The Long Road [Closed]

Spectre waited outside New Appleoosa, he was by the northern road, sat up against a rock. He had one of the notes he had put up...

I'm going to Friendship city, going alone on such a long trip is dangerous, if your headed there yourself or want a few caps, meet me outside town, by the road heading north.

Spectre.

He knew it was vague, but Spectre wasn't one for giving details away before he knew who he was dealing with. He threw the note to the wind before looking back at the town. It was one of his more regular stops, though his destination, Friendship City wasn't, he generall avoided it unless he had no choice, Spectre didn't like Manehattal at all really, it was so built up, easy to get ambushed in.

Spectre wondered if anypony would turn up, if not he would go alone, but as much as he distrusted most ponies, any help was better than none at all.

Harmor just exited the tavern from getting a drink when he saw a note posted on a bent over lamp post, flopping back and forth from the wind gusts. As soon as he got to the post, the note detached itself and flew momentarily before Harmor caught it.

He quickly read the note and had no primary interest, but thinking it over... Harmor was very lonely, he just wanted a nice conversation, perhaps even a friend! He ran off to the northbound road before seeing a striped figure just outside of town.

Harmor approached carefully, still skeptical even this close to Appleoosa. He held the note up and waved it back and forth. "is... this yours?" He said softly, probably too soft, and gave a half baked smile.

Silent had been browsing the wares at Absolutely Everything, somewhat ignoring the weird stares of the townsponies, used to them by now, especially since he had been drifting around New Appleoosa for a couple days and the gazes were mainly friendly and not of the 'that pony's funny lookin', bet he'll fetch a good price' type.

Quietly exiting the store with a nod to Ditzy he walked outside into the dusty New Appleoosan streets. And was promptly hit in the face by a small rectangle of paper with words on it, better known as a note, blown by the wind. Removing the offending piece of paper from his face he quickly skimmed the contents. Interested, Silent figured he may as well give it a shot, he was gonna move on again soon anyway, and traveling in this group meant more safety and the possibility to meet more friends besides the couple he had in Stableton.

Trotting out towards where the note said to meet up he kept himself alert and ready to fly away at a moments notice, never know if it could be a trap, right? Arriving at the destination he noted the two that were already there, a cold looking zebra, and a much more approachable looking unicorn who was trying to talk to said zebra. Silent just decided to let them finish whatever conversation they were having before he mad himself known beyond standing there.

Spectre looked up as the unicorn approached him carefully. Clever pony... He thought, Spectre didn't often see ponies with the sense to be careful of who they approached. The way this unicorn spoke so softly to him made him wonder just how much use he would be in a fight. "Yes, it's mine, are you here to come with me? Or give me a peice of paper?" Spectre gave the unicorn a very cold look. "I'll be honest, you look like little more than a bullet shield to me, please tell me your of more use than that? Because I have no doubt that there will be some ponies along the way that want to come and say hello, and leave with our skin."

As Spectre spoke he caught sight of another pony approaching, from the distance, and still keeping half an eye on the unicorn infront of him this other pony appeared to be a pegasus. Though he stopped a distance away, so Spectre didn't know if he was planning to come along, or just curious about the two of them. "Friend of yours?" He said to the unicorn, motioning towards the newcomer.

Harmor felt very uncomfortable around this zebra, but maybe that was just him overreacting, he thought. He caught the motion made towards the... pegasus? No. Looking closer Harmor saw no feathers, they were wings, but not feathered ones.

"Well, first of all you see this thing?" Harmor lit up his horn. "It's useful for all sorts of stuff! Uh-" Harmor became more and more worried about the strange figure in the distance and made a steady walk backwards towards the town. "And you might want to come this way... That thing isn't a normal pegasus..."

Silent trotted leisurely towards the other two now that they seemed to notice him, and were looking in his direction. Figuring that now was as good a time as any to introduce himself he used a wing to pull out his chalk and his other to hold his board uo from the usual position where it hung aound his neck, as he wrote a hello in big letters.

He sighed as the unicorn started to back up as he came closer to the two of them, he hated it when ponies were afraid of him.

(All "spoken dialogue" from Silent is actually written on his board)

"Hello, I got your note about the trip to Friendship City, I may be interested."

Spectre looked at the 'pegasus' as he came closer, the bat like wings were interesting. He noticed the unicorn backing away, intending to go back to town. "No, i'm staying here, if he was just some crazed wasteland monster, would he have come from the town?" Spectre was of course weary about this strange pony, but figured he at least had the sense not to attack them so close to Appleoosa. "You can go back to Appleoosa if you like, but I will take that as you walking out on this trip."

Spectre saw the new arrival write something on a chalk board. "Can't talk huh? Well i'm taking anypony that wants to come along. There will be trouble from raiders and the like no doubt, so I hope you can fight." Spectre once again looked at the ponies wings. "Never seen a pegasus like you before?"

As soon as Harmor heard the zebra's ultimatum, he froze in his tracks. Then seeing that the 'pegasus' was actually passive, and even communicating, he took a couple of steps forward. "No! I.. I mean, I want to help! I was just frightened! It won't happen again!"

Harmor hid his fear for the sake of seeming competent and stretched out a hoof at the strange pony. "My name is Harmor, please, excuse my actions. I was just startled." He said eloquently, then gave a wide smile to the zebra, "See!"

"Spectree- Spectruh?" she said to herself as she read one of the notes, half looking at it and the other half of her attention going to looking to her left and right, she really didn't want to be anywhere near this town but she'd come in search of supplies that she could buy but... she just didn't feel right here, like people were watching her and probably they weren't really but she just felt entirely out of place. She shook her head after a few more attempts and trying to make sense of the spelling of that name, it'd taken the unicorn way too long to read the note in the first place so she just gave up and trotted off toward the meeting place, again making sure no one was following her as best she could.

Ah, that made sense, there was Spectre talking to another unicorn and... a pony bloodwing hybrid? She trotted a bit more quickly, ducking around and beside the odd bat winged without being noticed too quickly and halfway trying to be quiet before she found herself sidling up beside the Zebra with a big ole grin on her face, "Hi~ Spectre!" She chimed, "Rumor has it you're lookin' for ponies that wanna get out of here right? Right?" she looked around again, offering an od to the other two, "Cause I really would like to leave before people get the wrong idea and... you know, do stuff, silly things." and leaned her cheek a bit too close to his, "I swear they're watching..." she said in an almost conspiracy like tone before bouncing her attention to the other two.

"My name's Sanura!" she offered to them with a wave of her hoof, "Sanura Heartsnug."

Spectre had just been giving Harmor a dull, unimpressed look. "I hope your not going to be making such desperate attempts to look useful the whole journey, if you want to look useful you have to be us-" Spectre was suddenly cut off by the sudden appearance of Sanura right next to him, it gave him a little shock, How does she do that? He thought, though he quickly recovered and looked at Sanura. "Hey there Sanura, didn't expect to find you around Appleoosa, i'd be glad to have you along." Spectre had a thought and smirked. "Perhaps you could tell Harmor the ideas I had for ponies I didn't think much use of last time we worked together, the ones you worked so hard to talk me out of?"

Sanura split her attention again to look back toward Spectre before furrowing her brow, "Well there was the bullet sponge thing and then the mine sweeper bit and I'm pretty sure there was another one too." she shook her head and sighed softly before looking toward who she assumed was Harmor, the one closest and also a unicorn. "He's really a terrible pony or... Zebra I guess. Even tried to say something about using bullets in bodies as armor?" she shook her head before looking back to Spectre again.

"Speaking of which, I think Ima cut you open at some point soon." she said and gave him a look. "Bad to leave those in." and then nodded, as if it was already decided.

Bomb Bay chucked the note behind him and mumbled to himself. "Could do with a trip to Friendship city... Specially if theres caps in it." He made his way to the north side of town, Bomb Bay had no idea who this 'Spectre' was, but caps were caps, and the chance of violence just sweetened the deal. As he approached he saw a few ponies had gathered already. He made not of the strange looking pegasus, and zebra. Great... A zebra He thought as he drew closer. "So which of you happy little chucklebucks is Spectre?"

"AH!" Harmor screamed as a figure seemingly slid up out of the ground. Recovering, he noticed it was a lovely looking unicorn. "Oh, sorry! Saw a radroach." Then he gave a nervous chuckle.

Harmor learned the unicorn's name and listened to her description of Spectre's... methods, his mouth agape. "...Bullet sponge?" His eyes widened, "Mines??" he removed the thoughts from his mind. The next part near paralyzed him, "Cut HIM open?" he looked at the zebra who was giving Harmor a 'Yes, me you idiot' look. Blood and him did not mix, at all.

Then a curious looking pegasus trotted up, Harmor just pointed to the zebra in response of his question.

"Damit guys, first thing you hear when you get to the caravan you plan to take is not a talk about someone being cut up. That's entrepreneurship's basics."

The earth pony found the note yesterday. He agreed with himself that it was already about the time to show up in Tenpony again, tell parents he's still alive and all those things. Not that he knew the companions, but eh. He knew the road, and in case it turns out to be a robbery or something... eh. Not much to lose, and he knew the way.

Fact was, when he saw the party it way obvious they were actually planning to go to Friendship city. No robber would be so... obvious, Shrapnel would say? Nonetheless... a batpony. "And here I was, thinking I saw quite a lot. So where do you hail from, little guy, and what took you from the pages of legend books?"

Shrapnel chuckled. "And for the record, I refuse to be on bullet sponge duty."

Zuberi came wandering up to the entrance to New Appleoosa where he could see a group of ponies and one zebra had already gathered. At his side was Talib, another zebra he had met from the party he hosted. Jutting from his saddlebags were several maps, some rolled up into tubes and pointing out toward the sky, some were folded into sheets and hanging over the edges of his bags. He had studied the area and found every map he could find of Friendship City and Manehattan. Taken notes from his journals, and was ready to plot their course all the way up into the city itself once he knew exactly where they were going.

He was quite glad to have met Talib and Spectre. Knowing Spectre came with work, and knowing Talib came with companionship. Zuberi much preferred going someplace with somepony else, as opposed to traveling alone. It felt so much easier to do when you had somepony to talk to, rather than just listen to the radio and sing quietly to yourself.

He spotted Spectre and approached him. "Hey, Spectre! Nice day, huh? Anyway, brought lots and lots of maps! And with me as a guide, no possible way we can get lost. So, is this everypony you need? Or are we still waiting for a few stranglers?"

Night spark was walking down the road of appeloosa reading over the note that happened to smack him in the face while he was trotting around. "Friendship city? ....Well I could use the caps...maybe I should go find the pony that made this and talk to him---Ugh!" he was cut off when he bumps into a group of ponies surrounding some zebra all with the same note. Night made his way through the group to him and held out the note "I guess this is yours right? Looks like you got alot of company as it is, but hell I will come along too if you got the room for one more." he said as he looked down at spectre and smiled. it was odd how he just got the note a few minutes ago and ran into them, but he didn't question it as he knew he needed the caps and besides with such a large group it should be a breaze getting through friendship city.

Spectre had pulled out his knife, he was about to show Harmor where he had been shot, or in other words, where he needed to be cut open again. But before he had a chance more ponies had turned up, Another Pegasus, then an earth pony, followed by Zuberi and Talib, who he knew from the zebra party in stableton, then finally another Earth pony. "I'm Spectre." He said to Bomb Bay, before turning to adress the whole group, still holding the knife. "Right... I think tis will do, any more and we're just asking for attention."

Spectre looked at Zuberi, and the mass of maps he was carrying. "Well, I assume you all know of Friendship city, your pretty stupid if you don't, it's well... That way." Spectre waved his knife at the road heading north behind him. "Now, we will run into trouble, we will get shot at, and no doubt at least somepony will get injured... I'm saying this now so you can all be nice and happy if it doesn't happen... But it will. Now, any questions?"

Talib smiled to Zubi as he followed slowly behind him over to the group, recognising Spectre from the party that Zubi hosted and smiling to him as well. Talib then looked over the rest of the group and noted that he did not know anyone other than the two zebras present. Still, it was better than not knowing anyone here. Besides, he was here to help, and that's what he would do.

Talib looked to Spectre, smiling slightly to him. "Uuuhm this is probably going to sound silly, but will I have time to search for some ingredients?" Talib blushed slightly. "I can't really brew anything useful without any." Talib then pointed to his sadly light ingredient bag, chuckling slightly.

"Oh great. A guy with a pile of maps. We're fucked, aren't we..."

Shrapnel raised his hoof. "I might've a question. But first..." he bowed with hoof on his chest "... I'm called Shrapnel. Now, to the question... you guys ever been to Manehatten, or Friendship city?"

Harmor raised his hoof slowly, "Would it be okay if I just went into town and bought something? And if anypony else needs something...well, now's the time to do so." He lowered his hoof quickly after and looked down at the ground away from Spectre's gaze. It's like I'll light on fire if I look at him for too long...

Spectre glanced at Talib, he had got to know the zebra at the gathering Zuberi had held, and as such was a little less hostile towards him than some of the others here. "I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunity for you to collect some ingredients along the way." He then turned to Shrapnel. "I have been to Friendship city, and the Manehattan area enough times to know what i'm doing there if that's what you're worried about."

Lastly he looked to Harmor, he didn't quite no what it was, but he just enjoyed tormenting the unicorn. "You have the nerve to decide that now is the time to go and get supplies if you haven't already, but not to look me in the eye while you do so? Are you going to be consistantly undermining my authority on this journey behind my back?" Spectre knew that Harmor had no intent of doing so, but how he did love to torment the unicorn, he would have to figure out why at some point.

Spectre glared at Harmor. "Fine, go to the store, anypony else who might need something go now too. If you aren't back in 30 minutes i'll hold Harmor responsible, and drag him back here by his leg... With my knife." Spectre poked Harmors leg with the point of his knife for emphasis, not hard enough to cut him, just enough that he felt it.

Devastation. Pure devastation ran through Harmor as he listened to Spectre's spontaneous rant. Harmor twitched at his words as his head was forced down to the ground.

Tears built up in his eyes and with Spectre's finale, the seemingly harmless poke to the leg, he sprinted back towards the town. The awful memories were brought back as he ran away, tripping several times.

All I wanted was a friend...

Bomb Bay had been a little resentful at the thought of doing as a zebra said, but as he watched Spectre slowly turn Harmor into a sorrowful wreck he became more and more impressed. And by the time Harmor and runn off crying Bomb Bay was on his back laughing madly. "That was bloody brilliant!! You'll 'ave to teach me that trick some time stripey! My... I can't get ova how buckin funny that was... Somepony should probly go get im eh?" Bomb Bay looked around the group. "I wasn't volunteerin!" It took only a few seconds for the pegasus to start laughing again.

"Yeah. I'm a batpony"
Silent replied to Spectre before quickly accepting Harmor's hoofshake and apology with a smile. "It's cool. I've had worse reactions to me before." After he had said that he lapsed back into silence...err...not writing anything more as more ponies and zebras arrived, growing to dislike the zebra that was sponsoring this more and more as the others talked to him and finally when he made the unicorn from earlier run off crying.

Frowning, he quickly took of after Harmor, flying fast enough so he could catch up with him.
"Are you alright?"

Shrapnel silently watched the scene between Harmor and Spectre. As the unicorn ran of almost sobbing, he looked at Spectre and cocked his head a little.

"Glad to hear that ya know the way, but uh... you know that what you just did is slightly stupid and irresponsible, right? The guy might just end up pulling you from death's shovel, or also decide that he might not... well, guess that's your fight in the end."

He then watched the batpony fly away, still wondering how did he found his way here.