A Warm Welcome to Stableton [Social][Closed]

Spirit watched as Quaari barely said anything at all. She seemed too unhappy to really talk to anypony, or even be near anyone for that matter. He crossed his arms and watched the group from a good distance, when he heard a voice call out to him. It was Thunder, speaking to him in a low voice so she wouldnt interrupt anypony from talking about themselves. He glanced at her but only for a moment, when his attention was brought to The ghoul being healed by a unicorn. His attention faded in and out for only a split second, turning it back to Thunder. She seemed genuine, one that wasnt looking for more than just the simple answer to the question. But then again, someponies out there seemed that way too, and each were more treacherous than the last. He turned his head back to the others around him. Everyone was far too close to hear for him to give too much away. Before he could speak Starry announced they were headed to the water treatment facility, which was going to be interesting for them to see. He sat for only a moment, glancing at Thunder as the others began to walk ahead of them. The griffon stepped closer to her, to where only a foot was between them. In a low voice he spoke in a calm whisper, looking down at the pony through her glasses. She would have to deal with a short explanation for now, till they were more secluded.

"I see many bad ponies, griffons, diamond dogs, zebras...." He paused looking around him, making sure only Thunder could hear.

"...But they dont see me."

As the official unicorn with the cracked glasses announced a visit to the local water talisman, he realized that this was some sort of guided tour. He snorted slightly, drawing curious glances that he ignored. He had been on a tour once, when his foolish second son had won a trip to Canterlot. No doubt this would be as 'fun' as that day long ago had been.

As usual, thoughts of the time before the war, when the birds whistled in the morning and the sun shone so bright, made him melancholy. For a brief second, his features lifted from a tired scowl to a sad smile.

Then, 'Cracked Glasses' threw her arm around him. He froze up, glaring at her maliciously.

He had a problem with smooth-skins touching him. Part of it was the utter revulsion he felt for his own twisted, rotting corpse. But mostly it was because of the abject cruelty had received from the living. Ghouls were too busy trying not to 'turn' to do much harm, but a smoothie had all the time in their short lives to be as cruel as they wanted.

Once, he had stumbled upon a mother and her foal, being attacked by a mutated squirrel. He had been valiant in that time, his eigth decade. True, it had been nothing more than to hold off the ever-encroaching madness, but the unicorn's scared face and that foal's cries haunted his memory still. As well as that horrible mare with the crooked grin.

A sharp stab of pain shocked him out of his reverie. He glanced down at the large gash in his side, wincing as more blackish-brown goo oozed out. His wound was hidden slightly by a particularly burnt patch of flesh (The only burn on his body, oddly enough), but soon the necrotic ooze that ran sluggishly through his body like the blood it once was would give that away.

Not that he felt like hiding anything. He was in desperate need of healing, and maybe if these ponies were nice, the would sling him into a bucket of magical waste. Of course, if they were cruel, he could always hope and pray that they were dumb and would throw him in the bucket anyway.

"Alright," Starry declared, as she helped Pepper carry himself along, "the tour. Uhh, if everypony will please look to their left, you can see the community center. That's where we hold many of our social events. Meetings, parties, kidnappings by a slaver named Cross Roads who turned out to be a double-agent who helped save the town but is a jerk regardless, and other activities."

Starry pointed her nose upward, as the tour moved along. "Over there is the tallest, and only, mountain in Stableton. You can see the peak up there. That's a good location for lookouts, dates, and pushing slaver leaders dramatically to their death over the fiery ruins of our town."

The tour trotted by a restaurant on their way to the water treatment facility. "This is one of the nicer restaurants in town. It's a good place to eat when you don't feel like risking life and limb for your meals out in the wastes."

Floret released her magic as Starry grabbed the ghoul. If the Stableton unicorn wanted to tote the disgusting filthy ghoul around, so be it. Floret had already shown her concern. All this meant was that she was allowed to stay away from the ghoul while they walked. Hopefully they could just hurl the ghoul off into the water system and be done with it.

Floret observed the locations with barely disguised boredom as they passed. She had already seen some of the landmarks, such as the large mountain. She hadn’t known about all of the issues with slavers, but she didn’t particularly care about them. At least four eyes’ attitude towards outsiders made more sense. The unicorn made a mental note to check out the restaurant later to see if it was really all that the blue unicorn claimed.

Thunder watched the way Spirit reacted to her question, all the looking around, to her, then the group. Thunder immediately assumed she had offended the griffon, the way he looked at the others before looking back at her. Perhaps looking for the right moment to make a threat, or worse. A panicked look crossed her eyes as the griffon leant closer to her, though it was hidden behind her aviators. The only indication of her worry was a slight trembling, the mare sorely wished that griffons weren't so intimidating, but more wished that she wasn't so curious as to get into these situations.

Of course for all her worry, what Spirit said was like nothing she expected, it was in no way a threat, and as such should have calmed her a little... Should have. But in truth it left her thinking just what the scary griffons interpretation of 'bad' was. Perhaps ponies that asked too many questions. Though she now realised that she had sat there staring at him with that slight tremble as the others were moving off, and should probably say something. "Oh, uhh... That's... Nice?" Was it nice? She didn't know, perhaps she was overreacting? No, that's silly, couldn't possibly be it. "So uhh... We should get goin' right? With the others... Into the town..." The town was safe, surely he wouldn't 'deal' with her in there, not like out here...

Quaari softly padded after Starry as she led the tour around the ramshackle town. It was hard to not sneer angrily at the ghoul she was propping up; somehow the griffon knew the ghoul was just slowing the group down.

The community centre seemed much like the rest of the buildings of Stableton except larger and somehow even more dilapidated in state, it was a wonder to Quaari how the sheets of iron adhered to form a wall at all. Looking back at Starry, she found herself interested in this ‘Cross Roads’ she’d worked as a slaver, perhaps he might be able to help her out with a job. Hurrying forward to make sure she was near enough to Starry to be able to talk the mare, but not close enough to have to endure the stench of rotting death from the ghoul, she got the blue unicorn’s attention.

“So, does Cross Roads live here in Stableton?”

Before Starry answered, they were off again, Quaari had ignored the mountain near Stableton for most part, her mind simply added it to the background, but looking at it now, it might be a nice place to get away from all the dreary ponies of this town every now and again, she supposed, even as she mis-stepped when Starry pointed out that a Slaver leader had been killed there. Was it Starry or this town that had something against slavers? Keeping her occupation secret might be a wise course of action.

As they went past the restaurant (complete with rust) Quaari leant forward to ask another question, “Do they serve food fit for griffons?”

Zyrene kept close to Starry and Pepper, looking at the various locations as Starry pointed them out. The community center sounded like an interesting place to meet others. That might be a place for her to check out later. The mountain didn't interest her so much, so she didn't really listen on that. The restaurant, though...

Zyrene made a point of remembering where it was at. very chance to eat was a welcome on for her, with how much she jumped around.

One thing that Zyrene noticed was how often Starry had brought up slavers. Maybe this town had some bad run-ins with slavers. Not that she cared much for them anyway, but for them to be brought up so much there must have been bad history with them.

Zyrene put this away as a topic she'd find a way of tackling later and followed with the group, making sure to stick close to Starry and Pepper.

Starry kept leading the group forward. She had already pointed out all of the visible and nearby locations, so there was time to burn conversing as they continued trotting toward the water purification building.

"Cross stays here from time to time, I don't know about living here. You could probably find him just wandering around town if you looked long enough. Yellow unicorn with a green and orange striped mane. Why do you ask?"

Spirit watched Thunder's reaction to him. She seemed very uncomfortable, especially when he stepped close to her. He didnt mean to scare her at all, or intimidate her, or give her any bad vibes. He gave her a smile and walked with her following the group.

"Dont worry, you dont look like a bad pony..." Spirit said as he looked in the directions Starry was pointing out. The town seemed like a nice, peaceful one. One that he would enjoy staying in to get to know the residents. It also seemed like a place where he could sit and get a peace of mind. Then.... He saw the restaurant and his eyes grew big. He loved food, all sorts of it. He couldnt wait to try the place out. Perhaps after the tour he would go there for a quick meal. He turned his head as Quaari asked about the food, he was interested to hear what Starry had to respond with. He was almost tempted to fly over and quickly look through the menu. His stomach growled as he imagined all the wonderful and tasty meals they had there.... hopefully... they had something tasty to eat.

Since Glasses hadn't noticed his glare and kept right on touching him, he leaned heavily on her as he dragged his pain-wracked body into the town itself. It seemed like a fairly standard wasteland town, all metal walls and impromptu shelters. It wasn't nearly as comely as home, but it somehow made Hope not seem as far.

From his close proximity to the guide, he could hear her tour quite clearly as she labeled the town hall and a nearby mountain. As the other wastelanders no doubt noticed, she seemed vehemently opposed to slavery. It seemed that the town had been razed once, making the townsfolk quite... savage in the eradication of their foe.

Green himself felt no animosity towards slavers. Once, long ago, he had been a slave, but in the years since, he had seen what these Smoothskins couldn't understand, that the wasteland demanded one to do whatever it took. And those that opposed the supposedly 'evil' ponies slowly lost themselves. He had seen equal amounts of do-gooders becoming the very evils they once fought as he had seen slavers develop soft hearts.

Before his mind could linger, Glasses went on, talking about a saloon. He hadn't needed to eat in centuries, so such places bored him. He had, however, been in them, if for nothing more than the occassional smoothskin he could stomach.

As the unicorn started to answer questions, Green's gaze wandered. He noticed the zebra filly following him, and stared at her, wondering why she was so close. The young were the few of the smoothies that he actually felt anything for anymore. He had not yet been betrayed by a filly, but in the wasteland, it was only a matter of time...

Suddenly, and without much warning, he felt something snap inside of him. He let out an involuntary cry as his legs gave way, making him fall heavily to the ground. He looked down, and nearly fainted at the sight of the yellowed bone sticking out of his chest.

Thunder listened to Spirit's words, she didn't look like a bad pony... So that meant he still might decide to rip her apart later... Thunder made the decision there she'd have to prove the griffon wrong. She took a breath, and followed the group into the town, taking in the various sights as she was led around, taking note of the restaurant. "Think ah'll head there later... Not had a decent meal in a while." She then looked up at the mountain, Thunder had never been anywhere that high up before, she wasn't sure if she'd want to either. "That... Sure seems like a good place fer dealin' with slavers, nice long fall an' everythin'."

Thunder's attention was drawn away from the sights by Green crying out, she looked to see him now on the floor. Thunder had no idea what to do, she wasn't a medic, the look of worry at the ghouls condition was hidden behind her aviators. But she watched, hoping somepony could help Green.

Nyamazi was, of course, silent as the group started on the tour. She never had a chance to show her introduction, The Chalkboard being replaced in its holdings. With the sickly ghoul spurring the tour along trying to show her introduction would just be...awkward. It was kinda hard to show it when no one was actually looking at her, and she only really minded somewhat that she wouldn’t be able to give it.

She listened rather intently as the tour started, Starry talking about landmarks and various buildings. The frequent mention of slavers reminded her of what she heard a few months ago, along with her parents, about ‘That new shithole’ repelling an entire army of slavers. Considering that these were stable ponies that were out of their stable for barely a year it had impressed the traveling zebras, and influenced Nyamazi’s decision to check the place out once she left.

The restaurant Starry mentioned sounded like a nice place to visit sometime. Besides the tavern she was at earlier the only food she had eaten in a few weeks was what she shot, and while she could ‘cook’ something until it was edible, it wasn’t exactly the tastiest stuff in the wastes. And salt only went so far.

Before she could consider any more future meal plans that didn’t involve charred mole rat, she heard a snap and a cry. Her head whipping around, she the ghoul collapsing to the ground with an obvious look of pain on his face. Nyamazi was nearly-instantly moving, dashing to the ghoul’s side and trying to support him. She soon spotted what may have been the cause of the problem, a broken, yellow rib poking out of his chest.

‘...Urk, I don’t think ribs are supposed to do that...Granted I’m not too keen on all the specifics of ghoul anatomy but...’

Actually, now that she thought about it, didn’t ghouls usually heal with radiation? That might explain why Starry suddenly was bringing them to the water treatment plant, if it filtered out radiation that was in most water it’d probably have someplace where it all was that the ghoul could roll in for a few minutes. Or something like that, Nyamazi wasn’t exactly too keen on the specifics of large-scale water treatment plants either.

As she tried to help the ghoul up without doing more damage to his, apparently broken, rib cage, she gave a worried look in the other’s direction, jerking a head towards the ghoul, trying to indicate that she needed help. She wasn’t a weak mare, but she wasn't able to support a ghoul, an injured one at that, by herself.

Zyrene gasped as she saw the ghoul go down in pain. She ran over to Floret and pulled at her, pointing at the ghoul with urgency. She had already seen Floret do some magic to relieve the pain, so it wasn't too much of a stretch to imagine she could help here.

Plus, Zyrene had only come into town with the clothes on her back and those clothes would not be the best thing to use for making a splint for the broken rib. So, enlisting in help of another was her best bet.

She only hoped that Floret or somepony else could help the ghoul survive. After all, how else would she be able to witness his healing abilities if he died from his wounds beforehand?

Floret heard the sound of an impact from the guide’s direction, she had been turning her head to see what the commotion was about this time, but her gaze got distracted by an annoying pull at her limbs.

The unicorn frowned as Zyrene motioned towards the ghoul. What was it with these zebras and the silent treatment? Were the filly and mare related somehow, Maybe mother and daughter? Had they had their tongues cut out for not maintaining some sort of zebra monthly murder quota? Probably, seeing as the filly seemed unwilling to let even a ghoul go unaided. What did the stupid foal expect Floret to do about it, though? She didn’t bother with that stupid nurse medical spell crap, and even if she knew healing spells ghouls were… dead zombie abominations. She remembered hearing that healing potions and such didn’t work well on them.

Perhaps the foal had seen how great and kind of a pony she was when she had offered her magic to try and push against the ghoul? Or maybe the zebra was the teensiest bit smarter than the rest of its race, and knew that Floret was a great leader. Yeah, that must be it. Well, Floret was never one to disappoint…

“Okay, look.” She said, reasonability seeping from her voice like syrup as she eyed the ghoul’s exposed rib. “Our pal mister zombles here isn’t going to go anywhere on his own, and we can’t let him sit here and… die? Redie? I don’t know, you get the point. You, white head, Quarry. Annnnd you, Porcupine, Ghost or something. We only have one earth pony, so you two will have to stand side by side and carry our friend. No beak-kissing. Zebra-not you, sweetie, the other one.- stop messing him up with your clumsy hooves and stand slightly behind the griffons, Thunder Run, you do the same, please. Watch just in case he starts to slip. Madam Night, how’s your magic? Between the two of us, do you think we can get him up on the two griffons’ backs, and maybe attempt to keep him balanced there? It’s not the best approach, but at least we’ll probably mess less up by not physically touching him as opposed to groping our hooves all over his frail decomposing and not particularly strong body. Skip the scenic route and tell us the fastest way to his radiation bath or whatever you had planned for him.”

Unfortunately, what Starry had intended probably did not include a meat grinder. Floret really really didn’t want to rub herself all over a rotting corpse simply because it got the ‘Hey by the way, you’re dead’ memo a few hundred years late. Good thing being a unicorn had its perks...

Starry raised an eyebrow at Floret as she began commanding the group. She was clearly a leader. 'Great,' she thought to herself. Ordering others to follow them, thinking they know best, insisting on a certain course of action; leaders were a pain to deal with. Starry should know, she is one.

Starry took a moment to consider her options while Floret distributed orders. When Floret finally addressed Starry, she took the opportunity to take the reigns back.

Don't worry about the magic, I've got the situation under control. Let's just force this rib back in and..." Starry placed a hoof on the dislodged rib and began pressing it back into the ghoul's chest. "Oops, er- presto! Now then, let's not disrupt the patient by tossing him around. Slow and steady trotting will get us where we need to go, the facility is just over there."

The group was indeed very close. They were merely fourty hoofsteps, give or take a few, from the facility.

Quaari gave a short glance at Starry, “Oh, no reason, just getting to know more of the ponies here.” She figured it would be wise to not mention she was considering looking for him in hopes of finding a job, seeing as he was a slaver.

Continuing on, and starting to filter out the chatter of the group she was traveling with, her attention was pulled back by a sudden commotion with the guide unicorn. The ghoul had collapsed. Great.

She tried to keep moving, but the group had stopped. What kind of place had she stumbled into that seemed to care about such a creature?! She had to stifle an irritated noise and turned to face them.

When Little Miss Sunshine had the gall to start ordering the others around, Quaari laughed. “I ain’t carrying that ghoul. What’re you, deranged?” She laughed again. Like tartarus was she going to have a filthy ghoul touch her, let alone carry one upon her back. She need not have worried. The guide unicorn performed some abrupt triage and told the group that the destination was only a short distance away, and pointed towards it. Quaari quirked a brow, it didn’t look anything like any hospital Quaari had ever seen.

Spirit's head turned suddenly to the sound of a collapsing body. It was the ghoul, he seemed to only be getting worse. Before he could step in Floret began tossing orders around. Spirit didnt like the way she was addressing some of them, he felt if you were to call out orders to a group you did it respectfully. As quaari laughed and rejected Florets orders, he watched Starry push the creatures rib back in. The ghoul wasnt going to hold together, even just a few trots away. Spirit then took out a cloth from his bag and placed it on his own back, it would help from keeping Green Pepper from moving all around. The blue and silver griffon then knelt down and looked at Starry, pointing behind his wings.

"Itll make things easier. Ill carry him. One or two of you ponies can make sure he doesnt fall off." Spirit glanced at the rotting corpse, he couldnt believe he was about to do this. The cloth would help not make it so bad, but still... He was willing to help when somepony needed it. Maybe this would work, if not, at least he offered his help instead of just standing around. He looked at Thunder, maybe she could make sure he didnt fall off like Floret suggested.

Zyrene frowned at all the things Floret was saying. She seemed to have mistaken what Zyrene was trying to tell her and instead went about ordering everyone around (in probably the most unflattering ways, too). Zyrene huffed as she watched everything Floret said not happen, seeing as everyone else seemed to have other plans on how best to take care of the ghoul. There guide had even decided to just shove the rib back in place! Zyrene visibly cringed at the sight, knowing all too well what that must've felt like to the ghoul.

Zyrene shook her head at the sight before moving over to the ghoul and placing a reassuring hoof on his. With so many of the others throwing their weight around, she wouldn't likely be listened to anyway. Instead, she focused on trying to make sure the ghoul was calmed town so he wouldn't be focusing on the pain or end up further damaging himself.

Green was in bad shape. After the rib popped out, a flurry of activity and noises sounded as everypony voiced their opinion as to the best course of action. Like typical smoothskins, most seemed perfectly willing to order somepony else to pick him up, but few were willing to touch his flayed and mangled corpse.

The female griffin scoffed at the very idea of helping him, while the prissy unicorn threw orders at everypony, although no one listened. He heard the tour guide say something, then she grabbed his bone and pushed it back in!

He vision blanked, it was so painful. Bone's are menat to be set, or in this case, doused with enough radiation to heal on their own. Just grabbing the thing and slamming it back in was obviously not the thing to do. He arrived at the conclusion that the mare was an idiot.

He soon arrived at another conclusion, that he was about to die in the middle of a crowded street, when the other end of the damaged rib snapped and punctured his lung. Not that he needed to breath, but that was just a little more life-threatening damage. He felt the edges of his vision start to go dark.

Ironically, if this had happened just a few months ago, he would have given up right then and there. Died the death he should have been given so very long ago. It wouldn't have been a punishment, but a release. Now, however, he was finally in a good way. He had a ghoulfriend, a smoothskin that wasn't prejudiced against him, and a little potato plant, just like back on the farm.

And now the wastes saw fit to take him away from all that. Gal dangit, he wanted to live his undead life while he could. He felt a black fluid, cold and slimy, leak from his tear ducts. Jeez, even his tears were necrotic.

Then, he felt a small hoof touch his. He blinked away his slimy black tears, and saw the silent zebra filly. She was looking at him without the slightest trace of disgust or hatred. Bless her, she was trying to tell him that it would be all right.

"Don-coo," he groaned in his low, raspy voice. No good, his fused vocal cords combined with the lack of air power made his words all but indeciferable. Instead, it would appear that he would have to communicate in the oldest known language: Body language.

He looked straight into her eyes, banishing the fear and loathing he felt for smoothies from then, and allowing his honest farmer self to reappear. His muzzle curled into a small grin, and he nodded. Then, the world lost clarity, and he blacked out.

Thunder stood and watched as everypony fussed around the ghoul, in her mind she realised that once again she had frozen up, everypony around her was throwing suggestions, rejections and all manner of other things around as they all had their own ideas of what to do. She caught sight of Spirit looking at her, judging her, no doubt wanting to see if she was good or bad. The thought terrified her, she was frozen in place, and the griffon was waiting to see if he would have to make her 'disappear.' Thunder's attention was drawn to the ghoul as he passed out from his injuries, somepony needed to do something soon. Thunder knew she wasn't a leader, she preferred to be told what to do, but maybe at least she could try and get everypony to stop... Just, stop.

Ah can do this... Thunder thought to herself, taking a deep breath. She forced herself to walk, the first few steps felt like walking through tar as she broke free from her fears. After that it got easier, until eventually she found herself beside the ghoul. At the very least her aviators hid the look of worry in her eyes nicely as she readied herself to say something.

"Right... Ah think we all need to jus' stop! Everypony is fussin' over everypony else's ideas, an it's gettin nowhere." She pointed to the unconscious ghoul. "He needs help, we need to help him, now ah dunno where in this town to do that, ah've never bin here. Ah would guess it's the same fer the rest of ya, otherwise y'all wouldn't be tourin' the place. Now... Starry here lives here, she knows where everythin' is. So ah dunno about you lot, but ah'm gonna listen an' do as she says." Thunder looked over to Starry. "Right... Where are we gonna take 'im?"

Floret actually winced when Starry grabbed the rib.

“Dear, that’s not how-“


But it was too late, Starry Night had shoved the rib back in, and judging by the ghoul’s reaction, it was every bit as bad as it looked. Floret actually felt bad for the poor shambler.

“Look, Spectre, I’ll make sure he doesn’t fall off, because this is getting downright ridiculous.” She sighed and walked up to Spirit, the blue and gray griffon. “Night, unless you want to attempt more impromptu surgery-assassinations in public or suggest your charge somehow "walk it off", would you please hurry up and lead the way? Before he re-dies, preferably."

"Oh," She added, looking towards Quarri "And someone throw that hen some corn or something. Her indiscernible clucking is quite bothersome.”

'Deranged indeed...'

"Great! Okay, rib problem? Solved! Glad we all agreed on the proper course of action," Starry said, without a hint of sarcasm. "Now then, Mr. Thunder, help me hoist this unfortunate ghoul onto Spirit's back. We've just got to get to the facility right up that road."

Starry tried hoisting the ghoul onto Spirit's back, lifting to the best of her ability. Unfortunately, she was not that powerful. She'd need another pony's help.

Zyrene gasped in shock as the ghoul passed out in front of her. She looked around to see if any of the others would step in to help the him and sighed in relief as they seemed to come to their senses and actually start working together.

Zyrene stepped aside to let the bigger ponies and griffons in the group handle the ghoul. She kept a close eye on what the others were doing to him, just in case they decided to shove any more of his bones around.

As she watched, she couldn't help but wonder if the ghoul would actually survive to the intended destination. With his impromptu injuries and the reactions to said injuries, she didn't see much of a chance at him surviving. She only hoped she would be proven wrong...

Now we're gettin' somewhere... Thunder thought as they started working to get the ghoul some proper help, at the request she helped Starry lift the ghoul onto Spirit's back, trying to be careful not the make his injury worse. "Oh an' fer future reference Starry, that would be Miss. Thunder, but like ah said, jus' Thunder is fine."

After the ghoul was on Spirit's back she turned her attention to Floret. "Y'sure ya got this? Ah can stay back here an' keep 'im steady if ya want?"

Nyamazi reached out a hoof to stop Starry when she moved to just shove the rib back into the ghoul’s body, but she was too slow. The unicorn carelessly popped the rib back in, and the ghoul soon passed out from the pain. Nyamazi couldn’t help but facehoof, especially when Starry didn’t seem to notice what exactly she did. Her eyes opened narrowly around the hoof, giving Starry an exasperated look.

‘...That’s not how you set a rib! I’m not a doctor and even I can tell that!’

Still, it was too little too late to undo what Starry had done. Nyamazi could only watch as the others secured the ghoul onto one of the griffon’s backs, Spirit was the griffon’s name she believed. As the group started moving again she watched the ghoul carefully, ready to snap into action if it looked like the ghoul was going to topple over.