//------------------------------// // Chapter Twenty Five: Desmodus Town // Story: Equestria; UNDEAD // by runningtoastgirl77 //------------------------------// We paused at the small gate. It was almost unbelievable. The small village, only a handful of houses thick, was thriving. In fact, it was as if it were untouched by not only the current events, but time itself. It was very... district, large rounded- roofed white and dark blue cottages with tall glass windows, a bright cobblestone path, the tree tops almost acting as a ceiling of the town. The stone streets of the town were busy, to say the least. They were surprisingly filled with mostly hovering bat ponies, some in casual wear similar to just old- fashioned frocks, mostly in assortments of gray scale, others at least wearing a hood. I watched in curiosity. "Welcome!" I jumped back as a thin mare flew over to us. "What bring's ya'll here to Desmodus?" "Desmodus, that's a fancy name for a tiny town..." Jacks observed. "Shut it!" Chalk Diamond glared at him. "Oh, it's alright!" Said the bat pony mare, who I noticed was in a special kind of outfit seeming to be a little different from the others, a bit more colorful at a pretty shade of light blue. "This town sure sounds fancy-shmancy, but no need to threat, it's just a name we got from the locals." she giggled. "Cus' of the bats? Well, it just sounded right so we named our little settlement that!" Rose's eyes widened. "Your just going to let us in?" "Of course! It'd be rude not to, yeah? We got plenty of room for travelers, and you caught us in tha' middle of our festival, so your in luck!" Her expression was a little too happy, as if she had rehearsed doing this over and over, so I assumed she was the welcoming committee, or something like that, anyway. She opened the gate, which was protected by a metal wire. It seemed strangely... simple. "Come on in!" After I stepped inside with everyone, I couldn't help but stare at the fence. "Curious?" The bat pony mare flew close to my face. "About the fence?" "Uh! Oh, um... yeah... like... you guys do know what's happening out there... right?" "Well of course we do! That's what the fence it for!" "Okay, I see, but... there isn't just those... things out there, there could be bad ponies out there, what about the ones that could fly over the fence?" I was ranting. "That's. What. The. Fence. Is. For." Her obvious facade of cheerfulness was breaking. "Y-You see, we have a unicorn, which helped us with that problem! You see, there is an invisible dome over the city, encase any bad ponies tried to fly in and attack us, they'd get a nasty zap!" she smiled at that. "So... I'm pretty sure we're safe here." "I see..." I smiled to stay on good bases. "I'd hate to ask, but is there anywhere we could stay for the night, or maybe get instructions to the next town?" "Sure! Say, why don't you all come into the festival, we have vendors, games, and food! and I'm sure that the in would love to let you guys in for a night, they turned into more of a shelter than an inn, consider'n most of the townsfolk don't exactly plan on staying in an inn when most of em' have their own place!" She smiled wider, if that was even possible. "My name is Poppy, I'm the local event planner, and they always send ME to greet the ponies at the gate, I mean, sure, it's my special talent and all, but really... you would think I would be able to not be the permanent lookout, or maybe they could get... literally anypony else!" Okay, now that anger was starting to seep out. Yep, I was definitely witnessing a mare definitely in the middle of a crisis. Another mare noticed, this one in a near white hood, a graceful pegasus. "Poppy." she put her hoof on the bat pony's shoulder. "What?!" She said with a sting. "Sorry." she said to us. "Poppy here has just had a hard day because of the festival, don't hold it against us. My name is Willow, nice to meet ya." "Oh, um... hi..." I looked at them cautiously as Poppy fluttered away. "Out of curiosity, do you... do you guys have running water?" Tea Rose asked. "Hum? Oh, yeah, we have out own water purifier plant that takes water from a stream near here! We're pretty self- sustaining here, we never really relied on the Canterlot or Ponyville plants for water or electric, lucky us, right?" Willow gave a sincere smile. "Why don't we go to the inn, you guys said that you needed a place to stay, right?" "Oh, sure!" Tea Rose smiled, no doubt happy about the water. It wasn't like any of us had time to bathe off the dirt, sweat, and dry blood off of our fur, nor the commodities if we wanted to. "Also, if you guys wanted to go to the festival, they got free games, food, and all sorts of other stuff. you'll just have to wear one of these silly hoods or a dress, it's more of just a tradition we grew to do over the years." Willow said as we trotted through the oddly barren portion of road leading to the wide building near the gate. "You see, we get a lot of bats around here, and since most of the residents are decedents of the war, we have a lot of bat ponies, too. Oh, and you might not want to scare any of the locals with your weapons, we had a pony pass through here the other day, and well... it wasn't exactly the best experience for anypony. She left not to long ago. So... you might want to keep those weapons of yours in your rooms." Willow opened the door to the inn. The inside of the inn was a rustic style, much like the rest of the town, mainly made of wood but with occasional stone decorum. The front desk was governed by a tall bat pony stallion in a fancy shirt with a darker hooded cloak. He was a bit scruffy with a touch of facial hair, and he smiled as we walked in. "W-what can I do for you?" "Spades, can you help our new visitors find a room?" "Oh, new visitors? We don't see those often. H-hello!" He was a skittish pony, not really shy, just bad with words. Which made me wonder why he would be the inn keeper, a job where you would have to talk to ponies. Spades got several keys off a shelf. "It doesn't really matter which rooms you take, they're all pretty much the s-same." "One bed, one desk, a dresser and a bathroom." Willow stated, as if she knew the town like the back of her hoof. "There's a bookshelf, too, but most ponies don't use them." I received my random key from Spades, floor 2, room 6 was written on a paper tag. I put them in my shoulder bag while the others chatted, trotting to their rooms and discussing what they were going to do tonight. Willow raised her hoof, "Is there a problem, deary?" "Do you... do you guys have a library?"