Equestria; UNDEAD

by runningtoastgirl77

Chapter Thirty: Recovery

"She should be fine." Willow said. What luck, the one who made me the most uneasy just so happened to be the town Doctor. I was in the room they had Grella in for examining, which thankfully the griffon was sleeping in. "The wall's pulse just knocked her out, but the fall could have been a little smoother. Lucky for her, she landed in that crate and only hurt her left wing. Good thing she didn't go flying at night when we have the defenses up, or she would've been Kuncolty- fried Griffon!" She gave a small laugh at her morbid humor. "Also, I must say, I am so glad you decided to participate in the festival! These sure are hard times, aren't they? Nice to find some time to relax!"

I was puzzled by her comment, then remembered I was still wearing the daum cloak. "Yeah, I did have some questions, though."

She paused for a moment, gathering her medical bag. "Oh?"

I had several questions; 'What the hell is going on here? Why is everypony staring at me when I trot by? Who was Moon Pie, and why did somepony want ME to have their journal?' Those where tempting, but I decided to go for the one with the least likeliness of pissing off the wrong ponies. "What exactly is the festival for anyway?"

She looked a bit relieved. "Oh, it's the festival honoring our little bat friends around the Everfree! We also joined the festival with the remembrance day, so it goes on for the week." She smiled. "It's a big deal to the residents, considering most of them are bat ponies." I felt a nagging in my mind. I shouldn't be talking to anypony here, I thought. What needed to happen was I needed to go. Soon. She gave me a curious look. "Anything else?"

"Oh, no. I'm fine."

"Okay. Once the griffon wakes up, let her know she can go as soon as she wants, just ask someone to open the gate first." With that, Willow left. I figured I'd wait for Grella to get up, and in the meantime I might as well get some reading done. I pulled out Moon Pie's journal and sat back in the chair.

Monday

Today we finally arrived at the stupid bat colony. We missed the bus yesterday, and had to stay at the boarding Canterlot provided. It was a bad night, Dawn kept me up all night with her night terrors, and I being the big brother I am had to comfort her. I don't even know how she could fall asleep at a time like this. Sure does show how much of an adapter she is.

Anyway, I'm writing this from my new "luxurious" apartment. I'm a colt, and I'm living by myself with my little sister. It hasn't been exactly home for either of us. And well, when I say 'alone', that's not really true. We have a 'caretaker', technically, who was appointed to help 'take care of us'. Apparently she's going to be moving in tomorrow, but for tonight it's just Dawn and me. I already made her some snacks with the food that they gave us, I figured it might help her a little. I improved some of the chocolate they put in out food basket, and made some chocolate covered strawberries. it would have been better if we had some shortbread cookies and warm tea, but beggars can't be choosers. Well, I guess that makes us beggars now.

Birch, this weird Deer, said that this place is called 'Desmodus', because there are a lot of vampire bats around here. Why the heck we'd build a town around a bunch of blood- sucking monsters, I don't know. Apparently the bats around here are relatively tame, but still makes me a bit uneasy. After tomorrow, I start school on Wednesday, apparently. I'm not exactly thrilled about the fact they think we could just go back to a normal life, considering what happened. Dawn seems excited though, to bad she isn't even old enough to start school. I almost want to take her with me anyway. I don't exactly trust these strangers here with my little sister.

Tuesday

Today out new care giver moved into our apartment. Her name is Zeana, and I had to say I was shocked. I was expecting one of those bat ponies from town, not an old zebra. Well, old to me. She seemed to be a bit older than my mother. That's ANCIENT to me. She's really pretty, but I wonder what she's doing here, it seems like besides all the bat ponies, there are only two non-bat ponies; Birch the deer and Zeana. It baffled me why a Zebra would be out here at first, until I asked her. She said she moved here to 'get in touch with nature. whatever is natural about the Everfree Forest, I don't know. I hadn't exactly heard the best things about this place, but Zeana insisted that this was the most natural place in Equestria. I didn't question the silly Zebra's logic.

Dawn seems to really like her, all afternoon Zeana was showing her all the fancy decorations she brought with her, and teaching her what they all meant, too. I listened too, though I couldn't understand it that well, but I figured she could explain it better to me later. she even taught us a recipe for some interesting new desert of her own creation, some spicy brownies! What luck, she's a baker, too! now I never thought spicy and sweet could work together, but my goodness they were so good! I just can't stop talking about it!

I grabbed my blank note book and a pen and jotted down the recipe Moon Pie put down in excited exuberance. "Well, someone is to excited to notice her friend is up." I looked up and saw Grella had gotten up off the cot and grimaced at her wing. The look on her face said she wasn't mad I wasn't paying attention. "Ugh, I forgot about that stupid fence."

"Are you okay?" I said softly.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I should just wait for... whatever happened to my wing to stop. I should be good as new." she smirked sarcastically. "Not that I want to stay here another night..."

"I don't think this town wants you here, either. To be honest, I don't think they want me here, either." I sighed. "They seem to have no problem with Rose and crew, though."

"Well, at least we're on the same page me and this place. I only stopped here because I needed a drink." She shrugged. "But, hey, at least I got to see you one last time."

"One last time? Where are you going?"

"Don't you know? I'm going...", She sighed, "... to get Morning Glory and convince her to come back."

"Do you know where she went?"

She shrugged. "North?"

The door to the doctor's office opened, revealing the huge diamond dog. "I couldn't help but over hear."

"Rex? What are you doing here?"

"I saw the griffon get zapped, and I figured she was your friend, based on that little scene in the bar." He sighed. "I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Huh? Why?" Rose's group, with the surprising exception of Rose, hadn't been the most inviting.

"I just felt like it." I had a feeling he was nominated as the ambassador of the group, or lost a bet. I wasn't sure which. "So... about this friend of yours."

"She's a changeling," Grella said.

"What color is she?"

Grella thought about it. "Grey?"

"All changelings are grey. I meant what color were her wings and tail. Did she have a mane?"

"Blue." I said. "And yes, she did have a mane. Her wings were shaped like dragonfly wings, and had a luster."

"Greaat, a queen changeling. Did she say anything before she left?"

"No... nothing that could help us find her." Grella said with a hopeless look.

"She wasn't a queen!" I said in a soft yet urgent voice. "She... she didn't have the crown thing."

"Ah. A princess then." Rex pondered. I had been grateful I picked up a book about changelings, out of curiosity, at the local library. "Well, chances are if she was out here, she didn't go back to the hives."

"Well, then were is she?"

"She might be hiding somewhere out there, or for all you know she went back to where you left to go after her. If she was as close of a friend as you think." Rex said. "Maybe you should go back."

"So you want me to leave to?" she glared.

"Not like that." he sat. "I mean you should just make sure your not gonna search all of Equestria, just to find out she want back to were she left."

Grella paused. "I'll... think about it." She turned to me. "My wings should be good as new by morning. Mind if I stay with you Autumn?"

" She might be okay with it, but Rose..." Rex whispered.

"Well, she'll just have to deal with it!" Grella smiled, putting her claw on my shoulder as I put my book away into my bag.

"Oh, I see. So your..."

She blushed, and glared. "Of course not! Autumn is with a Zebra, who's in Canterlot. I don't think about her that way."

"I see. My apologies." He got up. "Nice meeting you. My name is Rex."

"I inferred. My name is Grella." A coveted claw to... paw bump as usual.

"Let's get going, and Grella... please don't assault Rose again. She's been nice."

"She's been nice, sure." Grella said. "Not sure if she's been sincere. then again, I don't know the pony, so I'll take your word for it."