Stories of the Stars - Satra III

For weeks, the wagon carried on like that across Equestria. They always made sure to provide food and water for Satra, which made her quite angry at the beginning. She refused to eat for a few days, until she eventually gave in. She hated those ponies, but she told herself that she had to stay healthy or she wouldn’t be able to properly run away.

One night, the wagon exchange went somehow differently. 

“Be careful when you sleep, she might try to run away. By now she most certainly picked up on what we’re doing. If it weren't for the radiation in the Everfree swamps, we’d carry on with the exchange as usual, but we can’t afford to enter that place. You’ll be all on your own for the next few days.”

Once he picked up the wagon, they headed into a really weird smelling place. The trail was narrow and green water covered in green algae bordered the path. The stallion who picked up the wagon was a real chatty one. He kept talking to her, as if they were some sort of buddies. He certainly had a few screws loose, why else would he go through that place when none other would?

“Hehe missy, let me tell you, you should NOT touch that water! Hehe… If you were to fall in… hehe… gods know what would be left of you when I’ll pull you out… hehe… This swamp claims so many souls each time someone tries to pass through… They say it’s HAUNTED!!! hihihi… AND THEY’RE CERTAINLY ON TO SOMETHING!!! Let me tell you missy… hihihi… every time I walk through here… hihi… I feel like I’m being WATCHED!! No wonder, after all… This was the core of the cataclysm… here lie the souls of everyone from Ponyville… he he he… you know… my great-great-great-great-great-grandma was from Ponyville! But she married to great-great-great-great-great-grandpa in Appleloosa. And that’s how they made it out alive… “

And he kept on talking like that the rest of the day. At night he stopped and simply laid down in the middle of the road, ate and went to sleep right there on the ground. Satra thought of leaving, but she really had nowhere to go. Everywhere around them… there was nothing but that radioactive swamp. Any way she could take lead to death. And she could not walk back, she was certain the other stallions would be waiting for her outside. So she went to sleep.