Truly Evil?

As June sensed Dusk relaxing, she smiled.  Finally.  Now she could sleep.  She yawned quietly, snuggled up to the unicorn next to her, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

She didn't dream, this time.  And even if she had, the new mystery mare was enough recalling for one day.  She just held onto Dusk,  sleeping soundly.

Of course, June was occasionally a light sleeper.  If there was anything especially exciting happening nearby, she might wake up for it. Or if someone tried to wake her up. That'd do it too.

Ician noted the others falling asleep. He sighed, turning back to the trashpony. "'Probably' is not good enough, I'm afraid. Our party was responsible for your injuries, so we are now responsible for your safety." He stood up and stretched his legs. "I ought to explain to the... 'missus'... why you returned late, which is none of your fault. It can't be in order for you to be punished for something you did not do."

"Uh, but, uh..." the trashpony stammered as he looked about the group and noticed that most of them were already falling asleep. With a grimace of thought though, he once more insisted. "I think I'll be fine, and all the better if I get back sooner."

"This isn't up for discussion." Ician said firmly as he got to his hooves. "It would be disastrous if anything happened to you on your way back. I won't take no for an answer. Plus, if your stitches broke again on the way back it would be a much longer while before you actually reach your destination. Now, let's go, shall we?"

"Ah, uh, you're going to see me home?" The trashpony asked with some confusion, but standing up the rest of the way regardless.

"Yes I am." Ician answered him. "We owe you that much, at any rate. Come on, lead the way. I'll be right behind you." Ician turned to the others, who were either already asleep or falling asleep soon. "Hey, I'll be escorting this pony to where he has to go. Does anyone want to follow me, or do you for some reason trust me to take care of this myself?"

Now that she was being directly adressed by an awake pony, June woke up. Kind of. She lifted her head and cracked one eye open, barely enough for Ician to catch the silver behind it. "Huh? Oh. You're fine, Ish." A yawn. "Go ahead, I'll see you later." That problem having been cleverly dealt with, June closed her eyes again and snuggled back into Dusk's mane.

Dusk stayed silent as he was sleeping deeper than usual. June's warmth was definitely helping in that regard. Even as she stirred a bit, he remained asleep. He wasn't quite at the point of dreaming, but he definitely was relaxed.

The trashpony shrugged and began walking off towards the forest. "So, how long have you lived in that crazy house?" He asked assuming that since the ponies who'd attacked him were in fact the ones that lived there.

Ician sighed, watching the other three. It seems he would be alone then, which would logically mean that he should expect to be captured or killed. Naturally. He opened up his saddlebags and drew out one of the books. Ripping out one of the last few pages that were always inexplicably blank, he extracted a sewing needle as well and pricked himself in the hoof, hard. With the little bit of blood that trickled out he wrote a message on the page: Ician is in danger. Follow the snake. After that he punched a little hole in it and hung it on his faithful snake's head, being careful not to injure it, and then moved back over to the trashpony and escorted him towards the forest.

"Let's just say I've been in there a little too long for my liking." Ician said amiably to the pony as he walked beside him. "The place really gets to you after a while."

"I'll say, every time I look in to get the trash, it seems to open into a different room. Sometimes I'm at that front door opening it twenty some times before I finally get it to open to the entryway," the trashpony replied as he walked away with Ician.

"Agreed. That place is simply too... strange, for lack of a better term, to live in without losing your sanity after some time." Ician chuckled, keeping a watchful eye on his snake slithering behind him, trying to be as stealthy as possible. "I think it's high time my companions and I looked for somewhere more... suitable." He gestured to the trashpony. "So, what experiences have you had with the house? I'm interested to see how it's treated you."

"Oh I've only ever opened the front door until I found the entry, grabbed the trash and left. Never really been inside the place, I am just the trashpony after all," the stallion continued as they walked. The pony seemed to be moving t a rather fast pace through the dark woods though, so they were covering ground quickly.

"Ah." Ician chuckled dryly. "Lucky for you, then. I assure you, you wouldn't want to venture very far in if you can help it." He matched the fast pace of the pony as best he could, not willing to be left behind but wondering if it was all that wise an idea to move to quickly through dark, ominous woods.

"Well, there's my home," the trashpony said pointing to a house a short ways ahead. "Thanks for the escort I suppose," he replied while moving ahead. "Now if I can just get in without waking the misses, I might be able to avoid the worst of her wrath, ehehe," he continued with a light chuckle as he got closer to the building.

"It was no problem, really." Ician said, smiling. "But surely there's no need for you to sneak in. I ought to apologise on behalf of our group, and explain that none of this was your fault. Sneaking in is hardly the proper course, especially when it runs the high risk of being caught." Ician followed him to the building. "Please, allow me to do this."

"Uh sure, but if the missus is asleep, I'll be counting my blessings and hoping you'll leave quietly," the trashpony went on as he continued up to the door. He started padding himself down until he remembered that the jumpsuit had been stripped off him. Letting out a sigh, he moved the floor mat at the entrance to the side and got the key that'd been hiding under it. He then unlocked the door with a quiet 'click' and motioned for Ician to go inside.

Ician grimaced slightly as the trashpony motioned for him to enter. Going inside was not part of his original plan. Nonetheless, it seemed at this point that he had little choice, and hopefully if he did come into any danger his training as a guard might allow him to survive. He hoped that, at least, there would be some crevice somewhere for his snake to exit the house and return to his team.

With a nod, Ician stepped into the house, mouthing a quiet 'thank you' to the trashpony as he entered. After that, he waited for the trashpony's next instructions.

The trashpony didn't give any as he quietly stepped through the house, going through the entry and up a set of stairs near it. He then cracked open a door and looked inside before softly shutting it and proceeding back downstairs. "Okay, the missus is asleep and I'd rather not wake her. Thanks again for the escort, but now I believe the couch is calling my name," he said in a quiet voice while pointing to a barely distinguishable piece of furniture in another room.

"Alright." Ician forced a smile. "Have a good rest, then." He backed away from the trashpony and as out of his sight as he could manage, leaving him to his peace; partially so he could rest from all of that, but mostly so he could explore the house in secret.

As soon as he was out of the trashpony's line of sight, he looked around and saw what the place had to offer, examining the rooms around him.

The small hall that Ician was in would allow him to see both a kitchen and dining room that were connected to it via the two other doorways. There was another door at the bottom of the stairs, but when opened, it appeared to just be a coat closet with nothing more evil than an old set of boots.

That did still leave the upstairs, but that would mean passing by the living room again as well as the bedroom where the trashpony's wife was.

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Back at the mansion, as a few hours went by with Ician away and yet nothing really seemed to happen. Even with it being the middle of the night and in the middle of the woods, any and every little critter seemed to give the manor wide berth as if they were afraid of it. Now while little animals were something slightly curious, the heavy sounding steps of a manticore coming only so close to the building before purposely deviating it's path away from both the house and the ponies outside it might raise a few more eyebrows.

Ician looked around the small hall. He wondered which direction to travel in. He checked the door at the bottom of the stairs, only to find an old set of boots, which he resolved to come back and check later. He had an urge to take it with him, but he had to remind himself that he wasn't in the abandoned mansion anymore and he couldn't just take things without permission. Instead, he went into the kitchen and started exploring it.

The kitchen, as well as the dining room, didn't seem to have anything truly abnormal. Sure there were a few knives, but those were actual silverware, not weapons. Though, it might have been a trick of the light, but one might swear that the flowers on the table were looking at Ician rather menacingly. Otherwise, the space seemed utterly devoid of the strangeness that had been plaguing him and the rest of the ponies back at the manor.

Dusk was stirred awake by the manticore's approaching steps, his soldier instincts kicking in. He didn't notice it was a manticore until he groggily turned his head to look. On sight, he tensed up immediately. He was ready to jump up and defend everyone else, until he saw the manticore purposely walk away. Three ponies sleeping in the middle of the forest were usually an easy meal for predators, so seeing the manticore leave was definitely an odd sight. He soon let himself relax again, but sleep was much harder to come by this time.

Dusk's stirring, combined with the sudden... awakeness, woke June up. She opened her eyes slightly, glancing around, and then orange mane filled her vision again. She closed her eyes again, whispering to Dusk. "Was there something out there?"