realized he was just like her. She saw his eyes return to their original blue color once he put his glasses back on.
“Now do you see? We’re both Umbrae. There’s no need to go around killing each other. The normal population does that enough already,” he said. “So how’s about we try this introduction thing again, okay?”
Noir tried to stand only to slouch and fall over. She was feeling even more tired than before and darkness was starting to envelope her vision. She saw Grey running towards her as she slipped into blackness.
* * * * * * * *
Noir felt a massive pounding in her head as she awoke. It felt like she’d had a magical burnout, though that couldn’t be as she still felt magic flowing through her horn. She remembered a stallion named Grey, he had abilities like she did, though that was the last thing she remembered before everything weNt black Her attempt to open her eyes failed as she moved her, thankfully unfrozen, limbs. She noticed Grey sitting by a fire cooking some of the provisions he brought.
“Ugh … what happened to me?” she inquired.
“You’ve been passed out for a couple of hours. Almost died. I had to use most of my medicine to keep you alive,” he explained.
“What!?” Noir couldn’t believe she had come so close to dying. She had just started traveling and had almost died once already. “I … I … I don’t know what to say. Thank you so much Grey. I’m forever in your debt.”
“You might want to hold off on that. Before I tell you this, I need to you to promise me you won’t get mad again as that’s what led to this originally.”
“Whenever anyone says that, it usually ends with somepony having every reason to be mad,” she said, “though for the sake of knowing, I promise.”
“Okay then, where to start … well, when I told that I knew you were one of the Umbrae you starting wildly attacking and trying to kill me. In order to stop you so I could explain I’m one too, I had to inject you with a sedative to knock you out. I didn’t have any sedatives on hand so I grabbed a serum I’d been working on that I thought might work. It was my toxic blood mixed with the Blight itself to create a concentrated mist. I figured that since your blood was already toxic as well it would just knock you out while your body sloughed off the excess. However, your body kinda reacted differently and started metastasizing and you almost turned into a massive lump of dead scabby flesh. I managed to keep you stable and now we’re here with me making dinner.”
Grey immediately recoiled and prepared for Noir to explode and try to kill him again. Instead she simply said one simple phrase.
“Your flank is mine.”
“Huh?” he asked.
“You owe me for almost killing me. From now on I own you,” she said cooly.
“But …” he cried.
“Massive pony tumor” said Noir.
“But …” he cried once more.
“Massive. Pony. Tumor!” she shouted.
Grey sighed and agreed.
“Now, I’m hungry,” said Noir, “so whatever you got cooking over there, hand it over.” Grey handed her the vegetable soup he had been cooking. “What? Who makes a soup and doesn’t put meat in it?” she asked.
“What kinda pony eats meat? That’s just sick!” Grey retorted in revulsion.
“Hey don’t knock it until you try it” Noir said in response. “I told you I was in a lot of secret upper-class societies. The White Gloves and I had many a meal of delicious ... animal flesh. I mean, have you ever tried bacon? You’d never want to give up meat after that!”
Noir opened up a pouch in her dress and pull out a small bag of meat. She grabbed a slice and held it out, smelling it. “It’s been a while since the last time I had some tasty pork. I keep it salted so that it lasts long and is still fresh when I need it.” She cut off several strips and dropped them into the soup. “That’s better … you want any?” she asked.
“No thank you” Grey replied. “I think I’ll stick with normal pony food.”
“Oh come on! This is totally normal,” she said. “You know what? You’re eating this. You wanna pay me back for nearly killing me? Then eat this meat and know deliciousness.”
Grey was hesitant to agree to her bargain, though he did owe her for almost killing her and there was much worse she could do if refused. “Fine,” he exclaimed with a sigh.
Grey hesitantly took a bite of the now cooked meat. His mouth instantly rebelled against the foreign substance, the bile rising in his throat. He held the meat on his tongue, trying to swallow. He failed and the content of his stomach were voided inside the stew pot.
“What the hay man? I told you to eat it not barf all over the stew. Now it’s ruined!” shouted Noir.
“That was disgusting! It tasted like blood, and metal. I also think I may have tasted somepony’s mane or tail. I can’t believe you and your deranged White Globe friends could eat something so foul!” Grey answered, clearing his mouth of the remaining bile.
“First of all, they’re the White Gloves and they were very kind and agreeable people, just misunderstood. Second, they were not my friends they were acquaintances and associates at best and we only met for monthly meals. I don’t really see what the big deal is anyway. I mean we only took meat from dead … animals and we never hurt anyone. Furthermore the protein from meat is a great and healthy supplement to any diet,” she explained.
That’s the second time now thought Grey. He noticed that whenever she was about to mention what meat it was or where it came from, she would pause and then state that it came from an ‘animal.’ He couldn’t shake the feeling that the meat had far more suspicious origins than she was letting on.
“I still don’t like it. Killing something just to eat it when there’s less bloody options ain’t right and it’ll never be right,” he stated.
“Oh relax, as I said this was from an animal and any blood was removed with the other liquids when it was salted,” said Noir. “If you’re going to be that prissy and sensitive about it then don’t eat it, I don’t even care anymore.”
“And who was the one acting like a prissy little princess earlier?” Grey asked. “I seem to remember you going out of your way to avoid all the dirt and dust, even wearing slippers to keep your hooves clean. I think most folks would agree that’s a lot more prissy than it is to gag when offered some poor critter’s flesh as a snack.”
Grey remembered her completely change in attitude once he told he that he knew about her ability. “Why were you even acting like that to begin with? Your current attitude doesn’t seem to mix your whole ‘high-class socialite’ deal”
“During my little rampage earlier, I told you that was all an act, which is partly true. My dear Grey, in truth it is both real and an act,” she replied. “That was the way most people in my high-society circles in Manehatten and Prance acted, though I use it to lure people into thinking I’m some weak little thing that needs protection. That way if I want I can strike when their guard is down and rob them blind.”
“Now hold on a sec … how could you so casually attack other ponies?” he asked getting angry at her lack of decency. “I may find it vile, but at least the meat-eating didn’t hurt anypony, but this, this is just wrong!”
“Before you get all mad and think that I need to be taken to jail or murdered for my crimes, if you’re one of those ‘vigilante’ types, you should know that nopony at all was harmed when I did this. I just used a little charm, which coupled with my sweet innocent face made them just give me whatever I wanted,” she explained.
“I find it hard to believe they would just give their supplies to somepony for free, even if it was some pretty mare,” Grey replied.
“Oh, you really think I’m pretty? How kind of you,” she said, “I can assure you, on my life, I have never killed a live pony unless my own safety depended on it.” She held one hoof over her breast as she said this.
Grey looked at her with suspicion and contained anger. “So ever since you left Manehatten you’ve been wandering from town to town stealing things from anyone you can lay your hooves on?” he asked.
“You make it sound so cruel and heartless,” she said, “I never take anything they’re going to miss and most times they don’t even realize it’s gone.”
“I don’t know, it still seems a little sketchy to me” Grey retorted.
The rest of their meal was continued in silence with occasional breaks to inquire about each other. Grey told her about his childhood in Cloudsdale, flight academy, his father’s medical practice and his hobbies as a child. Noir, much to Grey’s chagrin, went into much more detail about the other secret societies she had been in, as well as the different heists she pulled on unsuspecting ponies, though whenever her stories mentioned her meat-eating habits, Grey kept noticing the pauses and vague ‘it was an animal’ statements. It was well into the night when they had finished their meals, packed up the cooking supplies and got back on the trail to the ruined hospital.
In the space of half a day Grey had seen this mare go from prissy clean-freak to meat-eating opportunistic bandit. She didn’t seem like a bad mare though, just without a moral compass. While he certainly didn’t really want to be friends with the psycho mare, though at least her company was bearable now. He was left to wonder though, if she was hiding all of this from him for the first two days they had been traveling, what else could she be hiding with all those vague responses. Grey decided that while she had certainly made things more interesting he would remain wary of his temporary companion just in case there were worse secrets buried beneath that winning smile and model figure.