//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: Night Bites 
// by TheYellowShoe 
//------------------------------//

I stood stunned, relieved, anxious not knowing what would happen, or where Klondike & I (Tatsu) would go. I had been working at the Stone-Hoof Inn for the last 6 months as a housekeeper, living here also. 
We had been "stuck" here in Fort Silver Moon at Badlands, Equestria for the last 3 years. My husband (Klondike) me, & my adult son (Hauk) had moved to the Stone-Hoof Inn about 7 or 8 months ago. At first Hauk was working at Rainboom Burgers as a cook, but his work hours kept getting shorter as time went by. I offered to work as a housekeeper to Dusty Roads (owner) for our room & a few bits from time to time. We shook hooves, so I thought it was a good deal. 
A couple of weeks later Hauk started to look for work that was closer to where we lived at, to no avail. He was offered work from a friend that lived a couple of hundred miles away, I didn't want him to go but I knew he would have it better there than where we were at right now. It was a couple of days before Hearth's Warming when he left, I was worried about him, but he made it there in less than a day. He was able to call me on Hearth's Warming Day to also wish me a Happy Birthday. I was also able to have that one day off. 
Anyway soon after moving in the this place I started getting very small bites on my legs, neck & on my back. I noticed them when I would wake up in the mornings, they were very itchy. I would try not to scratch but it was hard. One night when I was asleep Klondike noticed a very small bug on my fore leg, he had never seen such a bug like this, he carefully took it off me & put it in a small glass jar we had. He woke me up to show me, he asked me what it was, I didn't know either. Later I borrowed my neighbors small computer to see if I could find out what it was. To my horror it was a little known pest called a Night Biter, I had been getting bitten every night. I had open sores from scraping my legs, & neck with my hooves. I had a long handled brush for my back. I had to wear long coverings on my legs so no one could see the sores. I told Dusty & his wife Chilly about the Night Biters, I had also told their 2 son's Dark & Mired. Dusty blamed me, said I had brought them from the last place I had lived at, I told him I had never known these "horrible" pests were even real I thought they were a myth. Dark had tried to fix the problem, even Mired tried. My neighbor said she had a relative that was in pest control & would work a deal with Dusty to eliminate the pest. I tried to tell him of the research about them, to my dismay he started cursing at me, calling me names & telling any pony (who would listen) it was all my fault. 
Because I was doing all the housekeeping, laundry the Night Biters got worse in my room. After much pleading from both my husband & I he put us in a different room. At first the room was wonderful, no carpet or paneling for those pests to hide. But this didn't last long, because of my duties of housekeeping they soon were in this new room. 
Then one day Dusty said he wanted to make a new deal, he threw us out, gave us one day to pack our stuff & get out. So like I said "I stood stunned, relieved, anxious not knowing what would happen, or where we would go" we knew of a homeless shelter in Appleloosa. We took the coach there, hoping they had space for us. We had to go to a place called "The Step-Up Dayroom" till 4 in the afternoon to wait to talk to the homeless shelter staff. Luck was with us, they had just enough space for us. The shelter had rooms for the mares on one side & rooms for the stallions on the other side, we were ok with that. Klondike was in bad health, we couldn't be on the streets during winter. We sighed all the papers, & we could stay for a couple of months. The next morning after breakfast we went to the "Dayroom" to make some phone calls to the health department to report the pest problem at the Stone-Hoof Inn. I told them all the rooms that had the Night Biters in them. After that Klondike & I walked to several lawyers to see if we had a case against Dusty & his motel. Finally after several lawyers, Attorney Mottled Quill said he would take the case. He told me I should see a doctor about all my wounds, have some pictures taken of them, & then let him know as soon as I have done that. We then went to a Good Samaritan Clinic to make an appointment, I got to see Dr. Kindheart the next afternoon. Klondike had a friend that had a instant camera, he let us take some pictures for my lawyer Mottled Quill. The next day when I went to see the doctor Dr. Kindheart, she looked at my sores, she gave me some super medicated lotion to put on twice a day. The bad news was I was now permanently scarred. I had asked her to have that on my medical records for my lawyer, she said she would do that. Now my legs have patches of missing hair from every bite of those HORRIBLE little monsters. A few days later I had copies of my medical records & the pictures, I went to my lawyer to give him all this. He was surprised how bad the pictures of my legs looked, I had to wear leg coverings. He told me he was going to write a "Letter of Compensation" to the owner, his wife & his insurance company. If things worked out I would about 25,000 bits, we really hoped it would work out. 
In the mean time, I was looking for work while my husband looked for us a new place to live. He also found some ponies that would help us with the bits for rent, things were finally looking up for us. The next month we found a place along with a organization that would pay Klondike to go back to adult school, we were thrilled. I was still job hunting, but because of my scared legs I couldn't find any. Mottled Quill had informed me the letter he sent went un-answered, so he would see what else he could do. 
As the months go by we have a nice apartment, Klondike is doing good with the adult school. I keep in touch with my lawyer, only to have some bad news. After several months he calls me to inform me there isn't anything he can do, he suggests maybe finding a class action lawsuit. I wasn't too happy about, but he tried very hard. 
Soon after that Klondike & I decided it was time to leave Fort Silver Moon, Klondike had been wanting to go to the northern part of Equestria to invest in rental real estate. We are now living close to Indianeighpolis, not far from Hauk who is living close to Winninatti, & I'm still looking into the class action lawsuit.


Thank you all for reading my story.